Time for a change?

This game would be dead pretty quick with performance upgrades

the skill gap is already massive with everyone on equal ground. Casuals and new players already complain a lot about getting murked that would only increase.

The only way to keep the game welcoming to all is to keep everyone on the same equal footing.

@monkeydancer36

It's a good game (except the pvp aspect) but it's just gets bring very quickly when you can't do anything- for example I play this game with 1 friend so in the smallest boat there is no way with only 1 cannon each side and 2 unexperienced players that we would ever take on a skeleton ship or kraken or even a meg

Anyone in a sloop can handle these events with their eyes closed.

The issue here is that you are mixing up knowledge version time spent.

An inexperienced player with all your upgrades is still an inexperienced player. Having upgrades doesn't automatically make them knowledgeable about the game.

The point of this game is that eventually all inexperienced players become experienced players. Its all based on player knowledge and that knowledge is learned by the player.

They can either learn it themselves, learn it while watching others, read or watch guides, or even ask other players for advice.

If you truely believe that just because you are in a sloop you can't do anything against a skelly ship, meg, or even Kraken, then you need to play more good sir.

SIDE NOTE Forgot to mention and others have probably mentioned this. The allure of this game is that even if a player is 3 years into the game like myself. There is no difference between someone like me vs you. We have the same capabilities, the same weapons, the same damage, the same life. Everything about our characters versus just the cosmetics is exactly the same.

So I have no direct advantage over you cept for knowledge and experience. Which you can learn at your own pace. Some players will learn very fast because they like testing things and trying new things. Other players will learn slower because they want to really make sure they understand something before moving on.

The more you play, the more you experience things in the game, the more you PvP or PvE, the more knowledgeable you become. You get better at the game.

You will sink A LOT in the beginning and even later will still sink, but as you get better you start to realize that you are less afraid of things.

Good luck out there.

I guess the reason you're doing it is to have fun writing new stories each time you sail, the excitement of a fantasy pirate adventure, whatever. The combination of different factors leads to fun and memorable moments. Earlier today, I pulled up to Morrow's Peak in my solo slooo to start cashing out (GH voyage, plus some shipwrecks, random stuff from beaches, and a meg) when the volcano erupted. I started to move away, but having got stuck against the dock for a moment had several fires to fight and the water coming into my ship was boiling! At one point I got hit by a volcano rock and found myself on the Ferry of the Damned. When I got back, I was being attacked by a skelly sloop! It was a fun battle as I fought them off and brought the fires under control at the same time. Eventually I sunk them and fully repaired my ship, and retrieved the skelly ship loot, taking me from emissary grade 4 to grade 5. I went and sold, making about 70k gold, but more importantly a fun story that I won't forget any time soon!

As others have said, everyone having the same load-out without persistent power progression is a core aspect of gameplay, that actually is quite positive.

As others have addressed that, though, I definitely hear you with regards to how krakens and skelly ships feel when you're new! Especially if you mainly play solo, as I do. However, experience and knowing what to do will help! With the kraken, keep firing your cannons at its tentacles; once you've defeated 3-4 in a sloop, it'll leave. The main thing is to try not to get sucked up – if you see a tentacle mouth come close to the ship with wind lines, get below deck for a while. Like megs, krakens scale in difficulty according to the ship they attack. With a little experience, a sloop kraken is easy to defeat solo.

For skeleton sloops, you just want to rain cannonballs and firebombs on them until they sinks. Look out for cursed cannonballs, and above all try not to get knocked off. Rate of fire is your friend; it keeps the holes open and skeletons can't bail. So it's a case of practising marksmanship. Prioritise bailing out water over repairing holes, unless you've taken a lot of hits. If you can get yourself stuck up against the skelly ship, you can bail water from your hull into theirs. Skeleton galleons are a bit more difficult, at least when solo, but they shouldn't spawn against player sloops* and won't attack you if you give them a wide berth, so that advice can maybe wait.

