How would *you* steer the SS Grapeshot?

[Gorelander 38]

There are a lot of decisions that have been made that make me want to facepalm.  If you were leading Grapeshot, what changes would you make to this game to point it in a proper direction?  Here is my list:

• Firstly fix the bugs as the number one objective.  You need to have a functioning infrastructure to build a game upon.  Do all the testing on the PTR and wipe the PTR regularly instead of the main servers everyone plays on.  
• Personally I would forget the land hoarding, land conquest aspect of the game and create a good pirate adventure game as the primary focus.  
• Create a game that allows for healthy gaming practices.  Negative things shouldn't happen to someone if they're not online.  That being said there should be a mechanic to dissuade people from being offline for long periods of time tying up land, or logging off to avoid getting attacked.
• Slow down the aging process.  You age far too fast.  I have that experience already in RL.
• Stop catering to the mega companies.  New players need a fair gaming experience if you want to grow this game.

I think they should create factions in the game that a player could align with depending on their playing style:

1. the Royal Navy (PCs),
2. Pirate Outlaws (PCs),
3. Wild Pirates (NPCs),
4. Merchant Guilds (PCs) - if they want to perpetuate the land-claiming objective, and
5. the Cursed/ Damned (NPCs?).

 As a player you can gain reputation with these PC groups which can gain you certain benefits either via skills, access to larger builds, quests, or ship cosmetics.  

Certain cells are "lawful/ crown governed" and thus easier to settle on (less dangers and less wild animals) but you have to pay tax, potentially on ships and shipyards.  This could explain why you have to pay gold to build a ship/ shipyard.  You could have a mechanic whereby if a player is attacked on lawful areas, the game could spawn some NPC naval ships that would attack the grieving player.  This could be beneficial for starting players.

If you join a faction and attack another faction, there could be a bounty put on your head.  On PVP servers you could even spend gold to put a bounty on another players/ company's head.  Any player can check the bounties and try to hunt down that player/ company.  If they sink that player they get the bounty amount.  A whole career can be made as a pirate "bounty hunter" or a Naval officer chasing down scoundrels.  I think this would be a fun game mechanic.

These are early ideas and after writing them, some ideas remind me of some elements of Sea of Thieves.  However SoT is a functioning game with a decent amount of polish so it's not a bad idea to look to them for working examples.

 

Edited December 24, 2021 by Gorelander
Shortened the post to make it easier to read.

[George of the jungle 77]

3 hours ago, Gorelander said:

There are a lot of decisions that have been made that make me want to facepalm.  It gives me little confidence that this game is going to turn into something worth playing long-term.  If you were leading Grapeshot, what changes would you make to this game to point it in a proper direction?

• Firstly fix the bugs as the number one objective.  You need to have a functioning infrastructure to build a game upon.  Do all the testing on the PTR and wipe the PTR regularly instead of the main servers everyone plays on.  
• Personally I would forget the land hoarding, land conquest aspect of the game and create a good pirate adventure game as the primary focus.  
• Create a game that allows for healthy gaming practices.  Negative things shouldn't happen to someone if they're not online.  That being said there should be a mechanic to dissuade people from being offline for long periods of time tying up land, or logging off to avoid getting attacked.
• Keep the game's setting undetermined that is we don't know if it's earth or another world or exactly what time frame it is.  For example, don't call it the "Africa biome" etc.  This gives more creative freedom.  However the game must adhere to the public mental concept of pirates as much as possible.

Now this is just me spitballing some story ideas, many potentially premature and could seem incomplete because I don't want to ramble on more than I already have:

I think they should create a backstory about a monarch that is trying to control the seas so you can either faction with the King/ Queen via Royal Navy, be a straight outlaw pirate, or if they want to perpetuate the land claiming idea, a merchant company.  There are essentially 4 or 5 different groups: the Royal Navy (PCs), Pirate Outlaws (PCs), Wild Pirates (NPCs), Merchant Guilds (PCs), and the Cursed/ Damned (NPCs?).  As a player you can gain reputation with these PC groups which can gain you certain benefits either via skills, access to larger builds, or ship cosmetics.  The starting area should be on the edge of a map which is actually "mainland".  Unless this is the movie "Waterworld", there is likely mainland somewhere.  The player sets out on their own in search of adventure.

Another way to launch a player would be to have a cinematic with them setting sale as a crew member on an NPC boat but get caught in a storm (or sucked into a portal).   During this storm they could have a tutorial on how to do things in the game (control the boat) or just allow the player to skip it altogether.  They end up getting shipwrecked on an unknown island.   Here they have to build a boat/ raft and try to find their way.  The advantage here is they can allocate the player to the least populated area automatically, and spread the player population out.  This would really spin the game as a survival game.

Certain islands are "lawful" and thus easier to settle on (less dangers and wild animals) but you have to pay tax, potentially on ships and shipyards.  This could explain why you have to pay gold to build a ship/ shipyard.  You could have a mechanic whereby if a player is attacked on lawful areas, the game could spawn some NPC naval ships that would attack the grieving player.

If you join a faction and attack another faction, there could be a bounty put on your head.  On PVP servers you could spend gold to put a bounty on another players/ company's head.  Any player can check the bounties and try to hunt down that player/ company.  If they sink that player they get the bounty.  A whole career can be made as a pirate "bounty hunter".

One PVE servers players can ban together to fight Wild Pirate settlements and ships in order to claim land and bounty.  This would hopefully promote players working together rather than grieving each other.

These factions could launch some really interesting quests from questgivers (go retrieve a live elephant for 10,000 gold).  This gives the game potential to be turned into a MMORPG.

These are some early ideas and after writing them, some ideas remind me of some elements of Sea of Thieves.  However SoT is a functioning game with a decent amount of polish so it's not a bad idea to look to them for working examples.

 

Factions. I will give a better answer later. Just busy right now.