Safer Sea, Going Forward?

Personally, they could add the entire high seas experience into safer seas and I wouldn't care. I'm proud of my skeleton curse and the hard fought battles I won to get it, and believe cosmetics like that are a good indicator of "oh damn this guy must be good" but at the end of the day nothing in this game offers an advantage over others it's all cosmetic.
That being said, safer seas is fine for a chilled session and I understand Rare wanting it to be a on boarding ramp to high seas rather than a replacement. People are missing out on the spirit of SOT by staying in safer seas, and will quickly become board once you know the islands and quests inside out and strip the social element.
Ss players should definitely be able to use captained ships etc but I understand why the majority of the playerbase wouldnt want earnable milestones or any high level gameplay easily farmable in a solo environment when they put in the hours and competition to get that done.
Going forward content will be added on a case by case basis to safer seas, according to Mike Chapman.

Remember what Rare have said about this, Safer Seas is to be used as an introductory area and for some chill sessions. It’s not designed to be lived in permanently as they want you to transition to High Seas, the way the game is intended to be played at its core, so the lack of certain features is very deliberate. Don’t expect changes any time soon, they’ve already compromised on introducing it in the first place.

@mopwieldinghedgehog said in Safer Sea, Going Forward?:

As for Safer Seas exclusive content - do please have a look/listen at the latest podcast where it is explained why exclusive content for Safer Seas will not be a thing moving forward.

To quote Mike Chapman:

The main thing for our players to takeaway, is that we see Safer Seas as the ramp, the doorway into Sea of Thieve's world, it isn't a separate mode in terms of it's going to develop separately, it is a way to get into that core SoT experience and in contrast to some lessons we learned over the years with something like Arena where the game diverges into two very different game mode and you're maintaining them both separately, we don't want to be in that position where Safer Seas has exclusive features.

I understand the discussion in the community around how this would be a great way to bring back adventures or do narrative content and we want the impetus and the encouragement to always be playing on the high seas but if you play safer seas and you never make that leap that's okay, hopefully you're still going to have a magical SoT experience and that's great, but if you love the game you want to play it long term there's enough incentive to make the jump to high seas which is the main way to play.*

Great podcast all around too, great insight on many things from the devs!

@sombermako

If players get tired of SS, they have a choice: go to HS or remain in SS. It's not a PvE server for people to stay, invite other friends with multiple ships and stack FotD.

This is how the game is. It's like how WoW provides the best gear/weapons only for those who mythic raid. SS is an extension of the Maiden tutorial, nothing more. We were all new at one point (without SS), got sunk a lot, and still continued moving forward learning tips, tricks, and strategies.

@sombermako said in Safer Sea, Going Forward?:

My guess here is Microsoft has pressured them into the game-mode (rightfully so) as all dev interactions and statements are very blatantly aggressive towards the community feedback on improving SS.

Not all interactions on Safer Seas feedback are "blatantly aggressive" from the dev/mod team. Seems like it's only the feedback that asks for the devs to change the intended function of the mode into something else. And those posts only started getting swatted down hardcore after it was made clear that the vision of Safer Seas wouldn't be compromised, and people persisted with the same exact feedback ad nauseum.

If you listen to the devs, the "pathetic funnel" you reference is the main point of Safer Seas. I've seen you use that verbiage in multiple places on the forum now. Simply saying it's pathetic doesn't make it so.......I believe the vision is fine.

We get that it isn't the complete design overall that some people were hoping Rare would covertly slip in (regardless of all their communication to the contrary). But playing victim like you're feedback is being aggressively shut down out of nowhere is disingenuous.

@sombermako said in Safer Sea, Going Forward?:

@habiki

Every thread that's a promotion of Safer Seas and a plea for improvement is locked almost as fast as it's up.

If that's not aggressive retaliation, idk what is...

Rare is just another AAA studio who is trying to force gamers into their narrow-minded niche vision of how their game should be played. And while it's their game and that's fine, there's a MASSIVE number of gamers maligned by the PvEvP design.

