Suggestions on XP, rewards and battles within Season 8

  • Dumbzilla7249
    Captain
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    Sea of Thieves is a great game and I truly feel like the devs care about their product. I hope some of my suggestions could help and improve Season 8 somewhat.

    Suggestions
    (1). Sea of Thieves is not a competitive game (although having competitive elements) and should not try to be one. My point is that everyone should be, and feel like, a winner. Sinking should feel just as rewarding. I'd suggest an increase the amount of XP gained to, lets say, 80% of the XP gained when you would win.

    (2). Sea of Thieves could incorporate NPC battles into the matchmaking. Think of multiple skeleton ships when sailing for Athena and something like a phantom ship to combat the Reapers. This does mean that the AI need a bit of an overhaul.
    This change could also make it possible for players to gain rewards for their respective faction whilst battling formiddable foes without having to deal with long queue times. I'd think this is even necessary evil when more and more people stop playing PvP.

    (3). I'd love to suggest keeping all the supplies that are within the barrels at the time of sinking but also rewarding the enemy crew with fresh supplies. Another solution to get people to PvP faster and having to spend less time looting is implementing temporary supplies within the barrels.

    Edit: third point is scrapped and replaced as people corrected me. (I have no clue why people shouldn't be able to rejoin when having been disconnected, left or crashed as many other games implement such feature)

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  • Dragotech123
    Commander
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    Founder

    I agree. And I know people are going to tell you that the system is fine as it is, that none of this suggestions would work, that it devalues the curses, that the rewards are not meant for everyone and so on.

    I agree with you because you said something that I believe is true, Sea of Thieves is not a competitive game. PvP is fun and enjoyable for many players, but it is not meant to be a super competitive game as it has so many differences from traditional PvP games that are competitive or has the potemtial of being competitive.

    PvP is mostly considered: sink the enmy ship. There is no Team Deathmatch where there is a kill count, there is no objective to stand or point to capture, there is no scorting an item or break something while the other team defends. The objective of PvP is almost always sink an enemy ship, this means ships are objectives that need to be attacked, but unlike many other games you can repair that objective and restore it to full health (planks and buckets), it also is the spawn point, so in order to prevent repairs you need to spawncamp the enemy ship to protect the holes and let the water fill the hull. Resources may vary from one crew to another. Number of crew members may vary from ship to ship so not all fights are even. There are so many differences that makes PvP unique compared to other games, but that also means it is not suited for competitive playstyle.

    The closest it had to be competitive was Arena since crews had to be equal in number with same ammount of starting supplies and had the same objective.

  • CuzImVace3388
    Seafarer
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    I see your Point and the new Hourglass PvP really needs some changes.

    But I think that 1) for example is not really that needed. PvP is a learning curve like all Games. You win a tough fight: You learned some tricks and successfully used them. You lose a tough fight: You can learn what did you wrong and coordinate better next time. You lost your Streak, and did not get that much XP but you can try again. I think an 80% XP reward for loosing is way to high. Just loose 150 games and you are 100 without even engage in PvP. No learning curve and no „feeling like a winner“. The new Factions are about showing off your Talent in PvP. Not in exploiting the big XP gain through losses. And it doesn’t make the game Competitive because you don’t have to do it. Like Arena its something you don’t have to do ever. But the PvP aspect is also in the Normal game, when a reaper hunts you down and steals your loot. Its Sea of THIEVES, a game of Pirates.

    Now the 2). I don’t really know what you mean by that but if we say for example if you voted for the Athena hourglass and destroy Skeleton ships maybe some XP would be cool, also when selling stuff while the risk of getting caught with the Hourglass should give a very little amount of XP. But only when you got the loot while having the Hourglass.
    Matchmaking WITH PvE ships on the other hand is not what its intended purpose is. Its PvP matchmaking not another PvE event.

    Now 3). When your game dies or crashes, you are able to rejoin. I testet it already multiple times and a friend crashed already a couple times in the loading screen. A Player that did not join while matchmaking and joined in the fight should not be allowed to PvP. You made a match without him, wait before you start the queue. Its no feature in other games where you can join a friend when you are in a ranked game. (I see the Hourglass PvP like ranked. You get XP and level up, for that you get better stuff = Ranks)

    That is absolutely my Opinion
    Have a great day.

  • KlutchxKay
    Champion
    Insider

    I don’t think the Losing XP should be increased, as that encourages losing your way up the ranks.

    However I strongly think that when you sink with a streak built up, you should be compensated at least half (maybe 2/3) of the XP stacked inside your hourglass. Many people are not using streaks at all because the risk of losing precious XP in return for a chance to earn even more the next win is not worth it to them.

    Afaik, your streak multiplier on XP caps at Champion Status. Meaning, starting at your fifth ship sunk and onward, the XP per individual sink is maxed out- you get the most XP per sink at 5 and beyond.

    The issue I have is that many people I know choose to lower their hourglass every 2 wins because of how painful it is to level up in this system for some folks, it discourages people from even attempting to go for a higher streak. And players have no guarantee that they’ll win the next match. What needs to happen is players who have a streak built up need to get some portion of the streak they risked when they lost. That’ll encourage folks to go for larger streaks than 4, because they’ll know, even if they lose it, they can get a good cut of the rewards. It hurts nobody and helps alleviate pain from loss, which should never be the goal of the game’s design.

  • Dumbzilla7249
    Captain
    Insider

    @klutchxking518 said in Suggestions on XP, rewards and battles within Season 8:

    I don’t think the Losing XP should be increased, as that encourages losing your way up the ranks.

    I see your point but it should be noted that people will always find a way to cheat the system. Gaining XP shouldn't just be from winning or losing a fight, it should also be gained from hitting the enemy ship, downing their mast, etc...

    However I strongly think that when you sink with a streak built up, you should be compensated at least half (maybe 2/3) of the XP stacked inside your hourglass. Many people are not using streaks at all because the risk of losing precious XP in return for a chance to earn even more the next win is not worth it to them.

    Agreed

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