The Dark Side of Alliances | Sea of Thieves

[@CliffTheStoryGuy]

still blows my mind to this day how many people don't understand the difference between organic and non-organic alliance servers, hopefully a lot of people see this video

[@Tyler-qh8hv]

Blurbs said it perfectly: Organic alliances are peak SoT experiences. The other day, I loaded into a server on a solo Galleon in hopes of allying with another galleon to do the Glitterbeard secret. Shockingly, I found a reaper galleon that was willing to join my cause and have their friends join my galleon so long as I helped them defend their loot. We managed to do it and I finally got my glitterbeard. Best experience ever.

[@lukasjandt270]

hi Cliff ✌

[@anemyte7779]

Yeah but better you Cliff join Blurbs on a sloop and make a video how you two destroy one of these servers. This is something I'd pay to see.

[@quinlanbrown989]

Yeah definitely, did glitterbeard in an alliance and it was amazing, got almost the entire server. We did thieves haven stacks after and it was great, but I joined a discord alliance once and it was so bad. Just dumb rules and people getting pissed whenever someone wanted to do something else.

[@Styixxx]

Yay it's Cliff! :)

[@joaopedrobaker8841]

The only time I did a server alliance, I was gathering people for the final part of Glitterbeard's story.

[@swordlords2322]

That and tall tales are the only time they are justified

[@alexandredotts2303]

I WISH I could get that going, I have tried to convince folks to join me for this and have been betrayed multiple times. The Glitterbeard and sitting on the Thrones with another crew are things I have been trying to get done for nearly two years now.

[@danielgomessilva8966]

Oi mano. Portuga, Brazuca ou Afro? Abraço de um portuga

[@crocsarethepurestformofwea3122]

I have no issues with alliance servers, because not everybody wants to fight. But if you start charging money to get into one, that's an issue.

[@joaopedrobaker8841]

Why?

[@liquidanimations3397]

@@joaopedrobaker8841 you did not just ask that 💀

[@joaopedrobaker8841]

@@liquidanimations3397 Hahahahaha

[@tape-999]

alliance servers are basically cheating the game. its for people who are so bad at the game they literally cant play it without taking out pvp entirely

[@tape-999]

everyone who likes this proly bad at pvp

[@Galactic__Wolf]

I think I've only had one almost all organic alliance server. We had 4 solo sloopers (myself included) that were in an alliance and completed 3 FOTD and one FOF. It was nice to be able to just relax and have fun with strangers, and for the other ship that we never saw to go about their own adventures without us bothering them. I dont think its right for people to pay to get into alliance servers, but it is nice to make organic ones for a few hours

[@BowserCo]

I have had one as well, were getting chased by 4 ships.. they just wanted to do glitterbeard :P

[@ysa1023]

I've had five ships in an alliance that I've created. It lasted for 30 minutes, then all ships logged out with two minute difference, because they were at the end of their play sessions.

[@domgazy592]

Yup

[@jordanrenaud3147]

Same, full organic sloop alliance, 10 FoTD and 1 FoF, but several people got afk kicked on the first run cause it was hella late

[@rebel642]

yeah paying sucks espieccaly since you could literally do this wwith friends

[@joesomebody1278]

I've encountered the shrouded ghost but not an alliance server... The only problem I have is around people who try to exploit new players like you mentioned. I didn't even know that was a thing.

[@antondevonlh]

Limiting the number of people in an alliance will only hurt legit alliance ships, because paid-for servers will just split the server between two alliances and set private rules to those that charge for invites. The way to stop these people is community effort, not nerfing alliances. If someone asks you to invite their friend when you quit, tell them no. If you random into a server where people are trying to force you out or alliance up, report them to support. Tools not rules cuts both ways, and a legit-formed server alliance should be allowed to exist as much as a Reaper killing a new solo slooper.

[@Blurbs]

Come hang out and watch SoT live at twitch.tv/blurbs NEW DEV CHANNEL: kzbin.info/door/3AZGTc8KakG0gXVkc4n-YQ PvP Tips playlist so you can get sweaty: kzbin.info/aero/PLeVtvf69N6wvKqf1UNr5MR2kPn5EUWtck

[@ayp4532]

I'm happy for people to play the game they want. Makes no difference to me if someone has earned the same cosmetics as I have without fighting for it. You end up playing the game you make for yourself,. Every eco system needs herd grazers. Best session I ever had was hopping into a server Alliance with my crew.

[@theambitiousalpaca4956]

Ive been on this game for about 2 weeks now. And one of my first nights in the game i meant two random galleons and a sloop and we allied. Eventually the sloop betrayed us and we took them down. But that night sealed my love for the game, was awesome meeting up with complete strangers and actually working together

[@Yamigata]

If Alliance Servers are a big enough deal for Blurbs to make a video on it, then that means there are enough people out there who WANT this in the game. Rare should make it a thing.

[@TysonD916]

It will never happen. They want the PVP aspect in the game, besides that’s what really got this game popularity in 2018

[@Yamigata]

@@TysonD916 If that's what got the game so popular then why has it taken a backseat when it comes to updated content? The actual PVP mode was even removed!

[@TysonD916]

@@Yamigata I’m speaking based on the player count. You would have to ask the devs that one

[@nickfarmer5]

exactly. So many 120 fov aimbot double gunners crying because they have fewer peaceful solo sloopers to spawn camp

[@trojaner98]

If you put something expensive (hard to grind) in the game then there will always be those that want to farm it asap. Its like that in every game that does that. Or almost no one will grind it no matter how cool that thing is, and those that do dont play for long after they achieved it. I think the Dark Matter/Diamond camo in CoD is a good example.

[@ianbelletti6241]

The problem is when you create an alliance server to eliminate pvp. I'm for organic alliances, but locking down and controlling whole servers should be prohibited. I think his idea of limiting the alliance size to the max number of crews on the server minus one should have been implemented long ago. People who live on the alliance servers do not learn how to fight tactically in the game. They need the chance that someone will contest them for their loot.

[@Sei2ure]

Being a completionist, some of the commendations are almost impossible to reach organicly. Im a day 1 player, and for example getting 50 FOTD runs done is not a thing you can do if you play the game after work or in the weekends. This is where an alliance server works perfectly for me.

[@PeterJDeer]

But the thing is, THAT makes it impressive. If there weren't alliance servers and you encountered someone with that, it's like holy smokes THAT'S an accomplishment. But now if someone has that it's like, eh, some alliance server players just grinding out FoTD over and over with zero risk, whatever. It not only means nothing to the person doing it, it detracts from other players who really fought for it.

