When Safer Seas was introduced, while it seemed like a great idea on paper as a means of introducing people to the game or parents having a safe space to play with their children, there was always a risk. Many people were skeptical that this mode would create an influx of players that want SoT, a pirate PvPvE sandbox, to be turned into a purely PvE game. There has always been a vocal minority that complained about the Thieves part of this game, but at the time the only thing they asked was for PvE servers to just enjoy the game and they were very clear that to make it fair, these servers shouldn't have progression. Then Safer Seas got introduced and the complaints regarding progression followed quickly after. Fast forward to today and the recent announcement and the intentions of all those people that were advocates that they just want a safe space to play are clear as day. It was never only about having a safe space (despite the whole concept being against the game's core gameplay loop and design to begin with) but also getting all the rewards and progression without putting the work. I want to preface that I understand that SoT is poorly designed in terms of progression in general but that is an entirely different problem alltogether. For what it's worth, what's done is done, and with the current state of the playerbase I get why something like Safer Seas Fleets will be added, but at the same time enabling progression would be very disrespectful to those who have played the game as intended for years, and feels like another step away from the core design philosophy of SoT.
Complaints about Safer Seas/Safer Seas Fleets...
It's so obvious that there is a huge portion of the playerbase that would prefer to have SoT be a single player game. Safer Seas Fleets will be abused so badly for exploiting, they don't need FotD or FoF, shipwrecks and skeleton captains can be cheesed for effectively limitless gold, I've seen the completionists server where people are posting screenshots of getting over 10,000 doubloons in a day, multiple days in a row, using kingly cheese on alliance servers. These are players who have over 1 million emmi value on day 1 of a ledger. Custom servers will be used to play the game without anyone messing with you, SS fleets will be used to cheese limitless gold.
@burnbacon
Well it hasn't been revealed yet but the Safer Seas crowd is already complaining about the lack of progression, hence why I made this post. I think it's really important for both sides to be heard especially in such a highly controversial topic...This was always my concern around safer seas. The idea in itself was fine, but it was easier to shut down the pve only conversation in its entirety.
Once they got a small version of their request, there will always be demands for more aspects, until slowly they chip away and you end up with full pve creative mode servers, everyone playing privately, and the interactive player design that was fundamental to the game dies out.
A new era of pirates emerges, with one hand on the mouse and the other on the television remote control, they bravely sail with zero danger while watching their favorite vampire show, on their way to heroically left click the skeleton foes.
Sea of Netflix has arrived.
You're being just a bit over-dramatic about this, in my opinion.
For the sake of argument, let's say Safer Seas gets a full feature upgrade (which is not what is coming)... Who cares? How exactly does it hurt any other players?
Hint: It doesn't.There will always still be players on the High Seas for PVP'ers to attack and steal from, as this argument has three parties in it, not just the two that are constantly brought up; PVP'ers, PVE'ers and PVEVP'ers.
As has been stated many times in these forums, this is a game in which the only rewards are cosmetic; no one is being wounded by a more open PVE experience in any way whatsoever (except maybe for the delicate egos of certain folks).
I'm sorry, but your titles and cosmetics really don't mean as much as you seem to think they do.
I made PL back when that 'meant something', and guess what? It literally means nothing anymore, as all kinds of additional levels have been added to the game in the ensuing years (to retain older players and gain newer players); should I whine about that? Doesn't that reduce all of my previous efforts in meaning?
Games (especially live service games) grow as time passes, or they stagnate and die; there is no third direction and fret not, as long as a High Seas option exists, there will be prey on the horizon for those who wish to pursue it.
Your remark about PVE players 'not putting in the work' is beyond ludicrous as well. Without players participating in the PVE elements of the game, PVP players have no loot to steal: PVE'ers find it, PVP'ers steal it... It is a parasitic relationship between the two.
Without PVE'ers, PVP'ers have no loot, because they only play half of the game (which ironically, is what PVE'ers are often accused of as a reason for not allowing them to have a truly, open space in which to play their own way).
I also find it amusing when PVP'ers whinge about PVE'ers wanting their playstyle to be catered to, while having their own playstyle already being catered to for years, and PVP'ers feeling all other players should be forced to play their way and then have the gall to talk about entitlement.
