Time limited campaigns are a money grab.

  • Johhn0
    Master
    Insider

    Other than potential customers purchasing the game during a time limited event for want of limited items, what reason is there to do a timed campaign?

    Literally all a time limited event does is put constraints on people who want to enjoy the game in a particular way or don't have the time or desire to finish the campaign within the time frame.

    Seriously, other than a cash grab what could possibly be gained other than a bunch of players with limited edition items that would likely irritate someone knowing they can never get them.

    In almost any other game - "Oh that item looks awesome, I want it...works hard, achieves goals however difficult they may be, get's item."

    In sea of thieves -"Oh that item looks awesome...I want it...can never get it."

    The game is literally about cosmetic items and some of the coolest ones are not limited behind achievements, feats of strength, ingenuity, game play, teamwork....but time, limited by your ability to play the game when the developers tell you.

    The issue is further exacerbated by the fact that new and cool content is time limited, in a game where content is the most wished feature.

    The Megaldon fight was really really cool if you got to do it during the campaign, but... the campaign is over now, so all you get is random Megalodons swimming around that are not at all as epic is the encounter was during the campaign. For instance.

    My 2c, I hope that change their model, but they won't.

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  • FishSt1ck
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    Ahoy there @gianni001!

    I think your argument of the time limited part and exclusive cosmetics being mostly for attracting new players to the game and thus being a money grab seems the weakest possible explaination for it. As @SurveyorPete also stated below, there won't be anyone going "Oh wow that's some nice looking sails, I should really buy Sea of Thieves for that". Sure the events will probably attract new players, however that's just the effect of marketing, not the time limited aspect or the cosmetics.

    I can think of several valid reasons why the time limited aspect is a good things:

    Focus on the event
    Each of the events introduced content that is hard to beat by yourself, so having people around that are all focused and know about the content that's currently live will make it easier to find people to do it. Removing that focus will be like trying to find people to do the Thrones now.

    Focused feedback on the new content
    Apart from focus for the players it'll also give focus for the developers as they can see how everyone is interacting with the newly added content and they can, like they did with Cursed Sails, make adjustments during the event based on a lot of feedback.

    Information focus
    By keeping it time limited all the information about the campaign can be focused within that time. Everyone will be talking about the campaign, all the loading screens can give information about the event, all the communication channels can focus on it. This way everyone playing the game will know what's up and everyone not playing the game might be tempted to get in.

    Player activity
    Somewhat similar as the player focus, it'll also make sure that people who log into the game once every month will maybe try and plan their time to actually be there during the event. It'll increase player activity for the limited time.

    Introduction/lore for added content
    Apart from the actual added content, the campaign is meant as a introduction for content that's being added after the campaign. They could have just added the Megalodon or the Skeleton ships to the game without any introduction, smack some commendations on it and let everyone do their thing. However they introduce it with an event before adding it to the game.

    Renewed interest to come back to the game
    Unrelated to your money grab theory, there's a lot of people that might have bought the game but stopped for whatever reason. By making the event a short term thing with the dates being added to the trailers, you can get people to come back within that time.

    Rewarding people for being at special events
    As you said the game is literally about cosmetics, so they're used as a reward mechanism. People are rewarded with cosmetics for completing things and for playing the game at certain times. You can see by the cosmetics someone is wearing what events they were able to complete. Sure this can be a though pill to swallow for people that joined later and cannot get it, however that's how it works with a lot of things and even a lot of games. On that topic though, Rare did state that the timed limited items might make their return at a different time, so that doesn't mean you'll never be able to get them again.

    Having exclusive cosmetics in a game about cosmetics doesn't sound like a bad thing to me especially not if everyone that was playing had the same chance of getting something. It's not only a reward for accomplishing something special, it's a the developer rewarding content for people being there and supporting them.

    The only problem I can see with it is that a certain set of cosmetics is spread out over several events. I don't really mind the ship / weapon cosmetics being seperate, however to complete the bone crusher clothing set you need to have done the Thrones event and The Cursed Sails. People that are tempted by starting the game again will find out during this event that they missed out on parts of it. I think it's weird to split up clothing items in such a way and although I was able to get all of it, I think it would have been better to keep clothing sets together.

    That's my 2c about it..

