I have cracked over 60+ hours (25 gold hunter, 25 skulls and 17 merch) on live and 20+ hours alpha and beta and I don't think I could be anymore angry right now. You have finally broken me and I won't be playing anymore until some major work has been done to the game.
--Progression--
This game lacks any sort of progression and sorry to say, cosmetics don't cut it! This game needs a player to feel like what they are doing in the game amounts to something. Give us options by either letting us improve our weapons or ships, i.e. add scopes to weapons, increase accuracy, increase blade proficiency so we can tailor to the game to our play style. There needs to be pro's and con's to doing it, having everyone on the same playing field just makes the game bland.
--Classes--
As mentioned above with progression, create some cool classes and create some unique play styles. Examples being, A Swashbuckler (very good with swords), or a Virtuoso (players music and buffs the party), Buccaneer (good with ranged weapons) or maybe a Freebooter (able to find cool lost treasures and relics)
--PvE AI--
Just increasing the mobs doesn't make for fun game play, I understand there is 4 types of mobs but at level 25 having 6 normal skellies all with Blunderbuss simply pointing at you and insta-killing you isn't fun. Either is having a bunch of gold skellies spawn with no water close or ammo refills available. The give me interesting encounters like undead ghouls that can wrap me up or slow me down and mechanics to counter it (like dodging or something like that).
--Combat--
The combat in the game is god awful, right now with a sword you slash and pray that it does damage because often it doesn't. Ranged weapons randomly do damage as well, sometime you can aim a flintlock right at a skeletons head and it doesn't even make it flinch (or do damage). Simply suggest here, make the damage consistent and understandable because right now its a lottery.
--PvE Loot Rewards--
This has to be the by far the worst part of the game. Right now I am level 25 gold hoarder and the loot chances haven't gotten any better at all. My last 7 gold hoarder missions amounted to mostly seafarers chests, a half a dozen marauders chests, 2 captains chest (I am not even joking... 2...) and half a dozen cast away chests. This totalling around 20k gold, that's average 2.5k gold per voyage every 45 minutes, skulls are roughly the same (maybe a little better). Something seriously needs to be done here, I shouldn't even see Castaway Chests at 25 and I would even argue that I shouldn't see Seafarers. The reputation that goes along with these chests are pitiful as well, considering I am still getting such a large amount of Seafarers and Castaway chests its making the experience that much worse. All the experience gains need to be buffed, it's depressing to think I am halfway through the game and I have 10+ hours just to get a single level. I am guessing the experience required as the levels increase are going to grow exponentially as well which means that 10+ hours is likely to hit 30+/40+ hours per level later in the game. Random loot drops in the game from Skeletons would be fantastic, let me feel like killing things that want to kill me gives me some reward. This also applies to the Kracken and any other cool mobs that might come in the future, we should get rewarded for killing that guy (gold).
--Quest System--
The merchant traders are a complete waste of time, it's too cumbersome and the rewards are horrible. The fact that you can't do back to back voyages (since you need to go and get cages) is absolutely horrendous. The entire merchant traders needs to be reworked. As for the other two, diversity is really required here.. going out and get X chest collect, rinse / repeat is dull. The skulls are worse in terms of diversity since the combat/ PvE AI in the game need major changes. There needs to be some new cool quest encounters here, message in a bottle is a cool concept but how about have them floating at sea. Give us random ghosts that might appear on the boat when we pass an island which in-turn leads to a cool encounter on the island. How about some encounters with hunting down some mythical sea creatures, where we need to roam the high seas looking for signs that the Megalodon / Kracken has been. Daily, Weekly and Group/raid quests they don't exist.. why not? This is a fundamental of most online multiplayer games and would make for a more interesting gameplay each day.
--Content--
I have mentioned above with the quest system that would change some of this but the game straight up needs content. It needs things in the world to make it feel like a world, not just a random set of islands that you only visit if you have a quest there. NPC's on the islands, mobs on the islands, quest givers on the islands, this shouldn't be hard.
--Boat Changes--
This has been said a lot but the crew sizes need to be tweaked slightly or there needs to be new boats added to the game. Sloops are fantastic and I would love to see a 3 man crew size, that said if you did that I do think a 5 man galleon would be absolutely necessary to balance the power a 3 man sloop might have. Another option might be a new boat. Right now you have a Galleon which has 8 guns, 3 sails and a Sloop which has 2 guns and 1 sail. Maybe a new boat (Cutter) which has 2 sails and 4 guns. I also think adding dinghy's for the galleon at least would be beneficial so that it can be parked further from the island.
--Safe Zone--
The game really needs a safe haven where people can hang out and just be friends. Players should also be able to sell their stuff there but at a reduced return on investment. (i.e. you can stay in the pvp area's and you get more gold / rep, do it in the safe zone, less gold / rep). The safe zone can also be a hub for recruiting players into your crew or clan.
--Clans--
This is pretty straight forward, let people build clans.
--Skeleton Forts--
This is fun but really unrewarding if you are a small crew that has gone through 7 waves only to have a a galleon turn up and wipe out all your hard work and your unable to take it back. I would highly recommend that at the end of the each wave some reward system is implemented that doesn't require to be handed in (maybe just a straight cash injection into the bank account). This would at least reward the players doing all the hard work to go through waves but still keep the element of piracy....
--General Issues-
*There needs to be a way to go from a Solo game to another boat / player count without logging out of the game. So often I am in the middle of a voyage and a friend comes on and either they need to wait potentially up to 45 minutes before I can join them and vice versa.
*Increase the amount of players on a server
*Voyage count needs to be increased the higher you level, shouldn't be limited to just 3 voyages.
*Discard Voyage needs to be easier, rather than having to accept it then cancel it.
*Accepted Voyages shouldn't be lost when you logout
*Shipwrecks need to despawn with a couple of minutes of it being looted, too often you arrive with no boats anywhere and they are empty.
*Character creation needs to be something that you can truly customise, not just randomly generate
*Boat cosmetics staying on the ship (not having to apply it every time I log in).
*Cosmetic Pricing needs to be reduced or the rewards for questing needs to increase
*Experience needs to be increased (or new ways to get it added).
*Cosmetic's available - there needs to be way more options for cosmetics.
*Disconnection and losing all your stuff as a solo player needs to be fixed ASAP.
As many people have said before, the game has great fundamentals but it really is lacking content and the grind is absolutely unacceptable.
I am done for the moment but I'll come back if I see some progress however something really needs to be done before its too late.
