Live Q+A: Gregg, Shelley and Jason talk all things Arena - NOW FINISHED

@qtrmaster-zeta said in Live Q+A: Gregg, Shelley and Jason talk all things Arena - WE'RE LIVE!:

Ahoy dev masters. You're breathtaking.

Will Arena have lore behind story in the future? And will we be seeing npcs at the docks for each colored banner soon?

Gregg: You'll be able to learn more about the Sea Dogs in the future...

Hi, SoT Team!

As someone who still hasn't tried Arena specifically with my friends (we're typically a Brigantine-sized crew and don't plan on using fill for a Galleon), I feel like one of the things that will turn my crew off will be the automatic funneling out of The Sea Dogs Tavern as a match starts. Will we ever be given the option to explore The Sea Dogs Tavern at our own leisure, preferably privately, before queuing for matchmaking? I can already envision my crew not getting one's bearings in the tavern before the match starts, that leaving a bad impression and them giving up on the mode.

Somewhat off-topic; I like the idea of adding a way of play to SoT that accommodates shorter play sessions, currently in the form of Arena, but I'd love it if y'all added a similar 30 minute session way to play with something that wasn't PvP competitive/aggressive. My friends and I love Adventure, but can only play a few times a month, if even, cause we just don't have the consecutive hours to sit down for one session often. If there was a Adventure-esque way to dip into SoT for 30 or so minutes and have a meaningful session, we'd play several times a week as we do with other games that require less time commitment.

@clumsy-george said in Live Q+A: Gregg, Shelley and Jason talk all things Arena - WE'RE LIVE!:

In the Tavern , Arena Tavern , are some props that Pirates can use ...i mean the bathtub has an Achievement tied to it and we were once in the Tavern, climbed up the stage and started to tell jokes , the first reactions were a bit mixed , some told us to shut it but after a few minutes more and more Pirates started to talk jokes , in the end , even the no sayers were having fun and forgot to be toxic...Will there be in the future more "props" that could be used to change or even enhance the atmosphere ?...

i rather fight with a sportmanship or comaraderic attitude than being smudged in the Tavern and therefor subdueing , anger feels...

Shelley: We want to enhance the positive social aspects of the tavern.

Gregg: We once had a bell in there but we had to take it out.

Shelley: The stand-up comedy thing is cool! It's exactly the kind of thing we hoped players would do.

Gregg: Karaoke?

@hynieth said in Live Q+A: Gregg, Shelley and Jason talk all things Arena - WE'RE LIVE!:

Hi there Gregg, Jason and ofc Shelly, (Congrats With the Promotion!)

So here's a question for you all:

People have been asking for Smaller ships (I already read some questons here too), but what about bigger ones? If there's a place to test out how larger ships would work in sea of thieves I think the Arena is a perfect place to start!

And a second question:

Are we ever going to see the really pretty ship sets from the arena in the main game? I want that Lucky rover set so badly!

SHIP SET SPOILERS!

@rohan2106 said in Live Q+A: Gregg, Shelley and Jason talk all things Arena - WE'RE LIVE!:

Have you thought about introducing a 'deserter' penalty for people that leave the arena, or are there plans to stop arena from just being two or three crews by the end.

Also, what are your thoughts on losing a flat 50% of points when sunk? This would help make matches more winnable when there is a crew ahead by several thousand points.

Gregg: We didn't want to penalise success. If you've earned 10,000 silver you shouldn't lose 5,000 just because you've sunk.

Shelley: It's not the way we wanted to approach winning in Arena. Success is rewarded.

@eggamer13 said in Live Q+A: Gregg, Shelley and Jason talk all things Arena - WE'RE LIVE!:

My second question:

Why did you decide to make The Arena tavern interior not accessible via Adventure mode and The Arena tavern exterior not accessible via The Arena itself? Is there a technical thing or just a design choice?

Gregg: Technical reasons!

Jason: It gives us more capacity to add more things to the game.

Shelley: We still have those dreams!

@geshden said in Live Q+A: Gregg, Shelley and Jason talk all things Arena - WE'RE LIVE!:

Hey Guys! A couple questions that ive been wondering over the past two weeks...

