An Update on Captaincy and Milestones
A deeper dive into changes to the Milestone system for all our Captains of Adventure, from Shelley Preston, Lead Designer on Sea of Thieves!
Ahoy Captains!
First of all, I’d like to extend a massive thank you to all the Captains of Adventure who have set sail since the launch of Season Seven. It’s been a joy for the team to see your ship names and their stories beginning to come to life on the Sea of Thieves!
We’ve also seen and heard the sentiment around the new Milestone system, so I wanted to explain the thinking behind the system and announce some changes.
What is the intention behind the Milestone system?
The intention of this system is to enable you to track the way you uniquely play and the things you like to engage with the most, and then give you rewards for that – letting you customise your ship to become a true reflection of your play style and journey.
In terms of the overall time investment and balance required to progress Milestones, it is intended to be vastly different to Commendations or Seasonal progression in that this is long-term progression, representing your journey over not just a single Season but many. With that in mind, players should expect that Milestone progression is slower than some of the existing progression systems.
Why don’t Milestones track things I did in the past?
Milestones are not awarded for deeds you have already completed primarily because Milestones are designed to be a progression system specific to Captaincy – they are for actions you have completed while aboard a Captained ship, much like Pirate Legend Commendations that require you to be a Pirate Legend to unlock them. If you play on a non-Captained ship, you do not progress Milestones.
In addition to this, the team have been hard at work implementing a huge number of stats behind the scenes – which has been a significant undertaking – in order to correctly track and award all these Milestones for you, your crew and your ships. We have not had the ability to track many of these actions until now, so it would have been impossible to retroactively award everything. The fairest and most consistent approach was to have no Milestones be retroactive, rather than having a mix of retroactive and newly tracked stats.
When we were originally considering the system, we did discuss and carefully consider this limitation of not being able to award everything retroactively. We ultimately felt that the introduction of Milestones still has a hugely positive impact that makes Sea of Thieves sessions more rewarding over the long term, especially as we’re rewarding core content that will always be part of the experience.
Why aren’t the rewards easier to achieve?
Milestones never end as they are uncapped, allowing you to progress them forever; you can’t ‘complete’ a Milestone. At certain Classes, though, you can unlock rewards.
In terms of the balance of where rewards lie, we have rewards that are given for the Alignment itself, meaning you can do anything within that Alignment to get them. The trophy items of Trinkets, pictures and plaques are given for specific Milestones themselves, and are therefore intended to showcase dedication to a particular activity.
The intention was not to expect every player to have everything, but for players to have those items that represent a chosen play style, unique to you and your crew.
We’ve heard a lot of feedback from players around wanting more long-term goals and objectives, and the tier system for trophies felt like a good solution to this. Rather than creating completely unique trophies for the upper tiers that would have felt out of reach for some players, there is a small reflection of your personal level of dedication in the quality of its base, frame or plaque while the trophy item itself stays the same. This felt like a good balance of fairly unlocking the customisations you want on the journey, while still accommodating those players who really want the long-term progression to be represented. The tiers are a meaningful icing on the cake!
However, that being said, we feel that there are definitely changes that we can make to address the feedback around the Milestones being too much of an investment without compromising the original vision for these as a longer-term progression system. Some of this is from player feedback, but since we launched, we have also had the ability to track how swiftly players are moving through Milestones and we can see areas that are not aligning with the time we anticipated.
Some of the most vocal feedback we’ve heard has been around timed activities like sleeping and sitting. When we were building the Milestone system, we really wanted all play styles to be represented. For instance, an Alignment like The Rogue represents those who enjoy the whimsical charm of life aboard ship – the role-players. We wanted to include these players in a way that felt meaningful and not have The Rogue be significantly faster to progress than the other Alignments, so that a Legendary Rogue didn’t feel like a lesser accomplishment. That’s the reason we balanced the timings to be high, but we’ve heard the feedback and have now lowered these to be more achievable through passive play.
What changes are we making to Pirate Milestones?
Changes are being made to Pirate Milestones as follows.
The Gold Seeker:
- ‘Treasures Sold’ is decreasing from 450 to 400
- ‘Treasures Sold to the Gold Hoarders’ is decreasing from 75 to 70
- ‘Treasures Sold to the Merchant Alliance’ is decreasing from 75 to 70
- ‘Treasures Sold to the Order of Souls’ is decreasing from 75 to 70
- ‘Gold Earned’ is increasing from 90,000 to 200,000
- ‘Treasures Sold to The Reaper’s Bones’ is increasing from 75 to 150
The Voyager:
- ‘Voyage Quests Completed’ is decreasing from 20 to 15
- ‘Nautical Miles Sailed’ is decreasing from 200 to 100
- ‘Islands Visited’ is decreasing from 15 to 10
- ‘Shipwrecks Visited’ is decreasing from 3 to 2
- ‘Rowboats Docked’ is decreasing from 3 to 2
The Emissary:
- ‘Gold Earned as a Gold Hoarders Emissary’ is increasing from 30,000 to 100,000
- ‘Gold Earned as a Merchant Alliance Emissary’ is increasing from 30,000 to 100,000
- ‘Gold Earned as an Order of Souls Emissary’ is increasing from 30,000 to 100,000
- ‘Gold Earned as an Athena’s Fortune Emissary’ is increasing from 30,000 to 100,000
- ‘Gold Earned as a Reaper’s Bones Emissary’ is increasing from 30,000 to 200,000
The Hunter:
- ‘Provisions Cooked’ is decreasing from 35 to 25
- ‘Provisions Eaten’ is decreasing from 75 to 50
- All varieties of ‘Fish Caught’ are decreasing from 25 to 10
The Feared:
- ‘Cannons Fired’ is decreasing from 100 to 75
- ‘Ghost Ships Vanquished’ is decreasing from 25 to 15
- ‘Skeleton Ships Vanquished’ is decreasing from 3 to 2
- ‘Skeleton Lords Vanquished’ is decreasing from 3 to 2
- ‘Sharks Vanquished’ is decreasing from 45 to 10
- ‘Sunken Kingdom Treasuries Conquered’ is decreasing from 3 to 2
The Rogue:
- ‘Minutes Spent Playing Shanties’ is decreasing from 60 to 15
- ‘Grogs Poured’ is decreasing from 75 to 30
- ‘Minutes Spent Sleeping’ is decreasing from 60 to 5
- ‘Minutes Spent Sitting’ is decreasing from 60 to 10
The Ill-Fated:
- ‘Trips to the Ferry of the Damned’ is decreasing from 25 to 15
- ‘Minutes Spent in Storms’ is decreasing from 60 to 15
- ‘Minutes Spent on Fire’ is decreasing from 60 to 5
- ‘Buckets Bailed’ is decreasing from 100 to 50
- ‘Times Sunk’ is decreasing from 25 to 15
What changes are we making to Ship Milestones?
