New Player Told Me

@ghostpaw I'm max stats in everything so it's kinda losing incentive to play, especially when the updates are donkey. I've played this game harder and longer than a lot of people so it's crazy when someone who just got the game has similar thoughts to me and its not even their second day. Theres a difference between enjoying a game and playing a game out of habit sadly.

@robby0316 there is nothing wrong with them not liking the game. They just need to move to a game that fits what they like.

@galactic-geek gear is not what makes you better, gear is the only thing that has potential to show how much progression a player has made. That's why you dont see day 1 pirates driving around with a sail that costs more than 40k. I'm already at the point of not trying to flex. My ship is literally just the shark hunter set with mercenary sails and I'm maxed out. Skill is skill. Gear doesnt guarentee skill but it is the only thing that separates us from the new players. The only thing I was saying from this post is that if rare is trying to appeal to the new crowd instead of trying to appeal to the crowd that's been here for years then they are failing as horizontal progression is only enjoyable for so long, at least to the 80% of players I've encountered. Obviously theres a good percent of conservative pirates who would gladly revert to the bean pirate days and have 3 cosmetics but for those of us that actually want this game to progress into the future we want vertical progression of some kind to incentivize the incentive to continue playing the game. I guess the difference is some people want to play this game as a RP scenario and casually game where others are more competitive and like seeing their hardwork pay off instead of seeing their gold get higher and higher with absolutely nothing to show for it. This game is heading towards strictly paying for anything that's somewhat cool which is sad and shows that the flame that was once SoT is becoming embers clutching to whatever pint of gasoline they can cling to.

This entire game is based on cosmetic progression to show skill that is the entire purpose of titles existing. To show skill via title.

Obviously a title doesn't magically make you good but with the way the game was created, cosmetics are the only way of displaying progression.

@galactic-geek I wouldn't really brag about a title you get for simply existing or downloading insider edition. That title wasnt earned, it was a free give away. Not trying to rain on your attempted flex 😉 I've played with people who have sailed 40 million miles but somehow cant manage to make a board successfully. I'm just wondering if people dont want vertical progression because then "seasoned pirates" will have their "skill" challenged because their "skill" was the only thing stopping them from being sunk. I mean realistically PC servers are either sweats or steam bots and x box servers are either bots or try hards. The thing about getting good on x box is that once you're good, you're great. Once you play the game consistently enough, any "good player" is really no match. Where as on PC it's sort of just a battle of whoever flicked their mouse at their opponent first.

If rare gave us vertical progression with different weapon upgrades theres a chance a new player might have a better upgrade or loadout than a seasoned pirate and I guess that type of challenge turns people off? Or people just truly enjoy playing a dead end game with only cosmetics and quite literally doing the same thing every time they log on which is to sink players or do PvE with absolutely nothing to show for it once you own everything.

But hey, some sea dogs enjoy spinning in circles chasing their tail all day long, every day, and the next day, over and over. That's true pleasure. The same thing over and over

@wolfmanbush In this story a new player is already thinking what max level pirates are thinking which is "wow that's it?"

If they ever added upgrades as such. All vets would be dominating the game and new players will be non existent.

So yeah. Vet players will become to good and horrible pirate to come across.

Frankly speaking. After hungry deep I stopped caring and just enjoy the game as I would only. Role playing :p

@fall3nsnip3r340 said in New Player Told Me:

I don't think Sea of Thieves is supposed to be a very competitive game. I always thought you were just supposed to mess around with friends and go on pirate adventures, with cosmetics as something to spend your gold on and flex to your friends.

I play it pretty competitively.

To OP, although the cosmetics don't improve your play at all (ask any tucker if that's true) The treasure in the game does get some value because you can sell it, and buy cosmetics with the money you received. I would gauge it at pennies worth. This has enough value for me to have fun stealing, but not so much value that I start to feel bad about taking all your stuff. It helps when I lose everything too, it really was only a dollar or so worth.

That's the kind of worth I would like to continue playing with. If things are too valuable it's not fun to lose. If they are too cheap, it's not fun to win. Pennies is perfect!

@robby0316 I agree that SoT needs more gold sinks (and so do many others). But instead of these being upgrades to weapons and ships, I think they should unlock new challenges and experiences, so that there is endgame content only available to Pirate Legends and people with tons of gold.

