Addressing Weapon Animation Skipping and Combat Fairness

This would level the playing field and encourage more strategic, skill-based fights rather than animation exploitation.

Animation cancels are skill based and are present in most competitive games. They're part of what makes a skill gap.

Very rarely is it the most skilled players asking for animation cancelling to be removed, and that isn't a coincidence.

@goldsmen

Considering animation canceling in this game was in the past frame rate specific

I don’t think it’s been like that since the very first quickswap which was actually broken, if it’s ever been like that at all, as this is the first I’ve heard of that.

And "it is in some other games" is not an excuse to justify it considering sot is not other games, and every time people use other games as justifications, i physically cant express the fact that sot is not those games anywhere near enough.

Why should we not compare it to other games, especially when you wanna talk about “skill based” mechanics?

As well like it was already stated, it’s basically just key spam. There is little skill in rolling your fingers across a few keys. I spam wasd as fast as possible in games when ever waiting, and i can make about 10 circles of those keys in half as many seconds without even making a conscious effort.

Then why is it such an issue if it’s so easy to do? Why the constant whining about “fairness”?

Quickly rolling your fingers over a few keys doesnt take much skill or effort to do.

Tell this to the entire fighting game community, or any other game that has combos, and see how they respond.

As well it begs the question of how skilled some one really is if they NEED that quarter second difference to be able to win a fight, but i dont intend to delve too deeply into that rn.

This implies that the meta saw a major shift after the removal of quickswap, like swordlords suddenly became the kings of PvP.

This didn’t happen at all, in reality the same double gunners who loved quickswap are still stomping in fights with ease. It was never about necessity, it was about fluidity, skill expression, and style.

@goldsmen

That is exactly how it worked from the beginning, people just didnt have as bad of frame rate issues at game launch.

Well that's not how it worked for a long time after the very first iteration

example if you compared tetris to minecraft since mechanically they are both games about placing blocks

What a bad faith example lol. You can definitely compare games like LoL, Street Fighter, Overwatch, and CS. We're talking about PvP mechanics and how players use them.

It is a pirate sandbox game with basic gun play elements, and everyone who thinks that it is a shooter based game at its core

Above all else it's a video game. The mechanics should be smooth and fluid. What we have right now with double gunning is the opposite of smooth and fluid. There's a forced cool down where you awkwardly stand there between shots and gun jamming bugs as a result of quickswap removal.

Both arena nor hourglass which are for the people who want more combat focused was focused on naval with only side commendations in the arena for killing players

Yet one of the most popular things to do in Arena was fort TDMs, and the most popular strats in hourglass are ramming and evil mode.

Either way, the removal of quickswap wasn't about making the game more "skillful", it was about dumbing down the mechanics to cater to people who couldn't keep up with what you described as easy "key spam".

@count-kaisar said in Addressing Weapon Animation Skipping and Combat Fairness:

Dear Sea of Thieves Team,

I’d like to raise a concern shared by many players regarding an increasingly prevalent combat technique that affects gameplay balance. Specifically, some players have adopted a maneuver that allows them to switch between weapons—commonly sniper, pistol, or blunderbuss—with extreme speed by sprinting immediately after the swap. This tactic appears to bypass the intended weapon-switch animation, creating what feels like an unfair advantage during encounters.

As regular players who engage with combat as designed, we lack the ability to counter these ultra-fast combos effectively. The maneuver dramatically reduces response time and undermines the strategic pacing that should define Sea of Thieves' pirate battles. It essentially favors speed exploiters rather than tactical decision-making and skill.

To preserve the integrity of PvP combat, we kindly request a revision to this mechanic. Specifically, we suggest implementing stricter enforcement of the weapon-switch animation or introducing a short cooldown between switches when sprinting is detected. This would level the playing field and encourage more strategic, skill-based fights rather than animation exploitation.

Sea of Thieves thrives because of its immersive and fair combat, rich pirate lore, and dedicated community. By addressing this imbalance, you’d be reinforcing your commitment to competitive integrity and player enjoyment.

Thank you for listening, and for continuing to evolve this incredible world we've come to treasure.

