Controversial: I think the state of the game is the worst it has ever been

  • Skritsarn
    Lord
    Insider

    There has been a lot of really AMAZING content added to Sea of Thieves through the years - season 8 being no exception - but it has always been at the expense of the fundamental functionality because with every update this very fragile game seems to break further and further and it has resulted in a game that doesn't feel good to play anymore and some of the very basic gameplay experience is frustrating, specifically combat.

    I came back for season 8 after a few months break, hoping to see fundamental improvements and not just more content, but i think the PvP is worse than ever. Combat is so incredibly unresponsive and feels so bad and it's glitchy and laggy like you would probably expect a low budget indie title to be. A soon to be five year old game should have fixed most of its bugs, but instead there are more of them and they're worse than ever.

    It makes me so sad to see this game deteriorate and i feel like the community is just letting it happen - i don't see people talking about hit reg and combat issues anymore. Are there no players left who care about these things?
    I've put around 2,5k hours into this game since launch and i've called it one of my all time favorite games but i actually hesitate to say that anymore, and when i played tonight it was just the tipping point for me. I want to play this game because i love it but in its current state i seriously don't think i can stomach to revisit it again until Rare dedicates a substantial update to these issues.

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  • BurnBacon
    Vanguard
    Insider

    You act like you never played an old game before. Look at GTA, CoD, RDR2
    Heck I’ll add Donkey Kong Country. So many glitches that speed runners use.

    Age old games. Still popular and many many bugs. Yet people play them.

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    a few things go on imo

    new/casual players don't often play in a way where a lot of it is noticeable during their experience.
    The game is playable and often that's enough for this group

    the middle (as I call them) aren't often as post/connection heavy, they may not be posting as much around the social areas, they aren't as absorbed in the twitch life and twitter and discords beyond maybe just casual following. When they leave it's not as loud, they just bounce to a new game and that is that. They might make a post or two about it but it's just not as loud

    the social part of the community is a bit of a loud mix of overly critical and overly defensive imo so a lot of the substance gets drown out.
    many are heavily connected to this part of the community so there are other things in play, social things

    there are people that want to be partners and ride around with known people in the community so it goes beyond just in game experience, people tend to be more generous with their feedback in this group, at least publicly. There are still criticisms but it more has a go along to get along type of vibe to it.

    For me personally I don't think it's the worst it's been performance wise or overall state of the game

    I think people have dismissed and downplayed the struggling organic experience more than they should but that's been going on for a couple of years at this point, it's just more dramatic the last few seasons.

    Outside of the over hype this season came with I still see it as a season with a lot of potential and it'll be a few months or so before we really see the effects of this season overall. Personally I don't see the server issues being noticeably worse than the last few seasons, it's not great but I wouldn't call it significantly worse in my experience.

  • LT L00T
    Master
    Insider

    @burnbacon so we just ignore the bugs and the laggy combat? the man has a really big point here, this doesnt just afect a few people tho, it afects everyone. Also look at games like League of Legends or Rust, if there is big problems with the gameplay the Devs do there best to fix those in record time. Mean while each season the server stability gets worst and worst, i now have to 4 tap people before they die or people teleporting to me? is this the gameplay that you want new players seeing? no? then its an issue and needs to be fixed, end of the story.

  • tossico94
    Seafarer

    @skritsarn

    Because moving a critic here without needing to fight army of bots Who doesnt even play the game its quite impossible.

  • ctrlshifti8686
    Rogue
    Insider

    @burnbacon

    Użytkownik @burnbacon napisał w Controversial: I think the state of the game is the worst it has ever been:

    You act like you never played an old game before. Look at GTA, CoD, RDR2

    Age old games. Still popular and many many bugs. Yet people play them.

    Their bugs are not critical for the game

  • Vaca Hombre
    Champion
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @skritsarn said in Controversial: I think the state of the game is the worst it has ever been:

    i don't see people talking about hit reg and combat issues anymore.

    You don't?!

    People may not be making dedicated threads to it, but it's a constant addition to any discussion of combat and PvP.

    It's like the sauce of the problem-spaghetti: maybe not the main attraction, but an unskippable necessity to the overall production.

