Sea of Thieves literally hasn't got any real content since the Anniversary Update

@oceanmann7

I couldn't care less about, Tall Tales which adds little to nothing to the adventure experience

... Really? Now i'm curious what you expect from Adventure mode, like, what WOULD you consider "adding a lot" to Adventure mode?

'cus from my perspective, Tall Tales adds actual adventures to adventure mode, and i would say that is adding a lot. :P

So alas, after six months players solely interested in the adventure mode got a 9 hour campaign and fishing...sick.

Your first time doing the tall tales will take around 3 hours roughly, each tale, and there's a total of 9 tales. I mean, i'm not exactly a mathematics professor or anything, but last time i checked, 3 times 9 did not equate to 9. :P

It's around a 27 hours campaign, basically... Which you would know, if you actually tried it, or did a modicum of research.

I went the entire mile and got myself the gold curse, so i got even more hours from it. :P

That's alright though, it was just a minor speed bump, right?

First time i've seen someone on these forums refer to adding content to the game as something negative... or perhaps you just used that expression without knowing the meaning of it? :P

Well actually no, because the developers decided the game has enough content (which it absolutely does not, lacking content has been this games most major flaw since it released) and that they would rather focus on making 'artificial replay ability' with monthly updates that add little to no new content with the bulk of the additions being limited time voyages/'monthly quests'.

I am contemplating the depth of your misconceptions, and i find myself riddled with intense confusion.

Does time not pass for you? Have they not adding multitudes of content to the game already? And also, they literally never said they were done with content updates for the game, they only said they felt the game was in an acceptable state for them to slow down monthly content releases, to focus on releasing BIGGER AND MORE POLISHED content updates... Wait, i think i get it now...

There is content, you just refuse to play said content, because you still think complaining about the lack of content is popular... That's about the only reason that i can think of that would make you use such willfully misinformed arguments. :o

SoT approach of monthly updates as opposed to the major title updates that ran from The Hungering Deep (May 2018) - Shrouded Spoils (Nov 2018) is terrible.

There's no monthly updates anymore mate, what you just saw was simply the Halloween event, thassit... They're working on HUGE content updates behind-the-scenes that they may or may not release yearly, or every 6 months (nobody knows the schedule). : /

Again, since launch lacking content has been objectively the worst part about this game and yet the developers abandoned major content additions after less than a year.

As a person that doesn't play the content they released, you are in exactly no position to be complaining about the lack of content, when you literally refuse to play the content given to you.

You don't get to cherry-pick what is acceptable content or not based on your biased preferences... That is not how this works.

Yes, the game isn't mindblowingly huge, but it's not starved for content, as a base-game, it's finally in its 1.0 state... it took a year for it to reach this point, so please respect that, they had to release this game way too early, it was pushed by Microsoft... If it was up to Rare, they would've been developing this game for 1-2 more years before release. : /

@oceanmann7

Let's look at the update's we've had so far:
Major Hungering Deep: Megalodons, drums and speaking trumpets, small campaign
Minor Skeleton Thrones: Skeleton Thrones to be found and activated
Minor Gunpowder Skeletons: Skeletons with gunpowder barrels
Minor Sunken Curse: Mermaid statues
Major Cursed Sails: Skeleton ships, brigantine, alliances, flags, small campaign
Minor Cursed Crews: Cursed cannonballs, Reaper's Mark, Skeleton Fleets, new inventory system
Major Forsaken Shores: New region, the Devil's Roar, rowboats, small campaign
Minor Festival of the Damned: Flames of Fate (colored lanterns), the Well of Fates, beacons
Major Shrouded Spoils: Fog, megalodon variations, cannon/wheel/helm customizations, Athena's Fortune commendations, mermaid gems, skeleton sloops, new kraken attack, ambient and emergent skeleton ships, rapid Stronghold respawns, ancient bone dust and stronghold gunpowder barrels
Minor Mercenary Voyages: Rum Runner Mercenary Voyages
Minor Mercenary Voyages: Rum Runner Mercenary Voyages, Reaper's Run of Wanderer's Refuge
Minor Mercenary Voyages: Rum Runner Mercenary Voyages, Reaper's Run of Shipwreck Bay
Major Anniversary: Cooking, fishing, new food types, new ship damage, Arena, the Shores of Gold tall tale, harpoons, kraken and megalodon drops, ambient skeleton sloops
Minor Black Powder Stashes: Black Powder Stash Mercenary Voyages
Minor Dark Relics: Dark Relic Mercenary Voyages, Reaper's Chests, harpoon rowboats
Minor Smuggler's Fortune: Rag and Bone Mercenary Voyages
Major Fort of the Damned: The Fort of the Damned, Skull Seeker Mercenary Voyages, ambient skeleton captains

