Firstly i wanna say, I was so excited to do this latest adventure. I’ve been doing the two previous adventures diligently and loyally and to 100% completion (all deeds, listening and reading through all the dialogue, taking in all the lore and visuals).
Especially when i found out just today after a long day at work, that it starts today.
So i sit down, boot up sea of thieves on my xbox, and sail straight for M12 on the map. And what happened next is a perfect example/proof of my point. I passed a reaper emissary galleon very near the killer whale ship. The galleon immediately started spamming all its cannons at me, both normal cannonballs and chainshots. Luckily they had terrible aim.
It was clear to me they had no intention of stealing what little treasure i had, as when i didn’t stop and continued at a full speed towards the killer whale, they turned around and sailed directly in the opposite direction of me, far into the distance.
To add insult to injury, i excitedly went to google to see some more info about the adventure before i do it. And lo and behold, you need at least 5 players to do the ritual after defeating all the other regular megalodons. That means at least a full galleon and a solo sloop.
Ah yes, let me just ask those good folks over yonder for help, oh why are their cannons smoking? Looks like they were just firing at something….. weird, must be all the grog…
Yes, make a time limited, lore heavy, achievement and cosmetic unlocking content, require multiple crews.
Is Rare just genuinely blind to the state of their game? All the official posts and blogs and videos use words like “exciting” and “adventure” like it’s some wonderful paradise that will have no hiccups or stress inducing retries. Do they not understand 99% of players try to sink on sight, because of this infinitely spreading plague of “i got sank randomly, i will now begin sinking others randomly so it doesn’t happen to me again”?
And this isn’t a point you can even use “it’s called sea of thieves, not sea of friends” on, because first of all, this is literally content that requires cross-crew cooperation. Secondly, this has nothing to do with stealing treasure. You literally will have such a hard time even participating in this adventure because of the simple fact that everyone hates having a good time and helping people out.
I shouted at my tv “oh come ooooon!” When i found out the 5 player requirement, because i knew right then and there i was never gonna be able to summon the shrouded ghost, and it in fact even made me quit the session outright, and quite possibly give up on taking part in the legendary adventure (for same reasons of people bothering you for no good reason), as well as any future adventure. Because at this point, if im going to miss out on mementos and stuff because of the simple fact Rare can’t see what’s happening to their game, and think everything is still as jolly as when it was released (which their wording in videos and online posts seems to suggest), then i might as well not bother. If im going to be locked out of their main storyline focused adventures because they refuse to accept that pirates don’t like to cooperate.
This game is so horribly organised at this point. One crew could be trying to do reaper emissary commendations, while another crew is just trying to get help doing a multi-crew commendation that requires teamwork. Again, this has nothing to do with stealing. It’s just the simple fact that this game is literally unplayable if Rare force you to seek people who only want to sink you, in order to partake in the game’s content.
I would suggest making adventures work like a pirate’s life, where it all happens in private instances that only your crew can explore. And if you’re gonna make multi-crew content that isn’t focused on loot, at least introduce some way of disabling damage between ships temporarily, for example when you form an alliance specifically to do an adventure/event together. That way you can summon the meg, kill it together, and have fun. Instead of the other ship then bombarding you with everything they’ve got, and either cursing at you in a foreign language, or just sailing away and not even trying to steal your stuff.
At this point im almost starting to think Rare is flat out trying to lie to new players, because the only time true, fun, effort filled roleplay cooperation happens, is either when Rare staff are posing for a screenshot to use in a loading screen or a video/post on the site, or inside private custom servers made and organised for special community events hosted by content creators.
