Sea of thieves player reward problem and gameplay loop

  • VanCrio
    Castaway

    Hello everyone,

    I will be honest with you guys. Sea of Thieves for me is such a wasted potential. I have 4 friends who tried the game and find it boring after a few hours. After playing some time, Iam not surprised. I don't see any sense of progression. Its flat like a board. I don't have any motivation to get lvls and know more about this game, since rewards are mostly only cosmetic (or am I missing something?). I understand that it has to give all people a fair chance, but still I don't see any point in getting better, since I will be always in the line with newer players. Yes, you can be better with knowledge of the game mechanics ets. but it is not enough to keep people for long. I think that Planetside 2 is a good example of good balance and fair chance for every player, be it new or veteran without sacrificing a meaningfull upgrade progression.

    I think that its a major problem, since people are dropping the game after a few hours, coz they can't see a clear goal of the game in the first place. I would propose to indroduce a more meaningfull progression path, which in some cases might give a slight edge but not completely break the game.

    What do you guys think?

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  • D3ADST1CK
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    The game has been going for 2 years now and has only increased in player count. I would say the lack of vertical progression is working well.

  • BurnBacon
    Vanguard
    Insider

    Lack of vision and what a player wants.

    My goal and vision, play a pirate game and make random friends or enemies while telling my own story.

    Some people are not cut out to be a pirate

  • ENF0RCER
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @vancrio

    Its an adventure game inside a pvp arena there is no clear goal. The goal is what you make it thats the point. I suggest you complete the Shore of gold TT and listen closely to what the PL has to say.

    The ramdom encounters, the discovery of secrets and the player to player interactions is the fun of this game. It's not to full fill a power fantasy. You don't play cause you unlocked some kind of advantage that you can lord over others. It's a Skill based game. The only thing that matters is your knowlage and profiency.

    Make your own story and leave your mark on the world of SoT and become a True Legend.

  • Odyssee mit Tee
    Sailor

    @vancrio sagte in Sea of thieves player reward problem and gameplay loop:

    but still I don't see any point in getting better, since I will be always in the line with newer players

    You will have "more" cosmetics as others but I know what you mean.
    Well this game has some interesting aspects but yeah it is very repetitive.
    Currently I cannot even play for like... 2 hours anymore.

    Pretty much at a low right now. There is nothing in the game I really want cosmetic wise and the hunt for "profitable" PvP is annoying as fish.

    There are cosmetics I want in the game right now. Damn do I want them.
    But they are behind a wall now called timegated.
    This is so stupid. So grog damn stupid.

    It just doesn't make any sense but to stroke the ego of people who did the right thing at the right time and Rare seemingly knows after all, what players truly want.
    Most of the timegated stuff looks pretty amazing.
    But I really want the Wailing Barnacle Shipskins.

    And I just can't get them. I would endure any hellish grind for it.
    But I can't even do it. ^_^ Cause its unavailable. °sigh°
    But then I get a good laugh out of today since I got the apology-compensation money from Rare while I have not played so much in the last weeks.

    Oh well - my condolences for those who really lost progress.
    I am not one of them tho.
    Apathy and Depression withheld me from the game currently, hahahaha! xD

  • KaiJoi
    Castaway
    Insider

    @vancrio

    Sea of thieves can be boring, especially at the later stages once you've gotten all the levels. Especially now with the emissary system you can easily get 50/50/50/10 in a matter of weeks. If you're getting bored with the PVE side of things, what most players who have played this game for 2 years do when they get bored is steal loot.

    If you want to steal loot quickly without having to search for to long, go to closed crew with your friends, and have all of you search in seperate servers until you find a ship with the Reaper's emissary flag. Reason being because you know exactly where they are on the map, and can track them. You could also try and find gold hoarder, order of souls, or merchant alliance emissary flag ships, but you can't see them on the map so it could take longer.

    Sea of Thieves has PVE and PVP, when you get bored of one swap to the other.

  • VanCrio
    Castaway

    The other thing is, that when you look at it, the game has a lot of skins and not much "flesh" and variety behind it. There are only a handful of weapons, which get boring quite fast. You cant substantialy modify your ship and truly make it you own, only slap some colors or a figurehead. That is another thing that bothers me, there are a lot of good mechanics that I like (especially in terms of ship managment) but there are extremely limited and not expanded upon, making the game repetitive and boring in a short time. (at least for me) The possibility of having good time in Sea of Thieves is very dependant on finding a good and friendly crew, which is hard.

    I understand that the game population is groving, but how many of those people stay for longer? Another thing that there is a major pop surplus coz of Game Pass being extremely cheap in the first month.

    More weapon variety and deeper ship customization would give more motivation to grind.
    What do you guys think?

  • CotU42
    Lord
    Insider

    @vancrio

    Most people play games because they are enjoying themselves for which you don't need vertical progression.

    A vertical progression system can motivate people to play, but it is not the only way to motivate people to play a game for longer periods of time. Additionally at some point people will max out, this is what is known as end game.

    On the seas everyone is equal and elevated to end game state at the start. Many games struggle to maintain the players that hit this stage, because they relied on the progression system, the leveling experience to entice them to come back - many games have a great leveling experience. PvP is one of the most used aspects to keep people to play long term and the addition of end game content, which on the seas is nearly all of the content. We got the maiden voyage and scaling voyages that are there to help out the new players.

    Therefore no, there is no need for a vertical progression system and those that need it to keep playing will eventually leave once they finish the process. It might be after 2 hours, 20 hours or a couple of days of play time based on the game, but in every game the vertical progression comes to an halt at some point and then the question is are you still enjoying it or not for what it has to offer aside of the leveling experience.

    Don't get me wrong vertical progression systems are not bad by definition and can provide tons of fun and create a great way to introduce systems and such to players, but it is not a requirement for every game either.

    Sea of Thieves is by design not including these systems, it is one of its attractions for people and might be a deterrent for others. It isn't a problem, it just is a decision that has been made.

  • VanCrio
    Castaway

    @cotu42

    You are right. In my opinion, vertical progression is not needed, if you have variety. For me there is very little variety in Sea of Thieves, beside player driven actions. As I said before, weapon variety, ship variety. Right now there is like 3 ship types, 4 weapon types and thats it. Everything else are just reskins. Nothing else.

    Its just not compelling for me and apparently all of my friends. Its sad, beacause the graphics, ship mechanics and overall gamelpay is awesome and has so much potential, and I would like to play this game more, but I just can't get myself to do it.

    If you have a good time thats great. Just writing my thoughts. :)

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