Seems to me like there's been a few updates you've neglected to mention. Note that all of these updates have also had lore updates, even the Mercenary Voyage ones. Currently, Rare has two teams. One works on the monthly content updates, which also include minor features, like the reaper's chests or harpoon rowboats, along with bug fixes. The other, much larger team, works on major updates, which may take months to complete and test. Now that they're not locked to a roadmap, they can delay if needed to fix issues. Notably, the lore side of the company has been changing small things every update, in the background. The world is changing subtly, and some, like yourself, just might not be noticing the buildup. The Mercenary Voyages are meant to keep players in the game by giving them new small things to work on and mess with every now and then. The major titles will be more refined, and as such a bit slower, with the same type of minor titles in between as before. Notable is that even the original Bilge Rat updates were time-limited, you cannot get the rewards from them, though you can still get the titles and commendations. The cosmetics and the doubloons are lost. Also, the FotD does count as a major content update, and I do believe it's some time after Anniversary. They've not abandoned the major updates, they're working on them harder, and they've actually gotten the game to a point of having enough content now. The core experience of SoT has never really been lacking, since the 'core' is the adventure rather than the quest you're going on. That's why the Mercenary Voyages and Shores of Gold tall tale have recompletion commendations - because you have a different experience each time.

@oceanmann7

That's the point of them, they're smaller patches and updates to keep people playing while the bigger ones get developed. You and @Sweltering-Nick talking about the monthly updates stopping are wrong, they're continuing as the Mercenary Voyages. Occasionally, one will be a major content update, but monthly ones will continue since that team has little enough to do that they can be bound to such a schedule. Yes, some of it is recycled content. New things take time and effort to add, and more time and effort to fix after their additions release a swarm of new bugs. The main point of the Mercenary Voyages right now is really just to build up lore.

For instance: The trading companies saw a threat on the horizon in the form of the Grand Maritime Union, and stocked up on weapons. Then Reaper's Chests began to appear, and Duke took it upon himself to figure out what was going on, before going off and burying the skeletons and rags he found in some. During this time, on an uncharted island in the middle of the sea, a hole was dug in an ancient structure of unknown purpose. The Dark Relics were stolen, prompting a search for them which wasn't entirely successful. Something happened to the Blackwytch on Shipwreck Bay soon after Duke buried many boxes filled with skeletons and rags there, involving leftover Dark Relics. More relics were used elsewhere, to create the FotD. Now, with Stitcher Jim making a reappearance with a mysterious new friend, and another hole on Castaway Isle, where Jim was first found, being opened, the lore is continuing to advance. We've just been dealing with the fallout from the things going on, someone else is ahead of us all.

@mferr11

That would be correct, yes. Similar names in meaning.

@oceanmann7

IMO Tall Tales adds scripted adventures. I enjoy the sandbox elements of Adventure mode, essentially being able to go out in the world and have adventures as you play. So what I consider to be adding a lot is more content that fleshes out the world or adds depth to the game; more encounters, tools, enemy types, weather/hazards, etc.

That's odd, because what you described as suitable content for the game is precisely what Tall Tales provides.

The tales have variations in them, 5-6 different ones if i remember correctly, they may bring you to a different island sometimes, they may give a different puzzle occasionally, etc etc.

They take you across the map, and have you complete new world challenges, like avoiding traps, parkour, solving deadly puzzles before the timer runs out, etc etc.

And there's definitely new enemy types, and new tools being used... And the shores of gold provides a new weather type that has completely changed the dynamic of ship chases on the eastern parts of the map.

So by YOUR definition, the tall tales check off every single one of your checkboxes mate. :P

And yet, you don't think the tall tales are good enough... lol.

