Make the Game Worth Exploring

Its the same idea of adding stuff to explore, but with a different explanation. I intend to keep posting about this infrequently each year until I see it happen.

My older idea to revive exploration in the game:
A new zone (server), accessible via portals or diving, with proceduraly generated islands, where you need complete a cartography voyage and explore the whole area creating (drawing?) a physical map, simultaneously competing with other crews. Upon completion you can return to the known Sea of Thieves and sell the map in the tavern to the NPC who ordered it.

Only procedural generation can ensure endless exploration. Otherwise you will explore 100% and stay with nothing again.

railed. I want to play the game and discover something on my own. Not to have it handed to me with a lollipop and a pat on the back

Players will complain about it being to hard.

The only thing that has remain the same is is glitter beard. Wish there was more of these

@burnbacon I wouldn't say the game would be harder, but there would be more to find by coincidence that could then feel more railed again once found if needed. And often could be small stuff that didn't need to be solving something, but just something funny or interesting to come across (like objects scattered as an outcome of something that happened once).

And if it were to make it harder, I know I as a child would like that if done right. Granted, railed puzzles are already hard for me 😅

I remember we talked about glitterbeard. I agree fully! Glitterbeard is one of the few things in the game that I'd consider to be explorable content. I just want exponentially more of it and in different forms.

Throwback to the "unknown" ruin stuff in my first pokemon gen 1-4 playthroughs. See the comments of all the childlike imagination we had from it as kids. Thats one of a thousand examples of what can add to exploration.

@hegemon3 I like the idea of having a little exploration mini game! 😃 I like to imagine it'd be like falling into a painting in mario 64 and coming across it.

However, about the endless exploration argument, I argue that procedurally generated stuff gets repetitive quickly, since we're not implementing our own words or imagination beyond what gets duplicated across all in sporadic manner.

I mean, future AI could probably get good at simulating a convincing "imagination" with fun content one day. But I imagine it can take a century before it stops feeling soulless, depending on how exponential the growth can possibly be.

@zimited8670 sure procedural generation is limited, but if you don't treat is as a main course, but rather a background, while player interactions play a main course role, then it can be super fun. I just think Valheim has so much better sea exploration than SoT and I wish we had this feeling in here as well.

What are you talking about? There is a LOT to discover. The developers occasionally put little hints of what is to come hidden within Islands. Prior to joining the Dark Brethren Duke was found in random spots, with little lore clues in his dialogue.

The voyages are a tool to go to the islands, but there are lots of things to find when you get there.

@hegemon3 I get that 😃 I can imagine an element of it being used as part of a bigger design in a game. It is not my dream idea for a game, but I see it working nicely.

I kind of think similarly to this, but more environmentally. I think each region should have a more distinct identity to them. The water/sky color is cool, and some of the islands follow a vague design that matches, but I'd like to see some unique environmental features or things that stand out that are only found in each region. Environmental hazards aside, I believe the Devil's Roar is the most clear, where there's glowing orange crystals, glowing cracks and veins, volcanic-shaped rocks, and other unique features to that environment. While I could not tell you the difference between the Shores of Plenty and the Ancient Isles islands, where they just seem like generally tropical islands. The Wilds is a little more clear, with more shipwrecks, debris, grayish sky and water, etc. but it also does not quite have environmentally unique features, as those things beyond the coloration could be found on any island. I think it'd be neat if the Ancient Isles had a more yellowish hue to the sky, and the greens were darker on the islands. They had more statues and structures built by the Ancients, and things like that, to distinguish it more, and aren't quite found on other islands, for example.

@reverend-toast said in Make the Game Worth Exploring:

What are you talking about? There is a LOT to discover. The developers occasionally put little hints of what is to come hidden within Islands. Prior to joining the Dark Brethren Duke was found in random spots, with little lore clues in his dialogue.

The voyages are a tool to go to the islands, but there are lots of things to find when you get there.

Duke was two years ago. I play since steam release over 4 years ago, every day. The exploration ends much earlier than that, I'd say there is no place you haven't seen after 100 hrs or playtime. After that the exploration element is non-existent, which is bad for a sailing game. I know it's hard to implement, but I just miss this element so much.

@zimited8670

Eight months ago you said (in one of the dozen or so posts you've made asking for the same thing over and over and over...and over) that you were leaving the game until they did this thing they're obviously never going to do six years into a live-service game where the focus HAS never and WILL never be on the environment and is supposed to be about player interaction (where 99.9% of the updates have always and will always be about gameplay/mechanics additions)...only to come back and make the same post again. And again. And then to reiterate in this topic yet again that you're not currently playing or plan to play a game that you're strangely religiously devoted to topic-bombing about on its online forum.

When, exactly, can we expect you to get to the "leaving" part...? If you're gonna stay and play, then do that. Happy to have you! But if all you're gonna do is keep asking for the same thing over and over and the only thing you have to ransom to the devs is the few hours a week that one random person might play some other game instead of theirs? I think you have vastly overestimated your bargaining posture, my dude.

