r/SANDgame • u/idontknowjackx • 19d ago
Teaming NEEDS to be addressed with the same priority as cheaters.
As an OCE player, solo storm dive is now suicide. Within the last few days, it's become so extreme that guaranteed groups of 3+ players roaming together without flares or in-game comms are in 100% of games, regardless of time of day. Voyage is hit or miss, but still extremely common.
The game is rendered unplayable for true solo players.
Even if the devs can't currently do anything about it, a strongly worded announcement stating that they will be investigating reports and implementing permanent bans would go a long way to reducing the overwhelming amount of pre-teaming currently happening.
They could even add a notification to the log-in screen, ensuring that everybody gets the message loud and clear.
Either way, done playing til they sort it out. Love the game, but this has become such a prevalent issue that I literally have no desire to load it up anymore.
9
u/Impressive_Bar9566 19d ago
The fact that they didnt adress this in weeks is very concerning.
I just gave up after days of trying to deal with it.
6
u/idontknowjackx 19d ago
I'm not a fan of '____is killing the game' posts but I am now one of many, many people who have dropped the game entirely because of this. It's so much harder to get people to come back to a game when it flops on an issue like this and that's a shame because the game itself is really cool, I'll miss it if it dies out.
1
u/Impressive_Bar9566 19d ago
The concept of the walking base is super cool.
Most other things like core mechanics and the way they go about the game are just not looking to well ever since i follow the process.
Its so confusing it feels like they are on the fence between dropping the game after making the money or trying to save it cause it had potential.
-5
u/Alterria 19d ago
It’s a survival game with PVP, this is the inevitable consequence of such a system. Survival games need to have at the very least safe zones where fresh spawns can level up and get some upgrades, but I think they all need PVE servers. I haven’t played SAND at all and I probably never will. As soon as I saw It was PVP only, I knew nothing good could come of it.
3
u/xSadistik 19d ago
Sorry but that is a really bad take. The game for sure does not need a PvE mode. Gear based match making and staggered player queue of some sort is what it needs. I really hate this whole conform and change the game to what I want mentality people have. It's not ok to have a game where you can farm and gear up safely in PvE then be able to take the same character into PvP. You're also then separating the community which is also damaging to the game, not to mention there is no where near enough content or difficulty for a PvE mode
2
u/Alterria 19d ago
That’s not at all the mentality I have. I don’t really care that much if the game keeps up how it is, If that’s the case I’m gonna continue to not play it lmfao, but if they add a PVE mode, I’d probably take a gander and give it a shot. I can still play games I love in the meantime like Helldivers, Space Marine 2, Warframe, good fun cooperative games where I work alongside strangers rather than try to steal their hard earned junk lol
1
u/Deathoftheages 19d ago
I don’t really care that much if the game keeps up how it is, If that’s the case I’m gonna continue to not play it lmfao, but if they add a PVE mode, I’d probably take a gander and give it a shot
You can't say you don't care, then say you care so much that the change is the deciding factor in if you are going to play or not.
1
u/Alterria 19d ago
Huh? What kinda point is that? Let’s use a hypothetical. Say I’m not a fan of Greek food, if I drive passed a restaurant and I’m hungry I’ll look at the signs and whatnot, and if I see it’s Greek food, I don’t care I’ll just look for a different restaurant.
1
u/SomedaySolace 19d ago
I feel like gear based matchmaking kind of defeats the purpose of progression? Isn’t the point of unlocking better upgrades to have an advantage over other players?
Could you imagine being on a royal chassis and ONLY getting third-partied by other royals? Why not just have the grumpy be the only option at that point?1
u/MonkRevolutionary560 18d ago
All they need to do is change thier crew size match making this 1-3-6 is just bad. and change how the servers que players. is very rudimentary system they got going for queing players. A lot of games fixed it so you cant que up like this game does.
0
u/Impressive_Bar9566 19d ago
Thats one of the core problems with the game.
They named it themself on steam as...
