Contact Grey Havens to take advantage of this! (Or Make Puzzle Pirates Great Again!)

[theamazingm77]

An open letter to Grey Havens, LLC

To Whom it May Concern-



Over the last two weeks the Emerald Ocean has had almost 1300 people playing, and many old players like myself have seen the increase and have come back and played again. The community is not dead like many say, but grey havens must take advantage of this opportunity we have all been given to breathe some life back into the game. I am sure if you are taking the time to read this thread, you have perhaps read some of the others that have been written online like I have. Those are all good, and could be discussed further in this thread. However, Grey Havens must now not lose this opportunity the game has been given and start to bring back more content into the game, such as seals o' piracy again and possibly begin developing it again and advertising (more players mean more dubs purchased and more money).


Games like RuneScape have been around just as long as Puzzle Pirates have and are now trendy and retro in their own sense, so there is no reason that can't happen with Puzzle Pirates as well. Of course this might require an update of some of the game mechanics or graphics, but that is nothing that can't happen with some development on Grey Haven's part, and any small steps show the player base that we haven't been forgotten. Has anything been added to the game since April 2016 when they took it over? If we are actually serious as players, we need to take some initiative and start asking questions. In a game that is as player-involved as Puzzle Pirates, we are both the players and the game. And as players, we need to make sure the game has a direction, or we may lose both, as we have seen with the dwindling player base. Please don't let this opportunity go to waste.


If anyone has Grey Havens's contact info, please send it my way and I will forward them this message.

Theamazingm, now Metanoia on the Emerald Ocean

[Altaren]

"Of course this might require an update of some of the game mechanics or graphics"
I dont think anyone really wants updates to graphics or game mechanics. Perhaps some small QOL improvements but the point of a retro game is that its the same it was when we first played it all that time ago. That being said new content might be something that could benefit the game, still one has to be careful. At some point SMH and poker was new content and ... well, lets just say we dont know if those had a good or bad impact on health of the playerbase.
Dark Seas was a really good attempt, ticked all the boxes. New content without drastically changing the formula but obviously that didnt work out. Probably because the playerbase was stretched too thin and people didnt want to abandon the original. Id be happy if they just maintaned good server performance, customer support (which so far im happy with) and like i said small QOL updates and perhaps minor content, maybe a new puzzle for furnishing or tailoring. Expeditions was a good content release, perhaps something new there or add content to existing ones.
These are my thoughts so far but note i havent had my morning coffee grog yet so i dont vouch that the text i wrote makes any sense whatsoever xD
Still its an exciting time to play Puzzle Pirates, its only sad it took a global pandemic to make that happen.

[theamazingm77]

Originally posted by Altaren:

Still its an exciting time to play Puzzle Pirates, its only sad it took a global pandemic to make that happen.

I agree totally that this is a good time to get back into the game; I just came back after a 1.5 year break and decided to start a new pirate. Terrible it had to be like this though...

Originally posted by Altaren:

I dont think anyone really wants updates to graphics or game mechanics. Perhaps some small QOL improvements but the point of a retro game is that its the same it was when we first played it all that time ago. That being said new content might be something that could benefit the game, still one has to be careful. At some point SMH and poker was new content and ... well, lets just say we dont know if those had a good or bad impact on health of the playerbase.

I also agree with this totally. Poker is the economy practically isn't good for economy or for newer players facing the dub wall. SMH isn't as bad imo, but it isn't as dangerous as it used to be because everyone uses the same methods to minimize the risk of losing a ship (backwalling being an example.) Flotillas haven't been updated in a while, idk how long, and I think that's a really interesting aspect that hasn't been able to shine lately. Maybe updating the AI for the Bnav puzzle would make it a little more spicy? :)

Originally posted by Altaren:

Dark Seas was a really good attempt, ticked all the boxes. New content without drastically changing the formula but obviously that didnt work out. Probably because the playerbase was stretched too thin and people didnt want to abandon the original. Id be happy if they just maintaned good server performance, customer support (which so far im happy with) and like i said small QOL updates and perhaps minor content, maybe a new puzzle for furnishing or tailoring. Expeditions was a good content release, perhaps something new there or add content to existing ones.
These are my thoughts so far but note i havent had my morning coffee grog yet so i dont vouch that the text i wrote makes any sense whatsoever xD

My bad, I didn't mean abandon the original Puzzle Pirates. Emerald has to stay the way it is (the map is already huge with the ocean merge). Maybe Emerald could be like WOW classic and Obsidian could be tinkered with while advertised, cause it's empty rn anyway? I mean, they're paying to upkeep the server so they may as well do something on it. Maybe eventually cross-server competition? I totally agree as well with adding new puzzles or expos -- content that doesn't break the game like *cough* poker *cough* and is fun for everyone to enjoy.
If we as a community could come together and draft something to send to Grey Havens adressing:

1. What we love about the game, and what we would like to see more of, and
   
2. What we see as problems in the game, and our ideas to fix them (cause imo we practically playtest everything so we know...)

We could change the direction of the game or at least get some answers, because we have some momentum again.

Thanks for taking the time to respond, I appreciate hearing from someone like-minded :).