    Signed,

    Captain FishSt1ck

    [Updated: My post was written just when I woke up, I though I'd add "a bit" more]

  • SurveyorPete
    Legend
    Insider

    So, you are suggesting that there are a lot of people who never played Sea of Thieves, but who follow the update announcements, and such, and who suddenly dive in and buy the game because there is a time-limited figurehead, or a new hat, they simply must have!?

    I don't see it, myself.

  • Johhn0
    Master
    Insider

    @surveyorpete Neither do I, it's the only justifiable reason I can see for the logic behind them. Why else would they do it, that's the question.

  • Slave2theSAvE
    Master
    Insider

    The time limited campaigns are designed to keep existing players playing with new content landing regularly.
    Its still up to existing players whether they want to participate in a campaign.

    Personally im loving the new content, always looking forward to the new stuff and i love the way the previous content is worked in, so you can still pursue commendations you might have missed.

  • COMBATxKITTY
    Commander
    Insider

    I hate to say it but im officially done with cursed sails. Yet again my crew stocks up and tried to find an ally. We found one guy who blew up our gun powder barrels so we had to kill him and sink his ship. Then we found one other ship who wanted nothing to do with us. Yet again we went at it alone and were doing ok till the meg came and attacked our ship and down we went after over an hour of prep.

    Not enough decent players to ally with and the time constraints makes it even more difficult. Gonna stick with other content and hope next dlc works out better.

    Ok im done b*tching lol

  • Sandmanbakery
    Marauder

    why are you mad? you are getting the content for free. so what if it's a cash grab? they have to pay their employees, and to do that they need money from somewhere. and they have said that all time limited items will make their way into the game eventually. How? my guess is real world money to buy them outside of the timed campaigns. but again, THEY NEED TO PAY EMPLOYEES

  • Johhn0
    Master
    Insider

    @sandmanbakery Because assuming it is a cash grab, they could still entice new players without putting limitations on the content.

  • FishSt1ck
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @combatxkitty
    I've heard of several crews that did it by themselves. Even saw someone posting that it was done solo. Have you tried stocking up and just going at it with your crew?

  • Sshteeve
    Captain
    Insider
    Boatswain

    @fishst1ck said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @gianni001
    How about focus? Even within the 2-3 weeks it's hard enough to find people willing to do it after the first couple of days.

    Ain't that the truth!? Servers were pretty quiet after the first couple of days last week!

  • Hynieth
    Master
    Insider

    As Said by @FishSt1ck It's a focus thing. These events will get old after a week if not sooner when people do them a lot.

    Now the crews and curses rotate but imagine it staying the way it is. I think in a week the zones where they spawn would be deserted and in a month barely anyone would be bothered with doing them.

    I know it's a knee jerk response to yell money grabbing practise and be angry at these kinds of things but It's actually a good thing. They're giving the players who are there at the moment of release something extra as an introduction.

    I'll take the Megladon as an example. Rare could have just thrown in some giant sharks and called it a day. The intention is to have an extra AI threat and some new tools. In stead of just giving them to us in our inventory and having the Megladon pop up like it does now, we got a story and everything.

    In this case, in stead of having Skeleton ships just popping up we get an event! You don't have to wait for them you just have to go somewhere and fight them. It's not perfect but Rare is clearly learning from past experiences; You can do these with a single sloop, the crews rotate so there's always some people doing them, it's more focussed since you have them at a clear place on the map, you can start it from the first moment you log in. There's a quest but you can skip it if you want.

  • BearInADress
    Master

    6 ship maximum per server.

    Crew 1 wants to fight Meg.
    Crew 2 wants help with Skeleton Thrones.
    Crew 3 wants their Gunpowder Skeleton commendation at an active fort.
    Crew 4 wants to complete their mermaid statues.
    Crew 5 wants to do Cursed Sails.
    Crew 6 just wants to grind for rep.
    Nobody is willing to help the other crews because none of the other crews are willing to help them.

    This would be your daily gameplay experience if all this new content WASN'T time-limited. The more permanent content that gets added, the more spread out the playerbase becomes. The more spread out the playerbase becomes, the harder it becomes do do ANY of the content without agreeing to do something you've already completed. Likely, a dozen times over.

    Now think of all the people that play this game with the sole purpose of ruining everyone else's fun, and how they'd factor into such an arrangement.

