Let me preface by saying I would not disagree with the statement that the value of loot would need to be raised with this change.
However Rare would need to be careful not to raise it too much, gotta find that happy medium.
In any case, a given piece of loot; chest, skull, whatever; ought to have a given value.
I'm not concerned whether it's a flat value (I.E. making all Captains chests worth the same amount) or having a value range for rng to draw from. My understanding is that the current system uses a variation of the rng range.
When a piece of loot is turned in, that gold should be split to the crew, not shared.
To clarify meaning because I probably should:
If a given chest is valued at 100 gold, and I turn in it as a solo sloop, I should get 100 gold.
If a second person joins, we should each only get 50.
If I was on a 4-man galleon, we should each only get 25.}
Loot should work this way in small part as an immersion thing, but the real reason is risk-reward balance.
Higher difficulty = higher risk. This should = higher reward payout.
Fact is it's much easier to get rewards (turn in more loot) with a larger crew. As such those rewards should be worth less.
Likewise it's harder to do so with a smaller crew, and those rewards should be worth more.
As I said above, I'm asking for this as a balance change.
A nice side affect though, would be reduced grief/upset in the community.
These forums are filled with threads that amount to "I got stuff stolen from me when I was a solo sloop by a larger crew and now I'm sad and angry."
(Please don't apply my statement there to literally every anti-pvp thread, not all of them are making the complaint I just generalized.)
Right now in this situation you know that 4 people just got the full payout for your work. They got a high reward for the minimal risk they took in stealing it from you.
With my proposed change, you would know that they are only getting a quarter of they payout. They are getting a reduced reward for their minimal risk.
People will presumably still be unhappy to have been stolen from, but the knowledge of the more balanced risk-reward system will leave them less unhappy than they would have been before.
Edit: I would like to state/reiterate so I don't have to keep copy pasting it:
While the change balances risk-reward for different size crews, the inherent increase in loot-per-time gained with larger crew and better ship, means that all 4 members of a galleon will STILL rank up faster than a solo sloop.
