@aceblue said in From the XBOX player with 600+ Arena wins.:

@xultanis-dragon

Yes. In about 3 weeks I got 240 wins. As stated I played with PC & Xbox players via LFG.
The difficulty of the wins had a direct comparison to how many Xbox we had on the ship too. (Regardless of their experience.)
I have pictures with timestamps on my profile if you need proof.

Also as stated I won via strategy and watching ladders. I could not win in hand/gun combat. Just because Xbox has a disadvantage doesn't mean we can't win entirely, but it is why most Xbox players (even those that are try-hards) don't have many arena wins/don't play it.

Me winning isn't the problem, I never said it was. The problem is the win-rate for Xbox players overall. Very few Xbox players are legendary sea dogs because there's too many disadvantages. The problem is Xbox players quitting arena, and the entire game.

Do you have any information on that? Where are you getting your numbers. I just ran into someone the other day who was on xbox who already had 240 wins. I don't have 240 wins. I'm on PC. Why don't I already have 240 wins?

No the issue is rebalancing the game. You watched ladders and had good ship tactics. AMAZING, someone who knows how to play the game. Now teach it to everyone else who doesn't want to. Players dropping anchors AT islands IN ARENA. You guys are the majority. You have the casuals. I'm sorry but lots in your community don't want to bother doing ANYTHING.

"Watch the boat while we are on island" - Next thing I know, I see the person on island.

"Hey you see any ships" - Oh yeah no we are good. Ship is rolling up behind us.

I remember this one from a long time ago and it pretty much was the moment I realized there are THOSE types of players.

"Dude why is everyone on the island? I said we should rotate!" - He replies "Why are you getting so paranoid we are PERFECTLY fine, its my ship anyways I'm the captain so stop your ******" - Immediately after he finishes that sentence we get broadsided with a ship that parked RIGHT ALONG ours.

Congrats you know how to play the game.

How does cross play optional hurt the game again? If it's so healthy and fine.. all it would do is boost rates. Most would still play mixed serves.

sigh I love doing this AGAIN. Human Nature. Human nature is the reason.

The servers will survive for a time. Eventually as time goes on it won't be. Take you for instance. You are advocated for separate servers. Which means you'll play in that server. "NO I WON'T" - Yes you will.

As new players get the game for xbox they will stick with opt out. Lots of players don't take the hard route immediately after starting a game. They want to "learn how to play" first before going into the hard area's. Some might try cross play but depending on how good a player they are, whether or not they are whiny little babies, and depending on other personality traits, they might stay. Those are going to be rare. Xbox players are mostly casuals, they won't pick crossplay. Is this true? Gee, I wonder, as some of the people on the forums have already said, "If we had the option to choose opt out from the beginning I would have NEVER chosen to play cross play."

The longer the game goes on the harder it will be to keep the community together. More and more new players on xbox will just play on opt out which means your servers grow, ours does not. Soon it will be PC on one side, Xbox on the other.

Then the arguments will happen. PC will want different things from xbox servers. I mean why wouldn't we? Why shouldn't we? Xbox servers are already seperated from us why not make the game better for us. Xbox will also clearly do the same thing. "Hey can we have some balance changes for the opt out servers". Both sides are going to do this.

PC will have dead servers because we are the minority and depending on region and time of day the servers can be dead. We will have to be moved to more populated areas which means during peak US times the EU or even AUS regions will have to be migrated to US sides or US to those regions to keep populations going. Which means there will be latency issues.

Then PC players are going to be mad so Rare will have to change their population algorithm or they won't. PC players won't play because of lag. If they fix the merging problem, people will stop playing because no one is online. When a game only has a population during another regions PEAK hours, its not a good system if you don't have the numbers, which xbox was and has.

All of this because of simply human nature.

Again again again I will say Xbox players aren't being lesser by choice, if they could all afford an SSD I'm sure they'd get one. Even potato PCs do not have the load problems of any Xbox without an SSD.

Yes we do. Dear god yes we do. The load times are just as long as a xbox one x.

Your problem is the original xbox one. Which should be seperated because like you said, hardware differences right?

Which is another reason I don't believe any of this "fairness" nonsense. Xbox one original has the WORST load times. Ive never argued that, no one argues that. We are all in agreement on that. Yet you don't ask to say "hey can we have a server for our xbox one original counter parts?"

You also don't care about the other xbox's that have ssd's.

Potato PC's don't have clean framerates so there goes another one of your arguments. Potato PC's have worse framerate drop issues then xbox one x's.

Why are PC player so rich and xbox players are not? What makes us special? We aren't rich. We make sacrifices all the time. I used to have to decide, do I want the new game, or upgrade my pc.

We have to upgrade constantly, or just sit there playing video games at the LOWEST settings which are worse then xbox one settings.

How many of you bought gears of war 5, red dead 2, CoD, but sit here complaining about not having money for an SSD??

Get off it man. PC players aren't made of money, but WHY THE HELL are we treated like we are the top 1%. As if we bathe in a tub of money as if we hang out at wall street.

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS WOULD A PC PLAYER JUST TRY TO CONTROL A CONTROLLER AT 10 SENSITIVITY IT ISN'T LIKE PC, YOU CAN NOT CONTROL IT WITH THUMBSTICKS. I've done both it's a massive difference!! Just try it. It's not as simple as us just raising our sensitivity or we'd do that.

Yes I did. I have. Took a long time to learn. About 2 weeks of constantly playing, 8 hour days every day, just to get muscle memory to sink in. After that had to change my whole playstyle which took some more time. Which was more difficult for me since I have issue with my hands. Which is why I play on PC because even though its still difficult for me to play First person games on mouse and keyboard, I enjoy playing. Controller is hard for me to hold and my fingers just don't work right.

My stats of PC players have better hit reg than Xbox is via testing with PC & Xbox players in the same server with people being targets. Go test it. No matter how bad the PC internet/specs are the Xbox player will have less hit reg. (I get a lot of big alliances and when we are done with things I ask them to help me test stuff before getting off)

LOLOLOL really we have better hit reg? I never heard that. Please let me know of a person that has good hit reg because I MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT. So what now?

Several people have agreed with what I said about lfg, maybe you have a main crew and don't look at lfg much.

I do have 3 crews and I try to play with them because after opt out was implemented I was turned away for being on PC. I was called toxic among other things. If I was on a rando crew and they talked about balance issues I would stay silent, I didn't want to get into a fight with them, if I didn't agree I would get kicked.

I've been asked to leave if I end up in a xbox party looking for xbox servers.

Most of the people I joined off of LFG were all xbox players. Still are mostly. Maybe its a regional thing I don't know. But my entire friends list is almost ALL xbox players. So again, you have yours I have mine.

As I mentioned previously if the new Xbox (in a year) fixes load times then I don't see a problem with PC controller players being allowed in the Xbox lobbies.

Why not just rebalance the game because we all agree the mechanics are garbage. The only issue is with Rares reluctance to let go of one simple mechanic in the game, double gunning. With them REPEATEDLY trying to fix ONE thing the mechanics are completely garbage.

One thing they've been trying to fix. ONE THING. They could just get rid of double gunning and make sword mandatory. Revert combat mechanics back to launch but make sword completely mandatory.

It could be rebalanced if we all just simply agreed to ask them to pause their updates and MAKE THE CHANGES. Yet we sit here arguing over cross play which is one thing that should stay in the game.

I'm open to them fixing the game but I don't think they're going to do that.. so opt out serves would be an easier/faster/actually possible solution. The adventure lobbies would still be full due to the good server merges, and many Xbox player would still play split servers. This wouldn't split the community, it would boost it though as many players would return and I'd stop so many Xbox players from quitting.

Then why not let PC player into those lobbies if we use controller? See thats the thing, why not let us into those lobbies with a controller? There is no reason NOT to. If input is the reason then let us also join those servers since they will CLEARLY have the most players.

I just firmly believe something has to change for this game to not die. If it was okay as is, then why are there no Xbox players in arena(Xbox servers are back to not running again so all players are in mixed lobbies), why are there so few legendary sea dog Xbox players, why is arena dead, why are so many Xbox players quitting the entire game?

The game isn't dying, but it does need changing. We should push them to fix the combat mechanics instead of arguing about cross play.

You have PC players that agree that opt out is need.

We have xbox players that say cross play should stay the same.

The argument over cross play we are divided.

BUT WE ALL AGREE THE GAMES COMBAT NEEDS TO BE FIXED!

Why not push for the one thing WE ALL agree on.

Again again again, if it doesn't work they can just disable it. Why can't it be tried to fix the problem?

No they can't. I don't think you understand human nature at all, or at least not the gaming community. Its so much harder to remove something like that then it is to implement it. Once its installed they won't be able to remove it.

"Hey guys Joe Neate here, sorry to say, servers for PC players are dead and opt out is not working. We have to switch it back" - They would lose ALL OF YOU.

You would all quit in protest. Its happened in the past.