    Still sound like a good idea?

  • COMBATxKITTY
    Commander
    Insider

    @fishst1ck yes we were stocked and we were doing fine until the meg continuously attacked our ship. We were doing dropped anchor curse.

    Who posted that they did it solo? Did they record that or just write about it?

  • Genuine Heather
    Captain
    Insider

    @combatxkitty said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @fishst1ck yes we were stocked and we were doing fine until the meg continuously attacked our ship. We were doing dropped anchor curse.

    Meg's taken us out of the battle on more than one occasion. Ugh!

  • COMBATxKITTY
    Commander
    Insider

    @genuine-heather said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @combatxkitty said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @fishst1ck yes we were stocked and we were doing fine until the meg continuously attacked our ship. We were doing dropped anchor curse.

    Who posted that they did it solo? Did they record that or just write about it?

    Meg's taken us out of the battle on more than one occasion. Ugh!

    Had same thing happen yesterday for dancing demon ship. We stocked up, searched for an alley, finally found one, they turnrd out to be morons and blew themselves up then left. We head out on our brig and start the fight. Two ships and the meg all spawned same time and it quickly turns to the end scene of Titanic but instead of Leonardo Dicaprio i had an old scrawny beardrd man with with no teeth by my side.

  • Genuine Heather
    Captain
    Insider

    @combatxkitty Oh my gosh, that made me laugh out loud. :)

  • KungFuStu72
    Master

    @deliciouspack
    How I see it currently working during this event.
    6 ships MAXIMUM per server.

    Crew 1 wants to do Cursed sails, has stocked their ship and is at the correct location.
    Crew 2 wants to do Cursed sails but has just set sail and is collecting stores.
    Crew 3 is trying to complete the Cursed Sails story line (not ready for the fight).
    Crew 4 grinding for rep.
    Crew 5 wants to attack everyone and watch the world burn.
    Crew 6 doesn't have a clue what they're doing or doesn't even exist.

    Most of the problems with this game are due in part to the limited server size. But these problems could be solved by introducing some decent server selection / match making.
    Want to do Cursed Sails - join the Cursed Sails queue to get on a server full of people ready to fight the Skeleton Ships.
    Want to do Skeleton Thrones - join the Skeleton Thone queue and get on a server full of people wanting to do that content.
    Want to repeat the original Meg fight - join the Hungering Deep queue.

    The game has always suffered from problems with finding like minded crew members. It now suffers from problems finding like minded other crews. And still they do nothing to improve match making.

  • DutchDeadSchot
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    @gianni001 your ship is a money grab

  • FishSt1ck
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @kungfustu72
    I think it's in the eye of the beholder, sure if you queue up for a certain server that is focused on doing one thing you can do that thing easier. However it removes all uncertainty and need for interaction with other crews. You're playing a immersive pirate adventure, part of that immersion is convincing others to help you for better gains.

    I know a lot of people aren't used to this kind of gameplay because a lot of games hold their hand the entire way. Just a small example being the World of Warcraft Dungeon finder that automatically finds you a group and teleports you to the right location so you can complete the content without actually sharing a single word with the others. This isn't that kind of game, as it's mostly about the interaction with others. If you want it to be easier you have to improve your spyglass and social skills.

    I can see more tools being added in the future to have a better way of organizing or meeting up at certain locations, however a lobby or server selection for specific content just seems game breaking to me.

  • KungFuStu72
    Master

    @fishst1ck
    But as other people have mentioned on here, in this event and in previous ones, finding other crews is sometimes impossible so convincing them to help is a non starter.

    I've got limited game time. I want to fight skeleton crews. I don't want to spend a very dull hour sailing round the map searching for other crews who may then refuse to join up.

    I know some people boast of soloing the skeleton ships but that's not how this event has been designed. This event is designed around multi crew co-operation and the concept of alliances. But they've done very little to encourage / ensure their customers are getting good experiences.

    I believe that some form of server selection (never PvE servers I hasten to add ;)) would go a long way to giving player what they want.

  • Crimsonraziel
    Master
    Insider

    @kungfustu72 How I saw it working yesterday.
    6 ships MAXIMUM per server.

