4 Teams - 3 Expansions. The numbers don't add up

  • Sgt Paloogoo
    Commander
    Insider

    Avast Maties!
    Ahoy lads & lasses, Rare announced that their getting a 4th team together to develop more content for SoT.

    So as we all know there are 3 more Expansions coming after Cursed Sails and Forsaken Shores, each Expansion has its own crew developing it.
    Ebola
    Donuts
    Now Rare announced a while back that there will be 6 Expansion for this game before the year is done.
    The expansions are as follows:
    The Hungering Deep, Cursed Sails, Forsaken Shores, Autumn Snails, ???? ???? And ????? ????.

    Each time an expansion is complete the team that worked on it moves on to the next Expansion they've been assigned.
    So 6 Expansions, 3 teams.

    Why have a 4th team?
    Here's my speculation on what this 4th team could be doing:

    • Community Hub
    • Expansions for 2019
    • Bug fixs
    • New Ships
    • Plotting to take over the world (Lol)

    Well thats my speculation, what do you think this 4th crew could be up to?

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  • KnightRegius
    Captain
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    Founder

    @sgt-palooggoo I think they they'll just rotate into the 2 month update schedules or potentially making content for between major updates such as cosmetics.
    If not I'm ready to worship my Sea of thieves overlords.

  • Murkrage
    Commander
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @sgt-palooggoo

    During E3 they did 'Talk of the Tavern'. At some point Joe Neate explains their plan with this fourth development team. Watch it below (video starts at the moment I'm talking about!). The too long didn't watch is as follows:

    They want to get in a rythm where content is released every 5 weeks while the development time for these updates is actually increased. Every update will have had 6 months of development time, but we get to enjoy new update very 5 weeks.

  • rockinpodunk
    Captain
    Insider

    The 4th team will be working on the content update AFTER the already planned ones, and then the first team to finish will leapfrog to the front of the line.

    It just means they can keep the same schedule/frequency of updates, while simultaneously giving each update more time to be developed, allowing for bigger updates once the teams are in a rhythm.

  • Puck269
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    The 4th team they said was working on the content for the end of the year event/content that they have planned.

  • SqualZell
    Seafarer

    the 4th team is the team that
    1- is always on time to release their content
    2- never delays their content
    3- content released is always bug-free
    4- will release more content than all other teams together

    This team is called
    Cosmetic Microtransaction design team.

  • xCALYPT0x
    Master
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    Boatswain

    @sgt-palooggoo Honestly I wouldn't mind having team #4 work on the weekly events. Looks like some more resources could go towards those.

  • F1lthy Rich
    Master
    Founder

    @xcalypt0x said in 4 Teams - 3 Expansions. The numbers don't add up:

    @sgt-palooggoo Honestly I wouldn't mind having team #4 work on the weekly events. Looks like some more resources could go towards those.

    Where do you think they got this 4th team from? They didn't go out and recruit a load of new people, They have reduced the 3 existing teams by taking some of their members to form a fourth team.
    As a result each of those teams will now achieve less than they would have with those members still in their team, that means that each of the next 3 updates will end up being smaller than they would have since they have less people and are coming out on the same schedule.

    It sounds positive but unless there is a law of diminishing returns at play meaning the last few members didn't add as much content proportionally to the size of the team, what you will get is less in each update than planned, or less bugs pulled out of those updates as they complete the work far closer to the release date than they would have.

  • Murkrage
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    Boatswain
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    @squalzell Well that just seems rather... unnecessary doesn't it?

    @xCALYPT0x Each team is responsible for their own events, I believe. So all events that happen between Cursed Sails and Forsaken Shores, are made by the team that made Cursed Sails.

  • DrunkPunk138
    Master
    Founder

    @f1lthy-rich said in 4 Teams - 3 Expansions. The numbers don't add up:

    @xcalypt0x said in 4 Teams - 3 Expansions. The numbers don't add up:

    @sgt-palooggoo Honestly I wouldn't mind having team #4 work on the weekly events. Looks like some more resources could go towards those.

    Where do you think they got this 4th team from? They didn't go out and recruit a load of new people, They have reduced the 3 existing teams by taking some of their members to form a fourth team.
    As a result each of those teams will now achieve less than they would have with those members still in their team, that means that each of the next 3 updates will end up being smaller than they would have since they have less people and are coming out on the same schedule.

    It sounds positive but unless there is a law of diminishing returns at play meaning the last few members didn't add as much content proportionally to the size of the team, what you will get is less in each update than planned, or less bugs pulled out of those updates as they complete the work far closer to the release date than they would have.

    Do you have any evidence that this is what was done? Because from the sound of it, they could very well have hired another full team to focus on this given they beat their end year sales goal within the first two months of launch.

  • F1lthy Rich
    Master
    Founder

    @drunkpunk138
    What they said was they are "spinning up a 4th team". What they did not say was "they have hired a new team".
    Also, it would hardly seem sensible to a non-programmer to go grab a load of new people who have never worked on the game and make them a team in their own right, so there must have been some element of the existing teams transferred.

    Not evidence, just logical thinking.

  • DrunkPunk138
    Master
    Founder

    @f1lthy-rich said in 4 Teams - 3 Expansions. The numbers don't add up:

    @drunkpunk138
    What they said was they are "spinning up a 4th team". What they did not say was "they have hired a new team".
    Also, it would hardly seem sensible to a non-programmer to go grab a load of new people who have never worked on the game and make them a team in their own right, so there must have been some element of the existing teams transferred.

    Not evidence, just logical thinking.

