Captained ships in Safer Seas

Captaincy not being on safer seas is one of the main decisions that will lead safer seas to work as intended.

Sorry, I didn't mean captaincy as a whole, literally just my ship with it's own name. That's all I want, not the progression. I don't see how that would be a problem at all.

@wynnsworld94 said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

Sorry, I didn't mean captaincy as a whole, literally just my ship with it's own name. That's all I want, not the progression. I don't see how that would be a problem at all.

I understand and empathize with that but as the goal is to get people into the high seas there has to be serious incentives to do so.

@wolfmanbush Well they'd still need to earn their captaincy on the high seas, but then it would be good if we could then take our captained ship back to the safer seas.

@wynnsworld94 said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

@wolfmanbush Well they'd still need to earn their captaincy on the high seas, but then it would be good if we could then take our captained ship back to the safer seas.

Just because I'm against it doesn't mean you won't get it if you want some hope lol

They have a very strong design for safer seas as far as what I have seen of the details. It'll work but they will constantly have requests like this so time will tell on what they keep and what they cater to.

My personal view is that I want to see people thrive in high seas with help from safer seas and a reality of that is to have safer seas less appealing in serious ways.

@wolfmanbush That sounds fair. I'm thinking that since it would literally be just a cosmetic thing that it might not affect their vision too much, especially if all of the progression for it is tied to the high seas.

The main thing I want out of safer seas is to be able to do tall tales and casual fishing in peace. Nothing more frustrating than getting to the end of a really tedious tall tale, just to get attacked by someone wanting PvP.

But yeah, it could be a good way to ease new players into the game before encouraging them to join the high seas.

@wynnsworld94 said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

@wolfmanbush That sounds fair. I'm thinking that since it would literally be just a cosmetic thing that it might not affect their vision too much, especially if all of the progression for it is tied to the high seas.

The main thing I want out of safer seas is to be able to do tall tales and casual fishing in peace. Nothing more frustrating than getting to the end of a really tedious tall tale, just to get attacked by someone wanting PvP.

But yeah, it could be a good way to ease new players into the game before encouraging them to join the high seas.

I 100% get it and if I could find a way to support it I would.

Maintaining the principles of policy is tough at the individual level. I want to support it but I know that the policy is strong and will overall help the people that this is designed for.

@wolfmanbush Fair enough. I guess we'll have to wait and see and hope they find the right balance for it. At the end of the day, I'll definitely just enjoy it for a bit of peace and quiet every now and then between fights.

@wynnsworld94 said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

The main thing I want out of safer seas is to be able to do tall tales and casual fishing in peace. Nothing more frustrating than getting to the end of a really tedious tall tale, just to get attacked by someone wanting PvP.

Captaincy comes with a few things that probably do suit their vision:

• Cosmetics being saved to the ship (which means people are more likely to buy cosmetics);
• The Sovereign turn-in respects player time in a huge way, and having access to it takes some of the sting out of emissary losses (though, honestly, not enough);
• The cost of the ship is relatively massive for newer players (like myself), so earning it in Safer Seas will be much slower anyway.

IMO the best solution is disabling parts of the log book in Safer Seas, so that certain things can be progressed/earned, at least as a starting point.

I suspect interest in PvE-only will increase post-launch, but if players can't save cosmetics/designs to ships, they won't buy cosmetics. That's a lost cosmetic market for Rare, given the path to making it possible (and/or easy?) for players is just enabling captained ships.

The second half of the equation is finding a way to make players feel like their time is respected. Captaincy doesn't detract from the game, and the Sovereign as a time-saver is a huge respect play (and something players should know about before hitting the High Seas). All of the PvP justifiable 'delays' and 'slow down' mechanics (which includes manually slogging around with loot) aren't justifiable in PvE; I'm not saying we need a 'sell all' button, but getting access to the harpoon to turn-in is a good start. To that end, we don't really need Rare to remove all of the time-wasting mechanics in PvE, but it'd be appreciated in some places, and, if nothing else, not rob us of quality of life tools like the Sovereign.

