Bilge Rat Adventures – Doubloon Changes

  • Sonicbob
    Champion
    Rare Employee

    Hey Everyone,

    With our Cursed Crews Bilge Rats Adventure moving into its second week, I wanted to talk a little about a change we are making to how we deliver rewards for player actions after these events.

    Bilge Rats Adventures have been a great addition to Sea of Thieves between our larger updates. Whether it was reaching the top of Marauders Arch during Skeleton Thrones, timing those perfect chain reaction gunpowder skeletons or working out exactly how many kegs it takes to destroy a Ruby statue – Duke’s challenges have brought some great stories to Sea of Thieves over the last few months.

    We’ve also learnt a lot during these events and taken feedback from players onboard to help shape each adventure we deliver. After adding Legendary commendations into Gunpowder Skeletons as a way for players to have longer term goals both during and post the adventure, we’ve been reviewing the sentiment around how we are delivering rewards to players – specifically Doubloons. A common area of feedback around our adventures recently has been the time-limited nature of the rewards we make available and how players want more reasons to complete our commendations after the adventure finishes.

    With the Cursed Crews Adventure we are making a change to continue to reward players with Doubloons if you complete commendations after the event has finished. This means that if you miss an Adventure you can still experience the content, unlock the commendations, earn the exclusive titles AND be awarded the Doubloons. Our Cosmetic Rewards will continue to be time-limited so you’ll need to play during the Adventure to unlock these exclusive items.

    We are making this change next week, keeping all Cursed Crews Doubloon rewards obtainable once the adventure finishes, and this will be our approach for future Bilge Rat Adventures moving forward.

    Thanks for all your feedback on our Bilge Rats Adventures so far, looking forward to getting some great new challenges into players hands and seeing the awesome stories that they create.

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  • Musicmee
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Moderator
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @sonicbobjr

    Ooooooh, this is good news indeed, especially for those players that join us after the events are over.

    A very welcome change indeed!

  • UrihamRayne
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    I am ok with this, keep tweaking the challenge on those commendations though, I'm sure we are getting to that perfect spot.

  • SuperPac
    Lord
    Insider

    @sonicbobjr Great change, definitely agree with keeping rewards for those players who didn't play during the events but want to interact with those things in the world. But without being able to sink doubloons into cosmetics at some point the pricing for letters of recommendation may need to change (or scale depending on the level of the player) otherwise you may have an issue eventually where people only grind bilge doubloons in lieu of faction levels to get to PL.

  • Murkrage
    Commander
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @sonicbobjr

    Thank you for the update. This is a welcome update. I'm glad there's still a time-limited aspect, but adding an incentive to keep playing added content is very welcome!

    Future is looking bright :)

  • KnifeLife
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @sonicbobjr I made a thread about this a week or two ago. This is amazing news it will open so many doors for different playstyles.

    And also give players who missed the event some incentive to go for the commendations. It also means you don’t necessarily have to rush the event just to get it all done you can enjoy the journey.

    Nice Job Rare!

  • Da Ninja Bling
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain

    So now everyone has chances to grab all the dubloons and get to PL even Quicker! Ha! Swindelers!

  • Skulliah
    Legend
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @sonicbobjr

    Thank you so much for taking time to communicate and explain the reasons about this change :)

  • Murkrage
    Commander
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @da-ninja-bling said in Bilge Rat Adventures – Doubloon Changes:

    So now everyone has chances to grab all the dubloons and get to PL even Quicker! Ha! Swindelers!

    I don't necessarily agree with that. Pirate Legend isn't worth something simply because it took you tons upon tons of time to obtain. This change means that from now on, there is more than one way to earn your Pirate Legend title.

    I'm more than sure that the price for a letter of recommendation will be tweaked in the future to counter power leveling through these letters.

  • khaleesibot
    Master
    Founder

    @murkrage I'm pretty sure @Da-Ninja-Bling was making a joke! But you do raise a good point. We'll for sure be monitoring this and making changes where appropriate.

  • Murkrage
    Commander
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @khaleesibot said in Bilge Rat Adventures – Doubloon Changes:

    @murkrage I'm pretty sure @Da-Ninja-Bling was making a joke! But you do raise a good point. We'll for sure be monitoring this and making changes where appropriate.

    Yeah, I realized later on that the entire post was most likely sarcastic. Darned be written text without emojis to properly convey sarcasm!