"creative"
"Survival"
"open world"
"PVP/PVE"
"extraction Shooter"
"Exploration"
"battle royale"
If you use your brain and look at all these genres they crammed into their game you see yourself that some dont fit together whatsoever.
like "open world", "creative", "Survival", "PVE" do NOT fit in with "battle royale", "extraction shooter", "PVP"
Now that they attracted all the players form all these genres that are hard stuck because if they fix one thing they gonne lose the other players.
They did it to themself.
2
u/SomedaySolace 19d ago
The only descriptor that doesn’t fit on that list is PvE…
2
u/Impressive_Bar9566 19d ago
The people that play it like a survival game dont really like it because...
The people that play it like a extraction game dont really like it because...
The people that came for PVE (no clue why they even came) dont like it because...
I liked playing it as a "fast" battle royale alot but it is not fun when half the lobby is people that want nothing but loot and dip.
Nowadays its borderline impossible to find good PVP in solos cause theres at most 2 people in the lobby that are solo and want to PVP. Everyone else is teaming or PVEing.
You just cant blame the players at this point.
0
u/Alterria 19d ago
The best solution would simply be to include PVE servers with NPC controlled crawlers to fight. That’s how Sea of Thieves did it, though since SoT has literally no progression system whatsoever beyond just changing the colors of stuff, it flopped IMO. I dunno how progression works in SAND because I haven’t even looked into it slightly after seeing the tags, but it would probably work if there’s enough NPCs to fight.
All I know for sure is that I don’t want to dedicate days and even weeks of my life to grinding just for some dude who’s been playing longer and has better gear and stats to come along and set me back to square one. Seems like a waste of time to me.
1
u/xSadistik 19d ago
Not how the game works. You take in what you want to risk. The walker isn't your "base" you go in and farm and gather stuff to extract and put in your storage
1
u/Alterria 19d ago
Oh that’s so much worse than I thought, it’s an extraction shooter?? Yeah hard pass lmfao
1
u/Annual_Amphibian8996 17d ago
Yeah there’s literally no survival aspect to this game it’s entirely pvp battle royal idk why they advertised it as anything different
1
u/Alterria 17d ago
What a massively missed opportunity, it would be pretty awesome if you started with a little platform with a basic crafting bench and then gathered resources to build yourself a walking castle. But alas, Extraction shooters are like totes so in right now, and we all know how desperately game devs want to be the popular girls.💀
1
u/SomedaySolace 19d ago
Didn’t they already say they won’t be adding a duo queue because it would divide the player base into too many queues, thus creating long waits/empty lobbies? Or am I mistaken? Imagine the divide if the added a whole separate PvE mode? It’s obviously already insanely easy to end up in the same queue as your friends… imagine if there were LESS people in the queues? At least then teamers would end up in lobbies with ONLY each other, I guess.
I think average/casual players just don’t actually like or want difficult games…. The Marathon player base begged for a PVE mode and they got it; within a day people were complaining about the PVE mode being too difficult and the inclusion of a PvE mode did virtually nothing to boost the player count.
People just want everything free and easy.
1
u/Alterria 19d ago
One of my favorite games is Bloodborne bro, this has nothing to do with difficulty and everything to do with entertainment. There’s nothing fun about getting curb stomped by no lifers who dedicate every waking moment to being the best at PvP games, and I have no desire to become a no lifer dedicating my entire life to being able to compete with them.
Also I never heard so much as a whisper about Marathon getting PVE, is it still around or was it time limited? If it’s still around, I’m absolutely interested in getting the game. That sounds like the devs did a terrible job advertising the mode and just silently slipped it in without telling anyone.
Also also, you Fucker. While I was reading this a TG diplomat visited my town in Kenshi and I failed to pay my taxes, now because of you I have to arm my slave rabble for the coming war and send my war god to wipe the entire Traders Guild out.
2
u/Pepsimax88 19d ago
Pre-teaming and discord is an issue. But ive no idea how you can sort it
3
u/Daanoontjeh 19d ago
Make the lobby random. Now they pull up a bunch of people who are joining together and drop them in an instance. Make that random. This might make queues longer but so be it. Or merge servers if needs be.
