Incentives and end game

  • Throughout the play testing of this game we all have heard and asked about incentive to play and game progress. Honestly I am all for horizontal (cosmetic driven) progress as it doesn't provide an advantage to early adopters or disadvantage to "less" skilled players or those picking up the game a year+ later.

    That said the cosmetics available have to feel rewarding and compel players to continue playing and various clothing and weapon skins aren't really enough. I think once a player reaches the end game (becomes a pirate legend) there should be purchasable items like ships, spawn islands, pets, games, and cosmetic items that provide an altered (no pvp buff) game-play experience.

    For example there could be an amulet of drunkenness, compasses that provide track/display step count. telescopes that assist with finding treasure or spotting ships (spotting is questionable) etc. How do you think cosmetics could be improved to provide player incentive?

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  • This worries me a lot. This equality thing is detrimental to depth if you ask me. I've don't see myself grinding for cosmetics beyond a first set of clothes.

  • @suicidal-will I don't think its detrimental in nature but rather because gamers are not used to progress being tracked in any way other than vertically and through power buffs/weapon unlocks.

    Rare just needs to come out of the gates at the start of the game telling players its horizontal progression on first launch and give people cosmetics that are as compelling and fun to have as unlocking a rocket launcher or what in a vertical progress system.

  • I've heard the the gold hoarder shovel increases chance of digging up a better chest.
    Also heard the gold hoarder compass will spin when it's over a treasure.

    Don't know if these were confirmed though.

    I'm pretty sure we haven't seen the best they have to offer yet.

  • @rosinok I just hope there is ship customization planned outside of cosmetic, theres so much fun to be had there. It not just that, the world looks amazing but feels static. I can't light fires, I can touch shrubbery. I can imagine a lot of hidden stuff when I explore these islands, but if I never find anything outside of markers that are used for riddle quests then that's gonna catch up eventually. Imagination only goes so far.

  • @casesugar401098 well they need to start showing their best because right now I wouldn’t even pay to play this game, I’d borrow it from someone. There’s so little content and re play value

  • @rosinok totaly agree with your statement I think you we should be able to have more variety in ships and not just cosmentics but actual stuff that does damage

  • @lordmasterrazor said in Incentives and end game:

    @casesugar401098 well they need to start showing their best because right now I wouldn’t even pay to play this game, I’d borrow it from someone. There’s so little content and re play value

    What is a beta, Alex?

  • @lordmasterrazor there's so little content because it's a beta and they're not going to show their full hand before release. Plus they've already said they'll be adding more stuff starting three months after release.

  • problem with this cosmetic play is only for a small number of the population, reason to carry on playing shouldnt be oh i want this new jacket while doing the same thing, not changing one aspect of how you play in ships, pvp, pve

  • I mentioned before that I want reskins, either as MTX or in-game rewards. My personal favorite would be to reskin my avatar into one of the skeleton models and another would be to get the ghostly tint to one's character, much like on the Ferry of the Damned or the ghosts in the Pirate Legend Hideout that were shown. There can also be effects around one's character, a la the cosmetics in For Honor.

    Stuff like that would be nice for cosmetics.

  • I made a post early today called we need gold sinks.
    It was about this very thing and there were some good ideas as to why we should keep playing.
    Take a look, maybe add one to it.

  • Anyone miss the days when games weren't casual? Where effort actually mattered. What if the clothing and cosmetics that I want is dirt cheap and I obtain it right from the beginning. What do I do now? What is the purpose of playing then? This game needs to allow us to set goals or we will quickly lose our will to play. You see if gear actually mattered, we'd go for more expensive things, but unfortunately gear doesn't matter so we'll get what we like. Our goals become limited and there isn't any incentive to do anything else.

    It's like the developers think we're going to be excited playing dress up and creating outfits all day. Lets see how this goes. Hundreds of customers are watching the release of the game and the reviews that will come out of it. I can only assume the open beta has many people worried with what the game has to offer. If people begin saying it's just like the final beta, this game may sink. Everyone who cares about the game should worry.

  • Everyone asking for ship customization please be careful what you wish for.
    Ive already been over it before so i wont rehash it but player like me are masters as perfecting a exploit.
    Plus if some players complain about how unfair things are with equal ships they will get masacared with specialized ships.
    Im all for ship customization ( please oh please) but within 2 days of it becoming a thing the forum will be full of players demanding it be removed or fixed.

