Add More Progression

A captaincy boat is their solution to us having our own thing to decorate and pour money into. There’s all kinds of trinkets and customizations to spend millions and millions on. The developers seem to consider the ships to be our home bases, so pour money into them.

Though it would also be cool to have a lair of some kind. Like a vault of our own to decorate with treasure looking trinkets. Then we can be our own gold hoarder. But I don’t see how it would work all that well from a technical standpoint the way the game is designed currently.

I understand the sentiment, however it's pretty clear this just isn't the kind of game for you. Wanting progression of skills, stats, etc, makes sense! A lot of people want that, and so there are a lot of games that cater to that. Maybe you would rather play something like Elder Scrolls Online or Fallout 76? Those have skill progression, upgrades to purchase, etc. It's great to love games like that! This just isn't it.

Sea of Thieves is fun for those who enjoy it because of the equal footing everyone is on. No matter if you are a veteran player with 1000+ hours or a noob with 10 hours, you have equal footing in the world. The only advantage you have on other players is the skills you have learned. The game is specifically designed that way. It's part of the developers' vision. Maybe adding some kind of internal progression with skills and improved weaponry, etc, would bring in some players that wouldn't give Sea of Thieves a chance before, but it would assuredly drive many more away who currently play and love the game. The game at that point would not be the same game to those who have poured hundreds and thousands of hours into the game. It would be something completely different. It would be ARK or something else. And that's just not what Sea of Thieves is. Sea of Thieves is not an RPG with character progression. It's a pirate adventure sandbox game. And that is what it should stay as.

If someone else developed a game that was similar but with various progression mechanics, I would probably give it a try! I might even love it! But it wouldn't be Sea of Thieves.

I play SoT because its fun.

Achievements and such come as a bonus as you sail around with friends. Sometimes we have goals, sometimes we do limited events, sometimes we just sail around using SoT as a background thing to do while chatting about daily stuff after work.

SoT is a sandbox where you as a player (and others crews) make up the story of your current session.

EDIT: Day one player here, and still not bored with SoT.

@liamyerrr I’d say it’s subjective as to if the $$ skins are nicer than the gold skins. The clothing definitely isn’t. The ship sets are kind of odd and feel like Fortnite skins to me. I only have 1 figurehead, 1 helm, 1 capstan, 1 hull, and 1 cannon flare from the store. They aren’t even all part of the same set, I haven’t liked any of the sets in their entirety. The in game cosmetics are much more my style and as a result I’m sitting on thousands of unspent ancient coins that have amassed over the years from playing. The people I play with are roughly the same. They mix and match a handful of $$ cosmetics with in game ones, or they just use in game ones and spend their ancient coins on the plunder pass.

Honestly I kind of agree with the previous posters that this probably just isn’t your game. And that’s ok. I am not a fan of a lot of other popular games that my friends do like to grind. I don’t ask those games to be redesigned to interest me as well. I just accept that my friends and I will have to find a different common game or just be ok sitting in VC while playing separate games at that time.

@liamyerrr They do add a lot of content, though, just not any kind of character progression system.

Since launch they have added:
Skeleton ships
Megalodons
The Kraken
Fort of Fortune
Fort of the Damned
Siren Shrines and Treasuries
Harpoons
A Pirate's Life Tall Tales
Adventures
Captaincy
Hourglass Battles
Cursed Cannonballs
Chain shots
Hunter's Call Faction
Reaper's Bones Faction
Lost Shipment Voyages
Legend of the Veil Voyage
Emissary System
Blunderbombs and Firebombs
Rowboats
Burying Loot
STOOLS!!!!!!!!
Sleeping
Skeleton Sloops
The Brigantine Ship
Sovereigns
The Devil's Roar region
More Tall Tales
And much more I am sure I'm forgetting!

That's a good amount of new content! It's just not character progression. The point of this game is having fun with friends and earning gold (and completing commendations) to attain cosmetics. Maybe you would like more of a "goal" than earning cosmetics, and that's fine! It just means you are looking for a different game.

@liamyerrr said in Add More Progression:

@ghostfire1981 Sounds to me the game is better off as a new background or wallpaper for your pc and since you clearly don't care for the games progression idek why your in the suggestion forums.

My point is we all enjoy SoT in our own way. Just wanted to add my couple of cents to the discussion, as its good for any discussion to have more than just one opinion.

I follow the forums quite closely, and comment on a post if i see the need. That is why im also in this part of the forum. :)

I would support the increase in faction levels.

@maximusarael020

How can you forget about the FIREWORKS !!!!

The fun part about making your own threads is that you can shamelessly promote it in topics that might relate to it.

A game that has an unfun grind is not a bad game. Instead, it has a bad player mindset surrounding it. The general idea of this statement is that this game is mainly a "social interaction" game, these boring grinds are really just motivations to sail and have various encounters with other emergent events and players. You create your own fun, and if you're not having fun, you can try to do something that is fun.