[@noBrainGam1ng]

I don’t agree with you I am a father myself, also working 60h a week. Guess what; if you want the glory of wearing a title or a certain cosmetic, you better deserve them. What does that title even mean to you when you achieve it “cheaply”? Nothing to be proud of in my opinion

[@DramArtOfficial]

Not as impressive when you consider getting the achievement "organically" essentially means you simply have too much time on your hands, not everyone has time to grind for cosmetic items in a video game for hours and hours on end, some of us have actual real responsibilities in real life and want to come and escape reality for a bit in a game we like for the aesthetics and concept without necessarily having to deal with committed competitive players who think it's worth it to dedicate 60%-80% of their lives to a game. It's not about being impressive, it's about enjoying a game. SoT "organic" gameplay is not casual player friendly, that's where alliances come in, and it works, play the game however you want, let others play however they want and thassit@@PeterJDeer

[@everydaylifebelze]

I think alliance servers are fine as long as you set them up yourself with friends and have a few hours of non-pvp fun with it. I sometimes did that in the past and we made it a small community event and it was fun. That said, I really think it´s a problem the moment people charge real money for it...

[@JM-ym8mm]

How are organic alliances supposed to happen if one ship per server is prohibited from entering? At that point, no amount of bartering, convincing or willingness will matter. I think that before any actual changes are made, it would be best to see some actual data as to what % of players actually join server alliances. Your opponent ending up being less tough than you expected because he cheesed his way through the game sounds like a W. If anything, I would say that them devaluing certain high cost achievements is probably what you should have stuck with as it's likely the worst of their effects. My suspicion is that maybe a couple % of the player base ever try a server alliance and even less make a habit of going there regularly. Doing something as changing a fundamental mechanic that's been there since alliances were released to prevent a style of play, is in my opinion too drastic if the effects on the economy are truly negligible. Why do I think they are negligible? Well, a brief look at current online players gives me around 250k for the entirety of sea of thieves, whereas the biggest alliance server discord had about 4800 members online at that same time. Even if all of the 4800 that are showing as online on discord are currently participating in server alliances, this is about 2% of current players. This is a massively exaggerated % and it still would be negligible. Any number of those on discord could be away or playing a million other games, whereas the 250k online in SOT is a given.

[@austin5801]

That alliance stream needs to be uploaded to KZbin lol that looked awesome.

[@IagoBoom]

To begin, I have occasionally participated in a non-organic alliance server and, most commonly, sail with friends on regular servers. I PVP on occasion and also enjoy the constant threat it provides to the game . Honestly, alliance servers are probably one of the few things that keep Rare from being pressured to create PVE servers by the player base. There are a lot of people out there that don't like PVP and want a stress-free experience. "Then play a different game" isn't a helpful argument, because Rare wants the income from all play styles. Excluding even 1% of active players would affect their bottom line. As much as alliance servers "break" the economy, they only do so, on an individual level, for those that participate in them. It has no impact on other players, so that argument is farcical. Lastly, I'm not a huge fan of people using SoT as a real-life profit machine, but if someone is making money from hosting alliance servers, then I think I support their efforts. If the commodity is desired enough, it will earn a profit. Plus, streamers, like Blurbs, use SoT as a real-life profit machine too and, mostly, I feel everyone supports them.

[@geraldford9967]

You're wrong, allow me to explain. If alliance servers are to be tolerated then what difference does it make whether rare include a PVE mode? Because if they did anyone stacking those big hauls will do it in alliance servers leaving the sea of thieves full of nothing but empty hulls. After an update and all then alliance servers have to be hijacked again the loot hauls in this game are quite sizeable from theft, after servers have been spun up the sea become barren full of empty ships and one skull having noobs playing their first day. It kills the thieving part of the game stone dead and leaves only sinking for the lulz which means new players get tormented when they otherwise wouldn't creating a negative experience for them and reducing the uptake of the game. Elite dangerous another PvPvE game did this and piracy just isn't a thing because no one hauls loot in open play so its now just space trucker simulator and is boring AF. The same cretins (you recognize usernames) that ruined that game (getting pvp nerfed to buggery) are now making those same demands on sea of thieves. They'll kill this game like that one, they're on star citizen too (rough and in alpha but its where the pvp pirates fled along with sea of thieves). Surely you can appreciate a pirate game without the opportunity for piracy is a game killer. I mean you might want a PVE pirate simulator, but that's not what the game is, and to change away from that requires the player base who already purchased it knowing what it was to be deprived of what they paid for essentially meaning a loss of real world money. The life cycle of PvPvE games has always been thus..... >PVPers leave game now hostile to pvp and build cool and ruthless community in game that allows it. >Game becomes cool and gets youtube traffic because of PVP shenanigans. >Wannabe pvpers who wanna join the cool kids show up who for whatever reason (other commitments, other games) cant skill up to become competitive (no value judgement I've only play sea for years and I've sunk hours into it) and get buthurt then complain the game has to change (this part I do judge). >Changes get made to make game more welcoming, pve elements expanded. >PVEers join and complain about PVE and devise with the dissafected wannabes ways to skirt pvp. >Devs at this point have a choice, crack down on this and keep the spirit of the game (letting pvpers make their own content) or tolerate or even further empower it changing what the game is. >If former game continues for years and years, if latter then.... >Cool kids and devoted players leave >Devs trapped in endless cycle of trying to make content faster than people can play it (an impossible task) >Devs can either at this point lock content behind huge walls of grind or have the cost of keeping the game fresh rapidly expand past the return. >Game dies..... or worse gets sold to tencent and becomes a pay to win nightmare.... There is for this game however a middleground, tall tales generate no or poor loot. Get the story and the sandbox separate. Let people who wanna have casual fun and a plot do so. But for the loot grind the PVP element needs PVE'ers to do the loot grind and for those cosmetics they shouldn't be able to skirt the chance of having it nicked off them. PVPers in general don't want to sink tall tailers, I want gold skulls and merchant gear, if I can take it without sinking you all the better, clean steals are the best ones. Every tall tailer is taking up a server slot that otherwise could be our next huge steal. A good fight is its own reward sure, but gold is eternal... We'll see what happens.