If you want to fight a meg, just come to a stop, load cannons and shoot it whenever it's in your firing arc. When it's not in your cannon arc, shoot it with your flintlock or eye of reach. Try not to get knocked off. Earn good loot as a result.

As far as the having fun goes, I can promise you that working out how to take down those PvE encounters will be a brilliant feeling when you start to get there! After 30 skelly ship sinks, watching them slip beneath the waves still doesn't get old. The same is actually true of PvP, although I'm still very much learning how to do that myself.

Hope some of this helps! It's all a matter of experience, and learning when to prioritise attack and when to prioritise repairs. Good luck, pirate!

*Occasionally you can get very unlucky and be passing a spawn point for the 'roaming' type of skeleton galleon when one appears, and immediately aggros on you. It's not spawning on you strictly speaking, though, and this is a rare occurrence.

@d3adst1ck
It's just an idea because there really isn't any reason to do what you do in the game the risk and reward just don't make sense.

Sadly there aren't any rpg games that I like that I haven't played.
I'm not saying we need skills ect all I'm saying is making weapons and armour mean something other than just looks and letting us upgrade our ships rather than just changing the colour would be an advantage.

The other problem with persistent power progression is the power creep that results. New things being slightly better than the old ones... It messes up balance, and ends up making the game less fun, tbh.

Ok I hear what you are all saying.

We didn't know that the pve creatures and ships scaled with our ship size and that obviously makes a big difference to my post and let's us try other things.

Like I said in my original post I am enjoying the game and it's a laugh but when I spent a lot of time hiding and running away and then just fighting skeletons over and over the game did feel a little stale very quickly the fun myself and my friend make didn't as me made our own fun but we can do that in any game like doing stupid things to entertain ourselves and that's an issue because others are doing the same because they are bored or just sods.
For example we were docked at a port trying to do the tales when we heard explosions to find that a galleon had decided to destroy our sloop for no reason then all 4 of them came on land and killed us all while madam Olivia was spending what felt like hours talking to us about the next part of the tale - I know it's pvp but that was just stupid behaviour.

@monkeydancer36

Even if they didn't scale to ship size, they were still very doable in a sloop, even solo.

Again, please please PLEEEEEASE don't have the mentality of "well I'm in a smaller ship, there was nothing I could do" - Don't EVER have that type of mentality in this game.

This game is very well balanced. Even if you had to handle a skelly galleon in a sloop or the (Galleon)Kraken spawn in a sloop, its all VERY doable and easy to do. Especially with the meg also.

Again everything in this game is experience and knowledge. Don't ever go into the game thinking you are at a disadvantage because you are in a smaller ship.

@monkeydancer36 You're definitely right in concluding that this is a game where you make your own fun – by design! There's no singular and fixed objective or role; it's an adventure playground with the tools to make your adventure rather than fixed rules.

I can definitely understand the frustration at being attacked during a tall tale. Imo it's poor form to attack someone doing those, but equally the aggressor rarely knows that you are. Especially if they want to cash in at that outpost, I can understand shooting first and asking questions later.

Hopefully, though, you'll be able to work out what works for you. I've found it helpful to work out a 'personality' for my pirate, the better to tell stories with the game, but your mileage may vary (I also enjoy things like D&D, so...). There are lots of PvP and PvE options for finding what you enjoy, so I hope you do manage it!

Every game needs to give you a reason to put the work in. Unfortunately as narrow of a game model that SOT is, it’s not feasible. The game world is too small. 6 ships per server? They need factions. Save single ship teams for Arena. Emissariess should not be able to attack ships of the same faction. The pointless PVP in this game is what annoys me most.

I agree with the thought that some rewards other than cosmetics would be very nice to have in SoT. As nice as it is to jump in right away and just make your own fun, it's also nice to have some goals that you can work towards that grant something more meaningful than a new pair of boots. However, I will also agree with the opposing party that these 'rewards' should not allow a player to gain a power advantage over others like levels or upgrades would do. Plus the whole Vertical VS Horizontal progression lecture is getting a bit grating on the ears to be honest.

