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Penny Arcade - Comic - Sea Of Thief

DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
edited March 2018 in The Penny Arcade Hub

imagePenny Arcade - Comic - Sea Of Thief

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

Read the full story here


Unknown User on

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    lionheartssjlionheartssj Bartertown Chief Merchant BartertownRegistered User regular
    To loosely quote Aizen, "Since when were you under the impression that this would be a game and not a pirate app?"

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    FTVFTV Registered User regular
    This strip is a real jpg.

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    Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    In which we are reminded that there is a difference between "a fun game about play piracy" and "getting preyed on by actual pirates, or people acting like them".

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    PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    I figure a lot of dickholes will be using "its a game about pirates" to do some shitty things to people.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
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    SadgasmSadgasm Deluded doodler A cold placeRegistered User regular
    Preacher wrote: »
    I figure a lot of dickholes will be using "its a game about pirates" to do some shitty things to people.

    They havent needed an excuse before

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    PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    Sadgasm wrote: »
    Preacher wrote: »
    I figure a lot of dickholes will be using "its a game about pirates" to do some shitty things to people.

    They havent needed an excuse before

    True. Oh well, not my kind of game anyway.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
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    KagatoACKagatoAC Registered User regular
    Heh sounds a lot like the Dark Zone from the Division. precisely the reason I wasn't interested in it. Any online game that gives people an opportunity to be D-bags to other people, will be filled with such. :)

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    YoungFreyYoungFrey Registered User regular
    I mean, it sounds like EVE online. But until you can load a few grand worth micro-transactions into your sloop and then have a player steal it, it isn't quite there yet.

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    joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    Preacher wrote: »
    Sadgasm wrote: »
    Preacher wrote: »
    I figure a lot of dickholes will be using "its a game about pirates" to do some shitty things to people.

    They havent needed an excuse before

    True. Oh well, not my kind of game anyway.

    Yeah, I am not the kind of person that gets enjoyment out of either ruining someone else's experience or having mine ruined by someone else. I'm the kind of person that plays Bloodborne in offline mode because nothing makes me rage harder than getting through a very difficult section of a game when some random asshole with no life comes out of nowhere and curbstomps me.

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    RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    Sky of blue, and Sea of Thief

    In our yellow, DLC

    JLSTZdz.png
    Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
    Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
    steam_sig.png
    Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
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    l_gl_g Registered User regular
    If I pirate the game, am I doing exactly what the developers want?

    Cole's Law: "Thinly sliced cabbage."
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    joshofalltradesjoshofalltrades Class Traitor Smoke-filled roomRegistered User regular
    l_g wrote: »
    If I pirate the game, am I doing exactly what the developers want?

    Nope

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    jwalkjwalk Registered User regular
    DON'T COPY THAT FLOPPY, MATEY!

    AAarrrr...

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    dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    jwalk wrote: »
    DON'T COPY THAT FLOPPY, MATEY!

    AAarrrr...

    But what if I just baaaahhrrrrow it?

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    ziddersroofurryziddersroofurry Registered User regular
    edited March 2018
    I just want AC:Black Flag without the modern day/silly Templar/weird DLC stuff. That game did pirating so good most of the time. My favorite trick was to get just close enough to big ships to swim out to them as they approached whereupon I'd jump onto them and stealthily kill their crew one by one. Then I'd swim back to the Jackdaw, get near enough to fire my guns at them and take bigger ships than I should have been facing. Problem is single player got old after awhile and online died out/needed more variety. It could have stood on its own and been one of the best pirate games around. Too bad it had to be stuck in a goofy series like Assassin's Creed.

    It's like everything Ubisoft does. So many great games with great gameplay marred by nonsensical stories. The last decent story I experienced in an Ubisoft game was the one in Beyond Good & Evil...and it looks like they're aiming to goof up the sequel Ubisoft-style, too.

    ziddersroofurry on
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    AlienCowThatMoosAlienCowThatMoos Registered User regular
    He realizes that no popular game ever will have enough resources for day 1 right? It's literally the only time that 100% of the players will try to log on simultaneously. No one's going to buy servers to make day one smooth, then have them sit 60% unused for the rest of the life cycle.