    Crew 1 wants to do Cursed sails, has stocked their ship and sails towards the correct location.
    Crew 2 wants to do Cursed sails, has stocked their ship and forms an alliance with Crew 1 as they come closer.
    Crew 3 is already fighting and part of Alliance 2.
    Crew 4 is already fighting and part of Alliance 2.
    Crew 5 is already fighting and part of Alliance 2.
    Crew 6 seems to be afraid or just enjoys from the distance 7 ships fighting each other.

    All 6 crews had the correct sails. After the skelly ships got crushed and the disappointment about the loot being absent spread they went on fighting over a fort until only one alliance was left.

  • Clumsy George
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    " Time limited campaigns are a money grab"... i may be a little slow in my mind ( * Slow in yer mind?....Really? ...Nooooo, nobody would have guessed that ,old man..yek yek yek) but ...where is the paying part? Yes , it has been promised but what did the gentlemen and gentlewomen said about this?...That the idea is to only pay for some cosmetics and pets , that all the rest of the game , DLC , time limited events and so on, are and stay free.
    In other words...It is totally your own free choice if you decide to buy something ...or not...Your game and content is the same as the person who did buy a pet in the future....

    i remember , with dread, the Forum when this game released....This place was on fire...Naggins, complaints, even brutal accusations about "too pricey", " a beautiful but empty game, " no content " and so on....Rare had always stated that the game would grow in size and content in time.They had a huge campaign in wich Mr Chapman, with his great narrator's voice,explained over and over again how one had to see ,play and understand the game...

    Alas....so many great attempts but the majority that never read nor heard his explenation came here to start a witchhunt since they didn't understand the concept...At some point i feared that the Christhunters were back...In almost every topic was a burning crusifix standing with the burned and charred remains of a Rare member...

    Don't ask me how they mentally survived that onslaught but they kept working, unhurt ,undamaged because they know they are on the right way....They listen to us , you know, and the reason why timed events are short in time is because they bowed towards all those naggings...They give us so much content that they have to kick it up a notch and make them short in time in order to be able to unleash all they have planned before SOT was even visible to us....
    And ,of course...It's once again ...not good...Now they are too short and for some ...too long...This is a job where ,nomatter what you do, it never seems good enough nor appreciated...
    Well, i can say only one thing...i've been following SOT for a very long time and i love this game but what i absolutely love is the fact that this developer doesn't force me to buy anything extra...They don't even force me to seek out an Alliance...This game is build so geniously that i can keep playing my own game ,the way i want it...

    Calling them moneygrabbers for free DLC is a very strange statement but hey, luckely it's still a free world....

  • FishSt1ck
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @kungfustu72 said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @fishst1ck
    But as other people have mentioned on here, in this event and in previous ones, finding other crews is sometimes impossible so convincing them to help is a non starter.

    I've got limited game time. I want to fight skeleton crews. I don't want to spend a very dull hour sailing round the map searching for other crews who may then refuse to join up.

    I know some people boast of soloing the skeleton ships but that's not how this event has been designed. This event is designed around multi crew co-operation and the concept of alliances. But they've done very little to encourage / ensure their customers are getting good experiences.

    I believe that some form of server selection (never PvE servers I hasten to add ;)) would go a long way to giving player what they want.

    I can understand that if someone has limited time, it might be hard (never impossible) to find others. What I don't understand is why it needs to go from I can't find any ships to hold my hand and group me up with some crews that are doing the same content as I want to do. I think resorting to server selection is the least imaginative way to solve this issue, it's unorganic and completely done outside the actual game. It's like splitting up the game in several "game modes" like "Skeleton Ships", "Voyages" or "PvP".

    It might solve the issue of not finding any players, however it would also remove most of the interaction, remove the element of surprise and create a static world where people only hop on for that specific piece of content.

    Instead they could focus on creative ways to solve issues of finding other crews ingame:

    • Give crews more incentive to do certain events together / help eachother.
    • Allow crews to communicate in different ways to organize meetups.
    • Add parrots or cursed compasses to point in the general direction of other ships.
    • Change the way the events or commendations work.
    • Increase the server limit for ships or do more server merging.
    • Dynamically alter the difficulty / loot based on the number of people there.

    or

    • Insert some brilliant Rare idea that I couldn't have thought of myself!
  • KungFuStu72
    Master

    @fishst1ck
    That all sounds brilliant. I've heard that Rare are recruiting - you should apply for a job!

