Overall Improvement Ideas

@mr-mthe2nd said in Overall Improvement Ideas:

PLEASE PASS THIS ON OR AT LEAST READ THROUGH THE ENITER MESSAGE. THANK YOU.

I played Sea Of Thieves from 2020 to 2023. Over that time I grew from a swabbie to a sweaty sea dog whilst amassing over 5000 hours and building an amazing crew. However, I quit over a year ago and sadly all but one of my crew members have done the same. I hate it but the game has changed in ways that we personally don't enjoy. It is also noticeable that server status gets worse over time and cheaters are still an ongoing issue. I'm not knocking Sot for this. They balance a lot of the stuff at the same time such as the stress from workload as well as solving these problems and truthfully they do a great job with it. Sea Of Thieves is one of a kind. The following is a series of suggestions My crew and I have thought of over time that we believe would interest past, present, and future players. To whoever reads this, I would greatly appreciate it if you saw fit to pass this on to the development teams of Sot.

1. Nerf loot values, Increase shop costs - It's no secret the economy is busted. I liked the idea of reintroducing rarity of loot with all the new company items but gold is still just skyrocketing. My solution: nerf loot values but buff key loot item values (Chest of Legends, Chest of Fortune, Skulls of Siren Song and Ashen winds, etc.). buff shop costs. Overall, make gold valuable again (Also buff sunken emissary flag values to incentivize reapers for pvp)

2. UNCAP reputation levels for safer seas but have 50% kept on gold earnings - I know and understand that the majority of players are casual players who want to chill and grind after work or school without being bothered. This gives them an outlet to commendation or reputation grind without being pressured to enter "pvp servers" if they don't want to whilst (after implementation of Point 1 above), also incentivizing ship interaction on high seas. The gold discount is to keep the economy stable, a.k.a prevent safer seas millionaires or billionaires.

3. Rotate the following on a monthly basis - Shrines and treasuries, sea forts, and skeleton camps should appear 4 months out of the year each if rotated monthly (3 location types rotated 4 times per year). I thought of this because it doesn't erase Sot’s work but temporarily gets rid of 2 out of 3 locations per month which would help server stability. For the skeleton camps, while they are rotated out, keep the burning blade event but come up with another way to increase value (maybe emissary hunting, I'm not sure) which leads me to my next suggestion

4. If Point 3 is carried out it frees up server space for more ships - increase ships per server from 5-6 to 10-11 ships per server. This allows an increased chance for interaction at events and meeting potential crewmates in game rather than looking outside of the game.

5. Increase the rarity of the Siren Song skull, Fort of Fortune, burning blade, and activation for Fort of The Damned - The common idea for all 4 of these events is that they should invite server interactions but what's the use for fighting over one of these when you can currently hop servers for another one. For the 3 randomized events, I would suggest players maybe being able to find any one of these once or twice per week. For Fort of the Damned, either get rid of the skull of destiny altogether or have an INSANE price buff to get it. The goal is to make us the players drop everything and sail towards any of these if we see them. Add that tension high risk high reward factor back to these events. On community weekends all these rarities on these events could be dropped making them available over the weekend.

6. Update faction dives OR bring back arena - I personally loved arena and it’s where I met the majority of my crewmates but I know it’s difficult and a strain on resources to have servers and teams dedicated to keeping up with a separate game mode. However, it gave highly competitive players like me an outlet to practice tdm or naval skills whilst in a condensed time frame. If that ship has sailed and that's a no-go idea then I would go with the latter. Have a dive mode where you can fight more than one opponent in either a last ship standing or team fight (unlockable after hitting level 100 for that faction)
   For a last ship standing reputation is handed out based on placement
   (6 sloop match - 3 levels for 1st, 2 levels for 2nd, 1 level for 3rd. 0.75 level for 4th, 0.50 level for 5th, 0.25 level for 6th)
   (4 brigantine match - 2 levels for 1st, 1.5 levels for 2nd, 1 level for 3rd. 0.50 level for 4th
   (3 Galleon match - 1.25 levels for 1st. 0.75 levels for 2nd, 0.5 levels for 3rd)
   If your confused for the reasoning behind my reputation handouts for each position, I tried to make it where it would discourage loss farmers but also make the payout worth it. The bigger ships pay outs are less because there's less enemy ships and the matches would most of the time be shorter. That's why the sloop winners would get the best payout (longer matches versus more opponents)
   For a team faction fight concept -
   (3 v 3 sloop opposing factions)
   (2 v 2 brigantine opposing factions)
   (2 v 2 galleon opposing factions)

