@el-spaniardchi they shouldn't be obtainable because it was to show support to people who played arena. If you didn't, then you don't deserve them.
Saying Goodbye to The Arena
@jcrrdn fair. Perhaps a reskin would be better? So veterans would still have their flexy version while the new players could get something similar enough.
I think it's ridiculous that you are keeping arena around until season 6 but we can't earn the good boy ship because the cut off day is the same day you announce the closure. I was working on my arena and I'm level 37, but I don't really see the point now. I like completing all the commendations for all factions but now the game will always be incomplete. I understand the reason for the closure, but it doesn't make sense to remove rewards until you officially close it in March. With all the positive information that was released I leave feeling angry and bitter at this news.
It's sad to see the dismissive attitude everyone has about today's cutoff date for the Good Boy set. The whole, welp, better luck next time attitude is just frustrating. Communication is key. Had a deadline been communicated, I don't think everyone would be on here complaining. I fully understand the reason for closing the arena and I'm perfectly fine with that. Not completing all the commendations by March 10th is on me and I can respect that. At least, I have a deadline that I can work towards. My frustration is with the exclusive reward that is supposedly for "dedicated players" who hit level 50 prior to an undisclosed date. I'm level 45.5 and I would really like to see the cutoff date get extended to March 10th.
@madeline-owo If you were only going to play arena to get the cosmetic it defeats the purpose. The whole point of distributing these sets is to show appreciation of people who actually played arena because they liked it, not because they wanted a cosmetic.
@el-spaniardchi maybe. although i still think that they should remain exclusive. I would not be opposed to a reskin though.
@jcrrdn said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:
@madeline-owo If you were only going to play arena to get the cosmetic it defeats the purpose. The whole point of distributing these sets is to show appreciation of people who actually played arena because they liked it, not because they wanted a cosmetic.
In a cosmetic based game, that's just the wrong attitude imo. Who does it hurt to say "you have until X" to do it. You can't buy 50 lvls or even 2 lvls. But you can play the mode and show you love this game and want everything the game has to offer. My 124days playing time should not be for nothing because I didn't play a mode the team didn't tell us we should play just in case. I earned the Courage Cutlass and the figurehead from the Arena event, if there is a chance to get a cosmetic make it a chance people know about. This is almost as bad as giving friends and family the golden banana sails. More annoying than knowing your chances of getting the Obsidian Capstan or Banjo.
@seakrakenfan your 124 days of play wont be wasted. you'll still be getting these...
The Azure Scout
The Flaming Jackal
The Golden Chaser
The Lucky Rover
The Regal Hound
as your reward :)@grumpyw01f said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:
@seakrakenfan said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:
@envvy said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:
@seakrakenfan its literally a reward for people who enjoyed and spent a lot of time in Arena to get to lvl 50. They are closing it because of players like you who didn't care to play it as much.
I only didn't care because I was under the impression one day it would be revamped, maybe new mode types, not "It will be gone for good" those set two different goals for me
They said that there would be no more updates to the arena a year ago. Not Rare's fault.
"Arena will not receive updates" versus "arena is going away", is a big difference. The writing wasn't on the wall as some have said.
@lizalaroo but the point is, I didn't hate Arena and want it dead, I just liked adventure and was able to find it easier to play. Saying "you didn't do this already so you miss out" when we didn't know that was a possibility is wrong. If they said "one day you will not be able to get things" like they did today. I would specifically go for those things.
I only have 1 Athena chest stolen. Am I to expect that next week the ability to earn Legendary Theif may be gone, so I had better work towards it now? Not how I think the game should be focused, unless stated as such. Like events are. I caught 300 Splashtails in a short amount of time because I was told I'd earn something. I didn't bust booty trying to finish Arena because I was never informed I should, until today. But I am left out for spending my time in the game playing the other content presented@hoohoocoach2 exactly, its my favorite silver lining of this. WE will literally be legendary on the seas, a thing of the past, a monster, something to REALLY be afraid of.