Like I said before, I ONLY believe Safer Seas exists because of third party market researchers from Microsoft. SoT devs most definitely do not desire long term piracy (or success) in the game-mode. That is beyond obvious given the limitations and narrow opportunities it offers.

These PVE gamers who aren't going to stay because of SS's limitations are potential profits, and Rare can either continue to ignore them, or invest in them. Feedback from these individuals shouldn't be aggressively tuned out and shut down by the devs, yet it has been thus far.

As a returning player who's waited 4 years for 'PVE Only' it's incredibly disheartening to observe the aggressively negative and borderline hostile interactions Devs have had with Safer Seas proponents. They can continue tooting the horn of "Our intended design..." but that isn't going to create player retention.

Safer Seas is bad. It's a bad segway to High Seas, and it's incredibly disrespectful to the time and effort players input to the game. At it's best it's a place to complete Tall Tales and their associated commendations. Beyond that it serves no purpose and is a waste of any gamer's time. Which is honestly a shame given the potential this franchise has always had.

Question……?

How is Rare forcing you to play the game in a narrow minded fashion of their choosing, when you LITERALLY want to make the game even more narrow minded, i.e. PVE only

It would seem that Rare is actually encouraging you to play in different styles
It would also seem that for those of you that all paid sooo much money for this game that you would be getting more content by the expanded world vs a PVE only environment.

And before the next argument of “I bought the game so rare should expand their audience base”….. so when you buy a cheeseburger do you ever try to return it because it isn’t ice cream? You don’t get to buy things and then upon receiving what was promised be upset and demand that the company meets YOUR expectations. I don’t know what happened since SS has come out but the entitlement of people in these forums demanding Rare make the game as they see it is insane

@sombermako you speak of keeping players around long term and yet you say you left for 4 years. I have been playing since April 2018 and it’s the main game I play. Soooooo who should the devs be marketing to? The players who’ve stuck around to make to game great and fun or the people that log in once every four years and find something new to complain about before leaving again.

Like why demand changes to a game that you don’t play? Be honest IF those changes happened how much more would you play? A month? Two and then you leave again. You are entitled to your opinion, but it’s a really hard one to follow my friend.

@sombermako I’ve gone over this daily. Here we go again

The game needs to have multiple types of players to truly thrive. An all PVP server has no reason to truly exist and would fizzle in about 2 weeks. An all PVE server would get old as you’d never lose and the game eventually turns into a sailing simulator. The pvpve people need both of the later to survive in the game as well.

Without the people whom care only about the loot, people like myself who like the pvpve aspect would have no one to tuck on and attempt to steal from. I already heard your eyes roll just wait. The come the pvp only player who don’t care about the loot anymore and will just dumpster you because. You see the pvpve players like and need them too and we will fight them to protect the PVE lords loot so that we can get a chance to steal it. Now back to the PVE lords, do they become prey yes, do they always lose? NO! Also think back to how hyped you and the crew were when you SMASHED someone trying to take your treasure!!!
THAT is the feeling that the game is about!

The main problem with safer seas is that it is splitting the community and playerbase. The more features you add to SS, the more people will play it vs HS.

The entire game is built around risk vs reward and player interaction. When you take away that risk, the games systems fall apart, achievements become hollow, content is burned through faster, and ultimatly people's full time spent with the game will decrease (for the majority of folks)

Hourglass already removed a huge chunk of the PvP threat from the PvE experience, with most pvp players engaged in HG. HG also pays out FAR too much gold, removing the need or real desire to steal PvE players treasure other than just for giggles.

Defending in HG is broken as far as downtime between invasions goes, further disincentivising HG players from stealing or hoarding PvE loot.

Im rambling a bit, but my point is with a large reduction in the overall PvP theeat already, I truly do not see any reason to use SS other than for its purpose; training wheels for new/younger players or just vibing.

SomberMako,

Look, I get it. I was new to the game once, I'll never forget it. I was with a random player, didn't know how to type or talk in game, and we were sailing after a red flag with 5 marks on it. We go over to them, they board us, and I'm standing there not knowing what to do, when one of them says, "What are you noobs doing, trying to attack us with just some bananas?" I'm dead. I was livid, because I didn't know if those bananas were all I had in the game. I had to get them back, but was never able to catch them.