I also appreciate the rogue-like elements they've added to the game. There is a sense of per-session progression that doesn't carry across games. Emissary bonuses, cursed cannonballs, chainshot, rowboats, supply crates, wraithballs... advantages over opponents that come through skill, ability, and time rather than from spending gold to unlock. I hope Rare continues on this path, adding more per-session upgrades that are found through play.

@robby0316
I suck at PVP but listening to the new players just sounds like they want things given to them. Yes you have to grind to unlock certain things to get a better edge but why do you need all that boost? Having an even playing field with weapons is one of the best things I like about this game. I know that when I get cut down or shot I had the same weapons they do and can do the same damage they can. It was my lack of pvp skills that got me killed not the weapon. If you start looking at different add-ons or whatever then you got to think of achievements they have to do. Hell that's not fair because gain with me not being good at PVP I have NEVER been able to unlock a lot of the achievements in COD.
I do not have millions in the bank but I have maxed out three emissaries in the three months I have been playing. I spend a lot of my time helping others level up or learning the game rather than my own stats. Those will come in due time.

@robby0316 said in New Player Told Me:

Essentially I had to explain to a new player that the entirety of this game is just flexing cosmetics and there is really no leveling skills or perks you get and that seemed to blow their mind in a bad way. So I tried to explain that a title is like a passive way of saying "Hey I've played this game x amount of time so I'm x amount good at this game" the more I tried to explain the beauty of sea of Thieves to him the more depressed I got because it essentially led to me explaining to him that this isnt a leveling/objective based game it's more about the experience you get from stealing treasure or doing voyages to which his response was "treasure for gold for cosmetics that have no real value and dont set you apart from anyone else?" The obliviousness of this player actually made me start to debate why I play this game anymore when I've bought every cosmetic, still have millions of gold, and still want to sink people for loot. Is it because I like Sinking people even though realistically their treasure has literally no value to me as I own everything and could buy everything again 4x over? To which I inevitably realized that this game is really just about flexing cosmetics which is ironic because when you get over the brand new PL stage you go right back to looking like a homeless pirate. So it's like we start off broke with no good cosmetics, grind grind grind, get good cosmetics, realize good cosmetics are only rocked by fresh PL's, then revert back to nooby cosmetics that arent super nooby as actual noobs only wear kraken/crab or seadog gear.

imho i couldn't care what cosmetics one wears or what fancy title one slaps over their model to me everyone is a new meet player treated as such aswell to me the enjoyment of this game comes from sailing with friends and meeting new strangers out on the seas but this is different for everyone

and you speak about grinding maybe thats where the core issue lies

something is only a grind if you make it one maybe thats the issue? (also i say this with no offensive intentions but let me explain)

If you enjoy performing certain actions in a game there's nothing wrong with an iterative process for continuing to do those enjoyable things

for example killing skeletons for a sum of gold is only a bad voyage if it's not inherently fun to fight skeletons

To someone for whom fighting skeletons is a great experience a voyage to kill skeletons is just what they're looking for

what im trying to say is riding ten rollercoasts is only "grinding" if you don't want to ride ten rollercoasters

grinding chests to unlock a certain cosmetic is only a "grind" if you do not enjoy the process to do so

maybe your core issue is that you simply just don't enjoy the game anymore

to put it simply if you find yourself "grinding" in a game AKA doing repetitive tasks you do not enjoy then stop grinding and start doing something you actually value with your time (and i say this with no offense just my take on the matter)

Anyways I ended up getting this brig of noobs the gold hoarder jacket from the final tall tale and they were so unimpressed by "how ugly it is" that it challenged the foundation of how I view the game. Have I just become so invested in this game that even not so great stuff is just mindblowingly cool to me?

i also have cosmetics i think are ugly bought them because i could but i never wear them maybe for that specific new player they just thought it was ugly

I guess my feedback is that new players are getting turned off from this game BECAUSE they cannot get upgrades to weapons or ships as they progress

vertical progression isn't much different from horizontal progression in the terms of eventual boredom

take wow for instance one of the pinnacles of vertical progression

current expansion was boring i have been pushing mythic+20's for weeks straight for no reason (mythic+"insert number" are the difficulty of dungeons to clarify) the higher the mythic+ dungeon number the better gear you get

but the highest gear will upgrade is at a +15 yet i push 20 i got bored and ended up doing +15's every week for the weekly gear chest every wednesday for no reason i got everything i ever wanted i logged on once a week to do the weekly then repeated so i eventually stopped playing because i simply did not enjoy it anymore

everything reaches its end and thats called inevitability you've played this game for a long time and maybe thats the reason you are bored because you've simply just had a realization that you've pretty much done everything there is maybe its time to put the game down enjoy something else and wait for updates to relight your joy for the game

i do the same with wow i play for a few months once they drop a new expansion i've done this since the release of vanilla wow and everytime i do i genuinely enjoy it because theres so much new stuff to discover and i feel like a new player again for multitude of reasons