Something like opt out is not something they can implement then remove.

Unrelated but I'm a woman in response to all the man/sir/etc: you can keep calling me those I don't care. But just so people stop assuming all try-hards are men.

I could go into a whole tangent about that and the way society evolves and blah blah but that would derail the convo and honestly, with today's politically correct nonsense, I would rather not receive hate mail from people who are no more intelligent than a rock that sits outside my roommates house.

I couldn't care less if you were male or female or a chipmunk. I treat everyone the same and if you trash talk better back it up.

EDIT-- (Trash talking in the game, not saying you are trash talking here)

@koiempress9254 said in Community Weekend Unenjoyable:

Hi all, I've read through a few post on the PvPvE debate. To start off I understand it's a pirate game, pillaging and stealing is name of the game.

This sentence alone cancels your entire post.

Combat makes sense and can be enjoyable.

Yep, it's inevitable and enjoyable and it make sense because it is part of the core mechanics of this game which is a PVPVE shared adventure world, of the pirates fantasy.

I've played quite a bit (almost Pirate Legend)

Awesome keep going!

and have found two main schools of thought when looking at the game. Following the story of SoT or following the action. Basically PvE or PvP.'

Yeah you just basically said your first sentence of this post again. You can do either or both yes, so...

With that in mind I was excited to go into Community weekend and hopefully increase my Renown to Pirate Legend.

Yep the whole community was. Renown is the points for your season progression, not the reputation points for your trading companies reputation to reach Pirate Legend (minimum of three to obtain it.)

I was not able to because of other players. I attempted the Fort of the Damned multiple times, only once was I able to sell the loot. The other times I was killed on the boat or island while collecting the loot or while I was sailing to an outpost.

Firstly, you sound that you are not a confident PVP player which is fine. Secondly you choose to do a world event, that is initiated by...players...which would surely bring people to you, friendly or to steal and surely you would have recognise that was going to happen when you started the FOTD. Thats your first mistake. You sound like a player who is not PVP oriented which is fine, but you must of also realised that you will have to do at some point, and if FOTD is involved, like seriously, high level loot is on peoples radar, and certainly to steal it from you either while you doing it so they complete before you return and if do try to return they will try to sink you again, or as you complete it and open the vault, another good way to do it. Doing at sea is also fine. Either keep a better eye on the horizon, check for tuckers, always be aware of your surroundings.

Now being community day I had hoped people would be "nicer,"

Community day does not mean everyone is going to be willing to be "nicer" which I assume you mean either alliances or leave you be, I mean they can if they want, either they got loot, don't want to be bothered and if you do they'll either run or sink you when you are in proxamity but they are not obliged to, and if they want to sink and steal your loot, good they can, people are still going to play the game as the normally do, all that has happened is that Rare have made gold, rep, renown, allegiance increase, as well as the spawn rare of ancient skeletons as a way to celebrate the community and the 5 year anniversary of this amazing game, developers and the community. Yes some people maybe willing to alliance which is fine but yes some people are going to try and steal your loot because, "Sea of THIEVES."

but no they were not.

And that is perfectly fine.

The only time I completed the quest was by making alliances with EVERYONE on the server.

Cool, you found like minded players and worked together for community weekend, nothing wrong with that at all, that's awesome.

It just makes the game so infuriating, having to do the same boss/quest over and over because of people keep stealing from you.

Yep, it is infuriating but you just have to suck it up, improve your PVP, or outsmart your enemies, no point complaining about people stealing from you. Everyone in this game has lost to another crew and they claim the loot, but the loot is no ones until its cashed in. You can either try and go for round two and try claim your loot back, or go into a different server or come back to the game later. We have all been there, you are not more special because it has happened to you, it happens to all of us, including competent crews, content creators and streamers.

My husband has stopped playing because of this too!

Okay, it is what it is, that's your choice.

It made the whole day and experience so disappointing.

Yep losing does suck, like I said everyone has been through it and many will probably get over it very quickly and continue playing because it's part of the game. Some will leave, say the game sucks, come on forums to vent out a pointless post about losing other crews which happens all the time.

After reading the other forums it's clear the senior team does not want to do anything

Nope, Rare are doing something, its called developing a game they care and love, and many people in the community of this game love, to play Sea of Thieves however they choose to do it, in the sandbox with the tools to do it.

but it's clear to me quite a bit of the community would enjoy some part the game being peaceful.

So? Some players are not good, which is fine you will improve over time, and it can be very irritating to lose but who cares, as much as I love this game like many others, it's still just a video game, it really isn't that deep. Just try and again overtime you will improve, figure out your strengths and weakness and improve. You are not going to have an easier experience just to gain everything, you have to play to EARN it, and it will come with practise, no one in the game started as a pro, and neither will, so either play and grow, or uninstall and play game fitting for you and your husband, just keep going no point giving up.

I saw someone say this and perfectly summarise what I was going to say, so I am going to power phrase.

A vocal minority does not represent the majority of the community.

A lot of people are fine with the game, and the developers too.

Whether it be a mod or server (that way you can play with others)

No, you can not created a modded server, that would be against the rules and regulations of the game. NO, you are not getting a PVE server, Rare has already said and double down, that peaceful, PVE, private servers of any kind will never ever be implemented into Sea of Thieves, for players to avoid other players and have an easier experience of the game, you have to play to earn, not cheat or demand an easier access to rewards in this game. Everyone else has, so why should get anything better.

I want to continue enjoying Sea of Thieves.

And there is nothing stopping you from doing so. You must want to play the game, but you must also accept, PVP is inevitable regardless if you play PVP or PVE or both, you can't avoid PVP, no amount of running, or playing in the Devils Roar, or demanding Rare to change their vision of the game to add a peaceful server is going to change that, you just need to improve your PVP and how you engage it because already you made a bad decision doing FOTD which can only be started by players, if you are not a confident PVP player, that's on you. They are not wrong, they were not trying to upset you or ruin your gaming experience. They were play Sea of Thieves the way they wanted to just like the people you alliance with, and there is nothing wrong with that. If you chose to give up, then whatever, nobody wants you too but its your choice and no one will care if you leave, this game isn't for you. If you want to reach Pirate Legend, just like many other players who are Pirate Legend like myself, you need to play the game and accept, 1 you are not a good PVPer so you need to improve by practising and engaging with it and finding your tactics and what works best for you and your crew, 2 find players who are good and sail with them, find your strengths and weakness and you will become a more competent crew, even in competent crews, some players are better at being defensive so they do repairs and keep the ship afloat and in angle to fight their opponents than offensive, players who will make their opponent not be able to fight back, board the enemy ship, stop them from repairing, fighting back, and they will probably be willing to play with you if you communicate with them and honest with them, because you WILL improve overtime, try Sea of Thieves discord, looking for groups on Xbox as places to try and do this. Otherwise this game ain't for you. But just give it another go.

I don't know what to say, if you're all set to say I'm lying, I am a sore loser, I brag about having a life...well, don't even respond! Why should I lie about what I experience, even, if it wasn't the case and if I didn't see these problems while playing I wouldn't be here in the first place^^

Let me address some of your replies, because there is a lot to be corrected here;

@nabberwar ha detto in Coop server? PVE:

I would say it wasn't added, it was always apart of the main base. This game had an extremely rocky start. Had the system they had for player interaction not exist, this game would not have lasted. This game was extremely shallow in the early stages, players interacting with each other was the only thing that kept it afloat.

And that's a demerit to the game content at launch, not a merit of the player-to-player interaction.

Nothing forced about it, you willingly played a game with this content. No one forced you to do anything.

Not what I said, and that is a serious response to a joke which clearly has flown over your head^^

Its quite clear you are being a sore loser. Remember...

Please, elaborate^^

Wait, you have a life outside of video games?! What a unique foreign concept, you must be like a unicorn amongst sweaty nerds. Sarcasm aside, you and plenty of us have plenty of family and life priorities that stop us from playing this game. You aren't unique.

Let me elaborate, now ;) I have little time, and I'd like my time had value beside fighting over something I already have fought for...at least, in a game, since life has the bad habit of being just like this. Does it sound weird, to you?

I have more sailing experience than you, this isn't flexing but just a statment of fact. I see plenty of people, just no one fights. So I can't relate to you when you say this is a PvP-fest. I would trade places in a heart beat if what you describe is even half truth.

Let's admit (and not grant) that I'm mistaken, here. Still, you are against a PvP dedicated server where you'll find exactly what you yearn for. Why is that?

Open crews was/is a mess since the early days. Use the Xbox LFG or the thousands of Discord groups out their to find like minded people. Tools are out their, you just need to use them.

See, this is a fair point. I could actually take the advice, if I ever return on SoT in the future.

No point missed, you are a sore loser, that has already been established. However, losing loot is in the nature of the game, I've lost loot before, hell, I've lost more loot than you have picked up and turned in, the difference is I don't get upset over it. My experience doesn't get ruined just because I lost. I still had fun up too and during that point before sinking. I am not a sore loser though. Whether I have fun or not doesn't hinge on my success in turning in loot. All that fun I had up to that point didn't magically disappear just because I sunk.