  • IX Indi XI
    Castaway

    @skritsarn said in [Controversial:

    It makes me so sad to see this game deteriorate and i feel like the community is just letting it happen - i don't see people talking about hit reg and combat issues anymore. Are there no players left who care about these things?

    Personally I see complaints about hitreg/ server issues every other day, the topic is milked by now for years.

    The game has to cater to console AND PC with all different hardwares.

    I'm pretty sure the waves are a moveable mesh with possibly millions of vertices on the map that has to account physics of ships/cannons/water/ bullet drop etc.

    I'm sure they have actual upgraded servers that they are preparing to roll out mid/late 2023. Which would be a massive improvement over current ones.
    The private Partnered servers should also hold clues hopefully.

  • Deuce Masseur
    Seafarer

    It's not just in heavy action or PVP

    I rubberband noticeably if I'm firing my guns and trying to move around a single skeleton, regularly I'll be teleported back to my wheel when releasing it and jumping to the cannon on a sloop.

    Rubberband issues have just gotten worse and worse and almost every thread you see, people imply it is user error/internet to blame. I see the rubberbanding on most twitch streams of the game.

    I moved houses, got a new ISP, new PC, wired ethernet connection, have 0 lag problems in other games.

    It's insanely frustrating to me to look up thread after thread with people shifting the blame away from SOT time and time again when people raise these issues, so I could see deterring people from making threads even though they experience/hate this too.

  • Skritsarn
    Lord
    Insider

    @deuce-masseur Yeah in my experience as well it has worsened a lot.

    And i also agree that many times when you voice complaints in this community, you'll get a response of people basically denying the problems even exist, for some reason.

    I think the nature of this game attracts a huge mix of players: some are competetive players and some are very casual, and on top of that you have cross-platform and there is a significant difference in attitude between PC and console players as well. So it's natural that there will be disagreements especially when it comes to PvP - but i do feel that at this point the casual part of the playerbase has kind of taken over the narrative for the most part and important feedback and criticism is being drowned out by people who just don't know better.

    Sea of Thieves is fundamentally not just a casual game and i think it's vital for Rare to listen extra carefully to the more competetive players that are still playing, because just by the nature of a live service game, the content they will release is very much influenced and shaped by the community that is playing the game and providing feedback. It has in my opinion been evident that a lot of the hardcore PC audience has left the game since launch because of neglect of these issues, and it's just a fact that those are the players who have a deeper understanding of game mechanics in PvP and can give proper feedback about the things that need improvement; the more that playerbase is lost the more the game is going to lose touch with one of its fundamental core pillars that make it so special.

  • Skritsarn
    Lord
    Insider

    @ix-indi-xi It's no doubt an extremely complex issue for them to solve, and i get that. But it's just the fact that the content they've released through the years have been at the cost of these issues to deteriorate further and now it's at a point where it's just really really bad, and in my opinion they're getting backing themselves into a corner and can't push it much further.. Unless they have changed their mind about what this game fundamentally is about and are willing to lose that part of the playerbase who are competetive and demand a game that is responsive and reliable in terms of mechanics.

  • Skritsarn
    Lord
    Insider

    @wolfmanbush I agree with your assessment totally, and i think S8 in terms of content was very very good and honestly a genius way of providing on demand PvP and simultaneously giving PvE oriented players more space.

    But i'm curious about when you think the game was in a worse state in regards to playability? I honeslty think the game was at its best, PvP wise, at launch and all i've seen since then is deterioration.

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    @skritsarn said in Controversial: I think the state of the game is the worst it has ever been:

    I've long viewed pvp as the game's weakness, not it existing but its performance. Anyone that takes regulars risks/challenges and doesn't sail in 3-4 skilled crews vs pvers (prior to this new content) pretty much knows how much of a pain it regularly was/is and has been for a long time.

    Imo what kept pvpers satisfied to somewhat satisfied is the wild skill gap and that many simply weren't playing in a challenging way so the issues didn't feel as extreme when there were extra people and the opponents aren't even often fighters (huge skill and fight interest gap).

    I think what has changed in recent times is that because so much of the pve activity got driven out there have been more challenging fights more often as pvpers started seeing each other more and fighting more often and the increase in competitive battles just became more frustrating.

    Then we get to this content which has the skills which makes fights either more competitive or highly challenging and people just see these issues more now.