All that being said I still think there should and could be rewards that Rare (or even this community) can think of other than cosmetics that would still uphold the 'horizontal progression' vow that Rare has apparently taken with the game.

An example, off the top of my head right this moment, might be something like so.. They can add a new weapon to the armory in SoT. But rather than simply giving it to players right off the bat, players will have to complete a Tall Tale, Voyage Quests, or perhaps even a system similar to ashen tomes where players can go out in search of weapon parts and once they've collected all the parts they can pay a slightly hefty sum to have that weapon crafted at a weapon merchant which then unlocks it permanently in their armory. Naturally this new weapon would have to go through it's due process of balancing just like the others but I think it would be completely doable and still adhere to the whole 'horizontal progression' even if it's locked and needs to be earned by investing some time in the game.

Would this 5th weapon be absolutely necessary to experience the game of SoT? No, certainly not. But it would grant players who took the time to unlock it an extra optional tool to their arsenal that may allow them to approach a task differently than they would with the 'default' tools without giving them that power advantage of 'vertical progression'.

unlike other games that made you to play everyday, whole day to get something or to be better or to stay in "shape" SOT is different and thats why im like it.

SOT is definitely not your everyday game, it becomes really boring and repetitive after 2-3 days of playing each day but its just somehow relaxing and you dont have obligation to play everyday or like a crazy to get something. If you want to relax and enjoy play a little, make a pause, play again and something like that.
No matter when you started playing again you are on the same ground as everyone.

As some have said this is a game you have to make your own fun adventure and is not based on progression in terms of strength with +1 dmg with swords.

Some time ago when their where no seasons when a friend of mine gifted me this game I thought it was average but still quite an unique gameplay and sense of adventure. But I don't know about you but since the seasons patch it made me play from once every week or 2 to basically almost every day.

Even though its just gold rewards and some cosmetics I have a more sense of "progression" that i was missing in the game except farming pirate legend. And I also learned more how to be more effective in doing voyages and if it happens defend myself against players.

And although I always prefer the PvE aspect in a PvPvE game, this game is a rare occasion that i am not mad if a player defeats me. Especially when you have a friend I find it to easy to avoid other players by just scouting all the time. And if it does happen we get busted we just shrug it off.

This game is called Sea of THIEVES for a reason so I don't see a reason to whine about the PvP players. Except those who just spawn camp without trying to sink your ship, that is just people who are frustrated in real life and try to place that anger in an online game to feel better. If that happens just quit, relog and continue as usual.

If you really seeking desperately for a progression based game in terms of power then this is just not the game for you. For the rest I would say just try to remove that mind set and combine fun more then trying to progress. Since progression will come eventually its the adventure and fun aspect what matters in this game.

@stewcha-kun said in Time for a change?:

unlike other games that made you to play everyday, whole day to get something or to be better or to stay in "shape" SOT is different and thats why im like it.

SOT is definitely not your everyday game, it becomes really boring and repetitive after 2-3 days of playing each day but its just somehow relaxing and you dont have obligation to play everyday or like a crazy to get something. If you want to relax and enjoy play a little, make a pause, play again and something like that.
No matter when you started playing again you are on the same ground as everyone.

Why not play Fortnite or Call of Duty. Both superior short time requirement PVP gams? For the record this game takes around 15- 30 minutes just to get your ship supplied. Their is no such thing as play a little in this game. Just look at the streamers with 8 hour streams on Twitch.

It takes 2-3 hours to basically accomplish anything positive in this game.

@blam320 said in Time for a change?:

@wavestalker said in Time for a change?:

Every game needs to give you a reason to put the work in. Unfortunately as narrow of a game model that SOT is, it’s not feasible. The game world is too small. 6 ships per server? They need factions. Save single ship teams for Arena. Emissariess should not be able to attack ships of the same faction. The pointless PVP in this game is what annoys me most.