I will admit that I didn't give a lot of thought in saying the missions were each 'about an hour', but if they took you three hours each I can only ask how.

I said your first time doing each tale will take about 3 hours... Because that's roughly on average how long it takes for you to figure out the puzzles, subsequent runs can often give you the same puzzle, meaning you don't need to use much time trying to figure out the puzzles when you already did them.

First time i did the first tall tale, it took me 3 hours... The other 4 times i did it, it took me 1 hour-ish, give or take a few minutes.

Meaning your first playthrough will take 27 hours total, subsequent playthroiughs may take 9-18 hours total, keeping the tale variations in mind.

It took me and my friend on a duo Sloop between one hour - an hour and a half per mission.

Then either you or your friend used google to cheat the puzzles... I figured out the puzzles almost immediately, and it still took me and my brig crew some time to discuss alternate solutions to said puzzles to finally agree on where to go next.

Which is the entire point of these tales, to solve and discuss the puzzles, together.

You took this quote of of context...

No, i did not...

I referred to waiting six months for what I personally viewed as a lackluster update as a minor speed bump

1. You didn't actually say that, though.
2. You also didn't understand or respect the nature of this game being pushed for release 2 years ahead of when it was ready, so you waiting for an update you consider lackluster but actually checks off everything you consider a decent update (according to the very list you actually posted), isn't a speed bump of any kind, it's to be freaking expected.
3. The simple fact is, they added a large content update, and you were unhappy with it... Hence the "speed bump"... because the update was in your eyes, a bad thing. : /

Meaning the quote was suitably within context. :)

considering prior updates each took 2 months.

Note the difference between Minor and Major updates, i believe @UltmateRagnarok has that part covered.

First off referring to my opinion as a misconception

Opinions are by definition, indistinguishable from misconceptions, mate. :P

They are both beliefs that are NOT based on facts.

and myself as being misinformed

Willfully misinformed, actually, big, BIG difference. It means you are intentionally leaving out information as long as it suits your personal agenda.

It's the same as willful ignorance, basically.

without saying why does not prove you right

I did say why, though, earlier in my comment...

as a matter of fact is achieves nothing.

Well, clearly, it didn't, since you literally don't know the meaning of the words i was using! Oh well, not much i can do there except ontinue practicing to explain things in layman terms, i guess... Even though i actually am a layman, myself, lol.

Limited voyages, cosmetics and a fancy green fort recycling the same lantern gimmick from Halloween last year is NOT new content, it is recycled content.

Yeah, and? Nobody ever said this was a major content update, so why are you so disappointed from it not being a major content update?

Disappointment can only happen, if your expectations are too high. Manage your expectations, dude...

I never got the impression that FOTD was going to be a major content update, so when it released, i wasn't disappointed, i was pleasantly surprised by the lovely cosmetics. Which were attractive enough for me to want to work towards getting and...

Oh dear, looks like they got a few hours of gameplay out of me than i thought they would, another lovely aspect of the minor update. Just because it's recycled content with a new flair, doesn't mean it isn't content worth playing.

Major content updates are still coming, they're just not coming in their usual schedule... So chill out.

In terms of new content we have got micro transactions and a number of minor, insignificant additions.

Which, compared to all the old stuff added, adds up to a greater whole than by itself.... Something i'm sure you have no concept of.

I'm starting to think you are one of those people that will never be happy unless there's a freaking exansion-pack equivalent of an entirely new game in of itself, being released every month. Which is a hilariously ridiculous notion considering the sheer fact that it's literally impossible to do. xD

Again, manage your expectations.

I made this post because as someone who used to really love the game I wanted to vent my personal frustrations about the direction the developers have chosen to take the game and see what other people had to say. That's it. This is after all a feedback forum.

And what direction is that exactly? I'm not sure if you noticed this, but there's a clear disconnect between what you THINK, and what is actually REAL.

The game is in it's 1.0 state, in other words, it's in its full base-game state now... it's only NOW that they can focus on adding sizeable expansion packs, for instance, instead of the puny monthly updates they've released so far, if anything, this is a good thing.

Because that means, when a major content update finally releases, it will be TRULY HUGE UPDATES... imagine the size of the update you personally consider the one that added the most content... Multiply that amount of content by 6.

