Sea of Thieves [XO, PC, PS, XGP]

[Silent_Buddha]

Damn this game is gorgeous.

Yes, the water combined with dawn and sunset is absolutely gorgeous. Also while in storms it's gorgeous and feels menacing. Probably the best that combination has ever been in any game. Water in other games looks so bland and flat now.

I also really like the overall art style, although I know some people that don't dig the cartoony look of the game.

Regards,
SB

 

[iroboto]

My kids and I are having a blast sailing around doing Voyages. Thankfully we haven't had many encounters with other players as I know it just wouldn't be as fun for them and I know that's part of the game but there are of course different people who simply won't just attack on site. One time on just a sloop with my son we were anchored and a galleon sailed past us. I shouted out Ahoy! and my son proceeded to shoot a cannon at them as they went past, he's such a pirate! I hear yells from the players that they're just passing and not a threat. I scolded my son and explained we try not to attack unless we're attacked first.

We ran into our first serious storm and my daughter kept saying she can't control the ship and doesn't know what direction she's going and asked me to take over. I then discover it's not easy controlling a galleon in a big storm! Between trying to keep control of the ship, bucketing water out of the hold and trying not to run into islands we made it out of the storm and they said that was the most intense and best fun they've ever had in a game.

The first thing my son bought when he had enough gold was a hook lol

Damn this game is gorgeous.

we had our first real big storm experience last night, and it was just so much fun to sail through it. Difficult to steer, bailing water, repairing holes, trying to make sure you don't get broad sided.

fantastic experience.

we're doing the lvl 15+ quest now, quite different from the level 0s. They are longer, have more things to do. And then of course you're going to search every island you visit, and then you pick up more and more things along the way. The voyage doesn't end!

interested now to see what a lvl 50 quest would look like, must be the whole quest wheel filled with tasks.

 

[Malo]

we're doing the lvl 15+ quest now, quite different from the level 0s. They are longer, have more things to do. And then of course you're going to search every island you visit, and then you pick up more and more things along the way. The voyage doesn't end!

How do you know what level the quests are? I opened up the next stage of Gold Voyages which cost 20 instead of 0 so we're still at the start.

We had one Order of Souls quest which took us to an island where all these gold skeletons spawned and we couldn't hurt them. I assume we need gold weapons for them?

 

[iroboto]

How do you know what level the quests are? I opened up the next stage of Gold Voyages which cost 20 instead of 0 so we're still at the start.

We had one Order of Souls quest which took us to an island where all these gold skeletons spawned and we couldn't hurt them. I assume we need gold weapons for them?

depends on how many times you paid to get to the next 'quest' level.
My quests are 60 gold each now.
every 5 levels is a new unlock, 20 more gold per tier

 

[Shifty Geezer]

My kids and I are having a blast sailing around doing Voyages.

How are you playing multiplayer with them?

 

[AzBat]

How do you know what level the quests are? I opened up the next stage of Gold Voyages which cost 20 instead of 0 so we're still at the start.

We had one Order of Souls quest which took us to an island where all these gold skeletons spawned and we couldn't hurt them. I assume we need gold weapons for them?

Gold skeletons are vunerable to water & will rust & seize up. Make them run into the water or use your pail to throw water on them. Then blast them with a blunderbuss for one hit kills.

Tommy McClain

 

[Malo]

How are you playing multiplayer with them?

3 gaming PCs in the same room.

 

[AzBat]

Moved up a bit tonight while playing with Rancid & Malo. I think I'm 13-14-13. Had fewer ship encounters tonight. By the time we decided to do a skeleton fort there wasn't any. That was unfortunate. Thanks guys, had a great time!

Tommy McClain

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I think I'm 13-14-13

Bust-waist-hips?

 

[AzBat]

Bust-waist-hips?

LOL not quite.

Rank in the Trading Companies...

Gold Hoarders-Order of Souls-Merchant Alliance

Tommy McClain

 

[Malo]

The game has serious issues with synchronization, or whatever is causing rewards and purchases to not be applied. My son bought the Gold Picaroon title and the shovel and both show as purchased, but didn't take off the gold and aren't available to select from his equipment/vanity.

 

[BRiT]

I believe that's part of what they're in process of patching. Not sure if it's directly what they're talking about here, but it might be related...

Player rewards being delayed

• Due to the volume of players, our services that award players gold and reputation when cashing in rewards can be delayed. Players should expect to see these rewards eventually come through, as they are queued up in our message service.
  
  Status: Ongoing work to improve. During the maintenance window this morning we made some improvements for peak time tonight, and will continue to make improvements as we head towards the weekend. We have also identified some client-side fixes that require a game patch to update, which is due early next week. Right now this is our key priority from an in-game experience perspective, and all efforts across the team are focused on addressing this ASAP. It is a direct result of the scale we are seeing, so please bear with us. We are also investigating reports of some players still not receiving rewards, even after a delay. Investigations are underway on this as a high priority.