Sincerely, A concerned player who values fairness on the seas 🌊

Quick swap has been severely nerfed. It is still possible to quick swap but the difference is barely noticeable, especially to the average player who isn’t a regular “tdm” participant.

Last I checked, regular swap is 1.23 seconds while quickswap is 1.17 seconds. Is this really what we’re posting about?

Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t care if quick swap went away, but sorry, you’re not losing fights because of quick swap, and quick swap is not significant to anyone’s session unless you’re a really good tdm player fighting against another really good tdm player.

There are cheats currently which allow the old quick swap+, but that is a cheating issue, not a double gun issue.

@rambobrad said in Addressing Weapon Animation Skipping and Combat Fairness:

Just gonna repost this clip of me shooting 2 guns with no animation skipping for context sake.

https://streamable.com/xiikrn

Exactly, and I bet that many of your opponents think that you’re doing some exploit in order to shoot “fast”. I feel like the vast majority of players can’t tell the difference between present day quick swap and regular swap, but as a coping mechanism they blame an “exploit” when in reality most of their opponents probably aren’t even using quickswap. The difference is so negligible I hardly ever bother to use it, except for when using sword, ironically, since the old quick swap speeds still apply to sword 👀

@potatosord said in Addressing Weapon Animation Skipping and Combat Fairness:

@worst-tdmer They are not skill based, they are spam based. You spam buttons to skip animations, honestly if you were actually skilled you would use the game mechanics as intended instead of relying on an exploit they have repeatedly made efforts to patch. The fact that they have repeatedly tried to remove all forms of quickswap is objective undeniable proof that quickswap is an exploit. "sWorD luNgInG wAs An eXpLoIt" Which they never once tried to remove. They have removed multiple forms of quick swap. Wanna talk about real skill, try winning without a gun at all. Sword lording is where the real skill is. If you have 2 guns and I repeatedly kill you with the sword (I will), you have a serious skill issue. My range is punch, it takes 4 hits to kill while you take 2 at any range with a gun. That's where the real skill is.

😂

I don’t have much skin in this argument. I primarily double gun but I dabble with sword and throwing knives as well. I’m also not someone who feels the need to always play the meta. With that said, sorry but left clicking in a direction isn’t as difficult as aiming your two weapons as quickly as possible with precision. I’m not saying that sword doesn’t require skill, everything in the game requires skill to some extent, but facing your opponent and left clicking with some questionable range isn’t it.

Not saying you shouldn’t use sword, you should, I will too, but cmon.

@burnbacon said in Addressing Weapon Animation Skipping and Combat Fairness:

Yet one of the most popular things to do in Arena was fort TDMs, and the most popular strats in hourglass are ramming and evil mode.

And that why arena failed. Nobody played how it was meant to be played. If you tried. Your own crew made you lose because of it.

Hourglass on the other hand has no set rules to follow. You win or lose by means the game allows.

Back on topic.
Quick swap, is still a thing and won’t go away.
No matter the patch. It needs a fix, removal and there only two good ways. But rare won’t do it because of the backlash that will be a thing.

Regular swap: 1.23 seconds
Quick swap: 1.17 seconds

Go ahead and remove it, what’s the difference? Why do we think that players who favor the old quickswap frequently ask for its return? Because it’s currently so good, or because it basically doesn’t exist now?

Remove it for all I care, but these post talking about its significance, as if quickswap currently has any, are at the very least out of touch and likely a coping mechanism on top of that.

Quickswap in its current state is nearly irrelevant.

@goldsmen

Im going to state it one last time. That is literally exactly how it has always worked, just because you did not see it personally does not mean it was not still present.

Do you have any evidence proving that? You are literally the only person I've heard claim this and I have 6x your hours and am friends with dozens of people who would know about this (streamers, competitive players, hourglass sweats, TDMers)

At the very least I'm sure it would come up in a tips and tricks vid/thread but nope, you're the first person I've seen talk about it.

@goldsmen

No problem, I'll just take that response as your roundabout way of saying you have no evidence; as again, searches come up with nothing and you are the only person I've ever seen say this.