[@IagoBoom]

@@geraldford9967 That's a lot. I read it all, but you're really jumping to a couple conclusions: Alliance servers don't have to be tolerated or not tolerated. They've been around since not long after the game was released. They're not a new thing and they aren't creating the potential game-ruining scenarios you're discussing. Should they become an epidemic, I agree with a lot of what you've said, but the level of effort involved in creating them is a deterrent to that. Changing the game so they aren't possible could be more detrimental than beneficial and that's my concern. I agree that an alliance server is essentially a PVE mode. That doesn't mean it's an official option provided by Rare. If it were built into the game and every player could choose to go PVE only or PVP, the game would change greatly. You and I have seen how that goes in games with that option. There are usually very few PVP-focused servers and the rest are flooded with players. The PVP-servers are sweaty and usually far less populated, because play sessions are shorter (and more exciting) while the PVE servers have a variety of play styles (in games that provide different job classes). I played very little of Elite Dangerous and I appreciate your take on it as well as your PvPvE life cycle in other games. I've witnessed versions of that cycle myself. In the end, I don't have to be right though. I know that the situation as it stands is far better than the one I predict,(one where Rare is pressured into a full-on PVE option in the menu). I know that you and I don't want that. I know that those 10-16 players on that specific alliance server making a ton of gold won't affect the game economy in any way beyond their own experience. I know that it's okay to let people play a game however they like (including PVPers) and it won't change the big picture.

[@CheddarMannn]

While I am against playing on Alliance Servers, since it kills one of the core aspects of the game, but their issue is way overblown. In my 500h I've managed to hop on one Alliance Server, and less than 1% of the playerbase plays on them, so they can't ruin the economy on their one.

[@anotherjester91]

As a single parent alliance servers are a great way to keep up with my friends

[@exporteur4391]

Keep up with what? Cosmetics? You have access to every feature at any stage, so there should be no reason to "exploit" the system only for "skins". I mean if you have fun doing it, then go for it, because it doesn't harm anyone, but in the long term it will probably take the fun out of the game for you.

[@rabbiezekielgoldberg2497]

​@@exporteur4391 I think he means play with more than 3 of his friends at once.

[@markcuevas9866]

I don't really see a problem with alliance servers as it's just another way to play. Having all that gold funneled would kill the gameplay loop and as such cause burnout quickly. I'd rather slowly gather my coin while fighting/meeting and just derping around with other pirates.

[@madhatt0r819]

I would love to see two things: - limit the Alliance Size - change how gold and rep get shared with diminishing returns, the bigger the Alliance is, the less % of gold and rep is shared

[@littlegoomba1701]

If the cap was set, they could spawn camp the one crew that isnt in the alliance, or just have that ship as a filler. But the more people in the alliance the less cut you get, in my opinion would make alliance servers a waste of time. A decrease to 10% at 5 crews would really cut the usefulness.

[@joshuab4586]

But that would make no one want to create a natural/organic server alliance which I think is fine, adding a cap would prevent people from milking the system dry and still allowing PvP.

[@duncanidaho5834]

incorrect, alliance cut is 50% regardless of the number of people or ships in the alliance

[@eragonargetlam8935]

@@joshuab4586 I think he meant that if you have 2 ship aliance you get 50% if you have 3 ship aliance you get 35% if you have 4 ship aliance you get 20% and with 5 you get 10%. And imo that would be a great change.

[@SashaMasonVR]

It would already be good enough if you could only ally up with 2 other ships, so a 3 ship alliance. That would leave 2 ships to be out on their own or form their own alliance to counter the other alliance currently sailing.

[@Spekor]

in translation "i like pvp. and don't like people finding a way not to be bugged by jerks attacking them for no reason other than being jerks like myself.. so i want to make it so they can't hide from me"

[@Zeldon567]

pvp sweatlords don't want to give up their easy targets.

[@Spekor]

@@Zeldon567 yeah.. he and all the other sweatlords have forgotten the first rule of sea of thieves no one owes you a fight... just because you want to act like a jerk doesn't mean others have to let you get away with it. alliance servers are a place where people who are sick of sweatlords seeing the ship load at dock and instantly sinking it cause "ha ha ship go blorp" i've had this happen multiple times.. i'll load into game and by the time i get from the tavern to the dock to start setting up for a good day of sailing some sweatlord pvp idiot is carpet bombing my ship and telling me to "git gud".. no emassary.. no treasure.. ship is obviously just loaded into the server brand new

[@AntiSora2]

I've only happened into an alliance server once so far, which was nice cause I was farming a commendation, so that was nice, and the 50k passive gold I got was useful too. I understand both sides of the argument for and against them, and in all honesty, they will remain a thing unless Rare limits alliance sizes. I will say though, is that an alliance size should cut down the gold distribution. So instead of 50% from what the seller makes, it goes down in size. 50% for a 2 ship, 33% for a 3 ship, 20% for a 4 ship and 15% for a 5 ship alliance, cause then it helps lower gold inflation from those servers

[@exporteur4391]

Great Idea!

[@andrewmoody3112]

Imho if you’re worried about “gold inflation” I think it’s time to take a step back and re-examine how important this game is to you. What other people buy (or don’t buy) in no way affects your play experience. If the amount of gold held by players affected the price of cosmetics in a Sea of Thieves-wide global economy I’d totally buy your argument, but it doesn’t so I think it’s fair to simply address this with a “worry about yourself”.

[@AntiSora2]

I have nothing against cosmetics that anyone uses, but I'm looking at gold inflation from the side of rare and how they may end up pricing later cosmetics that come into the game.

[@Bellriver1]

Never had the experience of Alliance servers personally, but it sure shouds great for the PvE crowd. I agree it does seem cheesy if its that easy to grind the game with Alliances, however players shouldnt be blamed for taking an advantage of an existing mechanic. If RARE really wanted a more fair implementation of the PvPvE environment, they would have made the option to play in single/double servers or 3-4 player servers separately by now. If the folks getting tired of getting 4v1nd are that desperate to form Alliances, then I don't see the problem with it.

[@WaTsNoTgUdD]

Few ideas to fix the problem with alliance servers (I'm not expert coder so what I may say may not be possible) 1. Cap the number of ships in an alliance 3 is fine 2. Make it so that only a certain number of boats can join a server at once. 10-20 minute interval in between boats joining (many server alliances are formed usually by all of the boats joining a sever at the same time.) 3. Make it so that Reapers can not join alliances, form alliances, and if they are in an alliance and vote up reaper, then they are automatically kicked from the alliance

[@TheDgamesD]

Honestly I see it as totally fair if people want to put in that much effort to remove PvP (my personal least favorite part of Adventure mode) then that’s their reward for spending so long setting a server up like that until we can get PVE servers. Don’t get me wrong I don’t hate PvP entirely, I went all the way through Sea Dogs Back in the day and have my TSD title. I just don’t find it fun in the main adventure mode. I like the Tall Tales, I love fishing, and I like just doing the tasks on my own and left alone. Hell if there was a way to play Sea of Thieves on servers completely by myself for the rest of time I’d happily take it.

