Hey folks, I'd like to talk about how the sovereigns and the milestone system are currently creating contradictions within the game in how players are able to progress both their Commendations and the newly added Milestones. To put it in short, selling loot to the Sovereigns awards progression towards faction specific turn in commendations while also not rewarding the player for milestone progress.
Alright, for the long detailed part I'd like to illustrate an example:
The commendation "Hoarder of Barnacled Gold" which reads "Grade X: Sell XXX Shipwrecked chests to the Gold Hoarders", contrary to its description, will increase in value when a Shipwrecked (Barnacle) chest is sold to the Sovereign faction. This is the case for every Commendation that requires items sold to Gold Hoarders, Merchant Alliance, Athenas Fortune, and Bilge Rats.
So you might be thinking what I'm thinking. "That's weird, I'm selling to the Sovereigns, why does this count for commendations?".
But then there's in-game text in the loading menu stating "The Sovereigns have arrived! ... accepting most treasures and delivering them on your behalf." Furthermore, talking to the sovereigns themselves they all state that they are selling treasure for you at no charge. This is even reflected by you receiving all the emissary and gold bonuses you would get had you taken the loot straight to each faction.
Great! That makes sense, this tells me the player that the Sovereigns are simply an intermediary between each emissary, and nothing changes by selling to them. It's all sold on my behalf just as if I walked up to the faction representatives and turned in the old fashioned way. The commendations I'm still earning, in-game text and mechanics seem to point to this as the case.
And then you open up the milestone tabs aaaand "Treasures Sold to (insert faction)" has not progressed at all. That doesn't make sense. What gives? Does selling to the Sovereigns count as selling to the other factions or not? The in-game text and commendations are telling me otherwise?
This is confusing and inconsistent behavior in player progression mechanics. On one hand, the game is representing the Sovereigns as simply an intermediary where nothing changes, on the other hand, it then contradicts this by not awarding milestone progress.
Well, this is a problem that needs addressing. It's confusing and completely screws with player progression. But how do we fix it? Simple!(Maybe. I'm not a Rare developer so I can't say exactly what's easy and what isn't on their behalf).
Option A: Change in-game mechanics to allow milestone progression via selling to the Sovereign faction. Update faction commendations and milestone text to reflect this mechanic.
Option B: Change in-game mechanics to remove commendation progression via selling to the Sovereign faction. Update in-game hints and Sovereign dialogue to explicitly state that the player only receives the gold and the Sovereigns do not act on behalf of the player.
Both of these solutions address the issue at hand, the Sovereign faction has created inconsistency between milestone and commendation progression. Either of these solutions would restore continuity between milestone and commendation progression with the Sovereigns. What are your guys' thoughts on this matter? Should they go with option A, option B, or do you have an option C to propose? Alternatively, do you think I'm reading too deep into this, and contrary to my post this makes sense and doesn't need fixing? Let me know below. And if anyone from Rare reads this, I hope this post helps in the continual development of Sea of Thieves.
Thank you for reading and responding. :)
