🛈 Announcement
Greetings! Skull & bones forums are now archived and accessible in read-only mode, please go to the new platform to discuss the game
  1. #1

    An Attempt at Constructive Suggestions and Game Questions

    In light of some of the questions and complaints that have been proliferating both on the Ubisoft forums and the Steam forums, and the overwhelming negativity that often accompanies them, I wanted to take a stab at a thread that aimed to try to get at what players really want out of Skull & Bones, and what reasonable opportunities there might be for the game to address those between now and whenever things ultimately get finalized.

    As such, I'd like this thread to be one for constructive and critical suggestions or requests. I'd ask that folks please approach this as positively as they can, and to also try to bear in mind what we already know about the game so far in terms of what is does and does not contain and what it is and is not intended to be. Ultimately, the game is a pirate-themed naval combat and loot-progression game. It is not a character-focused adventure-and-hijinks sandbox game. Please bear that in mind as you contribute.

    If you feel like a particular feature or addition you want doesn't fit the type of game that Skull & Bones is mechanically intended to be, I'd suggest thinking about why you want that. What ultimate "want" are you trying to fulfill with this feature? Are there other ways to satisfy that want that would make more sense in a naval ship combat / loot-progression game?




    My own initial suggestions are pretty mild, but I figured I'd throw them out just to get the ball rolling:

    1. I would like to be able to have multiple (say, three?) custom "loadouts" that I can swap between in my hideout for my captain. I'd also like to be able to set two or three "loadouts" for each of my ships. For folks familiar with the For Honor "outfits" that allows each champion to have three cosmetic-and-gear loadouts and they can switch between whenever they aren't in a match, I'm thinking something similar to this. This would give players more flexibility in their customization "arsenal" and let them swap between different aesthetics (for the cosmetic customization) and between different gear loadouts quickly and without having to switch each "unit" of customization one at a time.

    2. Currently we don't really know what form "naming" is going to take. Will we be able to name our pirates (independently of our uPlay ID)? Will we be able to name our ship at all? Will we be able to name each ship individually? It's unknown.

      What I would like: I'd like to be able to name my captain independently of my uPlay name. If I can have multiple outfit "loadouts" for my captain, I'd like to be able to name each of them. That said, if captain names aren't actually visible anywhere in the game (we never saw any captain names in the gameplay demos other than Abraham Samuel, the named henchman of La Buse), then I could take a pass on this one. Ultimately, the captain is an extension of me, so if the captain can only have the player's uPlay name, so be it.

      But more importantly than that, I absolutely crave the ability to name each of my ships (bonus points for being able to name each ship loadout) individually. I want to be able to boast a fleet with ship names like Plunderstruck, Nor'easter, and maybe, yes, even Flawbringer.

    3. This is more of a mechanical suggestion, and for all I know it might already be in the game, but we haven't seen any evidence of it yet:

      Realistically, raking fire (in which a ship fires at a very shallow angle to a target's sides, or at a nearly-perpendicular angle to a target's bow or stern) has the potential to be much more damaging than firing perpendicular to the port or starboard side of a target's hull. The reason is that raking shots travel through much more of a ship's hulls / sails / cannons and crew than a shot that simply goes "in one side and out the other". This premise is similar (but technically not identical) to Crossing the T.

      While raking fire in S&B's combat already seems like it will be advantageous by the simple reason that your target will have few cannons available to return fire (or possibly even none if it's a stern rake; we haven't seen any stern-mounted cannons in the game yet), the devs have already stated the desire to make tactical positioning using the wind and ship maneuvers a key determining factor in a fight. I'd like to play this up even more by giving raking fire either better damage outright, or maybe a higher chance for dealing a "critical hit" (whatever that entails) to the target, further rewarding the player with the better positioning.


    So that's what I've got for now. I'd like to hear thoughts from other folks about what they're like to see added to further add some meat onto the game's naval bones.
     1 people found this helpful
    Share this post

  2. #2
    I would love some poker in the hideout or any mini game for that matter. I heard they have a tavern from one of the interviews Farren did.
    Share this post

  3. #3
    There was one more thing i just thought of that i forgot. Im cool with cut scene boarding. I get it. I just hope its not the same repetitive cut scene over and over. Kinda ruins the immersion. I hope they have a ton of various scenes since holding "a" is gonna be a huge part of the game. I wouldnt mind if you could unlock cut scenes either. That would be cool. The higher you level up, the more brutal the end result lol.
    Share this post

  4. #4
    Originally Posted by jamvillemusic Go to original post
    There was one more thing i just thought of that i forgot. Im cool with cut scene boarding. I get it. I just hope its not the same repetitive cut scene over and over. Kinda ruins the immersion. I hope they have a ton of various scenes since holding "a" is gonna be a huge part of the game. I wouldnt mind if you could unlock cut scenes either. That would be cool. The higher you level up, the more brutal the end result lol.
    Justin's said in interviews and elsewhere that boarding is still something they're working on improving and cleaning up. I would definitely be in favor of having some variety in the cutscenes in order to keep things from getting too stale, and the idea of being able to unlock new cut-scenes is definitely an interesting one.

    I've seen a number of people talk about adding "distractions" or "mini-games" to the game, so that people have something to do when they just want some chill downtime or something. I can think of a few options here, although I don't know how much I'm sold on any of them:

    • "Tavern Games" that you can play from your hideout (or from neutral ports, if such things exist), like poker or liar's dice, etc. The issue I foresee with something like this is that it's drawing people away from the core of the gameplay. You want people to be logging in for the PvPvE dynamic world / hunting grounds so that that world stays populated and fresh. You don't want them logging in for two hours of Liar's Dice. Other online games-as-service offerings (For Honor, R6S, maybe the Division?) don't need these "sidebar distractions" and are able to succeed on the strength of having a versatile and consistently fresh core (whether through multiple options for heroes to play, multiple game modes for when you're feeling like something different, periodically-refreshing orders to give you mini-objectives, that sort of thing).

    • Having "lower-stress" or "less aggressive" mission options for people who want to have a more relaxed outing from time to time. Something like a trade or delivery mission, or reconnaissance to scout out an area and report back to [somewhere]; here I'm thinking of having some missions that don't require combat. The opportunity and threat of engagement will still be there (it always is in the world), but provided that players have tools at their disposal to try to avoid such things, it might be nice to have some objectives of the more relaxed variety. The caveat of course is that there's no guarantee such a mission will be relaxing, and people who are trying to do "chill" missions are likely to get extremely angry at / hostile towards other players who interrupt said missions with a friendly gift of artillery fire.


    I don't really know what the answer is, ultimately, but the idea is perhaps one worth kicking around. Ultimately, though, you don't want sidebars to have to support the main gameplay. You want the core of the game itself to be consistently engaging enough with diverse, unique experiences each time you fire it up that it will easily stand on its own in terms of maintaining player engagement. Anything on the side should just be window dressing and shouldn't "cannibalize" that core.
    Share this post

  5. #5
    I know what you mean. I played so much poker in red dead that i never finished the game 😂. Love what the game offers so far though. As a fan of ac4 and rogue, this game is a no brainer for me.
    Share this post