Longevity issues (A review and prediction)

  • zRise OG
    Founder

    Id like to premise this post by saying i have been an insider since day one, and have played every Alpha and now the Beta, i love this game and mean all the points here with respect and with a genuine hope of these issues being addressed and for the game to Succeed.

    Sea of Thieves is an extremely fun game, especially with friends (Even if you need to make some new ones). At first the Voyages from the different vendors are fun and when PvP content is mixed inbetween Voyages it becomes exciting as you dont want to lose Ye Ol'Booty, however after and hour or two the game gets very very stale very very quickly, the voyages become tedious and repetative, even after increasing your rank with the different factions the objective is more or less the same: Go here, grab this and sail back, if youre lucky you will have to kill 3 Skeletons on the Island.

    The game has no clear and worthwhile progression system, you're a Pirate and the objective is... to look pretty? it seems strange, now dont get me wrong Player customisation and ship customisation is something everyone wants and is glad that it is in the game, however when it is the only point of playing the game it just seems wrong.

    We know Rare is doubling down on all players being at the same level regardless of their play time but that isnt a good formula for a long lasting game, people want to feel rewarded like they are playing for a reason, that they have a goal, and i dont think a new hat is going to be that goal.

    I think this game will be fun a launch but quickly die as a result of not being able to entertain their player base in the long run, which is a real shame.

  • Login To Reply
    22
    Posts
    8.2k
    Views
  • Saltyzar

    I don't get how you went from "sea of thieves is an extremely fun game" to "the game is lacking a goal" when the goal clearly is to have fun.

    It's also a game that one can easily be burned out on. Maybe play a little bit less? Every game gets stale if you play it a ton.

  • Meingott77

    I think the biggest issue to longevity is that the 3 factions quests dont really differ that much, in particular the merchant alliance and gold hoarders. "go out and gather this stuff from the islands". Functionally these quests are all fetch quests.

    at some point people are going to get sick of the repetition. there isn't much variety in what we are doing.

    2nd biggest thing is there doesn't seem to be any other gold sink than the vanity items. Once people have what they want, what do they spend gold on?

  • arnavmode248164
    Founder

    @saltyzar "Maybe play a bit less?" That's a really stupid comment. If you want to defend a game's flaws and tediousness by telling them to play the game "a bit less" you're just delusional.

  • Saltyzar

    @arnavmode248164 chess the most perfected board game out there yet one can find it boring if one plays it 8 hours a day. It's the same with every video game, some can play a game for hours on end without getting bored yet another player playing the same goes bored. Does this mean it's a flawed game? No it does not.

    So no I am not delusional, but you are for expecting every game to stay fun if you play it a lot.

  • oO DrShade Oo

    We could do with a ranked system. Each player would be ranked individually and is scored buy the amount of gold aquired, quests completed, PvP kills etc. This would give players something to work towards. It could extend to crew ranks, if crews we set up like crews in GTA.

  • lordmasterrazor

    If rare wants me to re-preorder, they better showcase a bunch of great content they’ve been keeping secret. For $60 you get three flavors of fetch quests and the entire goal is, customize your pirate and ship? For all your playtime you get nothing but cosmetic skin changes to the exact same equipment that everyone has? That amount of content sounds like something from a mobile game, not a AAA dev. I want to see more of what you get when you become a “pirate legend” which is the endgame goal right now. So far what know is:
    -you get a hideout which you start at instead of a random outpost every time
    -a ship that retains its customization and exits through a waterfall
    -slightly more rewarding and challenging fetch quests, still in just the original three flavors

    Some of that does sound good, but not $60 and keep playing past that point of progression good.
    We also know there will be pets. Which do nothing. Just like everything else you can buy with your in game currency. What’s the point? “To have fun. Obviously you don’t get this games pure genius” well I could have just as much fun in game that costs just as much or even less and has way more content and replay ability.

