The Problem With Cosmetic Progression

@reirdon I really liked your post until I got to the very end :(

@cpt-peach-beard

Sadly, that is exactly how I feel.

I got the same hull and was worried for a moment at the orange, but then I moved into the actual sunny side of the map, and realize it was only the lighting.

While it definitely takes a galleon to truely appreciate the yellow and black, the sloop looks great as well in the sun.

@reirdon i also bought a hat, and some clothes i didn't like, 'cause didn't look that good on my character...but it doesn't matter...i wanna own every piece there is anyway, so

@verminpup said in The Problem With Cosmetic Progression:

I got the same hull and was worried for a moment at the orange, but then I moved into the actual sunny side of the map, and realize it was only the lighting.

While it definitely takes a galleon to truely appreciate the yellow and black, the sloop looks great as well in the sun.

that reminds me, the feathers on the sovereign hats are silver and gold but they reflect light and change color all the time

@verminpup

Ok, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but let me ask you 2 things.

1. If the point of the game is to collect prettier things, and they make you grind a LONG time to get them, and grinding is the only way to get them, shouldn't you be able to see what you are grinding for before you spend your time and gold?

2. Does it look TWICE as cool as any other skin, or did they make you grind a twice as long for a pallet swap that has no unique or special qualities, just orange trim instead of gold?

Removing the subjective opinion about whether you do or do not like the orange, is the differentiation between the Sovereign Hull twice as cool. Does it look like they are rewarding you with the "best of the best" this amazing art team could imagine to reward you for twice the effort, or does it look like they just took the Sovereign Hull and made the trim orange instead of gold.

If there was a refund button, I would hit it and p**p my wardrobe out, but there isn't.

There is evidence that cosmetic progression can be enough incentive to play a game. Fortnite, for example. People pay real money to buy the cosmetic 'upgrades' they choose.

I think the reason it feels worse in Sea of Thieves is the grind it takes to earn enough gold to 'upgrade', coupled with having no way to preview those cosmetics properly.

@reirdon said in The Problem With Cosmetic Progression:

@verminpup

Ok, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but let me ask you 2 things.

1. If the point of the game is to collect prettier things, and they make you grind a LONG time to get them, and grinding is the only way to get them, shouldn't you be able to see what you are grinding for before you spend your time and gold?

2. Does it look TWICE as cool as any other skin, or did they make you grind a twice as long for a pallet swap that has no unique or special qualities, just orange trim instead of gold?

Removing the subjective opinion about whether you do or do not like the orange, is the differentiation between the Sovereign Hull twice as cool. Does it look like they are rewarding you with the "best of the best" this amazing art team could imagine to reward you for twice the effort, or does it look like they just took the Sovereign Hull and made the trim orange instead of gold.

If there was a refund button, I would hit it and p**p my wardrobe out, but there isn't.

I got my hull a few days ago, it was my first big purchase. Otherwise I've only bought some clothes to make my character appealing to me.

As such, I must say, I haven't grinded. I have played since launch and only for fun. I set myself a goal to buy things I like, but I do not "grind" for it. I do not try to abuse merchant quest flaws, or find ways to make gains faster.

I simply play with crews I like and have a good time. When I have enough money, I buy it, and it is worth it.

And is it prettier than the other ones, HELL YES.

@scrub-toaster

"I agreeeee with that"

I'm sure that soon enough, there will be a very complete wiki page with photos of all the unlockable items.

@blam320

I never said that Cosmetic Progression as a concept is bad.

It is just very poorly planned and implemented in this game, especially for a game that utilizes it for its only sense of progression.

Secondly, people play for many different motives and find purpose is different things.

I am always amazed when you post that something about a game is not to your liking that somebody will always tell you that you like the wrong things, and make suggestions "You should try and enjoy the game the way I do".

If I find something about a title was not well thought out and is poorly implemented, it is an opinion for sure, but my complaint is not probably not rooted in that "I am playing it wrong".

@verminpup said in The Problem With Cosmetic Progression:

I'm sure that soon enough, there will be a very complete wiki page with photos of all the unlockable items.

Oh I looked, but for a $60 AA title should you have to go to a fan site to preview items? If cosmetics are the main reward, should you need to look elsewhere at any price?

@dj-deadscope said in The Problem With Cosmetic Progression:

@reirdon said in The Problem With Cosmetic Progression:

To be honest, it feels like much of this game, slapped together, last minute, just to have "something", and 140k for a paint job no more elaborate than one you can get for 70k is in perfect accord.

Price things high, so they have to grind a LONG time to get things, so they wont notice we have much, much more work to on end game and some semblance of a purpose.

That's all it is my man. Wither they want to admit it or not, they've priced things extremely high and have no reward progression system because at the end of the day the grind itself is all they have. There's no content so the only way to keep players busy is to have them do the same fetch quests over and over and over.

And that's a shame because SOT has the potential to be one of the greatest games in a long time. Will they add many of the awesome ideas the community has thrown out? Will they fix the games many bugs and system flaws? One can only hope. I personally don't think so. At least not quickly enough to stop the vast majority of players from leaving and not returning.

A resounding "AMEN" from the choir!

@uberkull said in The Problem With Cosmetic Progression:

The game should never have been first person.

Why in the world would you make a cosmetic progression game in first person? There is no
point for first person in this game. It is not a fps and its combat is barbie dream house simple, it could easily have been 3rd person.

That way we could see our dress up.

But given all the poor character model clipping and grossly disfigured joints, maybe they couldnt get 3rd person right. Just try turning the anchor wheel and look back while turning, your arms have no shoulders
...or how about those shoulder joints when u dance...or the dreds sinking into ur back...

Horizontal progression with cosmetic only wont last for more than 6 months regardless of new content. If the only goal is more gold to buy more skins, ppl will check out and move on. Imagination only goes so far...

I think you hit a very strong point here.

I would forgive the technical issues given the cartoon-ish art style, and you can see all the flaws in other characters anyways, but yes, 3rd person would have made this much better.

Not sure why they did it. It used to be a performance issue as it required the system to draw one less character, but with todays systems that can't be the issue.

I think it was a narrative decision. I think Rare underestimated or misunderstood how much looking at your character actually adds to the connection you have with it, and that ultimately that is more important than the bonus immersion achieved with first person.

It is pretty obvious that they missed this as you can not even design your own character.

@cpt-peach-beard said in The Problem With Cosmetic Progression:

@reirdon I really liked your post until I got to the very end :(

Same.

I do think we should be able to view what we're getting before we unload all of our hard-earned coin. One of the primary reasons I got the Admiral's Hull was bceause I had already seen it on a sloop and galleon, so I knew what I was getting.

@reirdon find a crew. I'm currently at 2.6 million gold earneed roughly. I own every single outfit in game, and i'm only missing 5 weapons. Next is all the add ons, then ill finish up with the 6 ship cosmetics i have left.

@mrbrocksego Yeah, the hit registration is too garbage for that. You would be laughed out of town trying to pass this heap off as an FPS.

@reirdon What would be really cool is if you got a real time preview; where you could actually use the cosmetic for a few minutes or so to see how it actually looks before buying.