Pirate rollback via the appearance potion

  • Capn Situation
    Seafarer

    Though there is already a post about this same topic, it is more than a year old, and to avoid necro-posting I'm opening a new thread.

    The idea is just as the title claims. Though I understand why Rare wants to keep pirates random rather than allowing us to customize them freely, I'm sure all of us who have used an appearance potion have felt great regret after seeing our new choices in-game. In my particular case, I've had the same pirate since 2018, but after deciding I wanted a change of pace and using an appearance potion, I felt extreme regret once I was met with a painfully disappointing pirate. I desperately want to return to the larger-than-life bloke I plundered my way to the top with. That's why I propose a middle-ground.

    When using the pirate appearance potion, why not give us a prompt to roll back our pirate to any previous version rather than select a new one? That way, all pirates are still randomized, we're simply dipping back into the reserves of those pirates lost to the ferry.

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  • heslashthem
    Legend
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    Why though? You knew the risks. Like you said, your pirate’s appearance shouldn’t matter that much in the long run, so really you should just roll with your new avatar, or bite the bullet and try again. Just don’t dwell too long in the IPG, spending hours in there is obsessive.

  • Capn Situation
    Seafarer

    @tesiccl I don't recall ever saying a pirates appearance wouldn't matter in the long run anywhere in this post, and to say I knew the risks ignored how flawed the dial-a-pirate process is in the first place. I noticed scars, missing teeth, and even cosmetic clipping I'd have never seen until I actively launched a session with him. The pirate you use paints a picture of who you are, both as a player and a person. It is as much personalization as armour is in the Halo titles. You can play a game without caring about how you look—power to you for it— but I wouldn't call trying to create an iconic image for myself obsessive.

    Besides, if you care so little about personalization, why would a change like this ever be a problem? It's not like it's going to impact you or your performance. It's a QOL change for those who could genuinely get use out of it; simple as.

  • Dragotech123
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @tesiccl said in Pirate rollback via the appearance potion:

    Why though? You knew the risks. Like you said, your pirate’s appearance shouldn’t matter that much in the long run, so really you should just roll with your new avatar, or bite the bullet and try again. Just don’t dwell too long in the IPG, spending hours in there is obsessive.

    I kinda want to know why this game has the IPG to begin with.
    It has been criticized since the technical alphas, and while some people like it other don't. Why can't this game have a normal character creator? I always found it odd.
    This game has a very different way to have custom characters, but being different does not always mean better.

    Yes, I know it is a first person game, but I do take a lot of screenshots and emote or sit to watch my pirate.
    If the pirate is supposed to be me, why not let me customize it fully to make him look like the actual me? If everyone would make pretty pirates, then why right some players pick fat pirates with ugly make ups and afros while wearing dresses? Every game with custom characters will have those who love to make funny goofy characters, so not everyone would make pretty handsome ones.
    If the the fear is that everyone would look the same, then why I sometimes find posts on Reddit about "Attack of the clones" or "Twins" and see the exact same pirates? So clearly not every pirate is unique, there are already duplicates.
    If everyone would make Jack Sparrow then I would see the emporium costume everywhere, but I rarely see it.

    I really don't find any reason to have an RNG character generator instead of letting the players customize the base character how they want? What is wrong with the system that other games want?

  • BurnBacon
    Vanguard
    Insider

    I'm sure all of us who have used an appearance potion have felt great regret after seeing our new choices in-game.

    Buyers remorse. It a curse in on itself.
    But the whole Potion thing was made because players wanted desperately to change. They got that power, the curse is not able to get back what what was there's. I think it fine as it is.

    "You got what you wanted, but you lost what you had"
    -Shadow Man (Princess and the Frog)

    It has been criticized since the technical alphas, and while some people like it other don't. Why can't this game have a normal character creator?

    Funny, I heard it was the founders and Alpha testers who gave it the approval. Nobody hated it.
    and what is even considered "Normal character creator"?

