Novice, Amateur and Expert Servers

  • Duke of Spire
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    The question:
    How difficult would it be to load servers based on experience?
    The reason:
    To advance the growth of the community and to enhance the challenges while adventuring.
    The plan:
    There will be three levels of crews based on the crews average experience of time invested in the game.
    The rules:
    In no way will a players style of play dictate what server they adventure in.
    Novice- Crew averages of 100 hours or less
    Amateur- Crew averages of 101 -500 hours.
    Expert- Crew averages over 500 hours.
    *** Expert players hours will "cap" at 500 hours to ensure that they are placed in an amateur server when paired with amateur players.
    (Help me adjust this number)!

    The premise: To create a more balanced experience for alk players involved! New players get to grow into the game without being dominated by crews like mine.
    Amateur players continue their growth in a more vested environment. Expert players will hold their opposition in higher regard than usual knowing that one mistake could be fatal.
    Some will align some we sail on and some will fall but all will at minimum enjoy their experiences.
    Foreseen issues:
    Expert players create new accounts to trash newbies (sad thought).

    Why I posted this:
    Our flagship crew sunk 62 ships this past week and got sunk once by a fort barrel in our own hands! The seas need to get more competitive.

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  • Hynieth
    Master
    Insider

    @duke-of-spire Just a queston... Why?
    Currently people get to meet all kinds of other people on the seas. Ranging from hostile pirates to the true pirate legends teaching the newer people the ropes.
    I kind of like it as it is. Why? Because it's not seperated nicely into boxes making every voyage new and exciting as to who I'll meat and what wil happen.

    I see a lot of newer players who are scared that their experience makes them ill suited to sail with us Legends, but believe me I've seen more hostile new crews then the people who have sailed miles and miles on the seas.

  • doctorfork
    Master

    @duke-of-spire
    Maybe this would work for Arena, based on Sea Dog reputation, but for adventure mode, there's no reason for this sort of stratification.

  • Chronodusk
    Commander
    Insider

    @hynieth said in Novice, Amateur and Expert Servers:

    @duke-of-spire Just a queston... Why?
    Currently people get to meet all kinds of other people on the seas. Ranging from hostile pirates to the true pirate legends teaching the newer people the ropes.
    I kind of like it as it is. Why? Because it's not seperated nicely into boxes making every voyage new and exciting as to who I'll meat and what wil happen.

    I see a lot of newer players who are scared that their experience makes them ill suited to sail with us Legends, but believe me I've seen more hostile new crews then the people who have sailed miles and miles on the seas.

    Thank you. This is what Sea of Thieves is all about right here. Not giving everyone their own little box. Frankly, the more separations we have, the more it damages Sea of Thieves' core concept.

    Even the divide of The Arena makes me uneasy. No more divides please. This game thrives on a lack of division.

  • Joe Krakatoa
    Commander
    Insider

    @duke-of-spire said in Novice, Amateur and Expert Servers:

    The question:
    How difficult would it be to load servers based on experience?

    Extremely difficult.
    SoT is so open ended with every pirate a different story to tell.

    Since when does Rare gate pirates from each other due to arbitrary experience?
    Don't they create situations that bring players together, not to split factions up?
    More inclusive, less divisive?

    Tools not rules.

  • Little Squash
    Commander
    Insider

    @duke-of-spire
    What would be the point?

    Any metric you use to quantify skill in this game would be arbitrary.

    One of the great things about this game is never knowing who you are going to meet.

    How would this even work for open crews?

    How would a more experienced player have the opportunity to help a less experienced player?

    You would still have 500 hour solo PVE players posting about "griefers" constantly stealing their stuff.

  • Stundorn
    Castaway
    Insider
    Founder

    I disagree that the seas need to become more competetive @Duke-of-Spire
    That's the same i say to PvE Server demands.
    The 6 ship per server thing is to balance it all and it is balanced.
    If you play on the edges and extremes and do PVP or PvE only, want more peace or want more ships to attack it's all the same.
    SoT stays average.
    Very skilled PvPers will bore out.
    Hardcore PvE Achievement Hunters will bored out or give up because of PvP.

    People doing mainly PvE and welcome every encounter be it competetive, 5min social smalltalk or building alliance and sail together are the players who have no problems.

    About the suggestion.
    As a former PK in other games i can tell you it would invite jerks to make new pirates and harass beginners with 1000's of hours of playtime and experience.
    Lame i know, but we all know they will do it.
    A pure PK gives a ... about cosmetics or levels. And true jerks are also only there to harass and use everything they can.

