Alcohol resistances

@seras-bloodwell

I've had these sorts of thoughts too: how do you take existing mechanics and combine them into logical but interesting interactions?

Drinking grog could reduce incoming damage suffered. You're drunk, did the damage really happen?

I like cooking with grog, but sometimes I wish I could pour some over the food. Make it cook faster.

@seras-bloodwell said in Alcohol resistances:

Pretty simple idea, as of now, there is no real benefit to drinking, aside from the drunk walking and vomiting on friends.

My proposal is this,

Drinking levels, lets say every X drinks you gain a level, this level makes you slightly more resistant to alcohol where the highest level makes carrying the groggy chest more like level 1 drunk instead of the 3rd tier.

It'd add more reasons to drink, let some players build a character around drinking as a past time, the game is about community and to a degree role-playing, it'd be interesting for some crews to be looking for a professional drunk.

nice idea would love to see it if they can code it

@seras-bloodwell my ultimate question is: why?

Do we really need new dedicated systems to influence a player character's tolerance to grog? I don't think we do. Someone who wants to make a past time around drinking should get really good at controlling their pirate while they are drunk. That makes the actual past-time about the person and not the programming, which is infinitely more interesting and exciting that witnessing (or being) someone who can proudly say that they spent hours upon hours holding down a button so that holding down that button doesn't effect their character as much. A player's pirate shouldn't develop over time (not in functional ways anyway); the player themselves should develop over time.

Rather than doing this, lets add different types of grog/booze (there are already two types of barrels behind the counter in the outpost taverns) so grog might have actual differing mechanics. This expands the degree to which players can develop/express themselves without putting in arbitrary systems so that their programmed pirate character can develop in lieu of them.

@ambiguousmonk Additional grog and effects would be nice actually and a fair alternative. The why essentially is to really add an extra layer to the gameplay and pirate lifestyle. Currently it feels weird to just have no benefit at all for embracing pirate like tendencies.

Obviously the suggestion is not really all that fleshed out, however the way the game is, it feels like the end game goal is to have everything in the game progress towards something. But, that could just be how I view it to.

@ambiguousmonk

I've been playing deep rock galactic (DRG) and there's a salute mechanic where pressing R3 has you thurst your pick axe into the air and let out a funny battle cry. One is "For Karl!".

This does absolutely nothing, but it's a great addition for player expression, fun, humour, and solidifies the coop social fun of the game. It's brilliant! One person salutes everyone reciprocates!

Grog in SoT is bit like this salute in a way; though you have to fill up grog, find friends, get drunk, get sober... The game never really give players an environment where they can drink with little risk and a reciprocating audience. It's a dormant mechanic.

DRG also has grog but you drink it for mission buffs so it's got a mechanical point. This makes drinking before missions a fun and enjoyable experience and encourages using the jukebox to dance or playing the barrel pub game in the mission lobby.

So the "why" answer is really because drinking has no incentive in SoT and lots of disincentives.

...you say why, but I say why not! Lol!

@odysseyhome Since you brought up DRG which atm received an age rating of 16 in the UK (may change as the game hasn't even left early access yet) I want to point out SoT got an age rating of 12. "Encouragement of the use of tobacco or alcohol" is one criteria that leads to an age rating of at least 16.

I don't you how the rating board would think about the proposed idea in this thread and I also don't know what Rare thinks about it, but I'm pretty sure they want to keep their current age rating.

Perhaps

• just introduce having a drink as a riddle solution, you know "Raise a toast next to the unmarked pirate grave found in the Southwest"
• Introduce a Meg type which only spawns if it hears the sounds of a party boat.
• Being drunk allows you to see otherwise invisible cave markings, (you'd have to be drinking from an OOS mug)

Drinking is pretty much redundant in the game and it would be cool for it to have a reason, seeing as it is quite prevalent. We have a mug, we have a barrel on board, we start in a tavern, we get better mugs with some of the factions, there's the chest of 1000 grogs. With all this booze related stuff having a reason to be drunk sometimes would be cool

@seras-bloodwell Hi there and welcome to the forums and welcome to Sea of Thieves.
You might have noticed that all pirates are equal, this was by design. No pirate will ever get an advantage over other pirates, raising sails 100 times doesn't make it faster and drinking 1000 groggs won't make you less drunk.

There's no vertical progression in Sea of Thieves and I applaud this choice Rare made.
It makes it so you can pick up the game and have fun from the moment you first spawn, no mandatory grinding before you can use certain skills and no shunning of pirates because they haven't unlocked certain abilities or levels.

So It's a huge no for me. I like the non progression we have and want to keep it that way, even for something as small as getting drunk.

@guybrush3pwood2 said in Alcohol resistances:

• just introduce having a drink as a riddle solution, you know "Raise a toast next to the unmarked pirate grave found in the Southwest"

I like that idea in particular.

@hynieth I did notice this, and it's actually a reason why I enjoy the game so much, so it was a bit short sighted to say specifically to have levels, or any sort of true progression. But that doesn't mean the feature needs to be actually useless.