How many times have I read a post from a PVP'er telling a PVE'er that 'Maybe SoT isn't the game for you, go find another one'? Well, as the game changes and other playstyles are catered to, maybe those same people should take their own advice.
People need to get over themselves. It's a game. People pay to play it (yes, even PVE'ers have paid for the game), either through buying the game, or paying for Gamepass or whatever other service and therefore have the right to request features that suit their playstyle.
This entire debate has been going on for years; Please get over it, already.
From my own, personal opinion as a player, surely having folks that don't want to PvP only leaves those that do/accept that it is part of the game.
So, rather than rocking up on another ship that won't give a decent fight (which is often complained about or derided) you are more likely to come across those that DO want to PvP, resulting in 'better/fairer fights'?
Rather than complaining that a new crew of 1st day Swabbies put up no fight (because they didn't want to), you would see more PvP competent crews or at least those that aren't going to complain about getting sunk.
'Kicking Puppies' is not something any truly decent/competant crew would like or enjoy.
@look-behind-you said in Complaints about Safer Seas/Safer Seas Fleets...:
From my own, personal opinion as a player, surely having folks that don't want to PvP only leaves those that do/accept that it is part of the game.
So, rather than rocking up on another ship that won't give a decent fight (which is often complained about or derided) you are more likely to come across those that DO want to PvP, resulting in 'better/fairer fights'?
Rather than complaining that a new crew of 1st day Swabbies put up no fight (because they didn't want to), you would see more PvP competent crews or at least those that aren't going to complain about getting sunk.
'Kicking Puppies' is not something any truly decent/competant crew would like or enjoy.
A pirate would enjoy kicking a puppy and taking their loot, though. Who doesn’t like easy loot? Sure, if I fight over a fotd stack and the crew puts up a good fight, that’s more fun and memorable, I might even watch the video after my session, but to suggest that I wouldn’t gladly take the loot from pirates who refuse to pvp in the PvPvE game? Yea, still taking the loot.
@capt-greldik ...but surely knowing everyone on High Seas is up for a fight, would be better than bouncing from swabby crew to swabby crew that either don't want to/won't fight back or didn't realise it was an option?
Those who seem to enjoy PvP often state they would prefer an actual fight.
Those who don't often seem to enjoy the easy prey
In my mind, I am still an advocate for PvEvP and the paranoia that is inherent with it. I'll fight someone if forced, probably lose but still, part of the game.
EDIT: Obiously everyone is free to play how they want (within the rules) but the amount of times I have seen complaints of folks not fighting back/easy sinks/no real fights....surely if you eliminate those from the equation, it would be better for all concerned?
@look-behind-you said in Complaints about Safer Seas/Safer Seas Fleets...:
@capt-greldik ...but surely knowing everyone on High Seas is up for a fight, would be better than bouncing from swabby crew to swabby crew that either don't want to/won't fight back or didn't realise it was an option?
Those who seem to enjoy PvP often state they would prefer an actual fight.
Those who don't often seem to enjoy the easy prey
In my mind, I am still an advocate for PvEvP and the paranoia that is inherent with it. I'll fight someone if forced, probably lose but still, part of the game.
EDIT: Obiously everyone is free to play how they want (within the rules) but the amount of times I have seen complaints of folks not fighting back/easy sinks/no real fights....surely if you eliminate those from the equation, it would be better for all concerned?
I suppose I agree to an extent, there are certainly people who want good fights, I’m one of them, but I usually get those in HG. My adventure sessions are sort of a free for all, doing whatever comes to include PvE.
I’ve seen post on here about people complaining about runners, but I can’t say I’ve seen too many complaints about easy fights, unless they were specifically referring to HG, but you read these forums more than I do so I’ll take your word for it.
I’d say for the most part, people attacking others in adventure want to take their stuff, whether it’s easy or not, that goal doesn’t change. My crew will often just execute what we call “banana inspections”; this is when we’ve determined we don’t want to sink someone, usually because they don’t have loot or an emissary, but we’d still like to give a visit and take their chainshots and/or other delicious supplies. These are usually fun affairs (always for us, often for them) involving shanties and fireworks, but I digress.
