Maiden Voyage Enhancements

  • RedEyeSith
    Vanguard
    Insider

    So, I think that it has become clear that the Maiden Voyage still falls a little short of properly preparing players for what the Sea of Thieves will be like. I suggest we add a few more things to the process to help folks be more prepared for entering the Seas. Here are my ideas:

    1. Extend the Ship Battle with the Skeleton Ship a bit more before they get the Kraken attack taking them down. This should grant newer players a little more experience doing ship combat before they hit the seas. Make sure they take some hits in this process and notify them of the need to repair holes and bucket water when in ship combat.

    2. Extend the Ship Repair section by making them fix all the areas of the ship right away before they even set sail. Make sure the importance of this is made clear to players that the need to keep their ship in good condition.

    3. Before the player sets sail, instruct them back to the Pirate Lord as a needed step in the Voyage where he will provide them a warning that the Sea of Thieves is a place filled with other pirates just like you, and that they may be friendly or a threat. Hammer this point home very clearly. Explain how to Scuttle the Ship clearly if you find yourself in a lost battle you cannot recover from. Help convey that the idea of losing a battle in Sea of Thieves is not the end of the world, and push strongly the intent of the game through some dialogue with a little in world flair added to it of course. Encourage them to watch the horizon and check their ship carefully of they have been away for awhile as devious pirates might stow away on your ship. Maybe even encourage them to grab the free Hide Emote from the Pirate Emporium when they arrive in the Seas (will get them engaging with that faster maybe).

    4. Add a bit of actual combat to the proceedings to encourage players to get used to the flow of combat. While we can't pit them against other players in this tutorial, we need to get them fighting Skeletons a bit so they can get the hang of the Sword and assorted Guns available to them. Also encourage them to try different weapon combinations during this process as well to ensure they can get a feel for them. Don't make this something they can find, but something that they have to do as part of the Voyage. If they die here perhaps have the Pirate Lord perform a Revive on the player and then explain to them the importance of a Crew in the Sea of Thieves and how sailing solo is a truly risky and challenging feat. This will help show off some combat concepts before they get into the world and have to deal with the rest of us.

    5. Actually take a moment to better highlight the idea of exploring the world in order to find interesting things that you may not have been explicitly given a quest for, possibly encouraging players to learn the in game menus system and navigating the Faction and Commendation details.

    I think taking these 5 steps in Maiden Voyage, mixed with the little bit of extra tutorial that players get once they first load in after that will make the experience more understood. Many of the new folks coming in all seem to share similar complaints that I feel like this would clear up (particularly taking the time to warn them of the dangers in this world).

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  • IDNeon
    Seafarer

    I like the idea of "more tutorial" but tutorials are tedious.

    Here's a compromise idea

    Give the player options to continue practicing or move on.

    Like instead of Kraken taking out skelly at certain time.

    Have skellies offer "parlay" and when you accept they get taken out.

  • SurveyorPete
    Legend
    Insider

    I understand what you are trying to achieve, but there is the danger of making the Maiden Voyage far too tedious.

    As someone who has been trying to introduce a new person to the game, I understand how much there is to learn now! If the game "lacked content" at launch, it is now so rich and deep that it is now a steep learning curve for new pirates. When I started, gunpowder kegs did not have fuses, there were only bananas to eat, and the only world events were the kraken and a skull fort every few hours! Now, there are rowboats, alliances, emissary flags, Flameheart, ashen lords, etc. etc. I find myself telling my trainee, "Oh! That's the Fort of the Damned. We might go there another day!"

    I agree, the Maiden Voyager should take hits on that first sail, and have to repair holes in the boat. If they don't, they should sink, and be put back at the starting isle. Don't make is too hard; just one or two holes should be enough. But, the Maiden Voyager should not be able to ignore them.

    There could be a cave containing a few hostile skeletons (and a little loot, like the hidden space in the bottom of the shipwreck). This would allow the Maiden Voyager a chance to try out their sword and gun.

    My new friend had a lot of trouble finding the Pirate Lord's chest. This is because she could not work out how to bring the quest/map wheel up again (using an XBox controller)! I suspect this has been made harder with the recent changes to the inventory/map/quest wheel controls. The Maiden Voyage hint system should do a better job of explaining controls if the user seems to be having trouble getting something done.

