Appearance re-roll feature should NOT be completely locked after a paywall

I believe it works as intended, imo leave it as is.
Currently you are able to stumble upon an Ancient Skeleton which on average will reward you the needed premium currency to obtain aforementioned potion.

Extra skin slots akin to Outfit Slots are a nice idea for sure. though i like this one.

@musical-memoirs

I think the intention of the paywall is to limit the amount of times a player rerolls. When it costs real money, you're much less inclined to want to do it often...

Throughout the game's lifespan, Rare have seemed very reluctant about the whole idea of letting players re-roll their character. Even though they ultimately ended up saying yes and doing it, I think their intention was always that we would pick a character and that character we picked would be who you are in the world of Sea of Thieves.

In your post, you equated character re-rolls with something that should be as free and flexible as changing your clothes and equipment - but honestly it should not be that flexible at all because it removes that sense of "self" and personal attachment that you have with a character model.

Extra skin slots are a no from me for the same reason... Your character model should not be readily interchangeable at the drop of a hat.

So what's my personal verdict?

Character rerolls should be treated like an absolute last resort for a player who just absolutely hates the character they picked. It should not be another regularly customizable feature.

Locking it behind a pay wall is the perfect implementation of this feature, as it deters the player from treating this like just another customization option....

I said what I said. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm surprised Rare allowed it to happen. I do recall when I chose my character that it said something about choosing carefully cause it's permanent. As others have stated your character is who you are in the game. Also i have successfully tucked countless times with my thicc build. Was tucked a couple days ago and had the crew, to no avail of course, sending me xbox messages saying they knew i was there and wanted to know where i was. I believe you shouldn't be able to change it and was a bit disappointed when I found out they were. I also thought it should have had a cost of 499 ancient coins to deter people from changing it often. As for me, I'll keep on being the fat, tattoed, shirtless guy with a bluebeard!

@musical-memoirs Wouldn't cost me a dime, never bought anything and I have enough ancient coins that I got for free from killing an ancient skeleton.

Another player mad they got to cough up “2$” to change a avatar....
That I mind you, rarely ever see unless emoting. It’s always POV

I don't care for the idea of getting to change your character at all. I like the way Rare had originally designed it so that you choose and if changed, it would be an entirely new character starting from the beginning.

Sorry, didn't think that talking about old stuff in the insiders that became announced features without revealing anything new was not allowed. Will be way more careful about that in the future.

I don't remember 2 years ago a warning that it was permanent. Been a long time already... And back then I was extremely limited since I had no pagedown button on my laptop keyboard to re-roll characters, I had to restart the full game for a re-roll so I did that only once. I didn't think I could change (facial)hair so I choose the one that had the best hair even though hair can be changed. And I have seen quite some people asking for this feature since they messed up their look. That's why Rare announced that they were going to add this feature one day.

I don't mind my look, but if I knew it would have become one of my most played games I might have taken the time to lend an extended keyboard so I could press page down to generate new pirates. But then I would still choose the one with the best (facial)hair since I didn't know what could be changed and what not.

And to all who are completely against changing skins at all...
Well this feature is not aimed at you, but why would you have a problem with someone else wanting it? Does it trouble you if someone you didn't even knew the original skin of changed skins? There are lots of players in this game, so I have yet to meet the same player twice on the seas at random. I wouldn't even know the difference in skin if I met them again anyway since you meet so many players. Why complain about a feature that doesn't effect you at all even when it's implemented?

This game is based on cosmetics, every reward in the game is a cosmetic. If this game was all about creating the most recognizable look for your pirate, then you would never change anything at all. Then all the rewards of the game would be useless since you would never use them. That just makes no sense. It is fun to complete change your look every once in a while. And with a completely different outfit, hairstyle/color, tattoos, facepaint and more you can already look completely unrecognizable from your last outfit, then why would your body be a problem???

