In light of the issues that Anthem has had since its launch, and in particular its issues with its stingy and demotivating loot system, I've seen some conversation come up about how loot progression is best handled and how that could translate into Skull & Bones. I don't have anything better to do right now, except for my actual job, so I figured I'd at least throw together some initial thoughts on the matter.

Basically, notwithstanding issues of loot drop rate, you potentially have two issues when it comes to a loot/gear system:

  1. Increasing levels of progression don't offer you any new goals to pursue, so you don't have any incentive to continue the progression. Maybe you just get all your gear in the first five hours and then spend the rest of the time upgrading it instead of chasing new shiny baubles. Maybe there just is no progression. Either way, the player can fall into a trap of not feeling like there's a "point" to continuing because they aren't going to get anything out of it.

  2. Increasing levels of progression make everything you already had irrelevant, and the game's evolution post-release results in content releases that stack new levels of progression on top of the old ones. Here, the player potentially loses motivation because all of their work so far will ultimately turn out to be meaningless. Once they reach Gear Tier 4, all of their Gear Tier 3 equipment is garbage. Once the next season introduces Gear Tier 5, all the Gear Tier 4 equipment is garbage. The goalposts keep getting moved, so the incentive to pursue those goals is taken away.


So essentially you have a coin where on one side, players stop caring because they don't get anything new, and on the other side, players stop caring because they can't keep anything old. Seems like an awfully tricky middle ground to find, right?

I feel like there are a few ways to potentially address this, none of which are necessarily perfect, but maybe just kicking them around will scare up some better ideas.

  • When it launched, For Honor's gear system was generally awful. It fell into the second trap, above, and on top of that the randomized stat distribution and appearance of the gear made it very difficult for a long time to find the gear you really wanted. The appearance thing was semi-addressed by the ability to pay to change cosmetics, but (at least prior to Season 6 or so), appearances couldn't be changed across gear rarity, which made all your "not-top-tier" gear completely irrelevant. The stat distribution issue, however, the player had absolutely no control over.

    I think that a tiered gear system would work better if the player had some ability to control, or reroll, or somehow influence the stat distributions of their gear. The Division (in its current incarnation) sort of does this with the Recalibration Station. Did you get a gun that you really, really like, but it has the "wrong" bonus on it? Reroll that bonus! In a system like this, players still are losing out on all of their work to-date (except to the extent they had accumulated resources that they can use for tweaking in the current gear tier, which is still a meaningful benefit), but every new gear tier isn't a miserable grind to try to find what you want because you have at least some influence over what you wind up with. Maybe it still takes a little bit of time to find a new Legendary AK-47 to replace your Epic AK-47, but a system where you only have to worry about one piece of RNG (what dropped?) is easier to swallow than a system where you have to worry about seven pieces of RNG (what dropped? What are each of its three special traits? What stat bonuses does it give? etc.) You still benefit from getting a drop that better matches what you're looking for, but you also can make changes (for a cost) to force it in your preferred direction.

  • Instead of advanced tiers "gating" off upgrades, maybe they "gate" new options. Allow players to upgrade their old gear without restriction to match each new tier, so the old gear never becomes obsolete, but have new progression tiers introduce new, different options (options that aren't necessarily superior to the fewer, older options, but which introduce new possibilities to the mix). Maybe at Tier 1, you're limited to getting drops of X and Y. But at Tier 2, you can get drops of X, Y, and Z, where Z isn't inherently better than X and Y, but brings a new, optional angle to the gameplay. Meanwhile, X and Y can continue being upgraded to have Tier 2 stats, as well, so you don't have to rely on getting them again with a new drop.


At the end of the day, players want to want to progress. Games should want players to want to progress. But there needs to be that balance of motivation. Players like to use their favorite gear, and don't like being forced to use "unfavored" gear simply because it's a higher level than what they really enjoy. But players also like to access new things, and more numbers, and feel that sense of incremental growth, without having it all thrown back in their face every time there's a content update.

It's a delicate balance, no question about it. I don't know all the answers to the problem. Also it's 8 AM, so I know even less than usual. But I still feel like it's an important issue with respect to Skull & Bones, one way in which the game can keep players invested in the long-run if done well (or alienate them if done poorly). While S&B isn't a loot-shooter like your Anthems and Destinies and Divisions, it's still a game of progression and advancement (perhaps more akin to For Honor), and so it has the potential to greatly benefit from a well-crafted loot/gear progression system.

Anyway, what are other folks' thoughts on S&B and gear advancement?