Breathing Life Back Into Adventure Mode - An ACTUAL Solution

@galactic-geek I'm not talking about just Tall Tales. I'm talking about the appeal and longevity of Adventure Mode once you've done all the Tall Tales.

The viewership on Twitch and the number of broadcasters streaming Sea of Thieves has dramatically dropped since the shine wore off the mega update. It's not a direct correlation, but it IS a "canary in the tunnel". I mean... there's a reason top streamers get paid 5-6 figure sums to stream a game: it helps build and maintain the player base and game sales. In addition, the timing seems pretty uncanny. Twitch viewership and broadcasting dramatically decreases right around the same time that I feel most players would have finished all 9 Tall Tales?

The players & communities I have and still play with cite the reasons I mentioned as reasons they play less often and/or have walked away. In my opinion (seconded by a lot of those people) Adventure Mode is boring now due to less player interaction, something that I personally believe was a major appeal of this game. Adventure Mode has turned into primarily Tall Tales, PvE alliances, and people who are extremely salty about PvP being a part of the game. I'm done with TT now and have no interest in hand holding, rainbows in the sky, let's all win and have fun game play.

I know that there is a reason that they designed Tall Tales so you can't steal & sell the loot... the point I'm making is that in my opinion it was a mistake. I also believe reversing that decision would breathe live into the game. You disagree. Heard. I appreciate your input! :)

So we fight for a contested fort.
Can take a while if u are constantly harrased.

Now we actually make it out with the keu to collect loot later when its safer.

We sink bye key.
I just spend possibly hours and got nothing to show for.

Tell me how this is diffrent?

Also oké we only make last item stealable. But there is also items u need during the quest. These can not be stolen. According to your idea. But can i sink that ship? Or they indestructable?

Wether i steal it or sink them both ways they need to Start over.

Again explain to me how this works?

@weakdexx said in Breathing Life Back Into Adventure Mode - An ACTUAL Solution:

Again explain to me how this works?

In theory it could be as easy (theoretically easy) as the items appearing on your voyage table with your new boat. That sounds like the sort of thing that'd cause all kinds of bugs and performance issues in practice, but in theory that could be how it works.

PvP focussed players are gonna be PvP focussed players. They're only focussed on half the game, so in my view it's ok if they only enjoy it half the time. Same goes for PvE focussed players. Focus on half the game, expect half as much fun.

I'd prefer if the balance was: Arena - fun for everyone but more aimed at PvP fun. Adventure - fun for everyone but more aimed at PvE fun.

Maybe there's room for a 3rd mode like a ranked Ship vs. Ship deathmatch, no chests or islands, just all out combat around some sea rocks or something. It wouldn't be my mug of grog but if people would enjoy that sort of thing: why not? Personally I just play other games for my pure PvP thrills.

I do know that Rare have said they don't want too many modes to split the community.

Hackers/trolls/afk crew are a problem in all modes and not specific to Arena, although they have a worse impact on enjoyment in Arena because of the nature of the mode.

@saintjace

Here's the issue.

Well... let me say first - yes I do believe there has been a predictable pattern of passive players in Adventure lately. This serves to make the Adventure World more predictable and doesn't feel like it is in the spirit of Sea of Thieves.

Nobody but Rare really has the facilities to objectively say that players are being more passive than anything in Adventure, all we're doing is speculating based on our personal experience.

So we agree that it at least feels like PvP focused players are spending more time in The Arena and have left Adventure. Perhaps because most of those players are Pirate Legends and have finished their Tall Tales? Which leaves Adventure mode with people who are likely very progression focused.

Perhaps the solution is already on the way?

The key to this is for Rare to regularly keep adding things that entice players to come back to Adventure. And it sounds like this is what's about to start happening.

And it starts next week. Joe tells us in the recent dev update videos of this new gunpowder event that will be starting next week. New time limited commendations and rewards to earn seems like enough to entice people to get into the Adventure mode while the event is going on.

Beyond that, it has been stated that next week's update will be the start of a regular pattern of updating the game, so we should very well expect to see a steady stream of events and new features being added to Adventure, unlike the "here and there" big content updates we got last year.

I think this is what people aren't realizing, is that year 2 is shaping up to be a lot different from year 1 in terms of frequency and size of updates. From what Rare are telling us, there aren't going to be huge content drops with silent periods in between like we had previously. There are going to be many small updates and some bigger updates here and there.

As I recall, it feels like they were trying to do this very thing leading up to Cursed Sails, as we had 3 different Bilge Rat events leading up to it. Although I think they had to back off the idea because updates were riddled with gamebreaking bugs during that time. They needed content, badly, but didn't have the time to cleanly implement it. But things are a lot different now.