[@Zeldon567]

Agreed. pvp sweatloards just can't wrap their heads around the concept of not wanting to do pvp and just enjoy pve content in peace, though. And they'll typically get pretty toxic if you bring it up. It's frankly ridiculous. My guess is they don't want to lose all the easy targets lol. I think they'd enjoy pvp a lot less if the only targets available were those that want to participate in pvp. "Oh. You sink people that don't want to or aren't good at fighting. You must be so proud of yourself ruining childrens days and those who can't invest enough time to be good at pvp."

[@breadster1981]

This is clearly the wrong game for you

[@aknarxus]

My friend and I became a part of a reaper server alliance once, organically. It just started with us coming up against another reaper and taking them out. They sought us out again, asking for an alliance, which we took up. Then a solo sloop reaper appeared and tried to take on my friend and I (sloop) and the other reaper (fully-manned brig), and when we were close to annihilating him, he surrendered and asked to join our alliance. Another reaper crew joined us and we dominated the map - helping each other out until we all went to Reaper’s Hideout together and helped each other turn in EVERYTHING. I’ve never made so much gold in this game at one time. It was insane. It ended with us and the brig letting the solo slooper to sink our ships for level 1 reaper flags, and then he let us sink him for the same thing. We gave the solo everything on our ships and logged out. It was insane and a lot of fun and organic. It was a lot of fun and we made some SoT friends.

[@mr.blobberry3112]

What is even worse than alliance servers is the 4 ship alliance. During gold and glorry, for some reason. A whole alliance server attacked us. They sent messages to each other saying, "join our alliance, let's sink this gallion". We lituarlly got bullied by 3 brigantines and 1 sloop. You don't have a chance in that situation, it's lituarlly a 11v4.

[@peronwasright6015]

I think there's a point to be made towards these servers as well. As you may know from being a content creator yourself, running a community is hard. From what I've gathered, most alliance servers on Discord are completely free to use, albeit some of them have a "priority" system where if you pay, you get put at the top of the queue of players waiting to get in on a ship. Some people just want to enjoy the game without having to worry about PvP. The voyages take too long and the rewards are too garbage to actually be worth it. I don't have the time to spend like 2-3 hours doing Athena Veils with randoms only just to get wrecked by some sweaty LSD PvPers that got matched into my server without any consideration as to the difference in skill level. Keep in mind you're not the only one who plays this game ;)

[@candlestyx8517]

"I don't have the time to spend like 2-3 hours doing Athena Veils with randoms only just to get wrecked by some sweaty LSD PvPers that got matched into my server without any consideration as to the difference in skill level. Keep in mind you're not the only one who plays this game ;)" By that logic, you should just avoid all open competitive games. You people are too soft to enjoy the game as it was intended.

[@exhausting_thoughts]

@@candlestyx8517 Selfish and void take.

[@suggondees4882]

@@exhausting_thoughts No it's not, the game is named sea of THIEVES. i'd kinda get it if you could buy upgrades for your ship that would make a difference in battle, would be even slimier tho. But at the end of the day the only things you can buy is cosmetics so what does it matter, just play the game as it is intended to be played. You kill the fun very quickly doing this alliance bs

[@immasi8922]

I genuinely disagree with you. I understand your points completely, but it just doesn't apply me, nor my friends. I've been playing Sea of Thieves for a while now. I reached pirate legend, got all the unlockable curses, encountered shrouded ghost, etc.. naturally. As most others, I love customizing my ship/pirate but the grind for some of the more expensive cosmetics is just down right boring, if grinding for them was the main thing that was supposed to keep me interested in the game I would've quit long ago. Downright, the main thing that keeps me playing the game, is the pvp and being able to purely focus on that, without worrying about loosing my loot, since I've made more than enough gold through the help of alliance servers, only enhances the experience for me. By now I would've probably been able to afford everything I have through natural means, but having tens of millions just sitting there, knowing that i can buy any cosmetic I want, without stressing out about it, just baseline makes the game better for me. That's all I got to say.

[@PlebNC]

To be fair: 1. Alot of unlocks require excessive grinding in one form or another, which creates the need for the servers. 2. If PvP was opt-in, rather than always on, then Alliance Servers would shut down immediately because PvP is the reason why people go to those servers. 3. PvE only isn't a replacement for PvP, it puts the power in the player's hands for what experience they individually want. To define for themselves what "be more pirate" is, not have it forced upon them by someone else's arbitrary definition. The video makes valid points but equally the devs can absolutely enable opt-in PvP without needing to have dedicated servers to PvP or PvE. Just make raising/lowering a Reaper Flag or Emissary Flag enable/disable PvP. Most PvP players use/target those flags anyway and the buff from Emissary ranks incentivises engaging with PvP. This allows those who just want to go on a pirate adventure digging up gold to do so and PvP players can continue fighting to their heart's content.

[@cordia96]

I don't think I would have a grasp of SoT if it weren't for getting dragged into alliance servers while looking for crews on Discord. The process of setting up a non-organic alliance is quite tedious. My dream is actually 2vs2 crew PvP. Because a broken alliance is the craziest experience I've ever had in SoT.

[@vargaslestrae7900]

The thing I'm always told is that the stuff is purely cosmetic and there's no actual "stat" increases for using them, so there's no need for Alliance Servers or Private Sessions and for people to just "enjoy" the game. This is said by every PvPer in this game. But the game is choose how you play, so being told we HAVE to play PvP is not choosing how we play. If people want to alliance or have a private session to just enjoy the game their way, let them. You want to PvP, that's fine, you play that way, it's your choice. But forcing others to play that way because it's "an essential core mechanic of the game" is not the right way to do things. If someone doesn't want to PvP, stop chasing them down and harassing them into it. Leave them alone. This is why a separation of the community is needed in the form of Public Sessions and Invite Only Sessions. PvP is NOT essential to the game. There's more things to do in the game that DON'T require PvP than do. GTA:Online has had the ability to go into Public OR Private sessions since the start and has recently given the ability for grinders to make good money in Private Sessions, but increased the payout of said methods if done in Public Sessions, AND you can still PvP in Private Sessions if you want to. There's nothing stopping friends from rolling up on each other and blasting them with a shotgun. Rare could do the same thing. People always misinterpret what I'm saying and always say that PvE Servers would never work, but I didn't say PvE, I said Private. If you start a Private Session, anyone who joins that Session, either through invitation or having the Join Code, could join with another ship. So now there is two ships on a Private Session, so tell me exactly what is stopping those two ships from PvPing against each other, except an agreement between the players not wanting to do so? If they wanted to, they could easily have a battle and steal each other's loot. As for the Public Sessions in this? To keep them viable, simply increase the Gold value while in them. Bigger reward for loot in Public, but a higher risk as you won't know who would be coming at you for it. And this can still happen in Private Sessions too. So why the separation? To eliminate most instances of toxicity, from both PvP AND PvE sides of the community. Private Sessions would get PvEers away from the Griefer portion of the PvP side, AND keep them from blowing up with anger at anyone because of PvP. If PvEers choose to go after the larger reward in a Public Session, they know the risks they are taking by being in a Public Session and have no right to get mad if they get sunk, as they had that choice when loading into the game. One of the primary selling points of the game was "choose how you play". But when half the community gets the choice while the other half is forced into a playstyle by what the first half chooses, that is not the proper "choose how you play" way and is, in a sense, false advertising.

