How to keep players playing in multiplayer games at an efficient cost

@Droper666 I agree with your analysis, cost over content is a major achilles heel in this game. With no real end game or outline hook this game will struggle in keeping it's core player base. It may try to over come this by trying to widen it's base to everybody like fortnight. The issue here that seems to be the most devisive is the role of PvP in this game. It's seem there are a few adiment players who want this to be mostly a PvE game with a small PvP element and another group who want the exact oppsite. I alway felt it needs to have a balanced mixture of both. When this game launch both elements were under developed. Now mostly the PvE elements were improved. Still the PvP while slightly better then luanch still has glaring flaws but when these are address there are player that feel this would harm PvE and i find that rediculas as PvP is very easily avoidable in most cases. It's completly opportunistic style. Now some want a PvP arena which is already facilitated by the forts and soon skelly ships. Why not have designated zones at certian times for just PvP Duels? People keep arguing that the loot you get from the ship is the reward, its not. While it's nice it does'nt serve that function as the point of loot is to earn gold, which is insuffient way to earn gold to buy cosmetics which is the real reward. Cosmtics, commandations and titles are the real reward as they are there to show off your accomplishment as proof and serve as pieces in your story. None of the them do this and thats the key progression/hook in the game. So the question is what kind of PvP progression will the community accept. They said no to leader boards, no to ranks, no to bounties and no to cosmetics. I don't know what else is left. I'm sure come tomorrow there's going to be a big stink on the forum of the Cure Crew event for daring to give commendations for PvP.

An arbitrary +1 on a sword is not good game design for progression in a multiplayer game with an emphasis on player interaction/combat, yet this is basically your suggestion. From my understanding you consider that the game should cater more to pvp players by giving them better tools than everyone else as they progress through levels, and that would solve the game's inherent content problems? Is this a prank?

No, the design of this game is absolutely in conflic with that concept of power creep, you simply cannot expect a healthy pvp environment where players have inconsistent battles dependant on numerical advantagess coming from their tools. The game already struggless with balance problems with crossplay, it also has the unfortunate reality of uneven crews fighting one another, adding an arbitrary "progression" will only exorbitate the tenuous "balance" we have here.

The correct way of working on the content roadmap for SoT is by developing an engaging gameplay experience that accompanies the player in his journey from 0 to legend, by giving the player a good variety of activities to partake in, perhaps even allowing the player to gain access to different new things to do the more he progresses through the ranks. Instead of a boring boost to some atribute, the player himself feels more experienced and more capable than he was before, knowing tricks, world events, locations, landmarks, combat tactics... in short actual organic progression, and the variety in activities will keep them playing to see what more they can unlock once they become legends, which is also something that can come with its own miriad of new things to do and partake in, while all that happens PVP will occour, therefore the game should be building in new tools for players to experiment in combat so that every new encounter feels fresh due to a different strategy/approach/conflic/interest and so on.

It'ss not about catering to pvp or pve, its about building a game that has a strong foundation and on top of that foundation a deep gameplay experience that is unique to it, to make a memorable mark in the sandbox genre, a Rare game.

@admiral-rrrsole So you belive that pvp was never meant to be in this game. Thats interesting as i rembered clearly being marketed as a PvEvP game from the start. I must of missed something. So when excatly do you belived they added PvP in? If this indeed is the case then we do have a case of false advertising. I don't belive this to be thr case thou.

@urihamrayne I don't think @Droper666 was talking about characters stats for PvP. I think he was refering to player stats you know like the what the commedations do. He is right that some PvE'er want character progression to keep them intereated cause it fulfills the power fantisy and feeling of accomplishment which most PvE games cater to, while there is no such progression in PvP but were not talking about power creep for this element which would be cosmetics based only but is instead given to PvE grind. There no way to measure skill in this game in a game thats skill based. Every encounter with a enermy crew is a clean slate. Your rep means nothing to another player accept what quest that they can give you. There is know sense of accomplishment if the grind is just a representation of how much time you put in. Not what challenging feats you accomplished. Also theres no way of making your mark in this game without going to 3rd party sources like mixer/YouTube, Reddit etc...

Just to say.
I hate any progression and i love SoT because it is like it is, only horizontal progression about cosmetics.
Change it and i'll instantly leave.
The other thing is pvp 's purpose is to create some tension in every (pve) situation and to maybe make the life on the seas a dangerous life.
This game is about playing a game and not gaming the system.