    Makes sense, that's logic I can follow. However, I think it's more sensible than you give credit for hiring new people to jump on a team creating content. Of course the team would be lead by someone pushing the creative direction of what they are developing. They've been doing some serious hiring, including for positions that would take creative roles, so I think it's quite possible and even likely they hired on some new blood. It's pretty counter productive to solely cannibalize their own teams. While I don't doubt they would move some experienced people around so it's not just a team of new people, it's not at all unusual to hire new staff to pump out new content (just because they are new to the company doesn't mean they are inexperienced)

  • xCALYPT0x
    Master
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    Boatswain

    @murkrage Right. And I'm suggesting shifting away from that model and having a team dedicated to them.

  • Murkrage
    Commander
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    Boatswain
    Founder

    @xcalypt0x said in 4 Teams - 3 Expansions. The numbers don't add up:

    @murkrage Right. And I'm suggesting shifting away from that model and having a team dedicated to them.

    While I understand what you are coming from, I’d rather have the 4 teams for big updates and then an actual events team that works closely which wich content update.

    That way they get more dev time and we get more content every 6 weeks.

  • Hynieth
    Master
    Insider

    They've just started working on something, doesnt mean they've already got a name for it, or at the least a name they are willing to share. Just call it blue harvest ;-)

  • Zaannox
    Castaway

    @sgt-palooggoo Someone has to code and develop the weekly events you know...

  • xCALYPT0x
    Master
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    Boatswain

    @murkrage said in 4 Teams - 3 Expansions. The numbers don't add up:

    @xcalypt0x said in 4 Teams - 3 Expansions. The numbers don't add up:

    @murkrage Right. And I'm suggesting shifting away from that model and having a team dedicated to them.

    While I understand what you are coming from, I’d rather have the 4 teams for big updates and then an actual events team that works closely which wich content update.

    That way they get more dev time and we get more content every 6 weeks.

    That sounds like you want 5 teams. I'm not sure that was an option.

  • Murkrage
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    Boatswain
    Founder

    @xcalypt0x Aye, correct. That way the larger updates come in at the same rate while still getting a longer time to develop. Alongside that a dedicated adventures (as they are called) team would keep players busy in between the updates.

  • xCALYPT0x
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain

    @murkrage said in 4 Teams - 3 Expansions. The numbers don't add up:

    @xcalypt0x Aye, correct. That way the larger updates come in at the same rate while still getting a longer time to develop. Alongside that a dedicated adventures (as they are called) team would keep players busy in between the updates.

    Well sure, that would be great but I thought we were discussing the role of team #4? I said I would rather have them do weekly events instead of adding a 4th content update team. I didn't think a 5th team was an option lol.

    Either way, I want one team who is dedicated to weekly events.

  • Murkrage
    Commander
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    Boatswain
    Founder

    @xcalypt0x It wasn't, I just made it one haha.

    Within the current system, however, I'd prefer them to focus on the updates. Mainly to silence the naysayers every single update a little bit more. Really want this game to reach it's potential, we can only do that if higher quality content is released more often :)

  • ThaBigSweaty
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    I think the fourth team was hired to feed the other three teams snacks like various nuts and berries. You know to keep their energy levels up and stuff. That stuff is important.

  • Murkrage
    Commander
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    Boatswain
    Founder

    @teammastadon said in 4 Teams - 3 Expansions. The numbers don't add up:

    I think the fourth team was hired to feed the other three teams snacks like various nuts and berries. You know to keep their energy levels up and stuff. That stuff is important.

    We were all wrong. We have been quoting Joe Neate wrong this entire time. He does speak a little blurry from time to time. He's been saying: 'We are rolling out a food team'. How could we have missed this.

  • John Hatter
    Marauder

    While the system sounds promising, is anyone else concerned by this level of output long term?

    I can't help but wonder how many differing events they can do before they run out and either fizzle or start repeating. Even in an MMORPG's lifespan one always wonders how many expansions they can come up with before running out of ideas/ruining the game but their content timeline is set a lot faster than your run of the mill MMORPG expansion. Where normally there is time to plot and design they have set themselves up with a mandatory need to be 5 steps ahead of themselves as it were. Seems risky to me.

    Much like I felt about Hungering Deep, I like the theory but question the execution.

  • Sgt Paloogoo
    Commander
    Insider

    @john-hatter well, there is really only like 3 good ideas I have for future Expansions.

  • John Hatter
    Marauder

    @sgt-palooggoo

    I think this could prove a real hiccup for the game down the road. While I agree and like your ideas(especially going arctic) they aren't original by any means. As much as I love anything pirate themed there is only so many cliches to play with and so many ways to bend those cliches. If you think too far outside the box then it no longer fits into the theme. While 100% authenticity isn't the goal you still need to maintain a level of theme credibility.

    To be fair I would hope that a development team working on an active title would have thought all this through ahead of time but at the rate they want to push things out, even on a smaller content scale, they are going to have to really stay ahead of themselves or risk tripping and we know how unforgiving people can be when they stumble.

  • Sgt Paloogoo
    Commander
    Insider

    @john-hatter

    Well yeah definitely, because there's only so many pirate ideas out there.
    The theme will start to break with the more stuff you add.

  • pureatti2ude
    Insider

    @sgt-palooggoo I hope that the 4th team is used to fully test out all expansions and updates before initial release. I know some things can only be tested with a full scale of players, but nonetheless it needs to happen. So many updates so far have caused major issues and have even set RARE back with releasing content on the scheduled time frame. Doing something about issues such as these could be very beneficial to the team and the players of the game in the long run.

  • R3B3lSpy
    Captain
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    Founder

    Good Scpeculator keep speculating!

  • Sgt Paloogoo
    Commander
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    @r3b3lspy thank ye!

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