  • Scott100000000
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @skritsarn said in Controversial: I think the state of the game is the worst it has ever been:

    There has been a lot of really AMAZING content added to Sea of Thieves through the years - season 8 being no exception - but it has always been at the expense of the fundamental functionality because with every update this very fragile game seems to break further and further and it has resulted in a game that doesn't feel good to play anymore and some of the very basic gameplay experience is frustrating, specifically combat.

    I came back for season 8 after a few months break, hoping to see fundamental improvements and not just more content, but i think the PvP is worse than ever. Combat is so incredibly unresponsive and feels so bad and it's glitchy and laggy like you would probably expect a low budget indie title to be. A soon to be five year old game should have fixed most of its bugs, but instead there are more of them and they're worse than ever.

    It makes me so sad to see this game deteriorate and i feel like the community is just letting it happen - i don't see people talking about hit reg and combat issues anymore. Are there no players left who care about these things?
    I've put around 2,5k hours into this game since launch and i've called it one of my all time favorite games but i actually hesitate to say that anymore, and when i played tonight it was just the tipping point for me. I want to play this game because i love it but in its current state i seriously don't think i can stomach to revisit it again until Rare dedicates a substantial update to these issues.

    What are you talking about? Season 8 is the worst season by far! People like me are forced to play pvp just to get the new content. After losing another fight I decided i'm just done with the game. I'll come back for the next adventure but season 8 killed the game for me and I dont want to play it anymore. It was an awful idea to make it strict pvp and forcing pve players to participate assuming it'll "encourage" us to enjoy pvp when all ive seen so far is people give up cause they keep losing constantly. I lost all hope i'll ever get the ghost curse and the legendary curse.

    All you do is stock up, waste gold, matchmaking, finally find someone, that person is constantly hitting you, you spend more time repairing than fighting, hits you over and over, mast goes down, hits you more and more, you just let your ship sink, start again, get what little supplies as possible cause of the exhausting wait times for supplies to restock, join another game, pray it's an amateur, die anyway, sink, start again and lose again. Again and again and again and again and again and again and again. I'm done. I'm just done. How did we go from season 7 being my favorite update of all to season 8 which is a garbage fest and gives you the finger if you cant pvp and everyone is running around showing off their new curses.

    The closest i'll ever get to the ghost curse is on the damn ferry cause that's where I spend most of my damn time!!!!!!!

    I can't stand it anymore, im not playing anymore and it's all because of season 8. I know i'm not alone, i've seen other poor souls in youtube comments on season 8 videos going on how much they lose...from what i've seen im not the only one quitting sea of thieves cause of this awful update.

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    @scott100000000 said in Controversial: I think the state of the game is the worst it has ever been:

    I can't stand it anymore, im not playing anymore and it's all because of season 8. I know i'm not alone, i've seen other poor souls in youtube comments on season 8 videos going on how much they lose...from what i've seen im not the only one quitting sea of thieves cause of this awful update.

    What did you enjoy before season 8? why can't you fall back on that?

    Since season 7 came around people aren't going to have everything anymore and other things will take them a very long time.

    I played a few days, got outta it what I wanted to get outta it (gameplay wise) and went back to what I enjoy, I want the ship cosmetics from season 8 but I don't wanna go through the process that I don't much enjoy. That doesn't make the content bad or wrong it just means this stuff isn't for me.

    I understand wanting cosmetics, I like unlocking them too, but sometimes stuff just doesn't work out. The seasonal rewards are still cool and fun, emissary ledger rewards are top notch, event rewards are cool.

    You're definitely free to spend your time how you wish but as someone that is going through and has gone through the process like you and other people in your boots I think there is a way to get through it, just takes some effort and adapting to the current reality of the game, which is that none of us are really going to unlock everything in the game anymore (including stuff we like/want), at least not anytime soon.

  • Scheneighnay
    Ship Mate

    Yeah it just hasn't been enjoyable the last few sessions my crew tried, and we haven't been able to get enough willing players together to make a crew.

    Imo the dev team's mistake was assuming that all PVPers are looking for a real fight.
    Apart from the rampant exploits when PVP matchmaking was first added, getting ganked in PVE is just as common as it was before, if not more common.

    PVPVE games naturally attract gankers, and the matchmaker won't change that because gankers don't want to fight people who are looking to PVP.

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