@khaleesibot
I'll quote Mike's post from the previous thread in here as well as a link to the summary of the panel.
@mikethemutinous said in [Mega Thread] Sea of Thieves: The Arena:
Lots to read on this thread and I've tried my best to digest it all.
Just a few thoughts based on some of the more consistent thoughts and feedback from this thread:
We discussed a mode like The Arena in the very early days of pitching the game and prototyping. The pitch is simple - have the 'greatest hits' of Sea of Thieves, but on demand. Getting involved in epic ship battles and competing over a more defined goal was the way we stress tested mechanics and demoed the game to new members of the team. In fact, this formed the basis of what we first showed off at E3 2016 and 2017 as we knew it was a bite sized chunk of Sea of Thieves that would play well in 20-30 minutes.
What this isn't though, is a straight split between 'PvE' and 'PvP'. Yes, The Arena will focus on competition between players, but it is categorically not about taking the 'thieves' out of Sea of Thieves. We focused on the Treasure Hunting gameplay for The Arena first because it had more scope to create memorable moments and stories over just straight battling, but its just one part of the overall game.
The core vision of Sea of Thieves is the player created stories that can occur and an experience that gives you a wide range of emotions within a shared world. The Arena just serves elements of this on demand with more of a defined focus. Its not a replacement, and certainly not a distraction from the core improvements and new content we want to add to the game you're currently playing.
As many of you have probably heard me talk about before, Sea of Thieves aims to capture the thrill of the pirate life and the game as it stands today, with its moments of exploration, escapism and excitement, aims to capture this in a unique way and give you moments that you won't forget. The primary focus remains the adventure experience, with The Arena having its own progression and rewards. Nothing changes elsewhere. If you're the kind of player that likes to attack other ships to steal their treasure, nothing will stop you doing that. If players want to come in and only play The Arena, they can, but they will be playing a small part of the Sea of Thieves experience.
This month, Shrouded Spoils aims to address some of the wider feedback points from the community, while we simultaneously also have our heads down crafting numerous new elements for the existing game, some new features / tools, some more far reaching.
We passionately believe in the game and we want more players to experience it so it can realise its full potential. Sailing towards the horizon, not knowing what dangers you'll face and living out the pirate fantasy you might have once dreamt about is the heart of Sea of Thieves. The more players that get to experience that and fall in love with it, the richer the Sea of Thieves experience will become.
@mikethemutinous said in [Mega Thread] Sea of Thieves: The Arena:
@eratikstorm said in [Mega Thread] Sea of Thieves: The Arena:
This has "Pressure from Microsoft" written all over it. Sea of Thieves was pushed out as a Flagship title for the GamePass. It did massive numbers in the first 14 days and has not been able to maintain that engagement.
Adding this PvP Mode to pull in the BR/Deathmatch crowd sounds like a good buisness decision. It will also likely be a good avenue for Rare to add in the Cash Shop that we know has been planned (based on Rare's comments about the tabled "Pet" expansion).
I am sure this is not going to be the last controversial decision Rare makes with this IP. I would not be surprised if they use the Arena to test other things like Weapons with Stats, and armor, or other powerups as well. We will see what happens in time.
That is just not true ;)
We keep Microsoft informed and they may well give us feedback about how best to announce content, however they don't get involved with content decisions. This is Rare's responsibility and the team in Redmond just want to help us look after it.
It also doesn't mean that we're going to start changing the core approach to mechanics. Any improvements and additions will be shared by both experiences.
@mikethemutinous said in [Mega Thread] Sea of Thieves: The Arena:
@dat-hill-boi said in [Mega Thread] Sea of Thieves: The Arena:
@mikethemutinous Thank you! This is what I was hoping to hear. I fell in love with the core Adventure game and would hate for that to get overshadowed. I want to see this game grow and stick around for the Long haul. If this will help, I'm all for it. Thanks for the reply and update.
As you might imagine, I live for the adventure! However, I'll nip into Arena now and again and have some fun.
@mikethemutinous said in [Mega Thread] Sea of Thieves: The Arena:
@jetorchidee97 said in [Mega Thread] Sea of Thieves: The Arena:
@mikethemutinous With the addition of the Arena mode, what do you think today of a preloading community HUB (where you could crew with players, tell and hear stories, have minigames and chose your gamemode)?
Would love to do this!
@mikethemutinous said in [Mega Thread] Sea of Thieves: The Arena:
@x-crowheart-x said in [Mega Thread] Sea of Thieves: The Arena:
@katttruewalker said in [Mega Thread] Sea of Thieves: The Arena:
A couple of questions answered in this tweet -
Sea of Thieves is already at our fingertips. So our pirate battles and fighting over treasure. Same kind of stories and memories already a click or button press away.
We could have the same mechanic in the game now with voyages and maps sending us more to the same islands. It is what skull forts did. Rare could have given them renewed meaning as well as add the same map competitions to same sea.
It is ridiculous how they are hyping and selling us the same game bundled together as compressed miniSoT as an update. They are insulting their players right to their faces. Amazing how quickly another game developer makes an “immortal mistake.”
Really sorry you feel that way. You have to know that we consider all ways to implement content. Having this seamlessly in the world would be lovely, but most definitely would not be at your fingertips. With sailing times and server matchmaking it would be take too long (upwards of 20 mins probably). Nobody would really want to wait that long. Also you'd be giving players a portal to leave the experience and it would take some time for the missing ships to be replaced on the original server.
Its optional and you don't have to play it if its really not your thing but I would encourage you to give it a chance. The team is also working on numerous other features outside of this.