I will preface this by saying I have 2 thousand hours and I really like the game, but there is one pain point I am extremely tired of (other than mermaid spawns xd).
Chases in this game are terrible and here is why:
It makes no sense from a gameplay balance perspective that larger crews also get to travel the seas the quickest. Effectively, the smaller you are the less of a choice you have in your battles.
In most video games at minimum 2 key things are balanced when there are asymmetrical classes or units (in our game ships)
Speed and Power
These have to be properly balanced in relation to one another.
In Sea of Thieves:
Speed is your ship speed
Crew size is your health/power
The problem is that in Sea of Thieves the more power you have the more speed you have. It's not balanced at all. and yes it should be.
I'm not gonna sugar coat it, it's a huge issue that is going to only get worse as time goes on and the average skill level of the player base rises. Eventually players are going to realize the sloop has no realistic choice when it comes to chasing or running. I've noticed this get worse every year.
Yes, the sloop is the fastest against the wind, but this is a single direction. The odds of this single direction being beneficial for the duration of a chase (either running or chasing) is extremely low.
But Sail Management: There's very little skill expression in the game to make up for natural ship speed. The odds of a crew not making the minimum use of the sails in the proper setup is very low. In fact, the only reason I catch other sloops is because they don't know to use dummy sails when the sails aren't being bellowed. They actually think the Sloop gets a cross wind benefit and this mistake costs them over time. (It still takes a long time because the sloop is just that slow) The new item that bellows the sails is quite rare and doesn't really change anything. Using the argument that sail management adds some sort of skill factor that could possibly come close to affecting what I'm saying would be absurd.
I would also like to say that the Brigantine is especially overtuned when it comes to crosswind. Crosswind takes up most directions at any given time, and the brig can just do literally anything it wants when it comes to choosing a battle. It's a running joke with my friends that a lot of inexperienced crews on brigs can't control their ship because it's too fast. They fly past each other and they don't realize they need to raise sails a bit in order to fight, that's just how fast the brig is.
Someone being either dishonest , poorly experienced, or contrarian would argue that the ship speeds are fine because they reflect a 'realistic' idea that more sails = more speed. This is irrelevant to gameplay and only serves to create pointless argument. Fun and Fairness are king in video games, not realism. If I wanted realism I'd be on the Atlantic. This isn't a sailing sim, this is a cartoon pirate game.
My suggestions would be something that evens things out a bit more. In the very least here is a general idea of percentages that reflect my thoughts.
Sloop: +10 % overall speed + add cross wind benefit (no more dummy sails 24/7)
Brigantine: -5% overall speed -5% cross wind speed
Galleon: -5% bellowed speed
I wouldn't bother going as far as to say the sloop should be the fastest. I doubt I could even convince you that all ships should have the same speed capabilities (they probably should), but something has to change. It's so bad that I solo on a brig when I'm just trying to reach other players to talk to or mess with. Solo slooping with the idea of interacting with other players can often lead to endless chases.
Again these are just general ideas that reflect pain points. I've played this game a lot and for a long time and I'm fully aware of just how little ship speeds have been touched. Normally I wouldn't appeal to experience to push an argument, but the issue with public game discussion is always that there is a sea of inexperienced players that want to throw in their 2 cents when there are people who genuinely do know better.
To reiterate: Why can't a sloop choose to fight a larger crew on the sandbox? Why does a ship that has the advantage in HP and DPS get to also decide to run away forever or force a battle. The days of the sloop only being able to sail in 1 direction need to be over.
It's absolutely baffling that anyone would disagree with what I've said here, but I know some will. Either because they don't use the sloop or they just don't know any better. It's something that is easy to dishonestly muddy the waters on, but in reality it's extremely simple. Small crews shouldn't have a speed disadvantage. In the very least not one that is so oppressive.
When it comes to actual ship battles that everyone has agreed to I am totally fine with the current game balance. I think the amount of repairs needed on the larger ships makes up for the player numbers. I think the smaller ship just has to avoid full broads and take advantage of turns. I think the smaller ship is still at a disadvantage because raw player numbers really is that big of a deal. Being able to afford a boarder is a win or loss maker. However, I really only care about the fairness of chases. If you think about what I'm saying: the ship with the disadvantage should be the one to decide on the fight taking place to begin with
I'd be glad to reply to anyone with thoughts on this. I would also really enjoy talking to the devs about it, but I doubt that's ever gonna happen. I think most of the community in sea of thieves is made up of a more casual audience where these things don't come too much into play, but game balance effects everyone at the end of the day. Maybe you've never noticed how much of a problem ship speeds are, but I and many others sure have. Thanks for reading.