    As for helping the new pirate learn about the dangers of other players in the real game, I am not sure what can be done in the Maiden Voyage, without giving them a lot to read (and forget). However, for players with less than 10 hours in game, pop up a hint message something like "Another ship has been spotted to the North by North-East. Keep a watchful eye on it!" This should appear whenever another ship - player or skeleton (but not a ghost ship) - comes within visible range.

    Also: In the maiden voyage, the key to the hidden room should have a bit of a glint!

  • RedEyeSith
    Vanguard
    Insider

    Yea, we obviously don't want to make it overbearing, but at the same time it needs to cover key facets of the game since it is a "one and done" thing (unless you elect to play it again). Also, much of what I suggest can be nuzzled in line with the flow of the tutorial as it stands already. As an example:

    When the Pirate Lord has us go explore a bit, maybe have him actually point out that if we look around carefully we might find useful tools (rowboat) or treasure (hidden key and vault) even here outside the Sea of Thieves, and even more once we get there!

    While doing this exploring we can toss in our Skeletons and have a bit of Combat practice (this could be popups encouraging different techniques like a block, sword lunge, trying a gun). This gets players a little familiar there. And these still aren't forced, the player could still jump ahead, but at least we nudge them into feeling out the game more here.

    Warning about other players can come by talking to the Pirate Lord just before you actually board your Ship and run through repairing and all that to get going. Simply saying something along the lines that "the Sea of Thieves is filled with other pirates just like you, no getting around it, so keep your eye on the horizon and maybe get your own crew as they could be great friends or deadly threats looking to take your loot for their own. Fear not, you'll find there is always more loot to find, and it is more about the glory of a great pirate tale win or lose." This tells them this game is always online, other players can be friends or threats, and stealing loot is part of the game.

    The rest of it all just plays out naturally in the sailing into the game part of things (save for maybe encouraging players to investigate the menus and get a feel for them). So I don't think hitting the points I bring up will drag the section out too much more, but the amount it prepares a player for the actual game is drastically greater in scope.

    And it still leaves loads for them to discover yet on their own. When they get into the Seas it already walks them through getting their first Voyage to get a feel for the Factions and that part of the game loop, and even with that they can still discover Tall Tales, how to do boarding, how weapon combos work better in different situations, the true skill range of each weapon, how exactly to apply all their tools, and so much more. But they are ready for the idea that it is a dangerous world out there with threats all around, and somewhat how to deal with that.

    So I do agree we have to be careful with how far we go, but I really do feel this is where the mark would be best overall.

  • Captain Coel
    Commander
    Insider

    @redeyesith personally I think the current maifen voyage provides too much hand holding and should just be abolished completely. go back to the og heres a quest, there's the ocean, have at it. Also they should make the onboarding stuff in the main portion of the game a toggle.

  • RedEyeSith
    Vanguard
    Insider

    @captain-coel said in Maiden Voyage Enhancements:

    @redeyesith personally I think the current maifen voyage provides too much hand holding and should just be abolished completely. go back to the og heres a quest, there's the ocean, have at it. Also they should make the onboarding stuff in the main portion of the game a toggle.

    Fair, but I clearly disagree or I wouldn't have posted this. I'd be fine with a toggle option though as well, could even be a pop-up right away when you first launch the game as a first time player (Would you like to have a tutorial, or just dive in the deep end?). But I don't think there is anything wrong with a player wanting to get a handle on the game when they first start via a tutorial, and I would argue Rare agrees since we have the Maiden Voyage now.

    But I'm happy to compromise and give people that want to skip all that a way to do so without throwing the concept out.

  • TheBlackBellamy
    Champion
    Insider

    @captain-coel In og days, we had skeletons, a kraken, a few forts, and us. There's much more content now, and I don't think the Maiden Voyage sufficiently explains any of it.

    I don't think it should be "hand holding" to the extent that it fosters pirates who are unable to operate on their own; to the contrary, it should produce confident pirates who are, if not accustomed to, aware of the PvE(vP) encounters in the game.

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