Who actually uses the safer seas ? And where is the arena gamemode then ?

@cmdcraky newer players, families who want to play together, and veterans who want an easy place to get screenshots/videos.

Safer Seas isn’t useless, and the clever thing about it is it can be updated to match High Seas features that are appropriate for it.

The Arena was a completely different situation, it also wont be coming back.

@tesiccl a dit dans Who actually uses the safer seas ? And where is the arena gamemode then ? :

@cmdcraky newer players, families who want to play together, and veterans who want an easy place to get screenshots/videos.

Safer Seas isn’t useless, and the clever thing about it is it can be updated to match High Seas features that are appropriate for it.

The Arena was a completely different situation, it also wont be coming back.

have you ever used the safer seas yourself ? No lies authorised.

2% of players' time, not 2% of playerbase.

@personalc0ffee said in Who actually uses the safer seas ? And where is the arena gamemode then ?:

@lem0n-curry said in Who actually uses the safer seas ? And where is the arena gamemode then ?:

2% of players' time, not 2% of playerbase.

You say that as if it meant something.

2% can still be a lot of people if playerbase is big - 2% player time means on average a player would only do Arena for just a week in a year.

The long and short of all of that, is that Arena was NOT engaged with near long enough to justify its expense, so it was cut.

No disagreement here.

who actually uses the safer seas and why ?

Newer, fresh out of the water players & those with families/little ones.

As for Why, just that. Family & newer players want to experience the world without being bombed with everything. The Old Tall Tales & get there feet wet with the content.

If you dont like it, Leave it alone.

@cmdcraky I have. It’s not for me on the day to day, but its uses are excellent for what I mentioned above.

@cmdcraky oi!

I poked her with a stick. Glorious beastie.
A little less nippy than I'd prefer.

ties on raw meat belt time to go pet the megs I reckon!

(Arena died because pvp isn't as cool as they want you to think...)

I pretty much exclusively play safer seas now because none of my friends have any interest in playing high seas. Some are new, some are returning. We get together most weeks and do tall tales or just sail around and be pirates. This is pretty much the only decent game around where you can have that experience.

Personally I've gotten most rewards that I really want out of high seas already and it can just be rather exhausting to deal with the pvp-only players who just aggressively sail around and instantly attack anyone they see. Even if you just spawned as a solo sloop, or if you're group is clearly just trying to do a tall tale together and you have the same kids coming back repeatedly to attack an unoccupied boat. Not to mention the crews that can go right towards you from across the map even when you aren't flying an emissary.

Its nice for people to just be able to get together with friends or family and play for a set amount of time instead of ending up in some big running battle that drags on and on when you just wanted to sell and log off. At some point we've got to go to bed.

If the general trend of casual vs hardcore player numbers in other games applies to SoT at all, then I'd guess that Rare is probably quite happy with safer seas. Just within my own anecdotal experience, I certainly know more people who play the game now than before. Everyone else had quit years ago.

You seem very angry about people playing on a different server. It doesn't impact you at all aside from maybe encountering more actual fights and fewer solo sloops or families doing tall tales. Shouldn't that be what you want? It doesn't cost any dev time. It doesn't have any additional features or mechanics. It's just the regular game without hostile crews.

And honestly the pve in SoT is just much more of an actual game than the pvp ever was. If I'm in the mood to play a competitive pvp game there are soo many better options that are specifically designed around just pvp.

@cmdcraky said in Who actually uses the safer seas ? And where is the arena gamemode then ?:

@tesiccl a dit dans Who actually uses the safer seas ? And where is the arena gamemode then ? :

@cmdcraky newer players, families who want to play together, and veterans who want an easy place to get screenshots/videos.

Safer Seas isn’t useless, and the clever thing about it is it can be updated to match High Seas features that are appropriate for it.

The Arena was a completely different situation, it also wont be coming back.

have you ever used the safer seas yourself ? No lies authorised.

This is not how debate works, if some one provides you examples of who does use it, you cant try to pretend that entire point is void just because they dont use it them self, or even because you personally assume they dont.

Plenty of people use safer seas and for various reasons that differ. Just because not everyone uses it, doesnt mean no one uses it.

Safer seas simply needs a buff, nothing more. It can't be that difficult, surely?

If they add a voyage to become pirate legend, and have it only available in high seas, there goes the level cap requirements for one.

Second, a slight pay buff would be nice, since no emissary is already an indirect pay nerf.

If that's too hard for the devs, then I'm quitting on principle.

@mrat13 said in Who actually uses the safer seas ? And where is the arena gamemode then ?:

If that's too hard for the devs, then I'm quitting on principle.

But what if it isn't "too hard" but the choose not to implement your suggestions for other, more practical reasons? Such as; they have a vision for the game and they feel the restrictions they've chosen best fits that vision.

You sortof gave yourself an out with the "if it's too hard" bit.

So will you quit on principal if they say "that's really easy to do. No we aren't going to do it?" Inquiring minds want to know.

@mrat13 then leave, cause Safer Seas isn’t going to be used as High Seas but safe from all threat. You want the safe space? You pay the penalty. Don’t like that, leave or join High Seas :)

@tesiccl I'm not saying there can't be a penalty, but it should be about being slow, not a flat lockout, at least for the beginner factions (endgame should stay endgame as that's understandable).

Also, the devs should make sure their intent is well portrayed. If the goal was 30% of what you get in high seas, then emissaries should be factored in.

Correct my numbers if incorrect, but, as far as I'm aware, with emissary, it's 250% pay, so 30% of that pay is actually 75% pay, since the bonus can't be applied in safer seas.

@mrat13 emissaries aren’t the default payout, running them brings the risk. So Rare are correct, the base rate is 100%, and it’s reduced 70% for Safer Seas. Bear in mind it’s used as an incentive to make your way over to High Seas, they don’t want players living in there forever.