Sure, losing loot is in the nature of the game, and that's been well-estabilished. But just as I don't like being stunlocked in the middle of the sea between two Skull Ships, I don't like being stuck in a fight I don't have time to battle, just because I decided to complete the journey, instead of turning in 3 chests at a time just to have another half an hour of gaming to spare, which is not enough to do anything else. Plus, progress in the game is measured in loot you have turned in. If the game had something else that could be useful in gameplay...sadly, apart for some achievements, the main focus of the game are still voyages and turning in loot.

Your only wasting your own time, the amount of time you waste by running, you could have turned and fought, sunk, and already been on your second treasure map in all that time you chose to run. The only person wasting your time is yourself. The person chasing quite clearly enjoys it, you sure don't. Rather than waste your own time just fight. Its rather simple.

I often do not have time to complete a voyage AND fight. If I turn in loot, it means that I'm already running short on time. I can't play 3 hours straight because someone wanted to fight. Do you understand it?

Mate, be logical about this, If you know you are going to attempt Piracy isn't is just smart playing to cash out before you steal? This is why you don't see attackers with loot. Its stupid to fault players just playing smart and lowering their own risks. This might be a foreign concept to you considering you don't go on the offensive, had you actually tried attacking first, you might realize PvP players do in fact carry loot. You will never know if you aren't attacking first.

I didn't fault players, so this your response is pretty much out of context.

You've labeled any one who attacks ships for loot as toxic simple on the grounds they chose to be pirates in the pirate game. Its quite clear you you don't like PvP. The writing is right there.

No, I said that I often can't take the time to fight or escape themm and that there are toxic ones. This doesn't mean I think ALL people who want to fight are toxic. Why should one even think about that?

Your trying to argue that the game needs to remove PvP, which is a mechanic in the gaming environment. This is exactly what you are arguing. You want to remove pirates from the Pirate game, that is just silly.

Brimstone already addressed you on this;

This is all nonsensical, the game doesn't need to spell out ever little minor thing in this game. A lot of what you describe is just a given, but even so, you chose to play in that way, the game didn't force you to make that decision. You don't have to horde mountains of loot, just like the game doesn't' force you to cash out one voyage at a time. This is all your decision, the game didn't force anything on you. Hell, I personally sail and fight with everything aboard my ship. My crew hoards the loot til the end of the session, because we simple don't care if we lose it. We aren't afraid of losing loot. If we sink, we only have ourselves to blame for the decision we chose to make.

You're right when you say everyone should play as they please. I won't put out there the consequences of what this means, though. What the game forces us to do, au contraire, is investing a bunch of time for hoarding loot (which I don't really mind, because I enjoy it) and then force you to spend additional time to bring your loot in one by one. Which is nonsensical per se, but I can accept it as long as Rare doesn't force me to protect my sorry self even when doing this tedious and unnecessary chore. More play-time invested.

To make the comment that the game doesn't reward you for not turning in the loot shouldn't be surprising, this isn't a new concept. You don't get a grade on an essay you didn't turn in. You don't get paid for work you never completed. Why should you get any credit for no results? If you don't turn in the chest, why should you get anything?

You're confusing the game with real life. Noone will rob you of your essay while you sleep, and noone will claim to have done the work on your office desk.

I've made no error, re-read what I said, hell I will even highlight it for you. "We need to remember, sore winners and sore losers are two parts of the same coin. I've never denied that they don't exist, but people seem to think that PvE players are some how above being toxic, when they can and are just as toxic. Just because someone isn't a PvP player doesn't mean they aren't toxic.

Did I say anything that came even close to this topic?

What do you expect, Forts have always been since day one PvP hot-spots. This is primarily their purpose, why else would their be a giant server wide beacon in the sky if it wasn't their to attract attention? These are also the places with the most valuable loot, it makes perfect sense that people will fight at these errors. As said before, you aren't unique with your family and work responsibilities plenty of us still PvP and play the game in an intended way with all those responsibilities.

Look, are you pulling at straws here? It was just a mere example, the loot could be from anywhere...come on. Don't choose to be blind. Understand what I'm trying to say.

And please, above all, I'm interested in a friendly exchange of opinions. Don't lose your aplomb.

Source: https://www.seaofthieves.com/release-notes
(Here are the patch notes for the newest update)

--- Ashen Winds ---

Through the treachery of Stitcher Jim and the efforts of all those pirates duped into helping him, Captain Flameheart has amassed the Tomes, Jewels and other ritual ingredients needed to raise up his most loyal followers as fiery Ashen Lords.

Ashen Lords
Four new cursed Skeleton Captains known as Ashen Lords enter the Sea of Thieves. Their appearance as an emergent threat on an island is signified by a fiery tornado on the horizon.

Ashen Lords’ attacks include knockbacks, lunges, breathing fire, hurling flaming rocks and plunging a player’s world into ashen darkness.

The Ashen Lords have one more trick up their skeletal sleeves for players who reach the final stage of the encounter, known as ‘Roar of the Devil’. You’ll know it when you see it...

Geysers will erupt when an Ashen Lord is defeated, unearthing treasure for all who braved the encounter in addition to the Ashen Winds Skull.

---

Ashen Winds Skull
The Ashen Winds Skull isn’t just a trophy for the Order of Souls – it doubles as a deadly weapon. Players can wield it like a flamethrower, setting fire to nearby rivals, skeletons and ships!

The Ashen Jewel inside each Ashen Winds Skull dims as its devastating power is drained. Keep in mind that these skulls are worth a lot less to the Order of Souls with their power depleted.

---

Ashen Winds Commendations
New Commendations have been added which will grant players rewards such as new Titles, the Ashen Winds Skull Sail and a range of Ashen tattoos.

---

Ashen Winds Achievements
New Xbox and Steam achievements can be unlocked by progressing through the new in-game Commendations. A total of 40 gamerscore is available to earn from this update, and these achievements will remain in the game indefinitely.

• Hunter of Captain Grimm [10G]
• Hunter of Red Ruth [10G]
• Hunter of Old Horatio [10G]
• Hunter of Warden Chi [10G]

---

Ashen Winds Events
If Daily Bounties and the Gold Rush multiplier aren’t enough to fill your nautical calendar, head to the dedicated Events Hub for more information on the live events included in this update – including Skull Sweep!
Please note that the Ashen Expeditions event has now been retired to the vault.

--- Pirate Emporium ---

It’s as busy as ever at the Pirate Emporium this month, with brand new stock and a little something special underway to mark the occasion of Rare’s 35th anniversary.

Sail? Sail… Sale!
For the duration of the Ashen Winds update, ship bundles and parts in the Rare Heritage Collection are discounted in celebration of Rare’s 35th anniversary!

---

Free Giveaway Emote
You’ll find the new Heel Click emote available for free in the Pirate Emporium.

---

Ashen Curse Collector’s Pets
These exotic pets were scorched by The Devil’s Roar and transformed with an Ashen Curse!

---

Kraken Cat Outfits
Looking for a new outfit for your little monster slayer? Look no further than the Kraken Outfits, available for all breeds.

---

Storytelling Bundle
These six new emotes show your pirate deep in conversation or retelling an eventful tale to your crew!

---

Character Emotes Bundle
Ever felt like taking up work at the Outpost and leaving the sea for others to conquer? With these emotes, you can act just like your favourite Outpost characters wherever your journey takes you.

---

Bargain Pet Bundles
The Cat’s Meow Bundle, Parrots Aplenty Bundle and Monkey Madness Bundle each offer three pets along with outfits for them all to wear!

---

Mau Kraken Discount Bundle
For this month only, players can pick up a discounted bundle with their favourite little black cat dressed in a ferocious Kraken Outfit.

---

Ashen Creatures Bundle (Store Only)
Available only from the Xbox, Microsoft and Steam Stores. This bundle contains two premium Collector’s pets touched by the Ashen Curse, 1000 Ancient Coins and a free 25,000 gold bonus for use in the Outpost shops! Head to the Microsoft Store or Steam Item Store to find out more.

--- Black Market ---

Duke is holed up at the tavern waiting for the chaos on the Sea of Thieves to blow over, but he hasn’t forgotten to source some new wares in exchange for pirates’ hard-earned gold and Doubloons…

Fearless Bone Crusher Equipment
Strike fear into the hearts of your enemies this month with the Fearless Bone Crusher Bucket, Compass, Fishing Rod, Lantern, Pocket Watch, Shovel, Speaking Trumpet, Spyglass and Tankard, all purchasable with Doubloons!

---

Nightshine Parrot Equipment
Spend some gold to acquire the Nightshine Parrot Bucket, Compass, Fishing Rod, Lantern, Pocket Watch, Shovel, Speaking Trumpet, Spyglass and Tankard before they head to the Black Market Archive!

