This is a half-step in the right direction for myself. I almost redownloaded the game for this.
Dropped out over a year ago because of how toxic everything was in my own personal experience, but if this is a direction the game continues in, Rare, you may pull me back.
I just wanna play Pirate Game with some friends, not get griefed by some nerdy Content Creator or have to listen to a screechy eight year-old.
@destmor I think there's separate commendations for hitting other crews vs hitting phantoms and skeletons. If there aren't other crews then you can't do other crew commendations.
@aurash8863 said in Safer Seas FAQ:
Considering Guilds are coming out in a week's time - will Guilds be available in any form within Safer Seas or at all? Or will Guilds and their features be reserved to High Seas only?
Thanks for clarifying things :)
Ahoy! It is not possible to progress your Guild in Safer Seas as you cannot set sail on Guild Ships in the same way you cannot set sail on Captained Ships.
@loinbread said in Safer Seas FAQ:
Will there still be a timer that kicks idle players after ten minutes (or so)? If so, please consider disabling it for Safer Seas. There are no player slots being taken up on the server and the relaxed pace would really benefit players who have families and other commitments in the home.
Ahoy - I will add a section on Lazybeard to the FAQ. I had actually removed this section originally because the post is already very long and I wasn't sure how much it would be of interest, thanks for raising it!
How does Lazybeard work on Safer Seas?
Lazybeard will be the same in Safer Seas as it is on High Seas, if you are not active then you are removed from the game. This makes the experience equal between High Seas and Safer Seas, and helps prevent gameplay exploits such as earning Commendations whilst you aren’t even present (for example Sailing X Miles).
@phantaxus said in Safer Seas FAQ:
Are the maps on the map board the auto-generated maps or will maps from High Seas appear there?
I suspect auto-generated only, otherwise it would be possible to transfer Athena loot into Safer Seas
Ahoy! That's a great question - you won't see other player's maps in there, and there will not be any way to get treasure items that are High Seas only.
@vege00 said in Safer Seas FAQ:
would it not be possible to in theory earn pirate legend by purely playing safer seas by buying the monthly letter of recommendation from larinna with doubloons 10 times after reaching level 40?
Ahoy - There aren't as many ways to earn Doubloons in Safer Seas, but in theory you could save them up and then go to buy Letters of Recommendation in High Seas. You'd have to load into High Seas to buy the letters and then when you return to Safer Seas, you would not have access to any Pirate Legend content except the Hideout as a space. In order to draw a clear line for the FAQ, we've effectively approached it as whether or not you would need to load into High Seas to earn it.
@enemybritbomber said in Safer Seas FAQ:
Thanks for this, very informative!
Wouldn't it have been easier, and more informative for the people looking to play Safer seas, to have listed the "available" achievements, so they could directly see a list of what they will get to work on. Where as currently, each individual person has to comb through and see what commendations and achievements remain as to what they then can work on. Until some kind person of the internet does that list...
Could have just been you guys since you already had to go through the list, no?
Thanks again!
P.S For anyone that might think about being negative to my comment here, I will already have all achievements in the game prior to Safer Seas. Just looking for a more new person friendly list to pass around to the few people i'm trying to introduce to the game via Safer Seas.
Ahoy! I felt that the most important information is focused around what you cannot achieve, as the information about the existing commendations and achievements is already available to everyone. I felt it would be easier to see those that are unavailable and why - whereas with a list of everything you can get, you'd have to work out what is missing. The post would have simply been too long to include both :D
@thelunararmy said in Safer Seas FAQ:
Three points of clarification:
Are Ashen Chests and Ashen keys possible, despite no Ritual Skulls or Tomes?
If opening an Ashen Chest is possible, is it fair to say that Bags of Gold, Bags of Doubloons, and Ashen cups/coffers will be the only possible loot?
Is fishing for Ashen Keys still possible?
Thank you!
Ahoy, all great questions! Yes you can still find Ashen Chests and Keys (including fishing them up!). You can earn Gold Bags, Doubloon Bags and Ashen Trinkets from within them.
@dumbzilla7249 said in Safer Seas FAQ:
I believe that Safer Seas is a blessing in disguise, but only when done right. I've been wondering if there are any plans to grow this separate sandbox experience since there is so much potential to grow it further.
Having no real players around could give an empty vibe to new and veteran players. Sea of Thieves has always been a thrill because of the risk associated to losing loot or having to fight. This gives meaning to all the commendations that are unlocked, whether those commendations are for the OoS or Gold Hoarder. I hope this risk and social interaction will also seep a way into Safer Seas in the future, but in a different way.
