Hello! Im going to give you some background of me and my history with this game,.
I played in the closed NDA Beta stage and also in the Open Beta stages of the game, almost religously i loved what i saw. The Feel of how to ship reacted to the ocean, the different parts of the world was amazing. But i did not hang on long enough after launch because the wonder i had felt of this beautiful crafted world faded and i saw what i did, fetch quest after fetch quest. The most boring world of warcraft quest on repeat. Well i got back for the festivities and i have played for a few hours, and may i say the improvements are there and i feel like its worth getting into this community because Rare are treating the fans and the game Extremely Well. But i do also want to share some feedback of what i feel is missing from the game. I will do this through a few different headlines, explaining my problem and also explaining a solution to the problem. Thank you for your time! <<<
Playing Solo Sucks
I never managed to get any of my friends hooked on the pirate dream, so i am a Solo Player and you clearly see that the game is intended to be played as a group. I do get this fact but when i dont have friends to play with i dont want to feel forced into queing up with Randoms.
The Quests when they grow in difficulty adds more not harder, not more intresting just more. Kill more Skelletons, Find an extra Chest, Kidnap 3 chickens instead of 2 and so on and so on. As a solo player this feels exhausting, I want the game to feel as if it got harder but i dont want it to feel as if im just doing more of what i just did, I want to have to track 1 pirate crew down, by following leads and then have a more challenging fight ahead of me, i want to do a cargo run with the real threat of knowing pirate crews might want to take me down, i want to have to find a specific shipwreck to claim a chest hidden somewheres in the open seas. This problem was extra noticable in the Festive Voyage i got for christmas, it asked me to take 50 boxes and deliver to one dude, what this meant was run back and forth between my ship and a specific person 100 times, this does not feel challenging or fun it just feels overwhelming and exhausting. to fix this make voyages harder to beat but not just more of what you just did as well as maybe adding voyages specifically targeted towards solo players, that is only possible to start if you are alone in a sloop, designed for someone going solo. make some designed for duo play and so on.
Banding Together!
As i said in the previous point, i am a Solo player because i havent gotten friends to play with and i dont want randoms, therefor i want voyages for me, but its not like i wish to stay alone forever! I want to meet that very special Pirate to share my fortune with! I hear you say, go to the forum find someone to play with. Well i know i can do this but this feels forced and not so fun a part of the voyage should be finding alliances and friends. I want to be able to do this Ingame, If i find someone that is nice that i connect with on the seas i want to be able to invite them to a party. Maybe this should only be possibly to do on land so you should have to sail towards land to shake hands and form an alliance, if your party now reaches a threshold to have a bigger ship it should replace your ships with one that is grander. This way i am incentiviced to find friends to survive and beat the threats of the seas that i alone have to avoid, like the pirate crews, the skeleton fortresses and crews, the kraken and the megalodeon. The creation of Fleets is also something i would like to see, if you as a full crew meet another full crew you should be able to create a Fleet, share the loot and be able to dominate the seas forcing other crews to do the same if they dont want to be dominated by your alliance. this should and would create epic stories. Forming Fleets should give you information on the map where the other boat are and a way to communicate within the fleet. Maybe through sending Parrots with messages to the other ship if you want to keep the proximity voice chat!
Wasted Taverns
Whenever you watch a pirate movie, The Taverns are place of Joy and gambling and drinking and sometimes bar brawling. The Taverns should Disarm you once you are in them, leaving you with the fists for potential brawls to occur. The Taverns should include games like Poker, Dice and so on for you to have a reason to be there. A Tavern should be a place where you feel confident that you can find people to interact with, if you want to find someone to form a crew or a fleet with, if you want to just enjoy some gambling or if you want to relax after all the voyages. Taverns should have a reason to be there. To give further Incentive the Tavern Keepers should sometimes shout out information on potential prices to chase! If a nearby chest has been dug up, or if someone has started a cargo run or just captured its chickens or if someone has a head on the way back to land. The key point is that this someone needs to have completed the quest and be on the way to a outpost to cash in on the price for this to happend so they have the lead, and the Tavern Keeper then shouts out a pretty vague location/direction for crews in the tavern to chase after. for example, " A Rumour has it that a Treasure has been sighted going past Mutineers Rocks" Just imagine a bunch of drunken fools gambling away their fortunes hearing this in a tavern all rushing towards their ships to claim this price, maybe fighting each other on the way or banding together to claim the price. Now that would make a great story dont you think?!
This would also incentivice you to form fleets and create alliances with people, since bringing a treasure home adds extra danger. If you are an extra huge ship to help you the other pirates needs to be smart or also create an alliance to take you on. But if you are alone you can out navigate and out smart your opponents to still claim your price as long as harder and not more is the truth. because running with 3 chests while having 3 crews on your back alone will be impossible, but if you had 1 chest that was more difficult to aquire it is still going to be a fun experience trying to get that 1 chest past all of these crews that want to steal it from you!
Creation of your own Outpost
I love the skeletton fortresses, but what if after clearing them you could make them your own? What if you could make the island a part of your alliance/Fleet/Crew. Imagine if you could increase the value of your rewards by holding them at this Fortess you captured. But at the risk of them being taken by rivalling Crews. The way i would imagine this feature being included is that once a Island has been taken by a crew this becomes a target for others, a cloud will be shown above it just as shown above a skeleton fortress or a skeleton ship. Tavern Keepers will Yell out the rumour of a price to be taken at this place. Other crews will know you have the island and will be able to compete for your price.
The more you fill up in your fortress the bigger your reward may get but also the greater the risk is, you would pretty much require a fleet to pull this off, since you want at least one ship to protect the island at all times while another can bring in more prices, making this really hard for 1 single crew to take down. This will create incentive for pirates to choose sides, create alliances for these epic wars that is to come.
Quick Recap
Greater Difficulty without more numbers to make life better for solo players, Voyages made specifically for Solo Players. The possibility to band together and create Crews, Fleets and Alliances through the people you meet ingame. Add a Reason to be in the Tavern and let the Taverns give out information regarding where to find rivalling pirate ships that is turning in a reward. The possibility of making islands your own to protect and gather all your booty at! All of this would mean that a solo player like me has a chance to survive while also giving me a reason to party up with people i meet ingame. it also gives me the possibility to form a fleet with a bigger crew without being restriced by a crew being full.
I cant wait for the future of this game going into 2019, i am for sure going to play it, The arena mode is going to be a great change of pase if your craving some action or if you just dont have the time to sit a few hours and play and im going to try and reach that pirate legend status going into 2019.