--- Gameplay Improvements ---

Dealing Damage Through the Environment
All melee and ranged weapons are now prevented from dealing damage through the solid surfaces of the ship. This means players can duck behind the mast for cover during a ranged weapon face-off, or sink below deck to use the environment and some quick footwork to gain an advantage in sword combat.

Shots from ranged weapons can still pass through ship railings, stairs and decking grates, providing tactical opportunities to engage rival players on different levels of the ship.

---

Inactive Ships in The Arena
If a rival crew leave an active contest, their ship now begins to sink instantly, preventing any further silver gain from damaging it.

---

World Event Encounters
The frequency of Ashen Lord encounters is increased for the duration of the Ashen Winds update.

---

Skeleton Ship Restocking
Defeating a Skeleton Ship will now reward players with a storage crate containing food, wood and cannonballs.

---

Skeleton Fort Waves
New waves of skeletons appear much more quickly after the horn is sounded.

---

Swapping Between Emotes
Players now retain access to the Emote Radial while performing an emote, allowing them to switch to another emote easily.

---

Mute Voice Chat Keybind
Players are now able to set a keybind for the ‘Mute All Other Crews’ option, allowing faster access to muting others when needed.

---

Barrel Inventory Mouse Navigation
Opening a barrel inventory will reset the mouse cursor to the centre of the screen. This setting is now configurable within the Accessibility Settings under ‘Recenter Mouse in Menus’.

-- Updates ---

Korean and Polish Support
Sea of Thieves now features Korean and Polish localisation across the entire game.

---

‘My Crew’ Visibility
The in-game crew management menu will now show players that take up a slot in a crew even if they are not currently in-game. This should better visualise players who are still in the process of joining a game or lost their connection but have a reserved slot.

The option to invite friends will now be disabled if the crew is full.

---

Emissary Meter
The Emissary meter in the corner of the screen display now has a revised circular design.

---

Emissary Wallet
When representing as an Emissary and cashing in rewards, this shows the base value along with the bonus value earned from the Emissary multiplier.

---

Settings Screens
Updates have been made to Gameplay and Accessibility Settings screen layouts to improve navigation.

--- Accessibility ---

Single-Stick Control
The ability to play with a single analogue stick can now be enabled in the Accessibility Settings menu. This assigns movement and turning to one analogue stick chosen by the player, as well as enabling auto-centre for the camera, auto-float and fixed position interaction points.

---

Auto-Centre Camera
While the auto-centre camera is enabled by default when using single-stick controls, this feature is available separately from Accessibility Settings. Options are provided to configure the delay before centering, along with the camera movement speed.

---

Auto-Float Accessibility
Auto-float is enabled by default when using single-stick control and can also be toggled on separately. When enabled, players will always float automatically to the water’s surface. Note that this does prevent swimming down through water.

---

Accessibility Settings Reset
The Accessibility Settings menu now has a reset option to change all accessibility options back to their default values.

---

‘Let Games Read to Me’ Improvements
When the ‘Let Games Read to Me’ option is enabled, there are now enhanced narration instructions while navigating menus and settings.

Status messages in menus such as ‘Reporting for Duty’ and ‘Searching the Seas’ along with error message pop-ups are now narrated to improve accessibility.

Each radial menu has also received enhanced narration and will identify the current selection along with the number of options on the radial menu.

---

Speech-To-Text Override
Within the Accessibility Settings menu, players can now override the Xbox platform setting and enable speech-to-text.

---

Default Settings for New Players
New players entering Sea of Thieves will now find that the ‘Text Chat in Menus’ setting is enabled by default, ensuring that players who require speech-to-text for their experience will now receive messages while navigating in-game menus. Existing players will not have their settings changed.

--- Fixed Issues ---

Gameplay
When a player is in the water and a mermaid has appeared, the mermaid will now remain until the player’s ship reaches a much closer proximity.

Ashen Key Masters will now emergently spawn on islands.

Killing a player shortly after they are revived and then reviving them again will no longer cause animation issues.

The Ghost Lantern now casts a green light over the surrounding area.

Obstructions to visibility while using the Blighted Cannons have been removed.

Emissary Grade meter UI now shows for players who join a crew of active Emissaries.

Fixed progress tracking for Curse of the Foul Grog and Curse of the Dancing Demon Commendations.

Fixed progress tracking for Commendations tied to handing in common and uncommon Athena’s Treasures.

The ‘Mute All Other Crews’ option will no longer mute crewmates on Windows 10.

Players will no longer lose the ability to communicate when using in-game voice chat.

Crew slots occupied by players who exit to desktop on Windows 10 will no longer stay active.

---

Combat and Hit Registration
Improved chainshot hit registration on ship masts.

Improved projectile and melee hit registration across all areas of the Sloop.

Improved hit registration when players are engaged in melee combat while swimming on the surface and underwater.

Gunpowder Kegs being carried by rival players while they climb a ladder can be blown up.

Improved hit registration when attacking rival players who are standing on a ship’s yardarm.

The Rowboat now blocks any melee attacks from below.

Blunderbombs and firebombs can used at any depth during underwater combat.

The ship’s wheel now only blocks shots fired at its central wooden structure.

The rear walls of the Sloop around the hatches now block projectiles fired through the hull.

---

Radial Menus
Quick Select will now correctly equip the previous item held when wielding a weapon or holding nothing.

Items equipped via hotkey will be remembered when next using Quick Select.

There is now a contextual Non-Verbal Radial when climbing up the ladder to the crow’s nest.

Fixed on-screen message delay when Quick Selecting a non-verbal communication phrase from the radial.

When reconfiguring the Non-Verbal Radial to not use the A Button or the Space Bar, players are now able to jump.

The Non-Verbal Radial will now display the correct phrases when holding a pet.

The radial manager keybinding names are now consistent with the setting names.

---

Ghost Ships
Treasure dropped by a sunken Ghost Ship and the phantoms that circle it will persist if a player migrates to a new server.

The bounty target location in an active Ghost Ship Voyage will refresh if the player migrates to a new server during a Ghost Ship encounter.

Flameheart’s taunts to players colliding with Ghost Ships will only play for the crew whose ship is being damaged.

---

The Arena
The Arena vote tally layout has been changed to be more visible.

After muting a player in a rival crew in The Arena, they now stay muted even after other players join their crew.

---

Visual and Audio
Fixed instances of instruments playing without audio when switching between instruments or shanties.

Scraping a boat against a surface should no longer cause the grinding audio effect to persist after sailing away.

Placing ghostly loot on a Rowboat docked to a ship will no longer cause the ghostly effect to stutter when the ship is moving.

Players swimming underwater during Tall Tales and Ghost Ship encounters will be able to hear Flameheart’s voice more clearly when he speaks.

Previously set volume settings now persist when returning to the front end after leaving the game.

Collision has been improved on walls alongside the wooden walkway in the Pirate Legend Hideout.

Updated Sea of Thieves boot-up image.

References to ‘Sail Hoist’ on sail interaction points and the Pirate Chat Radial have been changed to ‘Sail Length’.

Ghosts Ships now consistently trigger an implosion effect when destroyed.

Fixed brightness of light reflected off a spyglass when looking at loot and other players at night.

Opening crates now plays a sound.

The camp on Cannon Cove is no longer illuminated at night.

---

Accessibility
The ‘Game Transcription Override’ setting now persists across sessions.

Improved text visibility for longer reward item names in the contextual Non-Verbal Radial.

When using ‘Let Games Read to Me’ upon returning to the front end after playing, the screen is now narrated.

When using ‘Let Games Read to Me’, the narrator will no longer loop in the ‘Choose your Experience’ screen before the Maiden Voyage, or if a player backs out from Crew Setup.

When using ‘Let Games Read to Me’, changing the keybindings in the Settings menu will now be narrated correctly.

---

Performance and Stability
Steam – pressing Alt+Tab in-game no longer causes long pauses when returning to the game.

Steam – performance has been improved around Outposts and world event encounters for lower-spec machines.

Performance optimisations implemented to reduce texture loading issues on Devil's Thirst for lower-spec machines.

Improved server stability when players are using Quick Select to return to their last used equipment.

Improved game stability when returning to a ship where a player is simultaneously being revived.

Players experiencing a corrupt installation on UWP or Steam will now be notified by a pop-up when attempting to launch the game.

--- Known Issues ---

Players Impacted Following Server Migration
We are currently tracking a number of player-impacting issues which can occur following a server migration. These include crews migrating near Outposts finding themselves moved to a location where another ship is already present, and issues with ship interaction points following a migration.

---

Increased Latency and Server Correction
In cases of high server density, some servers can exhibit performance hits leading to increased latency. This may result in lag spikes during gameplay, rubberbanding and server correction.

---

Ranged and Melee Weapon Hit Detection
In areas of intense action, players may find themselves firing shots or landing strikes that do not cause damage to their targets. While improvements continue to be delivered during our content updates, this continues to be a key priority for the team.

