Hoist the Sails, a Plunderstorm Has Arrived!

Ok so the people in one of the videos said they love feedback. Look, I know there’s a lot of sarcasm community managers etc hide when they say stuff like this, and I don’t blame any of them. Really no gamedev or anyone working in games should ever have to deal with the end user, that said…well, I don’t have really nice things to say besides that I like the idea and that the premise looks/sounds fun.

But after playing a bunch of rounds, I can safely say I will not find enjoyment in this. Disclaimer: I have not read the announcements in full and only watched the game video beforehand. Skimmed the announcement, saw some fun rewards and read I don’t have to win to get them.

At first it looked like it could be fun, pirate-y stuff, pve, a bunch of people, BfA Arathi style, what can go wrong? Oooof. First time I got in, thrown in with tons of other people and the counter came, I didn’t know ship. Everything was everywhere and I had absolutely no clue what’s up. But at least everyone is on the same side I guess so here we go. Alright, birdy, eww, looks like battle royale…but at least it’s pve or similar. Landed, went up to the first mob, got ganked by a bunch of other players (yes there’s no group system going solo but they can still cooperate, luckily only saw this in one match). Yippee. I ranked #58, what an accomplishment…I didn’t know how many there are but my sarcasm went straight to “Yay, 58 out of 60 or what…”…and then I sat there keeping watching these other players who kept acting like "expletive deleted"s.
My second match I lived a bit longer, but only made it to like leve 3? It really looked like it’s going be that kind of fun forever. Not being able to finish quests was also the perfect culmination of joy to be had in this, super fun I tell you.
The next round were so so. One time I actually got a lot of plunder and finished the quest, but I didn’t get enough for Renown Rank 2. I’m still used to old renown systems, which worked with steep increases of renown requirements, I was NOT looking forward to that up to rank 40. Meanwhile I’ve seen someone say 10k renown so the 2.5k are the same for each level, in the other video the left one I think said 4-5 matches means 1 rank per day, the event nowhere says how long it runs but him saying it’s enough even for casual players I assume this thing runs for at least 2 months? I don’t like it, but a few matches is what I can endure per day I guess. I really hate any pvp games and modes because they don’t work like the rule book says they do, it’s not a test of skill. It’s a test of who can game the system the best. That’s also why pet battles suck, ESPECIALLY the pvp version. pvp is meaningless other than giving trolls too many tools to have their way with people who think they can play a normal game. pvp is always a bad idea.

As for the event itself, there are flaws in almost every bit of this. The first is that just jumping in you are completely lost with tons of information (or lack thereof). The skills are not intuitive. I now know I can rebind those, but skills should START with 1 and go forward. I’m guessing that R and T are attempts to get things started with controllers in mind (I would love to think this is pirate joke but that’s probably thinking too far), and for that I guess it works fine, but not knowing I can remap things made it worse. And just playing you don’t have the time to find out what skills do what, you just mash buttons and hope for the best while every jerk in the plains bunnyhops you to the death bc they have already read guides/tier lists/whatever and know what the best combos are. The idea of a fresh start for everyone is good in theory, but horrible in reality. That’s something that works well for pve modes, where different skills do force you to adapt your strategy, here the pve bits are too simple to avoid, just side step, walk past them, or circle them all the time, they’re hardly gonna hit you. The pve bits even make sense, but aside from that it’s just a bunch of pirate cosplayers brig-slapping each other silly.

The idea to showcase what non heroes do in the world is also good in theory, but here? Nobody cares about that, which is sad. I would love to get to see the world more in a “living and breathing” state. But as soon as the gamification sets in, it’s roflcopter all the way. I know you have to say how smart this or that group of people is but…well I don’t know how to finish that sentence.

