Safe Seas Rewards Too Low

@ictus-xxi

I appreciate your response and clarification. I see, in that case I wasn't clear on what 'Safer Seas' is intended to be and I believe my feedback still stands as far as making it clearer in marketing and implementation that this is intended to be an extended starter area rather than a sole PvE alternative.

As for me, it sounds like sounds like it is the developers intent to not provide content for players not interested in combat, so I'll set off in search of warmer waters.

Appreciate the help and I wish you favorable winds!

I can only ape what others have said: I don't see Safer Seas as a dedicated PvE server. I see it as a convenient Tall Tales and Adventure server. Honestly, I'd be ok if we only got credit for just those style categories of events. But that's just me, with the benefit of having played this game for 1000s of hours.

For new players, as others have stated, it is more a tutorial extension with access to many world events. You can spend all the time you need to learn what you need to learn and explore what you need to explore before you graduate to the High Seas. Your goal should always be to graduate to the High Seas anyway. You will make more gold on the High Seas even playing it safe and keeping a watch on the horizon.

@miserenz said in Safe Seas Rewards Too Low:

We don't want a PVE alternative.

'We' feels too broad. But let's play it out a bit more.

The solution to the game being toxic is ... well, there isn't one. Bans are infrequent, anti-cheat doesn't appear to exist (other than reports), which in turn feels back into the toxic feeling (because nobody trusts anyway). Alliance servers notwithstanding, alliances are too risky. Multiple times in the last week I've been chased by a Reaper from 3+ tiles a way with no emissary flag up, from a fresh spawn, without catching sight of them with anything other than the map, right up until winds cause a problem. Not a good feeling. I'd settle for action being taken on impossible things, but many of those impossible things are also virtually impossible to record in a way which can be transmitted easily (a 10+ minute video of an impossible pursuit isn't exactly portable).

So Rare could ramp up that anti-cheat that's coming soon (maybe?), find some way to balance crew size interactions, fix whatever's allowing players to see well beyond line of sight, and take action on players who are cheating, exploiting, etc.. While they're at it, they'd need to fix combat (sword dash is silly, just give us a 'dive into the water' mechanic for traversal with proper limits).

Okay, but what about people for whom this isn't enough? PvE players who saw 'PvE is coming' in Kotaku, or dozens of other outlets. Those who just saw the words, and didn't read into it? Well, some of them might stick around in Safer Seas if they like the feel. Others, returning, may too. But at that point there are a few limiting factors here.

First, as this thread talks about, rewards are low. On the face of it, who cares? But low gold and doubloon income creates an impression that the Emporium is predatory. That's not great. For those who read into it, that's not going to sit well that PvP players get more (it never sits well within communities), so a portion of players will leave again. Another portion just won't spend real money on it for similar reasons. Still, player gain, just in Safer Seas (and using the complaint from the PvP crowd: servers cost money to run).

Second, there's nothing to push towards for those players. Captaincy isn't there. Most Guilds won't want PvE only players. Emissary status can't be obtained. Endgame tier quests (which are mostly just longer and harder, if we're honest), aren't available. So a portion of those who stuck around are going to leave after a while.

But every few months people will return for Tall Tales. Which would be good, except that it's pretty hard to justify spending money in the Emporium for the reasons above, let alone when you know you're only going to play the Tall Tale (maybe a few times) and then move on.

Now remember that Game Pass access means a lot of these people who didn't stick around also didn't buy in (and many who did will have done so during a sale). The business case for Safer Seas for what's probably 1/5th (or fewer) of potential players, many of whom are on Game Pass, feels iffy. And that's before we talk about making it harder for them (which is a theme, or counter-theme, in a few threads, including this one).

Pragmatic gamers with a PvE preference absolutely want the preference, and there are a growing number of people who want the experiences of the game without the PvP element. Some of us don't want to play the game like it's a job. So everything that hinders the experience, and enjoy, in an entirely illogical way, paints a negative picture. And you can be sure that the likes of Kotaku will slam Safer Seas if restrictions are too harsh. While that doesn't matter to many people in the short term, the increased focus on the game (thanks to 'PvE finally coming soon') means that any/all toxicity in the High Seas gets put under the media microscope again, which is going to cause a new and exciting kind of backlash, both inside and outside of the community. It honestly doesn't take that much to prevent that from happening, but further restricting from the baseline, as announced prior to launch, would absolutely draw the attention and ire of the media. Given the publisher of the game, if you actually want to keep the PvEvP experience in any sort of reasonable shape, you probably don't want that.

In my opinion it should be even lower. 30% is too high. Maybe 15-20%?

• If you just play to enjoy the game and the talltales. Awesome! Thats what this mode is for
• If you play for cosmetics...Cosmetics are the only way the game can show progression. And the ones you get trough gold show your experience and adventures. You earn it by playing risky and beating other people. If you can get the same other people get without the risk...Whats the point of cool cosmetics? If safe seas give a lot of money, then cosmetics mean nothing, if the noob who never plays PVP can easily get the same cosmetic the PVP toplord has.

One point I agree with you is: Rare does NOTHING about toxic/racist/abusive players and cheaters. They havent even bothered to add an in-game report tool. This has contributed to a more toxic community than it needs to be, as people can do and say almost anything without getting banned.