---

Stuck UI Menus
When interacting with a barrel and moving quickly through its inventory, players may find that the barrel’s state is not updated as items are removed. Players can also experience the Game Options becoming stuck on-screen when exiting a barrel in this state.

To learn more about known issues in Sea of Thieves currently being tracked and their status, head over to our Known Issues support site article.

These are all the new features as part of the Ashen Winds Update.
Happy Sailing!

(If you spot any mistakes in the post, let me know so I can fix it.)

@true-inxis

So, turning you question upside down, was PvP a feature added just to spice things up, that drove away most of the playerbase wanting to focus on the main purpose of the game?

...Maybe^^

I would say it wasn't added, it was always apart of the main base. This game had an extremely rocky start. Had the system they had for player interaction not exist, this game would not have lasted. This game was extremely shallow in the early stages, players interacting with each other was the only thing that kept it afloat.

I had a little fun with this one^^

Nothing forced about it, you willingly played a game with this content. No one forced you to do anything.

Nowhere was advertised that you had the choice between risking to lose a whole session of gameplay or collect crumbles of painstakingly slow progress, either^

Its quite clear you are being a sore loser. Remember...

Be a good sport. Sea of Thieves is a pirate game, and stealth, stealing and battles are all part of the fun. All pirates on the seas accept that, but be a good sportsman in both victory and loss.

while I unfortunately have a life and family to whom I must return to...

Wait, you have a life outside of video games?! What a unique foreign concept, you must be like a unicorn amongst sweaty nerds. Sarcasm aside, you and plenty of us have plenty of family and life priorities that stop us from playing this game. You aren't unique.

Again, I don't know what servers do you play on, but I just yesterday had to skip two outposts because they were camped by two ships (wasting 20 mins), and today I was minding my business when 1 sloop and 1 brigantine approached (and two Skull Ships emerged at engaging distance, by the way). Maybe you play with a restricted NAT?

I have more sailing experience than you, this isn't flexing but just a statment of fact. I see plenty of people, just no one fights. So I can't relate to you when you say this is a PvP-fest. I would trade places in a heart beat if what you describe is even half truth.

I actually play both open crew and solo, but if you don't have much time to spare it's difficult to start a galleon with a crew that knows what to do (or does anything at all) and agrees to go on a mission and doesn't AFK before - again - at least 10 minutes pass. Unless the galleon was already on a mission, but to me that happens 1 out of 5 times.

Open crews was/is a mess since the early days. Use the Xbox LFG or the thousands of Discord groups out their to find like minded people. Tools are out their, you just need to use them.

You miss the point here. I'm not fond of losing my loot, of course, but I'm immensely less fond of losing my time for nothing.

No point missed, you are a sore loser, that has already been established. However, losing loot is in the nature of the game, I've lost loot before, hell, I've lost more loot than you have picked up and turned in, the difference is I don't get upset over it. My experience doesn't get ruined just because I lost. I still had fun up too and during that point before sinking. I am not a sore loser though. Whether I have fun or not doesn't hinge on my success in turning in loot. All that fun I had up to that point didn't magically disappear just because I sunk.

And the time we all lose trying to escape pursuers is just spent hoping they'll get tired of chasing you, instead of fulfilling other requests. Not really fun, if you ask me. That's the catch...you have your treasure to look after, while they have little to nothing to lose. It makes it boring.

Your only wasting your own time, the amount of time you waste by running, you could have turned and fought, sunk, and already been on your second treasure map in all that time you chose to run. The only person wasting your time is yourself. The person chasing quite clearly enjoys it, you sure don't. Rather than waste your own time just fight. Its rather simple.

That's the catch...you have your treasure to look after, while they have little to nothing to lose. It makes it boring.

Mate, be logical about this, If you know you are going to attempt Piracy isn't is just smart playing to cash out before you steal? This is why you don't see attackers with loot. Its stupid to fault players just playing smart and lowering their own risks. This might be a foreign concept to you considering you don't go on the offensive, had you actually tried attacking first, you might realize PvP players do in fact carry loot. You will never know if you aren't attacking first.

Did I just say that I despise people that want PvP?

You've labeled any one who attacks ships for loot as toxic simple on the grounds they chose to be pirates in the pirate game. Its quite clear you you don't like PvP. The writing is right there.

But again, I'm not arguing about these mechanics that have to do with environment!

Your trying to argue that the game needs to remove PvP, which is a mechanic in the gaming environment. This is exactly what you are arguing. You want to remove pirates from the Pirate game, that is just silly.

Well, for a start, the game info does not say you must abandon your treasure alone if you want to collect something else; it does not say you can't carry more than one item or fight while you hold it, even if you're just carrying around a single goblet; it does not say that you must put in serious time delivering your treasure one item by one (hope you have a collector's chest or such), while constantly looking for approaching ships. It does not say you don't earn anything until the single item is brought back at its specific location, and it doesn't say you get nothing if you happen to lose it at any point in time.

This is all nonsensical, the game doesn't need to spell out ever little minor thing in this game. A lot of what you describe is just a given, but even so, you chose to play in that way, the game didn't force you to make that decision. You don't have to horde mountains of loot, just like the game doesn't' force you to cash out one voyage at a time. This is all your decision, the game didn't force anything on you. Hell, I personally sail and fight with everything aboard my ship. My crew hoards the loot til the end of the session, because we simple don't care if we lose it. We aren't afraid of losing loot. If we sink, we only have ourselves to blame for the decision we chose to make.

To make the comment that the game doesn't reward you for not turning in the loot shouldn't be surprising, this isn't a new concept. You don't get a grade on an essay you didn't turn in. You don't get paid for work you never completed. Why should you get any credit for no results? If you don't turn in the chest, why should you get anything?

Undoubltely there's people that lose their temper when dirt hits the fan, but it would be an error not to acknowledge the fact that there's plenty of hot-headed players that try to ram you while insulting or taunting.

I've made no error, re-read what I said, hell I will even highlight it for you. "We need to remember, sore winners and sore losers are two parts of the same coin. I've never denied that they don't exist, but people seem to think that PvE players are some how above being toxic, when they can and are just as toxic. Just because someone isn't a PvP player doesn't mean they aren't toxic.

I would be glad if there was a way in which every hour I invest would be compensated. I like having the opportunity of reclaiming the riches I obtain if I clear, say, a fort, and not having to disconnect from the game after 15 more minutes of chasing and occasional shooting with randoms because I must care for my family or work.

What do you expect, Forts have always been since day one PvP hot-spots. This is primarily their purpose, why else would their be a giant server wide beacon in the sky if it wasn't their to attract attention? These are also the places with the most valuable loot, it makes perfect sense that people will fight at these errors. As said before, you aren't unique with your family and work responsibilities plenty of us still PvP and play the game in an intended way with all those responsibilities.

Sorry for a long message but please read fully I care so much about SOT.

1. Separate Console and PC players for Arena but keep open world together, because honestly xbox player's are not as bad as everyone makes them out to be. I die to both types of players all the time. It will also keep open crew match making quick for both parties and I hold no grudge like most PC players on xbox players we are all pirates on the Sea.

2. Make server types a players choice. Give a selection of servers being PVP / PVE / RPPVE / RPPVP. Player title like pirate legend changes no player ability in the game all rewards are vanity so who could care less if somebody grinds the game with no threat of player attack. The RP servers would be beautiful and I would 100% play RPPVP for the chance to be attacked by 4, 12 year olds all talking like pirates. I would die happy losing all my items after that :). Also if you do not give us the choice to join what we want strive to keep every server at maximum players and join small servers together if they do not become maximum within a period of time.

3. Combat changes where the guns stay as reactive as they are but the sword is buffed with how reactive it is, take away the penalty of dash lock and also the 3 combo stall I see a lot of xbox players using sword because it is easier to aim but die anyways because the sword is slower and requires the enemy to make a positioning mistake to get a kill. Sword play would be much cooler being more reactive to player attacks and deflects maybe taking over double gun once people adjust to the change of sword pace.

4. Minimize the PVE monster events to a minimal of 1 per ship. Solo on SOT is a drag when you work for hours just to die to ghost ship / Kraken or Ghost ship / Megalodon. This happens way more often then it should and I love finding a way to escape these threats as solo but hate it when there is no possible escape.

5. Remove aim lock on PVE Cannons and Volcano's, it totally ruins the game and cannons should be trying to sink your ship not direct hit you behind the wheel or hit you on the nose of the ship and Volcano's have random splash IRL idk why they are like snipers in SOT but close encounter hits or a few hits are more fun then just being wiped out by 4 aim locked volcanic rocks falling from the sky. If players ignore the threat then it is their own fault but sinking immediately is depressing as a solo player or even in a 2 man sloop who has to run back to their ship or drive and repair at the same time while dying multiple times to sniper rocks.

