How competitive multiplayer can be?

[Folklore]

What about competitive multiplayer? Is it fun? What are the best sandbox settings if you want to play 1v1?

[NiceGuy]

I dont think this game is especially designed to do pvp. Sure you can but it's nothing like StarCraft. You don't even have land fight, at the time you may reach airborne fight the game would most like be dominated by one player. All you got at the beginning is 2, TWO ship types for battle. Who ever rushed out the first fighting ships wins, as you only have to block the opponents harbor and sink his starter ship. Game over.
No this is no pvp game.

[Folklore]

Thanks. I'm planning to play with a friend so we can make some house rules.

[Wenchbane]

I'll go ahead and say, it's a longform game, so not super aggressive/fast RTS style game. Unless you want to build up and declare a "formal" war. I'd also recommend some of the combat overhaul mods like Military Attention - Ships from Heir0nomous

There used to be a channel called tactical fried rice who had some pvp videos, but after checking for them it seems he's redone his channel entirely. There are a couple of other channels, a lot of them older around release time which shows some multiplayer games.

Summed up the strat would be massing gunboats and shooting the main harbour warehouse down, trying to extend the siege as long as possible and letting the riots do most of the work, since all services were cut and the economy screeches to a halt.

[POWER WITHIN USER]

"How competitive multiplayer can be?"
Depends on the players involved and any rules they subject themselves to.
"Is it fun?"
It will be 'competitive'.
If I had to guess, the higher the imbalance between the players, the less fun it'll be.

All said, you don't necessarily need to resort to fighting with another player since you can cooperate or 'peacefully' compete for the highest population, income or best aesthetics

[arjensmit79]

Originally posted by NiceGuy:

I dont think this game is especially designed to do pvp. Sure you can but it's nothing like StarCraft. You don't even have land fight, at the time you may reach airborne fight the game would most like be dominated by one player. All you got at the beginning is 2, TWO ship types for battle. Who ever rushed out the first fighting ships wins, as you only have to block the opponents harbor and sink his starter ship. Game over.
No this is no pvp game.

This is true, but i do think there could a bit more to it that that. If players are really evenly matched, its not gonna be as simple as rush warships and destroy harbor because the other will have warships of his own. So then you do get the standard RTS mechanics.
-"If i invest in military just a fraction less than him, but enough to not be killed, i can grow my economy harder (use steel for beams instead of cannons)."
-"If i rush to frigates or SOTL, i can use my steel more efficiently in combat than when i use gunboats"
-"If i can buy item X from the NPC...."
-And micromanagement is obviously HUGE in these naval battles.

And without a doubt a meta would develop with more intricacies than i can think of now. I do believe it could be fun for 2 evenly matched players. And indeed modding might help make it more fun. Modding could turn it into an awesome RTS game i think.