Don't like voyaging? Then while doing your voyage/sailing without a voyage, you can look for a boat to interact with, or if you feel like having some hot blooded action, you can vote on the Hourglass of Fate on your quest table and either dive or wait to get invaded by another crew. If you make your goal completing the game, you're going to get bored, because grinding, is boring. Grinding has never been a fun endeavor and only served to get to an objective faster than other players or even the game's expectations.

Everything in this game is only meant to be enjoyed in short bursts, and in between all of that, you're having unforgettable encounters with other players where you're singing songs on the deck, trying a comedy act, old school supply siphoning a crew because you think you're just that tough (enjoy your incoming yellowbeard/redbeard), or even just clearing a world event together and letting that turn into it's own story of betrayal and forgiveness, or endless fighting that ends with everyone spitefully trying to gain victory over one another. There are so many things that could happen on your travels, and you decide... to grind.

@liamyerrr said in Add More Progression:

Currently there is no objective in the game besides trying to have fun with what is there, All of the content in the game can be completed relatively quickly and there's not much replayability, I can see why players only play the game for a short time before growing tired of the game. If you could add something you could work towards besides getting gold for skins then people will want to put more hours into the game. Currently gold is almost pointless for players to get people are sitting on millions waiting for a new skin to release, adding skills to level up or maybe a home base you could pour money into or being able to upgrade your ships defenses or size are just some basic ideas. Even having NPC's to help fight on your ship or defend your base would be fun, obviously people would complete these tasks relatively quickly but every major update or every month or fortnight you could have a wipe keeping it fresh and ensuring there's no unfair advantage over new players. These ideas are just a few and it would be a massive change to the general structure of the game but it is one of the only ways to appeal to the current market of games and make people stick around.

I'm sorry if these suggestions were already mentioned if so mb.

Problem is that the majority of your suggestions are diametrically opposed to the direction of the game. We are not going to see any player progression in terms of improvement/added skills as it throws off the balance - veterans of the game will now be even more powerful with those perks added to their skill and experience. As it stands the only thing separating players is their own skill and strategy, not artificial perks/buffs earned by just playing longer. This is a classic throwback to the classics like Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament where skill and strategy decided the match, not who has the best perks/buffs/"progression" which ruined a lot of modern games IMO.

Same thing with the NPCs you suggest. These are totally unnecessary to the experience and a waste of developer time.

I don't see how bases would work either in the scheme of the game since it is session based and not a persistent world. Your ship is your home in this game.

So in other words your idea to "save the game" (which FYI is not needed, the game is consistently among the top #25 most played games on Live week after week) is to copy other games out there instead of following their own path. Yeah, I don't think so - chasing trends is a sure fire way to kill it in the long run. The game has been doing great following the developer's vision and sticking to it for the most part.

If you feel these are necessary to enjoy the game long term, perhaps you should consider the possibility this game is not meant for you. No shame in that, games are not meant to appeal to everyone. But none of your ideas are "the only ways to appeal to the current market of games and make people stick around", that is a pretty arrogant statement in and of itself (and blatantly false).

Currently there is no objective in the game besides trying to have fun with what is there

Commendations, Achievements, Story untold discovery.
(Rumor has it there are secrets still ingame that have yet to be discovered or revealed. Like connections between paintings)

All of the content in the game can be completed relatively quickly and there's not much replayability

So as content, you completed everything? Pre-Season 9 you are 100% completed?

I can see why players only play the game for a short time before growing tired of the game

No, majority of the players quit because,

• They saw the game on a streamer, and thought they could do that. Come to realize they cant
• Pvp isn't for everyone and it happens in a PvPvE game.
• New players/gamers dont like to grind to rewards.

If you could add something you could work towards

That is a player decision. What goal do you want? Myself, Im hunting for that Shrouded Ghost! & now Skeleton Curse.

adding skills to level up or maybe a home base you could pour money into or being able to upgrade your ships defenses or size are just some basic ideas.

So only the Rich (Vets and die hard players) Will be in the top charts with these 'basic' ideas. Any new players will be bombed out of the water. No thanks.

every major update or every month or fortnight you could have a wipe keeping it fresh

So pretty much any "work" we do will be reset....pointless to keep it up.

You say there is little to do and it can all be done in a relatively short period of time, im near 600 hours and have yet to do even half of what the game has to offer if you only look at my achievements. Meanwhile, looking at your own achievements, you have only completed 8% and becoming pirate legend, which is only the start of things, is not part of that 8% which leads me to believe that you have a LOT to do still.

@liamyerrr said in Add More Progression:

@lordqulex Yeah they still haven't added any good content and you clearly don't understand what I am saying, There is many other posts like mine.

Any "good" content. Heres the root of your problem, you have a set opinion, but you are holding your standard of "good" as if it is a universal standard, yet the number of people disagreeing here shows that it is not universal. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but you cant state opinion as if it is a fact or universal standard. What you think to be good, some may agree with, while many here seem to disagree with.