Rare Lets Have a Chat

  • I want to apologize first for this long post, but I feel that these things need to be said. Skip ahead to see my suggestions. A little bit about me. I have been looking forward for Sea of Thieves ever since they first released the teaser at E3. I was instantly hooked at the concept, the style, the ships. I was in BETA and pioneers. I have always defended this game at the start to my friends when they said, “Its boring.” I have bought the books, statues, custom canvas prints, my point is I AM A MAJOR FAN.

    Rare…. Please stop this path you’re on. I am not talking about the micro store; I am talking about these reskin voyages. Mercenary voyages are killing the game to me and from all the post I have read, a lot of other fellow pirates. I know its easy and you guys want to push content out, but I don’t want to log in to do 10x X marks the map voyage. Enough is enough. You introduced the parkour at the Arena island, why isn’t that the event? Why didn’t you make 5 of these around the world, we could of have to find them and completed them?

    Sailing from one sea post, all the way across the map to another sea post is not fun. I will steal this from another post I read on Reddit, I feel like a glorified pizza boy. The sailing in this game is amazing but when it comes down to it, after the first hour of play time, its just tedious. The most fun I have had on this game is on islands, not in the boat, unless it was a sea battle, but NO ONE does that anymore. Everyone runs. I love exploring, I loved the Tall Tales (I know more are coming). But now with these mercenary voyages, I get the map, ding the loot and go to the next one… its no fun.

    You say this game is about horizontal progression, yet the cosmetics we have is lack luster. Why haven’t we got a massive clothing drop? You made us a sandbox game with very little sand.

    A couple ideas that the community wants(I won't say captaincy):

    1. Cosmetics you can find on voyages (dig them up like the Tall Tales quest) or drops from skeletons.

    2. Give some reason to PvP. Clothing/weapon set that gets “cooler” with every player/boat kill.

    3. PVE clothing set. The more you explore islands and find their secrets, the “cooler” the set gets.

    4. More world events. Example: the skeletons take over an outpost and takes the residents hostage. You rescue them. Kill the ships surrounding the island, then there is a pirate lord there you must kill. Once that happens, he drops a rare voyage that leads you to a rare clothing piece, hat, jacket, pants ect. You wouldn’t have to tell the player to do the event 10 x because we would want to do it 15 x so we could get the full set.

    5. Different enemies then just skeletons. Your art book has natives and mermaids that would bring so much life to a very empty world.

    6. More wildlife on the islands. You now have monkeys and parrots, add them to the world (I know parrots are kinda of already out there). Make it where they are in trees. Make it where when you are on an island, you are about to eat a banana, and a monkey steals if from you. Make it while you are sailing, a random parrot lands on the ship.

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  • @el-dth-taco aye mate

  • One thumb and one hook up to this!

  • @el-dth-taco
    Yeah, they didn't even need to make a mercenary voyage for this and the last event. I would have been satisfied with the events focusing on reapers chests and the parkour. I think these voyages are rare's attempt to make us feel like we have an effect on the game world, but it doesn't feel that way to me.

  • Just ONE new type of monster would be grand. Giant crab, evil merpeople, angry natives. Is it that hard?

    1. Secret, undersea caves guarded by merpeople with a giant crab as the boss. Done.
    2. Seal team units of merpeople riding sharks that board your ship and try to kill you. Done.
    3. Sirens that sit on lonely rocks and enchant you with their songs, drawing your boat toward them. Done.
    4. Giant squid that grab your boat and steal loot through windows and doors. Done.

    Am I understating the difficulty of coding and developing this stuff? Probably! Do I care? No. ;)

  • @captain-arcanic said in Rare Lets Have a Chat:

    Am I understating the difficulty of coding and developing this stuff? Probably! Do I care? No. ;)

    Agh!

    This furrowed my brow so hard that it pinched my eyeballs!

  • said in Rare Lets Have a Chat:

    @captain-arcanic said in Rare Lets Have a Chat:

    Am I understating the difficulty of coding and developing this stuff? Probably! Do I care? No. ;)

    Agh!