[@MagnusOrkzyd]

I myself have actaully organized alliance servers before, however, they have all been organic. It is pretty easy though. What I did one time was roleplay, dressing up as some cult minister and then declare a crusade against the 'Lord of Marrow' at the 'Stronghold of Damned Souls'. Rallied the entire server to the cult and did a rousing 'sermon' before every ritual skull to dedicate the victory to the 'Eternal Flame'.

[@SweetSandman88]

Capping the alliance count per server won't stop them from manufacturing these effective PvE servers. All that would do is slightly reduce the amount of gold they can farm while virtually eliminating the already rare possibility of an organic all-ships cooperating experience.

[@soundlattice5192]

Here's the thing, organic alliance servers are so hard to come by, it is insanely difficult to get a organic one and to get on the same server with friends

[@InkyGhosts]

1) Alliance servers have ZERO IMPACT on how you play the game. So what if somebody coordinated with a group to boost gold and renown? This game is all about customizing YOUR pirate and ship. Why do you care how much gold or what cosmetics somebody else has or how they got it? Besides, Alliance serves are a pain in the ass to set up and maintain. If somebody wants to go through the extra effort for a boost in gold they can have at it for all I care. Doesn't affect me over on regular servers 2) Cosmetics DO NOT determine a player's skill. You can be absolute garbage at Sea of Thieves but given enough TIME you can unlock everything.

[@ConantheWretched]

Charging $$$ to play in an alliance server, sneaking into one just to be a POS troll, and wanting Rare to limit an already limited game is trash imo. Kinda annoying when all you want to do is hunter's rep or a tall tale and you get attacked over and over.

[@hugegamer8004]

I've participated in organic alliance servers where I'm playing with someone who doesn't like pvp and then we alliance with someone and the alliance goes around managing to recruit the whole server. Happened a few times to me. But it's alright because shortly after the teammate leaves I'll go around 'debt collecting' and sink 'em all. Or they'll leave slowly but surely. But these pre organised ones are bad, and now hearing that some charge? It's definitely in rares best interest to stamp out organised or payed for alliance servers.

[@andrewmoody3112]

The easiest way would be to pay for private servers tbh.

[@hugegamer8004]

@@andrewmoody3112 Well luckily rare knows damn well just how much alliance servers harm the player base so are not going to let that happen.

[@CAPUT-rh2cm]

ill repost this idea here given the topic ; Basically the more ships you share with, the smaller the share each ship receives. This incentivizes small alliances but penalizes large alliance where the PVP threat is all but gone. ALLIANCE SERVER PROPOSAL - (Assuming all ships sell equal value in a given amount of time) Currently it looks like this - there is no penalty for the substantially reduced threat of PVP ALLIANCE ALLY PAYOUT ALLY EARNINGS 2 ships ..................... 50% ..................... 150% 3 ships ..................... 50% ..................... 200% 4 ships ..................... 50% ..................... 250% 5 ships ..................... 50% ..................... 300% Proposal: Ally commission is shared between ally ships. ALLIANCE ALLY PAYOUT ALLY EARNINGS 2 ships ..................... 50% ..................... 150% 3 ships ..................... 35% ..................... 170% 4 ships ..................... 20% ..................... 160% 5 ships ..................... 10% ..................... 140% ..basically saying being in a 5 ship pre-organized alliance server will pay less than a 2 or 3 ship natural alliance where a pvp threat still exists.

[@drian13]

perfection

[@drian13]

and then if they are able to add 6 ships back to the server they can up these a little bit to fit with the decrease at 6 ship alliances.

[@drian13]

I still think they should cap alliance amounts because although decreasing the amount made with the increase of alliances is a good thing, it is still getting rid of the risk factor in the game and it's going to make bad pirates never learn how to pvp so when they have no server alliance and inevitably sink, they will most likely just be discouraged and hop off and that's exactly what Rare needs to avoid.

[@CAPUT-rh2cm]

@@drian13 gg

[@CAPUT-rh2cm]

@@drian13 if the full server alliance is no longer profitable I would imagine requiem would cease to exist - there would be no point and the manufactured server alliance would become a relic

[@elfridagrey8771]

I feel like organic ones deserve to exist! It’s such a shame that good things get ruined by the irl dollar.

[@bardhur]

This is why pve servers should be a thing. Nerf the gold and rep they can earn there, but allow everyone to play the game as they like. I feel like a lot of people complaining about alliance servers do nothing but pvp and fail to see that this just isn't for everyone. The prices for endgame cosmetics are high because people have been playing this game for 5 years, not because of the relatively small percentage of people that join alliance servers. I bet this is below 1% of the players, yet people are making such a big deal about it. Not wanting someone else to have fun because you don't agree with their playstyle is just silly imo.

[@ShortDarkKnight13]

I think rare should do something about alliance servers, but I don't blame people for taking advantage of the system while they can.

[@Squangus]

I just wanna sail the seas and go on adventures with my friends without the fear of wasting the time spent doing it

[@stepfalcon]

How you can waste your time? If you lose, you lose. You didnt lost your adventure and memories from that adventure.

[@Squangus]

@@stepfalcon fair enough

[@sirvan5870]

Alliances servers are probably one of the worst thing next to hitreg, especially with how they are made (bullying people out of a server in order to take control of it and then just farming gold) SoT is a PvPvE game, pvp is core as the whole shtick is to be able to gather treasures and sell them while facing others who might want a slice of the cake. Alliances servers goes against everything this game is about and should be addressed by rare alongside the NUMEROUS issues plaguing the game as of today

[@dawidscheffler7152]

Been part of an organic alliance server during the Shrouded Hunt adventure and the experience was mind blowing. Never been part of a persistent alliance farm server - I get the concept but, it just feels like it would suck the fun out of the game for me even though I do mostly PvE rather than PvP.

[@JoseSanchez-bh4gz]

The best and only alliance server I was in happened organically, three Athena sloops decided to ally and run fotd and we basically forced the last two crews to “join or die” we got betrayed but where able to sink em, was the funniest moment on the sea of thieves

[@wornstone7683]

This is such a non-issue. How other people play the game shouldn't have such a visceral response when it doesn't really affect anyone else outside of emissary leaderboards. Saying it affects the price if gold sinks is anecdotal unless Rare confirms it. The reason Rare hasn't acted is because of how it's such a small and meaningless "problem". Love the stream and clips btw

[@SilentOcalypz]

Agreed. There's no reason to police the way people play when it's just more efficient and relaxing for them.