Players not receiving entitlements such as the Black Dog Pack

• Due to the huge number of players redeeming their entitlements we saw some instability occurring in the title. We have temporarily disabled this and a fix is in place for the first patch update, likely to arrive early next week.
  
  Status: Believed fixed for next game patch (ETA: early next week).

Temporarily missing items

• We have seen reports of players loading into the game and not having items/weapons.
  
  Status: Believed fixed for next game patch (ETA: early next week).

 

[BadTB25]

They've been pretty open about the issues and timeframe for expected fixes.

 

[xexuxjy]

Did a simple skull bounty, without too many problems, also found a message in a bottle which sent me to a nearby cay. Spent 1/2 hr trying to take down plant, shadow and gold skeletons with the help of my ships gun and sniper rifle, was slow glowing, and made worse by another ship appearing, shooting at me, so swam over to there ship and ran off with it. unfortunately they respawned on it and killed me so my hour long attempt to make some bounty progress failed miserably . Game really doesn't like solo players

 

[Malo]

Did a simple skull bounty, without too many problems, also found a message in a bottle which sent me to a nearby cay. Spent 1/2 hr trying to take down plant, shadow and gold skeletons with the help of my ships gun and sniper rifle, was slow glowing, and made worse by another ship appearing, shooting at me, so swam over to there ship and ran off with it. unfortunately they respawned on it and killed me so my hour long attempt to make some bounty progress failed miserably . Game really doesn't like solo players

I tried out solo last night for a few hours and managed to get 2 gold, a skull and a merchant bounty completed. I was quite paranoid during the whole adventure, keeping an eye out for other ships which I encountered fairly often but managed to skirt. Can't do much about a ship turning up whilst you're on an island though. Trying to navigate, sail around islands and rocks and conduct repairs is certainly challenging alone!

 

[Malo]

So I'm really curious on how the sea works. The detail level for the water seems to control the reflections, foam amount and detail, and possibly some translucency quality? But the sea itself, the rendering of the ocean is what interests me. The claim is it is "generated" in the cloud, and I can see why. In order to have all the clients on the same ocean, with all the waves etc identical, it calculates the ocean in the cloud and it seems to be rendering a pre-generated animation of that ocean on the client. The water isn't interactive at all from what I can tell, there is no dynamic response to objects, and I think this is how they're able to generate such a high quality rendering of the ocean without much impact on the client, it's just a recording of an ocean rendering.

So each section of the grid, or combinations of sections, can be different weather which produces different waves in response. As we pass through the grids, we enter new weather types and everything changes to suit.

If this is the case, does it even have to calculate anything in the cloud? The pre-generated ocean simulation could reside on the client as pools of weather biomes to select from and all the cloud has to do is ensure each grid is synchronized with the same one, ensuring all are experiencing the identical waves. A server only has to track up to 24 players so this would be easy, especially since most are well apart from each other. Each weather setting could have several variations or intensities to ensure variety.

Does this make sense or am I talking out my ass?

 

[iroboto]

Hard to tell without more detail to be honest. I really don't know how the sea works in SoT but it's quite a marvel. You're right that you can't affect the waves, like making your own wake or something along the lines of that, but I don't think that doesn't mean it's not being simulated still. I just don't know how much is being simulated.

 

[AlNom]

#RandomIdeas

Pets interact with one another?

Pet skull that talks. Call it Bill.
Pet rock. Call it Hicks.
Skeletal hand called Cosa Blanca

references ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[BRiT]

TrueAchievements has their review up: https://www.trueachievements.com/n31991/sea-of-thieves-review

Since its reveal, the concern we've been hearing about Sea of Thieves has been its apparent lack of structure or content. The game looks beautiful and charmingly lighthearted, but "what do you actually do?" The question was one Rare couldn't shake leading all the way up to release, and to the credit of those wondering, it seemed to be a fair question. The answer, as it turns out, is a whole lot, thanks to memorable player-driven storytelling where any voyage could be your shining achievement, but the tabula rasa approach won't be for everyone.
...
Sea of Thieves can be a low floor, high ceiling experience. The wrong crew is the quickest way to find boredom before treasures. Sharing seas with griefers can be rage-inducing too, but in both instances, you're always able to quit out and try your luck again with new players. Of course, it's played best with a solid team of you and three friends, but provided you bring a willingness to fill in the gaps with your own role-playing or shenanigans, Sea of Thieves is a charming and gorgeous title no matter the team size brimming with emergent stories that the relatively basic outline provides. Play it long enough and it's impossible to not come away with your own tales to tell. Sea of Thieves is all journey with no real destination, but if that doesn't immediately turn you away, it'll be a pirates life for you.

 

[BRiT]

They also have a brief beginners guide to the game up: https://www.trueachievements.com/n3...of-thieves-tips-for-a-pirates-life-well-lived