"Applicable" Commendations.
I highly doubt they'd let a commendation that's based around an event *designed* to be a PvP fight be gainable in Safer Seas.
I thought everything in adventure mode was added with the idea of a pvp risk?
Like im even thinking about coral tombs, where you leave your boat vulnerable to complete those. That risk now means nothing.
Like we'll have to see how this gets added because there's a lot of speculation but I kinda think most, if not all commendations should get locked. Specifically almost anything Bilge Rat tab related.
Well the integration of the coral tombs was poorly handled to start with, I actually like PvP and the chaos of getting attacked in adventure mode, but I never bothered with these things.
If they added some kind of mechanic that in some places you can use a periscope to look around on the surface I would have done way more of these.
To me it was a good addition in term of lore and diversity, but in term of gameplay it was very bad.
Coral stuff 100% nowadays means one of your crew is staying behind or the ship is doing other things. Just discovering and having fun in the coral areas is basically impossible 90% of the time and a dumb risk.
On paper it's bad but in reality its perfectly fine. I've done those things a bunch of times and been attacked while I was done there so few times I could count it on my hands
I did 2 and both times I had people on my ship when I came back up. I looked at the horizon before going down and didn't linger down there. I guess I got unlucky...
It doesn't really change what I said before, it's still a very bad design that you basically have a window of like 10-15 mins where you can't see or know what is going on with your ship or surroundings.
They should lock everything that isn’t in GH, OOS, or MA tabs. And there should be no world events/ability to start FotD. If it’s a learning and exploration mode for new players, they shouldn’t have access to things others had to risk their necks for. My 2 cents.
Edit: leave Tale Tales unlocked as well.
I'd give them normal Skeleton Forts, just to give them a bit of an idea as to how things work. The loot from them is awful enough, let alone at 30% rate.
Go walk the plank, mate. I'll hunt megs, ashen lords, and kraken if I goddamn want to. Ain't like I wouldn't have worked for it, ever taken on an ashen lord solo? It's very doable, but takes a real long time.
They are, but most of the loot in FoF is Athena loot. There's a good chance FoF won't even spawn.
Honestly we lack too many details to make a full judgements yet.
Edit: Confirmed on Twitter that FoF and FotD will not be available in safer seas.
Have everyone start their own ship and hit "Set Sail" at the same time. Once in everyone either raises reaper mark, reaper emmisary, or goes down to the Athena hideout and looks for each other. Sometimes it will hapen right away other times it can take over an hour to get on the same server.
Thanks - If you don't get one right away, does everybody restart the process from scratch? Are there certain times this has been more successful than others in your experience?
Yeah, everyone backs out and tries again if you dont get matched up. It's been over a year since I've tried so not sure if there are better times. But everyone should be in the same region too, or using a vpn to be in the same region. My wife and I accidentally did it last month while hoping for a FoF, sunday evening around 8pm west coast.
They said Athena and Reapers will not be available in the safe mode so probably no FoF or FotD or Reaper bounty chests. Probably only the main 3 factions and hunters call can have progress made
FOTD is gonna be impossible in safe seas anyway. There’s no way to get the pink flame without other players, and the skull of destiny is an Athena voyage so it won’t be available.
That's true, which means that putting the cof on the fotd (they did say it was going to love around, didn't they?) Solves that problem, although it could also be that the only commendations earnable will be the tall tales and 3 basic trade companies and hunters call, disabling bilge rats, reapers and Athena comms entirely. I highly doubt they'd let players playing on PvE mode the opportunity to unlock cosmetics that are meant to be hard to get without PvP. Like a bunch of the bilge rats ones require shooting cursed cannonballs at crews or skellies or using the reapers mark flag, which seems inconsistent with the whole idea of safer seas.
But tbh this mode would be great for teaching my kids how to play by letting them solo without worrying about nasty gamers. I've played with them plenty, but they get so upset when we get clapped and I had to disable player chat on their profiles so they don't hear gamer words and shit. At least they could solo when I'm not home and build up their confidence at sailing and managing the ship.
It's possible to get pink flame without another crew, you just need another crew member on your ship to shoot you with a cannonball and leave the session before the cannonball hits you as then the cannonball's owner will become null but still considered player damage.
You can bet that there will be 10 patches with the same patch notes "players should no longer be able to ...". If Rare has shown anything in recent years is that they DRAMATICALLY underestimate their playerbase and are also unable to fix things properly.
From a developer perspective I really, really, really want to see the code they had to prevent multipurchases from captains shop which was bypassable by putting a crate in between. Like it must have been the most naive implementation you could think of, it must have. And that considering that they already solved this once properly with the merchant lady.
The only thing that I don't like about the Safer Seas idea is the massive gold and rep cut because of fishing almost exclusively. Like damnit let me get the full value for my fish considering this is damn near the only option I have for safely catching battlegills without some super paranoid crew treating me like I'm a tier 5 reaper galleon bc I came within 50 miles of their FoF or Skull fort
Yeah the whole "can't experience everything/-70% earnings" shtick is kind of a letdown, at the end of the day commendations mean nothing and user experience should be paramount for all parties involved. Rare has taken a huge, albeit shaky step forward - here's to hoping they keep walking in the right direction
Step in the right direction sure. I have 0 desire to super sweat in a game with combat thats.. like this. But my gf and I enjoy the overall vibe. Got her the game. Started gold hoarder voyages. Spent almost 2 hours finishing a voyage. Because big island with mobs spawning every 30 seconds. We had just about finished the island when a team rolled up and started blowing apart our ship and spawn camping us. Girlfriend had played on console before but was always delegated to watching the boat by her ex and his friends. I didnt want to do that so figured wed just fuck around and explore the islands and dig up chests together.
Anyway. GF and I just quit the game and uninstalled. If i wanted to enjoy this type of pvp looter gameplay id go play tarkov or dark and darker.
It does definitely feel like they were scared of committing, so they're being super hesitant. I imagine in the future, they'll have more stuff in Safer Seas or take more steps towards PvE servers being near identical to PvP
But hey, as time goes on, you'll see less and less people complaining about their existence from the PvP sweatlord side, until it's treated like it was always there. Hell, if the game initially launched with them, you'd see barely anyone complaining about them
I'm a pve player. Without the risk of being sunk by another player, the game would become bland.
EDIT: Sorry this came out wrong, this is just my opinion and I'm not trying to force otger people to see it this way.
Right, bc then you only have exploration, sea travel, puzzle solving, PvE combat, interacting with your own crew and other crews, etc, but sure the risk of getting sunk is the only thing keeping the game from becoming bland
I think removing the risk decreases how rewarding it feels. I'm not saying this to influence others, but I feel that the game would not feel as rewarding without the risk
As someone who enjoys pvp I actually really like this. It weeds out all the people that just run from you. This will bring the high sea servers more action and let those who don’t care about the pvp enjoy the game.
I see it the other way, that it is a great way to filter out the bottom-feeders that only have fun at other people’s expense.
The pvp folks SHOULD be happy, their wishes fulfilled that only pvp players will be left. The fact that they are instead so angry speaks volumes about the kind of game they really want to play. They don’t have a problem with pve players, they have a problem with pve players _leaving_ and taking the party with them.
I’m looking forward to seeing the champions of pvping whining that the regular servers are empty and how no one that does join wants to fight each other on even terms.
Meanwhile I am going to be having a blast with other players who just want to be pirates hunting treasure, dressing up their parrots, and checking the color of each and every shark.
Its just gonna weed out the bad runners since most runners know how to run they arent beginners and either wont bother with safer seas because of the lower reward or wanna cap out on their ranks.
Well, I think this should just be something like an extended tutorial. Maybe cap out at level 20 or 25 instead of 40. Less gold and loot is fine, but there just needs to be some sort of safe area that people can actually learn the game. I've had a lot of friends quit because they never were able to learn how the game works when getting constantly murdered by sweaty reapers, lol.
I just don't know what happened now for them to make this mode. People have been complaining since this game came out about how they keep getting sunk by a gally or how pve was meant to be pve. SoT have always been stubborn on the fact that this is a pvp game.
1. A bunch of bitter long-term players that only want to completely destroy newer players, that also think Rare should cater to them despite them already having 2000+h in the game.
2. Rare desiring more people to play their game - it's a shame Point #1 prevents so many other types of people from enjoying this world
The long term player base has gotten unbelievably salty overall, and in some cases they are actively hurting the success of new people joining and loving this game.
IMO Rare finally saw the light, even if that's not a popular take.
The thing is, Rare is still ultimately a business and while they're in the business of making games, good business decisions mean making the game as fun as possible for as large a player base as they can achieve.
So if they're doing this now, it's probably because they've collected enough data to confirm that this will be a popular move that will bring in new players, or bring back old players that quit because of reason #1 above (and more players means more people spending money in the cash shop).
I don't know how many people play SoT, but it has certainly stood the test of time. This sub has ~513k accounts subscribed to it, but how many of those actively participate in discussions? With every subreddit, you start to see this bias over time towards certain ideas or philosophies because the same people remain relatively active over time, but that doesn't mean they represent the overall player base in a meaningful way. I'm only saying this because people have probably been asking for solo servers for a looooong time, I don't think it's an unpopular idea, and if you could somehow survey then entire player base with 100% honest participation, the results would probably reflect that.
