Changes to Safer Seas announced in Developer Update 12th of November

@schmeling65 said in Changes to Safer Seas announced in Developer Update 12th of November:

The changes ingeneral sound good and we hope that we see this affecting the game it positvely (including server performance as that actually got worse).
But the main point I wanna give feedback here is about the Safter Seas change.
I am one of the these players that enjoy playing with other crews in High Seas and therefor always thought if someone doesn't want to play with others, then go Safer Seas. There was always this topic on "why should people go High Seas when they have Safer Seas" and in this video hte problem got discribed. The changes of lowering the reputation limit to 25 while giving 100% gold is a good change.
At first I thought you/Rare are gonna lift it up even more to get more players into Safer Seas and we would have less in High Seas, which is the reason I was scared of.
But now after I watched the video I can approve this decission as a good one to split these 2 areas up even more into their distinctive roles and theirfor keep Safer Seas a "safe" place for new players, but also keep High Seas the place for the other players after getting enough experience in the game.
Therefor this is a good change in my oppinion.

I agree this update is well thought of, high reward but makes you want to join High Seas.

IMHO a terrible change; perhaps for newer players give 100% gold until they get to level 25, after that it should be decreased to 30%.

@wolfmanbush said in Changes to Safer Seas announced in Developer Update 12th of November:

@lem0n-curry said in Changes to Safer Seas announced in Developer Update 12th of November:

IMHO a terrible change; perhaps for newer players give 100% gold until they get to level 25, after that it should be decreased to 30%.

Any of those players could choose to link up with the many groups that wildly cheese the game through alliances servers. Not only full progress but piles of bonus that doesn't even make sense through the alliance feature.

People cheesing using pre-made alliance servers isn't an excuse to let people gain 100% without the risk of encountering other crews on Safer Seas.

100% gold

Why even leave safer seas now? XD

@schmeling65 said in Changes to Safer Seas announced in Developer Update 12th of November:

The changes ingeneral sound good and we hope that we see this affecting the game it positvely (including server performance as that actually got worse).
But the main point I wanna give feedback here is about the Safter Seas change.
I am one of the these players that enjoy playing with other crews in High Seas and therefor always thought if someone doesn't want to play with others, then go Safer Seas. There was always this topic on "why should people go High Seas when they have Safer Seas" and in this video hte problem got discribed. The changes of lowering the reputation limit to 25 while giving 100% gold is a good change.
At first I thought you/Rare are gonna lift it up even more to get more players into Safer Seas and we would have less in High Seas, which is the reason I was scared of.
But now after I watched the video I can approve this decission as a good one to split these 2 areas up even more into their distinctive roles and theirfor keep Safer Seas a "safe" place for new players, but also keep High Seas the place for the other players after getting enough experience in the game.
Therefor this is a good change in my oppinion.

Boy oh boy, isn't this a wonderful day! It's also gonna be funny to watch the next coping wave of all the anti-SS crowd.

Now it's actually more reasonable and at the same time still encourages people to play on HS to progress further and learn more, without making them feel like rejects straight of the bat.

Bravo Rare. It was about damn time. You' re about to do a great thing for that other far side of your community.

Safer Seas was always going to be wrong in some part of the playerbase's eyes since it completely goes against what the devs had said about their game for years.

If the goal was to create a true tutorial (more than what the Maiden Voyage offers) and better prepare pirates for the high seas, then it is a complete failure. It does nothing unique and offers no more tutelage than if they just started on the High Seas. In fact, I would argue that it offers even less tutelage as there is no opportunity for interaction with other crews - hostile, friendly, or even just to make you keep an eye on the horizon, be aware of your surroundings, and to always be prepared for a quick escape.

Beyond that, it is a PvE server. No two ways about it. Because of that, they absolutely have to keep it with a highly conservative setup so as not to truly impede their vision for the game.

I don't think the changes that are coming are going to change anything about the use of Safer Seas. The same people that use it today for whatever reasons will be the same ones that use it afterwards.

I'm not sure what their "goal" is for this change, but I'd be shocked if the data says it was a worthwhile change a few months from now.

I'm on the fence about these changes, we'll see in time how it plays out. Gold isn't really that big of a deal for experienced players and, without an Emissary or any event boosts, it's still not going to be too enticing for experienced players to use Safer Seas. Speaking for myself, the only appeal of Safer Seas is chilling out, taking screenshots, or some commendation grinding. These changes won't affect any of that.

One possible positive I can see is that new players will earn the gold to buy a Captained ship sooner, and the only way to use it and get the benefits will be on High Seas. A Captained ship is pretty much essential on High Seas now, not having one is a big disadvantage. So, hopefully, this will help reduce the number of newbies sailing chartered vessels there.

@burnbacon
I mean, because rep is 100 times more important than gold, for starters, not to mention the content SS is missing.

Until Safer Seas allows all content, especially captained ships, and without a rep cap (slower rep & gold gains is fine), it's existence is just an insult.

@burnbacon said in Changes to Safer Seas announced in Developer Update 12th of November:

100% gold

Why even leave safer seas now? XD

I mean... I guess if all you care about is 100% gold, and you're okay with making 0 progress beyond the level cap, and never experiencing all the other events/content/captaincy in HS, then yeah... there'd be no point in leaving.

But I doubt a significant amount of the playerbase thinks that way, and so I doubt that this would take any significant activity away from HS.