    Anyhow, yes... I think it would be wise to monitor the state of the changes. I think it's about finding a sweet spot between the amount of Doubloons earned vs. what we are able to spend. For example: I'm drowning in Doubloons because I don't have anything to spend them on besides the cosmetics. The cosmetics are great, don't get me wrong, but I don't have to earn a single Doubloon for the next 4 - 5 events and still manage to get all the cosmetics from those events.

    The same could be said for players hoarding the Doubloons to get a ton of letters to power level. Right now, just top of my head late night thinking, I think you can get about 25 - 30 levels if you had saved up all the Doubloons. So it's just a 'side quest' type of thing to do next to the voyages. There will come a time where someone will have hoarded so many doubloons that they can just level 1 - 50 on all factions. There should be, at the very least, be a 50-50 balance between voyages / doubloon letters. I think.

  • KattTruewalker
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @sonicbobjr

    This is definitely a very welcome change, it will provide added incentive to go back and complete those missing commendations and provide continued rewards for newcomers to the game - what pirate doesn't love plunder dubles?

  • Sonicbob
    Champion
    Rare Employee

    @katttruewalker said in Bilge Rat Adventures – Doubloon Changes:

    @sonicbobjr

    what pirate doesn't love dubles?

    Fixed that for you

  • Timotytimoty
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    Very good news. Glad you've made this change!

  • khaleesibot
    Master
    Founder

    @sonicbobjr said in Bilge Rat Adventures – Doubloon Changes:

    @katttruewalker said in Bilge Rat Adventures – Doubloon Changes:

    @sonicbobjr

    what pirate doesn't love dubles?

    Fixed that for you

    I can't believe the community let you make dubles a thing.

  • Lord of Goats
    Master
    Insider

    Perhaps it's time to make the legendary commendations truly legendary?

    While I understand and appreciate the route you've taken, I'd love to see the legendary stuff being more than just a repeat of what's come before.

    For example, rather than do 200 skeletons with CCs, how about "kill 20 skeletons within 5 seconds" or something of that nature. It would probably take as long to set up as killing 200 (lots of jolly kiting on the island and praying a gunpowder skeleton doesn't ruin everything) but I feel like it's sufficiently harder than the basic one without just being a direct clone.

    Or make it a special limited time order of souls quest (ideally a small island) on which you have to curse kill every skeleton and there are 5 bosses with 3 random bits of treasure ans you have to do it once. But you can do it as many times as you like.

    I realise those mechanics don't exist in the game but I think it's something worth pursuing if you're going to extend them. Currently, for me, the challenge is how to optimise the goals in my limited playtime. It would be nice if those legendary commendations weren't simply a function of time played. As it stands, it's impossible not to get them on the way to legend, I would guess.

  • KattTruewalker
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @sonicbobjr said in Bilge Rat Adventures – Doubloon Changes:

    @katttruewalker said in Bilge Rat Adventures – Doubloon Changes:

    @sonicbobjr

    what pirate doesn't love dubles?

    Fixed that for you

    Hahaha! Aye and thanks! :D

  • Murkrage
    Commander
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @sonicbobjr Can I just say: I love these posts we've gotten this past week. First it was Mike explaining Barrels 2.0, which made sense. This one is a welcome explanation as well.

    Please, do it more often. I think it will help put a lot of things in perspective for a lot of people. They're a great read and I love hearing about the reasoning behind the choices you guys are making!

  • Sonicbob
    Champion
    Rare Employee

    @khaleesibot Stop fighting it

  • Musicmee
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Moderator
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @sonicbobjr @khaleesibot Agreed! We LOVE the term dubles! I think I'm going to name my in game cat that!

  • Sonicbob
    Champion
    Rare Employee

    @musicmee said in Bilge Rat Adventures – Doubloon Changes:

    @sonicbobjr @khaleesibot Agreed! We LOVE the term dubles! I think I'm going to name my in game cat that!

    Suuuuch a good cat name!

  • SealedSeven
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @superpac
    It'll likely be harder to grind commendations once events end as usually they scale back the event items and push the current bilge rat stuff. (mermaids for instance are rare to find now). It should even out in regards to how fast can complete an older commendation vs doing voyages.

