I just hit Athena level 10 a few days ago. Now there's pretty much nothing left to play for. I think it would be a good idea if Rare unlocked a new Athena voyage type after you reach 10. It could be a different color, blue for example. It would follow the same level progression as the original Athena voyage (green Athena) but would unlock a piece of a blue ghost suite for each level. So level 2 would unlock blue ghost boots, 3 would unlock blue ghost gloves, etc. What would be so interesting is that any other player could do the voyages and unlock the gear (just like the green Athena voyage). That would make the gear extremely rare and would and add some incentive to new Pirate Legends to keep playing since they could work towards unlocking a new voyage type.
This would make it very fun once you are able to lay down the voyage type because all other players would want to get in on the voyage to unlock the rare gear. Even new Pirate Legends would feel like they still have a long road ahead of them with the game instead of feeling like it's over. It would add an exciting dynamic to post-legend game play that would have a rejuvenating effect for PLs.
What about after level 10 Athena Blue? Why not unlock a new voyage type, Athena Red? Have an Athena voyage type for every color in a rainbow. They could even be named after colored gems (e.g. Athena Ruby for a red ghost suit).
This feature would keep players in the game for as long as they wanted to keep progressing. As it stands now, PLs hit a hard stop Athena 10 and there is nothing else worth playing for. Or they lose interest before hitting Athena 10 because they see it as pointless since the reward isn't that great.
Also there needs to be trackable commendations for Athena voyages like there is for all the other voyage types (even Bilge Rat has them). There also needs to be a title that gets unlocked when you reach Athena 10 and an achievement (just like there is for the trading companies and reaching PL, there's no reason that Athena's should be any different).
This is not a lot to ask for. They could use the same ghost suit and voyages from the current Athena voyages. All that Rare would have to do is change them from green to blue (or whatever color). The devs would just have to do some copying and pasting of code, add a few new lines of code here and there, and change the glowing color of the outfit and voyage.
Furthermore, having extremely expensive items would also give PLs a reason to keep making money. I almost have 2 million gold and there's nothing worth spending it on. Having flashy high ticket items would make it exciting to save up for them; further adding incentives for PLs to keep playing.
Now, I have to say that I really love this game and want to keep playing. It's definitely one of the best, if not the best, games that I have ever played. I have never met so many great people and had so many incredible experiences in a game before. That is why I am spending the time writing this post in hopes that Rare will hear some of my thoughts on how the game could be even better.
Now to preempt some of the common criticism that almost every post on post-PL gameplay receives:
If you just played the game the way it was ment to be played you wouldn't have gotten to PL and Athena 10 so quick
The game has been out for months and players reaching PL and A10 is rapidly growing. In a month the number of PLs and A10 will like 2-5x (or more) than what it is now. This is going to be a big problem very shortly. These players can't just be dismissed and looked down upon for somehow not playing the game correctly.
If these players leave because they raced through the voyages, the that's fine. Rare shouldn't cater to these power players. No game developer should.
This is basically saying that the biggest fans of the game and most dedicated players are somehow a group of p*******s that Rare should ignore and be glad when they leave.
Pirate Legends have already played the game for over 100 hour. So they got there money's worth. Anymore requests from them means that they have some kind of entitlement issues
What PLs want is for the game to continue to allow them to work towards meaningful goals so that it's still fun to play. We don't need a ton of content to keep us motivated. Like I said above, something simple like different color ghost suits to work towards unlocking. Or expensive items to save our money for. But as it stands now, you just run out of meaningful goals to work towards and the game isn't fun anymore.
If your fun is dependent on seeing numbers changing to show that you're making progress, then you need to take a deep look inside yourself because you have other problems.
This is just an attack levied by those that feel themselves superior for not caring about in-game progression. People are motivated by different things and play games for different reasons. Trying to somehow belittle others because of these differences is sad.
I'm a PL and I disagree with everything you say.
That's fine, these are my opinions, but there is certainly an ever growing number of people that agree with them.
The game is supposed to be fun, not a grind.
It was very fun, until all the things that made it that way evaporated. There are those that somehow feel like they're better than others because they never used the word "grind" to describe their gameplay. These people like to make it quite clear that they think that the appropriate word to be used by all is "fun" and that deviating from the correct word means 1) you are not playing the game correctly; or 2) you have mental/personal issues.
In conclusion, the suggestion that I mentioned above wouldn't change anything that effects non-PL players (other than letting them do Athena voyages to unlock different colored ghost suits), but would greatly extend the ability of PLs to progress and continue to enjoy playing the game.
