it’s not really the best thought out plan
The goal of the game is not to get chests. The goal of the game is to be a pirate and steal other people’s chests. Turning the chests into tokens that need to be stored and carried back somewhere expands the time they can be stolen by other players. If they could be opened and looted right away then there would be little to steal.
Yeah, I mean, I understand that. I just mean it would be more fun if you took it to someone and they pried open the lock and you got your reward. Not just handing it to some guy and you get a few bucks. It’s just a theme thing, not mechanics.
Eventually they will realize this and sell keys to open chests.
Yes, but nothing about that gameplay requires that you are never able to open the chests either on the island or at redemption time. You don’t need to change anything about redemption, just having the treasures be something other than cubes would make a huge difference from my perspective. Opening the treasure and seeing a bunch of random gold and jewelry or whatever would make a big difference in my eyes, even if I still just lugged the thing back to the same 1 dude who apparently has an army of people re-burying them.
The funniest/weirdest thing for me, is seeing “there’s no grind” quite a bit, as a defense of the game. To me, it seems to have one of the worst and most shallow grinds in the history of gaming. If you absolutely loved the PvP, just for the sake of doing it, and had 3 other friends that also felt the same way, you could probably get some hours out of this, other than that, I just don’t see it.
There is no grind in the sense that it is a game you can pick up and play for as little or as long as you like, put down at any time, be able to join your friends and have literally no reason to raid for hours. It’s the ultimate pick up and play sandbox.
If you try and play it 5 hours a day, I’m sure it will feel grindy and repetitive. But why should every game be designed to have to be played 5 hours 3 times a week to try and loot that one item?
Funny and weird, you say? I feel the same about your description of it being one of the worst grinds.
There’s only grind if you’re trying to power your reputation. We’ve just been doing what the hell we want and our reputation has been naturally going up from the things we’ve been finding and bringing back.
The other night we literally spent an entire session just dealing with a single skeleton fort and other crews and had a blast, even if we lost a good chunk of our booty.
Last night for a change of pace we just did a few contracts and explored some islands discovering various things throughout. We encountered the kraken, we found a cannonball crate which was exciting because it’s a utility chest and saleable item (I’d love to see more of these kinds of things), we laughed at the Chest of a Thousand Grogs, we found some mysterious journals that gave us more maps for more booty and encountered plenty of other ships along the way. The pvp tension is always there and adds so much more to the experience than if this was pure single-player or co-op. My friend told me about a ‘Chest of Sorrow’ that cried water into his hold, which I thought was brilliant. Here was my favourite moment of the session though:
If you’re trying to work out what’s happening here: Halis is trying to light the map up so Bumhead can see it, but the lantern is right in front of his face so he can’t see anything. His fidgeting about to see around it before being left there in the dark kills me. We could have all looked at our own maps near other light sources but this moment of co-op role-playing was so much funnier and I’ve now got it immortalised. Unscripted mechanics driven comedy.
What Rare are doing here is unlike any other AAA multiplayer or open world game. There’s a beautiful and dynamic world with no story bookending it, or many of the voyages/contracts you undertake. Said voyages /contracts are simply reasons to journey across the world for Macguffins to clamber over with other players. What’s in those chests doesn’t really matter, it’s the getting them then getting them back safely that matters. Nobody needed to know what was in the suitcase to enjoy Ronin. All the pve and traditional quantifiable content is there to facilitate the pvp. I love that there’s no leveling up your character or gear to pore over or crafting or other types of menu faff. It feels very pure and confident to just offer a bunch of very simple verbs and nouns and say ‘Have at it’. The sub reddit is a fantastic source of entertainment borne out of this.
And as corny as it sounds, the reward for playing the game is… the enjoyment of playing the game. I enjoy being in Sea of Thieves and enjoy doing whatever it is I’m doing, whether it’s feeding a stupid pig so it doesn’t starve on the way back, working out where this damn X is, snuffing lanterns out at night, playing Ride of the Valkyries on a hurdy gurdy into a storm, poking around islands or just enjoying the breathtaking scenery, sunsets and sublime sound design. The cosmetic rewards and reputation are gravy. My crew and I are having so much fun with the game as it is right now, just dipping in and seeing what the session brings us.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d welcome more things to do and experience because I trust Rare to stay true to the spirit of the game, but at the same time I hope they don’t dilute their vision with more traditionally game-y stuff because it’s currently such a refreshing experience to me and my friends. I’m getting so much value out of this that simply cannot be measured in reputation or hours played or Great British Pounds or achievements or whatever. I’m not sure exactly how long I’ve been playing Sea of Thieves (because apparently logging your time isn’t a thing with consoles and the Xbox App) but I estimate between 10 and 20 hours. I don’t foresee my enjoyment dropping off a cliff into shark-infested waters however, and I feel very happy with my purchase at present.
Yes, I’m sure everyone in this thread is just eyeing that Merchant level and cackling with glee at how much “fun” getting that to 50 is going to be.
Totally agree, and thanks for the good description. I just finished a 3 hour session with a full Galleon of old friends. It was a blast!
That’s exactly it. Totally agree with your description and I’ve been enjoying reading about your adventures. Hope we get to sail at some point.
I’m not sure what you mean? (Genuinely. I don’t mean to be obtuse, but I’m not sure exactly how to read your post)
You guys will have to excuse McMaster for his grumpiness this morning. He was recently fired by Trump.
I played this with my 6 year old last night. This is the first time we’ve done a multiplayer game together over Xbox Live. He was in the other room on the old Xbox (I got the X), which is still tagged as my Home Xbox so he was able to use SoT and Xbox Live on it without paying extra.
We had a blast. This is the perfect game to play with kids. Get quests, sail, screw around. Dig up treasure. He was excited just to find the treasures. I would hold up the map and he’d try to find the X, and with a little coaching he’d get it.
I noticed in the latest patch they put more stuff on the islands too. Just loose bananas and planks, but it helps. I want to see them add in more things to let you screw around. Like maybe ropes to swing on to drop into lagoons, or mini games where you shoot targets with the sniper rifle. The kids would like that.
On a re-read, it’s not very clear. I mean to say that the other 2 factions are fun to level up and go on quests for, but the Merchant’s is a total bummer. For me at least.
I think my briefings were super interesting!
One of the things I like about the Merchant voyages is that they encourage exploring random islands in a way that the Order of Skulls and Gold Hoarder voyages don’t. While the cargo might be a bigger pain to collect and transport, we’ve often found other chests, crates, cages, flagons, gun powder barrels, mysterious journals and messages in bottles looking for specific pigs or chickens. I know a lot of folk say there’s not much to find on the islands but it’s exciting when you do stumble across something, and often those items increase your rep when sold to the Merchants too. It’s all bonus booty.
I actually think those things were there before the patch because I remember going ‘huh, loose bananas and planks!’ on one island when spotting a broken crate. You could be right though. I’d love Rare to pepper the islands – the game in fact – with stuff and not tell folk. I’m all for transparency but discovering things seems very much in the spirit of Sea of Thieves so I’d like to see more of that. Those little cave systems, wall paintings and ritual areas and campfires are awfully tantalising…
Posted upthread!*** Thanks @Wendelius
Angry Joe isn’t fond of it. 4/10
Anyway after watching his review, I am sad that you don’t peel the banana’s when you eat them. They could have been the perfect ground traps.
Already posted upthread (3 days ago)
I thought you were a rear admiral. This is all so confusing!