    This furrowed my brow so hard that it pinched my eyeballs!

    I am a programmer so I get it they can't put things out instantly. But 1/2 the stuff I asked for they actually have the code already for. Cosmetics in chest, skeleton ships and Lord's. The hard part is done.

    Just present it in a new more meaningful way.

  • I'm desperate for anything that isn't a rehash of "Do merc voyages 'x' times for full completion"

  • @el-dth-taco said in Rare Lets Have a Chat:

    I want to apologize first for this long post, but I feel that these things need to be said. Skip ahead to see my suggestions. A little bit about me. I have been looking forward for Sea of Thieves ever since they first released the teaser at E3. I was instantly hooked at the concept, the style, the ships. I was in BETA and pioneers. I have always defended this game at the start to my friends when they said, “Its boring.” I have bought the books, statues, custom canvas prints, my point is I AM A MAJOR FAN.

    Rare…. Please stop this path you’re on. I am not talking about the micro store; I am talking about these reskin voyages. Mercenary voyages are killing the game to me and from all the post I have read, a lot of other fellow pirates. I know its easy and you guys want to push content out, but I don’t want to log in to do 10x X marks the map voyage. Enough is enough. You introduced the parkour at the Arena island, why isn’t that the event? Why didn’t you make 5 of these around the world, we could of have to find them and completed them?

    Sailing from one sea post, all the way across the map to another sea post is not fun. I will steal this from another post I read on Reddit, I feel like a glorified pizza boy. The sailing in this game is amazing but when it comes down to it, after the first hour of play time, its just tedious. The most fun I have had on this game is on islands, not in the boat, unless it was a sea battle, but NO ONE does that anymore. Everyone runs. I love exploring, I loved the Tall Tales (I know more are coming). But now with these mercenary voyages, I get the map, ding the loot and go to the next one… its no fun.

    You say this game is about horizontal progression, yet the cosmetics we have is lack luster. Why haven’t we got a massive clothing drop? You made us a sandbox game with very little sand.

    A couple ideas that the community wants(I won't say captaincy):

    1. Cosmetics you can find on voyages (dig them up like the Tall Tales quest) or drops from skeletons.

    2. Give some reason to PvP. Clothing/weapon set that gets “cooler” with every player/boat kill.

    3. PVE clothing set. The more you explore islands and find their secrets, the “cooler” the set gets.

    4. More world events. Example: the skeletons take over an outpost and takes the residents hostage. You rescue them. Kill the ships surrounding the island, then there is a pirate lord there you must kill. Once that happens, he drops a rare voyage that leads you to a rare clothing piece, hat, jacket, pants ect. You wouldn’t have to tell the player to do the event 10 x because we would want to do it 15 x so we could get the full set.

    5. Different enemies then just skeletons. Your art book has natives and mermaids that would bring so much life to a very empty world.

    6. More wildlife on the islands. You now have monkeys and parrots, add them to the world (I know parrots are kinda of already out there). Make it where they are in trees. Make it where when you are on an island, you are about to eat a banana, and a monkey steals if from you. Make it while you are sailing, a random parrot lands on the ship.

    And add more cannonballs!

  • @el-dth-taco

    Was more replying to the other guy, but hey, your suggestions were cool.

    Honestly, I'm fine either way. I just like playing the game. Cool cosmetics are just the sprinkles on top for me. But if other players need more tangible incentives, then I hope Rare comes through for 'em.

  • I too enjoy playing the game more than the cosmetics and bling. That said, I'm a bit of a completionist when it comes to commendations, so I don't like unfinished goals hanging out there. Even if those goals are sorta boring this time.

  • @el-dth-taco

    In their recent dev updates, Q&A's, and weekly streams they have spoken of revisiting the way voyages work and refreshing the system. Forts are soon going to be refreshed as well. While we do not know exactly what that means and how extensive this refresh will be, it's a sign that they understand that the system needs updating.