[@shadowmagus0413]

Tools not rules. Thats not advocating for Alliance servers either, but if Rare refuses to do anything about portal-hopping or spawn griefing, don't expect them to do anything about Alliance Servers. Tools, not rules.

[@kelsonv642]

Personally I think that you should be able to be in an alliance with friends , and you shouldn't be able to server hop with all of your supplies. I understand people hoping on and switching servers to look for a fight , but you should lose all your supplies when doing so. Nothing worse than doing a tall tale or Athena's and then a level 5 reaper galleon with 1000 canon balls spawns in and decimates you by sheer blind fire.

[@petebuster]

There are no alliance servers that charge for access. There are some that have optional support mechanisms to help out those that run them but it is optional.

[@selaven]

They definitely are alliances discord that offers preferencial treatment in exchange for financial support. The most well known of them rakes thousands of dollars a month through patreon membership.

[@petebuster]

@@selaven correct, but none that require a fee just to join.

[@selaven]

@@petebuster sure they don't charge for accessing the discord or the server per se. That being said, if the paid queue is stacked, you won't get in for free.

[@sweatyspaghetti500]

yeah it's a bittersweet thing some of the commendations in the game are simply unreasonable to the average person working a dayjob, it's fine for people with free time but actually makes it less satisfying when you look at the mountain that is 250 of each factions quests, similar to completing the tall tales 5 times, it sucks the joy out of it, the jack sparrow one's improves on this by just hiding some books rather than making you do the exact same quest 5 times with no variety, just cause the content is theoretically infinite doesn't mean that the fun is.

[@Gamer010001]

I HATE alliances and pvp in this game I'm a new player and mainly play solo and everytime I see a reaper ship or big crew they try to force an alliance and take my ship to reapers hideout they don't sink my ship just kill me over and over its not fun. Hopefully the treasure limit will be removed from safe for seas soon

[@nikolai1326]

Sorry, completely lost me "cosmetics are the only way to tell a players skill" when there's the pirate emporium. Also, we had server alliances before alliances were a thing, so... I mean, go ahead and cap alliance sizes, just means we'll have two alliances per server.

[@MrJasen22]

"casual player make too much golds and it hurt my fefe's :( " what a dweeb.

[@Arkaion93]

After 3-4 months of casually playing SoT, what really blows my mind is the fact that there are absolutely no criteria in how the different crews are put into the same server, and that I never saw anyone writing or complaining about this. I mean... 7 times out of 10, since my very first day, I was - and still get, I just resist more thanks to guides - destroyed by players who have been playing for years and/or are absolutely pvp warmachines who know all the tricks of the trade (and usually are a**holes who only insult, camp and troll. I guess I'm quite unlucky in my encounters). Just to be clear, I like both pve and pvp, it's just that the skill gap (and sometimes the toxicity of the ppl I tend to meet) is a nightmare to the point of not giving me the chance to improve - and believe me, I want and have to improve, since I usually play alone and for brief sessions. All of this forced me to become a 'runner', and now I don't even enjoy anymore the IDEA of playing. I'd really like to ""git gud!!", but fights are very often too one-sided for a newbie like me. So... yeeeah, I understand perfectly why alliance servers do exist: although I never joined one, I'm starting to see their appeal as a way to survive and not drop the game. I love Sot, and I hate how Rare does *nothing* to separate players with too much skill/exp from those who have yet to understand what the mermaid is for, or how much damage bombs and weapons do. Paying to get into one, howerever, is simply wrong. Reducing the rep/money gained in an alliance sounds like a great idea!

[@kinglychimera9964]

Ohhhh nooo… this is terrible. I never want to join an alliance server. Someone should tell me exactly where i can find such awful behavior so i can be absolutely SURE to avoid them… gosh who woulda thought

[@chetmanley8011]

I've been playing since the alpha and I've never seen a alliance server. I guess I don't get as much sea time as a streamer, but I don't see a problem with these, because I never see them.

[@vCendo]

you clearly don’t play the game very much

[@chetmanley8011]

@@vCendo believe or not, a good bit. Crazy odds I guess

[@dylanyoung1302]

I have so much luck with alliances its best to follow and help alliances it takes a lot of talking your way out of them betrayal

[@seanofthedead1514]

For people who don't really have friends that play sea of thieves imo alliance servers are a great way to not only meet other players and possibly form long-term crues but also get practice with content they may not be able to complete otherwise. And correct me if I'm wrong but all the alliance servers I've seen only charge for access to the priority queue.

[@pokebronyborn]

Strange to me no one else seems to be pointing this out, but if there are people willing to pay real ACTUAL MONEY to some random guy to play what is essentially a black market PvE server, doesn't that seem like a clear indicator that a decent chunk of people really really want a sea of thieves experience minus PvP? I'm not economist, but for that niche to still be empty after so long seems like a missed opportunity.

[@ActuallyEric]

I have no problem with alliance servers, but I am in complete agreement with the disgust you share about those who charge real money for "priority access" to "their" servers. I actually got on one of those servers just to check it out and I was threatened to be banned because... I sold a fish without cooking it first. I'm not joking. Yeah no thanks.

[@LyingTube]

A pretty reasonable argument but, in addition, I'd also suggest that the game at present relies heavily on the publicity given to it by popular Twitch streamers. Many of those streamers stream for long periods, 8+ hours in a lot of cases, and by necessity (because there's not a colossal volume of PvE content to use instead) become largely dependent upon PvP in order to reliably provide content. This in turn makes players less open to collaboration because they're sold this PvP-focused image of the game.

[@andrewmoody3112]

I have absolutely nothing against organic alliance servers and will readily join, easily the most rewarding part of the game. Alliance servers people pay real money for on the other hand are ok if they’re doing their own thing, but if they’re bullying others off the server that’s a bridge too far. Boiled down, I live by two rules: 1. Don’t betray an organic server alliance 2. Fight server alliances bullying others off at all costs.