    My idea of "focused servers" was a very blunt tool for achieving a similar goal - getting like minded people together in one place so that they can enjoy the content that Rare has created. My fear/issue is that many people don't get to experience this content as finding other crews, forming an alliance and destroying the skeleton ships can be such a protracted and clunky process. They then write negative reviews about "lack of content". The content is there, it's just sometimes hard to find and appreciate.

    Even your simple idea of having the ability to send out message to all ships on the server would be a HUGE step in the right direction.

  • KiigelHeart
    Marauder

    @KungFuStu72 I kind a like the process of finding other crews to work with and my crew has been succesful doing it. But I understand that not everyone is as lucky and I wouldn't want anyone to miss this content and have a bad experience.

    So I like the idea of being able to send messages to other ships on the server. They could do this with mermaids for example. Other ship sees there's a mermaid with a message near their ship so they can sail there and see what it's about. That would fit well in the world of SoT imo.

  • COMBATxKITTY
    Commander
    Insider

    @fishst1ck said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @kungfustu72 said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @fishst1ck
    But as other people have mentioned on here, in this event and in previous ones, finding other crews is sometimes impossible so convincing them to help is a non starter.

    I've got limited game time. I want to fight skeleton crews. I don't want to spend a very dull hour sailing round the map searching for other crews who may then refuse to join up.

    I know some people boast of soloing the skeleton ships but that's not how this event has been designed. This event is designed around multi crew co-operation and the concept of alliances. But they've done very little to encourage / ensure their customers are getting good experiences.

    I believe that some form of server selection (never PvE servers I hasten to add ;)) would go a long way to giving player what they want.

    I can understand that if someone has limited time, it might be hard (never impossible) to find others. What I don't understand is why it needs to go from I can't find any ships to hold my hand and group me up with some crews that are doing the same content as I want to do. I think resorting to server selection is the least imaginative way to solve this issue, it's unorganic and completely done outside the actual game. It's like splitting up the game in several "game modes" like "Skeleton Ships", "Voyages" or "PvP".

    It might solve the issue of not finding any players, however it would also remove most of the interaction, remove the element of surprise and create a static world where people only hop on for that specific piece of content.

    Instead they could focus on creative ways to solve issues of finding other crews ingame:

    • Give crews more incentive to do certain events together / help eachother.
    • Allow crews to communicate in different ways to organize meetups.
    • Add parrots or cursed compasses to point in the general direction of other ships.
    • Change the way the events or commendations work.
    • Increase the server limit for ships or do more server merging.
    • Dynamically alter the difficulty / loot based on the number of people there.

    or

    • Insert some brilliant Rare idea that I couldn't have thought of myself!

    You never answered my question. Did you see actual video of people doing this event solo or have you just "heard things"?

    Also I think its silly accusing people of wanting others to "hold their hands" during the event when this event was literally designed to team up with others. The issue is people cant find other ships on their servers to play the event as intended and there is only a certain time frame to do so not that they won't get on a sloop load up and go at it alone.

    I do agree though some of those additions would be a good step in the right direction. We need better ways to find other ships if rare wants to continue to push the this team work stuff.

  • SpringOtter
    Master

    @fishst1ck tells OP that his argument is weak then makes the exact same points as OP in longer sentences. scratches head

  • FishSt1ck
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @combatxkitty said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @fishst1ck said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @kungfustu72 said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @fishst1ck
    But as other people have mentioned on here, in this event and in previous ones, finding other crews is sometimes impossible so convincing them to help is a non starter.

    I've got limited game time. I want to fight skeleton crews. I don't want to spend a very dull hour sailing round the map searching for other crews who may then refuse to join up.

    I know some people boast of soloing the skeleton ships but that's not how this event has been designed. This event is designed around multi crew co-operation and the concept of alliances. But they've done very little to encourage / ensure their customers are getting good experiences.

    I believe that some form of server selection (never PvE servers I hasten to add ;)) would go a long way to giving player what they want.