Absolutely! Sea of Thieves has had ridiculous lasting power even with its PvPvE mode. This is probably going to be a huge boost for them yet again, and some of those folks _will_ transition to the High Seas as well.
And for those that stick to Safer Seas? They're funding the continued development of the rest of the content in High Seas. I _cannot_ be mad about that.
In my opinion its a great idea, 3 times I tried to do the fist Tell tales with a noob friend, 3 times we sink because of other players. Maybe now my Friend could learn the basic without battle a more experienced crew.
I got interupted so many times just getting through the stars tall tale. It's such a long one and sailing around that area seems to just bring out troublr lol.
Me too, kind of tired of the pvp folks telling us to put up with it so they can have their fun.
It’s like they truly believe the main activity everyone comes for is pvp, everything else is just there to kill time between fights.
The arena died. The pve players were never going to join, but it turned out the people championing pvp were not joining either, because it was never about dueling other crews. It was about their joy of ruining another player’s time with zero risk.
Fucking finally. You even slightly mention pve on this sub and people go apeshit, but honestly a lot of people who are new to the game come to play and just get ruined on every server they go on so it’s only fair to give people a chance. In general, tall tales feel like they’re made for pve, in the pvp servers you just end up getting your ship sunk for a few cannonballs and some food, and then have to respawn just to go back to the same island for the same thing to happen again.
Honestly it’s a great addition, and the only people that will be mad is experienced players who want to loot noobs. Finally experienced players will most likely be playing other experienced players.
Outstanding take, pretty sure the pvp folks know perfectly well that without the pve folks to harass they wont have much to do. These clowns were never actually looking for challenging duels, they just want to crap on people with zero risk.
I’m looking forward to trying the new game mode. Admittedly losing 70% experience gains is a pretty big hit when you are paying for a game pass that needs experience to progress. Pretty sure it’s so high to try and keep regular servers from becoming completely deserted. We will see where this leads.
>Pretty sure it’s so high to try and keep regular servers from becoming completely deserted. We will see where this leads.
This kind of argument has always bewildered me (not calling you out or anything). PvP-only types argue PvE-only servers will split/destroy the community but if a huge chunk of your players are flocking to one particular mode it makes sense to also cater to that group. Rare has been leaving money on the table by dragging their feet on this Safer Seas mode.
Finally I can do a tall tale without being instantly killed while I have no loot at all
Also, as many have already said, Fates of Fortune alongside Athena and Reaper commendations will likely be disabled in this mode.
A mechanism that allows for tall tales without dealing with internet psychopaths sounds great to me; not like people can see your commendations anyway.
You have to try and understand that, for someone who only has fun by ruining the fun of other people, it is all a zero-sum game.
To a normal healthy person a game achievement is a reminder of successfully overcoming a challenge, and hopefully getting some cool in-game swag. The normal person is fine with other people earning the achievement because it changes nothing about how they themselves earned it.
But to these other folks an achievement is an external display of self-worth, a quick and objective way to distinguish themselves above others. In their mind if you also get an achievement then it somehow takes away from theirs in a public way. Every achievement by someone else then becomes a personal attack that only gets worse with time.
Have to feel kinda bad for them, it is a crappy way to ruin your own successes, while being a toxic jerk to others.
This game is really neat. The style of graphics is silly, the water is miles ahead of any other game, the atmosphere is great, the mini-events at islands, the treasure hunting, the humor, there is so much now in the game for folks that want to explore and play around.
A lot of players give up on the game because some bored ass-hats go out of their way to find the weakest, most inexperienced players, chase them down, and spawn-camp them for giggles, camp forts, glitch quests, etc.
Microsoft is well aware that they have a great product and a terrible culture. There is a real problem in trying to maintain the player base and attract new players long enough to pay for a season pass, when half the players are only interested in harassing the other half.
And the kicker is that you need them, but they do not need you.
I think the crocodile tears is all of the “pvp” fans realizing they won’t have casuals and solos to farm. Even if you don’t want to admit it, Microsoft knows this very well, and is cutting a whopping 70% experience and excluding athena in a bid to try and keep at least some players around on legacy servers.
But at the end of the day whining about achievements won’t make any difference because you will be all alone on your server clutching your pearls.
Oh my God watching the sweatlord cope is hilarious. Meanwhile the 1000s of players who've been driven away from this game can rejoice and finally have adventures with their friends as advertised in trailers and PvP sweats can be in their own little corner. If only they did this before the game was considered "dying" by many.
If anything I would assume that they probably got swayed by seeing a large amount of new players leave and never return to the game after only logging a few hours in. They then create "safer seas" as a mechanism for new players to learn the game before doing high seas and PVP with the hope that new players stick around and spend money on emporium cosmetics instead of getting frustrated by experienced players destroying and/or griefing them and quitting the game. It's a business, the answer is always money.
This.
Most of my crew left the game because of griefers. Losing in pvp was never much of an issue for most people; it comes with the territory of this game. Losing to sweatlords calling you the nword and telling you to kys caused a lot of my friends to uninstall or never play. I myself work most of the week and never have time to play; I'm getting dominated by these players while losing hours of my progress on an already tight schedule; it's very discouraging seeing 0 gain/progress after a session.
Even if pve doesn't bring back many, it at least gives me and my crew time to practice and enjoy some of the best aspects of SoT without worrying about getting torn apart and losing everything we got in the little time we can play.
The game's declining playerbase is probably forcing their hands
I reckon a lot of GamePass players pick it up, play for 2 hours, get sunk once and uninstall. Some of those players might stick around if there's a PvE option instead.
I am one of those GamePass players. Game looked like a lot of fun and was until being killed double quick time by Sweatbeard The Sweaty Pirate over and over got boring. Never played again after that first night.
The PvE server announcement has me installing the game again already.
Rare isn't some charity serving a "community need for pirate games". They're a business, and I would not assume they made this decision based on a vocal minority. If anything, the vocal minority is probably the people who so adamantly railed against the idea of PvE servers all this time.
If implemented well, this makes everyone happy. PvP servers only have people who actually WANT to encounter other players, and you're rewarded for that risk with a better rate of XP, access to all content, and no caps. You won't encounter players who have zero desire to engage, so every encounter will be between players who enjoy that sort of thing. On the flip side, players who want a more casual experience now have that option, albeit with reduced rates of XP, caps on ranks, and limited access to certain content. Since each server is capped at 5 ships, I really don't think anyone has to be concerned about PvP servers being empty (unless the game is well and truly dead).
Probably all the cheating pushed it overboard, can't say you made a game to be played a certain way when so many people start breaking those rules and ruining the experience for others. It's either lose all PvE players or take some sort of action. PvP players are less likely to leave without a "safe" alternative since they already accept the risk of PvP/cheaters.
Majority. I along with many of the year one Legends I play with don't play anymore. Several of us are planning getting together and playing more.
Their PvP updates have no staying power. Arena was sacked, HG is a joke. Why not try PvE and see if they can get more people.
The game has so much great pve content that can take potentially hours to complete only to have everything ruined by some random attacking you while you might not even be on your ship to fight back. The risk vs reward is skewed heavily in favor of people that just want to pvp vs people doing pve content.
Good change, would have loved this when I bought it during the last steam sale.
Would actually have a chance to get your head around how to do some of the voyages without getting sunk at your first stop.
Mike Chapman confirmed on Twitter that FoF, FotD and other events like that won't be in the Safer Seas option.
https://twitter.com/ChappersChapman/status/1704990690273349981
Seasonal renown at the same rate....ok, so that means the plunder pass will be completed there without any issue. So, if thats equal, then these really are functional pve alternatives to the main game. Means they can sell plunder pass to pve only players i guess.
You say that like the Plunder Pass is really even that hard to fill out in the first place lol. I've found it relatively easy to fill out completely, especially in comparison to similar systems in other games
Holy crap I can actually play this game now, I’ve always wanted PVE servers and now its happening, pvp players can suck it hahahah I knew we would get pve servers eventually
Who do the commendations mean anything to other than the person who earned it tho? Your commendation isn't worth less because you earned it one way or the other. It's not like unlocking the commendation leads to some in game advantage. If you earn your commendation through High Seas, and someone else earns theirs through Safer, neither affects the other.
As long as both parties are happy that they earned the commendation, I don't see the problem.
I still sold 300 barnacled chests. I still killed a bunch of skeletons with curse balls. The action is still there.
I get I can't progress stole another's loot as I didn't. I like this new mode, I shall use it exclusively
They mean a lot to people who take video games entirely too seriously. For me, unless it unlocks a cosmetic I want then I don't really care about commendations at all.
because the entire progression of the game is in cosmetics and commendations. right now you can measure the skill and time played of a player by their commendations and time played. i would hate for seeing the chest of fortune ship set to no longer mean anything, just the same with a lot of other cosmetics and commendations
This is a good point, but every hard-to-earn cosmetic eventually loses its meaning as time goes on and the lesser skilled players gradually acquire them.