I didn't play for a few days, as I was angry. Then I discovered videos and guides on YouTube, watched Phuzzybond, and started thinking about strategies. Everytime I was done playing, a friend and I would do orbits around forts practicing cannons until we had nothing more to shoot. It got to where I sunk daily, to where I sunk weekly. I was getting better and didn't realize it. Every sink taught me a lesson. Players taught me what to watch out for (admittedly the hard way). And I started fighting back, and getting better. I can't post the link here, but you should YouTube the scene "500 fights," from the movie Knockaround Guys, and listen to the speech from Vin Diesel, because it's very true. You get better at PvP/defending your loot if you know how to fight back/defend.

This game is what it is. My first 5min wasn't nice for me, but I never ran to the forums demanding they create a PvE server, accusing devs of forcing me to play the way they want, etc. If you develop defense tactics and strategies, you can still play however you want, regardless of what your opponent wants.

PvE servers just don't work for the type of game this is. Imagine you have a PvE server of 5 ships, what's to stop someone from boarding and stealing your loot? Naturally Rare is going to lock, sigh, yet another thread on the topic because the community and Rare have answered them ad nauseam at this point.

@sombermako said in Safer Sea, Going Forward?:

@habiki

Every thread that's a promotion of Safer Seas and a plea for improvement is locked almost as fast as it's up.

If that's not aggressive retaliation, idk what is...

Rare is just another AAA studio who is trying to force gamers into their narrow-minded niche vision of how their game should be played. And while it's their game and that's fine, there's a MASSIVE number of gamers maligned by the PvEvP design.

Like I said before, I ONLY believe Safer Seas exists because of third party market researchers from Microsoft. SoT devs most definitely do not desire long term piracy (or success) in the game-mode. That is beyond obvious given the limitations and narrow opportunities it offers.

These PVE gamers who aren't going to stay because of SS's limitations are potential profits, and Rare can either continue to ignore them, or invest in them. Feedback from these individuals shouldn't be aggressively tuned out and shut down by the devs, yet it has been thus far.

As a returning player who's waited 4 years for 'PVE Only' it's incredibly disheartening to observe the aggressively negative and borderline hostile interactions Devs have had with Safer Seas proponents. They can continue tooting the horn of "Our intended design..." but that isn't going to create player retention.

Safer Seas is bad. It's a bad segway to High Seas, and it's incredibly disrespectful to the time and effort players input to the game. At it's best it's a place to complete Tall Tales and their associated commendations. Beyond that it serves no purpose and is a waste of any gamer's time. Which is honestly a shame given the potential this franchise has always had.

It doesn't seem like we're going to find any common ground here. I explained why certain threads being locked isn't "aggressive retaliation", but you chose to completely ignore what I said and simply restated your original position like we hadn't already swapped thoughts on it........

Your argument seems to boil down to this: there's money being left on the table, and if Rare would only compromise on their tentpole design tenets, they could reap some additional profits. This compromise would involve developing a completely separate gamemode a la Arena, but it would cater to specifically to gamers who want a 1:1 PvE SoT experience. You argue that this would bring back players like you who, for the past four years, have boycotted the game.

This line of thinking willfully ignores the fact that implementing such a mode runs counter to the entire objective of SoT. It doesn't address the potential cost of alienating existing players who have stuck around and supported this game for the last six years, all to chase a potential audience that left along ago.

It doesn't address how this would be a complete about-face and betrayal from the devs to their core audience, breaking years of trust.

Since Arena's retirement, pretty much everything Rare's implemented has been in service of Adventure mode (what we're now calling the High Seas experience). Even hourglass, as odd as that sounds. Just last night my crew and I were on High Seas as a reaper 5 and crashed an hourglass battle happening next to the repairs hideout. We voted up Servants of the Flame, jumped in, and left with three or four flags for our trouble. Then right as we sold the flags, we got invaded and won that fight too.

