Mike: "To answer this question a little more specifically, we'd love to expand on both the theme of ghosts and the Ferry specifically. You may have seen that the Pirate Hideout features ghosts of former pirates... in terms of the lore, they are former Pirate Legends that have had every kind of adventure imaginable and through their adventures have amassed many cursed treasures, some of which have allowed them to attain eternal life. The thinking being that if you were a pirate and you'd had every adventure, what better way to spend eternity than in a Tavern built onto a legendary ship.
Ghosts fit perfectly into Sea Of Thieves and we all love the Ferry death mechanic on the team. Both will no doubt expand over time."
Q: Have you considered adding other cultures pirate styles such as Chinese, Portuguese, Viking etc? Possibly as DLC content?
A: Joe: Yes. The art team have done a bunch of work on different cosmetics, and I've already seen some early work on an oriental style that is super cool. We will see more cosmetic styles come in as we move forward.
Q: In the future, are we going to see deep caves/dungeons that can lead to booby traps, enemies, bosses, keys and finally a loot room? Similar to skeleton forts but more of a raid on an ancient location?
A: Mike: As we've already announced, the Secret Pirate Hideout is out there hidden in the world. Who knows what else is hidden out there!
Q: Do you guys plan on adding more factions? Maybe for Fishing or Cartographers? Also, any plans on adding new types of boats?
A: Joe: We call them Trading Companies (rather than factions, as I think that sets the wrong expectations) but yes, absolutely we plan to add more as the game grows. The next one we want to add is my favourite so far. I won't go into specifics because #SeaofTease but we want to bring in new goals that encourage players to interact in interesting ways, that is unique to Sea of Thieves, and is a completely new way to play from what you have now.
Q: Will you be adding flags on ships in the future to be able to express your intent to other ships? As a primarily PvE player, I want others to know I'm not going to attack them on sight.
A: Joe: Short answer: we absolutely want to, it's a great way to signal intent (or to deceive people). Just got to agree where it comes in our plans, but yes, this sounds great.
Q: I’ve been reading a lot of complaints by Windows 10 players about the Xbox For Windows 10 app. How has the PC Design group been working with Xbox Live for Windows 10 group to change the UI and support features that are not possible with the current Windows 10 app? And has there been changes directly caused by the Sea of Thieves PC group already implemented?
A: Ted: We've worked very closely with the platform team across the board. Our goals for voice comms, Cross Play, Xbox Play Anywhere, and a wealth of other tech was only possible with input from a lot of the folk who work really hard on developer support over in the US. We've also been working closely with the Store team and having weekly calls to address any issues and make sure the experience is as close to perfect as we can make it. This team is a couple of years into a very long journey and they're very passionate, and hopefully we can help each other along the way.
This also extends to beyond our internal teams, as we also have a great relationship with Nvidia, AMD and Intel. We're aiming for full driver support on day one and looking to continue this support and partnership as we continue to expand the game after launch.
Q: Being able to look at a voyage on a table of another ship and seeing a map or riddle would be amazing.
A: Mike: Like the idea.
Q: Will there be more Islands in the full game release than in the beta?
A: Mike: No more islands for full release, but only because we had reached where we wanted to be with the frequency that ships encounter each other. We do have designs for more islands and Outposts but no firm plans just yet. I think our focus initially will be to offer players more activities in the existing world, although there are a lot more ideas for cool islands, as I'm sure you can imagine.
Q: Hi there, question 1.
Will there be character re-customization/wheel respin? On a cooldown or for a hefty gold fee, (No, not paid re-customization via Xbox Services, that would not be well-received
) SoT's character creation is already something heavily criticized, instead of players spending 2 hours creating their perfect incarnation, they have to spend 2 hours spinning the RNG wheel for something they half-like. People will have regrets down the line, especially those who jump quickly into the game and realise later that they're stuck as they are, FOREVER.
Question 2.
Whales, dolphins swimming in and breaching the surface of the sea? It'd make the world feel a lot more alive and immersive than it currently is, also crabs skittering along the sandy beaches of the islands. Besides sharks as a hazard for swimmers and divers, whales could be eye-candy and be cool to sail by, but they could also serve as a hazard for the sloop or both ships if you were to hit one. (They wouldn't die, but the ship would take some damage and lose speed.) Dolphins just feel good and are fun, something jumping out of the water - not necessarily interactive.