Anyway, there needs to be much more clarity and an option to read and check out what things mean or do by yourself or in another safe zone that’s not just mere seconds before the match starts. No time limit. Time to know abilities is mandatory. And even if you’re keeping the battle royale bit, there needs to be some type of safeguarding at the beginning. Getting killed while gaining little to no points or anything is more than just frustrating and can throw off the interest of many. I’m just very stubborn, for better or worse. But I know when call it F’in quits. There’s always a point of “NO! RETURN!”. Learning that the renown stays 2.5k was a blessing. Knowing I DON’T have to sit through watching other people play as well. I also think the storm should accelerate relative to the number of players and NEVER stop, it may or may not slow down at some point, but not stop completely. That way early everyone has the same chances but matches don’t drag as they do.

So yeah, tl;dr, onboarding sucks big time, you don’t know ship and it is only fun for pvp enthusiasts and torture to everyone else, I feel like the entire system you came up with would work best for strategic pve modes. You know, like turn based battle system in regular rpgs, ie Suikoden 1/2 or strategy games like Final Fantasy Tactics.

3 Likes

I mean they have been doing it for years.

put garbage in the game, fix it after 3-6 month so at the end people remember it as “great” while putting the next garbage into the game.

example?
Whole legion expansion. Yet people remember it as “great” because the last patch (after 3 month) was fixed into “playable” and then people remember it as great.

they cannot be that dense to not see how badly received and how problematic certain things are they put into the game.
They are milking and then fixing “acting on feedback” saying: “see? we listen”
yeah, no.

1 Like

Hey I tried this mode as I’m playing nearly every aspect of WoW in some form as I love hunting achievements and the completionist side of things so I thought :" I might try it and see how it goes". I think you (Blizzard) have completely missed your target audience by a long shot. Trying to cater to the small PVP audience is a nice thing as they have been neglected for a long time… but doing it in an EXTERNAL DETACHED gamemode is just mindblowing. There are players out there who want to play their own characters which they have created and played for years, these characters mean something to some of us.

I guess its just best to do a TLDR summary of my points:
NEGATIVE POINTS:

  • spells feel unbalanced some are just vastly superior to others
  • different game mode that is promoted and communicated as a patch for WoW, which it clearly isn’t
  • missed most of your playerbase’s interests (PVE-Players)
  • did a bandaid quick fix for a small portion of the playerbase which is not going to last (“ever green”-hardly)
  • used a genre which is already saturated and its peak time was ~5 years ago
  • inability to use the WoW accounts (multiple players/familymembers on one account can’t properly play)
  • Standard-Keybinds are just horrible
  • another Pirate-Themed thing

POSITIVE

  • tried something “new”
  • jokes / puns / humoristic approach seems to work for most descriptions
  • quick que times
  • many players already team up in solos to not PVP and protect eachother while farming renown [Community-Event vs PVPers lul]

I think this patch brought some of the community closer together by having most of the players I encounter dislike the gamemode and band together to not have to play it. They just jump in do the quest protect each other while doing it then die to the storm or whatever is closest to kill them and repeat. So what is happening is people bond over shortening the time they have to endure this Battle-Royale-Game, which is not WoW.

I had fun in some matches with a friend and I have played multiple BR-Games but this really is just a subpar in that genre.

I know some developers really have put a lot of time and effort into this, which is unfortunate if it wasn’t executed and promoted in this way this might’ve worked… for a different audience…

… lets get back into it… 40 Renown won’t just randomly pop up…

2 Likes

Question!
Is this some kind of Early April Fools joke of a mode?

3 Likes
3 Likes

I did get 1st place in solo it was kinda fun and i got a fos in retail :slight_smile:

So after trying it, I really enjoy it, even with experience from other BR games this is a really unique take on it, and I absolutely see this being a nice and fun casual game mode.

This gives me heavy spellbreak vibes which was really fun imo, the only problem and the reason it died is cause it only had like 5 weapons, this already has more for the fact that it feels very smooth is very nice touch.