    They also hear the feedback on Mercenary Voyages. I miss Bilge Rat Adventures as much as anyone else and I have given lots of feedback about that, but we have to come to terms with the fact that they just can't build these things from the ground up every month while still making the more meaningful updates like new Tall Tales.

    Improving Mercenary Voyages is a more realistic ask - making sure the commendations are more thrilling and more varied than simply completing voyage X number of times, or turn in X number of this thing. They should be putting a lot more thought into the commendations because I imagine those are easy enough to build if they can just think of some good ones.

    With any of this refreshed voyage stuff, one could reasonably expect for this to translate to upcoming Mercenary Voyages that are shipped with or after the update to voyages. I know that something is bound to improve here soon.

    P.S. My big qualm with them right now is how long it's taking them to work on adding stuff for Pirate Legends. It should be higher on their priority list that it currently appears to be, in my opinion...

  • @chronodusk said in Rare Lets Have a Chat:

    @el-dth-taco

    In their recent dev updates, Q&A's, and weekly streams they have spoken of revisiting the way voyages work and refreshing the system. Forts are soon going to be refreshed as well. While we do not know exactly what that means and how extensive this refresh will be, it's a sign that they understand that the system needs updating.

    They also hear the feedback on Mercenary Voyages. I miss Bilge Rat Adventures as much as anyone else and I have given lots of feedback about that, but we have to come to terms with the fact that they just can't build these things from the ground up every month while still making the more meaningful updates like new Tall Tales.

    Improving Mercenary Voyages is a more realistic ask - making sure the commendations are more thrilling and more varied than simply completing voyage X number of times, or turn in X number of this thing. They should be putting a lot more thought into the commendations because I imagine those are easy enough to build if they can just think of some good ones.

    With any of this refreshed voyage stuff, one could reasonably expect for this to translate to upcoming Mercenary Voyages that are shipped with or after the update to voyages. I know that something is bound to improve here soon.

    P.S. My big qualm with them right now is how long it's taking them to work on adding stuff for Pirate Legends. It should be higher on their priority list that it currently appears to be, in my opinion...

    I did hear about that they were going to refresh both those things and I am curious what that will include. I understand they couldn't add new and hip things every month but at least every other month.

    Most of the things I have asked for they already have the "heavy" code written like the skeleton ships logic and skeleton lords fight mechanics. Or even the the cloths in the chest you dig up.

    Also the parkour thing, they added this month just to have in the game. No commendations or anything, that I am aware of. Instead of making these new re-skin voyages they could of made 3 more of the parkour locations and tied commendations to that for this month.

    I have been accepting the lack of creativity on these dlc since they were all free and Rare has been pushing out content for a year and a half. But now that the micro store is in, I am going to see what they put out.

    I am not mad, to those are reading this, I am worried. Its near impossible to get my original crew on this game even though I love it. And if you have notice, or I have, there are less and less galleons meaning less people are playing. The last 5 sessions I only saw one brig and the rest were solo/duo sloops. Mainly solo like myself. I hope this is just bad luck on my end.

  • @chronodusk
    But they still do add something new most of the time. IMO, they should only focus on a new mercenary voyage if there's nothing else added. If even one new thing is added(parkour roaming skelly sloops, reapers chests, etc.) the comms should be focused on those, not grinding the voyages. Thats not what the bilge rats like, they like adventuring and breaking free of the companies!

  • I totally agree with your post, mate!! I dont get tired of looking at the beautiful world they created... but the truth is that, playing as the gameplay offers right now, just gets boring cuz it feels empty. We need more misteries we can solve!! new kind of missions, new random events in the seas! New monsters! New enemies! New all... I will continue playing cuz I love the world of Sea of thieves, but it's getting tedious to be a delivery man all the time...

    Why can't we get a mission to kill a boar beast in some island, and with some clues we need to find it and kill it to deliver it to the Hunters Call ( or maybe go to a specific area to look for a shark to hunt, idk just be imaginative!)? Or Go and accept a quest in an outpost that makes us try to find a NPC pirate that has runaway, fight with him, put it in our jail and bring it back to the outpost?? There are million quest and voyages they could create in the Sea of Thieves world!!