@thehighfivemike from a technical standpoint here are shared assets and code that have to be patched just for Arena to keep it the same and prevent it from breaking further. So even you don't see new features, there is still overhead involved.
If Rare are saying 2% of their player base is engaging in Arena, the same 2% are no doubt playing "Adventure" anyhow.
Adventure.. is after all where it all started.
Arena.. was an after thought, a distraction.
We can now get back to the real game.It would have been considerate to tell us of this closure with more time. Arena barely functions normally. It takes forever to get matches, half the players are either afk or try hards. To unlock some of the items involved winning 280 matches that would mean if a player has wins today they would need to have 6.7 wins every day until the new season. to complete this. This would likely take 3 hours if you win them all and 6 if you only win half your matches.
At least make the pirate legend items obtainable in a new fashion. I can see not giving access to unlock the sea dog stuff, but the pirate legend set? It was a poor judgement call in the first place to tie any pirate legend items to the arena.
@jcrrdn said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:
@el-spaniardchi maybe. although i still think that they should remain exclusive. I would not be opposed to a reskin though.
What do you think of finishing off the Victorious Sea Dog set? I always thought it was weird that they only made a blunderbuss for it.
I will be forever grateful for the experiences I had in arena. It is the most daunting and time intensive grind in the game, but my understanding of PvP mechanics and my own skills got better the more I played for commendations.
Just last night I had a very satisfying moment when I cannoned over to the outpost to stop a duo sloop from turning in. They both jumped off to cash in the chest and I managed to slay them both and turn in their chest with relative ease. I’d never have imagined being able to do that 2 years ago, but the great (and even the not so great) crews I linked up with, the impromptu TDM matches, and the solo matches have made me a more competent pirate in Adventure.
I look forward to seeing what new PvP elements are brought to the main build!
While I completely understand the decision to drop Arena development in favor of focusing on Adventure, I find the way this is being handled very problematic for several reasons. I also understand that pretty much no argument will make Rare change their decision about ending Arena support, but I do hope they will at least take player feedback into consideration about the logistics of how it is done, and what happens to the associated commendations and cosmetics.
Firstly, again I do agree that dropping Arena in its current form is ultimately the best decision for the game. I personally never liked it - 98% of players would seem to agree with me. I found the mechanics problematic, and completely antithetical to the type of PvP experience people enjoy most from Adventure. That being said, I wholly disagree that the initially stated development goals for Arena are not worth pursuing. I believe that if you were to poll players, you would find that a significant amount of them would support the prospect of an alternative, PvP focused, smaller-time frame gamemode that consistently allows for player vs player battles. Rather than showing that people are uninterested in that prospect, I think the lack of Arena playtime moreso indicates that Arena was just never able to fulfill those goals. The most enjoyable things about PvP in Adventure are sinking ships and stealing loot. The current Arena mechanics neglect, and in most cases outright discourage both of these elements. This does not have to be the case.
Particularly with the current state of Adventure, the need for a more reliable PvP-oriented environment for those that want it is incredibly important for the game. There is continually increasing sentiment among PvP minded players that the game is shifting further from that type of content. As enjoyable as PvP battles are in Adventure, they have never been the most consistent to find, and between the increase in map size and decrease in crews per server, this problem has been getting worse.
Yes, the current form of Arena needs to go. But dropping it entirely seems to me that Rare is giving up on the idea as a whole. A more dedicated PvP gamemode would be an incredible asset to the game, so long as the combat itself was more faithful to Adventure. Yet, I dont get the impression this idea will ever be revisited.Secondly, I feel like the importance of cosmetics and achievements to players is being heavily underestimated. Commendations and cosmetics are honestly the only real 'endgame' content to be had in Sea of Thieves. Achieving pirate legend, and even max Athena is not a difficult prospect for many experienced players, and has been getting even easier and as time goes on. The only thing left to achieve or 'unlock' at that point is cosmetics. In a game with no levels, theyre pretty much the only bragging rights there are. I generally have no problem with exclusive or time-limited cosmetics - so long as the exclusivity is well communicated before hand, and that it is more limited in scale. By my count, there are nearly 50 cosmetic items locked behind Arena-related commendations. This is not just a random one-off compass or eyepatch rewarded to players for being around since day 1. These are full sets of weapons, clothes, and shipsets, and represent a significant amount of unlockable items. Some of them are not even Arena themed - even the Pirate Legend weapons are locked behind Arena commendations, despite PL being a primarily Adventure-based achievement.