Some features I've been thinking about that could at least enhance the social interactions and offer a more co-op and narrative oriented experience:
- Safer Seas could offer crews within a guild to band together in a friendly environment;
- Safer Seas could offer guild specific voyages like Athena or Reaper raids where at least one strong crew or multiple crews defeat bosses or ghost/skelly fleets;
- Safer Seas could offer crews the ability to replay adventures as part of exclusive safer seas tall tales.
Ahoy! We feel really good about what Safer Seas offers in contrast to High Seas. We still believe very much in the shared world adventure of High Seas being the epitome of Sea of Thieves play, but want to give players more options and ways to enjoy our pirate world. The vision for Safer Seas is not to have specific gameplay features or experiences that are unavailable in High Seas. Safer Seas is a slice of High Seas - not a different game mode that evolves separately.
However, I completely get why you are excited about the idea of crewing up with a fleet; we have long talked about this idea too, it's inherently so inspirational! Whilst we're not working on anything like that right now, I don't think that Safer Seas is the only way we could approach this ;)
@veedrock said in Safer Seas FAQ:
The "Get off my lawn" commendation can be gotten with skeleton ships.
What's the reason for disabling tomes?
Ahoy! On the Commendation, great spot thank you. This was an error in the FAQ and has been corrected.
With regards to Ashen Tomes, Humble and Generous Gifts and Rag and Bone Crates - these are all thematically tied to the Reaper's Bones and award you Reaper's Bones reputation for selling them. In contrast the Ashen Chest is also a vehicle for other items that are not solely Reaper's Bones aligned (Gold, Doubloons, Ashen Trinkets), and so we felt this should still be obtainable.
@realstyli said in Safer Seas FAQ:
Just confused about some of the comms being unavailable that you can do against skeleton ships? Was this never an intended feature?
Surprised about the Shrouded Ghost comm being available but I guess that will avoid major disappointments.
Otherwise, this was all kind of assumed, but good to get confirmation.
Ahoy - You can earn commendations that are achievable through Skeleton Ships. This was just an error in the FAQ, but not an intended one! These should have been rectified in the original post now.
@pedroxtarrrr said in Safer Seas FAQ:
Will 30% also affect the monthly emissary value?
Ahoy - Emissary play is not available at all in Safer Seas, so you cannot earn anything towards your monthly ledger outside of High Seas.
@woodybus2033399 said in Safer Seas FAQ:
The section on Ashen Treaures Commendations:
Ashen Treasures CommendationsThe following Commendations are unavailable in Safer Seas:
Key of Thieves - Use a stolen Ashen Key.
All Tome CommendationsWhy is Using a stolen Ashen Key unavailable but opening a Stolen Ashen Chest (don't remember the name) not unavailable also? Was this a post mistake or an oversight or intentional?
Question 2: With Safer Seas being a PVP free zone, Will the new World Event (skull of siren song( I honestly dont remember)) be available on there?
Ahoy! Thank you for pointing that out, was just an error and is indeed also unavailable; I have updated the FAQ now. To clarify:
Ashen Treasures Commendations
The following Commendations are unavailable in Safer Seas:
And also to confirm that's correct, the Skull of Siren Song will not be available in Safer Seas.
@cpt-dawncaller said in Safer Seas FAQ:
@shelley-preston Are the Voyages that have you dig up a ritual skull and skull of destiny disabled then?
Ahoy - that's correct, these Voyages will be unavailable!
@general-keys735 said in Safer Seas FAQ:
Good that you limited Safer Seas.
Personally, I won't use it since I don't like the idea of having PvE servers.
One request, PLEASE limit players from doing the "Complete this Tall Tale 5 times" commendations.
In December, my hard-fought gold curse isn't going to mean anything anymore...
Your Gold Curse still represents your own personal journey that is unique to you. Sea of Thieves has and always will evolve over time, which means it's natural that players will reach milestones in slightly differing ways. As an example, there are more ways to get to Pirate Legend now than there used to be, but it's still a meaningful and memorable milestone for all who achieve it. Ultimately, we believe that all players should be able to enjoy and be rewarded for Tall Tales in Safer Seas.
@pack6519 said in Safer Seas FAQ:
@shelley-preston will players be able to sell to the reaper hideout or only at outposts?
Ahoy! You cannot sell any items to Reaper's Bones or Athena's Fortune in Safer Seas.