@wynnsworld94 said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

@wolfmanbush Well they'd still need to earn their captaincy on the high seas, but then it would be good if we could then take our captained ship back to the safer seas.

I don't see a problem with letting them just buy ships, even if they've never left Safer Seas (and/or Maiden Voyage). It's just gold. If you mean the log book, then ultimately just disabling that, or splitting it, would make more sense.

To add to this, in some detail, Captaincy and Guilds should function in the PvE zone. There is actually no reason to disable them given the Guilds.

Based on the video released explaining it, any player can buy a ship and pledge it to the guild. Once the ship is pledged, other players can progress it. Gating it from PvE achieves nothing in terms of preventing progression (for the ships) because PvE players can pledge ships out to have others do the work. It would actually be better for the game to allow PvE players to use their ships in the first place than it is to open the door for potential third-party abuse.

Honestly, I care very little about all the pointless cosmetic rewards. I think what makes SoT unique and fun is the PVE content. Sailing on the seas, fighting skelly ships, going on adventures, digging up treasure and turning in a massive haul.

I haven't played SoT in years, I have a bunch of cool stuff unlocked. I didn't play for the promise of cosmetics, I came for the high seas adventures. Being able to play on a PVE server to enjoy the quests with my friends is the draw, the cosmetics are just extra.

30% rewards is better than 0% from not playing at all.

@wolfmanbush said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

Captaincy not being on safer seas is one of the main decisions that will lead safer seas to work as intended.

I believe it will stay that way to the same degree as Rare's "no PvE servers ever" promise was kept.

It doesn't take a genius to figure it out - just look at any SoT forum anywhere - people are already loudly demanding that "Safer Seas" give better gold %s, allow captained ships and emissaries and multiple crews.

They are not going to STOP asking for those things, and since they are going to be the larger player base - Rare WILL give in. Everything "exclusive" to the "High Seas" will, inch by inch, become included in "Safer Seas" until "High Seas" is pointless.

MY prediction, anyway. We'll just have to wait and see I guess, but it doesn't look good :(

@burnbacon said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

Whew. Not even released and as expected….knew this would be requested. XD

Not like it was hard to predict mate - I would have bet my house on it if I could have.

@gravesilence272 said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

@wolfmanbush said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

Captaincy not being on safer seas is one of the main decisions that will lead safer seas to work as intended.

I believe it will stay that way to the same degree as Rare's "no PvE servers ever" promise was kept.

It doesn't take a genius to figure it out - just look at any SoT forum anywhere - people are already loudly demanding that "Safer Seas" give better gold %s, allow captained ships and emissaries and multiple crews.

They are not going to STOP asking for those things, and since they are going to be the larger player base - Rare WILL give in. Everything "exclusive" to the "High Seas" will, inch by inch, become included in "Safer Seas" until "High Seas" is pointless.

MY prediction, anyway. We'll just have to wait and see I guess, but it doesn't look good :(

I think they will try to stick to it. I think they intend to. Whatever happens, happens. I believed in Captaincy as it was designed and I believe in safer seas as it's designed. Changes happen but good design is good design and I'm gonna hope for the best no matter what else has gone on.

This mode has a chance to do a lot of good for the community outside of the requests to change it.

@wolfmanbush The game has been out for how many years with high seas being the only 'mode' available? If people aren't playing it yet because they want safer seas, they're not going to play it just because they get their ship cosmetics and ship name in high seas.

I purposely left this game because of no PVE option a couple of years ago, I'll actually try it out again once safer seas comes out to chill and have some adventures without the stress of random ganks when I walk away for 5 minutes, or wasting my time working on a quest to get harassed by a PVP adrenaline junky with nothing better to do than sink an empty ship.

Safer seas is a step in the right direction, having the Captained ships (without any of the progression of course) would be great.

