Is the Sea of Thieves playerbase really small? I thought people said it sold really well or had huge Twitch numbers or whatever it was, so I would not have thought that alternate styles of servers would be that detrimental to the playerbase. I've suggested a solo-only server option a few times before and could see it as a way to bring more people into the fray and may lead to them graduating to the free for all servers if they gather a crew. The lack of ways to gather a crew in the game without random matchmaking is also an issue, as I'd consider joining a crew if I could ensure that I'd be matched with people that are similarly minded as me and don't want to be jerks in the game. It doesn't seem like there's much of a community in the game since it's all about free for all where everybody has to fend for themselves. Can you let people you meet in the server join your crew or does it have to be set-up before playing the game?This is a misguided post.
The minecraft comparison is not the same. Minecraft isn't a public shared world. You can join a large server but they all come with their own set of rules and regulations and are privately managed. If Minecrafts Survival let you run into other random matchmade players it could be comparable but that is not the case. The reason a lot of us play SoT is BECAUSE the world is shared with other players doing their own thing. The tension when you see a set of sails on the horizon is one of the main reasons we play, not a bad part of the game.
Arena was already a controversial choice because it splits the userbase a bit. But ultimately I think it was for the best because it gives people who play SoT primarily for PvP a quick outlet. I've joined PvP galleons before this update and it was a struggle to find people at times.
I will say, I can entertain the idea of a private, friends only instance. However it either needs to have all rep/gold gathered not count, or be heavily reduced. This is a place to dick around with friends, not subvert the main game experience.
***story time***
I decided to solo sloop last night and tried to do the Trickster tall tale. Saw a sloop and a galleon on the horizon. Which is still to this day an awesome thing to see because I don't know their intentions. But I continue to sail and solve some riddles on Plunder Valley. I solve the riddle, grab the next part of the quest when I hear cannon shots. I sprint over and there is another sloop wailing into my boat. I had some bait and a goblet on board so I did have loot.. fair enough thieves....
They realize however, that I must still be on the island and to make the situation even funnier they are both in game chat trying to coax me out. "Come out, come out.. we just want to talk!" I tried to emote sleep in a bush but accidentally hit the quick chat and did reveal that I was nearby.... So we basically played a little bit of hide and seek all over plunder valley. My goal was to sneak back into their boat and see if I could wreak some havoc. Unfortunately one of the pirates did find me (curse you glowing athena gloves) and starts engaging with me. LUCKILY a gunpowder keg skeleton pops up next to him and kills him, which was hilarious. I manage to loop back around the island but over game chat I heard them saying to just ignore me and they sail away JUST before I am able to get onto their boat. Shame.
A few minutes later I am back on plunder valley for part 2 of the quest. Trying to solve a more complex riddle when I see a RANDOM ASS ROWBOAT pull in. I look around, no ship. This dude looks like he's just been rowing the whole time lmao. We exchange ahoys and a wave. I'm a little wary but this dude is on a rowboat by himself so what can he do? I actually ended up finding 2 mermaid statues on the other side of the island. I was ferrying the gems back to my ship when a shark kills me. I rush back and I see he has one.... and then he says "Take this off me" and drops it off on my ship. What a bro! I ended up finishing the next part of the trickster mission and for those who don't know... lets just say I hope my new friend didn't get caught in the aftermath lol.
This story would have been very mundane and boring without those player interactions. Even though the first guys sank me I would not have given up that interaction anyway.
Besides, I lost progress on that tall tale due to PvE later on anyway. My fragile quest item was destroyed.
I've said here before that I'd love something as simple as a solo-only server for people to be on even terms with others on the same server where they could just explore and have fun on their own terms for the most part and have a shot at defending themselves against attackers compared to now where solo players are going to eventually just get bullied out of the game completely every single time unless I plan on getting on at times where nobody will be on. It's cool, legit, and valid if you want that experience, but I'd bet there are a lot of people that would like something that's a bit less hostile to people that just want to chill out, explore, and have some fun. I'm coming from a point of view where this could be an amazing follow-up to Wind Waker and it can't come close to that game due to the hostile PvP being the only way to play it.
I don't know anything about voice chat with the game because I turned it off early on when my social anxiety caused me to quit the game abruptly at launch when something kept following me around the markets while mentioning my username. I don't recall there being any other way of communicating with people and haven't seen any sort of quick chat option either. I'd have figured that having plain sails would be a good way to signal to other players that I'm not a threat to anybody and that I'd like to be left alone. I don't think I've been able to finish more than a few quests due to jerks harassing me in the game and my first attempt to complete one of the story missions went horribly with no real way for me to deal with it as a solo player. I'm just supposed to take it until they get bored or scuttle the ship and try to figure out whether I want to bother with restarting the quest or moving onto some other game. If that's the experience Rare wants, then they've done a great job.
I've played a decent amount of Fallout 76 and with 24 players on a server, I haven't seen many jerks around whose sole existence is to ruin other people's fun. I did have a guy walk into my camp and try to shoot me when I was under level 5 when that's not an option, but that was it for the most part. People tend to come together for events rather than be jerks to each other.