Season 19: Act 3 - State of Play Update #2

What was the point in delaying LSS then? You say the team has their hands full with custom seas aswell as LSS but you have Flix Interactive making custom seas not the main team at Rare. How is it that most of this season's content gets cut and what remains, bilge rat weekender & LSS are both riddled with bugs on launch. I don't understand this, I would say do better but I don't think you guys will.

Did they miss the MARK again?

@sonicbo thank you for the heads up. i would just say fix asap dont let it stay broken until 20 if you gotta shut the game down randomly for a little for a quick fix i think the core players would appreciate that more then us having to wait till that one day a month or the next season.

You guys still haven’t figured out a sustainable pace. This live event calendar focus is never going to settle out. It’s just going to be a continuous stream of these moments. Even when the roster of events is complete; each will still require tweaks and maintenance to keep them functional as the sandbox, and everything else, changes over time.

The idea was flawed from the start. SoT’s core has always been the sandbox. Refocus there. Live events are great for marketing and metrics; but only in the short term. A healthy sandbox, full to the brim with all flavours of activity, with balanced rewards and progression, is the key. Those of us that have been playing from the beginning know this as self-evident fact. We have played versions of SoT that were an excellent sandbox. We enjoyed it despite poor technical performance and content droughts. (although the fixes over the last year or so have been genuinely excellent. That multithreading change in particular had knock on effects that are impossible to measure. It had a positive impact on pretty much every aspect of player interaction.)

SoT is a shared world, pirate adventure, sandbox game. The live events are antithetical to “sandbox”. Players should log in to be presented with a world of options; not a list of chores to do this weekend. I liked logging in and then deciding what to do, based on the server that I landed in, and the mood I was in. I liked doing what I wanted without being told what the best way to play this week/weekend is.

@mort216 said in Season 19: Act 3 - State of Play Update #2:

I liked logging in and then deciding what to do, based on the server that I landed in, and the mood I was in. I liked doing what I wanted without being told what the best way to play this week/weekend is.

This is you and that's ok. But not everybody plays like that. Once you have everything completed, like a lot of people, giving an incentive, a push before you log in, is a good thing. You still have your sandbox to do whatever, but additionally we have the log in push as well. Events are not taking away anything.

@sonicbob

I appreciate the transparency in this update, and I think being upfront with the community is important.

That said, I can understand why some players are concerned. Last Ship Standing is a mode that has a lot of potential, especially for crews who enjoy naval combat and competitive gameplay, but it also feels like the kind of feature that really needs to launch in a strong state. Matchmaking, requeueing, loading issues, movement, and consistency with existing Faction Battles are all things that directly affect whether players give the mode a fair chance or move on from it quickly.

I think the wider concern is less about one specific update and more about the overall balance between releasing new content and making sure that content lands properly. Players do want new things to do, but they also want stability, polish, and confidence that core issues are being addressed.

For me, Sea of Thieves is at its best when the sandbox feels alive, stable, and rewarding. Events and new modes can absolutely help bring players together, but they should strengthen the core game rather than feel like they are stretching it.

I do want Last Ship Standing to succeed. It could become a really fun addition to the game if the early issues are handled quickly and the mode gets the support it needs after launch. Our community always loved the Weekend Warfare we ran, I'm hoping it brings that feeling back!

Really, really disappointing. Ty for letting us know ig

Why delay the update only to release it later still filled with bugs? Also why is custom seas such a hard deadline when we know that will also likely be buggy

Speaking candidly, the reality is we needed more time here to nail these final issues. On assessing our options, we have made the call to continue with today's launch, and that’s on us.
We’re not happy with shipping below our quality bar though, and we’re committed to fixing these issues as soon as we can. We’ll keep you updated as fixes arrive.

I think you guys ARE happy with shipping below the quality line, considering that this is practically the norm from every update for YEARS now, I'm not talking about a few minor bugs every update, simply because that's always a guarantee, im talking about genuinely broken and untested updates that make me wonder why we even have Insiders in the first place if you aren't going to listen to it. Almost 6 months of content completely axed, delaying the event by a whole week and you guys still couldn't get this right?

While the transparency is appreciated, this constant behavior of knowingly shipping below-the-bar content is not. The bar is just lower than you claim it is, y'all.

I'm not sure I understand the point of releasing a highly anticipated new way to play that is burdened with such issues that are beyond even the current poor state of the rest of the game. Yes, you've made the decision and that's on you (plural), but how are we supposed to feel about that as players? Are you expecting forgiveness or something...? We're not here to give it, this is sadly self-inflicted and we're so tired of seeing it.