@brizlyn9654 said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

@wolfmanbush The game has been out for how many years with high seas being the only 'mode' available? If people aren't playing it yet because they want safer seas, they're not going to play it just because they get their ship cosmetics and ship name in high seas.

I purposely left this game because of no PVE option a couple of years ago, I'll actually try it out again once safer seas comes out to chill and have some adventures without the stress of random ganks when I walk away for 5 minutes, or wasting my time working on a quest to get harassed by a PVP adrenaline junky with nothing better to do than sink an empty ship.

Safer seas is a step in the right direction, having the Captained ships (without any of the progression of course) would be great.

It's not designed for never-high sea'ers

it's specifically designed for people that leave before they attach themselves to goals, personal accomplishment, and the rewarding parts of encounters and the high seas.

The narratives of "this is in the right direction" as far as people seeing the game as "let people play how they want to play" are going to mislead people.

Making the game more casual over time and making inexperience less harsh (as an option) isn't a change in course.

They are still trying to keep high seas the priority.

Down the road they might head in a new direction but there would have to be a lot more changes than just leaning pve for survival. Can't have people 1:1 on pve servers and still have a functional high seas design. They would have to make other massive changes as well. Like battle royale type of changes and 5+ years in I highly doubt they ever completely change the game like that, they would probably just close it down at that point.

@d3adst1ck said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

Giving more features to Safer Seas means more players that want to play there, the more expensive it gets for Rare to run all those server instances...

Not necessarily. A single server with 4 players is pretty easy to run instanced on the machine of one of the players.

I would be surprised if that's not the main way that Rare implements Safer Seas servers, it might wind up cheaper for them in server costs in the long run - they would only need to manage the main server that coordinates spawning lobbies etc...

@wolfmanbush said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

I think they will try to stick to it. I think they intend to.

It's nice to have faith, I guess? They've been in a long pivot from emphasizing PvP (I'm excluding Hour Glass here - that's already almost an entirely different game), to paying lip-service to it (while continuously discouraging it), to a hard push incentivizing everything PvE... and then they release Safer Seas?

I admire your commitment to believe their words - but all I see in past actions is evidence that words they say bear very little correlation with actual changes they make.

...good design is good design...

Tautologies aside, I disagree that Safer Seas is "good design".

It seems like pretty poor design to me - unless the intent is to pivot the whole game that way eventually.

@cptnpotbeard sagte in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

@wynnsworld94 Or maybe just play the game normally like was intended before rare decided to slightly cave and give this garbage safer seas option

And this is exactly why im Happy we get safer seas. Because of toxic players like you, who just wanna destroy fun of others

This thread does make me wonder if captaincy would function in safer seas for those who already have their own ship or is that feature a hard lock. To side with the OP I see the appeal in having your named ship even if there's no other crews to see it. There's a certain satisfaction in just having it. Not to mention the nice little bit of novelty in saying "Hey, let's get back to the [insert ship name here]" to your crew as opposed to simply "Hey, let's get back to the ship".

Either way, the game has been around a long time without any Captaincy features so to go without it for a bit as you learn the game is pretty much par for the course really. And to be fair, Captaincy is a very alluring feature of high seas so it should remain as such in my opinion.

The only benefit I see in captaincy is doing business with sovereigns to minimize time in port. In Safer Seas players will be able to sell with no worries , afaik skellies are not interested in loot.

Captaincy will make no difference in SS.

@lem0n-curry Haha, good point!

@every-henry said in Captained ships in Safer Seas:

The only benefit I see in captaincy is doing business with sovereigns to minimize time in port. In Safer Seas players will be able to sell with no worries , afaik skellies are not interested in loot.

Captaincy will make no difference in SS.

It's about respecting player time. The difference in time to sell is massive, particularly in places like Port Merrick.

If Rare has any sort of hidden intent to get people back into the game, playing it instead of not playing it, and buying cosmetics in Sea of Thieves instead of elsewhere, then gating a good reason to buy cosmetics, and stripping QOL in the process, is a great way to achieve the opposite.