Cosmetics Aren't Good Enough Incentive

@midnghtjade This might not be the game for you. This is a game about shenanigans. All players are meant to be equals.

Yeah, based on what you said it sounds like this game might not be for you. Maybe switch to something else that will appeal to your wish to upgrade and stuff. The Sims might be a good call?

@midnghtjade said in Cosmetics Aren't Good Enough Incentive:

So, my husband and his friends have played SoT for a few months and I decided to join in the other night. Quite frankly, there is little to hold my attention. After games like WoW or Diablo, the idea of sinking (zing!) time into a game that will literally never let me upgrade my gear in a meaningful way is either a lack of understanding why most people game or a lack of care. I'll never get more zoom on my sniper rifle? My 20,000 gold jacket doesn't deflect sword damage? My flame canons do the same damage as the starter canons? Boring.

Other red flags include no truce zone at outposts. I'm sorry, but there is no way pirate merchants would let folks set each other's boats on fire. That's just bad for business. The ability to opt-out of PvP entirely not being an option really narrows the field of people who will play this game. Having no penalty for griefers killing the same player over and over just narrows the field even more.

As for my ship, I can't upgrade my kitchen to get another stove? Can't get bigger lamps? No storage for items that aren't food/canons/wood? Can't hire an NPC to do grunt work like bail out the ship while it's raining? For that matter, why is there no way to close the grate letting in all that rain?

Do...do y'all hate money or...???

If that is what any of you expected, then this is not the game you are looking for. There is no "vertical progression" or more accurately artificial buffing of abilities just because you've logged more time than someone else in the game. It is more like the classic FPS classics like Unreal Tournament or Quake 3 where everything is based on skill and strategy (all characters being equal in abilities and movement, only differing in appearance), not like more current games like COD which throws out perks and artificial buffs like candy. This means your character is on equal fitting regardless of whether you are a long time veteran or just started playing. The only separation between players is actual skill, knowledge, and tactics/strategy - not who's logged in the most time in a game to get all the perks.

It is also a PvPvE game, where all players play together regardless of their motives. There will be no PvE servers as Rare has made abundantly clear fairly recently. The game design preceded the pirate aesthetics. And if a player is repeatedly targeted, that can be a reportable offense so there IS something stopping that behavior. And it doesn't happen that often, regardless of what some claim here.

@midnghtjade said in Cosmetics Aren't Good Enough Incentive:

@hijack-hayes What on Earth about me asking for more powerful weapons makes you think "The Sims"?? 😂😂

"As for my ship, I can't upgrade my kitchen to get another stove? Can't get bigger lamps? No storage for items that aren't food/canons/wood?"

Sounds like you need to play The Sims or Minecraft to me. There was an element of facetiousness in there...

@midnghtjade quite the accusation there, nice way to escalate a conversation. Did you not see the part where I copied what you said... Just to confirm Minecraft wasn't sexist but Sims was, gotcha? If anything it's kinda sexist to apprently think playing either is traditionally for one gender seeing as I've spent hours on both...

Wants stronger weapons/gear as they progress, yet doesn't want PvP....umm contradiction? The PvE requires nothing more than a sword for crying out loud.

@midnghtjade crying by stating facts, yeah ok..

What an unproductive thread.

@midnghtjade said in Cosmetics Aren't Good Enough Incentive:

@dlchief58 Having played both Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament back when physical LAN parties were a thing, there is a distinct difference.

Those games are designed as small maps divided into teams where the only objective is to slaughter the enemy team (or each other in FFA).

That's not what SoT is doing with their open world game. If that were the cade, there would be no missions, no fishing, no grinding rep. You're being disingenuous.

LOL, hardly. In case you didn't know the inspirations for this game were games like Rust and DayZ. Both of those being much more brutal and unforgiving than this game.

Rare designed the game so ALL players characters were equal regardless of how long you played or what equipment you acquired. Just like the games I mentioned as well as Halo CE - skill was to be what separates players, not artificially buffed equipment. You are the one being disingenuous by attempting to dismiss it out of hand because it doesn't fit your narrative, but you can't dismiss FACTS.

There are many good reasons why this is done, and your game Destiny is a prime example of why Rare made the correct choice. How many pieces of equipment in Destiny did you acquire and like the looks of them, only to have to abandon them because something more powerful came along? And how many became completely unusable when they kept raising the levels of the game? This way Rare does not have to keep readjusting the game as power levels increase.