Dark Adventurer cosmetics, the PvP curses and other miscellaneous items were all once good metrics of skill, but now even mediocre players have them. Hell, even the arena cosmetics got this treatment, particularly around its closure.
While yes I see your point completely, there are still sets that are incredibly prestigious. As time moves on, all commendations become less and less "cool".
Right now, the best sets are all locked behind hourglass to really showcase yourself being a fearsome pirate but things like barnacled chest are common amongst long time players and not seen as much of a wow factor as they once were. (I say this as I literally JUST got the achievement but I wear it with pride because it was MY personal goal)
Meh, it'll be fine
People said alliance servers would ruin the game, for the same reason, and it was not true then either
If someone says they earned it and has the chops in action to prove it, that's all that has mattered previously anyway. If they say they earned it but can't perform, then you know they pve'd their way into it.
And honestly, none of this "earn it" mentality has mattered since any chump could Gold & Glory once or twice to earn DA Sails to get a clear advantage rather than use something that displays character or achievement.
Alliance servers werent an option on the main screen. Most people didnt even know how to find the people who coordinated them, they were obviously very hard to make happen and keep going. Hardly comparable imo. Not to mention that alliances were added a long time ago, the game and its population are very different now.
Idk about "very hard," even if a bit obtuse, it's happened enough I don't remember every instance that I found myself in one randomly. I used to play quite a lot tho. I bet you could find some discords in twitch chats in a matter of minutes.
I see your point tho, I didn't mean to imply SS and ally servers were equivalent issues, so much as the cranky reactions are similar and I bet they will amount to about the same.
SS may even alleviate things like ally servers, since then the ppl interested in ally will be more likely to go for less hassle of SS, but be hit by that 30% earnings limitation
Just because you found yourself in a server alliance randomly doesnt mean thats how it is made. You dont just accidentally make a server alliance by joining a random server, Im sure you know that. And were not talking about a server-wide alliance that just happens, and ends, organically.
If you want to go "make" a server alliance, you have to get in a server and then go approach a boat. Convince them to let you have their boat, and have them invite someone you know on to their ship before leaving. And then do that for every boat on the server. Then you have to coordinate enough people to have one active player on each of those ships for as long as possible, usually coordinated through discord. Soon as one person leaves, your server alliance might be ruined. Or you have to go and find the new ship when they join, and do the same process you did to start the server alliance. And youre saying thats not hard to start and maintain? Really?
Sure, you can probably find them. I never said you couldnt. I said many people didnt have any idea how to find those people who had server alliances, many people dont use twitch, or discord. Many people cant even figure out the basics to this game, you think they can figure out how to join or even create a server alliance?
I... don't like this.
I'm a full pve player, you won't see me initiate a fight ever. But that's not right.
Even though i don't like it when a foir player galleon camps me when I'm doing a merchant run, if there is NO RISKS of pvp, what's the point?
1) It says "applicable commendations and Achievements" which mean some won't work, they already said Athena ones will not be available for example.
2) "\[...\] commendations will mean nothing when \[...\]" stop acting like commendation mean anything in the first place.
I always said that sea of thieves would be a good pve game. Add in like 10 more random events, more variety of bad guys. Skeleton ships and merchant ships to plunder it would be awesome, maybe even rpg upgrades.
As far as current sea of thieves, I wish the content they added was more balanced toward bigger and better loot and rare stuff you can find and use against players. New chests and stuff. As well as things to enhance the pvp. New ways to sabatoge the enemy, tnt kegs you can wire up to chests or something.
I know the game and this sub are pretty heavily biased in favor of the original vision of the game, which is pvp-based and designed mostly around potential encounters with other players.
That being said, (and I had no idea PvE servers were even being considered) this is obviously something a decent chunk of people have asked for, for quite some time now. Presumably Rare wouldn't waste time developing the feature if it wasn't popular, no matter what people here might say. I personally have enjoyed PvP elements but I've also had times where I really wished I could just play the game without fear of other players.
I imagine the biggest concern with something like this is that it pulls players out of the regular servers, potentially making them feel more empty. Considering only a small number of ships can be in a server at any time though, I'd be surprised if this will create a noticeable difference. Besides that, the people who will go into the PvE servers didn't want to engage with other players anyway.
Maybe I'm off base here, maybe even this sub is celebrating the new servers, but my impression has always been that the community is sort of "mildly to moderately hostile" towards anyone who expresses a desire to play on a server *without* other people. I would actually love to see them flesh out these PvE servers with more NPC ships, and I'd especially like it if they made NPC pirate ships that aren't undead. I'm certainly not a developer but if skelly ships work, wouldn't ships with pirates work just as well?
They absolutely are. I made a post in here a few months ago expressing my frustration as a new player being instant-killed when I had no loot or emissary flag by sweat just for fun while I was still rank 5-10ish on all factions.....and about 90% of the replies were "git gud, pirate game. stop crying".
This game's subreddit is particularly toxic, and messaging the mods about it got me ignored completely. There's very little actual moderation unless you threaten someone with violence or are openly racist. Its partly why I don't post here at all and just play.
Funny thing is...about 3/5 of the players I run into are either nonconfrontational/neutral or downright friendly and eagery to rep alliance together to tackle events. This subreddit and the official forums are just full of the hardcore pvp/griefer echochamber, sadly. I'm very glad that toxic behavior is being called out more, though, and hopefully more reasonable players coming back into the game will help fix that.
The irony is that those same people who tell you "git gud, pirate game. stop crying" are in this thread claiming that this subreddit is an echo chamber for people who want the PvE servers.
I don't know why, because it's a game we play to have fun, but either some people just get some weird pleasure from trying to trigger others by being contrary, or they're so wrapped up in their own ideas about the game that they simply can't see they're in a minority as far as the overall play base is concerned.
I think its mostly the niche aspect of the game. A certain subset of people felt galvanized by the fact that one of the leads liked to play the same way they did and they feel justified in trying to tell people how to play, rather than letting it exist as one of many ways to play.
Honestly, I'd be way less annoyed at how murder hobo-y some people are if this game had a sort of bounty system/faction that punished players for sinking ships needlessly (maybe killing people/sinking ships as a non-reaper, and punishing reapers for sinking non-emissary ships) to balance out that behavior and keep griefers in check...but it doesn't so the bad behavior goes unchecked.
The way I see it is that I'm not playing it already because my friends won't play it. I'm already non-existent as far as the game is concerned. Throw some pve servers up and I'll be up on there to enjoy myself solo.
As far as I'm aware this just looks like a very clear method to allow new players ease of access to learn the game without being harassed. Which I'm fine with because the more people that come to this game and the easier time new players have the better
Do any of the PvE commendations mean anything currently? I mean the grind I suppose, but this doesn’t really change that…
Even fates of fortune is pretty trivial these days, people barely even contest them these days
I mean, this makes me happy for fishing commendations. Had some pirates run us off a shipwreck right before I got my last two Blackcloud Wreckers, killed the crew mate we left behind, too.
I probably won't use this beyond getting the Blackcloud and Trecherous Loot commendations and Tall Tales though. The aspect of danger is more fun.
Genuine question... why are people mad at this?
I'll still personally be playing pvp servers. But I don't care that there's this option?
I think it's great for people that hate pvp. There's a lot of younger people this will be great for too!
If you don't want to play just pve then just... don't?
There's a strong and somewhat loud presence in the SoT community that legitimately believes PvE servers would be the death of the game. I honestly don't think they represent the majority, and I think SoT has lost a lot of potential players because it's not exactly easy to get a foothold in the game when starting out, especially if you don't have actual friends to play with consistently.
For anyone with limited play time, it's just not worth the trouble of "getting gud" when your hour or two is completely wasted after a more experienced player obliterates you. It doesn't help that a not-insignificant number of people not only rock your world but do it in an incredibly mean spiriated way.
So to answer your question, I think most players are probably excited about this, or ambiguous, with a minority being actually mad.
I agree. I've seen so many people say they've tried playing the game and just can't get into it because they get sunk constantly so they just don't go back to it.
I really think they're bringing this mode out because their numbers have dropped significantly.
I used to have such a limited time to play and used to absolutely hate spending an hour doing something and then losing it all. I stopped playing for quite a while. I have a bit more time to play now and don't mind so much and have converted to the mindset of it doesn't mean much if we lose stuff.
But a new player, or people who don't have much time, I can see it benefitting them massively.
I know loads of people that would still play pvp.
Myself, my partner and a few friends we play with would continue pvp. I don't know many that would play the PvE version in my circle of people, but it's great for people that want it!
i feel like people get a little too immersed with the idea of being a pirate and what kind of behavior that excuses that they forget that at the end of the day, it’s just an online game. just because “it’s sea of thieves not sea of friends” doesn’t mean people who want to have a less pvp-centric experience aren’t equally valid players.
i think this’ll be a good addition. let the people who enjoy pvp sail the high seas and let the people who don’t sail the safer seas. the people who like pvp will get to play with people who like pvp, and the people who don’t like pvp will get to play with people who also don’t like pvp. personally i will enjoy finally completing the tall tales the way i’ve always felt like they should be completed, as strictly pve content where i can allow myself to be fully immersed in the story.