@cpt-dawncaller said in Safer Seas FAQ:
@triheadedmonkey Didn't some folks have a quest for the Skull of Destiny though? I assume if "somehow" you got a debloon quest for the ritual skull or the SoD then it just wont appear at the end of the voyage. I was hoping that for instance I hop on to High Seas grab the quests and pop back over to safer seas they would be locked and you cant start the voyage.
Ahoy! We have a twofold approach - the Voyages will be locked so you will not be able to propose them. For voyages or other features that have a chance to spawn High Seas only items, we also have a system that swaps these items in Safer Seas with a different treasure.
@aiko8999 said in Safer Seas FAQ:
Legend Of The Veil still available in Safer Seas?
Ahoy - you cannot access any Pirate Legend Voyages in Safer Seas, so you will not be able to play Legend of the Veil.
@nex-stargaze said in Safer Seas FAQ:
I know this isn't the place to be argumentative or anything like that, but I'm having a LOT of trouble behind the reasoning of very long-winded commendations like Seeker of Ancient Vaults, Hoarder of Barnacled Gold, and even World Event commendations like Hunter of [Ashen Lords] and Raider of Cursed Strongholds just... being freely available to complete without issue in what's supposed to be the tutorial. I understand some people may have not had to fight for some commendations in the past, but...
Vaults are one of the only high tier voyages that not only encourage stacking but have a very inherent risk of getting a lot of loot stolen from post voyage, which is still fairly healthy for the game.
Hoarder of Barnacled Gold has consistently been given advice to tackle the Ship Battle World Event to find more barnacled chests, enticing those not looking to do said world event currently to just steal from crews that go out of their way to obtain the same treasure.
The world event ones are even more concerning. Hunter of [Ashen Lords] is one of the stronger incentives to keep doing Ashen Winds currently, and if players could perform that on Safer Seas, they may have very little reason to do so on High Seas, which is supposed to promote conflict.
Then there's Raider of Cursed Strongholds, which is opening the vault of 120 Skeleton Forts. I recently completed this one because the current Stronghold World Events are so very poor in content and profit, and I barely have crew to do it with. I still had to fight over these forts even post Fort of Fortune because I sought to complete it for the commendation (and deny loot to any trespassers who dared to be in my cannon line).
A tutorial really shouldn't allow you to complete 720 commendations in pure peace, but it shouldn't be devaluing the entire point to keep doing content where contesting is intended and part of the experience of completing the game. Yes, we still have Reaper's Bones, Athena's Fortune, and their respective Hourglass Factions, but they're not world event related, they're more advanced portions of the game that newer players wouldn't even tread well on. The main 3 Trading Companies and most of the world events are still just as purposeful in the nature of the game as everything that is staying on High Seas, and it would be appropriate if there are enough restrictions to prevent players in Safer Seas from "getting too comfortable" there.
Ahoy! Whilst we do refer to Safer Seas as a tutorial, it's not Safer Seas only purpose and goal. Absolutely we believe that Safer Seas will be a tutorial for many new players, providing them a safe space to learn the ropes before heading to High Seas. But for others, Safer Seas will provide an ongoing space where they can enjoy the pirate world of Sea of Thieves in their own way. That might be exclusively Safer Seas, or it might be a mix of the two. I've personally played Sea of Thieves in some form at work and home for close to a decade and I'm extremely comfortable in High Seas, but I'm sure I'll be popping into Safer Seas for a chilled fishing session with friends, or to enjoy some narrative Tall Tales.
We've been building upon Sea of Thieves post-release for over five years now, in that time we've heard a growing community of players who just want to enjoy our world without the threat of other players - for a wide variety of reasons. We still believe in the original vision of Sea of Thieves being a shared world adventure game, and High Seas will always be the main way to play. We feel really good about where we've landed with what each has to offer and we do not believe that Safer Seas takes anything away from High Seas.
Whilst other crews are present in High Seas, there is no guarantee that they will interfere with you earning every Commendation. If a commendation was intended to require you to involve other crews, it would specifically have been authored to require it, such as 'Gunpowder Plot'. We totally appreciate that your experience might have been affected by other crews, but soe other players won't have been affected at all. And players in Safer Seas should be able to enjoy this content and earn Commendations for it.
There are plenty of exclusive rewards in High Seas and ultimately, we believe Sea of Thieves should be welcoming to as many players as possible, and that everyone should be rewarded for playing. After all - "The Sea Calls to All"!
@lethality1 said in Safer Seas FAQ:
Convenient Stores - Supplies from the Merchants will save you a wait. Buy every Resource and Commodity Crate!
I supposed this is a list that could be nit-picked to no end, but why would this one be excluded, for example?
