Update Format | Community Competitions

  • I don’t want to beat a dead bush. This season has had mixed reviews already, and now most of the features of Season 14 have been deactivated.

    This is a message to my fellow community members, the player base, and most of all to the Dev Team. Sea of Thieves needs to have a format of what makes an Update, an Update. Not just a handful of solid mechanics, not a massive interactive World Event, or a handful of interesting weapons. A fully fleshed out Update made with both the ingenuity of the Dev Team alongside the imagination of the community and her wants and needs.

    Formatting:

    Main Line Feature- This is one or even two ideas that would be the focal point of the update. New World Event, the overhaul and or the introduction of a Trading Company, or something to both examples level of degree.

    Secondary Features- Two to four ideas that are the backbone to the MLF. New enemies, new voyages / overhaul of older voyages, new mechanics that expand off of older or newly introduced ones, and other ideas on par with the mentioned examples.

    Minor Features- Depending on the complexity of the update, this could be from four to several ideas. New types of fruit, new weapons, the overhaul of present weapons, new clothing sets, etc, etc.

    This format will come to play in Community Competitions. Similar to how the Dev Team sets up SoT Shot Contests, the Dev Team can choose a theme for a future Update, and put each type of feature as a category so a single person or a group of people can submit their idea into the respective category they wish to compete in. At that point, it would be up to the community to choose what they want as a Main Line Feature, or a Secondary Feature, or a Minor Feature. Then once voting has concluded, the Dev Team can take the most voted upon idea(s) of each category and shape them into an Update.

    I know many will have disagreements with what I’m proposing, and many may agree with it. What I want is for Sea of Thieves to be what it was years ago.

    “A grand adventure, a fight to the death, and a great big pile of treasure.”

    I believe if this idea is looked at and or even taken up by the Dev Team, feedback for the game would significantly improve. Older players would hop back on more often. New players would stay around and devote themselves to the game more than they originally planned to.

    But this plea hinges on the Dev Team. If you are reading this, you guys need to let us, the community, help. Hell, some of us would work for free if given the chance. We want Sea of Thieves to succeed, but you guys need to take a step back and look at what’s going on, and what needs to be done to patch things up, an move forward in a positive stride.

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  • There would be so much lag time between the competition and actual implementation that I don't think interest would be maintained.

  • @d3adst1ck then every other season would be the machinations of a community competition. The formatting is meant to be robust for the Dev Team to use as a play book, while letting us compete when it is needed.

  • @vc-fox47th It took over 6 months just to prototype, design and implement changes to Golden Sands to turn it into Port Merrick based on designs they created themselves. No new functionality or mechanics involved - just a landscape remodel. No primary + secondary + minor features; just one island remodel.

    It would take well over a year to prototype and design ideas submitted by outside users if they are even technically feasible. A lot of the features that players requested when the game launched took over 1-2 years to appear in the game (e.g. fishing, burying treasure). It's not realistic to base seasonal content sourced from community ideas and expect them to appear in the game in the time frame you're suggesting.

    What they should do is just decouple season releases from content updates. Season releases should be on a schedule; new renown track, plunder pass, etc... and just have the actual content get inserted when it's finished even if that means mid or late season cycle.

  • @d3adst1ck This would also depend on the complexity of both the Theme and the idea posted by a person or a group of people. If they post a Theme that is complex, then they will be expecting complex ideas. It’s up to them if they would want to move forward with an idea. That’s the point of voting, it would give them options if an idea is too complex for them to do.
    This is hypocritical and just a suggestion for the Dev’s. They can put whatever rules they want in place to make sure unfeasible idea don’t happen.

  • Every season is different. One season we had a new world event. Another season was just a tall tale split into three

    Everyone acts like each season should be the same. That get dull

  • @burnbacon A lot of people like consistency. Every season doesn’t need to follow this on the dot, especially if it’s a Tall Tale update, or a full overhaul over all the Trading Companies. But if nothing absolutely massive isn’t planned, then a season should follow guidelines.

  • After talking with a few people, I wanted to clarify that the Dev Team would be given the decision to choose what is deemed popular within each category to become part of an update. There’s no room for 1st, 2nd, or third place winners. The ideas that would be the most feasible and most correlated to the Theme of the update would have the best chance in being incorporated.

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