    We already know a lot run "false flag" without any cosmetics to look like new and unskilled, but to plunder others easy. Legit and viable tactics. Same for make a new Pirate.
    And what about me who has sailed a lot but is not that competetive like you for example.
    I need to mess around with super high skilled players because i'm a 1st hour Pirate?!
    I cannot adapt to my Shooter skills from 20 years ago when i was good at CS1.6.
    20 years man, i dont want to learn 180° jumpshots again for a chill game on the seas. I can shoot, i can block, swing and do block charge jumps and thats it. I tried to duoblegun, did it, to lazy to do it just to be op in PvP. It's lame!
    When i compete i dont take it serious, i do it all with a smile on my face and i give another ... for loot or progression. And i did so already before PLA10.
    I like to pve and pvp on that fun and social experience basis.
    It's good to meet a challenging crew at a fort, happens very rarely they all sink in no time, no matter how often they come.
    And i cannot remember a single attack by us that was fought off.
    Maybe wrong, but i honestly do not remember a single attack we did, but sank.

    What i wish is more Galleones and Briggs, because a you usually see only Sloops.
    And i stopped attacking Sloops in a Brigg or Galleone, no challenge and lame to steamroll others.

    I assume you want a more competetive game a more PvP driven game, but SoT is not that game, also stated by Rare very often as we reply to the PvE server demands.
    It's about fun and social experience not highly competetive and also not overall peacefull.

  • Duke of Spire
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @little-squash You're probably right concerning solo sloopers. Let me ask you all a question. Where in my post does it say "divide" those you play with? There could still be random crews with one expert, two amateur, and a novice player or any combination there of. This method will help the new players gain their "Sea Legs". There will be experts playing in amateur and amateurs playing in novice. There will also be novice playing in amateur also. The only division would be the expert class which in my eyes is needed for if nothing else the clock n dagger type encounters that would be going on. Sea worthy opponets facing off in adventure using a chess match of strategies against each other. Great stuff that rarely exists nowadays.

  • Little Squash
    Commander
    Insider

    @duke-of-spire said in Novice, Amateur and Expert Servers:

    @little-squash You're probably right concerning solo sloopers. Let me ask you all a question. Where in my post does it say "divide" those you play with? There could still be random crews with one expert, two amateur, and a novice player or any combination there of. This method will help the new players gain their "Sea Legs". There will be experts playing in amateur and amateurs playing in novice. There will also be novice playing in amateur also. The only division would be the expert class which in my yes is needed for if nothing else the clock n dagger type encounters that would be going on. Sea worthy opponets facing off in adventure using a chess match of strategies against each other. Great stuff that rarely exists nowadays.

    Time played is an arbitrary quantifier of skill in this game.

    Some people only need one hour and a good captain to be good at this game. Others can play for 500 hours and still be horrible at anything that involves interaction with other crews... Which sounds like what you really want is challenging PVP.

    I think the only thing that would actually give you what you want reliably is a private server that you can set up your own objectives/battles with several competent crews.

  • Duke of Spire
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @bugaboo-bill You and I are very similar in our approach to this game believe it or not. Bill, what do you think would happen if I saw you on the seas? I'll tell you......... I'd put my crew on stand by, request permission to board and have a grog with you! Talk with you a bit and raise the alliance flag. Why? Because those pirates that invest as much time in the game as we do are hard to find! I don't think an expert mode would play out like most of you think. In 2500-3000 hours of playin this game I've come across a friend list friend once! That's it. This at least betters those odds.😉

  • Stundorn
    Castaway
    Insider
    Founder

    @duke-of-spire
    Hehe i know, the story about the deal for the Douglas skull remind me of my Robin Hood RP PK aproach in sonm other games ;-)
    I like it.
    Although i know it unforuntaley doesnt work with 999.9% of the gamers today XD

    Tbh that's exactly the way the game is to be played imho.
    I did a very long post a day later in that thread trying to work out some sort of assurance for the poor souls that felt over your anchor, but while typing i recognized there is no good solution.
    I hate to say it but all the ruling gamemechanics dont work in the long run and get exploited or need to be tweaked a lot.
    The freedom we have here is amazing.
    Clumsy George said it a few weeks ago.
    It stands and falls with the players.
    It's a great vision and it's idealistic like nothing else what they did.
    Overall it works imho!
    I mean ok we have these threads all day, but tbh it's moderate and if we believe Rare it is growing.
    I have no doubt in them.
    They delivered in time and of good quality. Not perfect, not on the Minute, but c'mon compare this to some other games, developers and publishers it's more triple A than half of the games what want to be triple A and get sold for beeing that.
    Rare made an amazing job and we paid only once until.
    Rare! (ambigous meaning :-))

    So what i lost track... ah wait.
    Imagine you sail with your bunch of pirates who all have 1000 plus hours.
    You maybe wont find a match or you wait for a match that need to ignore matchmaking.