This decision has me utterly confused, especially amidst the other events and issues Rare is dealing with.

"there's elements that hit below our quality bar" Who are we kidding with this? This IS the quality bar now.

Fair enough on the honesty.

What a mad decision, it's almost like the countless past issues haven't taught Rare anything. Season 20 is already a season of - unless realistically you're a content creator - no content, so it would've surely been better for it to launch in season 20. Shame you didn't just add a few more weekenders and double gold events for the rest of the season and delay. Disappointed, was excited for this and now don't really want to bother if this is knowingly below your quality bar, which is already far far lower than it used to be.

@sonicbob Just so you and the team are aware, I found a game breaking bug. After winning my first last ship standing I was unable to raise my mast. This was different from the normal mast bug, the sails would still go up and down even though it was knocked down. I tried taking a mermaid and dying and nothing fixes it. Just completely stuck

I just watched a streamer get lazybearded while waiting in the queue for a match. At what point does Rare make the completely logical decision to take a major step back, and resolve the fundamental issues with the game? I'm not talking solely about the software, I'm also talking about the team. If I was performing like Rare at my job, I would have been fired months ago.

This is Last Ship Standing's first live outing

I already hear how players are not happy. Sigh...it's like these kids never designed something and it fail first day anyways, even if it worked before hand. But the masses wanted it now.

How long should it take to admit, that Arena Mode was still way better?
Whats the purpose to make something that sucks from the begining?

@the-crazy-beard

I would like to believe there is still enough console controller / players that play the game to be able to offer a true opt out of cross play option and still have reasonable wait times for HG matches and so on...

I'm not getting back on the negative train I've been on but I do feel that it is a bit absurd that true opt out of cross play isn't actually available 8 years on. It's so frustrating!

I've been tempted to switching to play SOT on PC or at least with K&M just so I can attempt to level the playing field with competing in HG and High Seas but when other games with PVP have an opt out of cross play option for console / controller players and they function well and effectively, I do think SOT should have the same option available. The longer this option remains unavailable the less I, and my friends play the game and the when we do come back on to play, we play less and less competitively simply to avoid becoming fodder for K&M and PC players 😂 and we are all quite good at PvP too but there is a difference between balanced fun battles and being at a steep technical disadvantage which is not fun and quite unpleasant.

We haven't played SOT in a minute now and I for one do miss the game and I do miss a fair balanced PVP battle but even the slightest chance of going up against PC sweats is a big turn off for us.

What really needs to be addressed here is the speed of the final few circles, Portal Location after winning, and time to loot supplies before the portal closes, as well as reputation gained for time invested.

The final circles close really fast and push you to fight to get into the center without much time to do anything else if there's multiple ships remaining. If the game continues and ends due to ships exploding and the circle closing at the end you'll be where the portal spawns and instanly be teleported out of the match.

We need to be able to take our time to gather the supply crates and flags from other boats that were in the match. We should be able to have ample time to get all 5 emissary flag and supply crates before leaving and being forced out because the portal is closing soon.

In terms of overall speed of the game. The first couple circles tends to be a ship or two hiding on the outskirts letting everyone else fight for the win and do the work since it doesnt effect their rewards if they win. Then when there's 3-4 ships remaining they come into third party and battle for the center as the final circles close. A way to balance this is to close up the map with the first circle or two sooner. to force more pvp and ship engagement instead of everyone just hiding for the win.

Also, the reputation for playing the game mode could use a boost in my opinion. I get it rewards you with a 3 streak if you win, and a little more exp on a loss in the top 3. However I just don't simply think it rewards the time investment especially for newer players to PVP since there isnt any skill based matchmaking. If you want the mode to be full of players it needs to be rewarding. At this point I'm just going to go farm other hourglass modes because I can get more win streaks and rep reliabily and it respects my time playing.

Yeah, just under half of the games I've tried to join result in a black screen or some other failure. Disappointing.

Good thing this short-lived and doesnt matter if its broken or not. Take the data and expand it.

Some players are already teaming in last ship standing which is supposed to be a FFA (free for all) teaming completely ruins the experience.

i imagine they are using the method of session hopping to find their friend before queuing into last ship standing so they end up in the same match together.

would be great if we could queue normal HG to avoid this kind of cheating instead forcing us to play last ship standing. we have long queue times just to end up in a match with a group of lame cheaters to which you have basically little hope of winning against it's just a waste of a honest players time and it will single handily kill the mode that's if the long queue times and non stop bugs don't kill it first.