Changes are being made to Ship Milestones as follows.
The Gold Seeker:
- ‘Treasures Sold’ is decreasing from 450 to 400
- ‘Treasures Sold to the Gold Hoarders’ is decreasing from 75 to 70
- ‘Treasures Sold to the Merchant Alliance’ is decreasing from 75 to 70
- ‘Treasures Sold to the Order of Souls’ is decreasing from 75 to 70
- ‘Gold Earned’ is increasing from 90,000 to 200,000
- ‘Treasures Sold to The Reaper’s Bones’ is increasing from 75 to 150
The Voyager:
- ‘Voyage Quests Completed’ is decreasing from 20 to 15
- ‘Nautical Miles Sailed’ is decreasing from 200 to 100
- ‘Islands Visited’ is decreasing from 15 to 10
- ‘Shipwrecks Visited’ is decreasing from 3 to 2
- ‘Rowboats Docked Aboard’ is decreasing from 3 to 2
The Emissary:
- ‘Gold Earned as a Gold Hoarders Emissary’ is increasing from 30,000 to 100,000
- ‘Gold Earned as a Merchant Alliance Emissary’ is increasing from 30,000 to 100,000
- ‘Gold Earned as an Order of Souls Emissary’ is increasing from 30,000 to 100,000
- ‘Gold Earned as an Athena’s Fortune Emissary’ is increasing from 30,000 to 100,000
- ‘Gold Earned as a Reaper’s Bones Emissary’ is increasing from 30,000 to 200,000
The Hunter:
- ‘Provisions Cooked Aboard’ is decreasing from 100 to 25
- ‘Provisions Eaten Aboard’ is decreasing from 225 to 50
- All varieties of ‘Fish Caught’ are decreasing from 25 to 10
The Feared:
- ‘Cannons Fired Aboard’ is decreasing from 200 to 75
- ‘Ghost Ships Vanquished’ is decreasing from 25 to 15
- ‘Skeleton Ships Vanquished’ is decreasing from 3 to 2
- ‘Skeleton Lords Vanquished’ is decreasing from 3 to 2
- ‘Sharks Vanquished by Crew’ is decreasing from 90 to 20
- ‘Sunken Kingdom Treasuries Conquered’ is decreasing from 3 to 2
The Rogue:
- ‘Minutes Spent Playing Shanties Aboard’ is decreasing from 60 to 15
- ‘Grogs Poured Aboard’ is decreasing from 150 to 30
- ‘Minutes Spent Sleeping Aboard’ is decreasing from 60 to 5
- ‘Minutes Spent Sitting Aboard’ is decreasing from 60 to 20
The Ill-Fated:
- ‘Times Damaged’ is decreasing from 100 to 50
- ‘Minutes Spent in Storms’ is decreasing from 60 to 15
- ‘Minutes Spent on Fire’ is decreasing from 60 to 5
- ‘Repairs Made by Crew’ is decreasing from 50 to 25
- ‘Buckets Bailed by Crew’ is decreasing from 200 to 50
- ‘Times Sunk’ is decreasing from 25 to 15
What happens to Classes I have already earned?
In cases where we’ve decreased a requirement, you’ll see an increase in your Class. However, should this make you eligible for an automatic reward – for example, the Captain’s Logbooks – please note that you will need to earn one more Class in that Alignment for the unlock to take place, and you will not see a pop-up telling you the reward was unlocked. So be sure to double-check your Ship Customisation Chest!
For rewards purchased in the shop, if the changes have pushed you over the eligibility threshold to buy one, you will need to progress by one more Class for it to correctly show as unlocked.
In cases where we’ve increased a requirement, you’ll see a decrease in your Class. Any rewards you had already unlocked will stay unlocked. If you had already crossed a threshold that unlocked the ability to buy a reward as a result of your progress, this will remain unlocked for you.
Again, thank you all for your continued support on the Sea of Thieves. These changes are now live in the game, and we hope you find the Milestone system to be more balanced and enjoyable while still being a true expression of your crew and their deeds.
See you on the seas!
– Shelley “Pressgang” Preston, Captain of The Isabella
