When comparing the community day stats for season 13 with those for season 12, most of the numbers were almost halved.
Ex:
Gold season 12 - 290 191 761 714
Gold season 13 - 178 261 002 567
Cannonballs fired season 12 - 52 997 680
Cannonballs fired season 13 - 24 290 333
It's natural for the player base to decline over time. This is the life cycle of any game. But I have the impression that this trend goes beyond a natural weariness.
SoT is a "set your own goal" game, but without anything to convince even the most veteran players to launch a new game.
All the discord servers are leaking. The number of organised team which could have multiple crew every days are now deserts.
Why is that ?
PVE : Why play PVE ?
As a veteran, and a galleon player, most crews encounterd are from a lesser level. They dont seek confrontation (It's fine, nobody owes me PvP), and dont hoard loot (it's fine, the game want them to sell early). But then why would I go hunt them ?
The BB ? If you capture one, it's almost guarranted that you will see nobody untill you sell. Cruising around the map is not the most exciting activity...
Hunting leveled BB ? Low level ones aren't worth anything, and high level ones are so rare that you just spend your time server jumping
Farm gold for cosmetics ? YOU MEAN THE ONE JACKET PER MONTH ?!
How to fix (Maybe) ?
I think (but it's only my opinion) that forcing the less seasonned players (numbers of hour in game, or level based) to the same servers could help. It would have the advantages to not have noobs being destroyed by veterans each time they sails outside an outpost. And for veterans, it could means more loot when crossing path with another crew. Safer sears is a good step, but it's not enough to teach new players the game.
Stop spreading the activities. The most fun I had in the last months was when all the quests were in the same biome for avery crew. Right now you can spend hours without seeing any sails at the horizon. Even more if you are a Galleon, then you are avoided like plague. For me the quests should get you near other crews.
HOURGLASS :
Farming ressources is a pain. You dont need to farm ammo for your 10 min (Overwatch/Valorant/LoL/choose your game) match. Then why do I need to farm ressources for my galleon ?
"Don't !" You could say, but then the other crew will still do it and we will be at a disadvantage. And the exploits to get multiple crate dont help...
Hourglass should be set on its own server. It being on Adventure mode anly take slots preventing PvE players from interacting with other crews. It would also allow to set default ressources at the beginning of each match, reducing downtime between each match and lessening the "loosing penalty".
The win streak system is also a big problem. In a balanced match, you should have a 50/50 chance of winning... Win streaks only make sense if I'm expected to roll on every body... And nobody like to be rolled on, so they dont play anymore, or farm loses.
It's not fun to loose AND TO HAVE TO FARM AGAIN. If a lose a match in valorant, I just queue again. I dont need to gather ressources, raise anchor, sail away, vote for hourglass, vote for diving, and then wait hoping for no bug/cheat/balanced match.
