It doesn't need more content

@sloth242 said in It doesn't need more content:

So..... Your against improving this game?

If adding more bland, non-thematic, pointless"stuff" to a game is your idea of improving it, then, yes I'm definitely against it.

@ilumino said in It doesn't need more content:

The number one complaint I keep hearing is about the lack of content, more specifically, the lack of non-cosmetic content. But what, may I ask, does this game really, fundamentally, need to improve it? I keep asking myself that question and come up short.

For example, let me rebut some of the content suggestions I continue to hear:

• Fishing
  First of all, how often do pirates go fishing? Think about your favorite pirate movies and books. When Jack Sparrow got stuck on an island, his first thought was to drink all the booze, not roll up his sleeves and actually do something, anything, rational in a survival situation.

Pirates don't fish, they steal fish. They don't like to work, they prefer to steal instead. Yeah, I get it, it might be a fun past time to fish for stuff in the game. But it doesn't really fit the theme. Which brings me to my next one...

*Add merchant ships
Again, these are strictly pirates we're talking about. This isn't a shipping sim. There are lots and lots of other games that do that already.

Secondly, we already pretty much have it. What else do you call a group of players ferrying around chickens, bananas, cannonballs, and expensive antiquities for profit? If you want to be a merchant, you can do that already. But be prepared for someone who may want to steal it from you.

• More sea life, creatures to fight, etc

OK, I can at least see this. The game could use more animal life. But, I think Rare has already confirmed its coming. We're going to see more of it. But, how much does this really improve the game other than more cosmetic eye candy?

As for more than just Npc skellies to fight, I have to ask, what else do pirates fight other than themselves? Maybe giant supernatural sea monsters like sharks, whales, and the Kraken? Well we have sharks and the Kraken, so perhaps a "Moby D**k" style whale to hunt? Okay, I could agree with that, but beyond that?

Pirates mostly fight other people for their "stuff". And I think Rare has already done a pretty good job representing it in this game. You can even bombard an island with skeletons or other players with your cannons already.

• Pets!
  Again I ask, how does this really improve the game? This is a cosmetic and I believe Rare has already confirmed they're coming. But in games I've played before, Pets are kind of a joke. If you're into that, good for you, but this isn't a game changer.

What kind of pets would pirates have anyway? I can think of a Parrot and a Monkey. That's it. Woopdedoo.

*More variation on weapons and ships.

Yes, but if you have too much variation you run into balance issues. Everyone figures out that the new blunder buss 2000 is OPd and you get more power gamers ganking everyone. Same with ships.

And along with ships, why do we need that much more variation? Do we need a canoo or raft? Why? Do we need a mid-size craft between sloop and galleon? Maybe. But other than that, I don't see the need other than for...yep, more cosmetics.

• More quests/storyline.

First of all, I believe that Rare has confirmed they are working on more of these. So they're coming. But an overarching storyline? Well I've heard rumor that the "Athena Treasure" may be a late game story, so there's that. But I think having individual, canned, stories really screws up the dynamic of an open world PVP emergent game that it already is.

Now, chaining together more treasure hunts might be cool, or tracking down a mysterious monster using clues from multiple islands might be neat. But we've already got a taste of that from the Riddle quests, and I believe Rare has more on the way.

• Ghost Ships

While on the one hand, this sounds really cool. To be able to raid a skellie ship on the high seas, it does introduce the problem of A) too many ships on the sea where we lose the feeling of isolation that the game tries to create and, B) lost sense of danger knowing that not all the ships on the horizon are real & unpredictable players.

I think Rare has crafted a near-perfect PVP environment in SoT. Every ship scares the sh** out of you because you know it could be dangerous because a real, live person is in it. If you start adding roaming NPCs on the seas, you will lose that to a large extent. I guarantee it. The game then becomes your average trash mob grind. If mob grinding is your thing, we have a lot of other games for you to play.

• More ship/weapon/instrument/clothing customization

Again, these are confirmed as coming. But, how do these add any more real fundamental value? We already have this, just in smaller quantites.

• New regions to explore

I've thought it would be neat to have an ice region with floating ice bergs, killer whales, penguins and yetis. Or a volcanic region, or desert region with pyramids, etc.

While that all sounds amazing. Where would you put them? You can't stick in them in the middle of the current map unless you remove existing islands. Do you put them on the edge? If so, it would take too long to get there. Could you add a choice for players to pick a region to spawn in? If you do that, then people will start congregating in their favorite region and you lose the ability to find other players.