I think that separating the playerbase is a negative, I like running into all types of players and styles. Sometimes we champion swabbies, ally them and protect based on the circumstances. We will fight over big game events and typically don’t pursue some random sloop on a random island, but I appreciate the existence of that random ship doing a dig on whatever island. Sometimes we exchange mutual commendation request, sometimes our fights with a sweaty reaper randomly intertwine with someone who didn’t necessarily want to participate, and they end up having a good time.
There are so many scenarios where all types of players intermingle, I don’t think it’s so simple that it can be narrowed down to “those who want good fights and those who want easy prey”.
I have no problem with people who shy away from PvP, I was that person the first two or three months of my time on sot. I did everything I could to avoid other ships, doing shipwrecks in the roar and parking on the east side of rocks with no emissary up to minimize my visibility. During that time I appreciated the danger, without it, my time in the roar wouldn’t have been exciting to me, and I’d have never decided to dive in HG in order to improve my survivability.
In my opinion, sot is a hollow game without the threat of other players, and I think that the availability of full sot without danger not only takes from the overall high seas experience, but also does a disservice to many players who might never dip their toes because they never had to hide in the roar until they felt competent enough to pursue bigger things.
To each their own, but at the end of the day, it’s a PvPvE game, like you said.
The main problem is stagnation within the playerbase. If every new player has no incentive to improve, the population will decline as new players reach their goals, get bored, and quit.
The cycle for players was always about skill gap experiences, good or bad, inspiring growth in players' playstyles. Good, like you run into a cool sweaty player that blows your mind with their skills, bad, like you run into a crew that completely shatters your ego.
If new players can now just farm gold with all their friends, there really isn't much to incentivize skill progression. When they do go into higher seas, like you said, it'll be all competent crews (compared to them) and they'll instantly return to their comfort zone. Then they'll get all the gold they want, get bored, stop playing, and this will be the new cycle for new players. The reputation cap adds a bit of a trickle down to higher seas, but not enough anymore, and I'm not convinced it'll still be there in a year.
'Kicking Puppies' is not something any truly decent/competant crew would like or enjoy.
This is true, most crews that are dumping on "the puppies" are swabbies themselves who will now have way less people to fight and win against, which will also be hugely discouraging to new players.
@worst-tdmer ....but the fights will be better, no? Not everyone will just disappear to Safer Seas, didn't happen with the first iteration and won't happen now.
Surely there will be MORE fights with people that actually want it? If you take the unwilling out of the pool, with only 5/6 ships per server, they must make for better fights rather than 5/6 ships and the possibility of a couple or more not even putting up a fight.
If anything, PvP will be more opt in/out than before and folks are less likely to complain about being new and getting rolled all day every day.
Again, my view is still the same as it is/was even before the game released, every sail on the horizon is a potential friendly or aggressive encounter....how is plays out is always different and that is what makes Sea of Thieves great.
Some people may not want to or are unable to deal with the paranoia/adrenaline of random fight or flight responses or may have children that like the sailing and adventure but wish to protect them from some of the....less than savoury characters that I'm sure most of us has had to endure.
Having a heart condition myself, adrenaline does me no favours when it comes to the adrenaline that comes with PvP....don't get me wrong, I'll fight if challenged but I don't often go out and seek it.
Different strokes for different folks.
@look-behind-you The fights will be better, while they last. There are only so many good crews, and without new players coming in while the old ones phase out, the seas will gradually die. You say not everyone will disappear, but numbers-wise SoT has never been more dead than the past year. Playstation did a lot to make up for that, but that doesn't last forever.
There's nothing wrong with not wanting to deal with the adrenaline or stress of PvP, or wanting to play with kids, but it's a problem when the game caters to these audiences. It's good for short term sales and playercount, horrible for the long term state of the game.
From day 1 everything in SoT was about pushing players into these situations. There wasn't even a closed crew option at launch, by design. They wanted people to meet up, exchange knowledge, and make stories together. Every year since then they've made compromises to their original vision and the game has suffered for it.
@worst-tdmer I can only assume you are pulling stats/player numbers from Steam charts.
The one platform I would bet is not even close to the biggest platform and therefore not the best indicator.
As long as there are 5/6 crews within the same region, there will always be full servers. There is never really anything like an empty server, just ships you haven't found yet.
When I played before release, there was not only no closed crews, there was only Galleons....and we were only ever able to play for a few hrs every now and again, when there were play tests scheduled.