And also, the skill difference tends to be quite wide, particularly between new players and players who used to live in Arena. Now they might use hourglass, but honestly hourglass feels like another failed arena. Probably even worse.

@ghutar said in Safe Seas Rewards Too Low:

@kakaroto9766 I would love to have raport tool that automatically add like 10 last rows of text from raported player or X second of his voice chat.

Bye bye all that degerative terms, kids yelling "blackskincolorname""blackskincolorname" or other stuff.

I don't care for what they say or wirte (they are random bots for me) but breaking rules without consequences are bad for health of community. First yelling swears when in fight, than abusing other players..

If you are on Xbox:

• Xbox Button
• People
• Recently Played With
• select the player
• Report
• Voice Communication

That will send a report to Microsoft with a recording and bonus, they get banned from the Xbox account, not just SoT. You have to act fast though, I think within 30 or 60 seconds.

@ghutar said in Safe Seas Rewards Too Low:

@orloglausa I guess that they adveriste it so poorly. I mean you have to listen to the whole video to get that their idea of SS is an expanded tutorial and way too goof out with friends.

That's a large part of the problem. The bigger problem is that the media/blogs have taken this a little off course already. The expectations are there, and some of the limits are contradictory (as you know from multiple threads, I see the captaincy removal as pointlessly detrimental). Gaps in what's been said lead to speculation, and that speculation is ultimately not going to be helpful for Rare (unless their aim is to move to a PvE variant of the game).

@ghutar said in Safe Seas Rewards Too Low:

So maybe right step would be properly informing players about what are intenios of making it. In one short sentence couse fully reading stuff or fosuing on it aren't common thing in internet.

A written explainer/media release prior to the video would have helped a lot. But now that they've put out the video with the limits, we have a baseline; they can't make it worse than it is, they can only make it better (read: more to do, better rewards, more consistent with the game around it in terms of access and progression -- and by that I mean things like the Captaincy/Guilds overlap/issue). Even writing TBA a dozen times in a comparison table would have been better than where we've landed in terms of uncertainty, because the lack of exposition is shaping perspectives.

@ghutar said in Safe Seas Rewards Too Low:

For the other hand I get guys who are gating angry (not namecalling post and stuff that sucks) looking at all that post about demanding stuff yo be added to SS. I think that they feeling cheated and pushed away becouse game they purched will change becouse vocal folks can't find themself in current state and push for change when they bought it for what it is.

It's funny couse lot of this vocal folks complain about toxicity yet their post are full of spite and namecalling with is ironic.

I think the big problem here is that the game cannibalised itself to maintain that vision. People who want PvE just won't play. Safer Seas isn't just an on-ramp, it's where PvE players will go. As people get sick of in-game toxicity, and wasting time, it's either Safer Seas, or not play. As it is now, it's, Tall Tales, hoping to be left unattacked while voyaging or fishing somewhere, or not playing. (Yes, there are Alliance Servers, but those being used so widely should be a louder message to Rare than they are.) As the community here talks about all the great spots they can play peacefully, so too do the people who are just out to ruin others games go to blindly attack them. (Killing a Pirate who is fishing in a pond, using a row boat, all to steal some fish, can't really be considered anything other than trying to ruin someone's game.)

Personally, if they made FoF and FoTD available in a PvE world I wouldn't care. The trigger to activate FoTD would obviously some hurdle to get hold of the pink flame instead of PvP, but beyond that, it being there makes no real difference to any other player. People who wouldn't do it in the High Seas still wouldn't be doing it in the High Seas. And I guess that's the point of this; Safer Seas will show Rare how much players are willing to give up to enjoy the game, and how much of a tilt in that direction makes sense to them from a business perspective.

@legendary-liz said in Safe Seas Rewards Too Low:

@KAKAROTO9766

Your posts have been removed as they goes against the Forum Rules and Pirate Code.

ALWAYS:

**Be courteous. Don’t insult players you don’t know. If humour is the intent, remember that this can be lost or misinterpreted online, and words can very easily offend. Be mindful of what you’re saying and if someone asks a question, see if you can help them out as you’d appreciate being helped out yourself if the roles were reversed.

Name calling, personal attacks and using derogatory language against Community Members, Rare Employees, Global Moderators or Deckhands is not acceptable. Using such language will result in a warning, then temporary ban from the Forums and a final warning. If the action is persistent or increasingly aggressive, a permanent ban from the Forums will be issued.

Please read and abide by the Forum Rules and Pirate Code in future.

Thank you.

I appreciate you reviewing this but could you be kind enough to clarify?
There were no personal attacks in my posts. I literally said "Rare". I did not refer to any individuals, community members, rare employees, global moderators or deckhands. I simply criticized the way Rare (The company) implemented a system because I thought it was quite lacking compared to the same system in other games. Does this rule also means people cannot criticize Rare in these forums?

And I will not even repeat the simple word I used to describe that, because apparently clearly making reference to underperformance of a company is not allowed.
I am not trying to make loud noise in the forum or anything, but you ignored my private question and addressed it here. So I'll ask the same way.

I’m glad we are still earning something in safer seas and 30% is the best percentage for safer seas and I hope rare don’t change it.