I honestly don't see much of a problem on either the PvP nor the PvE side. (this is just personal experience ofc)
I've done all the tall tales at least 5 times and had almost no trouble with PvP and I did most of them solo. I also rarely had trouble with items that were lost or anything.

On the other side of the story I've had PvP encounters with people doing Tall tales where I sank as ship mostly in self defense (yeah I'll sink a ship if they come at me without warning) and I've left the key items on the shore where I sank them because they are worthless.
I've also encountered plenty of people who were still doing normal voyages and had loot on board.

So my question is:
Is there actually a problem? Because I'm not seeing one, I fear it's a problem fabricated by certain fearmongers who forget to enjoy a game because they think it isn't popular with the cool kids.

@hynieth

😂 that ending! Love it!

@shagkul said in Breathing Life Back Into Adventure Mode - An ACTUAL Solution:

@chronodusk sagte in Breathing Life Back Into Adventure Mode - An ACTUAL Solution:

@saintjace

Here's the issue.

Well... let me say first - yes I do believe there has been a predictable pattern of passive players in Adventure lately. This serves to make the Adventure World more predictable and doesn't feel like it is in the spirit of Sea of Thieves.

Nobody but Rare really has the facilities to objectively say that players are being more passive than anything in Adventure, all we're doing is speculating based on our personal experience.

So we agree that it at least feels like PvP focused players are spending more time in The Arena and have left Adventure. Perhaps because most of those players are Pirate Legends and have finished their Tall Tales? Which leaves Adventure mode with people who are likely very progression focused.

Perhaps the solution is already on the way?

The key to this is for Rare to regularly keep adding things that entice players to come back to Adventure. And it sounds like this is what's about to start happening.

And it starts next week. Joe tells us in the recent dev update videos of this new gunpowder event that will be starting next week. New time limited commendations and rewards to earn seems like enough to entice people to get into the Adventure mode while the event is going on.

Beyond that, it has been stated that next week's update will be the start of a regular pattern of updating the game, so we should very well expect to see a steady stream of events and new features being added to Adventure, unlike the "here and there" big content updates we got last year.

I think this is what people aren't realizing, is that year 2 is shaping up to be a lot different from year 1 in terms of frequency and size of updates. From what Rare are telling us, there aren't going to be huge content drops with silent periods in between like we had previously. There are going to be many small updates and some bigger updates here and there.

As I recall, it feels like they were trying to do this very thing leading up to Cursed Sails, as we had 3 different Bilge Rat events leading up to it. Although I think they had to back off the idea because updates were riddled with gamebreaking bugs during that time. They needed content, badly, but didn't have the time to cleanly implement it. But things are a lot different now.

I have a problem with these Events.

First of all
They are time-limited, they are gone after a while. This is not a good Content.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with time-limited content, further more, the actual activity remains in the game forever unless it's a Mercenary Voyage, which isn't really new content anyway. The only thing that's actually time limited is the associated cosmetics. Again nothing wrong with that.

And the second, in the first days, many players are on the way and then it can happen that no one is interested on these events anymore.

I don't really understand what you tried to say here, sorry.

@saintjace
Remember no matter how long you are out at sea doing Tall Tales or a voyage of some sorts nothing ever belongs to you until you turn it in. That's the way it has been and how we've all been able to deal with it. Is it frustrating.....yes but it is what it is and I LOVE IT!!

@shagkul

I beg your pardon?

These events were available for more than a few days. At the absolute minimum, time limited events stick around for two weeks.

The last Reaper Run (Reaper Run of Shipwreck Bay) was in the game from March 20th to April 30th. That's like 40 days that this event was active. It got really stale after the 2nd or 3rd week though.

@shagkul

In your previous comment, you told me that you missed out on the Reaper Runs because they were "only available for a few days"

I replied to that comment to tell you that what you said is wrong. Time limited events always last at least for two weeks.

The last Reaper Run was literally in the game for 40 days straight. It was added on March 20th, and it did not get removed from the game until the Anniversary Update came on April 30th.

That is a lot longer than just "a few days"

@shagkul

I understand what you're saying now.

I have heard that English is actually the hardest language to learn if it isn't your first language, so don't feel bad!

If Sea of Thieves were the kind of game that attracted the top streamers and thousands of viewers, the game would suck and I wouldn't be playing it. I'm not interested in the top games on Twitch. They don't appeal to me and I have no interest in playing them. I suspect that's true for many players.