  • Capn Situation
    Seafarer

    @dragotech123 I think the logic is that pirates are supposed to be imperfect, especially those who sail the Sea of Thieves. They practically live on the sea, eat like garbage, fight constantly and get a new disease every week. When all pirates look like they'd be on the cover of a magazine, you start to wonder how much pirating they really do.

  • Capn Situation
    Seafarer

    @burnbacon See my first response to tesiccl. There were many fairly major issues I did not realize were present until I launched a sloop and got a good look at my pirate. I do agree, I have major buyers remorse at the moment, but for a completely reason I believe is completely fair.

  • Dragotech123
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @capn-situation said in Pirate rollback via the appearance potion:

    @dragotech123 I think the logic is that pirates are supposed to be imperfect, especially those who sail the Sea of Thieves. They practically live on the sea, eat like garbage, fight constantly and get a new disease every week. When all pirates look like they'd be on the cover of a magazine, you start to wonder how much pirating they really do.

    Then, wouldn't it be simple to have limitations, on how much you can sculpt a character's face? Or have every preset have an imperfection? I mean, even pretty pirates with perfects faces can be found in the IPG, so I don't get the idea of everyone must be imperfect, be cause perfect pirates can still be generated in the IPG. It is just time consuming for rerolling until you find that perfect pirate. And if people would like an RNG imperfect pirate, they would pick the ugly options on their own will, like the blind eye or missing teeth. But right now it's totally the player's choice, it's what the current system gives them.

    I still can't find any logical reason to not have a normal character creator.

  • heslashthem
    Legend
    Insider

    @dragotech123

    I still can't find any logical reason to not have a normal character creator

    You might not understand Rare’s logic, but they’ll have had their reasons when building the game in the first place.

    I do agree that it could do with some fine tweaking, but not an overhaul to allow full control.

  • Capn Situation
    Seafarer

    @dragotech123 I suppose that's fair. I think the best bet really would be to have all three options. Once you select a pirate on first launch, you are given the ability to change certain features only if you please, while the pirate appearance potion could allow you to both rollback or change features. For the sake of maintaining a reason to continue funding Rare, both should probably be separate potions entirely.

  • Capn Situation
    Seafarer

    Imagine a "Pirate Resurrection Potion" or a "Pirate Sculpting Potion", for example.

  • Dragotech123
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @capn-situation said in Pirate rollback via the appearance potion:

    @dragotech123 I suppose that's fair. I think the best bet really would be to have all three options. Once you select a pirate on first launch, you are given the ability to change certain features only if you please, while the pirate appearance potion could allow you to both rollback or change features. For the sake of maintaining a reason to continue funding Rare, both should probably be separate potions entirely.

    I can live with that, every time you want to use the character customizer you still require a pirate potion.

    I can name a other game that does something similar: it is a game about ninjas and has custom characters. Once you create your character, and choose every face option you want you can dress them however you like, but if you want to change the base character (face, body type, male or female, voice, eyes, mouth, nose/ you need a ninja remake ticket, and those are bought inside the game. So basically it is the same, a consumable item that you can use to remake your character and can go back to your previous one if you remember the presets you chose last time. Sea of thieves has this consumable item, it is just paid with ancient coins, but it is basically the same except it just summons the IPG.

    In that ninja game I've seen myself switching between two of my characters, a guy and a girl, and whenever I feel like it I just use one of the tickets to switch between them.
    But I can't do that in Sea of Thieves, because if I use a potion I will lose my previous character forever, or it would take days to find him again.

  • Capn Situation
    Seafarer

    @tesiccl Rare has their reasons for everything, and I can't fault them for any choices they make as a result. The job of any game designer is to make an experience they believe everyone will enjoy. However, with a live service game like SOT, there eventually is a point where old features simply become too outdated and need to be completely reworked. We've already seen it happening, too. Look at the quests, the usages for doubloons, even arena turning into hourglass (though that decision is heavily debated). The game has changed immensely throughout its lifetime, and when customization has reached such a point that there are 9 individual Bilge Rat cosmetic variants alone, I think it's about time we take a second look at that aspect of the system.

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