    And as @El-Dth-Taco said, less and less people is playing, most of my friends who played with me, find the game repetitive with any kind of interesting reward or progression (im not gonna complain about the horizontal system, cuz we most benefit from it and I find it fine), if u build a horizonta progresion game based on cosmetics, you should really put a whole tone of cosmetics content by the year 2... And they haven't yet. Rare, the world you created is Beautiful, we want to explore it!! Give us new ways to explore!

    I do hope they are cooking something really freshy for us... In a large scale. Because I can't even convince my friends to play.

    Idk, im still just waiting here... I hope it really just be matter of time for this.

    Yehaaa!!
    Spread the curse in the seas!

  • word i agree,sorry and the merchant run event right now is awfull designed when u play solo,spoils of plenty is the only one i need to unlock ,i sail to the outpost just to get supplies for an outpost i already have,sure i could deliver them but it makes no sene cause for the 50 commendation its faster just make the shipwreck bay ones...and when i got finally spoils of plenty a galleon chased me i have no kegs on board , i miss to board them, respawn time takes 2 minutes and i crash into an island and then i have enough and log out :D..the sloop is way to slow...its not nice to be in disadvantage with everything cause u play solo....

  • @el-dth-taco I want all of this. Great post/great ideas matey!

  • @el-dth-taco Love the passion and ideas! I'd also like to see a new arena mode where there are no ships. Just crew vs crew in a "Hunger Games" style. No respawns, but upon death you are brought back to the tavern queue to interact with other pirates through bar games, drink grog, or watch your remaining crew.

  • @el-dth-taco Agree with most of what you have said. This rag and bones update is pittiful. Probably made it in a lunch break.

  • I was under the impression that this was all filler content until the next major update, not their final plan for all future content updates.

  • Agree 100% ...It's so strange that people Love these updates. This update featured Nothing. Pets are cool but so late and Its payed content.

    Last year they bought more teams to focus on content, in the dev videos before the game launched they had a team working on future bilge rat adventures and more cosmetics..All of last years content i'd consider stuff that Should of been in the game at launch. Since everything shown was in teasers/trailers/merch (Gold Hoarder Skeleton)

    If the october update is just another 'Lore building update that makes you click X on a journal/sketch' then I honestly think the game has reached its Lowest Point.

    None of my friends play this anymore. They hop on at the start of the update and buy everything, do one merc voyage and leave. Its upsetting because It has so much pontential..

    So much drip feeding and teasing, I'd love to see how much finished content theyre holding back.

    The halo ship looks great, but the fact that they give it away for free and everyone uses it makes it a noob ship. atleast give us a little halo themed quest to unlock it

  • @ryannewbz yep the Halo ship is one of the coolest ships in game but it's pretty much the base ship since everyone has it. The entire game is based on horizonal progression yet everyone has everything.
    When everyone is a legend no one is...

  • @el-dth-taco said in Rare Lets Have a Chat:

    The entire game is based on horizonal progression yet everyone has everything.

    Cool!!

    Oh wait.... you meant that as a negative.

  • @el-dth-taco I agree with you on this. I made a post on the Insiders forum saying that Smugglers Fortune is boring and it will not be liked. It is my most upvoted post on these forums yet. No one likes Smugglers Fortune, or rather, not many.
    I am completionist. I have completed every commendation from the Bilge Rats except the Shrouded Ghost of course, who does not exist, and the Ritual Skulls from Dark Relics (because why bother on the rng when I had already unlocked the cosmetics). I will not be completing most of Smugglers Fortune, because it does not engage me. It is boring. It is mundane. It is extremely lacking, and at a time I should be really enjoying the game with my new pet, I am building up my base in No Mans Sky, waiting for the next, hopefully more engaging update.

    There are no rewards for Smugglers Fortune, no time locked cosmetics, nothing that actually gives me an incentive to be bored while sailing the seas, its a terrible update.
    Also the rinse and repeat nature of this game is moronic.