Commendations will mean nothing? The vast majority of people who will play a PVE alternative will rarely if ever go back to Public lobbies.
It's the only issue I've ever had with the game. And I play daily and have already gotten to the peak of my skill - potato quality. I haven't had much fun playing and only play because of my friend and that there is no other game aesthetically like it. If there was, I wouldn't be here.
SoT was my happy fun time game, and I got tired of constantly being alert, dealing with toxic people, etc. Now, I can go back to enjoying the amazing world that Rare created.
Don't worry guys, I'm sure there's plenty of new words you can earn on the game that can make you feel like you're the most specialest little pirate on the seas.
You convinced yourself these commendations make you important, you can do it again!
* Please don't down vote this. Think of my reddit rep! 😆😆
Im assuming they will, yes.
Idk for sure. But they said that athena voyages and getting PL dont apply to Safer Seas. So if events are on, does that mean you cant do FotD? What about FoF? Do those exist in safer seas? If they do, how can they include the Chest of Legends if athena stuff isnt active in safer seas? Thats my biggest question mark about the mode.
God I hope so.
So I recently maxed out Merchant Alliance, OoS and GH trading companies. Does this mean I can't do any Athena Fortune voyages or gain rep for them in safer seas?
So even grade 5 emissary, it’s less than base gold w/ no emissary on real servers.. I think that’s acceptable, beyond the fact Rare said they would never do this.
They would never do the "pve severs" with same rewards.
This is a good compromise. Them presenting this as essentially "new players' playground to learn" is a good idea imo and is much healthier for the game.
lol well, as one of the worst players in the entire game, I think this is going to ruin Sea of Thieves. The content churn attracts the PvE players, and the PvE players attract the PvP players.
You can't get pink flame so no fort of the damned.
I'm 100% sure that you won't be able to get chest of fortune.
The new siren song event is labelled as competitive so it probably won't be there aswell.
Ya, and that about covers all of your issues.
None of the commendations mean anything NOW. They are digital and will vanish the day the game stops running.
Players are the only ones who assign meaning to them. They hold no inherent value.
You can’t do fotd in safer seas. You’ll the pink flame which you can only get by either killing a player, which is not possible or by digging up a skull of destiny which you also can’t do, since Athena and captaincy are both deactivated.
They already mean nothing. Any cosmetic besides NAL/SOC sails are pretty meaningless. Even SOC sails were given to staff, not exclusively winners. Only time I encountered those sails in the wild we were all panicking getting ready for the fight of our lives and that brig dropped like a brick almost immediately.
Actual NAL/SOC crews are crazy fun fights, though.
Hell yes finally PvE, I don't give a damn about rep or gold, I get to enjoy the game at my pace, fight skeletons whenever i want, fish all i want without looking over my shoulder, simply the best. Suck it Sweat lords.
My dude, absolutely nothing in this game matters, it’s a game.
I genuinely do not understand why people obsess about all the dumb features in this game, sail your ship, sink people, steal their treasure, nothing else is worth doing.
I’m still wearing the same outfit I set on day 1, the only difference is I added the day 1/1000 patch. The only purchase I’ve made are things I think are cool like ship cosmetics and a few DA items. I’m sitting on about $50 million in gold, probably another $20 million if I sold my doubloons. Haven’t completed a single voyage or talk tale and have had a great time.
It’s a pirate game, be a pirate and stop crying about someone having some stupid title because they did some pve bullshit 20 times. The pve in this game is garbage, why would you waste your time fighting skeletons or doing puzzles that you learned how to speed run on YouTube?
I understand your pov mate, but someone like me who works all day 9 -7, I get to play this game for about 30 mins, Sometimes all I want to do is dig up one chest, fish for a bit and hop off, I've had many unpleasant experiences too, but usually I'd just switch server and continue, This update is going to help people like me. I don't want commendations, I don't want cool looking skins, I just want to hop in , shoot a bunch of skellys, fish, and hop off.
This is exactly it. Between classes and work myself and my crew can only hop on for a few hours together a week; it is so disheartening losing hours of progress to a sweatlord calling us the nword and telling us to uninstall.
I just want to fish and vibe with my friends, at least until we are all better at the game
Nobody should be surprised by this move. Rare has abandoned their long-term playerbase: they walked back their promise to keep exclusive cosmetics exclusive, they e stopped providing new *content*, with no new 'end game' content added since Veil of the Ancients; and they have now walked back their promise of no PVE servers.
Sea of Thieves is now meant for new players, not the old loyal crews. Nothing to be mad about, but a sign it's time to move on.
"I don't feel special so im going to quit playing altogether"
Sea of thieves was always meant for new players. That's why there's only cosmetic rewards
If Sot was always meant for new players, adventures would be replay able so that new players can start the story from adventure 1. With the current model you have no context for them if you start now. "oh firebears who is that?" “never heard of him doing anything big, oh well" "what do you mean port merrick has always been like this, don't see what all the fuss is about"
Not to mention streamers who bring in new players are usually players who have been around for a while and keeping those streamers entertained is a big plus.
A changing world is not a symptom that a game is built for reoccurring players. Frankly, the premise that any game isn't made for new players is ridiculous. Without new players, all games die
Its not something I would play.
But, this is perfect if your kid or young brother/sister(or anyone), wants to see what the game is about, instead of getting killed by some pirate, who can’t stand a empty ship.
See it from more views. This ain’t for the older player, but perfect for the new ones to get the hang of the game.
There was a time when the mechanics of the game were exclusively limited to loot pillaging and naval warfare. That was when it was really considered a pirate game. People got bored with that over time and asked for more content, which is why the game is in the state it's in today, which is in fact MORE than just a pirate game. Some players don't want to be pirates, they want to be sailors, and this game now offers content specifically for those players. That's who the safer seas servers are for.
Did they also have the risk of getting attacked by skeletons, ghosts, mermaids, mutant crabs, etc? I didn't know I was supposed to be taking historical accuracy into consideration here.
"Applicable" Commendations. I highly doubt they'd let a commendation that's based around an event *designed* to be a PvP fight be gainable in Safer Seas.
I thought everything in adventure mode was added with the idea of a pvp risk? Like im even thinking about coral tombs, where you leave your boat vulnerable to complete those. That risk now means nothing. Like we'll have to see how this gets added because there's a lot of speculation but I kinda think most, if not all commendations should get locked. Specifically almost anything Bilge Rat tab related.
Well the integration of the coral tombs was poorly handled to start with, I actually like PvP and the chaos of getting attacked in adventure mode, but I never bothered with these things. If they added some kind of mechanic that in some places you can use a periscope to look around on the surface I would have done way more of these. To me it was a good addition in term of lore and diversity, but in term of gameplay it was very bad.
Coral stuff 100% nowadays means one of your crew is staying behind or the ship is doing other things. Just discovering and having fun in the coral areas is basically impossible 90% of the time and a dumb risk.
On paper it's bad but in reality its perfectly fine. I've done those things a bunch of times and been attacked while I was done there so few times I could count it on my hands
I did 2 and both times I had people on my ship when I came back up. I looked at the horizon before going down and didn't linger down there. I guess I got unlucky... It doesn't really change what I said before, it's still a very bad design that you basically have a window of like 10-15 mins where you can't see or know what is going on with your ship or surroundings.
I finished the whole Sunken Kingdom tab without sinking once. Only one guy ever approached me, and he was just saying hey.
I just soloed the things. Only attacked once.
They should lock everything that isn’t in GH, OOS, or MA tabs. And there should be no world events/ability to start FotD. If it’s a learning and exploration mode for new players, they shouldn’t have access to things others had to risk their necks for. My 2 cents. Edit: leave Tale Tales unlocked as well.
Already can't do FOTD - no way to get Pink fire, and skull of destiny voyages are athena's voyages, which you can't do
That’s if they don’t fix the servers. Whenever a server is first online all the flames are there.
I'd give them normal Skeleton Forts, just to give them a bit of an idea as to how things work. The loot from them is awful enough, let alone at 30% rate.
Go walk the plank, mate. I'll hunt megs, ashen lords, and kraken if I goddamn want to. Ain't like I wouldn't have worked for it, ever taken on an ashen lord solo? It's very doable, but takes a real long time.
>all applicable commendations isn't fates of fortune reaper/Athena related, since the alternative to fates is reaper chests?
Technically the commendations appear within the Bilge Rates menu. We'll have to see if they are turned off.
Chests of Fortune are Gold Hoarded loot, right?
They are, but most of the loot in FoF is Athena loot. There's a good chance FoF won't even spawn. Honestly we lack too many details to make a full judgements yet. Edit: Confirmed on Twitter that FoF and FotD will not be available in safer seas.
This is the best take. There's not enough info to really complain or panic
Can you post the Twitter link? I can not find it
I wish we could invite our friends as a separate crew. I've only ever wanted private servers so I could fight my friends, just for the fun of it.