I'm never getting a battle on xbox - just waiting for rival crews in the tunnel for 40+ mins each time until I give up.
I assume this isnt just me but Ive seen people on Twitch get battles so it may be an xbox only issue.

90% of S19 content is cut
100% of S20 content is cut
FFA is moved from Act 2 to Act 3
FFA is delayed an additional Week
''We're releasing in a state we aren't comfortable with''

Please genuinely just tell us what's going on. Blink Twice if you need help. This is not a ''game dev hard'' situation anymore, things are clearly going on behind the scenes, be it the fault of Rare or entirely out of Rare's control.

1st FFA - all ships raise sails and stationary for as long as possible hoping other ships take eachother out. Nobody can board (solo sloops) because then your ship can be cannoned and you need to abandon your hold. The fight is basically someone eventually gets demasted and every other ship circles them until they explode. Had people beg to truce in order to get easier wins/2nd place.

2nd FFA - 20 minute wait only to get a 4 ship fight. One ship hides, the second ship stationaries, the third ship is a hard cheater. The other 2 ships just sail out realising its a cheater, I get 0.2 levels for coming in second place.

The average normal hourglass match either lasts 2 minutes or half an hour, with the latter being less likely with recent changes. In what world would it ever be efficient to grind Allegiance via this mode? Due to the fact most people will run/hide there's no way the average match is under 20 minutes, and even getting 2nd place awards you with barely anything. You are encouraged to not actively fight as you risk losing your crate which is literally just a free loss, or just drain your resources; meaning once its just you and a runner/hider; you are at a disadvantage. You have somehow created a mode that is less efficient than Loss Farming; and prevented anyone playing the actual Hourglass mode for a full month. You're also 5x more likely to run into a cheater in this mode (without factoring in the potential that theres a rise in cheaters in this mode in order to ruin it) which is gonna make this even worse, as I have found to be the case myself.

Its Insane because the good part of Arena was that it was on a timer and you scored points through fighting (at least that's the intent) as well as their being 2 main points of Interest with the Chest and the Sellspot. You couldn't just wait out a match you needed to be actively doing something to pressure another ship; even if that meant just camping the Sellspot. Like Arena obviously had a lot of issues; I played a lot of it; but It is amazing that somehow you take what small amount of good things Arena had and remove them.

5 weeks of delay for this mode after scrapping every other thing in this Season; entirely scrapping (or moving to S21) Season 20, with the remaining content being made by a third party. I cant fathom why stuff is shipped in such a poor state that you yourself admit ''we aren't comfortable releasing''. It can't even be like ''Oh we had to divert assets from working on X and moved them to working on Y'' because you entirely cut out Y... There's nothing else for you to be working on unless Season 21 is so genuinely monumentally huge that it will completely reshape the game (in the ways people want hopefully). Though you'd think if there was such a Gem on the horizon that Rare would be absolutely milking that fact in attempts to save face from the now daily controversies this game generates within its community; both in and out of the game. So at this point I don't even know if the hopium of ''Season 21 will save the game'' is even relevant anymore.

1st FFA

Actually sounds fun to be part of. TRUCE! NEVER! xD

2nd FFA

Hmm, might wanna report that.

In what world would it ever be efficient to grind Allegiance via this mode?

Best part, you dont...just enjoy the pvp.

getting 2nd place awards you with barely anything.

Report that and hope they change it?

You are encouraged to not actively fight as you risk losing your crate which is literally just a free loss

Risk=Reward

Due to the fact most people will run/hide

Smart play. Snake hiding in the bushes waiting for the lion to get tired. Muhahahaha

You're also 5x more likely to run into a cheater in this mode

well yeah...most the cheaters are solo sloopers :p

good part of Arena was that it was on a timer and you scored points through fighting

Yeah nobody likes being on a time limited based on points. This isn't arcade.

You couldn't just wait out a match you needed to be actively doing something to pressure another ship

Sink and lose everything. Better to hit and run, hit and run.

The best thing is to report all issues with the current state. And hope by next time its released, all is better.
Thank goodness its limited.

@the-crazy-beard thought i was going crazy when I ran into a streamer who is on pc hitting every snipe and also teaming then discovered that when you load into a console only server then dive to lss you get auto put onto crossplay. This surely can't stay like this