  • @captain-fet I am an completionist too but yeah its been like pulling teeth to get on and complete the last 3 months of the voyages. Even the cosmetics we have got have been lack luster and to me, not worth logging in and doing the mind numbing 10x grind to get them.

  • @captain-fet said in Rare Lets Have a Chat:

    @el-dth-taco I agree with you on this. I made a post on the Insiders forum saying that Smugglers Fortune is boring and it will not be liked. It is my most upvoted post on these forums yet. No one likes Smugglers Fortune, or rather, not many.
    I am completionist. I have completed every commendation from the Bilge Rats except the Shrouded Ghost of course, who does not exist, and the Ritual Skulls from Dark Relics (because why bother on the rng when I had already unlocked the cosmetics). I will not be completing most of Smugglers Fortune, because it does not engage me. It is boring. It is mundane. It is extremely lacking, and at a time I should be really enjoying the game with my new pet, I am building up my base in No Mans Sky, waiting for the next, hopefully more engaging update.

    There is no rewards for Smugglers Run, no time locked cosmetics, nothing that actually gives me an incentive to be bored, its a terrible update.
    Also the rinse and repeat nature of this game is moronic.

    What is No Mans Sky like? I am waiting for Star Citizen... But it is a long wait.

  • @biter-wylie said in Rare Lets Have a Chat:

    @captain-fet said in Rare Lets Have a Chat:

    @el-dth-taco I agree with you on this. I made a post on the Insiders forum saying that Smugglers Fortune is boring and it will not be liked. It is my most upvoted post on these forums yet. No one likes Smugglers Fortune, or rather, not many.
    I am completionist. I have completed every commendation from the Bilge Rats except the Shrouded Ghost of course, who does not exist, and the Ritual Skulls from Dark Relics (because why bother on the rng when I had already unlocked the cosmetics). I will not be completing most of Smugglers Fortune, because it does not engage me. It is boring. It is mundane. It is extremely lacking, and at a time I should be really enjoying the game with my new pet, I am building up my base in No Mans Sky, waiting for the next, hopefully more engaging update.

    There is no rewards for Smugglers Run, no time locked cosmetics, nothing that actually gives me an incentive to be bored, its a terrible update.
    Also the rinse and repeat nature of this game is moronic.

    What is No Mans Sky like? I am waiting for Star Citizen... But it is a long wait.

    Dont wait for Star Citizen lol, it will be a long wait and a huge law suit before its canned. NMS is really good if its your kind thing. Space exploration, base building, aquatic base building, money making. Its a game you get easily side tracked from your current objective as something more pressing comes your way, and many hours can be lost in what seems like half an hour.

  • @el-dth-taco Wow taco, that's melodramatic even for you matey.

    You and I both know that mercenary voyages don't ruin the game. It's just something that reuses assets to get a new voyage type done in a quick manner. They don't hurt anyone and it costs so little time for Rare that it also doesn't impact the development of bigger content. This is why we're getting them.
    It's also a testing ground to see what they can do with voyage types later on. For example, the bone chests are a permanent voyage type that are just a Cargo voyage that give doobles in stead of gold. Nothing wrong there, how can people honestly be offended by this? Do you think that adding a different colour to a chest and telling the game the conditions for it to spawn and turn in conditions/ rewards etc cotsts a lot of development time?

    I'd love to see Major content style updates every month I do, but I'd rather have this monthly drip feed in between the major content patches then have what we had during the first months.
    Of all those content updates the Barrel skeletons was the only actual update that added anything gamechanging from the old bilgerat adventures (cursed cannonballs were actualy introduced during the Cursed sails events we just couldn't use them so I choose to ignore that).

    I'm just going to side by side what we've got since the anavercary updates as opposed to bilgerat adventures we had before this:

    Old:

    1. Skeleton Thrones to sit in
    2. Mermaid statues to destroy (no rewards)
    3. Gunpowder barrel fuses, gunpowder skeletons
    4. Cursed cannonballs and Reapers mark
    5. Coloured flames
    6. Mercenary voyages introduced

    New:

    1. Mermaid Gems on ships/ shores/ forts
    2. Harpoon Rowboats
    3. Reapers Chests
    4. Pets
    5. Items amidst the barrels of plenty
    6. Emergant Skeleton Captains with special maps

    Just a little note here, I've not included major updates as I feel that those are still coming and shouldn't count as a comparison between the old Bilgerat Adventures and the newer monthly updates.