That is what major content updates will be like now. But they will release slower, because it takes MORE work to make them.

That being said my point still remains, that being that year two of SoT has been pretty barren in terms of content.

No it hasn't... There's plenty of content, i've been playing since the pre-order beta-access week of SoT, i became Pirate Legend right before the anniversary update, just in time to get my year 1 PL cosmetics.

I've been playing this game casually, with a very balanced pace, and i can with confidence tell you that there is more than enough content for SoT to sustain itself until the next gigantic content update.

I'm Athena 7 or 8 now (i just got the ghost eye patch), i'm slowly getting there.. once i am done with Athena, i intend to start working on raising my Sea dogs Reputation and the cosmetic rewards from that.

So Rare has more than enough time to sort out the next content update before i finish it.

If you went through all the content already, it might be because you've been playing MORE than intended... This game isn't an MMORPG, it was never intended to have endless replayability from the start, you didn't need to rush to PL A10, you don't get MORE rewards from that, and you don't get mechanical progression benefits either. Rushing through content in this game, is not how it's intended to be played. It's just a multiplayer pirate game, a social-pvevp experience.

If you got no game content left, start on the social content, go meet new people, play games with them, make bets, make jokes, be social.

Otherwise, the best i can suggest is for you to play other games you haven't completed yet, while you wait for content for SoT.

If you are rushing through content in SoT, you are ruining the game for yourself.

Also Fort of the Damned is both a Halloween event and monthly update, even if it is the last.

The content is made permanent, yes, but it's only updated at halloween... That's what the event is, basically.

Meaning the new skeleton types, are there to stay... Boom, your checklist is once again, satisfied. :P

Also the term 'biased preferences' is literally just saying 'opinion' but making it sound worse.

Actually a bias is defined as unfair prejudice against something, biased preferences therefore means preferences based on unfair prejudice.

It's another way of saying you have wildly unrealistic expectations.

So to clarify, based off of my OPINION I absolutely get to decide what I think makes a good and bad content addition

Incorrect... It IS your opinion that these things are considered insufficient content... But that doesn't justify you judging something based on said opinion.

Your opinion, is never valid justification of anything except things related to your personal preferences. This game isn't for you alone, therefore, your opinion is irrelevant.

So when judging the merits of a game, the only VALID way to do that, is through objective analysis, statistics, numbers, results, science, bla bla bla... Anything aside from that, is considered invalid, and therefore irrelevant.

You have a right to express your opinions, but that doesn't make your opinions valid, now, does it?

So, no, you definitely don't get to decide, on behalf of the entire community, what is considered acceptable content for the game. :P

What I don't understand is why they stopped there?

The answer is simple... They didn't.

What in the world makes you think they stopped? They said they were changing the update schedule, to release bigger content updates, at a slower pace, because they're finally confident in the games current state as a fully released base-game.

The only reason they had the monthly system to begin with, was because they were desperate to keep the game relevant, to keep people's interest in their game so they they wouldn't be forgotten by the market... And that means regular content updates for their very content-starved game at the time... Up until a point where all these updates accumulatively added up to a complete game experience.

So the game isn't starved for content anymore, contrary to your opinions. That's precisely why they went over to a new service format. :P

At the end of the day I'm not blindly 'hating' on SoT or the developers. Its criticism, because I want this game to be better.

The only thing Rare requires critique on, is what they're actually doing wrong.. Such as neglecting bug fixes, faulty commendation systems, awkward combat mechanics maybe, bla bla bla... Not much, but a few things here and there.

What helps Rare more, is what you want added to the game next... What content you would prefer to see in the game, preferably with a well-thought-out system in mind so that Rare gets a better idea of how it would work.

The only quality original content that has been added since forsaken shores has been the tall tales. The fotd is basically just a regular fort in fog with a tedious lantern preparation mechanic. The current state of the arena is abysmal. The small touches like sectional damage for ships and extra fruit added little to nothing to the game. ATLAS had a rough start but it's starting to gain some traction. SoT isn't the only game in this space anymore. In my opinion it's losing to the competition and may become irrelevant as we approach the next gen consoles. Games with more support will be released and they'll draw further attention away from SoT.