That "pointless" PVP isn't as pointless as you think. In fact it's literally the core concept of the game. You and your crew are adventuring in a shared world with other crews, and anything can happen. We're pirates, we want treasure, and other crews could have treasure on their ships.

What does treasure get you? A purple tattoo or title? Their is zero cause and effect in SOT. Read up on Pirating. Pirates didn't pirate other pirates. They pirated defenseless merchants for self profit. Thats why this game needs FACTIONS and forced alliances. How about Reapers vs the world? 3 verses 3? Auto formed alliances.

At the end of the day I like the idea of the game, I like sailing around solving puzzles with my friends, digging up treasure and having a laugh but the game does lack in some ways that by now (what's it been 2 years?) I would have thought some fresh ideas would have been added but from what I'm seeing there are way too many vets that shut down posts talking about new ideas for no obvious reason except they don't want it changed because they don't play as often anymore and don't want to come back to the game and not be as good as others are or are just stuck in their ways and don't like change.

My idea about adding weapons and armour and ship upgrades will not change the game as much as you think seeing how most newbies avoid other ships as much as possible at the start anyway so they will have time to get an upgrade or 2, if you want to do pvp then its a reason to play more and grind to be as good as others and its even a challenge to attack better equipped enemies. pvp won't really be effected because let's face it the pvp is not very good when 1 shotgun hit kills you anyway because the pvp is so fast in the game it won't really change it that much with small slight upgrades I'm suggesting. Now yes it would be different with the ships but all I mentioned was having the ability to add reinforced Hull just 1 upgrade ( from normal to reinforced - from 2 holes after an attack to 1 or none) or add rear or forward facing cannons like a lot of vessels had, a mounted cannon in the crows nest, option to carry more than 1 gun and a sword like many real sailors did carry 2 or more pistols and a sword or even an axe, even adding different styles of ships like Spanish French British ect to give some diversity - hell even just adding a few size options on the 3 existing ships so a slightly bigger or smaller sloop or brigatine. They say they want the game to last for years and they will keep updating it then start adding some fresh ideas not just fishing events and more meaningless rep events.

Let's fight mermaids or weird aquaman creatures from the trench or even add some random (non skeleton) ships sailing around and people on islands that aren't skeletons all the bloody time! Different size megs, random encounters of 2 or even 3 megs at a time, completing tasks or quests to get a different version or our ship. New boots that let you run or swim faster, spades that let you dig faster, sails that give a slight increase to speed, buckets that hold more water so you can bale faster, spy glasses with bigger range. I know you vets don't want the game to evolve but there are so many possibilities for a game as basic as this just adding a new coloured coat or sword will not keep this game running as long as people think/hope.
I haven't played as long as many of you have and yes over the past 2 weeks I have put a few hours into the game at first to try and get some gold and then to try for legend to then get bored and think why bother with all that stuff because it doesn't add anything to the game so I might aswell just use the beginning spade and gun and sword ect because really what does it matter? So then hunting gold is pointless so then when you realise why push for legend it only offers new cosmetics that don't do anything - nah I'm not going to log in today I can't be bothered i will play something else and before you know it thats yet another person gone from a daily or every other day log in to once a week or month surely that's not what the devs wanted?

Yes make your own fun but there is only so many times you can blow each other up with barrels or sail away leaving your friend in the water with sharks before it gets a little old and annoying for all involved.

Screw it just give the pvp people the arena and maybe a capture the Fort (one team is protecting Fort on land and ships and the other team tries to capture it easy ) make the real game pve and then start adding some real content and quests and then add a lot more enemy ships sail around causing massive sea battles for a challenge or partner up with others.

Or just make a new game pure pve with slight graphics changes and maybe characters that don't look like they have been living in a cave alone for years eating hikers to make it separate from sot and go to town with all the new and exciting stuff you can add to it.