So where as you raise a good point, a flat out no, is a bit of a spit in the face of progress as others have suggested it could provide other benefits that any player can access.

@seras-bloodwell Oh don't get me wrong please, I don't mean to say that I don't want the drinking to not have more features. Like @Guybrush3pwood2 points out there are things you can do with the drinking that doesn't increase levels or require people to do x for y amount of time.
I also agree with @Crimsonraziel that there's a good possibility that Rare doesn't want to emphasize the drinking any more because the game already has a PEGI 12 rating without the alcohol refferences label.
So the flat out no is just for your Idea of having alcoholic progression, not to the iterations of the idea others have given.

@galactic-geek LOL, so is eating raw chicken, jumping off the crows nest, bringing a sword to a gun fight and shooting yourself out of a cannon. In fact, I'd say being a pirate would considerably reduce one's lifespan.
I get what you're saying though, drinking is a prevalent problem in todays society and they could get bad press for glorifying it... where as shooting yourself out of a cannon isn't such an everyday addiction.
Having said that, as they already have "getting drunk" in game, would adding a reason to do it be that bad, as long as the reasons were spread apart? They could promote moderation. :D
I'm not agreeing with the idea of the OP. But I think perhaps as a riddle part or something could work

I'd just like to see what commendation titles RARE would come up with for drinking! Lord of Borachos, Meade Monger, Iron Guts etc....

@crimsonraziel

In Australia SoT is PG (parental guidance) while DRG is MA+15 (mature audience 15 years plus).

The difference is between these grades is PG has mild impact while MA+15 has strong impact. Impact being more about presentation. DRG likely got the higher rating due to strong language and blood and corpse effects when killing bugs.

So maybe your onto something with the "optional" nature of grog to allow it's existence in game; but I don't think making grog more mechanical in the game world would increase it's presentational impact and require a rating reclassification.

Like kids game's have potion drinking and that's not considered impactful drug use...

@odysseyhome Regulations are different around the world and world wide operating companies tend to try to please as many markets as possible. Often this means they go for the strictest regulations to find common ground or censor parts of the game for certain markets.

For my particular post I was referring to the age rating in the UK where Rare is located.

Inside PEGI: Rating drugs, tobacco and alcohol

Although some use of tobacco and alcohol isn’t restricted to a particular age, the PEGI criteria prevents any kind of encouragement of these products being shown below the age of 16.

What is meant by encouragement?

This is typically where the player gains an advantage

What first comes to mind is some kind of temporary buff when you drink, but I think drinking to level up your "drinking skill" and therefore get some advantage does also qualify. In the end the rating board has to judge that, not me, but I honestly don't think temporary or permanent makes a difference in this case.

Whether DRG receives the "Encouragement of the use of tobacco or alcohol" label or not has no impact on it's age rating anymore because it is already rated PEGI 16 for other reasons (violence). For SoT on the other hand it still matters 'cause SoT is rated PEGI 12 and I assume Rare wants to keep that rating.

@crimsonraziel

That's interesting about the positive mechanical restriction. Though I'd wonder if attaching negative mechanics can counter balence.

I think the point is not to glorify drinking and alcoholism as being cool so kids don't emulate / imitate.

So I agree that a drinking progression system is in breach; and making grog into benefit only potions is also in breach.

But using grog for puzzles or like my original suggestion using it as a cooking ingredient. Don't think that'd be in breach.

I guess if it ain't broke don't fix it; but if it ain't got a point (or the point is rather cumbersome to do / organize) then why bother put it in the game in the first place...

...maybe we should just have a "yargh" salute button like deep rock galactic where we raise our cutlasses. I think that'd fulfill the social bonding I'm craving in this game.

...no one wants to drink grog with me cause they're too busy being a pirate.

@crimsonraziel

Turns out any positive benefit or required use is classed as a benefit and thus would require a reclassification. I looked at both Australian and UK boards... So I guess grog will always be an "optional" feature... like you said.

...I guess I'd just love a salute mechanic like in DRG in this game so I can be social and expressive. The current emotes are bit clunky to pull of with instant timing when the perfect opportunity presents itself.

We that's the end of this chapter!

i would love this! personally im trying to get the most kills while drunk in the game currently i have 10

I love to have the occasional drink while playing. My problem is what to do with myself after having partaken?

I itch for the ability to play a variety of tavern games while drunk. Cards, darts, arm wrestling, maybe even some midnight drunken boxing out back... And it would be a great way of bringing different crews together apart from pvp, which I also quite enjoy, not gonna lie.

Imagine having 2 galleons or 4 sloops (or anywhere between that fits the numbers) to run a full 8 man game of poker? In which we could gamble our Doubloons like actual Pirates! It brings a tear to me good eye just thinking about it.

Also, to elaborate on fist-fighting, it would be a boon to those of us who have lived long enough to come to enjoy double gunning to have something, even if just our fists, to fall back on when the ammo runs out.