The patch that disrespects "Old Timers"

  • Nico Threepwood
    Master
    Insider

    This patch reminds me of Enio Morricone. It brought the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

    It showed some amazing new content and Bilge Rat achievements. It brought much potential with the new cannonballs and the new inventory system. Sadly, it carried some not-as-good concepts.
    The inventory system shows that we can see new item types being thrown in soon and that is very exciting. Sadly, it still feels clunky. It might be because it's new to me. I'll give it a few days. Also, I can see it being more frustrating for a console player than us PC folk.

    For many a moon has my crew and myself been Pirate Legend and Athena 10. We did the grind for many, many hours. And we loved it. We have no complaints.
    Enter the Alliance system. With our fantastic Fleet (Check out Fleet of Thieves, friends), we get full server Athena runs going and some wonderful new folk have reached Athena 10 in a mere week.
    That's progress! And we're proud of that.
    BUT. There's still no way to distinguish the old timers, from these younger whipper-snappers anymore.
    Sure... if you're on their boat, you can hear "lemme check the map to see our heading" and the old timers will say without missing a beat "between those 2 points." Only in the experience can you tell. TOO LATE did the behind-legend-and-Athena boat vanity stuff arrive.

    It would be nice to see something thrown our way the same way Brave Vanguards out there have in their vanity chest. Maybe a "achieved legend+athena10 before x date? = title"
    That being, said, I'll throw an olive branch and say that I don't even care much for the new ship cosmetics. I'm partial to green, non-showy tones myself. But my point stands. The grind has lessened.

    And to get to my point that led me to write this. Our last goals (mine and my crew mates), were to complete our commendations. The good old fashioned way. By going on adventures. And now... puff. With this patch, they're all magically completed. No effort. No bang. No flash. No sense of achievement. Downgraded from a solid, round 1000 to random values like 270. Or 90. What? Why? I don't even keep my total value?
    Are we holding the hands of those that say that it takes too long? Isn't that the point? Isn't it supposed to be a long road? The outcome of numerous adventures? The payout is zero. Just a sense of achievement. Now stolen from me because some landlubbers refuse to take to the sea and conquer the waves for themselves.

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    Nico Threepwood,
    Captain of the Moist Pickle.

    P.S. Fix the damn pigs.
    P.P.S. These are the ramblings of Nico Threepwood, salty old sea dog. These "Old Timers vs young whipper snapper" comments in no way reflect the views of the human player behind said character.

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  • JacketedLawyer6
    Captain
    Insider

    Ahoy, nico. I’m sorry, but I disagree. Rare’s main focus was the casual gamers. Being one myself, I am fine with this, because I would have probably never been able to complete these commendations. On the bright side, you have something new to brag about (“guys guess what?! I was able to complete the hard commendations to be made easy!)

  • Nico Threepwood
    Master
    Insider

    @jacketedlawyer6 You misunderstand. It's not about bragging. It's about having something to do in the game.
    We have sailed together, you know I am not about boasting.
    But as there are casual gamers, there are addicts (not ashamed to say it) like myself, who love this game and will play sessions of 8+ hours pretty much daily.
    How long do you think it will take us to burn through the new Bilge Rats? These long, long term goals were just something else to strive for.
    And although some values DID need balancing, I don't think 1000 chickens is that much. It's nothing! 1000 banana crates? Yes, too much given the rarity. But the normal animals? Strongly disagree.
    And I also disagree that casual gamers should worry about being completionists. Can you be both? Do we have to reduce my game time to please yours?

  • JacketedLawyer6
    Captain
    Insider

    @nico-threepwood Aye, this does make sense. Sorry, but to me I just don’t like grinding achievements. I would prefer to do other things and let the achievements come on their own y’know?

  • Crazed Corsair
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    I don't subscribe to the elitism of "old timers" and their need for validation. However I completely sympathize with and think it wrong to nerf the c**p out of the commendations by slashing the requirements so heavily. I mean all they actually gave you was "titles", why on earth does something so simple have to be casual friendly?

  • Nico Threepwood
    Master
    Insider

    @crazed-corsair Thank you. Glad we can see eye to eye on this senseless nerf.

    And tbh, when I say "old timers", I mean it in the most click-bait possible way ;)

  • Genuine Heather
    Captain
    Insider

    For what it’s worth, I agree with you. I thought they were just going to lessen the crazy ones, like 1,000 banana crates. I never imagined they’d cut all of them. I can’t imagine what they were thinking. Long term goals can only help the game retain its longevity. It feels like this update caters to the youngest, instant gratification demographic. I’m light years away from most of the harder commendations. Or at least I was. But I liked it that way. It made me feel like I’ll have long term goals to enjoy for a long time to come.

    I’m not a fan of the sour grapes posts I’ve read elsewhere bemoaning the fact that others are getting it so easy. That seems a bit petty to me. But I definitely sympathize with those who feel the rug has been pulled out from beneath them. Commendations have meaning because they’re hard. They’re supposed to take a long time. If I sign on and and I’m suddenly granted commendations I was looking forward to earning...it really takes away the whole point, doesn’t it?

  • COMMANDREW
    Marauder

    For many a moon?

  • Capn Forge
    Master
    Insider

    As another "Old Timer" (Legend before they upped voyage rewards, Athena 10 before alliances....I love this game) I agree.

    The flow of titles and shiny pop-ups, throughout the grind was steady, between early commendations and the Faction rewards. It was nice to have those super-rare far off titles, that highlighted a truly dedicated player, and give something to works towards.

    Instead of giving Legends more to do, they've reduced what little we had. At least for now.

  • haydensolo
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    Yeah agree, you can tell it’s a newer trailer player when they don’t know the names of the islands. I kinda just have them conciously memorized now lol.

  • TimboAGoGo
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    Yup, great post, I totally agree.
    I also liked to use it as a record of statistics and progress and now that's all gone. I played a couple of hours tonight and unlocked at least 10 new commendations and 6 or so new titles but my stats are all gone.
    Insert sad face here....

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