  • Le Joli Rouge
    Marauder
    Insider

    A lot of people keep playing games everyday where they just connect, kill other peoples, and do it over again for hours. Some people even play actively with pieces of wood/plastic on a 8x8 board without any kind of reward. Most of them don't mind about the leaderboards or their own stats, they just play. What's so different in SoT, which already gives a more content than that? Don't you think you're being greedy?

  • Arson000

    I, too, and really worried about how flat some of the gameplay can be. The game is beautiful. They have knocked it out of the park on the aesthetics of the game. The sights, the sounds. I really feel like I'm at sea.

    The problem comes when you start looking for things to make your time rewarding. I can run quests for the Hoarders or the Merchants and basically sail around a small portion of the map. I spend a lot of that time seeing no other players, so mostly I'm safe with all my treasure. I expected to feel a lot more afraid when carrying large amounts of treasure.

    I am concerned that I cannot occupy my time very well with fetch quests alone when all my money really serves is some cosmetic upgrades. I could pay $20 for a pretty sailing game, but this whole "this is beta" thing which people beat around doesn't mean a ton of hidden content is hanging around the corner. This is probably what we are getting in 10 days, and it's a shame. There is so much more that could have been done.

    I expect reviews to congratulate the game on a good look and feel, but criticize the lack of content beyond hour 4 or so.

    I hope there is some improvement.

  • arnavmode248164
    Founder

    @saltyzar I can play hours of Fallout 4 and COD every day because each has either great stories to tell or have addictive gameplay that amounts to cool cosmetics, guns and weapon types. I'm not bored at all of these games and the same goes for a sizeable majority seeing as how these games are still played a lot to this day.

    Sea of thieves does not have that longevity or aim which makes the game a boring, repetitive and pointless affair, I have seen all there is to the game in the first half hour and it neither has great gameplay to elevate it nor a riveting narrative to keep me engaged.

    Games are meant to be addictive, to be played for a long time. I mean this game hasn't even released yet and there are several posts saying that this game is repetitive. So telling a person to play the game a bit less as a desperate attempt to defend this fundamentally flawed game is definitely delusional.

  • skuldleif
    Captain
    Founder

    @zrise-og he know the truth about our game sir,we have to kill him ^^

  • OneEyedHeathen
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    @meingott77 said in Longevity issues (A review and prediction):

    I think the biggest issue to longevity is that the 3 factions quests dont really differ that much, in particular the merchant alliance and gold hoarders. "go out and gather this stuff from the islands". Functionally these quests are all fetch quests.

    at some point people are going to get sick of the repetition. there isn't much variety in what we are doing.

    2nd biggest thing is there doesn't seem to be any other gold sink than the vanity items. Once people have what they want, what do they spend gold on?

    These is a gross simplification. We have puzzle focused missions, PVE focused missions and timed Escort/Delivery missions where you care for your cargo. What is the same is the method you use to turn in the quests. You always travel to a location to do the mission (sometimes not clear like the MA voyages) and you will seem to always take them back to an outpost, and that is to introduce an element of risk to the journey but also to each encounter with another ship. It's an element of "permadeath" making you sweaty. But what you do on the actual voyage is different IMO for all three, quite a bit different and not simple fetch quests.

  • Jedi Jez
    Marauder
    Founder

    I'm a believer and a pre-orderer---but repetition always becomes boring, at least to some degree.

    Thankfully there's a whole (admittedly unrevealed) roadmap (sea chart?) for SoT that will include new features, 'stuff', art, etc. We're only just getting going with SoT, and I wouldn't expect much in the first few months while bugs and services are patched up. But as more and more features are added, I think we'll end up with a 'Game-as-Service' that delivers fresh content regularly and continues to deliver a world where people will have fun in new and familiar ways.

    NO-ONE needs any help in imagining the kind of features that could make it into the game. There's so much Rare COULD do within SoT, and lots they will do, I'm sure. But that's for farther down the road. Just get going. And remember that SoT is JUST a game. There's other stuff to do and play when you feel like making port for a while.

