Haven't looked at this since I posted a few days ago. Wow... amazed at array of comments of how this can't be done/won't be done rather than discussing how it could actually be made to work.

Rare wants feedback and a fair number of people have expressed interest in something beyond cosmetic enhancements. That is what the OP wanted to discuss. I still feel there is a solution to do this without making things unbalanced. Yes, certain crews will favor one configuration over another. But done right, that means to do one thing they have to give up something else. There should be no "power up" options. Just trades. And you could go a step further and say you only get 1 or 2 and that's it.

Question of arguing over configuration is not an argument at all. It follows whoever is hosting the game. How do you think the cosmetics only changes are going to work? Likely it will default to one person's cosmetic upgrades, probably determined by which crew member invites others to the crew.

I think one of the best decisions on Rare's part is to eliminate the disparity of equipment that plague other games. This game comes down to individual player skill. You don't get an advantage simply because you can spend 16 hours a day playing while someone else can only play a couple hours. It's simple, you want to be the best, then you have to be the best. It's not about your equipment, it's about how you use what everyone else has to better advantage or effect. I don't know how you get any more balanced gameplay than that.

It never gets old that people want a greater advantage for playing the game longer. You think that your experience in game would give you the greatest advantage other than the gear... It makes it stupid difficult and not a whole lot of fun for the new players joining, in that they go up against not only more knowledgeable players, but specialized, better geared players as well. Its like an exponential advantage....

A little on the joking side for we need cheering when we are stranded on land.
A great feature would be to have two boat's mast touch. Upon touching both captain have to chant and dance for it will reveal the true power of their vessels.
They would indeed merge creating an UBABOAT!
Yar, truth be told me hearties this is the mightiest way to go!

Ps: sorry lads, I've been reading and posting for the past 12 hours and going to rest now for it seems I need it haha ... but no promises. YOHO YOHO A PIRATES LIFE FOR ME !

yea i think that is good as game does it for you every time you start a new game you get different sails or colour of ship a little different it might be in the full game when you select the ship like a character if not would be good or get ranking sails every time you rank up in gold you unlock sails to tell people your no noob and played for a bit

metal reinforced bow, can smash into ships but makes you slower.

@bookoftheblade Well good observation, yet the power of the ship would remain the same. It would come down to tactics. If you have all canons facing one side, then you are exposing your other side by not being able to fire back. It wouldn't make your boat weaker. Just with a different weak point.
But I do concede that it would change drastically the way we battle at sea.

@bookoftheblade i agree with that completely but you also gotta think of the mindset of people with only one or two actual friends having the ability to add cannons to your sloop would be beneficial in some way

Being able to adjust the positions of cannons in my opinion could cause a lot of issues as it would allow ships to minimize their blind spots and give a large advantage to those who do move them over those who do not. This would create a meta of everyone adjusting their cannon layout to give them the highest field of fire and at the point why not just adjust the standard layout to include the adjustment and not bother with the ability to move it at all.

When you add things like this it becomes the right choice and the wrong choice and that quickly becomes not fun.

the only way this would work is if, say your galleon wanted to add more cannons or subtract cannons. so if you add cannons it would add more weight which would slow you down and decrease turning speed. and if say you subtracted cannons from the galleon you would go faster and turn better but have alot less fire power for that ship

@ironuzuka said in More ship customization, not just cosmetics:

@lucid-stew actually contribute to the debate rather than call people out on terms that you have a different definition of

PS: And you have only proven what I said about the thread turning into (Mod Edited) posting. You lot are way to predictable.

You seriously separated these two thoughts by ONE sentence.

@joda1123 oh heavens, let me see if I've understood... like for example a set of hello kitty sails? I know for sure that I would avoid your ship like plague, and that would certainly be an advantage, but at the same time there would be plenty of naughty ones who would chase you just to use you as a shooting target. And that, I believe would be a disadvantage... at least for you, because 99% of them would be chasing you and not me...
See? Advantages and disadvantages are a bit difficult to define and manage. Wouldn't it suffice to be a better sailor than many others?

@lucid-stew OK, so we agree that both our definition fit. But let's share the definitions you refer to and let people make their own mind for this is the purpose of our converstion:
"Recently the term metagame has come to be used by PC Gaming shoutcasters to describe an emergent methodology that is a subset of the basic strategy necessary to play the game at a high level. The definitions of this term are varied but can include "pre-game" theory, behavior prediction, or "ad hoc strategy" depending on the game being played. An example of this would be in StarCraft where a player's previous matches with the same opponent have given them insight into that player's playstyle and may cause them to make certain decisions which would otherwise seem inferior."

Now let's try and use context in the conversation maybe you can read and then try to infer to actually contribute to the debate rather than call people out on terms that you have a different definition of, maybe a good idea would be to ask me what I meant first before saying that I don't know.
In the end we can agree to disagree for this is not the matter at hand.
PS: And you have only proven what I said about the thread turning into (Mod Edited) posting. You lot are way to predictable.