I'd argue that certain elements of the playerbase have changed from meeting/sharing knowledge/making stories to kill on sight, not the Developers.
Greed and ego, whilst normal and natural human emotions, appear to have taken over some people's minds. There are still players out there who seek out and enjoy the connections and teaching with/of newer players.
Some see it as a kill everything, take all loot, no quarter given....which is a valid way to play.
Conversely, there are the same number of people who still see it as an adventure to be shared with others, known or not.
There is no straight line between ONLY PvE and ONLY PvP....It is a bell curve; the majority is in the middle or flitting between the two, depending on how the mood strikes at the time.
Like I said, different strokes for different folks.
@look-behind-you It's the only indicator we have, and while it doesn't represent the entire picture it 100% represents an overall trend. Combined with constant anecdotes about how dead servers feel now and people blaming hourglass and dive mechanics, the truth is the game is just at a low point.
No, it's definitely the developers' choices. Pirate Legend used to have actual meaning when it first released, now it can be speedrun in 24 hours. People used to be hyped about 50K, now that's chump change. FoFs and other world events used to actually be difficult and take time or coordination with other crews to complete, which left openings for interaction, now their difficulty is catered to ship sizes. Stuff like harpooning loot and selling at outposts used to take time and coordination with your crew to get it done fast, or else another crew would run up on you, another opportunity for interaction thrown away to farm instant gratification. Players can now dive directly to new servers to their quests and completely skip over any crew they may have run into.
Yes it's a bell curve, and there's nothing wrong with being on either side. The problem is that the PvE side has been completely chopped off and segregated in its own little bubble to rot and decay, and the PvE side happens to be where pretty much all new players start on.
I think safer seas and safer seas fleets are good additions to the game.
It caters to a different demographic, compared to High Seas.
Chill non-PvP players, parents with young children can host multiple ships in a single Safer Seas server and financially support Rare for enabling this.
It's better like this, than immediately leaving because they get sunk and can't experience the game without watching videos or finding experienced tour guides. I've left several games that I found too tedious / difficult to be a beginner in.
As long as there are substantial rewards that are exclusive to the High Seas, Safer Seas players will still have incentive to play the High Seas - when their risk appetite is ready, and they are already familiar with the PvE stuffs.
@worst-tdmer said in Complaints about Safer Seas/Safer Seas Fleets...:
and while it doesn't represent the entire picture it 100% represents an overall trend.
If you don't have 100% of the picture....it is, at best, guesswork. You might be able to see Steam (as an example) numbers dropping but have no idea about the other majority of the actual playerbase.
It's like seeing ONLY Tesla stock prices dropping and assuming ALL other electric car companies are doing exactly the same....without considering that Steam players (or Tesla investors) aren't influenced by something else. You can't draw a full conclusion from a partial view. Sure, you can guess...but that's as close to 'just made it up...trust me brah' as it gets.
No, it's definitely the developers' choices. Pirate Legend used to have actual meaning when it first released, now it can be speedrun in 24 hours. People used to be hyped about 50K, now that's chump change.
I can agree with the Pirate Legend thing being too easily attained nowadays. There is literally an in-game piece of parchment for t he top 10 Gold Earners during the Alpha....the WHOLE of the Alpha (months...)....and even number 10 barely topped a million. That is easily doable in a few hours now, though the game has changed a lot since then and loot is more prevalent.
That doesn't mean that the Developers have forced folks to just kill on sight, it is the players that perceive that as the more profitable option, so why take the risk?
There are, and I have been a part of plenty, ways where interaction with other crews doesn't equal death!
PvE is not being "chopped off and segregated in its own little bubble to rot and decay", if anything it is allowing newer folks to get their sea legs. If they never want to join High Seas, then that's fair enough, they will always be stuck with t he Safer Seas limits.
What factors would make it so that only steam users are playing less, and not every other platform? Also, how about average twitch viewership being the lowest they've ever been with the lowest peaks? Is that not a sign of a trend either?
Killing on sight is a form of player interaction, the only way it isn't player interaction is if you can't put up a fight. Which is why PvP is so important in this game, it opens up opportunities to do things how you want, you no longer have to be a helpless victim in every situation. What isn't player interaction is skipping every opportunity because the devs gave you that option.
