Ahoy pirates!
Sea of Thieves is one of the best games that I have ever played. I have made lots of friends and had many incredible adventures. However, I feel that the legendary progression system needs some serious work if Rare wants to keep legends from jumping ship (pun intended) after they max out their levels. I want to voice my opinions on some aspects of post-legendary gameplay that I feel could use some improvements.
The following is my opinions and that of others that I play with. I'm sure not everyone will agree with me and that’s fine. These are just some ideas that I've been thinking about and wanted to share in hopes that Rare might consider some of them.
First of all, I strongly feel that you should be able to continue to level up past 50 for the 3 trading companies (you would still be a legend when you get everything over 50). Not being able to see your rep increasing almost completely annihilates any incentive to do normal voyages (which dramatically changes the character of the game). This means that there is very little that remains in common between legends and those striving to be legends (as far as motivation). Hence why I hear a lot of people saying that "the game is over once you hit legend" because the primary motivator that kept you playing for 50 levels instantly evaporates. Most people need to feel like they have something to work towards and that they are making some form of measurable progress on. Seeing the rep animations pop up every time I sell something that just show "50" with no progress being added is a huge downer.
A solution to this could be to allow people to continue to level up with no limit to it. Why put a hard stop on something that annihilates peoples motivation for playing? If there was always progress to be made then legends wouldn't mind doing normal voyages to help others level up. As it stands now, there is very little that motivates legends to play with other players (as far as doing voyages goes) unless they have empty spots on an Athena's voyage. Even then there is a clear difference in drive since legends don't care as much about loot because they don’t need the rep and usually already have lots of money. So it can sometimes be annoying playing with non-legends since they want to stop at every single shipwreck and refuse to ever leave loot behind (this makes doing Athena's with non-legends especially time consuming). So why not just allow legends to keep the love for loot by allowing them to keep progressing?
On top of being able to keep progressing past 50, maybe have special equipment and costumes for each trading company (similar to the Athena's ghost outfit) that could be unlocked piece by piece with each additional level increase (50: sails, 51:hull, 52: boots, 53: gloves, 54: pants…). After 10 levels (60) start over again but with different color equipment and clothes. This would practically make the game infinitely playable. Also, I understand that it would take longer to develop the clothes, but maybe Rare could at least add the feature to track our progress and level up past 50 soon in one of the weekly updates so that they don't lose more legendary players in the meantime (I know many people that have lost interest in the game since there's very little left to work towards).
Now for the Athena's voyages, I became a pirate legend a few weeks ago and am currently at level 8.8 for Athena's. I want to continue playing in the future, but am concerned that I will lose interest once I get to level 10 for Athena's (as has happened to others that I know who have reached level 10). A similar approach could be taken as discussed above, after level 10 the progression could start over again, but with a different color ghost suit (1-9 green, 10-19 blue, 20-29 red, 30-39 purple). Also, it would be nice if you could get an achievement for reaching level 10 Athena's and get a commendation for it. My friend said that it was kind of disappointing to get to level 10 and not get anything other than the hat. Why doesn't Athena's have the trackable commendations like all the other trading companies?
I really enjoy SOT and am hoping that Rare will consider some of my suggestions to make the game even better.
Happy sailing!