  • @misterdoomed Could you link that post you mentioned? Was looking through your profile and was gridlocked from the PVEVP thread haha

  • @misterdoomed said in Incentives and end game:

    Everyone asking for ship customization please be careful what you wish for.
    Ive already been over it before so i wont rehash it but player like me are masters as perfecting a exploit.
    Plus if some players complain about how unfair things are with equal ships they will get masacared with specialized ships.
    Im all for ship customization ( please oh please) but within 2 days of it becoming a thing the forum will be full of players demanding it be removed or fixed.

    Weapons are already exploited. Blunderbuss is overpowered when compared to all the other weapons. As we get more, it'll only get harder to balance. There will always be metas, this is why we have ongoing updates and should be why we're getting microtransations so the game can continue to update overtime and change up the meta. Do you suggest we all only use pistols?

  • @cheff-cory
    L**o yeah that one is getting ouaa hand. I dont know how to post a link with my phone and the post was a while ago but ill give you the short version.
    I play tested Naval action for a couple years which was a 18th century naval warfare sim and started out pretty hardcore.
    In that game we where allowed to make custom ships ie sacrifice hull for speed or more guns with smaller diameter or a big giant slow ship but was a tank.
    People wanted these custom ships as a way to " escape pvp players " or to just have a ship that was an original.
    Well my 2 friends and i where pirates in this game and we made customized ships and we exploited the system.
    We made our ships so fast ( yes weak)that nothing on the entire server could get away. We where also very goid with guns and learned how to use slower firing less damage guns but with a long range...well all the people who wanted custom ships to avoid us where the biggest victims and all tbe big slow tough ships couldn't keep up or turn wirh us and we would crush them long range.
    We exploited it so bad no matter how often they changed it that eventually customizable ships where changed so much they where pointless to have.
    Ok sorry but that was the short version and like i said im ALL FOR IT because i know how to win and i will become a holy terror lol.
    I just want othere to know what is going to inevitability happen with custom built ships and to mske sure they are ready to deal with it.
    Hope that helps sir.

  • @trenix90 said in Incentives and end game:

    @misterdoomed said in Incentives and end game:

    Everyone asking for ship customization please be careful what you wish for.
    Ive already been over it before so i wont rehash it but player like me are masters as perfecting a exploit.
    Plus if some players complain about how unfair things are with equal ships they will get masacared with specialized ships.
    Im all for ship customization ( please oh please) but within 2 days of it becoming a thing the forum will be full of players demanding it be removed or fixed.

    Weapons are already exploited. Blunderbuss is overpowered when compared to all the other weapons. As we get more, it'll only get harder to balance. There will always be metas, this is why we have ongoing updates and should be why we're getting microtransations so the game can continue to update overtime and change up the meta. Do you suggest we all only use pistols?

    No, like i said im all for customizable ships but just warning of what is guaranteed to happen. Players who cant win on a even playing field are just going to get slaughtered.

  • @misterdoomed said in Incentives and end game:

    No, like i said im all for customizable ships but just warning of what is guaranteed to happen. Players who cant win on a even playing field are just going to get slaughtered.

    People will complain about anything. I mean there are people complaining that they're being attacked in a PvP game, like seriously? I'm open to having customization have pros and cons. So for example, this type of ship customization should be good at this, but bad at that. So as you progress, you can build a role and play a playstyle that you want. That doesn't mean you'll be better than others though. For example, if I want a ship that does extra damage to boats when I ram into them, maybe it'll have less cannons to use and turning could be harder.

  • Oh on the ship customization i wanted to mention how outa hand it got at one point. Most players where so scared of getting sunk or taking damage that they had so much heavy oak and big guns that thier ships had a speed of 11 knots ( roughly ) and even the guys who hated pvp and only wanted to run was still so concerned that they had speeds no bettee than 13 knots.
    I learned through ship and captain customization how to get a 26 gun Suprise up to 18 knots. There was no ship made that i couldnt take down one way or the other including 120 gun 1st rate SoLs.

  • @trenix90 said in Incentives and end game:

    @misterdoomed said in Incentives and end game:

    No, like i said im all for customizable ships but just warning of what is guaranteed to happen. Players who cant win on a even playing field are just going to get slaughtered.

    People will complain about anything. I mean there are people complaining that they're being attacked in a PvP game, like seriously? I'm open to having customization have pros and cons. So for example, this type of ship customization should be good at this, but bad at that. So as you progress, you can build a role and play a playstyle that you want. That doesn't mean you'll be better than others though. For example, if I want a ship that does extra damage to boats when I ram into them, maybe it'll have less cannons to use and turning could be harder.

    Im on your side trust me. I iust know how this plays out.
    I have already played this through in 2 other naval combat games and a space navy combat game.
    I just know ship customization will lead to a revolt amongst the p***s and probably get taken away.
    Im not sure if its worth the recorces to make it happen.