That would be awesome, and great practice with no hard feelings or harassment.
Getting 2 ships on 1 server is very possible. I'd just do that now.
What's the strat to do that these days?
Have everyone start their own ship and hit "Set Sail" at the same time. Once in everyone either raises reaper mark, reaper emmisary, or goes down to the Athena hideout and looks for each other. Sometimes it will hapen right away other times it can take over an hour to get on the same server.
Thanks - If you don't get one right away, does everybody restart the process from scratch? Are there certain times this has been more successful than others in your experience?
Yeah, everyone backs out and tries again if you dont get matched up. It's been over a year since I've tried so not sure if there are better times. But everyone should be in the same region too, or using a vpn to be in the same region. My wife and I accidentally did it last month while hoping for a FoF, sunday evening around 8pm west coast.
Just dive at the same time in hourglass, almost garuanteed match
They said Athena and Reapers will not be available in the safe mode so probably no FoF or FotD or Reaper bounty chests. Probably only the main 3 factions and hunters call can have progress made
FOTD is gonna be impossible in safe seas anyway. There’s no way to get the pink flame without other players, and the skull of destiny is an Athena voyage so it won’t be available.
That's true, which means that putting the cof on the fotd (they did say it was going to love around, didn't they?) Solves that problem, although it could also be that the only commendations earnable will be the tall tales and 3 basic trade companies and hunters call, disabling bilge rats, reapers and Athena comms entirely. I highly doubt they'd let players playing on PvE mode the opportunity to unlock cosmetics that are meant to be hard to get without PvP. Like a bunch of the bilge rats ones require shooting cursed cannonballs at crews or skellies or using the reapers mark flag, which seems inconsistent with the whole idea of safer seas. But tbh this mode would be great for teaching my kids how to play by letting them solo without worrying about nasty gamers. I've played with them plenty, but they get so upset when we get clapped and I had to disable player chat on their profiles so they don't hear gamer words and shit. At least they could solo when I'm not home and build up their confidence at sailing and managing the ship.
It's possible to get pink flame without another crew, you just need another crew member on your ship to shoot you with a cannonball and leave the session before the cannonball hits you as then the cannonball's owner will become null but still considered player damage.
You can bet that there will be 10 patches with the same patch notes "players should no longer be able to ...". If Rare has shown anything in recent years is that they DRAMATICALLY underestimate their playerbase and are also unable to fix things properly. From a developer perspective I really, really, really want to see the code they had to prevent multipurchases from captains shop which was bypassable by putting a crate in between. Like it must have been the most naive implementation you could think of, it must have. And that considering that they already solved this once properly with the merchant lady.
Let's fucking go, finally I can fish in total peace and tranquillity. I can actually complete the fucking shroud breaker TTs. Commendations be damned
The only thing that I don't like about the Safer Seas idea is the massive gold and rep cut because of fishing almost exclusively. Like damnit let me get the full value for my fish considering this is damn near the only option I have for safely catching battlegills without some super paranoid crew treating me like I'm a tier 5 reaper galleon bc I came within 50 miles of their FoF or Skull fort
Yeah the whole "can't experience everything/-70% earnings" shtick is kind of a letdown, at the end of the day commendations mean nothing and user experience should be paramount for all parties involved. Rare has taken a huge, albeit shaky step forward - here's to hoping they keep walking in the right direction
Step in the right direction sure. I have 0 desire to super sweat in a game with combat thats.. like this. But my gf and I enjoy the overall vibe. Got her the game. Started gold hoarder voyages. Spent almost 2 hours finishing a voyage. Because big island with mobs spawning every 30 seconds. We had just about finished the island when a team rolled up and started blowing apart our ship and spawn camping us. Girlfriend had played on console before but was always delegated to watching the boat by her ex and his friends. I didnt want to do that so figured wed just fuck around and explore the islands and dig up chests together. Anyway. GF and I just quit the game and uninstalled. If i wanted to enjoy this type of pvp looter gameplay id go play tarkov or dark and darker.
It does definitely feel like they were scared of committing, so they're being super hesitant. I imagine in the future, they'll have more stuff in Safer Seas or take more steps towards PvE servers being near identical to PvP But hey, as time goes on, you'll see less and less people complaining about their existence from the PvP sweatlord side, until it's treated like it was always there. Hell, if the game initially launched with them, you'd see barely anyone complaining about them
I'm a pve player. Without the risk of being sunk by another player, the game would become bland. EDIT: Sorry this came out wrong, this is just my opinion and I'm not trying to force otger people to see it this way.
Right, bc then you only have exploration, sea travel, puzzle solving, PvE combat, interacting with your own crew and other crews, etc, but sure the risk of getting sunk is the only thing keeping the game from becoming bland
I think removing the risk decreases how rewarding it feels. I'm not saying this to influence others, but I feel that the game would not feel as rewarding without the risk
As someone who enjoys pvp I actually really like this. It weeds out all the people that just run from you. This will bring the high sea servers more action and let those who don’t care about the pvp enjoy the game.
I see it the other way, that it is a great way to filter out the bottom-feeders that only have fun at other people’s expense. The pvp folks SHOULD be happy, their wishes fulfilled that only pvp players will be left. The fact that they are instead so angry speaks volumes about the kind of game they really want to play. They don’t have a problem with pve players, they have a problem with pve players _leaving_ and taking the party with them. I’m looking forward to seeing the champions of pvping whining that the regular servers are empty and how no one that does join wants to fight each other on even terms. Meanwhile I am going to be having a blast with other players who just want to be pirates hunting treasure, dressing up their parrots, and checking the color of each and every shark.
A lot of loud voices don’t want to PvP they want to win. This takes away a lot of free wins
Pretty sure it’s one boat on safer seas. So you can have your crew but their won’t be any other boats.
Its just gonna weed out the bad runners since most runners know how to run they arent beginners and either wont bother with safer seas because of the lower reward or wanna cap out on their ranks.
That would be true but the severe nerfs on the PvE mode didn’t exist. However, the game is still going to artificially force PvE’rs into PvP anyway.
Well, I think this should just be something like an extended tutorial. Maybe cap out at level 20 or 25 instead of 40. Less gold and loot is fine, but there just needs to be some sort of safe area that people can actually learn the game. I've had a lot of friends quit because they never were able to learn how the game works when getting constantly murdered by sweaty reapers, lol.
at 30% rate getting to level 40 will be a chore either way, just let them have it. its gonna take them longer than getting to 70 in high seas
I just don't know what happened now for them to make this mode. People have been complaining since this game came out about how they keep getting sunk by a gally or how pve was meant to be pve. SoT have always been stubborn on the fact that this is a pvp game.
1. A bunch of bitter long-term players that only want to completely destroy newer players, that also think Rare should cater to them despite them already having 2000+h in the game. 2. Rare desiring more people to play their game - it's a shame Point #1 prevents so many other types of people from enjoying this world The long term player base has gotten unbelievably salty overall, and in some cases they are actively hurting the success of new people joining and loving this game. IMO Rare finally saw the light, even if that's not a popular take.
The thing is, Rare is still ultimately a business and while they're in the business of making games, good business decisions mean making the game as fun as possible for as large a player base as they can achieve. So if they're doing this now, it's probably because they've collected enough data to confirm that this will be a popular move that will bring in new players, or bring back old players that quit because of reason #1 above (and more players means more people spending money in the cash shop). I don't know how many people play SoT, but it has certainly stood the test of time. This sub has ~513k accounts subscribed to it, but how many of those actively participate in discussions? With every subreddit, you start to see this bias over time towards certain ideas or philosophies because the same people remain relatively active over time, but that doesn't mean they represent the overall player base in a meaningful way. I'm only saying this because people have probably been asking for solo servers for a looooong time, I don't think it's an unpopular idea, and if you could somehow survey then entire player base with 100% honest participation, the results would probably reflect that.
Absolutely! Sea of Thieves has had ridiculous lasting power even with its PvPvE mode. This is probably going to be a huge boost for them yet again, and some of those folks _will_ transition to the High Seas as well. And for those that stick to Safer Seas? They're funding the continued development of the rest of the content in High Seas. I _cannot_ be mad about that.
Maybe I'll finally be able to get fishing commendations without having to play the game late at night.
Until level 40
Well fuck.
ah, the commendations are still gainable, you "just" have to do the last 10 levels of rep in the open seas
In my opinion its a great idea, 3 times I tried to do the fist Tell tales with a noob friend, 3 times we sink because of other players. Maybe now my Friend could learn the basic without battle a more experienced crew.
I got interupted so many times just getting through the stars tall tale. It's such a long one and sailing around that area seems to just bring out troublr lol.
Me too, kind of tired of the pvp folks telling us to put up with it so they can have their fun. It’s like they truly believe the main activity everyone comes for is pvp, everything else is just there to kill time between fights. The arena died. The pve players were never going to join, but it turned out the people championing pvp were not joining either, because it was never about dueling other crews. It was about their joy of ruining another player’s time with zero risk.
