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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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