Metanoia on the Emerald Ocean
btw the coffee strikethrough had me dead XD

[Snug Pepito]

I think a completely new game will have to replace puzzle pirates in the future, like a Puzzle Pirates 2 or a Remaster, otherwise there is nothing real big that can be done to bring more players to the game.
People aren't stuck in 2006 like us

[theamazingm77]

Originally posted by Snug Pepito:

I think a completely new game will have to replace puzzle pirates in the future, like a Puzzle Pirates 2 or a Remaster, otherwise there is nothing real big that can be done to bring more players to the game.
People aren't stuck in 2006 like us

What do you think about the idea that vanilla Puzzle Pirates as it is right now becomes like WOW classic version, and then a remaster could be the new one?

[Altaren]

Originally posted by theamazingm77:

Originally posted by Snug Pepito:

I think a completely new game will have to replace puzzle pirates in the future, like a Puzzle Pirates 2 or a Remaster, otherwise there is nothing real big that can be done to bring more players to the game.
People aren't stuck in 2006 like us

What do you think about the idea that vanilla Puzzle Pirates as it is right now becomes like WOW classic version, and then a remaster could be the new one?

I dont think there is enough of a playerbase to support 2 games, even if the new one would be meant for just new players it would still draw people from the original game which means it would be at danger of dying out.
Unfortunately we just cant compare ypp with WOW or a game like RuneScape, those had a huge population to begin with whereas ypp was always a niche game with a small playerbase. Best approach imo would be to just keep the current players satisfied and maybe incite older players to come back. Getting new players into the game just doesnt seem realistic. I think there are just two ways to get new players. Release the game on mobile sort of how OSRS did, mobile market would sooner accept this kind of game where pc/console players would consider it outdated. The second way would be to get existing players to get their friends or family into the game.
I just dont see a regular advertising campaign to be successful in grabbing a completely new player with no existing ties to the game. There are just too many other games out there that are more appealing to a newer player.

[Tsurion]

I just logged in to my pc for first time in a while, thought i'd take a look and the main island has a population of just 600 people.. not enough

[theamazingm77]

Originally posted by Tsurion:

I just logged in to my pc for first time in a while, thought i'd take a look and the main island has a population of just 600 people.. not enough

It's been around 1200-1300 on the weekends at least when I have been playing. Maybe you are in a different timezone?

[theamazingm77]

On the weekends, from YPP server status

Originally posted by jeremyb616:

Old player here from like 10 years ago, where you egtting your numbers for the population o0f the game, i can't find it

[Long John Salad]

we should follow Team Fotress's footstep and take matter in our own hand!

we can have community event and even community content update. GH only need to keep the server running and control economy through mystery boxes and gold boxes

[Materloo]

I think the biggest problem with the game is not only poker, but mostly "loot boxes". You can call it banan boxes, mysterious boxes, but as long as you pay real money for it, it's still a loot box with fancier name. You get fams, clothings, ships, furnitures from boxes, and also the purchased doubs. You can transfer the doubs into PoE-s and sell the goodies from the boxes, making millions if not ten millions from one single purchase. This drastically ruined the economy of Y!PP people literally selling fams, limited edition furnitures and classed ships to get money, which later ends up at the poker tables. No one want to run a stall anymore. Blockades pays 9-12k for Incredible and Excellent duties you can literally make 200k (10 years ago the biggest ships were sold at this price rate, and I couldve not dreamed having this much money ingame, now I have 400k poes and 20 doubs and I still feel poor, as every order you purchase requires 10-20 doubs/each + Poe )during one blockade if you are good at puzzles. I also wanted to invest my money, but there is literally no point, as people are not really part of the economy anymore. I wonder, If you can trade with your ship or not. These aspects are also needed in the game imo, because for a starter player it could be a great opportunity if s/he bought a ship. Also having 13 years old pirates make the game even more strict, as they literally saved hundreds of millions if not billions during the years. These lame lootboxes are should be banned. I do understand that you have to keep the servers running but this is just only made the game even worse. Poker needs to be reworked as in Dark Seas. Or maybe only illustrious exp-d players could play with 2000 no limit. Idk

[Altaren]

I think their monetization is completely fine, there is a problem in the poe economy though. They need to fight inflation by adding more poe sinks and a rake to poker. Everytime someone cashes out of a game something like 2% should taken by the house (ie removed from the game).
Understandably they are worried about making such a drastic change tho since anything major like that could cause serious problems with the playerbase and seeing the game has been on the brink of death for over a decade something like that could potentially kill the game.

[brianzboyz]

I would love to play this game but when you are a new download it stops and says loading media files and no way to fix it.

[Altaren]

Originally posted by brianzboyz:

I would love to play this game but when you are a new download it stops and says loading media files and no way to fix it.

You can try the non steam version, it more hassle to log in but otherwise no difference

[Velvetlotus]

I honestly wish you the best of luck, been complaining about losses and suggesting fixes for over a decade without so much as a consideration.

All they'll do every time funds get low is bring out another ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ocean dwindling whatever population is still surviving on other oceans with people hoping to get on top and be able to play, leaving other oceans to rot.

The only true way they will EVER fix this game listening to players is when the players finally wake up and realise they are being fleeced and stop giving them real world POEs.

[Revocatas]

Found out they are currently testing 'vampire frays', just like skellie and zombie frays, on the Ice Ocean (testserver). Hope they push this to the 'real' oceans :)
https://yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/Ice_Ocean_changelog