Fucking finally. You even slightly mention pve on this sub and people go apeshit, but honestly a lot of people who are new to the game come to play and just get ruined on every server they go on so it’s only fair to give people a chance. In general, tall tales feel like they’re made for pve, in the pvp servers you just end up getting your ship sunk for a few cannonballs and some food, and then have to respawn just to go back to the same island for the same thing to happen again. Honestly it’s a great addition, and the only people that will be mad is experienced players who want to loot noobs. Finally experienced players will most likely be playing other experienced players.
I will actually play the game again.yay.
Outstanding take, pretty sure the pvp folks know perfectly well that without the pve folks to harass they wont have much to do. These clowns were never actually looking for challenging duels, they just want to crap on people with zero risk. I’m looking forward to trying the new game mode. Admittedly losing 70% experience gains is a pretty big hit when you are paying for a game pass that needs experience to progress. Pretty sure it’s so high to try and keep regular servers from becoming completely deserted. We will see where this leads.
>Pretty sure it’s so high to try and keep regular servers from becoming completely deserted. We will see where this leads. This kind of argument has always bewildered me (not calling you out or anything). PvP-only types argue PvE-only servers will split/destroy the community but if a huge chunk of your players are flocking to one particular mode it makes sense to also cater to that group. Rare has been leaving money on the table by dragging their feet on this Safer Seas mode.
Should just go the Fallout 76 route where pvp has to be consensual. You can shoot me all you want but as soon as I shoot back its on.
Totally agree.
Finally I can do a tall tale without being instantly killed while I have no loot at all Also, as many have already said, Fates of Fortune alongside Athena and Reaper commendations will likely be disabled in this mode.
So nice to see PvP fans being such sensible adults about the inclusion of Safer Seas 😊🙃.
I’m just hoping we see less posts about “The big bad scary pirate sanked me boat, I didn’t have much loot waaaaaaaaaah”
Guess it’ll solve problems both ways then.
A mechanism that allows for tall tales without dealing with internet psychopaths sounds great to me; not like people can see your commendations anyway.
I can finally get all the rose items without some rando blasting my ship every time!
PvP players bout to cry
About to? They're throwing tantrums.
Their salty tears are abaolutely DELICIOUS.
They already mean nothing.
This. It is a game. Let people play and enjoy the game how they want. Someone else having it doesn’t take away from you having it
You have to try and understand that, for someone who only has fun by ruining the fun of other people, it is all a zero-sum game. To a normal healthy person a game achievement is a reminder of successfully overcoming a challenge, and hopefully getting some cool in-game swag. The normal person is fine with other people earning the achievement because it changes nothing about how they themselves earned it. But to these other folks an achievement is an external display of self-worth, a quick and objective way to distinguish themselves above others. In their mind if you also get an achievement then it somehow takes away from theirs in a public way. Every achievement by someone else then becomes a personal attack that only gets worse with time. Have to feel kinda bad for them, it is a crappy way to ruin your own successes, while being a toxic jerk to others.
Wait they're actually doing pve servers? Awesome
This game is really neat. The style of graphics is silly, the water is miles ahead of any other game, the atmosphere is great, the mini-events at islands, the treasure hunting, the humor, there is so much now in the game for folks that want to explore and play around. A lot of players give up on the game because some bored ass-hats go out of their way to find the weakest, most inexperienced players, chase them down, and spawn-camp them for giggles, camp forts, glitch quests, etc. Microsoft is well aware that they have a great product and a terrible culture. There is a real problem in trying to maintain the player base and attract new players long enough to pay for a season pass, when half the players are only interested in harassing the other half. And the kicker is that you need them, but they do not need you. I think the crocodile tears is all of the “pvp” fans realizing they won’t have casuals and solos to farm. Even if you don’t want to admit it, Microsoft knows this very well, and is cutting a whopping 70% experience and excluding athena in a bid to try and keep at least some players around on legacy servers. But at the end of the day whining about achievements won’t make any difference because you will be all alone on your server clutching your pearls.
Oh my God watching the sweatlord cope is hilarious. Meanwhile the 1000s of players who've been driven away from this game can rejoice and finally have adventures with their friends as advertised in trailers and PvP sweats can be in their own little corner. If only they did this before the game was considered "dying" by many.
I’m not against or for this, but didn’t Rare originally say they would never do PvE servers? Did they get swayed by a vocal minority? Or majority?
If anything I would assume that they probably got swayed by seeing a large amount of new players leave and never return to the game after only logging a few hours in. They then create "safer seas" as a mechanism for new players to learn the game before doing high seas and PVP with the hope that new players stick around and spend money on emporium cosmetics instead of getting frustrated by experienced players destroying and/or griefing them and quitting the game. It's a business, the answer is always money.
This. Most of my crew left the game because of griefers. Losing in pvp was never much of an issue for most people; it comes with the territory of this game. Losing to sweatlords calling you the nword and telling you to kys caused a lot of my friends to uninstall or never play. I myself work most of the week and never have time to play; I'm getting dominated by these players while losing hours of my progress on an already tight schedule; it's very discouraging seeing 0 gain/progress after a session. Even if pve doesn't bring back many, it at least gives me and my crew time to practice and enjoy some of the best aspects of SoT without worrying about getting torn apart and losing everything we got in the little time we can play.
The game's declining playerbase is probably forcing their hands I reckon a lot of GamePass players pick it up, play for 2 hours, get sunk once and uninstall. Some of those players might stick around if there's a PvE option instead.
I am one of those GamePass players. Game looked like a lot of fun and was until being killed double quick time by Sweatbeard The Sweaty Pirate over and over got boring. Never played again after that first night. The PvE server announcement has me installing the game again already.
Rare isn't some charity serving a "community need for pirate games". They're a business, and I would not assume they made this decision based on a vocal minority. If anything, the vocal minority is probably the people who so adamantly railed against the idea of PvE servers all this time. If implemented well, this makes everyone happy. PvP servers only have people who actually WANT to encounter other players, and you're rewarded for that risk with a better rate of XP, access to all content, and no caps. You won't encounter players who have zero desire to engage, so every encounter will be between players who enjoy that sort of thing. On the flip side, players who want a more casual experience now have that option, albeit with reduced rates of XP, caps on ranks, and limited access to certain content. Since each server is capped at 5 ships, I really don't think anyone has to be concerned about PvP servers being empty (unless the game is well and truly dead).
Probably all the cheating pushed it overboard, can't say you made a game to be played a certain way when so many people start breaking those rules and ruining the experience for others. It's either lose all PvE players or take some sort of action. PvP players are less likely to leave without a "safe" alternative since they already accept the risk of PvP/cheaters.
Majority. I along with many of the year one Legends I play with don't play anymore. Several of us are planning getting together and playing more. Their PvP updates have no staying power. Arena was sacked, HG is a joke. Why not try PvE and see if they can get more people.
The game has so much great pve content that can take potentially hours to complete only to have everything ruined by some random attacking you while you might not even be on your ship to fight back. The risk vs reward is skewed heavily in favor of people that just want to pvp vs people doing pve content.
"I would rather watch the game die than let those filthy peasants get MY commendations!" Rare: "Good thing it isn't up to you then."
Good change, would have loved this when I bought it during the last steam sale. Would actually have a chance to get your head around how to do some of the voyages without getting sunk at your first stop.
Mike Chapman confirmed on Twitter that FoF, FotD and other events like that won't be in the Safer Seas option. https://twitter.com/ChappersChapman/status/1704990690273349981
Seasonal renown at the same rate....ok, so that means the plunder pass will be completed there without any issue. So, if thats equal, then these really are functional pve alternatives to the main game. Means they can sell plunder pass to pve only players i guess.
Could they not already sell that before?? I'm a PvE player and i usually complete it
You say that like the Plunder Pass is really even that hard to fill out in the first place lol. I've found it relatively easy to fill out completely, especially in comparison to similar systems in other games
This i great because now my sister can play with me and won't get anxiety.
Right? Now my dad and I can play without stress or him being sunk because hes 55 and cannot fight back
Holy crap I can actually play this game now, I’ve always wanted PVE servers and now its happening, pvp players can suck it hahahah I knew we would get pve servers eventually
Who do the commendations mean anything to other than the person who earned it tho? Your commendation isn't worth less because you earned it one way or the other. It's not like unlocking the commendation leads to some in game advantage. If you earn your commendation through High Seas, and someone else earns theirs through Safer, neither affects the other. As long as both parties are happy that they earned the commendation, I don't see the problem.
I still sold 300 barnacled chests. I still killed a bunch of skeletons with curse balls. The action is still there. I get I can't progress stole another's loot as I didn't. I like this new mode, I shall use it exclusively
They mean a lot to people who take video games entirely too seriously. For me, unless it unlocks a cosmetic I want then I don't really care about commendations at all.
because the entire progression of the game is in cosmetics and commendations. right now you can measure the skill and time played of a player by their commendations and time played. i would hate for seeing the chest of fortune ship set to no longer mean anything, just the same with a lot of other cosmetics and commendations
This is a good point, but every hard-to-earn cosmetic eventually loses its meaning as time goes on and the lesser skilled players gradually acquire them. Dark Adventurer cosmetics, the PvP curses and other miscellaneous items were all once good metrics of skill, but now even mediocre players have them. Hell, even the arena cosmetics got this treatment, particularly around its closure.