[@JoshuaFisher69]

Personally I wish Rare had done something about alliance servers. I've been playing SoT for only about a year now and knew nothing about it till my friends convinced me to try it, and at the same time one of my friends got me to join a discord alliance server. I then proceeded to yolo my way through level caps for all factions and nearly instant DA gear. I've since fell in love with solo slooping and now wish I hadnt rushed the entire game, and now i feel like captaincy makes getting an alt out of the question. It is what it is now and I still play the game, but I do feel less proud of the cosmetics I've "earned"

[@andrewarmstrong515]

“We’ll without server alliances I wouldn’t be able to do/get “x” commendations…” Yeah, that’s the point! Grinding out FOTDs for the new trinkets has been quite a feat for a solo slooper like myself, but I go into it with a good mindset and the five I’ve done on a sloop have felt extremely rewarding and I’m looking forward to the experiences I’ll have doing the other 95 :)

[@EneruM]

I love the "I got 150 fotd's done!". Yeah, congratz, with absolutely zero threats. That means...?

[@SourSourSour]

@@EneruM they focus so much on the number getting big they lose the point of doing it

[@Corzappy]

Back in the day when good was more scarce and your biggest source of big cash were like forts or Athena’s, I saw alliance server as an egregious circumvention of the intended game’s progression. But nowadays, with how much gold Rare insists on pumping into player’s wallets, alliance servers are really more sad and pathetic than frustrating or unfair. The real issue with the gold economy is rare’s inability to deal with power creep. It’s still annoying though due to the fact that alliance servers devalue every single form of progression besides PvP cosmetics/titles.

[@alivegman3155]

Organic alliance servers are a rare gift from god, and you’re sure to remember them fondly. Inorganic servers become just another day at “work” and are easily forgotten Also, really? Paying for the chance to get fake money? Is that really what people are doing? I almost think they’re screwing themselves over more with how much cash they’re blowing on the game they likely got for free

[@Strylez_Senpai]

I would liek to present my experience with allience servers and why I think that your whole point is just not valid. At first, I didnt like an idea of jumping into the allience server and hoarding gold, I have spent hundrred of hours in the game and I loved it. However, one day, I have decided to give it a try ... I wanted to see how these servers work, why do people make videos from this server and saying "they are stacking", when all they have is like 2 vaults. So I jumped in with a good friend of my and we were queued up with a gantleman that was 65 years old and just wanted to have some fun. We asked him why is it that he is playing on allience server and he said that he just want to jump on the sea, talk with some nice people, and generali have fun while sailing. We had a fckton of good laughs on that server and it was just awesome. We also asked him, how come that he is playing SOT and he mentioned that his grandson ahowed it to him and stated to play with him. However, later his grandson (GS for short) found some PVP oriented KZbinrs such as HappyF33t etc. and decided he wants to get good in PVP. The old gantleman (OG for short) started to be yelled at by GS and ffiends for being slow, so they told hin to go under the deck and fix the holes only. So, when we went to play with them, it was like 4-5 hours long session of him doing some quick stuff, while mostly being under the deck trying to keep shit afloat. Or some different story about the guy that wanted to just have fun for 2-3 hours and not getting his ass blasted by some kids that need to sink every ship on the server, especially those that are being operated by new player/s that just want to some fun. Some people enjoy pvp, some people enjoy playing while having a fear of loosing that loot. But then there are some that just want to have a good time and get oblitered by crew of sweatty 12y.olds I forgot where I heard this, but I think that this sentense summarizes the whole message that I tried to say the best ... "Let players have fun the way they want to"

[@protobro837]

Oh hey, a clip of us made it in. I was on the Athena sloop at the start. Hope the newbies we babysat made some money that day despite the sudden chaos of a lone maniac with no ship that we couldn't kill once lmao

[@indigoalexgaming4500]

paying into an alliance server is bull, the organically forming ones are fantastic tho. the only one ive ever been in was the latest community day tho, and MAN IT WAS EPIC. it was 4 crews including mine, just all minding our own business. and then came the betrayallll,1 ship attacked another, they left the alliance and would attack anyone they saw, then another went rogue right after killing a FOTD, now it was just us and the people who'd recruited us. they began hunting us, and then killed us at the outpost as we were trying to sell off our remaining stuff. that, is peak pirating. if you've all just paid to be there to grind gold, it's boring and ruins the game

[@Dragon.um5tz]

i don't think they should be a thing anymore because i was part of a non-organic alliance server but one admin hated me and was saying to people that i touched them inappropriatey but i didn't tho and the banned me for something that i didn't do also he was not a kid so this is why i want them to be shut down

[@connorwalsh5464]

Just started getting back into the game and always been nervous with dealing with other players, decided to try and interact with everyone I saw today and managed to get a couple other sloops in an alliance. It wasn't the full server, but I tried to get the other ships and they politely declined. Lot of fun

[@swordlords2322]

One of the worst parts is the spawn camping and bullying of people just trying to play the game.If anyones thinking about doing a takedown something I recommend be aware they may DOS you or get your Ip. They do this because on some of them you are basically taking money from them as people pay to get on the server faster and not wait in a queue.

[@dxkp]

Good. They deserve to lose money.

[@bdragon831]

The fact that this happens proves that pvp is not “essential” for this game many find the game plenty enjoyable for just the pve content

[@LowryYT]

dude alliance servers have existed pre da sails, its not like there was a time that only pro players had the sails

[@goli4t18]

To me it seems like the problem lies completely elsewhere. Whats the other reasons behind people playing on the alliance servers besides avoiding pvp? The other huge reason IS the grind. Current gaming market is dominated by casuals or type of players that likes to chill after work, play few hours twice a week, and maybe some of the weekends. The grind requirements in this game is not entirely compatibile with THAT type of players so we all shouldnt be surprised that the need of an alliance exploit is huge. The truth is, if the game wanted to test your skills more properly, you would have to do something hard or something that requires a lot of preparations BUT not that time consuming after all. Instead you have a progression system (now two of them including the milestones) where you have to do possible-to-do encounters like 200 or 300 times. This is, in my opinion, the worst side of Rare, this laziness of creating a content that will trully engage majorities of players and wont give them like "here farm this thousand times while we create another skin for you". If you eliminate the grind (or at least its repetitveness), you reduce alliance servers to a minimum. Different problem is peoples view on pvp in this game, but that topic was covered in one of the previous videos.

[@domgazy592]

Limiting alliance sizes is just another nerf that could ruin the game for a lot of people, the whole "danger lurking around the corner" aspect of pvp gets so old after a while, and especially with the flood of sloop players upsetting the decent balance between ship sizes, could spell the decline of sea of thieves for good players like me still trying to play regularly

[@Razer-hy7ow]

I think organic alliance servers are amazing out of 265.7 hours I've only had like one full alliance server that I had slowly made throughout are session as we all sorta did our own things, we had a crew fishing and hunting all kinds of animals to sell to Merrick some world event people and FOTD that we eventually had a betrayal which was sad but in the end cant trust pirates, and eventually the remaining crews met up and shot fireworks at each other for commendations partied with animals and had great conversations until we all logged off, will never forget that amazing server, but to stop toxic non-organic I think there might need to be a 3 crews cap to alliances or find another solution to this problem like stopping friends from joining three total crews, two crews is okay at max

[@SGT_Stubby]

PVE has been requested since the game's release. It's not surprising that players have found a workaround to get what they wanted. I believe Rare's decision on the "Safer Seas" is a response to the paid content.