6. add PVE events rotating each faction with weekly and daily quest. dailies being 3 part quests with low reward and weekly quests being like 8 part quests with high reward each voyage requires full completion before turning in adding risk. quest parts are up for change I just made up some numbers for example. I am also down for these to have region options with daily and weekly quests in multiple areas for different experiences and more map usage between players. Worst thing you could do is exile part of your map as a low tier area. put the hard work of making the game into full use. Make some of the player outposts main outposts and some minor outposts. Major outposts would have the quests while minor outposts would stay the same. Major outposts would also hold more threat being a major outpost for voyage returns.

7. Character creation should just be you choose the body race and sex features the whole random generated BS is dumb and saving a player model is pointless when you lose all achievements and reputations when creating a new pirate. To my knowledge hit boxes for all models are the same so giving a player more choice on how they look effects the game in no way other then being a sneaky pirate with a tiny body. but that's the players choice on how they want to play or look.

8. Stop addressing Toxic behavior, This does nothing to help player behavior. Honestly I have never run into a super toxic person not saying they do not exist but having a public voice saying stop being toxic in my game has never once gained positive review from a community. Most players can not relate to the select few who experience this and these issues should be dealt with behind the curtains of Developer moderating. I will not congratulate you for Banning a Toxic player, it should just happen on its own. Talk positively about the players who play the game and never highlight the players who are bad people.

9. Lastly recognize what kind of game you have created. SOT is a pirate game where you collect items for only Vanity rewards / reputation so these items progress the player in no way shape or form as a better skilled player. These items can take hours to collect or a full day as a solo. There is no PVE only option and you are forcing players in PVP only servers where people will obviously play the game for majority PVP. People will be happy to steal others items while the losers will be extremely upset. This is a total loss game like Runescape for example. You can not ask people to only be friendly or to play the game the way you deem appropriate when the game you created is itself is a create your own experience game with no guideline of how to sale a ship, how to collect items, or how to treat other in a confrontational experience. I sometimes KOS or Befriend my fellow pirates. It just depends on how much Loot I have to lose haha.

I really hope the Dev's read this I have confronted many of my peers who play this game and even people I have randomly grouped with having conversations about what would make SOT better. I have also never run into any Xbox players who have said they want separation. All of these players take pride in murdering PC players and I would too. I love this game and I hope I didn't waste my money buy it or time writing this post. SOT is the only game I find myself enjoying casually but still able to play hardcore when I am feeling it. Please do not ruin this game. I hope to see you on the Sea.

@lobofh said in Please dont give Xbox users option to turn cross play off:

@solemagician506 dijo en Please dont give Xbox users option to turn cross play off:

@lobofh said in Please dont give Xbox users option to turn cross play off:

@solemagician506 dijo en Please dont give Xbox users option to turn cross play off:

@lobofh said in Please dont give Xbox users option to turn cross play off:

@solemagician506 dijo en Please dont give Xbox users option to turn cross play off:

@lobofh said in Please dont give Xbox users option to turn cross play off:

@solemagician506 dijo en Please dont give Xbox users option to turn cross play off:

@davejc64 Why am I not allowed to be angered by this? If it's "just a game" why do they cheat?

I agree with you, those cheaters on Destiny 1 were a pain in the...wait, there were no PC players on Destiny 1. B****r.

I don't understand what you're saying here. Cheating is just as rampant on xbox as it is on the PC? Destiny had cheaters so I should just shut up and get shot by aimbots?

I don't understand how anyone can defend cheaters without being one themself. Do cheaters somehow enrich your game experience?

Your silly ad hominems will not make you win this debate, kid. I don't defend cheaters, honey, I am debunking your trolling: hackers in PC are a minimal porcentage and there are cheaters also in console. Sorry if I have ruined your delusional fairy tales of unicorns and rainbows.

Destiny 1 had something even worse than aimbotters, lag switchers, you can kill an aimbotter (if you are good and not a whiny forum warrior, indeed), but good luck trying to kill a lag switcher.

Calling me a kid doesn't make you seem like an adult, bro. Nor does it help YOU "win" a debate. You don't defend hackers, you just toss out whataboutisms about Destiny. Great, you found a game that people cheat on. Does that make it ok? Claiming "herp derp there's only a tiny amount of cheaters!" when you really have no idea how many there actually are is completely ignorant.

I love your advice about fighting aimbots. "Git gud". How ****ing insightful. Yea, I'd be willing to bet you've got a few CSGo "tools" downloaded.

I don't need to "seem" an adult, I am, I don't acuse a whole community of players with no proofs, like you are doing, so I don't care if you are 85 years old, you are acting like an immature person.

I already explained you two times the point, if you refuse to get it so bad for you. Again, your silly ad hominems lead you nowhere except to show that it's a waste of time to talk with you.

And I have not time to waste, sayonara.

You need to learn reading comprehension. Nowhere in my posts have I accused "a whole community", and the "proofs" I need exist already. The links to the cheats have been posted on this forum and there are a ton of complaints about them. They've even (very briefly) mentioned them in an official post.

You didn't explain jack **** s**t to me. You told me that if I was better I could take on aim botters.

Learn what ad hominems are before you start throwing the word around, "kid".

Now "reading comprehension", you are a walking cliche.

Your posts in this thread are pretty obvious, "I don't want to play against those m*********e, they are all hackers", you even accuse of hacking any person that dares to disagree with you. There are hackers on console, if you are so naive to accept the bare truth is not my problem.

Yeah, we know those "proofs", but we don't know if you really met hackers or you are just whining because somebody killed you, you don't know if they were PC players, you don't know if they were really hackers. This is really simple: do you have real proofs of hacking?, report it using the tools that the game and the platform offers. But stop whining, becuase now it just looks like you are looking for scapegoats for your defeats: "lag, PC haxxors, my team is bad, dog ate the homework".

Damn, I didn't stick to my promise, I will try again.

Ahahahah the guy that calls "ad hominem!!!" is calling me a cliche? That's rich. Almost as cliche as your entirely predictable return to respond after declaring you're simply too busy.

report it using the tools that the game

Does nothing. Rare has barely even spoken on it beyond "report them".

But stop whining, becuase now it just looks like you are looking for scapegoats for your defeats

You're the kind of person who refuses to believe a thing exists simply because you haven't seen it yet.

I'll bring it back to the topic at hand: the easy availability of cheats for the PC is why this xbox player wants separate servers. I'd rather they end all the cheating but cheaters find ways of defeating detection software, so I don't know how realistic that would be.

Sea of Thieves at Its Best:
Sea of Thieves was once arguably one of the best multiplayer games available on both Steam and Xbox. From the very beginning, it stood out in a way few multiplayer games ever have. The reveal trailer, launch trailer, and early cinematics were some of the coolest and most memorable I have ever seen. The game had a clear identity and a strong vision built around one core idea: a shared pirate sandbox where player interaction mattered more than scripted content.
Even though the game was extremely bare-bones at launch, I genuinely believe it was better than the current version of Sea of Thieves. The lack of content did not hurt the experience because players were the content. Every server felt mysterious. Every ship on the horizon carried potential. You never knew whether you were about to make an enemy, an ally, or experience something completely ridiculous, and that unpredictability is what made the game special.

2. Server Instability and Hit Registration
One of the biggest problems with modern Sea of Thieves is server instability. I play on a wired ethernet connection, yet I constantly experience rubber banding and stuttering on roughly 60 ping. That should not be happening. When I joined around Season 6, rubber banding was extremely rare for me. And I'm guessing everyone on their local servers. The game felt smoother, more responsive, and more reliable overall.
At that time, the only major server-side issue was hit registration. Years later, hitreg still has not been fixed. I honestly do not know whether Rare refuses to fix it or simply cannot fix it, but the problem has persisted for far too long. Instead of improving, overall server performance has gotten worse. Movement feels inconsistent, combat feels unreliable, and every PvP fight becomes a gamble rather than a test of skill.
For a live-service multiplayer game, server stability should be the foundation. Right now, that foundation feels broken.

3. FPS and Performance Issues
Performance is another massive issue, specifically FPS instability. It is insane that Sea of Thieves struggles to maintain stable performance above 144 FPS. I am running an RTX 5080 paired with a Ryzen 9 7950X3D, yet I experience frequent and severe FPS drops that make me want to stop playing altogether. I know boohoo but that's just how i feel.
I have tried everything possible to fix it. I have replaced components, switched GPUs, changed software, optimized settings, and even contacted Rare directly. Nothing has worked. This clearly is not just a problem on my end. Other high-end players are experiencing the same thing. Crud complained about it on stream, and he has a 5090. During Twitch Drops events, the performance was absolutely horrible. I talked to multiple people in open crew who were all ranting about the same FPS instability.
How can a $4,000 gaming PC struggle to run this game on Rare settings on an ultrawide monitor? FPS drops in the middle of a fight completely ruin the experience. It is frustrating, immersion-breaking, and unacceptable for a game backed by a multi-billion-dollar company.

