I haven't been getting ambushed nearly as much this season, and the seasonal stuff hasn't made me fight someone to the death to achieve it while still maintaining an interesting tension, encouraging longer play sessions, and discouraging dives. That ashen key requirement for the deed alone was genius in terms of changing the culture of play for this season.
So, thanks!
@burnbacon said in Good Job This Season:
So...nobody is playing then?
Plenty of people! I usually see at least three to four ships a session, they're just doing stuff on-server instead of dive-hopping, so they have better things to do than chase after any sail on the horizon. I actually had someone come up on my ship while I was doing the Shrine of Hungering, steal the stronghold and athena's gunpowder barrels I had stored, and leave without sinking my boat. Rather amusing, finding that out after the fact.
Really, it's been nice having interactions with players, even ones as scant as sighting them on the horizon, that don't always end in one party obliterating the other. Of course, it still happens, just... not always! Exactly what I asked for, really. Variety is the spice of life, you know?
The game is just dying lol. All the old players that would be spending their time in adventure clearing stamps have left for other games.
@worst-tdmer said in Good Job This Season:
@flashkannon5118
The game is just dying lol. All the old players that would be spending their time in adventure clearing stamps have left for other games.
If'n you say so. I only really have anecdote and not data, but the anecdotes have been a lot better this season than last season. I was willing to credit that to deliberate action by the developers to try and improve the user experience, but I suppose it could also be Decline resulting in a more favorable outcome for me, personally. I know we have the Steam usage numbers, are there publically available xbox and playstation numbers?
No the only actual data we have is twitch viewership and steam. I've only seen two "reports" about Playstation numbers. The first report said Playstation had over a million players shortly after launch, the second said Playstation lost over half its players less than a month later.
Anecdotally I can tell you that a vast majority of the old good players/"namers" I know, have long since abandoned the game.
In light of the new developer update video... I sincerely hope the developers did not see this thread, because if they did, and their response was "you shouldn't be having fun like that, we're going to patch that out"?
Yeesh, I just don't know what to say, except that it's very clear that the opinions and experiences of myself and players like me are unwanted.
You referring to the Doubloons nonsense or the fact they are just now recognizing the issue with players and empty seas.
Nobody wants to Contest WE anymore, players Dive more often to find stuff, and care less about staying long periods on a single server.
Doubloons...is a silly thing to be scared about. Frankly, if it gives me another reason to Grind and play. So be it. Bloons are so easy to achieve now and easy to come by, they are just different color gold coins.
Plus, We have until S19 to spend them before the "Reset"
@burnbacon said in Good Job This Season:
You referring to the Doubloons nonsense or the fact they are just now recognizing the issue with players and empty seas.
The latter, kind of. Just feels like a slap in the face to make a thread celebrating that the Frequency of Aggressive On-Horizon-Spotting Chasers to finally drop below Annoyingly Frequent only for them to say that they want to jack that rate back up, and that it's a major problem that it's at a rate I find fun (that is to say, occasional, when I'm not doing a high risk activity and/or near the center of the map).
Nobody wants to Contest WE anymore, players Dive more often to find stuff, and care less about staying long periods on a single server.
Only reason I dive these days is to save to 5 minutes it takes to make a ship on a less annoying server or to do a raid quest. And I dunno what you're talking about with the world events, people contest them all the time. Hell, I contest them when I don't have a lot to lose, and I don't even like fighting. Sometimes it's fun to stir the pot.
Doubloons...is a silly thing to be scared about. Frankly, if it gives me another reason to Grind and play. So be it. Bloons are so easy to achieve now and easy to come by, they are just different color gold coins.
Plus, We have until S19 to spend them before the "Reset"
Hey man, keep it on topic. Doubloons are another thread. I know both you and I have replied in both threads, but say that there, not here.
The latter, kind of. Just feels like a slap in the face to make a thread celebrating that the Frequency of Aggressive On-Horizon-Spotting Chasers to finally drop below Annoyingly Frequent only for them to say that they want to jack that rate back up, and that it's a major problem that it's at a rate I find fun (that is to say, occasional, when I'm not doing a high risk activity and/or near the center of the map).
Player interaction is and always has been what makes SoT special. Every viral clip of this game involves one crew encountering another. Gold/rep/cosmetics have always just been incentives to bait out player interaction.
@worst-tdmer said in Good Job This Season:
Player interaction is and always has been what makes SoT special. Every viral clip of this game involves one crew encountering another. Gold/rep/cosmetics have always just been incentives to bait out player interaction.
THIS. Interaction doesn't always mean PvP fight to the death. I used to have tons of friendly encounters and team ups back in the day. I miss those.
Well. Rare always tends to cater to the 1% of louder voices to please them first, only to later realize.."Oh wait, now nobody is doing anything fun"
The complaints thus far are always such:
Chasers/Runners.
You either hate being chased for "no reason" or hate chasing because.."reasons" Frankly, If someone runs from me..im not gonna wait My Time giving chase to a ship that may or may not have anything worth the trouble.
Doing any form of WE and being "annoyed" by contested players. Even if its just 1 ship going back for another round. The ONLY ship. mind you.
That always kills me. People upset nobody fights over anything, because louder people got upset they did. :/
It rare fault on that matter. They made the changes, Knowing full well game is about conflict, contesting, fighting, battles. Now they made it so, nothing is really happening anymore. Just to please the small amount of players who get upset of "Returning ships, wasting resourcing" because they fail to quickly finish a WE in time. That the point.
@worst-tdmer said in Good Job This Season:
Player interaction is and always has been what makes SoT special. Every viral clip of this game involves one crew encountering another. Gold/rep/cosmetics have always just been incentives to bait out player interaction.
That's, uh... at least as far as I've been personally seeing, most interactions these days are sink or be sunk. It's been a long time since I had a positive player interaction where I didn't have the other player at my mercy and decided not to sink them. If Rare wants more varied player interactions, they're going to have to incentivize something other than shoot on sight paranoia. I'm not anti-PvP, or anti-player-interaction, but when most of the time, player interaction of any kind means a high chance of a fruitless victory, a protracted fight, or a loss, it's hard not to want to avoid it.
Plus, I'm not exactly looking to make or be made into a viral clip, y'know? As far as I'm considered the thing that makes Sea of Thieves special is the excellent sailing mechanics on ships you're actually piloting as a person instead of controlling the ship directly, the promise of reward against the risk of failure, the good times with friends, the memorable setting, the excellent artstyle, and the pure beauty of the seas.