    SpidermanSig.jpg
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    Rhesus PositiveRhesus Positive GNU Terry Pratchett Registered User regular
    I remember when The Cloud was going to solve server issues like this; spin up maximum space for day one, then throttle back as needed.

    [Muffled sounds of gorilla violence]
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    V1mV1m Registered User regular
    Preacher wrote: »
    I figure a lot of dickholes will be using "its a game about pirates" to do some shitty things to people.

    Acting like pirates, basically.

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    Jakk FrostJakk Frost Registered User regular
    AlienCowThatMoos wrote: »
    He realizes that no popular game ever will have enough resources for day 1 right? It's literally the only time that 100% of the players will try to log on simultaneously. No one's going to buy servers to make day one smooth, then have them sit 60% unused for the rest of the life cycle.

    You mean ever again (hopefully), right? Bioware made that mistake with SWTOR. They doubled (at least) the number of servers running during the free pre-launch trial, because people were whining about not getting in and having to wait in queue. Sadly, most of those turned out to be window-shoppers, and 6 months later they were merging servers because most of them were practically deserted. That doesn't look good on the business end of things.

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    DjiemDjiem Registered User regular
    Preacher wrote: »
    I figure a lot of dickholes will be using "its a game about pirates" to do some shitty things to people.

    But it is a game about pirates. PvP and chest-stealing are fundamental game mechanics in this game. I'm sure there will be losers who will try to chase the same boat for hours, or spew toxicity in the chat, but simply stealing another player's loot doesn't make you a dickhole.

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    PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    Djiem wrote: »
    Preacher wrote: »
    I figure a lot of dickholes will be using "its a game about pirates" to do some shitty things to people.

    But it is a game about pirates. PvP and chest-stealing are fundamental game mechanics in this game. I'm sure there will be losers who will try to chase the same boat for hours, or spew toxicity in the chat, but simply stealing another player's loot doesn't make you a dickhole.

    Yeah I understand the fundamental gameplay draw. But like putting a rando in the brig indefinitely. Griefing one person for hours because you can etc. Is definitely going to be justified with "its pirates man" when that's just being an asshole.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
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    zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    edited March 2018
    Jakk Frost wrote: »
    AlienCowThatMoos wrote: »
    He realizes that no popular game ever will have enough resources for day 1 right? It's literally the only time that 100% of the players will try to log on simultaneously. No one's going to buy servers to make day one smooth, then have them sit 60% unused for the rest of the life cycle.

    You mean ever again (hopefully), right? Bioware made that mistake with SWTOR. They doubled (at least) the number of servers running during the free pre-launch trial, because people were whining about not getting in and having to wait in queue. Sadly, most of those turned out to be window-shoppers, and 6 months later they were merging servers because most of them were practically deserted. That doesn't look good on the business end of things.
    There are solutions for temporary capacity that a company could use. It doesn't have to be a shitty experience or leaving you with empty hardware.

    ...that being said renting server and bandwidth capacity like that...is expensive, not as expensive as buying servers that aren't used, but still expensive. However it does give you capacity. I believe amazon offers that type of service, but they charge by the second.

    zepherin on
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    cmdshft4cmdshft4 Registered User regular
    SoT sucks for the same reason so many new games suck: They throw you in with no guidance whatsoever. I download it, start my first game, end up in a tavern, some jackwagon kid is screaming about getting to the boat... Where the fuck is the boat? I then get teleported to a boat just to get put in the brig by my "team mates". I leave the game and Discord a couple friends that play it (I was hoping to do a single player something or other to get the hang of things before bothering them) and end up steering a ship with them. I'm running a GTX1080 at 4K just to look at a fucking white sail for 10 minutes while we ostensibly sail to some island to get some loot. I have failed to see the appeal so far. I will give it a couple more tries if my friends decide to put up with my whining/losing long enough, but this may turn out not to be my type of game.