4. Loss of Player Interaction and Server Identity
Rare has fundamentally damaged player interaction by adding systems that encourage players to avoid each other instead of engaging naturally. Hourglass PvP being added directly into Adventure mode takes up two server slots and removes organic encounters from the world. Diving allows players to instantly leave servers, meaning no one sticks around long enough for meaningful interactions to form.
Each server used to feel unknown and mysterious. Now, I instantly know what is happening on a server, and most of the time the answer is nothing. I never hear hot mics anymore. I rarely experience funny or memorable interactions. Players do not stay long enough for stories to develop.
Forts of the Damned and Forts of Fortune used to be exciting events that drew players together. Seeing one in the distance meant chaos, opportunity, and fun. Now, people rarely do FOTD at all because the rewards are terrible compared to modern gold inflation. There is simply no incentive. Rare has added massive amounts of content that nobody engages with anymore. When was the last time you genuinely saw someone doing a Veil quest? Even when the world feels empty, players now just dive to a new server instead of creating moments where they are.
The game is bloated with quests and features that actively Nobody cares about. And honestly, who can blame them?

5. PvE Interference and Over-Spawning
PvE encounters are another constant frustration. I have had countless situations where megs or skeleton ships spawn on me in the middle of an intense PvP fight. Even after these encounters were supposedly nerfed, it is still a major issue. I should not have a Redmaw spawning on me while I am chasing another ship or trying to focus on a fight.
These interruptions do not add challenge in a meaningful way. They simply add annoyance. PvE should enhance the sandbox, not ruin critical moments where players need to fully lock in and focus. To me at least.

6. PvP Polarization and New Player Experience
Rare has pushed the player base into extreme polar opposites. On one side, you have hardcore PvP sweats. On the other, you have brand-new players. The middle ground is disappearing because players in that middle group do not want to deal with the current environment.
A perfect example of this was Jynxzi’s first time streaming Sea of Thieves with Caseoh, Ricci, and Sketch. They spent about an hour on a galleon only to get spawn-camped by a cornball skelly curse player who set their ship on fire. What kind of experience is that for someone new to the game? Why would any new player want to PvP after that type of stuff happens all the time?
Combine that with unstable servers and 60 ping on local servers, and the experience feels unprofessional. For a multi-billion-dollar company, it is honestly sad to see the game in this state.

7. Cheaters and the Lack of Enforcement
Cheating has also become a growing and extremely demoralizing problem. So bad that top players like MSponge have videos prefiring the fact that they will get cheaters in duo Hourglass. More and more players are encountering blatant cheaters, especially in PvP-focused encounters. Players teleporting, Aimbot, ESP, or keg spawning have become far more common than they should be.
What makes this worse is the lack of visible enforcement. When players feel like cheaters are not being dealt with, it destroys trust in the competitive integrity of the game. PvP already feels inconsistent due to hitreg and server instability, but adding cheaters on top of that makes it feel pointless. You start questioning whether you lost a fight due to skill, lag, or someone straight-up cheating.
For a game that relies so heavily on player interaction and PvP encounters, failing to aggressively address cheating undermines the entire experience. I know you guys can do better than this.

8. Seasons, Battle Pass Fatigue, and Direction Loss
Seasons were actually a fun concept in Sea of Thieves at first. However, by around Season 9, the formula became exhausting. This is not a Fortnite-style game, yet it adopted Fortnite-style seasonal content and battle passes anyway. Nobody asked for that.
I want to earn rewards by doing cool, funny, memorable things in the sandbox, not by grinding a pass for the eighteenth time. We are now at Season 18. When does this end? You cannot repeat the same seasonal structure twenty times and expect players to remain excited, especially when each season feels worse than the last.
Season 17 introduced smugglers, which is honestly a ridiculous concept in Sea of Thieves. There is no law in this world. You are smuggling items anywhere. The concept does not make sense thematically, and nobody actually cares about it outside of doing commendations. Smuggler items are ugly, reskinned versions of existing loot, other than the paintings, and I do not want them on my ship when harpooning loot. And speaking of reskins.

9. Reskins and the Decline of New Loot
Reskins in Sea of Thieves have become a pandemic. Season 18’s content is almost entirely reskins, with maybe four genuinely new items. People already do not care about the new content because it is the same thing all over again. It is essentially another Gold Hoarders vault, which people barely do anymore anyway.
Seeing the orb return and additionally have the EWS set placed in Twitch Drops is frustrating. A fourth reskin of the Ashen set is so unnecessary, and so annoying. I almost never see anyone using the EWS reskins. I only see players wearing the original Ashen set, which is tuff because it actually represents that players personal progression and achievement. The same applies to sets like the Crab and Kraken cosmetics.
Reskins highlight Rare’s modern-day problem of struggling to create new, exciting models. New loot models matter. They are a massive part of quality-of-life and player motivation. I remember when Rare first started adding new loot types years ago, and I was genuinely excited to go get them and sell them. That excitement is gone when the loot is boring to obtain and ugly to look at.
I know Rare can do better because I have seen what these developers are capable of.

10. What I Think Would Actually Help
I know none of my opinions are unique, but I hope these words reach the developers anyway. At this point, I truly believe Sea of Thieves needs a Sea of Thieves 2. The servers are too unstable, and the code seems incapable of supporting meaningful quality improvements.
If Rare openly stated that they were working on Sea of Thieves 2, I honestly believe the player base would support them financially. Because we all know that is also a problem for them. even though they are 100% to blame respectfully. I know I would. Seasonal production on the current game should stop, and development should focus on fixing core issues. Hourglass should be removed from Adventure mode. Diving should be removed to restore server identity. World events should spawn more loot, Fort of the Damned should have double the loot it has, and PvE encounters should be made more challenging but less intrusive.
World events and FOTD are where most players’ core memories come from. Bringing those back into focus would do more for the game than any seasonal gimmick. Simply imagining a version of the game without diving already makes the seas feel more magical again.
To initiate Sea of Thieves 2, Rare could temporarily remove certain systems to stabilize servers and lead into a massive live event. imagine if the Spider widow lady from the orb ended up unleashing the sea of the damned on the sea of thieves letting her control everything like island creation. let the final stand be against her controlling SOT or doing something to the shroud. and having the athenas and reapers teaming up to stop her or something. and the battle to bring the sea of the damned back into its realm, changed the shroud to maker the map smaller or something. but a new base map is a great great start for a new game. Just please this time stay on top of server stability. don't make decisions that will damage the game like it has already.

At the end of the day, your best experiences in Sea of Thieves should not only happen when you are a new player. That magic should last, and right now, it doesn’t.

@vorondil1 said in Would limited time items eventually cycle through the game again?:

As I see it, there are two classes of exclusive items.

Class 1: Game Activity Items. Forsaken Ashes set for the Master Devil's Voyager commendation, Bone Crusher set for 50 skalleons downed, Hungering Deep figurehead for killing Megan. I think that these should be brought back, since the point of them is to say "Look I did this cool thing!" I think that bragging about what you've done is much more fun than bragging about how long you've been playing. So to Rare, make more cool cosmetics to lock behind harder and harder commendations. But leave them open with no time component, or at least re-opened once a year as an earlier poster cleverly suggested.

Class 2: Real Life Activity Items. This is stuff like the Black Dog/Obsidian/Onyx/Midnight set and the Ferryman set. This is the truly exclusive stuff that you'll only get if you're paying attention to Rare's social media stuff and participating above and beyond just playing the game (or bought for obscene prices -- which is a separate way of demonstrating sufficient commitment to the game). These sets should NEVER be made easier to get. This is why I was irritated with bringing the Mercenary set into the game, as it was previously in this class.

Anyway, as usual I took too much space to say something not terribly interesting. Hope it makes sense to someone.

Why should commitments outside of the game have more value than the ones in game that helped provide data and feedback that Rare uses to make the game better?

If you want to bring one back in its original form, you lose all ground to complain if they also bring back others. I believe they should come back, just with minor adjustments like color schemes.

You can explain how is watching a mixer a sign of commitment worthy of being rewarded with complete unique never to return items than staying up to 2 am in order to kill a skeleton fleet that are bound by real life times and actually requires you to engage in than have something in the background?

Also the cool I did this, is totally true... the issue with it is that that cool thing that you did isn't there anymore.

The Hungering deep while similar to the current Megalodons in the game was balanced around multi ship combat and required a minimum of two crews to even do.

The cursed sails, required you to be at specific places at specific real life times and no cursed cannonballs, less maximum supplies to use. This event made sure that they will never place real life time requirements on events anymore, as people gave their feedback. They actually helped improve the game and have done far more for the game than watching an xbox stream or slapping some cash down.

The game is evolving, those tasks are no longer in the game and many will never come back.

So.. yes it is cool to show what you did and that is exactly what those items do. Want to have them return slap a new color on it and do similar things to items that were earned through mixers, buying xBox exclusive packages, like xBox live... as a PC player that doesn't own an xbox one why would I ever buy that. It isn't committing to the game, it is getting a promotional virtual item for some deal.