I like the idea of new regions, but I honestly can't see how you implement it without breaking the perfect balance already in the current world map, or at least making older regions obsolete or less interesting to play in.

.......

Anyway, I'm sure I've missed a couple ideas. But you get the point. The game really truly doesn't need much more. How about we just accept that Sea of Thieves is trying to be different? Have we become too accustomed to content, content, content, that when something comes along that tries to think outside the box, we scream and pout over it?

I am absolutely in love with Sea of Thieves because of the "emergent" content it provides through cooperation with your friends. I've not had this much fun in any coop game in years. Rare has facilitated an amazing playground for this type of game to flourish in and I am very grateful for that.

It doesn't need to be compared to Skyrim or The Witcher 3, or any other mega Rpg, thousand hour, content grind. It can be its own game and we can appreciate it for what it is. I know I am.

Yeah it would be very cool to have fishing 👍 pretty sure if they couldn’t find anyone to raid and the food ran out they were fishing 👍

@timidobserver said in It doesn't need more content:

You are asking yourself the wrong question. The main complaint you hear is lack of content. The correct questions to ask are:

1. Are many many people making the same complaint worth trying to keep around?
2. If we don't bother trying to keep them around, will the remaining players be enough to sustain the game?

No, and Yes.

I remember when this one guy named Markus Perssons made a few million literally overnight by making this shallow game with 6 enemy npcs, 10 blocks, and 4 basic tools.

I also remember this game called No Man's Sky with 100 billion unique planets that went nowhere.

@timidobserver said in It doesn't need more content:

You are asking yourself the wrong question. The main complaint you hear is lack of content. The correct questions to ask are:

1. Are many many people making the same complaint worth trying to keep around?
2. If we don't bother trying to keep them around, will the remaining players be enough to sustain the game?

I'd love to hear what your grand suggestions are for content that really make this game better.

You are fundamentally and categorically wrong.

Wanting the game to have more content to make the world feel more alive isn't a bad thing.

In it's current state the game is very bare bones and lacking. The world feels completely empty a majority of the time and performing the same fetch quests over and over again is not exhilerating gameplay. The occasional occurence where you get to take on other players is fun, but eventually if things don't change people will get bored of the game and stop playing.

Not to mention every point your tearing down you're clearly misinterpeting. What makes you think pirates didn't fish? Most of them were ex sailors, merchants, and fisherman. The merchant ships for example would be ai controlled, to raid like pirates do. And the ghost ships wouldnt have to be ever present. They could be a random event that rolls in with a storm or in the dead of night.

I'm currently having the same issue I had with the new kirby game. I've experienced everything it has to offer in a little over a day. That's poor design, plain and simple.

I'm enjoying the game, I really am, but I'm not blind to the fact that it needs some substantial improvements. To think what we have is perfectly fine is kind of absurd.

@ilumino You're assuming that the content people want is bland and pointless. Some of what you mention helps facilitate the role playing they're so desperately trying to float this game on. Unfortunately, while they have a framework here, the actual game they've tried to build upon it is already just bland, pointless, and largely non-thematic. That's what's disappointing a lot of people and why people are looking for content that makes the game feel more purposeful.

I agree with some of your points. We don't need a central storyline since the game isn't an MMO or story-based game. It's not supposed to be a single player adventure, so it shouldn't center on any particular character's journey. That doesn't mean, however, that there can't be some story injected into the world so it doesn't just feel like a bland bunch of uninhabited islands with a few scattered outposts. Working new environments and unique experiences into the existing map is fine, it doesn't need to be expanded for that. If that means replacing areas or islands already on the map, so be it.

Overhauling the voyages so they aren't just simple fetch quests, but evolve into multi-step adventures as you advance with the factions could add a lot of theme and content to the game without changing the fundamental core of how the game plays. It could also give islands more personality and create familiarity with the players and generate interest in learning more about the world the game takes place in.

@blam320 said in It doesn't need more content:

99% of this argument is the extreme opposite of the "This game's too shallow and has no content IT SUCKS!"

@Ilumino Dude, whether you like it or not the game's going to expand outward and upward with brand new content, some you might take a liking to and some you might not.

Fishing was a huge part of life in the Caribbean. I know pirates are thieves and all, but adding a fishing net for people who want to go the more merchant route would be rather interesting, and add more depth to the Ocean and to the Merchant's Alliance.

NPC Merchant ships I agree, but for different reasons. The theme is supposed to be somewhere off-the-map with little established; merchant ships wouldn't bother coming by.