Related to that if you have specific power weapons/armor, the "best" will quickly become the Meta and lead to less variety in layers you see on the sea. This decreases individual expression for fear of being underpowered in a coming battle. Every pirate and ship would be the same which would be very bland and hard to identify players from each other - is that guy in black the one who helped us defeat the Kraken or was he the one who sank us at the port?

If Rare tried to copy every other game out there, Sea of Thieves would no longer be special...and that is exactly what you are trying to do. Personally I'd rather go toe to toe with a pirate I know has doesn't have some advantage they got just just by playing longer than I have and let our actual skill, knowledge and tactics be the deciding factor in our encounter. Much better than losing because someone has better perks compensating for their own lack of skill.

You want to do better, then play better and/or smarter. That is what this game is about.

@midnghtjade said in Cosmetics Aren't Good Enough Incentive:

@kommodoreyenser It's almost like there are NPCs to kill as well. And I never said I didn't want PvP. I enjoy it, love me some arenas.

But if you think adding parameters like "don't be a jerk at trade outposts" or "turn off PvP while fishing" are extreme, all that tells me is that you want to grief with impunity.

The following quote would seem to say otherwise:

@midnghtjade said in Cosmetics Aren't Good Enough Incentive:

The ability to opt-out of PvP entirely not being an option really narrows the field of people who will play this game. Having no penalty for griefers killing the same player over and over just narrows the field even more.

Also, fishing produces loot that can be worth upwards of 10k per fish. Absolutely should be steal-able. The fact that you can keep them on your person and make them not possible of being stolen is what is broken. There are also plenty of tactics to sell even while being chased. Drive-by selling and using a rowboat to disappear to go sell loot are just two of them. Now I know being at an outpost selling requires some situational awareness, but it should be no less than at any island doing any activity.

@redeyesith hey at least you didn't get called a sexist with no base or proof, pretty disrespectful really.

@midnghtjade said in Cosmetics Aren't Good Enough Incentive:

@captain-coel There is nothing "equal" about griefing or forced PvP. Some people just enjoy questing, fishing, etc. If SoT wants to increase their meager player base, changes must happen. An average of 13,000 players per month is not good. Like, at all.

Close to 300k players on average per month just in each emissary ledger, which isn't even the full player base measurement. Over 1 million players have completed the tutorial (reaching Pirate Legend.) Over 30 million players have at least played the game once. 13k is the Steam numbers and are the smallest portion of the player base AND only a measure of concurrent players (people online at a single point in time)

@midnghtjade ...feedback that x, y or z player doesn't like the actual premise of the game. Not much can really be done with said feedback is there?

@midnghtjade said in Cosmetics Aren't Good Enough Incentive:

@captain-coel There is nothing "equal" about griefing or forced PvP. Some people just enjoy questing, fishing, etc. If SoT wants to increase their meager player base, changes must happen. An average of 13,000 players per month is not good. Like, at all.

There is no "forced PvP", you consented to that once you started the game.

In regards to your other claim, that is cute. Cherry pick the one metric from the lowest and newest population of the game, then claiming that is ushering in the death of the game. We've heard that for 4 years now and the game is still going strong.

To counter, the game has CONSISTENTLY been in the top 20 played games on Xbox Live on any given week for THREE YEARS and counting (probably longer, but that is as far back as those stats were kept). I think the lowest it has ever dropped was #27 and peaked at #6! But almost always it lies around #20 week in and out, so can the Chicken Little act.

Most played Xbox games — weekly Xbox Chart

@midnghtjade can't be that bad, you seem to be taking a quite a portion of your day to hurl accusations and insults at the game/other forum members.

@midnghtjade said in Cosmetics Aren't Good Enough Incentive:

@dlchief58 Just a friendly observation. Your first sentence makes you sound r@pey.

No one "consents" to being griefed. SoT has the rules posted in every tavern. They wrongly assumed y'all would be decent human beings to each other. That you're getting this upset about neutral zones -- similar to Booty Bay in WoW -- tells me you get your jellies from being the worst version of a PvP-er.

So attack me instead of the content of my post, cute. Just shows you haven't a leg to and on in this discussion so have to play the victim card. Quit with the baseless accusations that have nothing to do with what was written, it only makes you look bad.

Being ambushed at outposts is not "griefing", nor does it say that anywhere in the game, code of conduct, nor terms of service. There are no neutral zones in the game by design (well other than the Ferry of the Damned).

And can the generalizations and character assassinations - you know nothing about me (much less my playstyle) and are being upset because I've successfully called out all your whining. Just because I may support people playing a certain way does not mean I do that myself, so knock it off with the baseless accusations Amber.