So to answer your question, it's because the entire rest of the game is in HS.

@musicmee said in Changes to Safer Seas announced in Developer Update 12th of November:

And just... the ability to make sure your play sessions arent stale repetitive and boring?

Be sure that none of my sessions are boring or repetitive for me. It has nothing to do with SS or HS. And I can bet most of the people that lean into PvE more think the same. Especially those who value immersion and role play.

For someone who's supposed to moderate these forums, that's a bit narrow mindset. There are definitely worse ones though. Oh well.

It is true though, that HS needs to have more features in order to attract player stepping out of SS. I will always agree with that. I dare even to say, that after this 100% change to the gold income for SS, Captained ships/Sovereign shouldn't get added to SS, because then there is really a high chance the majority will never step outside of SS. Like, ever.

@burnbacon To progress! You can have tons of gold, but if you can't progress certain commendations that are locked behind High Seas only gameplay, that gold is meaningless (as it is already).

@burnbacon said

Why even leave safer seas now? XD

Because SoT is 7 years old now, who cares at this stage.
The game never had/has a gold economy to begin with. There's no trading, or some type of exchange compared to say WoW, Runescape where gold economy is actually important to maintain and affects players, a group of players can affect the price of cosmetic item.

SoT has none of that, it's all personal.

1 player has a billion gold, the other has 2k gold, it doesn't affect anyone but the individual.

What im getting at, is that SoT is drying up in terms of players, each new update brings worse performance, just let people have their final fun before the game ceases to get actual seasonal updates, or worse, gets the plug pulled.

I'm honestly disgusted SoT never released private servers for the general public where they could pick and choose settings with their friends to enjoy the game with, or better yet have actual communities thrive and still exist with proper private customisable servers.

Give safer seas 100% gold/rep value, and let it be.

From what I’ve read about HS vs SS players
My statement still remains. Why leave safer seas when you are getting everything already?
PL status is joke. Grinding factions doesnt matter
Those players just want a “safe space”. So,

How long until Safer Seas becomes what everyone cries for? Pve server with 100% unlock. XD

@burnbacon said in Changes to Safer Seas announced in Developer Update 12th of November:

From what I’ve read about HS vs SS players
My statement still remains. Why leave safer seas when you are getting everything already?
PL status is joke. Grinding factions doesnt matter
Those players just want a “safe space”. So,

How long until Safer Seas becomes what everyone cries for? Pve server with 100% unlock. XD

All I hear is womping about less easy new player targets + "if I didn't have it when I started, you shouldn't as well".

Speaking about crying and tears - please grow up. Don't worry, this change is gonna affect almost nothing (or actually nothing) in HS. You'll still have your batch of easy new targets to catch.

@wolfmanbush said in Changes to Safer Seas announced in Developer Update 12th of November:

They left in all the main incentives to high seas.

Exactly. Captaincy/Sovereigns being prolly the most important one (at least the most important to PvE crowd).

I would love to see safer seas offer everything the game has to offer. Unbridled, with the option to have a skeleton crew on your ship, just like the burning blade. The amount of times I and others have gotten attacked and camped. (Not sunk) All the while the other crew was screaming stuff into chat. We literally told them, this one time. Yuu are wasting your time. We are just faming X achievement. Which generates no loot. They would just kill us on respawn over and over. No emissary flag, took all the supplies, and never tried to sink us. Just pure troll. Safer Seas, SHOULD be a place to not only be able to goof around, learn the game, but also a place where sometimes, after a day of hell at work. You do not want to hear someone mic spamming, or deal with the cheaters. At least, add in diving to quests. For every, single, argument for not having Safer Seas as a place to relax and still play. I will counter with. Exploits, Cheaters, and Alliance servers.

@schmeling65 i think they should have diminishing gold returns based on your level past 25. To encourage people to go to high seas and stay there instead of going to high seas and returning to SS.

@captain-fob4141

i think they should have diminishing gold returns based on your level past 25. To encourage people to go to high seas and stay there instead of going to high seas and returning to SS.

Wouldn't change anything really. The same people that keep playing exclusively in SS now, would still remain in SS.

Let's be honest - this is at the same time Rare's nod to PvE community + not having to face a huge backlash from the rest, because now they've lowered the reputation cap as an excuse to encourage new crowd to go to HS.

In reality, exclusive SS crowd doesn't care about the reputation cap cut, and for the others that would anyways move over to HS - they get a quicker and safer way to collect gold to buy their captained ship, and start playing in HS sooner.

---

What I do believe majority of the exclusive SS crowd will do - play both modes, up to the point they unlock PL and unlock all the promotions. Then will get back mainly to SS. Again, the same thing they've been doing so far anyways.

While others will just move to and remain in HS (eventually SS just for fishing and farming some easier comms).

Nothing more to it. The world will not stop spinning. The game will not die cause of it.

This is a really good day for Safer Seas, and a step in the right direction. 30% reward was ridiculous, now I will actually bother to sell the loot when I play SS. Hopefully we get captaincy next (without the possibility to use Sovereigns).

Laughing at all the anti SS crowd, including moderators of this forum, who were shutting down discussions by saying rewards will never be increased.
Just like they were shutting down discussions saying we will never get PVE servers before we got Safer Seas. Never say never, and keep your mind open, because the game will keep evolving no matter what.