New ocean life improves the game by making the world feel more alive; hostile merfolk have been all-but-confirmed, as to add a new danger to the seas. Not only that, but Sea Serpents and other monsters besides the Kraken should be added.

Pets are going to be fully interact-able and provide something else you can do while on a long voyage. Besides, what self-respecting pirate doesn't have a monkey or parrot?

Variation on ships and weapons should lean towards skins. Though everyone wants an intermediate ship for 2-3 man crews and a very large ship for 6-8 man crews. The former for ease of transition down and up, the latter to make it easier for large groups of friends to play together.

More quests are coming, yes. Linear storyline I'm also against.

Ghost ships are you kidding me? Those would be sweet! The game isn't trying to create a feeling of isolation, dummy. If anything, having a ghost ship appear on the horizon would make you watch your back even more, especially if it's an extremely difficult world boss.

More cosmetics is never a bad thing. It adds variety. We're also getting a drum and a fiddle later.

RARE is going to be expanding the map over time, or changing existing regions as part of events.

Otherwise, how is Sea of Thieves supposed to be a game-as-service if it's not constantly improving itself and making changes to stay relevant?

Whether you like it or not, adding all of your suggested content will not fundamentally make this a better game.

This game isn't a 17th century Caribbean simulator. It's not suppose to accurately reflect life in the 17th century. It's a reflection on the romantic vision of pirates, a la Hollywood and fantasy novella.

It's an abstract vision of piracy. In that vision, pirates Do not sitting around fishing. Get it? And, again, fishing is not content, it's cosmetic. It really adds nothing to the game other than a short diversion like drinking in the tavern.

On pets. First of all, there are no long voyages in this game. So that's a moot point. But, again I ask, what pets besides monkeys and parrots would there be?

Hostile merfolk would be super lame. Pirates killing mermaids? Really? What pirate book or film does that happen? Traditionally mermaids were simply for pirates to fantasize over while being on long voyages without women, not enemies to fight.

Ship skins are already in the game, and more are coming. It still doesn't add much to the game. Next.

Npc Ghost ships would be interesting if very rare, but more of a grindy, canned nuisance than anything. Just like any other game with aggroing mobs to deal with. Please, Rare, do not add roaming MMO style trash mobs to this game. Don't listen to the r*****s.

@caelumnl said in It doesn't need more content:

@ilumino

Ask yourself this: With the game in its current form, do you think you can get 1000 hours gameplay out of this. A real sandbox game should be able to. ARK easily did it for me, GTA online in it's first itteration could. Seven days could do it. And ARK and 7 days weren't even done. Also didn't cost 70 euro, more in the direction of 17. This game in it's current, "full" form won't be able to get me to put 1000+ hours in.

Why in the F do I need to get 1000 hours out of a game for it to be a good game? Please, enlighten me. That's the most ridiculous comment I've heard all day.

Secondly, I was able to get 2000 hours out of a game like Battlefield or Battlefront with just a handful of maps because the PVP was so much fun.

CONTENT != QUALITY.

@isukun said in It doesn't need more content:

@ilumino You're assuming that the content people want is bland and pointless. Some of what you mention helps facilitate the role playing they're so desperately trying to float this game on. Unfortunately, while they have a framework here, the actual game they've tried to build upon it is already just bland, pointless, and largely non-thematic. That's what's disappointing a lot of people and why people are looking for content that makes the game feel more purposeful.

I agree with some of your points. We don't need a central storyline since the game isn't an MMO or story-based game. It's not supposed to be a single player adventure, so it shouldn't center on any particular character's journey. That doesn't mean, however, that there can't be some story injected into the world so it doesn't just feel like a bland bunch of uninhabited islands with a few scattered outposts. Working new environments and unique experiences into the existing map is fine, it doesn't need to be expanded for that. If that means replacing areas or islands already on the map, so be it.

Overhauling the voyages so they aren't just simple fetch quests, but evolve into multi-step adventures as you advance with the factions could add a lot of theme and content to the game without changing the fundamental core of how the game plays. It could also give islands more personality and create familiarity with the players and generate interest in learning more about the world the game takes place in.

I can't disagree with you more. The game is anything but bland and pointless. What you're missing is that the story of this game is in the emergent game-play. It happens randomly and organically when players work together and random stuff happens.

Many voyages are already multi-step adventures. Riddle quests have multiple steps, and many treasure hunt quests involve multiple islands. So I don't know what game you're playing.

