More boats in the game.

A bigger boat would be too powerful. I say this as someone who would love to captain a vessel that size. I just don't see a way that having a 6 player ship could be balanced, especially given that galleons can already body solo sloops quite easily. I think the other issue is that it end up making the original point of the games design go away. All players are supposed to be on equal footing, skill and player numbers being the only real differentiators in what someone can do.

I see what you mean about balance—throwing a 6-player ship into the current system without adjustments would definitely tilt the scales. But I think there are ways to make it work while keeping the game’s “equal footing” design intact.

For example, a larger ship could come with hefty trade-offs: slower turning speed, reduced acceleration, larger blind spots, fewer maneuvering options, and more upkeep to keep it running smoothly. That way, it’s not simply a “better galleon,” but a specialized vessel for specific playstyles.

The same could apply to smaller, faster ships—they’d have agility and speed but lack firepower or durability. This way, skill and teamwork would still be the deciding factors, not just ship size.
I’m not suggesting it as a replacement for the current balance, but as an optional variety to make encounters feel fresh and give crews new tactical choices.

@hyptoxicc You're not quite getting it though, a ship that size could have 3 people working bilge and repairs while 3 board spam. You would have the power of a full brigantine crew that can just be sent to board spam infinitely while the full power of a brigantine crew can still just keep the boat going. And the issue for the smaller ships goes the other way. If the smaller ship is competitive to a sloop like the sloop is to a brig, then the small ship will be overpowered. With how small it would be it would be much harder to hit, and if they made it weaker than the relationship between a brig and sloop, then it would be too weak to be useful. As well, a solo ship would never have a chance against a 6 man vessel, no matter how much you "nerf" the bigger vessel. I don't think it refreshes the gameplay as much as fully shifts the balance out the window, making all forms of solo play useless against the overwhelming firepower of more people.

I understand your concern about crew size overwhelming smaller ships, and you are right that if a six person ship could spawn against solos or duos, it would wreck the balance. That is why I think matchmaking could solve the problem.

If larger ships were only matched against crews of similar total size such as brigs, galleons, or other six person ships, then the solo, duo, and galleon dynamic we have now would stay intact. A six person vessel could be more of a rare encounter in its own tier rather than something solos ever need to worry about.

This way, the game preserves its core balance while still giving players who want bigger crew experiences a way to enjoy them without breaking the design philosophy.

@hyptoxicc That dynamic wouldn't though. The new ship would basically exist as its own game. What's the point of adding a new ship that isn't allowed to play with the other ships?

True, it would have its own dynamic, but that is part of what could make it exciting. It would not need to be in a completely separate game mode, just balanced so it mostly faces crews that can handle it. Smaller crews could still encounter it occasionally as a high-risk, high-reward challenge, but not so often that it breaks regular play. That way it adds a new layer of variety without replacing the existing ship balance.

@hyptoxicc It's player controlled, that's not "high risk high reward", it's just high risk. It would be almost unsinkable. The number of them in play would be determined by the number of people who play them, so you wouldn't necessarily be able to sequester them to a separate server or keep the numbers of them low enough to make it so they would be rare for solo players to see.

Fair enough, I see your point now. In the current SoT setup, a 6-man ship would almost certainly tilt the balance too far. The fact that players can encounter any ship at any time is part of what keeps the game fair, and adding a vessel with that much crew power would break that unless other big design changes were made. I guess in the current system it would either need to be heavily restricted or it just wouldn’t fit without undermining solo and small crew play.

@hyptoxicc The idea of a bigger ship has been floated around since at least 2021 when they added Pirates Life, and the Black Pearl, which happens to be a bit larger than a galleon, and has seemingly working parts. I'm sure Rare has really deeply thought about how it would affect gameplay balance and its likely why a larger ship never has been added and never will be.

something like this could work but I feel like it would require increasing the size of the world to accommodate multiple ships of a particular size.

@loneshadow29 How would making the world bigger make the individual interactions between the ships more balanced? In any time where the 6 man boat meets a sloop, the sloop never has a chance to win, the map being bigger doesn't help that.

@potatosord how would it be any different than how it currently is when a brigantine or a galleon meets a sloop? even if it's not a solo sloop, that ship doesn't really have much of a chance against a full crew of either. it's no different than running against a full crew sloop vs a solo sloop. I'm simply saying that a larger world could accommodate multiple ships of the given size so you could have maybe 1 man-o-war (6 person) and any variation of ships. they would need to increase the total number of ships/crew allowed on a server

@loneshadow29 It would be different because the way the game is built, a solo sloop still has a chance to sink a galleon. I have done it many times as a solo slooper, but it was hard. It's never an easy fight. Even a barely competent crew would struggle to lose to a solo sloop, but if you made that even bigger, it would be impossible for 99.9% of players

@potatosord but for that, it really boils down to skill level. an inexperienced crew in a galleon will lose to a solo sloop captained by an experienced captain. the same if you flipped it. the solo sloop has no chance against a skilled galleon

@loneshadow29 An inexperienced galleon crew can sink to a skilled solo sloop, but it's really not that likely, and as I said from personal experience, it's an uphill battle the whole way, and you do not always win. In fact most of the time you don't.

@potatosord well, luck is always a factor but its also the fact that you can't just hit the hull with galleons, the shots have to be low. and you're also dealing with 1 gun vs 2. it's a simple numbers game so it's going to be more difficult.

@loneshadow29 Yeah exactly. Just getting hits doesn't mean anything on bigger boats. you have to hit lowers to make it an issue for them. A boat even bigger than a galleon would have this issue even worse. If they wanted to make a 6 player boat I fear it would have to have another deck, which would make it annoying. I don't think 2 tiers of holes would be enough for it.

Players who choose to play solo and yet don’t know how to will complain endless about these bigger ships more often and how OP they are.

We don’t need more ships. We need encouragement to play with crews or alliances

@BurnBacon I get your point about not wanting bigger ships to overpower solos, but what about variety within the current crew sizes? We could have 2-man, 3-man, and 4-man ships with different designs, each with their own pros and cons. It wouldn’t break the balance but would add a nice visual and gameplay touch, making things feel fresher and more fun without changing the core dynamics.