7. 2 more gold sink sets (similar to the Dark Adventurer Set) - (referring back to point 1) with the implementation of this the economy would be fixed moving forward but I didn't mention that many players would still have millions of gold on their pirate. To fix this add 2 more complete sets to encourage gold spending instead of potentially enraging the community by removing a set percentage of gold off of their accounts which would be needed to completely fix the economy.
   My personal recommendation would be a complete Fallen Sea Dog equipment, ship, and clothing set in honor of arena and Demarco's death
   The Second gold sink Set could be a combination of all the tall tales, or a reaper set to counteract the Dark Adventurer set. If they are set at similar prices to the Dark Adventurer set then they combined would equate to 160 - 200 million gold.

8. This one is just another personal want- Return to tall tale format. I loved the Sot storyline and was excited for the return of flame heart as a player but cinematically we were left with Heart of Fire before switching to limited time Adventures. If a player comes in after the last adventure they play through the tall tales, blink, then are greeted with flame heart at reapers hideout. No dark brethren, no erasure of Pendragon or anything. I would like to see the reworking of the past adventures into tall tales up until and including one cinematically showing the resurrection of flame heart.

CONCLUSION:
If you took the time to read all of this and will pass this on to the necessary RARE employees then I thank you. Please understand that I really did love this game at one time and still want it to do good, but I want it to remain enjoyable for all communities such as the PVP, PVE, and Lore communities. And I believe through the ideas in the outline above this balance can be achieved. I just personally think it’s currently not there yet and at its core it’s not the organized but chaotic pirate game it once was. Once again thank you and have a good day.

Hey Mr. Mthe2nd,

While some of your suggestions have potential, a few might not work as well in practice. Here’s why:

Nerf Loot Values, Increase Shop Costs: Nerfing loot will hurt newer players more than help. Instead, adding more prestige items for veterans could balance the economy without making gold harder to earn.

Uncap Reputation in Safer Seas: This would lead to farming in the low-risk environment, which breaks the balance. Keeping progression tied to Adventure servers ensures the thrill of risk and reward.

Rotating Shrines/Forts/Camps: Removing activities monthly would make the world feel empty. Instead, focus on server optimization while keeping content live for variety.

Increase Ships per Server: More ships could overwhelm events and strain servers. The current balance allows meaningful player interactions without chaos.

Event Rarity (Burning Blade, etc.): Making events rarer would cause frustration. Instead, improving rewards during peak times or weekends could maintain player engagement.

Faction Dives/Arena: While competitive modes are fun, splitting the player base could weaken core gameplay. Improving faction dives with more engaging rewards would be a better solution.

Thanks again for your ideas. Looking forward to seeing how the game evolves!

UNCAP reputation levels for safer seas but have 50% kept on gold earnings

This gives them an outlet to commendation or reputation grind without being pressured to enter "pvp servers"appear 4 months out of the year each if rotated monthly

Nope. High Seas or no. and where are these pvp servers? I thought it was always Pvpve servers. :/

Rotate the following on a monthly basis - Shrines and treasuries, sea forts, and skeleton camps should appear 4 months out of the year each if rotated monthly

Thus removing content that people often enjoy better for a few months. No thanks.

If Point 3 is carried out it frees up server space for more ships - increase ships per server from 5-6 to 10-11 ships per server. This allows an increased chance for interaction at events and meeting potential crewmates in game rather than looking outside of the game.

Just more players to avoid.

Update faction dives OR bring back arena

Sigh...

Have a dive mode where you can fight more than one opponent in either a last ship standing or team fight

So..another seperate server to monitor, spend resources on, keep updates separate etc....Nope.

I would like to see the reworking of the past adventures into tall tales up until and including one cinematically showing the resurrection of flame heart.

The use of the Hourglass, time travel into the "Memories" of Sea of the Damned.

@mr-mthe2nd said in Overall Improvement Ideas:

3. Rotate the following on a monthly basis - Shrines and treasuries, sea forts, and skeleton camps should appear 4 months out of the year each if rotated monthly (3 location types rotated 4 times per year). I thought of this because it doesn't erase Sot’s work but temporarily gets rid of 2 out of 3 locations per month which would help server stability. For the skeleton camps, while they are rotated out, keep the burning blade event but come up with another way to increase value (maybe emissary hunting, I'm not sure) which leads me to my next suggestion

4. If Point 3 is carried out it frees up server space for more ships - increase ships per server from 5-6 to 10-11 ships per server. This allows an increased chance for interaction at events and meeting potential crewmates in game rather than looking outside of the game.