  • TheChiefVarro
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    <We are making this change next week, keeping all Cursed Crews Doubloon rewards obtainable once the adventure finishes, and this will be our approach for future Bilge Rat Adventures moving forward.>

    @Sonicbobjr
    Is there a way that these Bilge Rat Doubloons commendations can be retroactive? I never got to complete One of the Legendary commendation with The Gunpowder Skeletons; the one where you blow up 5 or more skeletons with a Gunpowder Skeleton on an active skeleton fortress with another crew on the island. I'd really like to be able to get the 50 Bilge Rat Doubloons that it would've rewarded me with during the active time of that event.

  • ElectricKnights
    Legend
    Insider

    This seems like a smart evolution to the Bilge Rat Adventures and the rewards.
    Sounds good!

  • hogwash8
    Marauder
    Insider

    Are there any stats regarding how doubloons are spent? Are people spending them on the cosmetics or saving them to buy levels? It feels a bit like this cheapens earning of levels a bit - especially with some of the simpler achievements. I think it's always good to have thought in how the missions come out, but I know I try and compete them when they come out-- definitely within the time frame allotted (though I have missed some). Wouldn't this serve to cheapen "Legend" status a bit? Sure, I used doubloons to get levels, but I got them within the event time frame. Just my 2 cents.

  • KnightX13
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    Awesome change and thank you for the clarification on it.

    @Sonicbobjr did you make a dubles tag, just because you could? Tsk tsk

  • Capt Cocatox
    Captain
    Insider

    whats with the commendations that are removed will they come back to finish them ?
    and whats with the ship crew commendations any plans how we can get them again then?

  • Stacky a
    Captain
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    This is great! Really like this change.

  • Emmire9573
    Marauder

    THANKS SO MUCH, DEFINITE PROOF RARE IS LISTENING

  • Cybress7442
    Captain
    Insider

    This is wonderful news. There are PLENTY of things right now I may miss due to personal causes (as I have already in previous events). I also find myself low on gold all the time nowadays due to constantly trying to improve the options of my ever-growing wardrobe(s) in-game, so that is an advantage as well (wanna look good and fresh every time I get in there y'know). Also, even though I'll use letters, I'd NEVER buy myself into legend ranks, just no.

  • ArgenysDaGreat
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    To everyone concerned about how easy it's getting to buy your way to legend. I propose a nice compromise. I say lower the value of letters to 15 doubloons and each subsequent use for a faction goes up by 5 doubloons. Then cap the increase to 50 doubloons. That way the first 7 levels you buy(which is a lot) will cost the very same amount as it does currently. But then by the 8th+ level you're buying you are now paying 50 doubloons to level up. This to me seems incredibly fair. But this is only my opinion. I would like to hear feedback if you have different ideas or just think the current system is fine.

  • Tartansnake
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    This is a positive change but I would still like to see benefits for completing the commendations during the time-limit event.

    For example;
    a) Keep the Bilge Rat cosmetics locked behind commendations so players can't just login and purchase them all at the start of the event.

    b) Drop the amount of doubloon received after the event.
    5 becomes 2
    10 becomes 5
    20 becomes 10
    etc...

  • Jejesasa
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    What is the point of giving the Doubloon after the event if the main objective is to buy skins limited in time? Is it for players to buy 20 letters of recommendation? Interesting concept.

    it will be necessary to think of limiting the number of letters to buy.

  • NunoAzuldimeter
    Champion
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @sonicbobjr Again that's good for players who doesn't have time to play and newcomers ...

    What about the dedicated players that you seem to keep forgetting about?
    Changes are always made to help those who doesn't play the game.

    Why not giving actually meaning to those features and adventures for everyone keep coming and do it.
    Example the mermaid statues, the skeleton thrones... Why not giving that a reward for players to keep finding them even after all the commendations are done?

    You did a great job about the skeleton ships. People kept interested about it because even with all the event done that was a way of getting rewards!
    Everyone get a price for doing it even those who made the even in the first hours.

    This is the kind of stuff the community is asking. For you to look at the events and include everyone!

    Cheers.

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    While I am happy with these changes giving us the ability to earn dubloons after the event, I have to wonder about certain past commendations that we earned like the whole "finding Wanda" quest-line. After the event ended, I noticed that her footprints, necklace, etc. were gone from her shop which means it's impossible to earn that particular commendation after the event ended. While I know that this change is "from this point forward" does this mean that we won't be having any more quest-based commendations like with the one I mentioned? What about newer players who want to learn about Wanda? Will they not be able to earn that specific commendation?

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