The original safer seas model was giving players their sea legs. Now it's making it so that they have little reason to ever leave safer seas, like a jobless kid that has everything provided for them. Rare keeps giving them inches, soon it'll be a mile, I won't be surprised when most of the remaining limits no longer exist.
I'll be real:
Business wise the most logical path at this point would be to go with full fleshed private servers (safer sea fleets) on a subscription base
People will most definitely pay for basically an on demand alliance server with their chosen friends and honestly, "splitting the playerbase" isn't an argument at this stage since the people who play tend to be split anyway, the folks who want to PvPvE on the regular adventure servers vs the folks who only log in for SS or at best sign on with one of the alliance server communities (or just play something else).. These two groups barely ever mix in the first place so why would anyone be scared about them being seperated?
Wanna give the PvE players an incentive to hit up the open servers? Split the progression.. Set the PvE side to hard 0 and have people earn everything again there seperately and if you wanna go fight and show off some cool cosmetics against randos on the open seas? Gotta get your PvPvE grind on
@potatosord said in Complaints about Safer Seas/Safer Seas Fleets...:
It's so obvious that there is a huge portion of the playerbase that would prefer to have SoT be a single player game. Safer Seas Fleets will be abused so badly for exploiting, they don't need FotD or FoF, shipwrecks and skeleton captains can be cheesed for effectively limitless gold, I've seen the completionists server where people are posting screenshots of getting over 10,000 doubloons in a day, multiple days in a row, using kingly cheese on alliance servers. These are players who have over 1 million emmi value on day 1 of a ledger. Custom servers will be used to play the game without anyone messing with you, SS fleets will be used to cheese limitless gold.
I would not say its obvious, but theres definitely enough people on each side of the argument that if you have any kind of major stance, you hear both sides plenty, as well i have seen people doom say about features both pvp and safer seas related any time the topic comes up, but this community has watched people doom say for near 7 years now i think.
I dont think there will be anything to cheese for limitless gold since when rare finds people obtaining mass gold from exploits, they have shown to remove said gold if not yellow beard them. As well the fact the feature is not out yet and you are so sure it is so easily exploitable without any consideration for if they removed alliance boosting, which knowing how nerfed safer seas is to begin with, i will be expecting to be the case.
this is just a guess, but im not predicting many people making limitless gold in a server some one is paying out of pocket for that has a level cap, pennies as profits and probably no alliance so they have to split their treasures old school style, like before the alliance system was ever added.
@goldsmen I still see people posting their hauls every day in the completionists server. It's still active exploits, kingly cheese has not been patched for the at least 3 months I've been in that server. They post pictures every day of hundreds of kingly skulls and ashen keys/chests.
It's still a pull away from the original design philosophy, where one must keep their eyes on the horizon and one does not know what entails when a ship approaches.
Alas, we know what happens when a ship approaches, it's almost always either fight or flight.
The game designers have done a poor job of properly addressing this; instead of adding game mechanics where different emissaries can benefit from trade or other non-combat actions in a genuinely fun way, they further divide the population with this solution.
Lame.
@look-behind-you said in Complaints about Safer Seas/Safer Seas Fleets...:
There are, and I have been a part of plenty, ways where interaction with other crews doesn't equal death!
I am legitimately asking: in what ways have the game mechanics actually fostered these interactions? Like I get that fireworks can possibly lower tensions and allow a crew to strike up a conversation with another, but what happens after that other than, say, co-op on the already existing tales/quests (which can be done by a single crew in the first place?)
Also, please don't say glitterbeard. It's great, but really, not repeatable.
The real slap in the face to players that have been playing as intended for years is saying that we don't want progression in safer seas. I played SOLEY arena forever and have no problem with PvP. However, there are days where I just want to chill alone and not have to deal with anyone, but still be able to progress in the game I purchased. Safer Seas needs the same progression system as High Seas. What is your problem with me wanting to gain milestones for my Captained ship in the game I paid for and have put nearly 2000 hours into?