    I can understand that if someone has limited time, it might be hard (never impossible) to find others. What I don't understand is why it needs to go from I can't find any ships to hold my hand and group me up with some crews that are doing the same content as I want to do. I think resorting to server selection is the least imaginative way to solve this issue, it's unorganic and completely done outside the actual game. It's like splitting up the game in several "game modes" like "Skeleton Ships", "Voyages" or "PvP".

    It might solve the issue of not finding any players, however it would also remove most of the interaction, remove the element of surprise and create a static world where people only hop on for that specific piece of content.

    Instead they could focus on creative ways to solve issues of finding other crews ingame:

    • Give crews more incentive to do certain events together / help eachother.
    • Allow crews to communicate in different ways to organize meetups.
    • Add parrots or cursed compasses to point in the general direction of other ships.
    • Change the way the events or commendations work.
    • Increase the server limit for ships or do more server merging.
    • Dynamically alter the difficulty / loot based on the number of people there.

    or

    • Insert some brilliant Rare idea that I couldn't have thought of myself!

    You never answered my question. Did you see actual video of people doing this event solo or have you just "heard things"?

    I've sent you a private message immediately after you sent the question with the links and names of other people that did that after you asked about it because I didn't want to derail this topic any further as it's not about the event itself but the time limited campaign.

    Also I think its silly accusing people of wanting others to "hold their hands" during the event when this event was literally designed to team up with others. The issue is people cant find other ships on their servers to play the event as intended and there is only a certain time frame to do so not that they won't get on a sloop load up and go at it alone.

    I think you misunderstood what I was saying here. I was saying that requesting matchmaking/server selection for specific content to automatically group you with people is like asking Rare to hold you hand and do the work for you.

  • FishSt1ck
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @blackelite-id16 said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @fishst1ck tells OP that his argument is weak then makes the exact same points as OP in longer sentences. scratches head

    Ahoy there @BlackElite-ID16!

    As far as I know I've answered the OP's first question which was "Other than potential customers purchasing the game during a time limited event for want of limited items, what reason is there to do a timed campaign?". I gave 7 other reasons in response: Focus on the event, focused feedback, information focus, increase player activity, introduce the new content before adding, renewed interest to come back to the game. Not a single reason I mention said anything about attracting new players to purchase the game.

    Don't get me wrong, if I call someone's argument weak that isn't meant as a personal attack on them. I just shared my opinion that I doubt being able to get limited cosmetic items within a 3 week period is the main motivator for people to think "You know what that hat looks so nice, I should buy Sea of Thieves".

    I've seen you post in several related topics, so I can sortof guess your stance about time limited campaigns. Not liking the time limited campaigns doesn't mean though you have to discredit any posts that states good reasons for having them right? As it seems that either you didn't read my post at all or you're just disregarding it, either way I'm definitely not repeating what the OP said.

    Please feel free to join the discussion and tell us why you don't agree with my points, explain why time limited events are such a bad thing or show your support to the points the OP makes. The more feedback the better.

    Fair winds to you sir, see you out at the seas or these forums!

    Signed,

    Captain FishSt1ck

  • COMBATxKITTY
    Commander
    Insider

    @fishst1ck said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @combatxkitty said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @fishst1ck said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @kungfustu72 said in Time limited campaigns are a money grab.:

    @fishst1ck
    But as other people have mentioned on here, in this event and in previous ones, finding other crews is sometimes impossible so convincing them to help is a non starter.

    I've got limited game time. I want to fight skeleton crews. I don't want to spend a very dull hour sailing round the map searching for other crews who may then refuse to join up.

    I know some people boast of soloing the skeleton ships but that's not how this event has been designed. This event is designed around multi crew co-operation and the concept of alliances. But they've done very little to encourage / ensure their customers are getting good experiences.

    I believe that some form of server selection (never PvE servers I hasten to add ;)) would go a long way to giving player what they want.

    I can understand that if someone has limited time, it might be hard (never impossible) to find others. What I don't understand is why it needs to go from I can't find any ships to hold my hand and group me up with some crews that are doing the same content as I want to do. I think resorting to server selection is the least imaginative way to solve this issue, it's unorganic and completely done outside the actual game. It's like splitting up the game in several "game modes" like "Skeleton Ships", "Voyages" or "PvP".

    It might solve the issue of not finding any players, however it would also remove most of the interaction, remove the element of surprise and create a static world where people only hop on for that specific piece of content.