[@nwmancuso]

I started an organic server alliance once. Started with befriending a lvl 5 reaper then we went around chasing other ships and asking about their ship’s extended warranty. We soon had a server wide alliance.

[@xNightHawk32]

I’ve played on Alliance Servers and I have to say they kind of suck. Probably the most boring way to play Sea of Thieves. And in terms of gold, it cheapens the experience. You have gold that you didn’t earn and if you’re buying up everything quickly like the Legendary sails, then you don’t have anything to look forward too. Lastly the worst thing about Alliance servers, is how buggy things can get. Game crashes are common in an alliance server as the game wasn’t designed to be played this way. Did I mention how boring alliance servers are?? Because they’re boring as fu¢k! You’re essentially farming. There’s no adventure or excitement. There’s no risk/reward… I’ve been playing Sea of Thieves since the Alpha, and I have to say when you remove that risk/reward element, you’ve removed a fundamental tenant of the experience. It’s a hollow and shallow way to experience the game.

[@BinkleCoolGuy]

Another thing to mention is some of these alliance will DOXX you on Ddos. Be careful you don't pass a few off, one of them (largely just scummy) is Wasteland Mafia. If you hear people talking about it, you should probably just leave.

[@Dr._Elysium295]

My main problem with alliance severs is non-organic ones as manging to recruit an entire server is not only diffcult but rarely lasts very long.

[@NastyTbone]

I think they should rework the alliance system to a fleet system where you can start up with 2-3 ships or join as a fleet in game where you need to be in a certain proximity to get gold and rep when selling this would make the option between 2 sloops or a galleon etc I think having more options to play would be enjoyable and give a challenge to pvp veterans as well as create safer places for new players it would also be harder to spawn kill 2 ships

[@hegemon3]

Limiting ships in alliance to 1 less than server cap won't solve alliance server problem. They would just have one ship with macro player holding a spot, not earning gold, a bot. It would be just a tiny less gold farmed, less room, that's it. Still zero threat, no chance to invade. I think better solution would be less gold printed in an alliance (now it's 50% gold printed for every extra ship, I want split gold, not print gold), but it's still not perfect, because they would just farm commendations freely. But still a massive nerf.

[@hydremoule50701]

Honestly organic alliance are the best, my crew and I once found another crew of French speaking fellas who then joined our Discord server and we played for months after that together

[@JourneywithBrandon]

It would be great if a random ship would be merged to a different server at random intervals. That would kill alliance servers.

[@ToastErickson]

I could see two simple nerfs: 1: reduce the % the alliance ships get from turn ins, 2x ships=50%, 3x=33%, 4x=25%, 5x=20% 2: Have ALL the ships in the alliance get just the percentage, as in all loot turn ins would be split evenly… ship turning in the loot included.

[@kalthramis1145]

There should just be a cap/diminishing return for alliances. The more people, and/or once you hit a certain threshold of gold from an alliance, the amount you 'get' from other crew turn ins drops significantly. It still allows organic alliances that would hardly ever affect the regular playerbase. The threshold could even be pretty big, but resets weekly, because.... how often do you organically make a ton of money of alliances, multiple times in a week? And even if you do organically hit this 'diminishing returns' moment, that's just encouragement to attack your alliance and get some pvp in.

[@discounthorde1944]

on community day, i ended up forming an organic 3 galleon alliance.

[@Shadowed-King]

I am an a alliance fleet but its free they are called barnacled fleets thru Xbox servers and are actually really nice ppl and help out ppl struggling and stuff they are cool

[@danieltrejo9640]

Honestly they should increase server ship-cap from 5 to 12 make map larger by 2letter/#s and have dedicated severs that allow small alliances which would provide a healthier server still with pvp between other alliances

[@simenvh2353]

i really dont mind alliance servers, its a sandbox and everyone gets to play the way they want. If rare sees it as an issue to the future of the game they'll do something about it

[@idk-nq7pv]

I'm not against alliance servers if they are organic, in fact it can be pretty fun. However organized alliance servers are terrible. A lot of people don't know how they get control of their servers. A lot of bullying, spawn camping and even occasionally mass-reporting to get players banned.

[@TheDraekaKitty]

The only alliance server I was a part of was for a certain pirate's surprise birthday party... ;D

[@rhiocsnoops1576]

never saw an alliance server with several hundred hours into the game so far, and i dont care too much if they exist.

[@Moskstraumen882]

I agree, Requiem and other paid Discords and those who run other players off their servers are a stain on the community. But, I do think that the ones that don't charge and don't purge are ok for people who are starting to get seriously frustrated with commendations.

[@MauriceeoTY]

I had once an organic alliance, im a guy who speaks spanish, so i had a Mexican/Spanish crew, so, were searching for the lights for FOTD, and did we see a sloop in an outpost, we reached them and i asked one of the guys in that sloop to kill me for the pink ligth, in exchange of an alliance. He accepted and we did FOTD two times, then another sloop reached to us, they speaked spanish too, both of them, he did help us to gather more ritual Skulls, and so we did 4 times more, then a enemy sloop came to us, and did we asked for help to our allies, two sloops came to help us and sunked the enemy ship, that was the most sea of thieves peak server i had, that day i gathered like 4m and the other guys did make their thing too. It was amazing.

[@FrenziedRoach]

I'm personally not surprised by this news: Where there is demand, there will always be a market. MMO's have been fighting such gray markets for years and consistently losing. I generally feel that developers have a choice when faced with these 3rd party services. 1) They can sink resources and time into fighting these services, which takes money and manpower away from content and have an impact, but not do away with these services as there is enough demand for PvE services for people to attempt to circumvent it, so there will always be a 3rd party seeking to fill this market. 2) They can decide to pivot the game in such a way they can start offering the servers themselves and at a price that undercuts these 3rd parties. This puts money back into development. I've been watching the open PvP vs PvE debate for literally decades now - and the truth, no matter how much we may hate to admit it, is that most people really hate surprise PvP and will do everything in their power to avoid it. Personally, I feel that 2 is the better choice as dealing with the gray market is a nightmare in terms of both stamping out and the inevitable scammers it will eventually attract when accounts start getting banned for this practice. Having to put manpower into banning people and fixing stolen accounts is just a money-sink. I know this knowledge will give everybody a viscerally negative reaction - I reacted the same way when I first heard it 2 decades ago. But it's the reality we live in.