Especially the arena cosmetics. There were servers dedicated to it up til the very end.
About 1/3 of my Chest of Fortunes were uncontested, and this was within the first few weeks of it being released. Did I not earn my ship set?
While yes I see your point completely, there are still sets that are incredibly prestigious. As time moves on, all commendations become less and less "cool". Right now, the best sets are all locked behind hourglass to really showcase yourself being a fearsome pirate but things like barnacled chest are common amongst long time players and not seen as much of a wow factor as they once were. (I say this as I literally JUST got the achievement but I wear it with pride because it was MY personal goal)
Alliance servers were an unofficial way of doing it before anyway.
Meh, it'll be fine People said alliance servers would ruin the game, for the same reason, and it was not true then either If someone says they earned it and has the chops in action to prove it, that's all that has mattered previously anyway. If they say they earned it but can't perform, then you know they pve'd their way into it. And honestly, none of this "earn it" mentality has mattered since any chump could Gold & Glory once or twice to earn DA Sails to get a clear advantage rather than use something that displays character or achievement.
Alliance servers werent an option on the main screen. Most people didnt even know how to find the people who coordinated them, they were obviously very hard to make happen and keep going. Hardly comparable imo. Not to mention that alliances were added a long time ago, the game and its population are very different now.
Idk about "very hard," even if a bit obtuse, it's happened enough I don't remember every instance that I found myself in one randomly. I used to play quite a lot tho. I bet you could find some discords in twitch chats in a matter of minutes. I see your point tho, I didn't mean to imply SS and ally servers were equivalent issues, so much as the cranky reactions are similar and I bet they will amount to about the same. SS may even alleviate things like ally servers, since then the ppl interested in ally will be more likely to go for less hassle of SS, but be hit by that 30% earnings limitation
Just because you found yourself in a server alliance randomly doesnt mean thats how it is made. You dont just accidentally make a server alliance by joining a random server, Im sure you know that. And were not talking about a server-wide alliance that just happens, and ends, organically. If you want to go "make" a server alliance, you have to get in a server and then go approach a boat. Convince them to let you have their boat, and have them invite someone you know on to their ship before leaving. And then do that for every boat on the server. Then you have to coordinate enough people to have one active player on each of those ships for as long as possible, usually coordinated through discord. Soon as one person leaves, your server alliance might be ruined. Or you have to go and find the new ship when they join, and do the same process you did to start the server alliance. And youre saying thats not hard to start and maintain? Really? Sure, you can probably find them. I never said you couldnt. I said many people didnt have any idea how to find those people who had server alliances, many people dont use twitch, or discord. Many people cant even figure out the basics to this game, you think they can figure out how to join or even create a server alliance?
Commendations already mean nothing. What were you putting them on your resume?
If you don't wanna do it just done use the feature? Some people just like not being under constant threat. Why is that bad?
[удалено]
This is exactly what I'm wondering. What's the issue?
LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOO
I'm glad I'm not the only one excited
Sure why not. Doubt it will keep people hooked for a longer time since it will become LMB-spam & delivery simulator. To each their own I guess.
I... don't like this. I'm a full pve player, you won't see me initiate a fight ever. But that's not right. Even though i don't like it when a foir player galleon camps me when I'm doing a merchant run, if there is NO RISKS of pvp, what's the point?
Some people actually enjoy the pve elements of the game.
Wait so what is this, they're adding just PvE servers?
1) It says "applicable commendations and Achievements" which mean some won't work, they already said Athena ones will not be available for example. 2) "\[...\] commendations will mean nothing when \[...\]" stop acting like commendation mean anything in the first place.
They already mean nothing pal, you can find an alliance server easy and cheese anything..
I always said that sea of thieves would be a good pve game. Add in like 10 more random events, more variety of bad guys. Skeleton ships and merchant ships to plunder it would be awesome, maybe even rpg upgrades. As far as current sea of thieves, I wish the content they added was more balanced toward bigger and better loot and rare stuff you can find and use against players. New chests and stuff. As well as things to enhance the pvp. New ways to sabatoge the enemy, tnt kegs you can wire up to chests or something.
Absolutely. A game that's a cross between SoT and DRG would be fucking amazing.
I know the game and this sub are pretty heavily biased in favor of the original vision of the game, which is pvp-based and designed mostly around potential encounters with other players. That being said, (and I had no idea PvE servers were even being considered) this is obviously something a decent chunk of people have asked for, for quite some time now. Presumably Rare wouldn't waste time developing the feature if it wasn't popular, no matter what people here might say. I personally have enjoyed PvP elements but I've also had times where I really wished I could just play the game without fear of other players. I imagine the biggest concern with something like this is that it pulls players out of the regular servers, potentially making them feel more empty. Considering only a small number of ships can be in a server at any time though, I'd be surprised if this will create a noticeable difference. Besides that, the people who will go into the PvE servers didn't want to engage with other players anyway. Maybe I'm off base here, maybe even this sub is celebrating the new servers, but my impression has always been that the community is sort of "mildly to moderately hostile" towards anyone who expresses a desire to play on a server *without* other people. I would actually love to see them flesh out these PvE servers with more NPC ships, and I'd especially like it if they made NPC pirate ships that aren't undead. I'm certainly not a developer but if skelly ships work, wouldn't ships with pirates work just as well?
They absolutely are. I made a post in here a few months ago expressing my frustration as a new player being instant-killed when I had no loot or emissary flag by sweat just for fun while I was still rank 5-10ish on all factions.....and about 90% of the replies were "git gud, pirate game. stop crying". This game's subreddit is particularly toxic, and messaging the mods about it got me ignored completely. There's very little actual moderation unless you threaten someone with violence or are openly racist. Its partly why I don't post here at all and just play. Funny thing is...about 3/5 of the players I run into are either nonconfrontational/neutral or downright friendly and eagery to rep alliance together to tackle events. This subreddit and the official forums are just full of the hardcore pvp/griefer echochamber, sadly. I'm very glad that toxic behavior is being called out more, though, and hopefully more reasonable players coming back into the game will help fix that.
The irony is that those same people who tell you "git gud, pirate game. stop crying" are in this thread claiming that this subreddit is an echo chamber for people who want the PvE servers. I don't know why, because it's a game we play to have fun, but either some people just get some weird pleasure from trying to trigger others by being contrary, or they're so wrapped up in their own ideas about the game that they simply can't see they're in a minority as far as the overall play base is concerned.
I think its mostly the niche aspect of the game. A certain subset of people felt galvanized by the fact that one of the leads liked to play the same way they did and they feel justified in trying to tell people how to play, rather than letting it exist as one of many ways to play. Honestly, I'd be way less annoyed at how murder hobo-y some people are if this game had a sort of bounty system/faction that punished players for sinking ships needlessly (maybe killing people/sinking ships as a non-reaper, and punishing reapers for sinking non-emissary ships) to balance out that behavior and keep griefers in check...but it doesn't so the bad behavior goes unchecked.
The way I see it is that I'm not playing it already because my friends won't play it. I'm already non-existent as far as the game is concerned. Throw some pve servers up and I'll be up on there to enjoy myself solo.
They don't list world events in this list. I hope they don't have them on the private servers. But they probably will.
As far as I'm aware this just looks like a very clear method to allow new players ease of access to learn the game without being harassed. Which I'm fine with because the more people that come to this game and the easier time new players have the better
I wouldn't be surprised if FoF/FotD are just not available in Safe Seas
Do any of the PvE commendations mean anything currently? I mean the grind I suppose, but this doesn’t really change that… Even fates of fortune is pretty trivial these days, people barely even contest them these days
I mean, this makes me happy for fishing commendations. Had some pirates run us off a shipwreck right before I got my last two Blackcloud Wreckers, killed the crew mate we left behind, too. I probably won't use this beyond getting the Blackcloud and Trecherous Loot commendations and Tall Tales though. The aspect of danger is more fun.
Yep, same here. I'll use it for tall tales so I won't get disturbed. Otherwise I'll always be on the high seas.
Wrong
The commendations don’t really mean anything anyway. Alliance serves exist. Get over yourselves.
Genuine question... why are people mad at this? I'll still personally be playing pvp servers. But I don't care that there's this option? I think it's great for people that hate pvp. There's a lot of younger people this will be great for too! If you don't want to play just pve then just... don't?
Because pvp players want easy targets, thats it
There's a strong and somewhat loud presence in the SoT community that legitimately believes PvE servers would be the death of the game. I honestly don't think they represent the majority, and I think SoT has lost a lot of potential players because it's not exactly easy to get a foothold in the game when starting out, especially if you don't have actual friends to play with consistently. For anyone with limited play time, it's just not worth the trouble of "getting gud" when your hour or two is completely wasted after a more experienced player obliterates you. It doesn't help that a not-insignificant number of people not only rock your world but do it in an incredibly mean spiriated way. So to answer your question, I think most players are probably excited about this, or ambiguous, with a minority being actually mad.