This is massive as it was my main grip with the event but since I enjoyed playing it as it was, didnt annoy me too much, but this’ll make it feel that much better, so more positivity from me

Mmmm. It’s a little improvement.

This does nothing about how stronger the players who are ahead in levels (usually due to good rng) are

1 Like

true but normally i do the quest b4 diyin. so with this i can die peacefully

btw they havent fixed anything because its still the same grind. you get around the same amount of gold which is 250 for the quest and the fastest way is still grab some more and requeue. no one will go for a win who wants the mog. leave the match with 500 coins if possible and requeue. takes 200 games still.

doesnt matter because you dont pvp
Plunder dropped by other players significantly increased.*
this is very small increase tbh. still takes ages
Plunder from non-player enemies increased by 50%.
still its not that common to have chests at all
Plunder from golden chests doubled.
no one will do that anyway
Top placement in a match now rewards 500 Plunder (was 100).

1 Like

No one asked for the no-life speed strat to being done with the fun, man this is the kind of mindset that makes games unfun, please pretty please, don’t play Plunderstorm and keep your sweat to m+ lobbies, thanks.

Except alot of people willcause alot are yknow, playing the game, man how do you manage to show you ruin games for everyone with one post holy moly

yes is see the feedback in the us/eu forum, reddit and x that people like this mode and go for the win and dont play because of the rewards the put in. i think you are the troll here at least the minority. have your fun we give them feedback to make this garbage better.

if you play for FOMO then it’s not fair to have them balance the game for you, because if you aren’t having fun it wasn’t made with you in mind.

It is 100% a minority no doubt, but that doesn’t change the fact that you didn’t offer anything other than a fastest strat to be done with the gamemode and not play it because you don’t want to but are too afraid of missing out on a mog you’ll use like once for maybe a week and then never again.

You gave no feedback, all you did was state the fastest way to level up and basically said it doesn’t matter if they increase the rewards unless them make them literally earnable passively, which they already are.

You aren’t asking for new mechanics, you aren’t asking for balancing or giving your opinion on how the rewards track feels to progress, all you’re doing is admitting you don’t play the game for fun you play it to be done with it as fast as possible which is hilariously redundant, like if you dont like it dont play it.

you should play fortnite and unsubscribe from retail wow.

No, I enjoy the world of wow, I enjoy the lore that the game is established on, I enjoy the content the developers release(most of the time).

No, unlike you I enjoy the game, not my fault you’ve stopped enjoying the game and just play it out of habbit at this point wishing for the “good ol days”.

You can dislike teh new mode, it is a super niche gamemode that no way in hell most were gonna like, but please do yourself and the game a favor and not force yourself to do something you don’t want to, it’ll only waste your time and ruin it for the people who actually enjoy it for the random fun it supplies. Just do what you want to do, it’s a game, not a job for most.

2 Likes

You could have not said better.

Renown 12 and I am really getting tired of it. How long does this event have? I want a good break from it

2 Likes

Exactly. Yet,

*They release this patch at a point in time where an expansion is already slim pickings for most WoW players.
*They release it and say: we hope this appeals to all you players!
*They slap a grind on it with cosmetics that clearly, clearly are meant to appeal to most players, whether they like to rp, are completionists, collectors, pet battlers, would love additional tender etc.

This covers a huge amount of players, you can’t blame them for wanting access to the goodies. It’s not been introduced as a niche side content for a tiny minority of players, it is obviously intended for the large majority. Whether they enjoy the content itself or not.

And I’m not even doing it, atm it does not appeal to me and no amount of FOMO tactics will drag me in. It’s not right to blame players for playing it when it is so clearly intended to make them tho.

It’s pathetic. I’m quite disgusted with it all. And yes, I blame Blizzard, as they knew exactly what they were doing.

7 Likes

I dont think they have announced how long its for. Maybe to make sure ppl get hit by the FOMO and grind it out. I’ve seen some ppl say 6 weeks but idk if that has been confirmed.

2 Likes