Also, Arena sucked. Massively. And before anyone trots out the old "BuT RaRe DiDn'T sUpPoRt It PrOpErLy" lie, it was through exactly zero fault on Rare's part.

It was full of the worst of the toxic, verbally abusive players this game's fanbase has spawned and they chased out any and every other casual or new player that wasn't a bottom-feeder like they were. 99% of players didn't enjoy Arena, they endured it until they unlocked whatever comms, cosmetics or achievements they needed for completion and then never EVER came back. The people that played Arena killed Arena, and that's literally all there is to it. The usage math bears that out.

DISCLAIMER: If you were one of the incredibly rare awesome people I met during my time in Arena that didn't lose their shinola over a single missed cannon shot; was happy to team with new or casual players to help them learn or grow their combat skills or was just happy to be out on the seas and didn't hurl invective or abandon a crew the second they didn't keep a 100% hit or kill ratio, then you were a diamond and I salute you for being awesome.

Thankfully, it's gone, it's never ever coming back and at least a fraction of the people mentioned above were so upset by it's removal that they left as well; never to darken our seas again.

@burnbacon a dit dans Who actually uses the safer seas ? And where is the arena gamemode then ? :

who actually uses the safer seas and why ?

Newer, fresh out of the water players & those with families/little ones.

As for Why, just that. Family & newer players want to experience the world without being bombed with everything. The Old Tall Tales & get there feet wet with the content.

If you dont like it, Leave it alone.

I have the right to disagree with Rare's plan to make the game easier and easier, don't tell me to shut it down if I don't like it. I expressed my personal opinion without any intention to like, harm anyone. So no need to tell me that

@callmebackdraft a dit dans Who actually uses the safer seas ? And where is the arena gamemode then ? :

@cmdcraky

It wasn’t JUST that only 2% of all playtime was spent in arena but the total impact:

• It took a significant amount of development work to just keep the arena gamemode working

• the mode generated the about 70 to 80 % of all player reports (cheating, toxicity etc)

WHILE only 2% of playtime was being spent in the mode.

Context means alot.

Safer seas is not comparable to arena because at its core its the exact same game that is high seas just with a few boxes unchecked (reapers and athena) and a * 0.3 to all loot sold.

No special development required, no extra maintenance required and no toxicity reports.

Maybe (just maybe) if the game actually had an anti-cheat, or IP ban players cheating, the amount of cheater would drastically decrease.
Now I understand the safer seas does not need the same developement efforts than arena, but if JUST maintaining the arena mode on was such a challenge ... why making it in the first place.

@otherfanboy a dit dans Who actually uses the safer seas ? And where is the arena gamemode then ? :

@cmdcraky I run safer seas to finish up Tall Tales(for the 100%) and to fish in peace also to go take screen shots but it's also for new players who wanna learn the basics of the game(not pvp basics) and get the feel of sailing exploring ....as for arena they always wanted it to be in the main world but could figure out how to make that happen so it became a separate thing but that meant updating two things instead of one safer seas just has a content lock which I assume makes updates much easier......I play mostly on high seas

Do you get less oney by finishing the tall tales on safer seas ?

@cmdcraky

Now I understand the safer seas does not need the same developement efforts than arena, but if JUST maintaining the arena mode on was such a challenge ... why making it in the first place.

Because it was released alongside the anniversary update which was a huge PvE content dump, so Arena balanced things out for the PvP’ers. They also (I imagine) intended to develop things further if The Arena became an esport. They were laying the foundation for something great, but the playerbase was low for it, toxic, and responsible for a large majority of complaints.

My 6 year old son is slowly learning the mechanics of the game and he loves it. Safer Seas is great for letting him sail around solo and explore at his own rate. I can leave him to learn without someone coming and obliterating him. I like safer seas for this.

When we play together, we play high seas as I can help him and talk him through the PvP element.

@mrat13 said in Who actually uses the safer seas ? And where is the arena gamemode then ?:

@tesiccl I'm not saying there can't be a penalty, but it should be about being slow, not a flat lockout, at least for the beginner factions (endgame should stay endgame as that's understandable).

Also, the devs should make sure their intent is well portrayed. If the goal was 30% of what you get in high seas, then emissaries should be factored in.

Correct my numbers if incorrect, but, as far as I'm aware, with emissary, it's 250% pay, so 30% of that pay is actually 75% pay, since the bonus can't be applied in safer seas.

No, because you obviously are missing the point of Emissaries to begin with. The bonus is not without risk, and that is other players seeing your flag and coming after you to get it. Without other players, there is no risk thus no need for a bonus.

@mrat13 said in Who actually uses the safer seas ? And where is the arena gamemode then ?:

Safer seas simply needs a buff, nothing more. It can't be that difficult, surely?

If they add a voyage to become pirate legend, and have it only available in high seas, there goes the level cap requirements for one.

Second, a slight pay buff would be nice, since no emissary is already an indirect pay nerf.

If that's too hard for the devs, then I'm quitting on principle.

No emissary is not a nerf. The emissary system was added as a risk reward system where having an emissary up increases the risk of others attacking since they can gauge how much loot you have with one up, and because reapers can sell your flag for money as well. In order for not having emissary to be a nerf, emissaries would have had to be intended as a direct upgrade, not as a risk, and since high seas does not have other players that increased risk is gone, so its only fair that you lose out on that.

As for the low base pay, thats because on high seas even without emissary you still have risk of others attacking, but on safe seas, since there is genuinely no risk, they reduced the reward heavily. Not to mention the fact that the devs did not ever intend it to be an equal game mode. It is not intended as a main way to play the game, it was supposed to be an extended tutorial and a place to just relax, rather than a place to make money.