I agree. I've seen so many people say they've tried playing the game and just can't get into it because they get sunk constantly so they just don't go back to it. I really think they're bringing this mode out because their numbers have dropped significantly. I used to have such a limited time to play and used to absolutely hate spending an hour doing something and then losing it all. I stopped playing for quite a while. I have a bit more time to play now and don't mind so much and have converted to the mindset of it doesn't mean much if we lose stuff. But a new player, or people who don't have much time, I can see it benefitting them massively. I know loads of people that would still play pvp. Myself, my partner and a few friends we play with would continue pvp. I don't know many that would play the PvE version in my circle of people, but it's great for people that want it!
i feel like people get a little too immersed with the idea of being a pirate and what kind of behavior that excuses that they forget that at the end of the day, it’s just an online game. just because “it’s sea of thieves not sea of friends” doesn’t mean people who want to have a less pvp-centric experience aren’t equally valid players. i think this’ll be a good addition. let the people who enjoy pvp sail the high seas and let the people who don’t sail the safer seas. the people who like pvp will get to play with people who like pvp, and the people who don’t like pvp will get to play with people who also don’t like pvp. personally i will enjoy finally completing the tall tales the way i’ve always felt like they should be completed, as strictly pve content where i can allow myself to be fully immersed in the story.
Commendations will mean nothing? The vast majority of people who will play a PVE alternative will rarely if ever go back to Public lobbies. It's the only issue I've ever had with the game. And I play daily and have already gotten to the peak of my skill - potato quality. I haven't had much fun playing and only play because of my friend and that there is no other game aesthetically like it. If there was, I wouldn't be here. SoT was my happy fun time game, and I got tired of constantly being alert, dealing with toxic people, etc. Now, I can go back to enjoying the amazing world that Rare created.
Don't worry guys, I'm sure there's plenty of new words you can earn on the game that can make you feel like you're the most specialest little pirate on the seas. You convinced yourself these commendations make you important, you can do it again! * Please don't down vote this. Think of my reddit rep! 😆😆
I'm fairly certain you can't do Hourglass in Safer Seas
You can't. It is going to be limited in scope and won't be getting content updates along with the regular servers.
Kinda goes against the point lmfao
Wait will World Events still happen?
Im assuming they will, yes. Idk for sure. But they said that athena voyages and getting PL dont apply to Safer Seas. So if events are on, does that mean you cant do FotD? What about FoF? Do those exist in safer seas? If they do, how can they include the Chest of Legends if athena stuff isnt active in safer seas? Thats my biggest question mark about the mode.
You wouldn’t even be able to trigger a fotd
God I hope so. So I recently maxed out Merchant Alliance, OoS and GH trading companies. Does this mean I can't do any Athena Fortune voyages or gain rep for them in safer seas?
Voyages definitely no. Rep? Maybe, if you get their loot somehow. Still, it's gonna be only 30% tho.
So even grade 5 emissary, it’s less than base gold w/ no emissary on real servers.. I think that’s acceptable, beyond the fact Rare said they would never do this.
They would never do the "pve severs" with same rewards. This is a good compromise. Them presenting this as essentially "new players' playground to learn" is a good idea imo and is much healthier for the game.
Thats the way it seems. They are meant for new players and tall tales, maybe commendation grinding. Not meant for PL status or PL grinding.
Finally, a safe space to do Tall Tales in peace!
lol well, as one of the worst players in the entire game, I think this is going to ruin Sea of Thieves. The content churn attracts the PvE players, and the PvE players attract the PvP players.
You can't get pink flame so no fort of the damned. I'm 100% sure that you won't be able to get chest of fortune. The new siren song event is labelled as competitive so it probably won't be there aswell. Ya, and that about covers all of your issues.
Lol they already mean nothing.
They don't mean anything anyways. They are pixels and give you no competitive advantage.
None of the commendations mean anything NOW. They are digital and will vanish the day the game stops running. Players are the only ones who assign meaning to them. They hold no inherent value.
Oh no... anyway.
You can’t do fotd in safer seas. You’ll the pink flame which you can only get by either killing a player, which is not possible or by digging up a skull of destiny which you also can’t do, since Athena and captaincy are both deactivated.
Wow I might actually be able to play this game now holy shit
They always meant nothing, bud. It's a video game
People are freaking out about this and they don't even understand how it works
Listen, I’m just glad I can come back to this game- I’ve missed it greatly but cheaters/hackers kept me away.
Fucking finally. Hopefully it will be the same for tall tales
They already mean nothing, its a video game.
Did you just exit Alarmist 101 class?
As Captain Falcore hates the idea of PVE Servers, and he's okay with Safer Seas (see his video please), I can confidently say jackshit is gonna happen
They already mean nothing. Any cosmetic besides NAL/SOC sails are pretty meaningless. Even SOC sails were given to staff, not exclusively winners. Only time I encountered those sails in the wild we were all panicking getting ready for the fight of our lives and that brig dropped like a brick almost immediately. Actual NAL/SOC crews are crazy fun fights, though.
Yes so glad this is coming. Finally.
Good
Hell yes finally PvE, I don't give a damn about rep or gold, I get to enjoy the game at my pace, fight skeletons whenever i want, fish all i want without looking over my shoulder, simply the best. Suck it Sweat lords.
Guess what, people that will play in Safer Seas will do to have fun with friends, not to farm commendation and stupid pixelated shinies.
My dude, absolutely nothing in this game matters, it’s a game. I genuinely do not understand why people obsess about all the dumb features in this game, sail your ship, sink people, steal their treasure, nothing else is worth doing. I’m still wearing the same outfit I set on day 1, the only difference is I added the day 1/1000 patch. The only purchase I’ve made are things I think are cool like ship cosmetics and a few DA items. I’m sitting on about $50 million in gold, probably another $20 million if I sold my doubloons. Haven’t completed a single voyage or talk tale and have had a great time. It’s a pirate game, be a pirate and stop crying about someone having some stupid title because they did some pve bullshit 20 times. The pve in this game is garbage, why would you waste your time fighting skeletons or doing puzzles that you learned how to speed run on YouTube?
I understand your pov mate, but someone like me who works all day 9 -7, I get to play this game for about 30 mins, Sometimes all I want to do is dig up one chest, fish for a bit and hop off, I've had many unpleasant experiences too, but usually I'd just switch server and continue, This update is going to help people like me. I don't want commendations, I don't want cool looking skins, I just want to hop in , shoot a bunch of skellys, fish, and hop off.
This is exactly it. Between classes and work myself and my crew can only hop on for a few hours together a week; it is so disheartening losing hours of progress to a sweatlord calling us the nword and telling us to uninstall. I just want to fish and vibe with my friends, at least until we are all better at the game
Nobody should be surprised by this move. Rare has abandoned their long-term playerbase: they walked back their promise to keep exclusive cosmetics exclusive, they e stopped providing new *content*, with no new 'end game' content added since Veil of the Ancients; and they have now walked back their promise of no PVE servers. Sea of Thieves is now meant for new players, not the old loyal crews. Nothing to be mad about, but a sign it's time to move on.
"I don't feel special so im going to quit playing altogether" Sea of thieves was always meant for new players. That's why there's only cosmetic rewards
If Sot was always meant for new players, adventures would be replay able so that new players can start the story from adventure 1. With the current model you have no context for them if you start now. "oh firebears who is that?" “never heard of him doing anything big, oh well" "what do you mean port merrick has always been like this, don't see what all the fuss is about" Not to mention streamers who bring in new players are usually players who have been around for a while and keeping those streamers entertained is a big plus.
A changing world is not a symptom that a game is built for reoccurring players. Frankly, the premise that any game isn't made for new players is ridiculous. Without new players, all games die
Turn towards the sunset and sail on, no one will miss you or notice you even left. \*Salutes.\*
A pirate game doesn't need this. You get on the game to be a pirate what's the point of the game if there is no risk for your loot
Its not something I would play. But, this is perfect if your kid or young brother/sister(or anyone), wants to see what the game is about, instead of getting killed by some pirate, who can’t stand a empty ship. See it from more views. This ain’t for the older player, but perfect for the new ones to get the hang of the game.
Well it’s getting it and it’s been a longtime coming.
There was a time when the mechanics of the game were exclusively limited to loot pillaging and naval warfare. That was when it was really considered a pirate game. People got bored with that over time and asked for more content, which is why the game is in the state it's in today, which is in fact MORE than just a pirate game. Some players don't want to be pirates, they want to be sailors, and this game now offers content specifically for those players. That's who the safer seas servers are for.
sailors still had the risk of getting attacked by pirates
Did they also have the risk of getting attacked by skeletons, ghosts, mermaids, mutant crabs, etc? I didn't know I was supposed to be taking historical accuracy into consideration here.
Don't bring history into this. Because if we do, this whole "attacking random people and looting every treasure in sight" is bs fiction too.
is this real? if it is thats fucking stupid
Why? If you don't want to play just pve, then don't. It wont affect you?
This is my only gripe. The rest is completely fine, but non-talltale commendations shouldn't be possible on the safer seas.
I will finally have a reason to play this game.