    I'm not saying we shouldn't get more cool stuff I'm just getting the feeling some people are forgetting the cool stuf we're getting because all they see is a small part of these updates. (maybe that's on rare for naming the updates after the Mercenary voyage as opposed to what's otherwise new but I admit that New Rowboat sounds lame as an update name)

    I'm going to wait with judging the current content feed untill the next Major event that we're obviously working towards. I feel that Rare is holding back major stuff like ships, landmasses etc for larger patches, maybe not as much as before where we get several new items with said patches but enough to be memorable.
    I won't see them introducing a new ship, faction, landmass etc without combining it with more memorable stuff like new Tall tales new items etc.

    I'm thinking Next month will be big! If there's a payoff/ conclusion to the whole Mysterious stranger/ reapers chest/ bonedust etc arc it's going to be next update.

  • @hynieth
    You see, my problem isn't the voyages themselves. My problem is that the events focus on grinding the voyages instead of whatever new content they add. That's the real seperation between the bilge rat adventures and mercenary voyages.

  • @blazedrake100 That's true, but they already took that feedback to heart and did a 50/50 with it.
    Last Bilgerat adventure there were the commendations for the differnt items you had to grind (I was apparently lucky to have 2 skulls on average per voyage) and some other commendations, last time it was reapers chests now it's stealing bone crates.

    It's not even that time consuming, I've been playing lots of arena this past few weeks and I've already got 90% of the commendations (still need to trade 10 chests with some other guy to get the last ones)

    Rare has reacted well to feedback, I'm compelled to get all commendations unlocked for the bilgerat adventures so I feel your pain, I know the compulsion but it's getting better with each adventure, it's not like Rare is dropping the ball, they are getting a feel for the ball and trying to do what's best, step by step.

  • I believe all ships should drop pvp tokens (Do you remember a very old game that allowed you to collect the ear of the person you killed) well this type of currency is what is needed in adventure.

    Sink a ship get a souvenir which you can turn in the PVP island quartermaster for sea dogs rep or some kind of pvp rewards that also cycle. But also make it so a boat can't drop more than 3 per session so people don't do shady stuff like the legendary thief and obviously you shouldn't be allowed to turn in your own insignia or w/e...

    I sink between 5 and 10 ships each session and i rarely get any loot to sell at the end of the night from thieving. At the same time I sail with all the loot I find in the world (sunken ships, forts, stranded stuff on islands and barrels). Althoug my ship glows from loot, with reaper flag on and reaper chests, people just run... People who have NOTHING on their ship...

    PS. The mercenary X mark the spot voyage is really dull..

  • Agree with all you say. I bought emotes to support this game financially. But I'm finding it increasingly more and more difficult to give it my time. Just the same old same old. This game needs a massive update. This PL10 is finding it hard to set out to sea.

  • @el-dth-taco compleatly agree about the reheated company quests disguised as new events. And I like the idea of cosmetics that evolve as you fight and explore more.

  • I would take back all of my "fetch quest variant" sass if they let me either base build (trap island - tower defense?) or move furniture around in a private room (imagine an apartment complex made up of shipwrecked ships stacked up a mountain). The merpeople are a very real avenue for expanding game types. I can think of event wars between the naughty mers and the human liking mers. I have imagined every player getting the drowning curse with cosmetic skin changes like gills and fins that you can keep after the event and the subverting of merapocalypse. I've even daydreamed about mers offering swimming or boating courses. All of what I have put forth deviates greatly from some fetchlike. If I can do it, you, Rare, can do it.

  • Taco... Let me tell you a secret...

    You have to promise not to tell anyone...

    you dont have to do the mercenary voyages! :o

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