  • @misterdoomed what im asking for is different ships sizes that be base on shots taken and speed, with placement not better cannons not better sails, placement is what i want i choose where i put my things, add extra walls down below so i can store gunpowder barrels better with out some some just sneaking and shooting one cos its there, bigger walk way what ever there called at top of the sails, length of ship to fit a middle ground between the ships, able to move them bloody map tables and that, add special equipment managers for cages storage like there is for other resources so i dont only get the ones from merchant and only get the goods they want instead of collecting a few i want to store like chests, a system that makes my ship my ship, not just changing the bloody colour from brown to green theres ways to change games to people play styles rather than giving them better things.

  • @misterdoomed like what game are you taking about, cos you cant compare a game where you rely on other players and your self to run around a ship, to game where your 3rd person viewing it controlling everything with just key presses

  • @unbrandedleek0
    Ok so when i make my super fast ship and run down everyone on the map in the big slow ships and use skill and speed to beat them or simply just close with them board them kill them, nobody is gonna complain and then demand my ship be fixed so i cant catch them?
    Speed wins every time in naval combat, every time. So if everyone just ends up in fast ships we are back where we are now...we all have the same ship.
    Again im not against the idea but ive played this EXACT game through in several games and it ends the same every single time.

  • @unbrandedleek0
    Ok you're right .

  • @casesugar401098 I think small perks like this with various items of non combat nature are needed. The shovel that digs up a better chest (or takes less digs, ie: 5 instead of 6), the compass that is kind of like a metal detector, the telescope with a longer range.. etc. But make them discoverable, skull fort random drops. Purchasing them would be too easy.

  • @misterdoomed but what your forgetting its the players choice to play like that if they lose like that they have to learn from it, im not that slow to realize oh hes faster to out pace my cannons, id slow down for smaller turning circle to fire more forward there is fixes to things just but you cant expect the same thing to work with out changing, this game will fail if rare goes forward with its 10 year old view of players, if you want to board and ship on your own against 3-4 people then thats fine and if they lose they need to realize its not balance its that they just arent as good and have to accept that, you cant dumb games down to peoples skill cos theirs always bad players and just giving every one the same just makes boring quality of play, if everyone wants to choose the fast ships thats fine, put what makes games last is quality of play and being forced to play in something you dont like for the case of butt hurt players is not quality its waste of time

  • @unbrandedleek0
    Ok, im not going to argue over it. You are correct :)

  • @misterdoomed its not arguing its view points :p none is either right or wrong

  • @unbrandedleek0
    ok :)

  • @misterdoomed naval action meta yep....speed endy and renos, a few managed speed connies before these metas where nerfed. I took well over 50 traders with a single cheap speed build reno, being a RL xbos'n/sailor helped, but it's about maxing speed, and only fighting the ones you can win. This will happen here too, the pvp meta won't be the same as the pve tank, then well....NA they have only 2 servers left now a pve and a pvp, at euro peak maybe 700 players are on, if you are north american 150-200 players at peak. The game has died before leaving alpha, and most who left say it should never have been changed from it's hard core launch.

  • @wildbillthebosn
    Im glad you understand. I didn't want to argue with the one guy but ive seen this happen in ever naval warfare game ive played.
    The problem with it all is you cant fix bad players with customization but you can make a good player into a down right killer !
    And its a shame how the devs let a few whiners ruin naval action. Its why i get so adamant here about not dumbing it down or making bad mistakes.
    Yup i played naval action at launch and it was hard core and glorious! 2000+ on server all tbe time .
    Then the cry babies lol.

  • @misterdoomed Have you ever considered that you yourself might be part of the problem that keeps ruining those PVP games you so boastfully reminiscence about heavily exploiting? And maybe that your own actions contribute in creating all the 'whiners' you whine about all the time?

  • @hyenanoises
    If you are play testing a game its MY JOB to find and use exploits so they are removed is it not?
    Its exactly why i am making the warning here that i am.
    Would you prefer i just let a exploit be put in the game then let most players then use the exploit against people who dont understand how to use it?
    Or are you saying if a game company puts in a mechanism in a game that can make me great because i can utilize my small skill set into something good that im not supposed to use it?

  • @misterdoomed said in Incentives and end game:

    @hyenanoises
    If you are play testing a game its MY JOB to find and use exploits so they are removed is it not?
    Its exactly why i am making the warning here that i am.
    Would you prefer i just let a exploit be put in the game then let most players then use the exploit against people who dont understand how to use it?

    Fair enough v:

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