Ahoy - You cannot buy the Commodities this refers to without being an Emissary. Given that Emissary play is not available in Safer Seas, there is no way to earn this achievement.
@shelley-preston said in Safer Seas FAQ:
@loinbread said in Safer Seas FAQ:
Will there still be a timer that kicks idle players after ten minutes (or so)? If so, please consider disabling it for Safer Seas. There are no player slots being taken up on the server and the relaxed pace would really benefit players who have families and other commitments in the home.
Ahoy - I will add a section on Lazybeard to the FAQ. I had actually removed this section originally because the post is already very long and I wasn't sure how much it would be of interest, thanks for raising it!
How does Lazybeard work on Safer Seas?
Lazybeard will be the same in Safer Seas as it is on High Seas, if you are not active then you are removed from the game. This makes the experience equal between High Seas and Safer Seas, and helps prevent gameplay exploits such as earning Commendations whilst you aren’t even present (for example Sailing X Miles).
Can't people just continue to exploit the 'miles sailed' Commendations by rubber-banding their gamepad or enabling a macro to avoid getting kicked? Except now they don't have to worry about someone coming to try and sink them. Why incovenience some just to try and tackle those who are going to circumvent it anyway?
@grumpyw01f said in Safer Seas FAQ:
How do Ancient Coins work in Safer Seas?
Ancient Coins are earned at 100% Value in both Safer Seas and High Seas.
Ancient Skeletons will have the same chance to appear in Safer Seas as in High Seas.
Am I right in assuming that this means that Ancient skeleton odds are tied to individual players then? We wouldn't want Ancient skellies to be 6x more likely because there's only one crew to spawn on.
Ahoy - good question! Ancient Skeletons are spawned on a per crew basis. This means it doesn't matter how many crews are on the server, or how many players are in your crew, you have the same chance of encountering one.
@shelley-preston said in Safer Seas FAQ:
With regards to Ashen Tomes, [...] - these are all thematically tied to the Reaper's Bones and award you Reaper's Bones reputation for selling them.
I feel like Tomes are just as tied to Bilge Rats as they are to Reapers (perhaps more so, considering they can be sold to Larinna, and their commendations are all under the Bilge Rat tab). Are there plans to change this or something?
@cpt-tifosi said in Safer Seas FAQ:
You are being COMMENDED for completing a sometimes difficult task for example 500 Skeleton ships sunk and I feel for someone to just spend all there time in safer seas grinding out fleets and skelly ship encounters, fort completions and hunters call commendations (removing pretty much any chance of ever finding anyone naturally fishing in High seas, having those moments where speaking from experience you’ve secured your last 3 raven islehoppers because you came across a crew and had that story to tell from it is totally ruining and removing these natural moments. I still believe players should have access to everything the game has to offer minus PVP and “endgame content but commendations should be switched off. It should be the equivalent of the hourglass faction commendations where there are certain ones that don’t start until you’ve reached obtaining your curse.
I’m guessing the reason that they’ve created this game mode and have set it up like they have is that lots of players are just quitting. SOT has been turning into a massive troll fest that was only fun for little kids that wanted to grief other players for hours at a time. I never had any use in the pvp side of SOT. The PVP mechanics of the game didn’t fit my style of gameplay. Me and several of my friends quit playing it because it just wasn’t fun for us to spend a few hours on a quest line just to have all of the loot stolen. I wish they’d take it a step further and give you the option to only play PvP or PVE. Choose once and not swap back and forth. If you want to play PvP swap to another character. Then allow all of the normal content and minus anything pvp related stuff on the pve servers with all of the normal rewards.
@shelley-preston what if i'm lvl 75 in gold horder, can i still get voyages for my level or it will be downgraded to 40 once i'm in safer seas? what about the loot?
personally i think you should make it more worth for players who are experienced enough but are tired of the pvp and risky part of the game.. everyone once in a while want to chill without being worried about players sinking their ship.. and currently this mode it's worth only for new players, no one want to sell a chest for 300 gold when in higher seas it's worth 1000 + 1500.. what about set loot value to 100% only on gold rush hour? it's not the same as having emissary but it's something at least you don't feel like wasting your time..
@lasky6313 said in Safer Seas FAQ:
personally i think you should make it more worth for players who are experienced enough but are tired of the pvp and risky part of the game.. everyone once in a while want to chill without being worried about players sinking their ship.. and currently this mode it's worth only for new players, no one want to sell a chest for 300 gold when in higher seas it's worth 1000 + 1500..