Similarly, Safer Seas ultimately exists in service of High Seas as well.

I suppose in summary my stance on your position is this.......

chasing an expanded audience isn't always worth it if it forces you to compromise too far on your artistic vision.

Respectfully, if you can't find a way to enjoy SoT without a pure PvE mode then this just may not be the game for you.

@sombermako said in Safer Sea, Going Forward?:

They're trying to tank the sustainability of SS permanently.

My guess here is Microsoft has pressured them into the game-mode (rightfully so) as all dev interactions and statements are very blatantly aggressive towards the community feedback on improving SS.

But as of now, SS will remain a pathetic funnel into High Seas.

Until Microsoft steps in again and tells them they need to retain this player spike, SS is doomed to remain unrewarding and insulting towards one's time and effort.

Bro I don’t think Microsoft is gonna step in and say anything.
The divisiveness that SS has caused is ridiculous!
You all scream like it was supposed to be an offline PVE version of the game. If anything they have over delivered!!!
You can get the gold curse no problem now…..
these posts are what make me wish SS was never a thing. I think the true intent behind the mode is fantastic, but you have people that refuse that and just “REEEEEEEEEEEEE” because it’s not exactly as you want it. Grow up that’s not how businesses operate.

I am happy to see the developers stick to their vision of this game and world rather than caving in to make a few more dollars. Bravo RARE and thank you!!

@pteth said in Safer Sea, Going Forward?:

@jon-sea-nah except in two years of attempted playing, me and my boys have NOT ONCE hopped into game and met anyone that didnt sink us, spawn camp us, harass us for an hour, and/or hurl slurs and stupid comments through in game voice. thats why every single one of my guys, including myself have decided to bench the game. when i told them about ss they started to get interested, when i explained what it was, they said for get it, call me when they get a real pve option.

whats funny is all they have to do is implement a flagging system. want to pvp flag up and earn a bit of extra rep and gold and experience. dont want to pvp, dont flag and suffer a 20% penalty to all gold and rep. problem solved everyone has a ton of fun.

My dude said "problem solved" like his suggestion doesn't just let people completely opt out of the core focus of the game......."everyone has a ton of fun", except the people that want to play and experience the game as intended......

Come on, man......smdh

@pteth said in Safer Sea, Going Forward?:

@jon-sea-nah except in two years of attempted playing, me and my boys have NOT ONCE hopped into game and met anyone that didnt sink us, spawn camp us, harass us for an hour, and/or hurl slurs and stupid comments through in game voice. thats why every single one of my guys, including myself have decided to bench the game. when i told them about ss they started to get interested, when i explained what it was, they said for get it, call me when they get a real pve option.

whats funny is all they have to do is implement a flagging system. want to pvp flag up and earn a bit of extra rep and gold and experience. dont want to pvp, dont flag and suffer a 20% penalty to all gold and rep. problem solved everyone has a ton of fun.

EVERY SINGLE TIME? And YOU DIDNT RECORD ONE TIME AND REPORT IT??????

See it’s easy to say one time x happened, one time y happened, but EVERY SINGLE TIME huh. AND SPAWN CAMPED ANNNNNNND GRIEFED!!!

I’m sensing you were sunk and didn’t like it so you turned these players in to undead demons that ravage others dreams of treasure. Stop making this the most sensational story of 2023 unless you’ve got proof over there…..

……wait should I just don’t 10 minutes of my own research on YouTube?

@pteth

Look I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen every time you log in, but it doesn’t. The law of averages says this to be untrue

Now do I thinks it’s happened to you, yes absolutely, people like that do exist in the game. I’ve had my encounters with them, but to say every single time you log in this happens is not true.

I know that toxic people can make this game unbearable and unplayable at times but I’ve only had that level of toxicity like 3 times since 2018.

Players sinking you multiple times is a session isn’t toxic either. If I sink you and take loot and you start another voyage and start stacking loot again and I take it, that’s fair!

Best advice I’ve got and I use it too, just scuttle hop the server. Get away from those pleople.