Here's how my play session went last night:

My crew traveled to 3 different islands in search of buried treasure for a single quest. On one of these islands we found a message bottle which took us to another island with 3 skeleton bosses we had to kill. We saw skeletons there that we had never seen before. The bosses were so hard, we decided to get back in our ship, and pummel them with cannon.

After we took off to go back to finishing the treasure hunting mission, we got caught in a storm. We lost control and crashed into an island. After trying desperately to repair the hull and bail water, I ran up to the deck only to find another galleon barreling right into our ship.

We had loaded up with cannonballs and began returning fire. They're players began boarding our ship and a fierce hand-to-hand battle ensued. We were able to kill their leader, but the rest of the crew fled on their ship. While still taking water, we chase them only to run back into the same storm. We lost hope and sank, along with our coveted loot.

That was our "quest". Not the one that the Npcs gave us, but the amazing, emergent adventure that we experienced and that the game facilitated. To me, that type of "Content" is far more interesting, fun, and deep than pet monkeys, dolphins, or boring RNG fishing mini games.

I'll take that adventure a million times over your bullsh** content.

@ilumino Content isn't quality, but the problem you seem to be missing is that the content that IS here isn't quality, either. Most of the suggestions are looking to either add more thematic things to do (and yes I have seen romanticized pirates fish) or get or are looking for more game-generated experiences that keep the game fresh.

Why would anyone want to put 1000 hours into the game? Because it's the kind of game that is meant to keep your interest long term. That's much harder to do when it's entirely up to the player to figure out how to make the game fun. It's like locking a kid in an empty room and telling them to use their imagination to have fun. Odds are, you're going to find an incredibly bored kid in there in an hour. Throw in a toybox and you get a different outcome. People need entry points to spark their imagination and the game in its current state doesn't offer many.

@timidobserver said in It doesn't need more content:

@ilumino I am not a video game developer. I don't have access to Rare's statistics. I have no idea what would make the game more successful. All I can say is what will keep me around longer.

1. Appeal to a Wider Audience: I would have tried to do something similar to Ark. Ark has a lot of server types that allow players to decide how they want to play the game. It would be an easy way to satisfy the groups that want safe zones, functional rewards, no PvP, more rewards for PvP, ect. With this approach the only unhappy people are people the are only happy when they are forcing others to conform.

2. More Content: There needs to be a lot more stuff to do. Skull island is a great first step. The game needs more activities that are not fetch quests.

Well I'm a statistic for you. I haven't purchased a game on release date for full price in at least 10 years, but I did for SoT. The reason is because I can't stand games like ARK. They are boring grind fests. I don't have time for it, I have two jobs, four kids and a lot of responsibilty.

Rare has made new customers in people like me. The may be making some gamers angry because SoT isn't like all the other hardcore investment games like ARK. But while those people are unhappy, new customers are here.

You like ARK, great. Go play it and it's 10,000 clones. But what other option do people like me have to go to that's just like Sea of Thieves? Nobody can argue it's highly unique.

Stop telling me I have to import and like games that you like into games that I like. I think SoT is awesome, and EXACTLY what it should be RIGHT now.

@isukun said in It doesn't need more content:

@ilumino Content isn't quality, but the problem you seem to be missing is that the content that IS here isn't quality, either. Most of the suggestions are looking to either add more thematic things to do (and yes I have seen romanticized pirates fish) or get or are looking for more game-generated experiences that keep the game fresh.

Why would anyone want to put 1000 hours into the game? Because it's the kind of game that is meant to keep your interest long term. That's much harder to do when it's entirely up to the player to figure out how to make the game fun. It's like locking a kid in an empty room and telling them to use their imagination to have fun. Odds are, you're going to find an incredibly bored kid in there in an hour. Throw in a toybox and you get a different outcome. People need entry points to spark their imagination and the game in its current state doesn't offer many.

Again. Why do I need to put 1000 hours into a game? Why? Please tell me. Is that some kind of law? That a game must be 1000 hours of things to do for it to be fun?

That is complete and utter BS. Stop judging this on the merits of all the other giant RPGs.

@ilumino said in It doesn't need more content:

Again. Why do I need to put 1000 hours into a game? Why? Please tell me. Is that some kind of law? That a game must be 1000 hours of things to do for it to be fun?

That is complete and utter BS. Stop judging this on the merits of all the other giant RPGs.

I'm judging based on the merits of other online sandbox games. The success of these games is measured by how long they keep your interest. If you want a thriving community that needs to be more than ten hours. Maybe you need to start looking at what kind of game you're defending.