As for the crabs... We need crabs! And sea turtles, mates!
A: Joe: Question 1 - At launch no, but this is something we're considering post-launch. We've added the 'favourite' option during initial character choice to help with selection, and we'll look at feedback and prioritise what people want the most. The suggestion of using gold is a good one.
Question 2 - Love the whale suggestion. A big, moving hazard like what would be cool to have to keep an eye on, but we'd also need to allow it to die. Not sure how I feel about that
- We love the idea of more hazards / threats in the water though. We've had discussions about this previously, definitely something we want to do as we move forward.
Q: How early did you decide you wanted this to be a game of horizontal progression and not vertical? I love that I can pick up and play and not be at a statistical disadvantage because someone has grinded hundreds of hours to get the most powerful gear.
A: Joe: We discussed this a LOT. It was honestly one of the biggest challenges we had. What kind of progression system would suit a game like Sea of Thieves, that gave you just enough of a push in the right direction but that you didn't mind getting distracted from, and that allowed you to play with anyone regardless of how long they've played. We're happy with where we've landed with it.
Q: Just a question in general, how often do you foresee people running into each other in the full release game? I only ran into 1 other group of people during the Final Beta and I played a pretty good amount during it. Also good work, it’s a fun game!
A: Ted: This is something we're always fine tuning and have worked very closely with the community to balance the numbers as they are today. Our data shows that the average encounter rate is somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes, BUT the new Skeleton Fort mechanic allows players to also choose to opt-in to further player encounters. We'll continue to monitor this area, and potentially add more features that look to bring players together.
Q: Is there any narrative to the game at all? And small story to guide players along? Or are we all dropped into the game world?
A: Mike: Since players will play with others and be at different points in terms of progression, a linear story didn't feel right for this game. Each player is on a journey to become a Pirate Legend and discover Athena's Fortune. This is an immersive pirate world and your adventures will play out differently based on the presence of other real player crews. Our belief in all of this was that this would lead to much more memorable experiences compared to just following a straight line story that we had created.
Q: Are you working with xbox and microsoft store teams to improve the experience ? It's a HUGE turn off for my friends (5s + loading time on the friendlist of xbox app; impossibility to copy game files from one computer to another,...). Sea of Thieves seems well optimised for PC but the supporting tools are lacking compared to competition (steam, battle.net,...).
A: Ted: I felt Phil Spencer gave a really good answer to this last year;
https://www.pcgamer.com/p...ng-the-windows-store-uwp/
It takes a really long time to build something like an online store, specially when the other stores you talk about have been built over almost 15 years. Steam is awesome but I remember the initial years had slightly choppy waters and the Windows Store is going through that same growth now. Ultimately competition is a really good thing, it's a huge drive to get better and without meaning to sound like too much of a corporate suit it's better for the end consumer too! What I can assure you of is that we are working closely with partners inside Xbox like the platform teams and they're all extremely driven to make their work shine, and likewise external teams like Nvidia, AMD and Intel as they all have the power to make the experience better for our players too. Ultimately what we have the power to do at Rare is make the best game we possibly can and try to make the barrier to entry as low as possible so you can all come and share the world with us.
Q: Can you please add the music from the Celine Dion titanic song to the game as a playable song
A: Ted: Send us a video of you singing it in a live stream, then maybe we'll consider it
Q: 1. I'll ask this for those who play solo on the SoT reddit. When you reach Pirate Legend, do you only get the Legend galleon or is it an option to go between the galleon and sloop?
2. Will there be any server regionalization? I noticed a lot of high ping players matching with players with low ping. Doesn't usually tend to have a good outcome.
A: Joe: 1 - You will be able to play with Galleon or Sloop at any stage throughout the game.
2 - Yes, we have data servers in multiple parts of the world at launch to hit all the key regions.
Q: Are we going to get a flag system, like raising a white flag to communicate peace or raising a black one to indicate fight?
Can we expect "gameplay" DLC?
Are there going to be more threats in the sea besides the kraken?
A: Mike: Yes to all of those!