    Instead they could focus on creative ways to solve issues of finding other crews ingame:

    • Give crews more incentive to do certain events together / help eachother.
    • Allow crews to communicate in different ways to organize meetups.
    • Add parrots or cursed compasses to point in the general direction of other ships.
    • Change the way the events or commendations work.
    • Increase the server limit for ships or do more server merging.
    • Dynamically alter the difficulty / loot based on the number of people there.

    or

    • Insert some brilliant Rare idea that I couldn't have thought of myself!

    You never answered my question. Did you see actual video of people doing this event solo or have you just "heard things"?

    I've sent you a private message immediately after you sent the question with the links and names of other people that did that after you asked about it because I didn't want to derail this topic any further as it's not about the event itself but the time limited campaign.

    Also I think its silly accusing people of wanting others to "hold their hands" during the event when this event was literally designed to team up with others. The issue is people cant find other ships on their servers to play the event as intended and there is only a certain time frame to do so not that they won't get on a sloop load up and go at it alone.

    I think you misunderstood what I was saying here. I was saying that requesting matchmaking/server selection for specific content to automatically group you with people is like asking Rare to hold you hand and do the work for you.

    Ok thanks. Ever since Rare re did their site i dont get any notification alerts on my ipad, it just says loading and that's what im on at the moment.

    Ok yeah I tend to agree with that about joining servers for what you specifically want to do. Sorry for misunderstanding. I finally got my T29 tank on War Thunder so it was a late night lol.

  • Sytoki
    Marauder
    Insider

    @gianni001 Ahem...virtual money grab...

  • SpringOtter
    Master

    It boggles my mind how so many people have convinced themselves that this kind of nonsense is acceptable in a "complete product" you paid full price for. If it was F2P or game pass only it would be slightly less scummy but i can only conclude that all the people in favour of time limmited updateds and exlusive content are either plants from Rare or friends and family of developers with an unshakeable bias. This is the biggest turn off for so many people that use to play this game yet the industry is living in this fantasy land where they think they can somehow generate an endless stream of revenue to leach off of without putting the work in. Sure a texture artist might make a few extra hours, but beats having to add meaningful content that you would have to release to all your paying customers with perpetual licensees. People keep crying "its just cosmetic" which in this case is actually a giant lie but since that argument doesn't work anyway lets talk about it. Wen i buy i game, doesn't matter if its multiplayer or singleplayer, im buying utopian world where everyone is on a level playing field and has access to the same progression and content. This game's only sense of progression is cosmetic unlocks so locking any of them behind a paywall or time limited event is locking away content plain and simple. The AAA industry is really driving this metality that you should get to feel special for haveing something else in your copy of the game that no one else can obtain. Obsessive and entitled personalities like that will drop hundreds or even thousands of dollars on micro transactions and spend days if not months on pointless grind further reassuring the publishers that breaking there product up into little spoon fed pieces is what they should have been doing all along. Thankfully most publishers are starting to feel the repercussions of theis massive shift in game design and are having to at least ease back on monetization. Sea of Thieves especially has neen widdled down to just hanful of harcore fanboys defending it to its grave at the ocean floor. Dont expect Rare to change anything. Microsoft has them on a short leash and it seems this is what they actually want. Another studio with a intriguing idea overcome by greed and corporate agendas.

  • SquallyCircle7
    Marauder

    ironic that this event that is meant to bring us together has pretty much grounded our regular group. hopefully i'll have the time this weekend to take a serious run at these skelly invaders. i've been pretty much playing solo since it came out, and loving the empty seas.

  • KrackenFood
    Marauder

    @Gianni001

    1. It encourages players to play the game during the event.
    2. It rewards players who were here for the event and participated
    3. It helps keep players interested in the game in order to get the new gear

    And most importantly
    4) How is it a cash grab? Unless you are specifically purchasing the game for the Cursed Sails the fact that some stuff is time limited gives Rare no more money than if it was permanent.

    As for your comment on other games, many have several time limited rewards for players who played during a specific time. Most event-based loot is only available during that event.

    The events are made to showcase the new content before it is released. If they were removed, you wouldn't see that cool fight from the Hungering Deep 24/7, you would have never had it, and the current state of Megan is all there ever would have been, since this is how she was designed to function in normal gameplay.

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