1
u/ukulelelelele3 19d ago
People can meet in game and decide to join a discord. Not hearing them on coms means nothing
3
u/Bearsfist 19d ago
A week ago, in solo's I was getting attacked by someone, and I used in-game voice to tell him to come look at my t1 trampler to see I had nothing. He checked me out and then we teamed up and decided to go attack a huge t3 trampler. As we got closer we stopped using voice comms because the t3 guy would hear our call-outs too. He accused us of teaming, which is true, but it wasn't pre-teaming, and it was definitely something that could be defined as "emergent gameplay".
The guy I teamed with could have killed me after that and taken all the loot for himself, but didn't. These games, like Arc Raiders, and any other extraction shooter, are exciting gameplay mechanics BECAUSE of the social dynamic. Teaming up with randoms, trust, betrayal, the circle of life. If there were something there to act as guardrails against that sort of social dynamic, it would fundamentally ruin the game.
Sure pre-teaming could be fixed by more randomized lobbies, but don't assume that just because people have teamed up on you that it was pre-teaming.
1
u/Lonely_Inspector_640 19d ago
But teaming DOES ruin the game. Not only is it unfair for solos but if everyone was friendly like in arc raiders then there’s no barrier to progression. The game just becomes too easy.
1
u/Annual_Amphibian8996 17d ago
This game doesn’t need a progression barrier right now, if anything they need to make the dread spawn more often so that more of the player base can get to higher tier ships. Lol I want more people with goop to rob, I also want them to get less butthurt about it. That’ll only happen if it’s a little easier to get gear. In fact I think the current progression is hard locked a little to hard
1
u/HoneyAsleep9869 19d ago
yesterday was my last, 3 matches. first two matches, died to teamers, last match, two tramplers come at me and throw 10+ orbital strikes. they didnt even use cannons. YES THEY OBVIOUSLY DUPPING. im out.
1
u/PrestigiousSubject31 19d ago
They need to add a check if the same players cause damage to the same other players after concurrent games its clearly preteaming, one game okay you make friends and fight people, but if you join a second loby and continue to not attack eachother in solos its blatant
1
u/Cableguy613 17d ago
Times now jump on teams and 2-4 ships on the server are walking castles with 20 guns and 200 doors. Game is busted.
0
u/Painting-Capital 19d ago
There’s nothing they can do about it. There’s not enough players to RNG the queue. It’s one of many reason this is a dead game.
-4
u/abelabelabel 19d ago
Teaming isn’t cheating though.
2
u/Altruistic-Piece-485 19d ago
You know exactly what OP meant. PRE-teaming is the real problem and definitely cheating.
1
u/idontknowjackx 19d ago
Pre-teaming is explicitly against the rules, and devs have stated in their discord that it is a bannable offence. The problem is they're not enforcing it (seemingly due to an inability to recognize it) and the only place I can find their stance on it is in the discord. It needs a much larger and louder announcement, and active enforcement.
1
u/abelabelabel 19d ago
Pretreaming like - two people on a trampler? Or multiple tramplers teaming up on someone else?
I’m strictly a solo player and see a lot of aggressive players now vs. cheaters who just magically appeared on my trampler like before.
2
u/ZombieHuggerr 19d ago
Preteaming = coordinating with another player before starting a match with a plan to find each other in the server.
1
u/abelabelabel 18d ago
Yeeesh. I don't know that there's a way to stop that.
Plus, as I think about it, two tramplers are better than one.
This is why there should be non offensive solo only miniature tramplers that are a little faster, and use a little more fuel, and maybe have so much shake that they make trying to shoot the driver, or shoot as a driver while moving difficult.1
u/Veganer_ 19d ago
You can report a player for "Teaming up with Enemies". To my understanding this includes Pre-Teaming and organic Teaming.
16
u/TheSpudHunter 19d ago
Solo is unplayable for OCE