Also, this game is a roleplaying game that goes to the origin of the genre, roleplay. Roleplaying is not about stat points, roleplaying is about acting in your role. But if I wanted to make me look like a very old starving castaway because it would be fun to act like one, I can't... My skin looks too muscular and young even with a big gray beard and ripped clothes.

And seriously, spending money is not my problem with this at all! In my suggestion I would even be willing to pay 1000 ancient coins without any extra thought. But with a re-roll feature where I can never go back to my OG skin and have to pay every single time I wouldn't pay for it at all, even though 150 ancient coins is way cheaper. So they might even make more money with my suggestion.

Most importantly. My main complain is that they want to abuse the fact that some players have been regretting their skin for ages. Some just want 1 single chance to redo it. Rare promised them this feature, so they never restarted their full progress and kept waiting for ages for this feature. But now they found out that Rare wants to make money on their regret. If Rare wanted to help those players out they could have said the first re-roll would be free. I wouldn't use it myself then, but I wouldn't see it as a problem either. But this is the first time they don't seem to be willing to be helpful to the community. And I am afraid that if the community just accepts this there might be more of these decisions. I love Rare and I love what they did with Sea of Thieves and I am more then willing to support them further with many micro transactions. But if they cross the line, I will tell them and warn them before they end up going too far across the line like many other game companies have done.

@sweltering-nick this isnt reddit, please try to be respectful here. dont insult people based on their oppinons in the future. I have broken this rule myself in the past but its not constructive and it doesnt add to the conversation.

@sweltering-nick calling somebody entitled is pretty disrespectful.

@pithyrumble Buying a character re-roll is like buying a loot box, but you don't know what's in it. Oh joy, you also might have to spend 3+ hours before you just get fed up re-rolling again. It's so scummy that they are gonna charge for it. The amount of people defending this scam is disgusting.

@Sweltering-Nick Read my post and comment more carefully before replying in a disrespectful way. Because yes, you are being disrespectful be calling me disrespectful.

No, I don't think everything should be free, I am even very supportive about the way they handled micro transactions until now. I payed for 5 pets+outfits, 1 cosmetic bundle, a bunch of emotes and a ship hull. And as long Rare keeps releasing amazing updates I will likely keep supporting them. Until now I only had a few nitpicky things like the bundle only emotes forcing players to buy a full bundle if they only want a single emote, making it less likely people spend money on them.

Read my suggestion, I even advise them on a different way to charge money for re-rolls, with a way higher price, that I would at least pay twice if implemented. So if you read my comment then you would have known that I don't expect Rare to make things free. I even advise a way to take my money.
I have the feeling you only saw the title of my post and made a reply based on that title alone without trying to understand the point that I make.

In my suggestion I try to think about the people who really needed this feature, because they made a mistake long ago. I think about Rare and how they can still charge money for this feature. And I consider the wishes of myself and fellow pirates who truly like to roleplay in this roleplaying game.

The only people I have trouble understanding, are the ones who are fundamentally against character re-rolls. The reasoning they gave is easy to punch holes in. I hope they will read my reply I placed earlier so we can have a good discussion about it. Because those are the only people my suggestion doesn't consider, because I don't understand their opinion yet.

@sweltering-nick Telling nice things about someone, is a nice thing to do. Talking bad about someone, is not a nice thing to do. That’s a fact. If you agree with someone’s reasoning or not has NOTHING to do with the person. Calling me 'entitled', 'disrespectful', 'ungrateful' and say that I may be lying just to get a cheap freebee is extremely disrespectful. Instead of constructive criticism about my ideas, you try to point out personality flaws, that I completely disagree on. This post and discussion should be about a Sea of Thieves feature and suggestion, it’s not about me or you. So please stop being disrespectful and actually talk about the topic.

It's almost like you're just fishing for free appearance changes, under the guise of a suggestion...
And here you are trying to negotiate a way to get it for free... When you are in no position to negotiate. :P

First of all, this current re-roll feature is not aimed at me at all. I don’t regret my skin. The only way I would be willing to do a reroll is if I have the ability to go back to my original skin. Even if rerolling is free I wouldn’t want to lose my original skin. That’s why I suggest PAID character slots so I can save my original skin.