As to the decision to make these cosmetics exclusive as a way to "show gratitude" to players who've been dedicated to Arena up until this point, I have to ask - why? What is commendable about sticking with a gamemode so rife with issues? This is a gamemode which was so notoriously toxic that Rare had to remove crew chat. A gamemode flawed enough that, by Rare's own admission, the community almost universally agreed isnt worth their time to play. The problems with toxicity did not go away along with game chat. Many of these players to whom you are "showing gratitude" are the very reason that so many others didnt want to engage with Arena in the first place. Certainly, not everyone who plays Arena regularly fits into this category, but it makes no sense to reward players simply for putting up with an unenjoyable environment.
In some sense, it is reasonable to be grateful to people for being dedicated to a little-appreciated feature you spent time and effort developing. However, the flipside is that this decision makes the vast majority of the community feel as though theyve been disregarded, simply because they dont have thick enough skin to not be bothered by the significant shortcomings of the gamemode. Those that love something should be the strongest critics of it - people that swear by Arena and hold it up on a pedestal are by no means any more 'supportive' of the devs and the vision behind it than those who saw the problems with it.Lastly, the process that has been chosen for phasing out Arena is very disappointing. Even if you accept that it makes sense for Arena to be dropped and never come back, and even if you accept that the associated cosmetics will be furthermore unobtainable, it is still a complete slap in the face for this to be announced with such short notice. As previously mentioned, it is integral that time-limited items or events be clearly communicated that they will be so. Players would doubtlessly have been more 'dedicated' to Arena and the associated achievements if they had any indication that it would not be around forever. At the very least, I think it unreasonable to not give players an adequate chance to complete what there is left before it goes. Less than a month and a half to get 240 wins, 300 kills with every weapon, dig 100+ chests, and more? During which more than half of that 'playtime' is going to be spent in the lobby? Difficulty in making the decision aside, if it was problematic enough to make that call, then the writing surely should have been on the wall a while ago, and we should have had much more notice.
Ultimately, I have to again say I agree with the decision to remove Arena, and that that decision is immutable - however, I fail to see any reason that fully justifies the incredibly short notice, and the discontinuation of a significant portion of endgame cosmetic content. Neither of these things are inherent to the need to drop Arena in favor of Adventure development, and I sincerely hope Rare changes their minds as to their approach to both.
Can I still play The Arena and earn Sea Dog cosmetics/Titles/Commendations before March 10th?
Yes, you can still play The Arena, move up through the ranks, earn Commendations and unlock the ability to purchase cosmetics and Titles until we close this game mode on March 10th.
@syd-mudbeard said in Saying Goodbye to The Arena:
I logged in immediately after watching the announcement, went to Larinna, and bought my last commendation to rank 50. If somebody w/ some power sees this and feels generous, I really want that Good Boy set... Missed the cutoff by minutes.
Same, the attitude seems to be if you didn't play Arena twice and earn lvl 5 than your time in Arena is worth zilch. Even if you spen over 120days in the game. No, hey were gonna kill this off, so get it while you can. More, well too bad if you weren't lucky enough to finish before we slid the rug out from under you
Had some good times, had some frustrating times. I spent just as much time in the lobby as in the game. I will miss the obstacle course to the top. The fun times in the hot tub.
Hopefully the siblings are out somewhere on the island and/or maybe we can enter the tavern and still see them inside.
Or maybe!!! You move them to the upstairs part of the taverns on the outposts! And bring the hot tub and Meg head with! Ok maybe not the meg head but you get the idea.
@foxx5 you can still "complete" the game if you finish everything else in arena. The ship sets they gave out have nothing to do with that.
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