1: i haven't played in awhile
2: experiencing new changes and new content
3: having refreshed my feel for the game by playing other things

The whole reason RARE does not allow us to upgrade our stuff/do more damage/ have cool perks like (snipers that have blunder pellets) is because they are afraid it will make good players too good and make new players want to quit! When in fact new players I've encountered do not care if they are absolutely demolished by seasoned players as long as one day they can have cool upgraded stuff. When they find out that the person who just obliterated their entire team has nothing better than them other than skill and cosmetics it actually turns them off to the game instead of making them want to "keep playing and improve"

i've encountered new players who only cared for their loot even if that loot was just castaways "OH NO WE GOT SO MUCH LOOT" i board and i just spot 5 castaways and at that point i just left them alone

the thing is having vertical progression will make the game 2x harder for newer players and their journey to the same spot will be tedious because i could just come in there shoot them twice with my upgraded super cannon and take everything they got no questions asked

right now everyone is on equal footing the only thing that sets people apart is their skill and i've seen people with prepurchase cosmetics and those cosmetics for being part in the alpha and yet they cannot do better than day one pirates despite having sailed millions of miles titles and shirts and socks doesn't always dictate skill that imo is an illusion

im naturally good at games give me one day and i've got the basics mastered and much much more (also because i have no life and spend 100% of my time playing games when im not at work and have done so since childhood)

i know the process of getting bored of games i call it the cycle of games

i play things in cycles i could sit playing a specific game for 2 months then i get bored and go onto something else and repeat that process and eventually i'll get back to the original game i played at first and have a blast for another 2 months

so my suggestion is maybe put the game down for awhile return when you've revitalized your joy for the game wait for some content and play something else until you feel the urge to play sea of thieves again (im currently on a break because new expansion coming to wow as i mentioned earlier i return every expansion)

I was just playing a game the other day where new players are at a severe disadvantage against higher ups while in PvP. I am a good PvP'er but even I as a low level can run into issues. I can generally hold my ground but it can be very tough if I am going up against a fellow good PvPer. who also happens to have better weapons and perks or if I am going up against multiple players with better weapons and perks.

I thought to myself other day actually how good new players have it on SOT lol they shouldn't complain.

Also better gear doesnt mean you have "improved" as a player, just means the game has been made easier for you, thats all.

@wolfmanbush I love candy corn- especially the pumpkin shaped ones.

@galactic-geek Candy Corn Disliker?! Yuck!

@klutchxking518 @Galactic-Geek

whats candy corn? and why is candy and corn even a thing?

@ghostpaw said in New Player Told Me:

@jollyolsteamed said in New Player Told Me:

whats candy corn? and why is candy and corn even a thing?

It is the unholy concoction that results from mixing melted sugar, wax, glue, probably old gum, and then dipping it all into yellow and orange food coloring.

that sounds like something people in the 80's ate

@jollyolsteamed said in New Player Told Me:

@ghostpaw said in New Player Told Me:

@jollyolsteamed said in New Player Told Me:

whats candy corn? and why is candy and corn even a thing?

It is the unholy concoction that results from mixing melted sugar, wax, glue, probably old gum, and then dipping it all into yellow and orange food coloring.

that sounds like something people in the 80's ate

If you mean the 1880's, then you are right. Was initially called Chicken Feed. Halloween staple.

@Ghostpaw @dlCHIEF58

yikes.. why on earth do people eat this willingly today

@ghostpaw said in New Player Told Me:

@jollyolsteamed said in New Player Told Me:
@jollyolsteamed said in [New

that sounds like something people in the 80's ate

Yes. In the 1680’s, candy corn was used during the Spanish Inquisition. It rarely failed to yeild a confession. It was not long before inquisitors decided that forcing people to eat it was too cruel.

no one expects the Spanish inquisition using candy corn their weapons are fear and surprise and a fanatical devotion to the pope and nice red outfits lol