But my suggestion for character slots is not the reason of my post. My post is originally to complaint that they charge money to solve an issue some players have. An issue Rare promised to solve it and they promised to be open about microtransactions. I am NOT one of those players in need, but I do care about the community. And I think it’s unfair to charge money for this feature. For a more extreme example: They added a colorblindness feature for the players that had issues with maps, it's not aimed at me since I have no colorblindness. But if they were to ask money to fix that issue, it wouldn't sit right with me and I would send my critique and suggest a different solution to Rare.

I don’t feel ‘entitled’ to get free features, but I do expect Rare to keep their promises without a hidden fee.

Your way is not a valid alternative, because it earns Rare exponentially LESS money than the current system (They would earn 10-20% of the profit they earn from it currently, which is already almost nothing given how cheap the appearance change already is)

I believe character slots might make more money, but that's an assumption, not a fact, just like you assume otherwise. You give completely no reasoning about your assumption and talk about it with percentages as if it is a proven fact.

Most players don't do microtransactions and most were happy enough with their current skin. And it discourages people if you can’t reset it back to the OG skin after a re-roll. And if you have to pay every time, people wouldn’t likely change it twice. I can’t imagine this feature earns much at all, so there wouldn’t be much revenue in the first place. This is something we both agree on.

According to your 10-20% estimation, the amount of paid re-rolls (which will be small) would happen at least 17-33 times more often than a skin slot. So those that want a skin slot would be extremely rare according to you.

But there definitely is a group of players that would be willing to buy skin slots, maybe even multiple times like myself. I know multiple and I have people that agreed with me. That group includes players who are already happy enough about their current skin. My idea targets the microtransactions to a completely different group of players. I think you assume it’s a subgroup of those that regret their skins, but it’s more likely a subgroup of the ones like me who are happy with their original skins. Your 17-33x assumption would make that group so insignificantly tiny that it’s a miracle that I know quite a lot of them. So I can only conclude that your extreme assumption must be way off.

You take the added feature for granted... AKA, ungratefulness.

I like this game no matter if this feature exists or not. But Rare promised a re-roll feature long ago. They also said they were going to be open, honest and clear about micro transactions. But it's the first time they made a single step over the line. A gaming company that keeps these kind of promises is quite rare nowadays. Rare is one of those rare companies that tries. This small step over the line doesn't break the game for me, it doesn't make me hate the company behind it and it doesn't mean I am ungrateful for all the promises they did fulfill. But it does mean that I will complain about that single step before they take another one.

You also incorrectly assume that appearance change is supposed to be part of the gameplay, for some reason... based on absolutely no reasoning or logic, whatsoever... :P

Changing appearance is definitely a part of the gameplay. Everything that’s in the game is made into the game with a reason. Why would ALL rewards give cosmetics if Rare didn’t want us to change appearance? Why would they even add more and more cosmetics every update if they don’t want people to change?

I would love to know your reasoning why you believe they don’t want you to change. And then give me a reason why you think they keep pushing the ability to change appearance in every single update since launch if they don’t want you to do it.

And whilst your suggestion would make RPing different characters a little easier, it still doesn't justify cutting profits by 80-90%. xD
Your RP needs, are secondary to Rare's income... That's just the harsh reality of the situation... Sucks for us RPers, but it's simply something we have to come to terms with. : /

We have speech options with the speaker to increase the range, we have quick text, emotes, alliances and more. Player interactions is a core gameplay mechanic. The main gameplay involves meeting other crews and not knowing what will happen until you do. At launch meeting others was one of the only things you could even do.
And Rare likes pushing these interactions into a pirate roleplaying style. All of these features are all pirate roleplay themed. Not many actively try to roleplay, but no matter what, you get pushed into the role of a pirate. The most memorable interactions with other players are usually the ones that actively roleplay on top of that, but it’s near impossible to play this without any form of roleplay.
Roleplay is without any doubt a huge part of the gameplay. Adding features that make roleplay interactions easier is something that Rare does quite often. Skin slots will definitely allow even more possibilities.

