The Wilds brightness needs tweaking

@ell635 'the sweet isn't as sweet without the sour'

I avoid The Wilds as much as possible while playing.

The colours, while giving a pretty good dark vibe to the region, are absolutely depressing after an hour playing there. It's harder to tell apart day from night, the visibility is reduced, there are rocks everywhere to wreck your ship, and even the islands are far less inviting than their southern/western counterparts.

I wouldn't change it, though. I think it's really cool that the game has a really uninviting place, a region where you'd rather not go because it feels like it's haunted. Actually, it would be even cooler if this specific area had more dangers exclusive to it, like monsters or ghost ships that would only spawn there. The counterpart could be that you could find better loot on the islands or more shipwrecks than usual, giving you a good reason to go anyway.

EDIT : upon reading the rest of the thread, that's basically what @Maquark said earlier. I agree with this, The Wilds could be even scarier and add more to the game.

I like it, I like that it's gloomy, it's my home ocean in this game.

@jedimasterfraze ouch. I'll wait in the brig I guess...

@king-brouille I can understand that logic and you’ve put it in the simplest way. The reason why the Ancient Isles and Shores of Plenty are so lovely is magnified because the Wilds are so dull and gloomy.

I think the gloomy green vibe is something I welcome to stay, but there’s little way of telling between day and night, and its very straining on the eyes to see much in the Wilds. The brightness needs to come up a notch that’s all.

@maquark I wouldn’t like to think the Wilds should be any more rewarding than any other region. It’s definitely the most dangerous region in the world though and I’m okay with that.

@ell635 they should definitely make it brighter, I see that issue. I think they should make it uglier- Add a low level fog/haze near the shores to make it hard to dock safely. I LOVE the idea @maquark suggested, adding harder challenges and more rewarding treasures in this area would be amazing.

@onigirizangief I really appreciate your comment. You’re absolutely right that the Wilds is a rockier, sharper, more jagged region, and the islands have the same style. Crooked Masts, Sunken Grove and Shipwreck Bay are some of my least favourite islands to pay visit to.

You and everyone else are absolutely correct to say that it’s brilliant that the Wilds is an uninviting place in the world. I tried to say in my original post that I understand that Rare wants the world to vary and be unique by having the different lighting and colour effects in different regions. I do want to celebrate that but I do think the Wilds needs some brightness help.

Also I wonder whether Rare plan to make any differences between Ancient Isles and Shores of Plenty because right now those two regions are very similar.

I really like your haunted / spooky idea and I think the Wilds region seems like the perfect home for the spookier affairs in Sea of Thieves.

I hope Rare takes advantage of the holidays like Halloween to introduce spookier content. Sea of Thieves could really use a shot of atmospheric horror to spice up the game in certain features. The soundtrack is already powerful but imagine them adding some eery tracks, that would go hand in hand with visual effects like a sudden thick blanket of dense fog covering the sea and making the surroundings spookier.

@jedimasterfraze I’m very grateful for your understanding post. Although I disagree that @King-Brouille comment was pathetic. I feel like he kept a short but sweet explanation on why the Wilds region should have its unique characteristics and how that makes the games world even more diverse with its colour palette and tone.

But yeah I have a 4K TV and Xbox One X setup too, and with HDR enabled I’m having a nightmare of a time dealing with the brightness and contrast levels in the Wilds region. And I’m glad you understand and relate to that issue.

Most importantly I’m grateful that’s the key point you took from my post. I’m not sure whether others feel I’m more against the region being dark and gloomy in an artistic sense but I’m more opposed to how dark it is - and I feel you understood that the most because you’re having the same difficulties.

Thanks for sharing, I’m sorry you have the same problem and hopefully that brightness could just edge up a little bit. Maybe seeing a difference between day and night would be useful too.

@wc-mattman Really nice comment. I completely agree that the Wilds has a unique atmosphere based on everything you described. I celebrate it’s uniqueness but I want it to be easier to see what I’m doing on 4K HDR display in this region. Atm that spoils the gameplay a lot for me. And that’s the only reason I felt compelled to post about it.

@cmm-solo I’ve probably spent most of my time in the Wilds so I definitely understand what you mean. I’ve soon found a preference to the other two regions though. The moment I switch to vibrant blues as I crossover to another region is just too euphoric.

@virtutis6590 My feelings exactly. Merchant quests are just one example on a larger list of things that get more difficult in the wilds region. But not for the sake of the regions choice of atmosphere. More for the sake of low brightness and contrast making this area a nightmare to navigate on HDR displays.

@admiral-rrrsole Thank you for your comment. I think the biggest point from me to Rare would be precisely what you said. A few shades brighter would do the trick :)

@personalc0ffee Appreciate the short but sweet response. I definitely understand that the Wilds region is working as intended. That doesn’t mean the intent shouldn’t be challenged though.

Or otherwise in this case I’m challenging the mechanics overachieving the intent. I’m sure Rare wanted the Wilds to be dark and gloomy, but were they intending on doing so where it’s causing a negative experience to the visual performance on HDR displays?

@arriyad said in The Wilds colour palette needs work:

I really like the wilds and one of two favorite outposts is there (Galleon's grave). But agree with another poster that it can be really difficult with the dull palette to see the different colors between animals.

I agree with you that I’m a big fan of the Galleons Grave Outpost. To that sentiment isn’t the Wilds also home to the Dagger Tooth Outpost - which must surely be the worst outpost in the whole game? The longest journey to the factions due to the long pier to the merchant alliance, and the journey across the beach to reach Gold Hoarders or Order of the Souls... last place you’d wanna unload your Skull Fort earnings lol

@maquark said in The Wilds colour palette needs work:

@ell635 only reason I'm saying so is due to the more cursed feeling vs the Super Mario Sunshine™ vibes on the west side lol casual mode vs hard mode. west side could be an easy way to grind merchant quests and some normal treasure/bounties. East side has captains chests and cursed chests, villainous skulls and up (nothing greater in the game yet, but you catch my drift. skull of too many grogs/skull of sorrows l***o).

who knows 🤷🏻 i guess the idea came from how MMOs have areas that will slam you to the dust if you're not high enough in rank, but given this game has no rank, it'd be just area-based.

I think it’s a great idea but please don’t be discouraged if I don’t necessarily agree with it. I personally like the balance of knowing every region of the world offers the same reward. If the Wilds eventually becomes less populated because people dislike it so much then it’ll be the place I stick to most when I want to avoid all other players lol.

If it’s a place where better loot belongs there’ll be so much more traffic there, and then I’ll be avoiding the Wilds region like the plague.

Right now I have a healthy balance. I play in any of the regions, but only this past week I’ve made an effort to exit the region ASAP for the sake of better visuals in the western/southern regions.

@personalc0ffee said in The Wilds colour palette needs work:

You people really have to start disabling HDR when playing SoT. It does not play nice with it.

I find the game works fine with HDR it’s only the Wilds region which it doesn’t play nicely with - as per my original post.

Hi all, perhaps it’s just me but the Wilds now seems a lot brighter, and day/night is easily distinguishable. Does anyone else agree this may have been tweaked despite no game update?