- AHOY MATEYS!
This subject has been debated many times on this forum and there's many topics on it and yet I feel it's time for another one.
Not so long ago, in a tuesday’s stream, to a question I asked, Mr. Chapman said that they weren’t looking for a place like Tortuga in SoT. I’m don’t remember very well the reasons but it was something like that the pirates are only discovering this place, there can’t be a town/port.
To me the core concept of this game is about creating stories, adventures and souvenirs. But I always thought it missed the beginning and the end (and sometimes the middle).
I feel that Rare tried it by adding the taverns to the outposts. A place where the story begins and ends around a pint of grog. I don't know how you feel about it, to me they are lifeless and it underlines even more the desire for a crowded place. It could be much much more.
- Sea of Thieves is a social game
This game has been, many times, referred as a glorified pirate chat room. Yes it is in many ways, and a really good one at it (among many other things). That is what also is SoT beyond PvP and PvE. A social game.
There’s also a game like this that have a huge success with this, it’s VRChat.
I truly believe that SoT should embrace its nature and explore all the potential the physics engine, the immersiveness and social nature of the game could bring to players.
Rare could create a blank island and put 30 players on it and see what happens, I'm sure that at the end there would be a lot of fun involved.
- What would bring a HUB to players?
I think there’s many like me who love the universe of SoT but sometimes are not bothered enough to play the game because of the repetitive nature of quests, the fact that as a long time player, it becomes harder to imagine something that hasn’t been done yet, a lack of meaningful motives and active friends players but would gladly play the game in a different context.
- The HUB would be the place where you explore the SoT community
It would allow players to create contrasts and diversity during sessions. By having a sense of home in the HUB in opposition the danger on the seas, it creates balance.
When you’re done exploring the world, there’s this place where you explore the community of SoT. And when full of grog and legendary stories heard in the tavern, you can sail back in SoT with a unique will and motive.
It would be a place for the community to experiment, a laboratory of players rolling as pirates in a beautifully envrionnement crafted by Rare.
- What could we do in the HUB?
–Fights /Duels /Training
–A Tavern with added features
–Playing mini games (cards, dices, etc)
–Music
–Exclusive shops
–Showing off
–Chatting
–Recruiting crews
–And many more
- How could it be implemented?
I have 2 solutions in mind:
An instanced server
The HUB would be physically separated from the normal server.
At the start of the game, you would have the choice to set sail or to go into the HUB.
24-32 players in the HUB.
An isolated Island in the game
The HUB is directly into the game but is surrounded by a physical element (like fog, cliffs, mountains, etc) that prevents players sailing to have to calculate what’s happening inside.
You get into it either by seamlessly sailing into it or at the start of the game, you choose to be a boatless and spawn into the HUB. When boatless, you can still sail the seven seas but you’ll have to be recruited by a crew with a boat or wait for a crew to leave the server or to give/sell their ship or buy a rowboat (it would be to limit the number of ships on the server).
So 6 ships per server and around 24-32 boatless players in the HUB.
- What would Rare gain from it?
A consolidated community, the arrival of new players interested in roleplay gaming and the social aspect of SoT, the return of old sea dogs, a way to make players use their golds and doubloons and the endless possibilities for streaming (community event, competitive duels, etc).
- Could this feature break the game, and segregates the player base?
So now we have 2 sides to SoT. The outside with your crew, battles, islands, adventures, skellies, meg, etc and the inside with the community.
I believe it will in fact do the opposite, consolidate the game and the player base. By going from one to another, the user’s experience grows richer and the stories get more meaningful.
- Technically, is it possible?
I really can’t say on this subject as I know little on this. Would the game be able to support more than 30 players at the same time? I believe so. But there’s many things to consider that I’m not able to answer.
- I don’t care about this, I want more fight!
I know that the HUB is not something that a portion of the community is looking into but I am confident that if it is well done, it could enhance every player’s experiences.
- I’d rather see Rare work on X/Y/Z rather than a HUB
It doesn’t have to be exclusive. While a team is working on the HUB, another team could work on other features. What I hope is that at the end, every kind of play styles are satisfied.
Rare, I’ve been advocating for a HUB since I joined (April or May 2017) as many others before me and after me. The theme of the game and its universe strongly appeals to it. The game will always feels incomplete to me without it and while a part of me believes that it will never be in game, another part tells me there's a little chance, that's why I'm writing this topic, like a bottle in the sea.
I hope you will take notice of my post and will reconsider your position on this subject because I have a strong intuition that this is the key of your game, from where it all starts.
Thank you for reading, I'm curious to know what is your opinion on the matter.
Talios' weapons
