Improving Safe Seas

I can understand where you are coming from. But the entire point of safer seas was to offer a limited experience. Basically a tutorial for new players to learn the ropes before heading into high seas where the general population is. Adding the features you want would basically turn safer seas into full blown pve servers which isn't what the devs want, and it would also devalue high seas as anything that can be done there could now be done in safer seas at no risk.
Risk vs reward is the core if this games gameplay loop. You never know what will happen or when so you need to plan your adventures accordingly and be prepared to take a loss here and there. Safer seas was never intended to be a permenate place to stay, it was always meant to just be a means of getting on your feet before taking on the high seas.

@artigift The biggest issue I see a lot of players have with this game is fear of failure. They are so afraid of being sunk and losing thier loot that they spend thier time being upset and angry instead of just having fun. I too was once one of those players. I would always be paranoid at every set of sails I saw on the horizon, and would panic as soon as I saw them coming my way even if it turns out they weren't actually coming for me but just visiting an island I happened to be near at the time. This mindset is very unhealthy and ultimately leads to you making more mistakes and sinking more often than if you just keep calm and evaluate your options, and even if all else fails and you still sink, you can still learn something from that failure. "They got me because I wasn't watching the horizon, I should have cut my losses and sold 1 vault stack instead of going for 2. Etc."
Everything has a risk and a reward. If you join a server as see it has 3 reapers then doing any emmisary work is probably not a good idea. If you join a server as see a reaper level 5 stacking fort of the damned then doing emmisary work is probably a good idea because not only is that reaper focused on the fort but that fort will keep the server's attention off of you. Little details like that in your adventure make all the difference, And it took me a long time to just let go and have fun.

There is the safe seas option, but you can only play it with a limited number of players, and some functions are severely limited, which in my opinion reduces the fun of the game.

How so? The most fun of the game is playing the full game, not limiting yourself because of a small part you dislike (pvp)
and its Not meant for what you want it to be. Never was and never will.

I think that the Safe Seas should have the function that, like in the high seas

It could also be helpful to be able to level ambassador flags (reduced experience points, of course).

Good thought but no. Once they unlock that door, nobody will wanna go back to HS. Ever.

my main concern was that players who are overwhelmed by PVP

Its as advertised. PVPVE, cant have one without the other. Or it be a single player game.

Its as advertised. PVPVE, cant have one without the other. Or it be a single player game.

Or a coop pve game. Which has potential to be fun and that's basically what the tall tales are for. But general adventure must remain PVPVE as that is the main soul of the game.

@artigift I'm sorry but this is kind of a tone deaf post.... it's weird to say you like everything about the game except for literally half of the game. If you are feeling overwhelmed you need to play on safer seas and sail around until you understand the ship well enough to not feel overwhelmed.

@rotten-rocko the majority of my pvp experiences have been towards the center of the map. The outskirts of the map are usually pretty chill. Just have to be mindfull of nearby outposts where fresh ships can spawn. World events are Hotspots as well and things like forts of fortune will draw a lot of attention your way. Things like regular skeleton forts and ashen winds are usually fine as people ignore those most of the time. But a crew could still dive on it so you have to be careful either way.

@artigift Pvpers want their meat and the fresher the better for some (most?) so I don't see the safer seas where they can't make their kills getting any better unfortunately. The pvp only players of this game need Safer Seas to remain subpar to High Seas so that player populations don't swing to the pve only option and they lose even more players on their (to them anyway only pvp as the high seas game is actually pve and pvp) pvp game.

@captain-fob4141 I don't see Artigift post as being tone deaf at as they seem to prefer crew team up as opposed to team death match. More ships on Safer Seas would make the game seem more alive when doing pve content and would allow larger groups of family and friends to play together without imbalancing High Seas servers with premade navys (more than only ship alliances from the start of the game).

The developers have made it clear from the drop when news of Safer Seas first broke that they don't WANT you to stay in Safer Seas forever. You're not supposed to. They deliberately left out things like Captaincy for the explicit purpose of enticing people out of the shallows and into the game proper the way it was designed and always meant to be played.

The fact that every third post on the forums is about "improving Safer Seas", almost always by adding Captaincy and usually some combination of removing the guard-rails on gold earning and company levels just goes to show they chose the correct thing to leave out in order to entice people into playing the game the way it was always envisioned: organically encountering friends and enemies among other players and crews on the High Seas.

Safer Seas is, always has been and always will be a place for families with younger children that want to experience the world, for people fascinated with the story of the game to immerse themselves in the Tall Tales without fear of interruption, or just pirates who want to cast a line and vibe.

It is not for people to hide out in and get rich, max out their reputation or earn all the new and exciting rewards without the risk of someone else taking it from you.

@rotten-rocko

This is not only useful for new players but also families and players with accessibility needs - the whole game suddenly becomes available in a way it hasn't before, letting them naturally progress to High Seas and become a Pirate Legend. SoT has grown a huge amount in 5 years and it can be fairly overwhelming.

The borders put in Safer Seas mean that to experience the full depth and breadth of the game you will have to hit the high seas BUT if you're playing with your family you don't have to, you can just enjoy the game and have fun as a family."

"Borders" aka. restrictions.

Also, families sometimes are larger than four players. So I see why the OP would want more crew slots (ships (crews) as the largest ship is 4 members) that why more of the family could play together on the same safer seas server. This is not an unreasonable request.

And to the people will exploit the higher crew count Safer Seas servers and cause unintended issues crowd: Report them the same as you would on High Seas servers, because why wouldn't you ? High Seas is not free of exploiters and cheaters either so not sure why this argument is even being made.

@rotten-rocko Yeah, the whole tutorial myth does get tossed around quite a bit. Was more or less reinforcing your quotes for the most part. I am not sure why Safer Seas being expanded is seen as such a threat to the game. Do these players honestly think that the High Seas are going to dry up or something? Yes, I have seen and read about many players quitting this game over the lack of PvE elements not PvP ones.

Those that enjoy the Safer Seas playstyle were never going to be the ones that wholeheartedly embrace the atmosphere of High Seas. Safer Seas gives those players a place to sail and explore and importantly remain in the Sea of Thieves world as opposed to seeking their adventure somewhere else. I don't believe Microsoft nor Rare are unaware of these facts. Pvp on the High Seas is safe as long as there are pirates to sail and sailors who seek to test their mettle against others.

this forum is for feedback for the devs to hopefully make a better gaming experience for ALL paying customers

Correct. But they are wanting to change something the Dev have already said "No" too many times, and I paid for a Pvpve game. Not one or other, Both.
Trying to change the game so its not pvpve goes against what I paid for.

@grayjedi66 said in Improving Safe Seas:

[mod removed]

Not sure if you are also addressing me in this response but I have so far only made 3 replies, 4 counting this one. If you actually took the time to READ my replies you will see they all left appropriate feedback that was on topic. [mod edit] It's abundantly obvious based on your replies that you are a pve person, and that's fine. But conducting yourself in this manner will get you nowhere on these forums or anywhere else for that matter. We all paid for the game, but at the end of the day what direction the game goes is up to the devs, and they have made it abundantly clear that they do NOT want full blown pve servers, and they have thier reasons for not wanting them beyond just the classic "they want pvp people to dunk on low skilled pve players." Argument.