Also, Rare knows that videos and streams are one of the ways the game gets promoted. That’s why they stream with some content creators from the community and launched the creator crew to promote content creation. Usually those creators do some roleplaying to entertain their viewers and make their videos stand out. Allowing more roleplay possibilities might help some of those creators as well.

It’s a bit strange that you are slightly interested in the roleplay aspect, agree that my suggestion would be a good thing for roleplaying, but somehow you are against my suggestion. I don’t get it…
Do you have an alternative suggestion for this then? The chances our wishes reach, gets accepted, then implemented is extremely low, but if you don’t voice your suggestion it will never happen. The only reason I get from you is based on Rare’s revenue, while the revenue is only an assumption and we don’t know if Rare needs that money to survive. What would you suggest ignoring these money related assumptions to improve the game?

But i would never pay triple the price for an appearance slot, because it's pointless, it doesn't give me new interactions with the world, it doesn't give me new ways to express myself, it doesn't even serve as a disguise, because my name doesn't change...
And whilst your suggestion would make RPing different characters a little easier,

Although… you are contradicting yourself. My suggestion allows you to roleplay different roles, but at the same time it doesn’t just because of a gamertag? If the only thing important is the gamer tag, then why would you even want to change your look? And why do you even want to change your skin if you believe changing your look isn’t supposed to be part of the gameplay? Before you place your own suggestion, please solve the contradictions.

Appearance rerolls should remain as they always have been imho. You chose your pirate, if you don't like him, start over.
I like the idea of commitment to an appearance.

@ButteryBarnacls
You can commit to an appearance if you want, even when there is an ability to change. It's your own choice, so I don't get the reason to be against it. Can you please explain that to me?

• What is the reason that you don't want anyone else to change it?
• How would it effect you if they change?
• If you restart you will lose all earned cosmetics including time limited cosmetics that can never be earned again. Do you think it's fair that almost 2 years of progress gets lost for wanting a simple skin change?

@musical-memoirs Personal preference. That is my reasoning.
I never claimed it would effect me nor did I allude to that.
My post was a full explanation of my thoughts - the last line being the main idea.

@butterybarnacls
Because you don't want something, no one is allowed to do that, even though it doesn't effect you? That makes no sense at all.

@musical-memoirs
It only doesn't make sense because it disagrees with you.
As I clearly stated, I like the idea of commitment. What part of that do you not get?
I never said I think no one should be allowed, all I said was I do not like the idea.
It was an opinion. The decision has been made from the devs and it goes forward. I am not trying to stop them or deny your character change, all I did was say I don't like the idea.
Again: I like the idea of commitment.
You chose the character, show some commitment. In my opinion you should stay with your chosen character. If you decide to change it, then you start over. New face, new character, new history.
I liked the way they designed it which they did for a sense of continuity and, again, commitment.
That's it.

@ButteryBarnacls
I understand commitment all to well and I know the appeal to fully commit to something. But I think you are confused what commitment really is.

A commitment is something that comes from your own emotions, it's about wanting to dedicate yourself to something. You can't force someone to put commitment in something, they have to make that choice themselves. If you force someone who doesn't want to commit into making a single choice then they won't like it and often come to regret that choice in the future. Those people made a forced choice, but they shall never have the commitment.

@musical-memoirs Good lord. Seriously? Yes, that is my definition of commitment. That is what I wish others had with this change. That was my opinion.
I am not forcing anyone to do anything. I just gave my opinion of how I thought things should be, ideally. It would be nice if others had that sort of commitment.
Jeez...let it go dude. Seriously.
I had an opinion. Sorry it triggered you. Let it go. Just my opinion. I never tried to force it as gospel.