@ironuzuka said in More ship customization, not just cosmetics:

@lucid-stew Metagaming is any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset.
How am I misunderstanding what meta means ?

You've misapplied this definition to an inappropriate situation. If you look further down in that same article, under "Adaptation to a specific gaming environment" and "Computer games", you will find the term "meta" is used slightly differently in video games.

@lucid-stew I checked that I was right about the meaning dude, stop being a seagull man ...
Your definition is wrong according to wikipidea, can we agree on that ?

Do you need me to help you understand by giving you the definition of each and every words in this sentence ?

@ironuzuka said in More ship customization, not just cosmetics:

@lucid-stew Metagaming is any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset. From the wikipedia page.

How am I misunderstanding what meta means ?

Because you had to look it up on Wikipedia and still don't get it.

@nefrit-od said in More ship customization, not just cosmetics:

There is one thing i know for sure this game needed - different types of canon balls: Chain-shot, buckshot, etc.
^__^ I want to destroy sails

Chain shot would wreck the meta. Ship battles are much more interesting when all ships involved are mobile. With Chain shot, the game would devolve into galleons or gangs of ships chain shotting everyone, boarding, and swarm killing.

@lucid-stew Metagaming is any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed ruleset. From the wikipedia page.

How am I misunderstanding what meta means ?

Well that why they compensate with using creativity.
One example would be that there are at least 5 way to sink a ship.

• let the powder from canons speak!
• let the powder barrel speak :D
• take wheel and crash the enemy boat.
• fill up the ship using your water bucket.
• ram the enemy ship

I do not consider these options as basic. Then surely people will be bored of using AWP and AK in CS GO, since you kill people the same way other and other again by shooting at them on the same maps.

Diversifying the characters you play means creating disparities in strengths from the start. This is not the philosophy of the game. Trust me French people are stubborn people but they change their mind as fast as one can say REVOLUTION.
The game would be 30/40 € cheaper, I am sure they'd buy it. Furthermore, wait for the game to be out and have them hear what the majority of us is saying: it's amazing. They'll rush to their PC and join you in your adventures!

@ironuzuka said in More ship customization, not just cosmetics:

@aenima123 So the beta was PVP, what's the meta then ?

I think you misunderstand the meaning of game meta. A game's meta isn't stratagem created due to imbalanced mechanics. The game's meta is stratagem created due to the mechanics. period. A game can't NOT have a meta.

@kampp322

Well, you'd still have to do it at the shipwright. Allowing you to customize such things on the open sea would be a bit much I think.

And I still think you'd get people rage quitting at the docks because the rest of the crew won't go with their "superior" loadout. Or just passive-aggressively trolling their teammates until brigged.

I'm certainly not against Rare looking into the idea for future updates. I personally don't need it, cosmetics and just the fun of sailing are enough for me. But this game isn't made only for me, so I'm not going to gripe about it.

However, I don't think it fits right now. Too many additional tweaks would have to be done to make it work well. Trying to do it now would just result in a clunky system or a delayed release.

Down the line, by all means, look into it and test out ideas. Rare has actually made me enjoy interacting with people online in a PvP setting. I'll try anything they put in front of me at least once.

@ironuzuka said in More ship customization, not just cosmetics:

@aenima123 Well if you think about it what matters is the display of achievements.
Be it having a legendary gear in WoW (which has a special skin) or a rank in OW, what tells people you are strong is the display of your source of power.
Wow = titles like gladiator for PVP or Of the firelands PVE and gears
OW = your rank.

These are displays which means they are cosmetic. Being at a diamond level in LoL doesn't necessarily mean you are that strong. But it does show that you have reached this rank or defeated this Boss.

As players will reach the legend title, it wont show how bad-a*s you are at killing other pirates, it'll show that you have reached the end game content and you have been acknowledge by the game. The result will be the same without creating inequality just by having played longer.

Look at the current situation: people are already complaining about griefing when they have the same tools to attack and defend as their aggressors, can you imagine if you give more power to players with more /timeplayed ?

Displaying achievements is one thing. But that's not what all this is about.
In Wow, you can play as a warrior, as a warlock, as a mage, as a rogue, etc. Every class brings its own unique gameplay. Offering a lot of "replayability".
In Dota/LoL, it's the same thing, there is a lot of heroes to choose from, each one with a different gameplay.
In Overwatch, same thing, etc.
That brings replayability, gameplay diversity.
You can add all the cosmetics in the world, that wouldn't change a thing to how quick you'll eventually be bored of PVP encounters if naval battles are too "basics".

@nefrit-od
Rare want to bring some new stuff in a 3 month patch after release, they would be dumb if they just put all cool pirate stuff in the release version

There is one thing i know for sure this game needed - different types of canon balls: Chain-shot, buckshot, etc.
^__^ I want to destroy sails