  • Meingott77

    @oneeyedkillah said in Longevity issues (A review and prediction):

    @meingott77 said in Longevity issues (A review and prediction):

    I think the biggest issue to longevity is that the 3 factions quests dont really differ that much, in particular the merchant alliance and gold hoarders. "go out and gather this stuff from the islands". Functionally these quests are all fetch quests.

    at some point people are going to get sick of the repetition. there isn't much variety in what we are doing.

    2nd biggest thing is there doesn't seem to be any other gold sink than the vanity items. Once people have what they want, what do they spend gold on?

    These is a gross simplification. We have puzzle focused missions, PVE focused missions and timed Escort/Delivery missions where you care for your cargo. What is the same is the method you use to turn in the quests. You always travel to a location to do the mission (sometimes not clear like the MA voyages) and you will seem to always take them back to an outpost, and that is to introduce an element of risk to the journey but also to each encounter with another ship. It's an element of "permadeath" making you sweaty. But what you do on the actual voyage is different IMO for all three, quite a bit different and not simple fetch quests.

    the issue with the merchant quests is that those aren't really delivery missions. They are gathering missions. You're description would be perfect, but that isn't really the case.

    They should be shipping quests where at the start point we load cargo and have to make the timer to deliver them.

    instead of getting some alternate gameplay we get the same as the gold hoarders. go gather at the islands. just because the materials are different doesn't mean they aren't the same gameplay.

  • Fantus
    Commander
    Founder

    @zRise-OG Hopefully the 'Service' that Rare wants to provide to this game will be enough to be keeping players attached to the game, I share some of the same fears as launch is usually where most copies of the game are sold.

    Also though, this might be a bug but you say you've played in every Alpha and Beta and have been an insider since day one, but your profile says you joined 4 monthes ago. This video shows a technical alpha update that was for the insider program in 2016.

  • OneEyedHeathen
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    @meingott77

    They are gather and delivery. There is a reason why the MA voyages dont complete when you cage the chickens (unlike the gold hoarders/order voyages ending when you dig up a chest or kill the captain) it is because the voyage includes the delivery.

    Scouring islands, finding the right breeds, catching the animals, and caring for them does feel different from the puzzle aspect of solving riddles or solving the map puzzles. What feels the same is taking the goods back to an outpost IMO. Its not just different materials, its different mechanics.

  • Fantus
    Commander
    Founder

    @oneeyedkillah Yeah, it seems every single quest in this game is a form of fetch quest.

  • SERGENT COOTER

    I have come to the conclusion that this game is nothing like what some people thought it would be like. You will either love this or not. I personally feel it has lived up to my expectations and then some. Everything else for me is just icing on the cake. I know it sounds cold but if you don’t get what this game is about then It’s probably not for you. I’m sure there will be some rpg style spin off of this game with linear progression that others will love! This game will be very successful and many will love it for what it is. I will be one of them. I have also played alpha, closed beta, three stress test and open beta.

  • Saltyzar

    @arnavmode248164 you have no proof of this statement, there are plenty of guys who have spent hundreds of hours in alpha end betas of SOT and are still not bored. cod is very boring to me. So it's all personal on how much longetivity it has.

    So stop stating is as a fact.

    I get it you find it boring, then dont play it or wait till expansions. No one if forcing you to play.
    Plenty of people who enjoy this game as it is so there is no need to burn the devs.

  • Lucky Monkee
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    @arnavmode248164 Fallout is not repetitive? Wanna help me help a settlement?
    Its a different game - cant be compared to COD(that's a blasphemy) or Fallout.

    @saltyzar You peeked! I am one of them guys who are yet to be bored.

  • Dje La Planque
    Master
    Founder

    I always like those threads where people complain but where we never see a real solution.

    Even if you had bountys, fishing or whatever else, you still need to leave the outpost to do something. You go from A to B like Mario since so many time. You can't reinvente the wheel, but you can think of other ways to drive.

Login To Reply
22
Posts
8.2k
Views
20 out of 22