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    dennisdennis aka bingley Registered User regular
    edited March 2018
    cmdshft4 wrote: »
    SoT sucks for the same reason so many new games suck: They throw you in with no guidance whatsoever. I download it, start my first game, end up in a tavern, some jackwagon kid is screaming about getting to the boat... Where the fuck is the boat? I then get teleported to a boat just to get put in the brig by my "team mates". I leave the game and Discord a couple friends that play it (I was hoping to do a single player something or other to get the hang of things before bothering them) and end up steering a ship with them. I'm running a GTX1080 at 4K just to look at a fucking white sail for 10 minutes while we ostensibly sail to some island to get some loot. I have failed to see the appeal so far. I will give it a couple more tries if my friends decide to put up with my whining/losing long enough, but this may turn out not to be my type of game.

    Watch this:
    https://twitch.tv/videos/232100486?t=08m43s

    If you still don't think you'd like it, it's not your type of game. Because you are dead - DEAD - inside.

    Also, yes, it sounds like randos are often the worst. So try to avoid that.

    dennis on
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    DjiemDjiem Registered User regular
    It might just not be for you. I'm having a fantastic time. It's definitely rough at the moment with the server issues but as far as the core game goes, it's so much fun.

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    The SiegeThe Siege Game Developer Oakland CARegistered User, ClubPA regular
    edited March 2018
    This is like a real role-playing game, and a good one. If you want to get immersed in being a cartoon pirate and feel the danger of sailing the seas, yes. If you want to grind numbers and raid dungeons then no.

    I don't see obvious ways to do any persistent griefing outside of the game's intended mechanics. If randos put you in the brig you can just leave the game. If someone sinks your ship you respawn in a random location and probably on a different server shard. If a group decides to spawn camp you on your ship instead of just sinking it or taking your stuff, you can just leave the game and your losses will be no different than if they just stole all your things. Really the fact that you don't persist in the same way as an MMO undercuts most of the true griefing potential.

    Now it is a pvp game and you should play it if you enjoy the tension and drama of wondering whether other players might try to get you. It's exciting! Some people do not want exciting, or tense. The server architecture specifically manages pvp encounter frequency based on an algorithm that figures out about how often you "should" encounter other players, and most of these encounters are going to start at /very/ far distances on the open ocean. Or they come up on your ship while you're wandering about an island maybe. But it's not going to be like WoW where a rogue ganks you out of stealth while you fight a mob. You see people coming, you get to react or run. Or you left your things unguarded and get punished for that. It's much more fair than you might be used to in mmo pvp games, and it's a lot of fun.

    Edit: from what we've seen you encounter other players roughly every 10 minutes. There seems to be some sort of guard against encounters when you have just started playing, which I think lasts a little too long personally (took almost 3 hours of playing before it started letting me encounter enemy players).

    The Siege on
    Cards and Castles - CCG meets Tactics! Coming soon to Steam: http://www.cardsandcastles.com/main/

    I am also known as Vontre.
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    SadgasmSadgasm Deluded doodler A cold placeRegistered User regular
    AlienCowThatMoos wrote: »
    He realizes that no popular game ever will have enough resources for day 1 right? It's literally the only time that 100% of the players will try to log on simultaneously. No one's going to buy servers to make day one smooth, then have them sit 60% unused for the rest of the life cycle.

    I'd love it if any non-electronics business got away with that excuse. "Oh, you want your car to NOT explode when you turn it on the first time? Well thats just an unrealistic expectation".

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    PreacherPreacher Registered User regular
    Eh its not at all similar to that? I mean like with an online game, it just means early on you will struggle to play it while they sort it out. Overall the early issues are such a minor part of your play time the complaint is kind of silly.

    I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.

    pleasepaypreacher.net
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    McFodderMcFodder Registered User regular
    Sadgasm wrote: »
    AlienCowThatMoos wrote: »
    He realizes that no popular game ever will have enough resources for day 1 right? It's literally the only time that 100% of the players will try to log on simultaneously. No one's going to buy servers to make day one smooth, then have them sit 60% unused for the rest of the life cycle.

    I'd love it if any non-electronics business got away with that excuse. "Oh, you want your car to NOT explode when you turn it on the first time? Well thats just an unrealistic expectation".