Q: Any plans on allowing crew members to heal each other? Gives you the perfect chance for some funny animations. Squeeze a banana and shoot the peeled fruit portion at your buddy to heal lol!
A: Mike: Would love to do this. We have some plans here but not quite the fruit portion projectile you describe
Q: Will there be NPC's that give voyages/quests besides the trading companies, and can we expect to see quests for escorting NPCs back to outposts or anything along those lines
A: Mike: Just like the lore books and messages in bottles, we'll look at expanding the ways players can acquire quests in game. Getting quests from mysterious NPCs sounds like a great idea
Q: What would you say to people who are skeptical about the progression in the game?
A: Mike: We're strong believers in the fact that anything worth doing will always feel uncomfortable. I think you have to go against the grain in order to create new experiences. Rather than chasing stats, we wanted players to find richness in the adventures they have while having their eyes fixed on the horizon, rather than +1 damage to their favourite weapons. Being immersed in the world and being able to crew up with anyone you meet was our focus, rather than putting barriers in place because that that is the accepted expectation.
Q: Is there ANY way, now or in the future that more than 4 people can crew a ship. For instance me and 5 more of my friends all pre-ordered the game and we all want to play in one session.
A: Mike: The choice of 4 players was driven by the thinking that larger groups than this would too frequently descend into chaos. Even in real life, 4 people together feels like a good number to share conversation without the group fragmenting into smaller groups.
For friends though, this is something we'll look at and see if we can support. We're already going to be adding the private ship option some time after launch and this would be an expansion of that.
Q: Will you eventually implement a way to choose the shanty you play? Or at least make it a fixed cycle and not random?
A: Mike: We have a plan here to allow you to select a shanty, but also to be able to get more shanties in the world. Its on the post-launch roadmap but still needs to be prioritised against other features we'd like to do as well. Matter of 'when' rather than 'if'.
:strip_exif()/i/2001671247.png?f=thumbmini)
:fill(white):strip_exif()/i/2001123101.jpeg?f=thumbmini)
:fill(white):strip_exif()/i/2002465938.jpeg?f=thumbmini)
:fill(white):strip_exif()/i/1253869039.jpeg?f=thumbmini)
:fill(white):strip_exif()/i/1402398262.jpeg?f=thumbmini)
:fill(white):strip_exif()/i/2002554376.jpeg?f=thumbmini)
/u/331666/crop581e2c93efc13.png?f=community)
/u/63282/crop56a4b9e3a41f7.png?f=community)
ik ben ook van mening dat het een spel is die je op de releasedag moet spelen om het meeste plezier eruit te halen want het is nieuw en ieder begint bij level 0.
:strip_exif()/u/70401/srggf.gif?f=community)
/u/139149/crop64c809f4b448c.png?f=community)
:strip_exif()/u/396484/crop688b718eed9a7_cropped.gif?f=community)
/u/366944/Mondays2.JPG?f=community)
:strip_exif()/u/190571/ck-goodbye-2.gif?f=community)
.
:strip_exif()/u/489903/dancer.gif?f=community)
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/838031/crop5c065fa471833_cropped.jpeg?f=community)
/u/273168/crop659e4b6025256_cropped.png?f=community)
:strip_exif()/u/447893/icon.gif?f=community){kind=icon}
Hoop dat ik een beetje zeebenen kan trainen...
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/398914/crop55ae36eb30afb.jpeg?f=community)
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/268821/crop618cd8edc3ffb_cropped.jpg?f=community)
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/201811/crop57b5ca51096b8.jpeg?f=community)
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/383822/crop5f5f584bb5c81_cropped.jpeg?f=community)
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/446842/crop584070e41833d_cropped.jpeg?f=community)
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/840547/crop5fa925451fc23_cropped.jpeg?f=community)
:strip_exif()/u/325824/crop5eea93aa288b9.gif?f=community)
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/107730/crop5a9eb44de68a3_cropped.jpeg?f=community)
/u/570409/crop57a4a93bd7213_cropped.png?f=community)
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/225077/Heironeous_symbol2.jpg?f=community)
/u/7935/Tippy-msn1.png?f=community)
:strip_icc():strip_exif()/u/754061/crop58fb45b47b36d_cropped.jpeg?f=community)