    It makes all more complicated when it doesn't need to imho.

    Get some pvers and take them with you on a funny rp'ish PvP adventure.
    We had some girls and also males in our crew who didnt like to PvP.
    They had made bad experiences, they think the normal pve way.
    Many, many years ago i was the same and i said i need to know by myself and went red (pk) and played with other red's.
    Some were for sure jerks, but some were great players.

    An online friend who has played it 5 or 7 times, barely level 20 said:
    You cannot loose, i dont want loot, i want interaction (PvP) i dont mind loosing, i dont mind leveling, i mind some fun and action and this game is perfectly designed to do this.
    He also said it is all a little bit to meaningless, because nothing weigh amything.
    True, i love it because of it.
    Thousands get upset about it, because they weigh progression that much XD
    And my friend said (bad dude) they dont loose anything, that's bad :-D
    But they loose their chests i said.
    Ya, but they are worth nothing, only cosmetics.
    I said: cool
    He said: meh :-)
    We play occasinally and he's a better pvper in 5 sessions than me playing a year :D

  • Duke of Spire
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @little-squash What I desire is a server of those who are "long in the tooth" concerning pvpve. I don't care if they're sloops, brigs or galleons. I don't care if they're passive and evasive or aggressive killers. My hope for system like this would be that new players could ease into the game with some guidance and seasoned players would face more crucial decisions in their time on the seas.

  • Little Squash
    Commander
    Insider

    @duke-of-spire
    Perhaps this would be better accomplished by adding more Pirate Legend content to keep more of those "long in the tooth" players around.

  • NWO Azcrack
    Master

    @duke-of-spire
    Duke your one of my top 10 guys on the forums but i cant get behind this.
    I have had experiences where i encountered players who, after i would kill them ,would get on the mike and say they are new. I would feel bad (a little 😋)
    So i would tell them to hop on the boat. And i would show em around and give them the jist of things.
    Even tho im usually ruthless out there these experiences led to the guys understandin the game and not gettin mad and leaving.
    I feel like the more experienced pirates are good for the game being around nooblets.
    I have even sunk a nooblets boat and they were horrible at pvp, but they would come back over and over for revenge. And by the time all was said and done i could see them gettin better from just tryin over and over.
    I would hate to see us all split up mate.
    On the flip side there are days i wish i could get a decent fight so i know why u made this post.

    Sorry i cant type well today so i had to edit this alot for errors

  • Firestorm4345
    Marauder
    Insider

    I like the idea but I think it's a matter of when you're new to the game it is quite daunting. You're not sure what to do and where to go and while everyone says "I'm legend and I like to help new players" they are few and far between in reality. When I first started I didn't have a clue on where to go and what to do and the idea that some crew could come and sunk me at any moment was a little off putting aat first because I wasn't confident with the controls. To amend your concept you could have a practice mode or a practice tutorial that isn't on the live servers. Giving new players a chance to get a grip on what's happening but that also doesnt divide the game up into tiers

  • Duke of Spire
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @nwo-azcrack Man, I loaded a ship at 1pm yesterday with @Murphy576 and @Wheelhause on deck. We knocked out two forts sinking a sloop and a galleon in the process. Wheelhause exited the game around 4pm and @L0K3Y01 came in for a spell. We sank another galleon and a sloop prior to Murphy exiting around 5pm. At that point @diqitalsoul rolled in and we stole a fort from a sloop and fought off a galleon with the same objective. The sloop came back at us three times to no avail (we had to find the key so there was a little excitement). At around 7pm Lok3y split and Murphy joined back up until 10ish. During that time we punched out some OOS and MIB's while sinking a Brig (flying reapers)and a galleon in the process. Murphy exited again around 10p. and Digitalsoul and I sailed until 1am. In that time span he and I caught a Brigantine trying to cash at Plunder and sank them (for a mere villainous) then chased down a galley we caught up with and sunk just West of the Spire. We then set course for the Roar where we sank the reapers brig again and scared a sloop off of his OOS mission that we finished for him. Throughout the night whether we were undermanned or at full strength we were never really challenged. Our 128k/12 hour run was fun but could have been so much more with a server full of like minded pirates.😉 The highlight was finding the key at the water line at Shark Fin. I know we'll have our challenges but it just seems that those challenges grow further and further apart as time passes.

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