    On the other hand, if cars had improved at the same rate as electronics, there'd be more than one Tesla cruising through the solar system by now...

    Switch Friend Code: SW-3944-9431-0318
    PSN / Xbox / NNID: Fodder185
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    SadgasmSadgasm Deluded doodler A cold placeRegistered User regular
    McFodder wrote: »
    Sadgasm wrote: »
    AlienCowThatMoos wrote: »
    He realizes that no popular game ever will have enough resources for day 1 right? It's literally the only time that 100% of the players will try to log on simultaneously. No one's going to buy servers to make day one smooth, then have them sit 60% unused for the rest of the life cycle.

    I'd love it if any non-electronics business got away with that excuse. "Oh, you want your car to NOT explode when you turn it on the first time? Well thats just an unrealistic expectation".

    On the other hand, if cars had improved at the same rate as electronics, there'd be more than one Tesla cruising through the solar system by now...

    Honestly, I know they're just not economically or environmentally feasible anymore, and never really were, but I really miss those classic 50's muscle cars. I rode in one like 10 years ago, and ever since, everything else just feels like driving around in a shoebox.

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    ZetxZetx 🐧 Registered User regular
    The Siege wrote: »
    Edit: from what we've seen you encounter other players roughly every 10 minutes. There seems to be some sort of guard against encounters when you have just started playing, which I think lasts a little too long personally (took almost 3 hours of playing before it started letting me encounter enemy players).

    FWIW, I encountered another sloop within 10 minutes my last session.

    76561197966849367.png
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    DjiemDjiem Registered User regular
    You can also encounter ships more often if you try to make it happen, or less often if you make an effort to avoid them. But organically, a ship every 10-15 mins sounds about right.

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    MarcinMNMarcinMN Registered User regular
    Sadgasm wrote: »
    AlienCowThatMoos wrote: »
    He realizes that no popular game ever will have enough resources for day 1 right? It's literally the only time that 100% of the players will try to log on simultaneously. No one's going to buy servers to make day one smooth, then have them sit 60% unused for the rest of the life cycle.

    I'd love it if any non-electronics business got away with that excuse. "Oh, you want your car to NOT explode when you turn it on the first time? Well thats just an unrealistic expectation".

    I think a more accurate analogy would be if a fancy new car dealership is going to open up and they spend months getting everyone hyped up about it. Their inventory on opening day is 1,000 cars because that is literally the most they can hold on their current property. However, on opening day 2,000 people show up determined to buy a new car. Needless to say, 1,000 people are going to be unhappy.

    "It's just as I've always said. We are being digested by an amoral universe."

    -Tycho Brahe
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    CouscousCouscous Registered User regular
    joshofalltrades wrote: »
    l_g wrote: »
    If I pirate the game, am I doing exactly what the developers want?

    Nope

    06fhYmR.jpg

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    SadgasmSadgasm Deluded doodler A cold placeRegistered User regular
    Couscous wrote: »
    joshofalltrades wrote: »
    l_g wrote: »
    If I pirate the game, am I doing exactly what the developers want?

    Nope

    06fhYmR.jpg

    So, these kids are basically just wearing fruity clothes?

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    jwalkjwalk Registered User regular
    dennis wrote: »
    jwalk wrote: »
    DON'T COPY THAT FLOPPY, MATEY!

    AAarrrr...

    But what if I just baaaahhrrrrow it?

    I'm sorry, lending your books or movies or video games to a friend for a short period of time

    IS JUST LIKE STEALING!!

    That's right! It's just EXACTLY like STABBING A MAN in the back until HE'S DEAD and then STEALING his WALLET!

    You wouldn't SHOOT a POLICEMAN and then STEAL his HELMET and then GO TO THE TOILET in it ...

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    V1mV1m Registered User regular
    So one of the guys I work with plays this and he tried to recruit me into his crew ("We really need a 4th guy to sail this galleon properly...") and he was telling me about how they were pirating treasure chests and pretty soon they were going to have another galleon

    "That sounds pretty cute, Brad. Let me tell you about EVE...."

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