Helping new players understand to which company a specific type of loot has to be sold to

What if they put in an emote on the wheel that's says "We need to get this to the (insert faction)" just throwing an idea out there I like where headed with this post.

@slickwillywonka First of all, thank you for your suggestion, it's very welcomed!

I like the idea of making a feature to check the "delivery location", but instead of using an emote what about having a prompt that asks you to press "R" in order to see it (like for Rag and Bone crates), it feels more intuitive. Actually it may be more confusing for a new player this way, I'm not sure.

@pellahh For special loot like ashen chests and ritual skulls, they can have a prompt pop up like seen in the beginning tutorial that says “sell this to the x faction for some sweet doubloons”

It would probably be easier than a little circle at the bottom of your screen that would start bugging you after some point.

I mean..if you hold an item and open the chat wheel. Some do say, "Lets deliver this to _____"

@burnbacon I know about that but I don't think that that is new player friendly, specially for PC players. Maybe console players use it more, but I rarely see people using the chat wheel very often, unless new players play around with that feature enough AND at the right moment (while holding one of those items, since most do not have that interaction) they may even never discover this for a long time. I was thinking of something more straight-forward, something that makes sure the new player know that information.

Also, if I remember correctly, the items that you need to sell to Larinna say that you need to deliver that stuff to the Bilge Rats. When I was thinking about what the symbols could be the one that was really hard for me (and that made me decide to stop thinking about it) was Larinna, why? Because I thought new players may not know that Bilge Rats are a faction in the game nor that they would connect it to Larinna. I made a test by asking to some friends (a small sample yeah, this is statistically irrelevant) that are new to the game, they didn't either know that Bilge Rats where a faction and that Larinna was one of them. That is not information that gets thrown at your face and I believe that even if a new player discovers it, he'll have a hard time remembering it because it's not a company that you level up, but that's just my guess.

@schwammlgott

point is, don't let the game tell you too much, let the people find out some things on theyr own, or from other peopleI don't think this is QoL in particular would take something away from it.

I, like you, do believe that learning stuff by yourself often adds something to the experience (as said in my post), but I do not think that discovering which piece of loot goes where does.

maybe some people leave the stuff behind, but you don't know why, is it really because they don't know?

I actually never saw any ashen chest sitting at the goldhoarders...reaper chests could be there because they had to leave and didn't want to go to the hideout...

When the Reaper Chest had to be sold ot Duke you could still find some Reaper chest on outposts at times, they had no reason to leave it there; as there is no reason to leave an empty or closed ashen chest in front of the gold hoarder.
If someone that knows what a Reaper Chest is takes it it, he either sink with it or delivery it, the chances of him deciding not to sell it because he has no time or whatever are low. I think it's more likely that someone left it because he didn't know where to sell it.

If yes, they maybe look for that next time or ask someone...

Let's be real: if someone, specially on PC, doesn't know where to deliver something, he won't go around and ask people about it, he'll just ALT TAB and look for it on the internet which breaks the immersion more than discovering it in-game by interacting with a prompt on the item.

@schwammlgott

Edit: for your immersion breaking argument, there is already stuff, that needs to be done outside of the game to get it...twitch drops for example

True and I hate it. I'd prefer to get those rewards by playing than by putting a random stream muted on background while I do other stuff.
Unfortunately I know why they do this and that it works (I guess?), but I still hate it.

Or...add some content to the Maiden Voyage to make it more of a functional tutorial for new players

Step 1) Add an outpost that is on the to the shroud to get to the Sea of Thieves.

Step 2) Have the Pirate Lord provide you with 4 quests to complete on Old Sailor's Island to get you acclimated to what you'll be doing in the game...1 Gold Hoarder Riddle, 1 Gold Hoarder X marks the spot, 1 Skeleton Crew, and 1 Cargo delivery.

Step 3) On the way to the outpost, you'll encounter a live skeleton ship that you'll battle and be alerted to collect the loot it drops.

Step 4) Deliver all loot and prompt players to where the loot goes, including the Ashen Chest that would be programmed to drop.

Step 5) sail through the shroud and see all the cool cinematic stuff that's already there.

Step 6) Enter The Sea of Thieves and be swiftly sunk by sweat lords.

@galactic-geek Yep that's an issue I was thinking about too, my first idea was a little diamond shaped icon with a symbol related to a company inside, positioned to the right of the item name (possibly a toggle feature). Basically every item can be sold to the Reaper, giving that for granted by not putting the Reaper's icon on items that aren't exclusively sold to Reaper would make it confusing to new players imo, so I thought that there could be two icon on each item: 1 for the reaper and one for the other company; for items like gems tho, it gets more complex, obviously we can sell them to everyone but Athena and Larinna. What I was thinking about was just one Icon split in 5 colors, each based on the background of the icon of every company that it can be sold to (let's say green for GH, purple for OoS, light blue for Merchants, blue for HC and red for Reapers; but these are just an example, it depends on the other icons design). It seems intuitive, but I'm sure Rare designers would make a better job than anything I can think of.

If we opt for the "pres R on the item to know turn-in location" solution, this won't be an issue tho.

@pellahh What if we had prompts/tips that popped up the first time a player steps on an outpost while holding a piece of loot. Similar to the ones that remind new players to repair their wheel or mast.

It should only pop the first time, just as the rest of the tips, as players should pay at least some attention through all this hand-holding. Maybe the tips for reaper's chests/bounties can pop immediately as the player picks it up.

I think a toggle option to make the companies symbol appear next to the "Press X to Pick Up" would be good enough.

Some people said this could be misleading since everything can be handed to Reapers - but really, if you don't know where normal treasure is sold yet, you probably shouldn't be playing as a Reaper.

Alternative idea, that I feel is more immersive and could build lore...

Unique dialogue from faction NPCs when they can't take certain loot that directs the player to the right location...

Trying to turn in a skull to the Gold Hoarders;

"Arrr, I can't take that!! Give it to the lady in the purple trimmed building, she'll know exactly what to do with that!"

Trying to sell a Ritual Skull (or other Bilge Rate stuff to the Order of Souls);

"I'm a mystic but even I have no use for that! Larinna, outside the tavern, would be greatly interested in it though!"

Trying to sell gifts or Reaper chests/bounties at the Merchant;

"These are not worth our time dealing with, but I've heard rumours of a mysterious person at an island called Reaper's Hideout that will take anything!"

Those are just a few examples, and perhaps the prompts could be toggled off in settings for those of us playing long enough to know where things go.

@realstyli said in Helping new players understand to which company a specific type of loot has to be sold to:

Alternative idea, that I feel is more immersive and could build lore...
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Those are just a few examples, and perhaps the prompts could be toggled off in settings for those of us playing long enough to know where things go.

Like your idea better than icons &c; toggle wouldn't be necessary as old salts won't make the mistake of trying to sell a skull to the merchant alliance (… often); plus if there are new things (like the merchant things) or if we take a break and changes have been made we might want the message.

Hello

I like this idea , I mean I've only just learnt where most items are sold though just found out a few items can be sold at 2 factions.

@realstyli

Your idea is actually very cool, nice one!