That said, there are some awesome streamers who love Sea of Thieves and do very well for themselves. A few examples include Beardageddon, Captain_Falcore, BeardedGuysGaming, Pace22, Cobbobles, BurgerWarrior24, GullibleGambit, CaptainAshBacon, Peeve, etc. The game is always in the top 100 or so on Twitch, and often much higher. When Summit1G was playing Sea of Thieves a while back, his viewership skyrocketed. He's never had anything close to those numbers since he quit. And that was before all the amazing content was released with the Anniversary Update.

Sea of Thieves is alive and well. It doesn't need to appeal to all the kids playing Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto, or World of Warcraft. If it was that kind of game, most of the people here wouldn't be playing it. Sea of Thieves has a unique and loyal player base. We love the game's beauty, the freedom of the open seas, and the adventures we make upon them. The most devoted players are not only attracted to one element or another (i.e. PvP or PvE) but to the game as a whole. There's a wonderful balance here that you can only really appreciate after many hours of sailing upon the Sea of Thieves.

Tall Tales has added a great deal of richness to the world by bringing the lore to life and allowing us to truly become involved in it, while still staying true to the principles upon which the game was founded. The threat of other pirates on the seas is an integral and ever-present part of the story.

Now having said all that, I don't have a problem with the idea of adding a valuable prize at the end of a Tall Tale, either instead of or in addition to the usual 3,000 gold. One issue with this is that many of the quests end at outposts, so the item would be sold almost immediately. Even for the quests that don't end at outposts, most people would hightail it directly to an outpost to sell the object, just like they do other loot. So I don't see that this idea would add much to the game. Even assuming there's a problem (which I don't necessarily agree with), this isn't the solution.

I don't agree with your initial premise that there are these problems that you've listed. And others have discussed that rather well above my post. ^^

However, your idea of adding a highly valuable reward at the conclusion of each Tale is an interesting one worth consideration.
It's a similar design to the Athena Voyages. Other pirates coming upon a crew doing such a voyage/tale, could opt to wait for the end of that voyage to fully attack - to gain the big prize.

Where that reward would need to be delivered would be an interesting design dilemma to solve (as Heather mentions above). However, it is doable. Whether it'd be delivered to one of the Cargo NPCs, a Sea Post NPC, or maybe a specific NPC for each of the Tall Tales - purposely chosen to avoid easy/quick turn-ins.
Really, that is almost how the final Tall Tale works, with the GH skull (albeit, slightly different, given the nature and location of that tale).

The biggest problem I see with this is whether it fits within the design, theme, and intended desire of the Tall Tales. Basically, the Tales can be long enough as it is, and then adding another (potentially harrowing) journey across the seas might go against what the developers think is best for players doing the tales. They might not be against it either. I'm not voicing negativity about it rhetorically or anything. I think it's worth considering.

Not everything need resolve around the predator/prey of PvP, but I fully understand the perspective of preferring that (and even the overall game design built around it - although, I don't think that is the pure intention of that design - just an obvious element given human nature).

Let's say this idea is a go - the big question may be - what reward(s) would make sense, regarding the Tall Tale and the NPC handing you the gift. That's a tricky, and important, aspect of the design. It'd have to make some semblance of sense that this NPC was giving you something highly valuable to transport to a specific person/location. And, again, that's AFTER the tale is already concluded - therefore no loss in Tall Tale progression and such (and, again, after the crew has possible already spent a lot of time invested in that tale).

Fixing the combat would bring back more than a few I’m sure. Until then, I’ll treat the Sea of Thieves as a pretty sailing simulator.

@saintjace Rare needs to return to what Sea of Thieves started to be not what it has become. Stop trying to make SoT another Twitch battle game. They need to clean up all the bugs and exploits. Get rid of the Arena and focus on making the core game the true adventure it should be. Fix sword and gun combat. Remove the expanded ship damage system. Make fishing and hunting actually fun and worth doing. Make the alliance system better. Encourage more coop and PvE gameplay while keeping the opportunity for PvP just that an opportunity and not the only thing.

Enforce the Pirate Code. Add the ability to be captain of your ship. Clean up the grouping system. Replace the brig mechanic that locks trolls and toxic players in the middle of everyone's fun. Stopping the toxicity and trolling that can plague this game will go a long way to making everyone so much happier.

Add the ability to change crew and ship size. Add the ability for family and friends to join family and friends on the sea on the same server with their own ships. Stop coming up with ways to repeat and replay the same content over over and over. Add new content more regularly and finally expand the game beyond Athena 10 and add content and meaning to being a Pirate Legend.