I'm more concerned at why you'd want to do anything other than Tall Tales and Fishing on Safer Seas as an experienced player. Especially when the reward structure of the game is the risk you had to go through for it.
what about set loot value to 100% only on gold rush hour? it's not the same as having emissary but it's something at least you don't feel like wasting your time..
They've confirmed that all events, including Gold Rush as well as Gold and Glory, will not apply on Safer Seas.
Probably to prevent cheesing grinds even further in an environment where no one can contest you regardless of the content you engage in.
@nex-stargaze i like to chill after a day of work not encounter toxic players who are just mean.. the game is so chill you can just sail and relax and use it as a meditation session sometimes.
fishing is not worth either if it's maxed out at 40 and you gain 30% reputation i rather go to monkey island and fish there for pondies.
I know that there's no gold rush in safer seas.. it was a suggestion cause what's the point of every game? have an active player base so if people grind all day only to sell during gold rush hour isn't that a good thing? make people play more to earn some gold in a safer way which is still less than having an emissary in higher seas so sweat lords don't complain too much
@lasky6313 said in Safer Seas FAQ:
@shelley-preston what if i'm lvl 75 in gold horder, can i still get voyages for my level or it will be downgraded to 40 once i'm in safer seas? what about the loot?
personally i think you should make it more worth for players who are experienced enough but are tired of the pvp and risky part of the game.. everyone once in a while want to chill without being worried about players sinking their ship.. and currently this mode it's worth only for new players, no one want to sell a chest for 300 gold when in higher seas it's worth 1000 + 1500.. what about set loot value to 100% only on gold rush hour? it's not the same as having emissary but it's something at least you don't feel like wasting your time..
In Safer Seas, you have less risk from other pirates and therefore will earn Gold at 30% of the rate that you would in High Seas.
In Safer Seas, you have less (no) risk from other pirates and therefore will earn Reputation at 30% of the rate that you would in High Seas.
Wanting to chill in safety is fine, and it makes sense that reward scales with the risk you choose to take. Can't have your cake and eat it too, I think the compromises and limitations are quite reasonable and make total sense giving choices, reasons and incentives to play all modes.
@bloodybil why are you against this? if someone don't want to fight in higher seas he will just run for 40 min and waste your time in the process while if that same player can play a different mode based on how he feels about fighting, everyone in the high seas will be just ready to pvp isn't that a better solution?
i read the FAQ sir i'm just suggesting something different cause 30% it's not worth and i know it's a tutorial sandbox i just want it to be better.. also if you take a storage crate which is 5k (in both safer and high seas) how many chests you need to sell in order to get that money back? 16 (assuming each chest is worth 300 (1000 in higher seas)).. how a new player supposed to learn the game if every time he logs in the supplies cost more than what he makes in his whole play session?
@makigamer5000 The lights for the Fort of The Damned are not all obtainable due to being single-crew servers (no light for dying to PvP) and the absence of the Skull of Destiny.
@makigamer5000 For the FotD you either need a pink flame (impossible, since there is no enemy crew around) or a skull of destiny voyages (impossible, because it's an Athena's Fortune voyage). So even if they wouldn't have completely deactivate it and you could light the beacons, you wouldn't even be able to start it since you will never be able to light them all.
On top of that: the FotD and FoF are the world events where a lot of people tend to fight over, while the rest are often left alone. A last reason is that those two events have a lot of athena and reaper loot. Having to remove all that loot from the vaults also give new players a wrong idea of the loot you are supposed to get from them.
@lasky6313 said in Safer Seas FAQ:
@bloodybil why are you against this? if someone don't want to fight in higher seas he will just run for 40 min and waste your time in the process while if that same player can play a different mode based on how he feels about fighting, everyone in the high seas will be just ready to pvp isn't that a better solution?
i read the FAQ sir i'm just suggesting something different cause 30% it's not worth and i know it's a tutorial sandbox i just want it to be better.. also if you take a storage crate which is 5k (in both safer and high seas) how many chests you need to sell in order to get that money back? 16 (assuming each chest is worth 300 (1000 in higher seas)).. how a new player supposed to learn the game if every time he logs in the supplies cost more than what he makes in his whole play session?
All I am saying is that it makes sense that the reward scales with the risk, I don't understand what's unreasonable in this. You can play for however long you like without any serious risk to lose any loot, seems perfectly balanced.
Loot is already so plentiful, you will be able to stop at literally every single wreck, floating debris, and empty every island on your path and complete every available voyage at your disposal without having to worry about losing any of it. You will have a 100% rate of cashing in every session. What more can you possibly want?
I will be looking forward to play both mode depending on how I feel, and accept the fair balance, pros and cons that come with them.
