The Shanty Problem... and a 'simple' fix!

@ultmateragnarok Totally agree with the sentiment, but it doesn't deal with the technology issue.

At this time, the memory budget of the game precludes adding dramatically more shanties. Think of it this way: whenever they add a feature (new shanty, mermaid statues, etc) they have to 'find' more memory somewhere. Sometimes that can be done by finding new efficiencies, and sometimes it is done by turning something off. In the past, they have turned off skull forts to make the ship battles possible or turned off mermaid statues to allow... whatever else came in at that time.

My fix is not so much about more control for us (which would be nice too), but about finding a way to add fresh shanties without asking for more memory.

@ultmateragnarok My understanding (and this is just from the talks on their videos and stuff) is that, if they are available to anyone, they have to be available to everyone, which makes sense, if you think about it like that: if you start playing a tune next to me, my guy has to hear it and be able to join in, which means that it is loaded into the game for me too, even if I didn't pick it.

I think, given the current tech, the only way to get more shanties is to swap em out for the whole population.

I'm hoping their streaming idea works. I want dozens of options, with multiple more instruments.

@captain-arcanic Me too, but I think one of the issues with their current dev cycle is that they are not iterative enough. They are still thinking like a company making a 4 year dev time AAA game (and marketing like that) and so they are getting into trouble at every turn. Games like Assassin's Creed take 3 years tooling with something. When they need to update, they work internally and put out a big patch. The promise a lot on 'release' times because they need to make their sales at that time. They have small test group that can't possibly test everything right. Sound familiar?

They need to think like companies that are successfully doing "games as a service," like Digital Extremes, Blizzard, and Epic.

• First- they need to ditch the 'pioneer' group and use PTR realms like everyone else. The kraken-brigantine problem not being caught is simply an oversight caused by a small test group. They want to keep it quiet for "surprise and delight" but bugs don't delight. It would still surprise people when it hits the PTR and, if they play it right, they get two news cycles talking about them- one about the PTR and another when it goes 'live'
• 2- They need to cycle through focus areas for testing to ensure all types of experiences get tested, by shutting down portions of the PTR except for certain things
• 3- they need to stop thinking in terms of finish lines and start adding little upgrades as they get them (the shanty fix or fishing) and trust that people will come by word of mouth as the game gets better, rather than relying on big press events
• 4- they need to be way more transparent. This is easier with a PTR, obviously, but they should ask the community for help. In a recent podcast, they said that it "occurred" to them recently that they shouldn't add the mermaid statutes back in unless there was some reason to interact with them... as though the forums didn't scream about that for three weeks solid during the original statues event. Different members of their dev team should post regularly with thoughts about why this thing is this way or whatever. (Here's a great example of Rare doing this well one time.)
• 5- finally, they need to get monetizing to get Microsoft off their backs so that they can take their time a grow. Epic is the example here. Pets would be a good start.

Sorry to turn this into a PTR/ FTP/ dev culture rant. Just been thinking about it a lot lately...

@ultmateragnarok Slightly off the mark, but:

I would pay real money for new shanty if it was cool.

I would like it! Until they find a way to solve the memory issue.