@pineapples5798 If you could do everything in safer that you can do in high, more players would play safer on its own, in its entirety. They would effectively be playing SoT in single player, which means no risk. If there is no chance of a player attacking you, then what stops you from stacking 50 or 100 or 1000 FotDs? What stops you from just leaving the game running with some macros to farm gold all day and now suddenly SoT sucks and is boring because nothing happens and you've done everything. Who cares about doing FotD stacks if no one has a chance to contest you? Alliance server players aren't real players. they get the number to go up and then never play again after they have everything aside from a real sense of accomplishment. If you make SoT a single player game, what's the point anymore?
@pineapples5798 So what happens when a huge portion of the PVP abhorring playerbase decides to play SoT single player? The servers will feel even more empty. You will keep running into the same crews more often if you play high seas, and the same sweaty troll crews will be able to stalk you more easily from server to server. Of all things, allowing safer seas to be the same as high seas but single player makes high seas pointless unless you specifically want to fight people, but most people won't be on high seas, so no one to fight. High seas will be even more dangerous if they decide to allow the lesser skilled players to leave, and that would negatively affect the game even more.
@pineapples5798
How is this even an argument? In what game something obtained through participating in PvP (or something similar to PvPvE) can also be obtained through mindless singleplayer PvE. Safer Seas already allows you to progress a big fraction of the available commendations riskfree and since they changed the gold restrictions you can also farm gold pretty easy. Should the game go against its core design, completely undermine any kind of progression players have been making for years and further divide its playerbase for no good reason other than you just want to chill? I purchased the game too btw and put thousands of hours as well, and I would appreciate all my achievements holding their value (as intented according to the game's design).@potatosord said in Complaints about Safer Seas/Safer Seas Fleets...:
@goldsmen I still see people posting their hauls every day in the completionists server. It's still active exploits, kingly cheese has not been patched for the at least 3 months I've been in that server. They post pictures every day of hundreds of kingly skulls and ashen keys/chests.
My question now is if you have proof of these people doing this, have you reported it yet?
I don't get why people say game is dead/dying.
According to steam stats it's always had 10k average players since release.
Dying? I would say game didn't go viral due to poor decisions made by managers or lack of Microsoft investment at the early stage.
It's hard to compare stats to other games, SoT is unique in it's genre, but I will allow myself to show You stats of similar games.June 2020
DBD - 77k | RUST - 93k | SOT - 66k
June 2021
DBD - 100k | RUST - 133k | SOT - 63k
June 2022
SDBD - 98k | RUST - 165k | SOT - 28k
June 2023
DBD - 87k | RUST - 162k | SOT - 16k
June 2024
DBD - 99k | RUST - 175k | SOT - 29k
June 2025
DBD - 129k | RUST - 193k | SOT - 14kJust look at primitive PvP game lol, it didn't fall through the years. The game is 9 years old tho.
IMO game gone wrong way, instead of going to more competitive and support PvP they full focused at recycling PvE content and gameplay simplification, which led to a loss of players interes, made loot less valueble, gameplay lost it's challenging. I think it's absolutely wrong decision for session based sandbox game originally oriented on players interactions.
Imagine how many young players SoT could steal from fortnite...
You don't need much resources to support PvP players, just give them 3 things: matchmaking, server instance and weapons, they will make their own content fighting each other.
And we here don't even talk about poor CSM that banned a lot of players unfailry and decisions that raised the cheaters nation. It just started by fixing ini file FoV exploit, players been forced to use third party apps to change their FoV again. From fixing ini file to keg drops, server crashes, other terrible exploits cheaters have access to...
I remember the days when cheating was socially condemned in SoT PvP community, nowadays if you play PvP they ask you 'what are you using?'
I remember the days when you was exited by hopping on FoTD server because there always was a contest: the other hoppers, the takers, full server was fighting over only one thing.
Feels bad that the developers of this game aren't on the same boat with it's player base.
Time will tell where their decision to separate PvE and PvV players will lead.@worst-tdmer said in Complaints about Safer Seas/Safer Seas Fleets...:
...numbers-wise SoT has never been more dead than the past year.
Funny. I've been hearing some variant of this "SoT is dead" for 6+ years now.
@potatosord said in Complaints about Safer Seas/Safer Seas Fleets...:
@pineapples5798 If you could do everything in safer that you can do in high, more players would play safer on its own, in its entirety. They would effectively be playing SoT in single player, which means no risk. If there is no chance of a player attacking you, then what stops you from stacking 50 or 100 or 1000 FotDs? What stops you from just leaving the game running with some macros to farm gold all day and now suddenly SoT sucks and is boring because nothing happens and you've done everything. Who cares about doing FotD stacks if no one has a chance to contest you? Alliance server players aren't real players. they get the number to go up and then never play again after they have everything aside from a real sense of accomplishment. If you make SoT a single player game, what's the point anymore?