The mercenary item was not a commitment to the game, it was a deal sweetener to have people buy 3 months service at once... which they would most likely buy anyway.

Dear Rare and in a way Microsoft as well,

This is an open letter in regards to Sea of Thieves. More specifically the amount of content or lack there of as the case may be. Don’t get me wrong, I personally love the game and the sense of freedom I experience when simply sailing the sea by myself, not even attempting to do a voyage, just following the wind. But I’m a fringe case because I like sailing in general and if this game is going to grow and succeed, which I really want it to do, there are some things you should keep in mind.

For a long time, I have loathed the idea of day one patches, or any patch, believing wholeheartedly that Shigeru Miyamoto struck on something simple but profound when he said "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad". Yes, I know that when he said that we were still on the N64 and there was no such thing as patching a game that’s already released. I believe the principle behind the words should still be adhered to today. And I’m not so arrogant as to think I’m the only one that’s thought of what I’m about to cover or that anyone who can affect changes will see this. Still, for the love I hold for Rare, I simply can’t sit by and watch without at least trying.

While I will always believe it’s better to delay a game until it’s ready, rather than sell the consumer an unfinished product, the fact remains that we are in a time where you can change the game after release. That being said if the game was twenty or even thirty dollars I wouldn’t feel the need to write this letter. My sense of duty in writing this is predicated on the fact the game cost sixty dollars, the same price as Metal Gear Solid V at release. The disparity in depth of content between Sea of Thieves and a game like MGS V, at the same price, is the single biggest complaint I have heard from the community and it’s one I hold myself. As it stands now there is no character progression system, the voyages become repetitive quickly, the clothing selection is based on sets, there is no custom character creation, and the only real thing to do is grief other players. Those are the lows, now let’s take a look at how we can improve them.

Progression: Progression, put simply is getting better over time. I understand and agree with the base Idea that everyone from new to experienced players should be on the same footing. So instead of the traditional system of increasing stats, let’s take a bit of inspiration from Overwatch, and NO I don’t mean loot boxes. For the love of god DON’T put loot boxes in the game. What I’m referring to is that on a level up you more or less get new cosmetics. However, this isn’t Overwatch, it’s a game about being a pirate. So instead of simply giving out clothing pieces let’s do some more. One thing could be gold, the player worked hard and got a new level so give them a sizable reward of gold. Next is something you’ve already implemented so this would just be expanding on what you already have and that’s titles. A player can already earn titles by doing voyages for the different factions. That’s good but all it means to other players is “that person grinded a bunch of the same things”. You can expand on your title system in a few ways such as giving some at certain levels, setting up a system where you earn words and can arrange them into two or three-word titles of your own, or by completing special events or hidden goals. Something like “Kraken survivor” if you lived through a random attack, or “Kraken Hunter” if a voyage sent you to kill it. They could even be inspired by real life pirates like Blackbeard or Black Bart Roberts the two most successful pirates respectively. Blackbeard’s would be get “x” gold in “x” time, referring to the fact the he obtained the most gold in a short amount of time, and Roberts’ would be to get “x” lifetime gold as he was the pirate with the longest career and had obtained the most lifetime gold. Last is that you could add in scars. I mean think about, scars to show a pirate’s progression would be cool right?

Voyages: Just a bit more variety is all we need. Right now, everything kind of boils down to a fetch quest, get the skull and bring it back, get the chest and bring it back, get these animals and bring them back. I get that that’s kind of the idea and gives other crews a chance to steal your stuff and that’s fine but mix it up a bit will you. Maybe I want to get some lost relics for the Order of Souls or be a rum runner of the Merchant Alliance. Yeah, I know the merchants already have you do deliveries but rum would be a reason for someone to hit you on your trip, because honestly who’s going to bother if you only have animals on board. For the Gold Hoarders you could be hired to protect an actual gold hoard. These are just some ideas to help expand the missions so they aren’t so repetitive but there are much better ones out there.

Clothing and character creation: There are around five different sets of clothing and each one matches with a set of weapons and ship cosmetics. Yes, we can mix and match what ever we like but that only goes so far. When the clothing you have to pick from is designed to match with specific other clothing, mixing doesn’t look quite right. A wider selection of neutral clothing would fix that right up. However, I do like the options of peg legs and hook hands. On the subject of character creation, I understand that you don’t want any two pirates to look the same but the random character generator leaves a lot to be desired. It took me almost ten minutes it finally get someone I liked enough to go with, so give us some basic sliders to adjust some stuff. I may not be able to see my own character but if you’re going to throw that at me then there’s no real reason for letting us pick our own cloths. And give us more hats, the ones you have now are just sad and there isn’t even all that many.

Griefers: A large presence of griefers is typically a sign of boredom, or the player base is just a bunch of douchebags. We’re going to focus on the former as there’s nothing we can do about the latter. So here are some ideas I have on new things to do.

1: First is quest lines from the NPCs already handing out the voyages. I was really confused and rather disappointed when I was talking to one of the NPCs and I saw a dialog option saying they look sad and asked them what was wrong. Being a veteran gamer, I looked at that and thought “Oh cool a story quest.” sadly it was no such thing. So that’s the first thing, give us some story lines.

2: Next is to populate the world. The sea looks beautiful but it’s awfully lonely so how about adding some NPC ships. Having random NPC ships sailing around is good but if you make them go from point A to point B as a cargo ship it’d be even better. Ships loyal to the Order of Souls could simply carry skulls from outpost to outpost, Merchant Alliance ships would carry massive amounts of supplies and animals, Gold Hoarder ships can run treasure from an outpost to a gold hoard. Even the skeletons could get in on the action by giving them ghost ships to attack the players with. Also, they really shouldn’t be the only enemy. All of this would give us something to raid other than players.

3: That leads me to my next idea. Change the organization experience levels to loyalty levels. Then it makes more sense when we unlock something from them and would introduce an interesting balance to the game. You could make the thee organization into rival factions and base the attitude they have towards each other on a rock paper scissors dynamic, meaning each faction hates one but is fine with the other. The loyalty you have with each faction can be influenced by various actions such as raiding or sinking “X” ship loses loyalty with that faction but gain it with whoever hates them. Some thing like this could get players more invested with what faction they like the most and who they work for. That being said players who wanted to max out loyalty with all of them could do so by working for them all and never doing anything negative to them.

4: The idea of finding a message in a bottle was brilliant but that only makes me wonder who put them adrift to wash up on a distant shore. The answer, castaways. Sailing along the player spots a NPC on a random island who ask to be taken to an outpost and returned to “X” faction giving the players a few options. A. return them safely for a bit of gold and loyalty, B. ransom them for more gold but lose loyalty, or C. kill them gaining loyalty with the opposing faction. The crew could vote on the action to take and use the brig if they decide to ransom them.

5: Introduce a major overarching theme of a war between pirates and an encroaching government power. Put pirate hunters on the water with bigger ships than the galleon so they’re threatening to any lone pirate crew but easily beaten by two. Give us the option to align with the government power and play as a privateer. Privateer players could be supplied with items and weapons by the government but have to give the government a cut of whatever gold they earn. Thus, drawing loose battle lines between the players, pirates versus privateers. For this to work effectively, and this may well be an unpopular decision but, outpost should be safe zones.

6: A few misalliance improvements could be things like giving us the ability to knock out members of other crews and make them walk the plank. You gave us a plank in a pirate game but no way to use it. Death should carry a penalty such as paying a toll on the Flying Dutchman, nothing too major but a percentage large enough to really want to stay alive. Give us a treasure chest of our own to store our gold and bury in a place we choose. Giving us a safe guard from losing to much by repeated deaths at the risk of someone stumbling upon it and taking everything we saved. Give the kraken a body. And at the very least, and for the love of gold, give us the ability to make and fly a Jolly Roger! It’s an absolute disgrace that a game aiming to make us feel like pirates, makes us fly a white flag atop the mast.

I know creating and implementing these changes would be a herculean task. I know the odds of anything I’ve listed making it into the game are next to zero but I had to get this out. I’m excited for pets to come out and willing to pay for one but I just think there are much more important things to take care of. With the game in it’s current state I only see it bleeding its player base and if to many people leave, DLCs aren’t going to make you very much money. Instead I feel your time could be better spent putting some of these suggestions into effect. As I said in the beginning, I like the game and will likely set sail when I’m stressing at the end of a long day no matter what. But I want to see this game grow and become extremely popular with every mother’s child what calls themselves gamer.

If you slogged through this open letter I thank you. No matter who you are your time is important and I’ve taken far more of it than I have any right to ask for. A copy of this letter has been emailed to Rare Ltd. (sadly I was unable to find an email for Studio Head Craig Duncan), Head of Xbox Phil Spencer, and publicly posted on reddit and the Sea of Thieves websites respectively. A reading of this letter will be posted on the YouTube channel ALittleNotRight as well. Thank you again for your time.

Written by, ALittleNotRight.