Here's the thing. This game isn't Stardew Valley. It isn't Escape from Tarkov. It isn't RDR2. It isn't Legend of Zelda. It's Sea of Thieves. Got its own identity, unique from most any other game out there. If you want to play those games, then go play them instead.

Liking those other games is perfectly fine. Encouraged even! You do you, boo. But stop trying to force other games to be like them. The world is dynamic enough in that changes happen to islands and the gameworld itself pretty much all the time since 2018, but they're gradual and comparatively low-key. This game simply doesn't have the processing power to make the islands different every time you visit them. The devs have more important things to do than add random NPC quest givers that appear in different times in different places and give randomly generated quests to hidden secrets.

In a live-service game, the biggest, most important thing they can do to generate interest and keep it up is ADVERTISE what changes they're adding to the game every month. "Hey, look at this voyage/event/gamplay mechanic we've created! Come play our game!" Wasting hours of development time on something they've hidden away randomly in a cave or tucked back in the trees for people to accidentally stumble upon while wandering around aimlessly instead of doing the quests or world events that are the entire focus of the gameplay is counter-productive.

@thegrimpreacher Hey! I appreciate your enthusiasm. I enjoy having a conversation about this with somebody like you! You know what you are talking about and have some good points.

I am sorry if I was unclear in meaning that by "leaving" I would not play the game. I am still in the forums. You say it's its own game, but its own game is mediocre. And what I'm requesting is a gamble that can make it great. Something that I feel is understandable to want for a game like this.

I understand you have your idea on how much my suggestion would affect the player base and hour count. But until it has been properly done, I feel that any argument for or against it will be subjective if not slightly based on data. I think it would do more than you think.

If processing power is the only reason they can't do any of my suggestions, that makes sense to me. And I understand that hearing the same message about wanting to do something impossible, due to technological restrictions can feel tiring.

You mention time-based things and other stuff being resource-heavy. That is understandable. We can make stuff to be found without it being too heavy on our computers. I feel there need to be plenty of ways. Even playing around with textures could go a long way for one.

You say that the main way to keep a live service game afloat is by guaranteeing it has eyes on it through advertisement. This makes a lot of sense to me when you say it and I understand that. Which to me makes it feel more like a funding issue. If it is hard to keep this "boat" afloat, which is a normal issue with live service games like these, then perhaps convincing an investor they can make it sink slower with a kick of funding is a reasonable way of doing it. I know it is easy to say since I have no personal risk on the line. But from my perspective, I dream of greatness in a game like this. And I truly feel the game can be so much more. Just some way or another.

Thanks for this!

@thegrimpreacher said in Make the Game Worth Exploring:

@zimited8670

Eight months ago you said (in one of the dozen or so posts you've made asking for the same thing over and over and over...and over) that you were leaving the game until they did this thing they're obviously never going to do six years into a live-service game where the focus HAS never and WILL never be on the environment and is supposed to be about player interaction (where 99.9% of the updates have always and will always be about gameplay/mechanics additions)...only to come back and make the same post again. And again. And then to reiterate in this topic yet again that you're not currently playing or plan to play a game that you're strangely religiously devoted to topic-bombing about on its online forum.

When, exactly, can we expect you to get to the "leaving" part...? If you're gonna stay and play, then do that. Happy to have you! But if all you're gonna do is keep asking for the same thing over and over and the only thing you have to ransom to the devs is the few hours a week that one random person might play some other game instead of theirs? I think you have vastly overestimated your bargaining posture, my dude.

Here's the thing. This game isn't Stardew Valley. It isn't Escape from Tarkov. It isn't RDR2. It isn't Legend of Zelda. It's Sea of Thieves. It has its own identity, unique from any other game out there. If you want to play those games, then go play them instead.

Liking those other games is perfectly fine. Encouraged even! You do you, boo. But stop trying to force other games to be like them. The world is dynamic enough in that changes happen to islands and the gameworld itself pretty much all the time since 2018, but they're gradual and comparatively low-key. This game simply doesn't have the processing power to make the islands different every time you visit them. The devs have more important things to do than add random NPC quest givers that appear in different times in different places and give randomly generated quests to hidden secrets.

In a live-service game, the biggest, most important thing they can do to generate interest and keep it up is ADVERTISE what changes they're adding to the game every month. "Hey, look at this voyage/event/gamplay mechanic we've created! Come play our game!" Wasting hours of development time on something they've hidden away randomly in a cave or tucked back in the trees for people to accidentally stumble upon while wandering around aimlessly instead of doing the quests or world events that are the entire focus of the gameplay is counter-productive.

@zimited8670 I wish there was a procedurally generated game in the same genre of SoT. Maybe I'll make it some day. But yeah SoT is pretty stale island to island. Maybe more stuff like mermaid shrines where you have random puzzles and stuff that gets small but notable amounts of loot could be added over time.