I can't upvote this enough.
@gosva5434 if you look at the fact their newer upcoming game ever wilds was just canceled and you see all the layoffs in the gaming industry today it is a very uncertain time for all studios.
if sea of thieves is going to continue they need more money coming in. even the die hard fans of sea of thieves are getting bored. the game is so old now that new cash shop cosmetics arent as appealing when we already have so many.
the concern that true PvE servers would kill the current high seas version of the game is nonsense.
lack of pve servers has ACTUALLY been killing the game for YEARS..... the demand for PvE servers is at an extreme high. i have friends who have been paying a monthly fee to strangers to provide them with PvE servers to play on via discord alliances etc. this is money that could have gone to Rare to help fun the game. instead its going to random internet strangers? that seems wrong to me.
only newer players use safer seas because they want to buy cosmetics so they are playing for gold more than levels. ironically they will soon get to the point where they cant level any more and cosmetics are also tired behind reputation levels so then safer seas HUGE flaw appears.... the lack of being able to progress makes it a dead mode. not being able to use your captaincy ship you worked so hard for kills the mode. not being able to do athena kills the mode, not having chest of fortune kills the mode.
now we can trade doubloons for athena levels and just farm doubloons in safer seas... silly.
they have alienated a potential 5 million die hard PvE players which all could have potentially bought cosmetics in the cash shop and might even have been willing to pay for PvE servers. those people will never return to the game.
safer fleets is as useless as safer seas. it carries the same restrictions of not being able to level up, not being able to sell cast via sovereigns, not being able to play captain. oh but you can play with your guild friends all paying a monthly fee to play in a mode where you CANT use your guild ships? what the heck is the point then?
rare has taken WAY too long to finally add PvE server support and yet they dont understand the PvE mindset. i am a PvE player. i play to make progress. i will NEVER pay a monthly fee to play in a restrictive mode. i WILL continue to leech off my friends who are paying a monthly fee to have access to private PvE servers because there i get full progression with emissaries, reapers, athena, everything i want.
i WANT to give rare money.... IF they let me play how i want, when i want. no one. NO ONE is going to be willing to pay for safer fleets where your level is capped at 40 out of 500 AND you cant even level reapers or athena.
the real issue here is 70% of the loot in high seas isnt worth picking up. the value is too low. they keep adding more and more valuable loot devaluing all old loot. i remember when the game came out even in year 1 my friends had a rule of nothing under captains chests. now not even ashen captains chests are worth looting.
the smart thing to do would be give high seas a 50% rep and gold boost across the board. basically add incentive to play high seas while still offering a slower safer path for those who dont want to deal with other players either due to skill issues, disabilities, social anxiety, etc.
@PotatoSord limitless gold is useless. look at any streamer they already have limitless gold and they play normally. gold has no value in this game unless its your first year in sea of thieves. anyone whos been around longer wont need gold. "over 1 million emis value on day1" i mean thats pve discords right now... they hit 30 million on the first hour of a month because they super stack the night before the clock rolls over. emissary has always been a meaningless leader board. its not serious competition. even hourglass which was supposed to be actual competition had let cheaters get away scott free for far too long that hourglass cosmetics arent even special any more.
full progress safer seas WOULD have = millions in revenue to help fund the future of sea of thieves. but like everything with this game they are acting too late. safer fleets will come out with no change to how safer seas works. no one will pay for it then it will be 2 more years before they finally lift the restrictions and rare will announce the shutting down of sea of thieves
people need to stop worrying about pve servers potentially killing their game and realize lack of pve servers is already killing their game. the people who want pve arent playing on high seas so you can steal from them. they are uninstalling and never looking back. rare has already lost 95% of the players who have ever played this game. thats not an insult of slamming them thats just the age of the game. games peak in the first few years then they find a smaller core audience but even thats fading over time. the time to profit off pve servers would have been the peak of the games popularity. full progress safer seas MIGHT win some people back. but the damage is already done.
