@swimplatypus7 said in Remember Awesome Sword Duels?:
@galactic-geek said in Remember Awesome Sword Duels?:
No PvP experience? Ever hear of Goldeneye? It's only 1 of the best PvP shooters ever made...
Fun yes, but best? Not even close.
You should always look at things in the context of time for relevance - I meant that it was 1 of the best for its time; you're probably thinking about it in the present, where yes, of course, better things have released since - Perfect Dark alone is an example of that, and it's from Rare too! Context matters.
I disagree with you on the state of PVP and gameplay overall in Seat of Thieves.
...and that's fine.
The problems I find with the game is less to do with the damage of the sword, and more to do with how food works now, I preference the old banana, no other healing or overhearing mechanism was needed and frankly a stupid addition.
Stupid? It was requested! Everybody wanted more! Guess what? They got it. Now there's depth and thought that goes into choosing what to pick up, when to use it, etc.
The next problem I have with sea of theives was the over investment of destructible components of the ship, and all the basically busy work that was added.
Busy? Now you have to prioritize. Do I keep fighting, run away, repair holes, put out fires, etc. It add depth!
Simple holes in the ship were fine,
Now you have to decide which holes to repair 1st - do you get the small holes 1st to slow down the water flooding in, or risk getting the bigger hole to avoid being sunk altogether?
the addition of the cursed cannonballs was not fine. Yes they do add depth to play, but really they are just way too powerful for this kinda game. In all honesty I think they hurt the PVP way more than they helped it.
They added strategy. Once they were added, battles upon the Sea became less about slugging it out or who ran out of supplies 1st. Besides, just because they shoot them doesn't mean they're guaranteed to hit with them, much less take advantage of them.
I am by no means a casual PVP player, but when the masses flee the game because they want PVE servers you know something is wrong.
Masses? Evidence shows me that the masses are staying put.
The simple state of combat that still had depth before easily destructible masts, ships that can catch fire, specialized cannonballs, food buffs, and so on, they look great on paper as ideas to energize the game, but that's not how it worked out.
I absolutely disagree.
Arena was another massive mistake by Rare, and I love that kinda play but in reality bad for the game.
Arena added faster, shorter sessions, a way to get into combat sooner, a new company, new commendations, cosmetics, lore, and more. With that said, some say that it split the piratebase, but considering the poor matchmaking times, this is debatable at best.
This game was just purely amazing when it was in its more simplistic form, where the only damage you really needed to handle was bucketing the ship and repairing the hull. Trimming sails, raising and lowering the anchor and steering the ship and firing the guns was about as simple as it gets, but better play delivered better results while at the same time the game stayed simple enough for the most basic players to get good at.
The more you depart from the original design on combat features the fewer players are going to gravitate to this game. You can see it every day you play on the non arena, where Servers are for the lack of better words way more sparse than they were back in the days when skull forts were the thing to do.
Servers became sparse as a result of the expansion of the map with the Devil's Roar, and the potential reduction of ships on the server (some speculate the maximum number of ships is now 4 or 5 when it was 6 - but I have yet to see proof of this). If true, it was likely to reduce strain upon the server itself.
I can understand your point about the game being more streamlined back in the day, but if things don't change, then pirates' attention begin to waver. It had to change; it had to grow. Everything does.
You can call that initial interest in the game and yes many games do get that wave of tourists, but its the job of the development team to act quickly on what is good and try and retain as big a population as you can, not divide them with with dumb stuff like Arena and poor choices on ship to ship combat mechanics.
The fact that their playerbase has steadily been growing shows me that their plan is working.
IF this game had a server option to play roughly 1.5 years ago, or I had a time machine to play 1.5 years ago I would play that game because it was good.
Wishful thinking; don't go backwards. There's a reason we can't time travel - it would muck up the water.
Double gunning was kinda a dumb thing to deal with on occasion, but typically the people who were a problem were also cheating with aim bots that were indeed also players who got banned.
On occasion? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Once discovered, it spread like a virus, and not just with cheaters that also used aimbots. Almost everyone - pros, streamers, experienced pirates, beginners, and even casuals. Its effects, despite being wiped out since, can still be felt today.
Overall I rate the old sea of thieves as a solid 9 / 10 on in terms of fun, and a 5 /10 in complexity, but in reality the depth was there, it was just very simple to pick up for even the newest player and great because you could bring in your noob friends and they could instantly have fun.
And almost everyone back then disagreed with you, citing that there wasn't a whole lot on the surface, and the game's initial review ratings and success suffered as a result. It was only after it grew that many started coming back.
While there is a lot for new pirates to learn, it gives them incentive to keep playing because there is so much to do. Just this past week, I finally got 2 of my friends to try it out again for exactly those reasons. One of them was even experimenting in VR!
The latest iteration is just not as fun, plain and simple. If I were wrong the sea would be packed full of adventurers, but its not.
It is packed; they're just spread out and separated by servers, so it's hard to see that.
Sea of Thieves Funny Moments Ep.1