~ Is hit reg on the guns specifically being looked at?

~ The ping on servers is extremely high 99% of the time and hasnt ever gone below 40.. this goes for streamers i watch was well. What goes with the server issues and high ping?

~ Any defense coming to all these AFKs in arena grinding the rep for days to max out? Thats a bit frustrating to see constantly..

~ Last question, the broken basic matchmaking... is it just clumping everyone together when you search or is there actual ping based matchmaking? On that note, can we get some kind of system that puts Legends/high level pirates together versus being stuck with 3 random sailors who have never seen arena or a sail for that matter. Its extremely frustrating to be matched with people that arent on the same level as you and just kind of wander into arena because Adventure is a bust for PVP but have never touched arena or been on a larger ship.

Shelley: We are actively looking at hit reg on guns. There's no update to share yet but we'll let you know when there is!

Jason: Yes, we're looking at improving matchmaking and matching players of similar skill together.

@MoronicStraw will an API be made available with wich we can get stats like deaths, kills, shots fired, shots hit etc ?

I think quite a part of the community can get a kick out of it

@eggamer13 said in Live Q+A: Gregg, Shelley and Jason talk all things Arena - WE'RE LIVE!:

@natiredgals That's the most legit and balanced solution. It's not fair that PC players that play WITH controllers can't opt out of cross-play with keyboard and mouse players. In the other hand, if they made it as you imagine it, then Xbox players with M&K would still be a problem for you then.

Ya know, I'm here for the dev's answers. Lets not derail the thread please.

@eggamer13 said in Live Q+A: Gregg, Shelley and Jason talk all things Arena - WE'RE LIVE!:

My third question:

In the "Official Sea of Thieves Content Update: The Arena" we can see a ship skin with a moon in it, that I remember seeing it in the Insiders, but you decide to change it to the Regal Hound. Why did you change this?

Gregg: It sunk and no one could see it to recover it.

Jason: It had an unfair advantage due to visibility.

@xraylexx said in Live Q+A: Gregg, Shelley and Jason talk all things Arena - WE'RE LIVE!:

Any plans to put a notification on screen when some one leaves or joins your crew in Arena (and Adventure). Will stop me from stalking to myself half the time :)

Gregg: It's already in the game.

checks release notes

Gregg: It's coming soon.

The Battle of L.A has proven that broadcasting the Captains of Multiple Crews are very entertaining...i watched the broadcast , which lasted more than two hours ,completely ,without becoming bored … Is there a possibility that Rare repeats more often these kinds of Broadcasts?...And i don't mean you have to always have prizes attached to them...i just mean that this kind of broadcasting was really fun to watch , they were exciting and it was enormous to see how the different personalities of the Captains ruled over their crews...

Any chance this may be taken into the weekly Stream? i don't mean like weekly but like you switch now between Arena , Tall tale and normal Adventure mode , would it not be great to see once a month or once in two months a similar battle like the Battle Of LA?

@taaaamas said in Live Q+A: Gregg, Shelley and Jason talk all things Arena - WE'RE LIVE!:

In regards to the hot-tub in the Sea Dog Tavern, when can i get this installed on my ship? It'd be worth it's weight

Gregg: You could flood the lower deck?

Hey guys, good to have you and hope to see more Q&As like this for features, I'm sure it opens up avenues for different types of feedback and gets you thinking on the spot! I'll try preface a question with the thinking behind it below.

Competitiveness has been spoken about previously here, and I do understand why you may not have originally wanted to implement a competitive mode but it could help alleviate some ongoing problems. More serious reasons to play the Arena for better crews or those wanting more of a challenge would be great and allow for minor punishments to be dished out for leaving games as the vast majority of my games end up having 2 or 3 ships left in the end.

Alongside this, it's well known the plans to bring Arena tournaments around to events such as Battle for LA, potentially directly into the mode itself and for the community to be able to get involved.

Is a competitive mode something you chose to not implement (to begin with) to see how engagement was with Arena as it stands?

In regards to the parchment that players get when a match ends with the session's top teams and score amounts, as well as detailing how many points you gain or lose for each action, why does that only show up for a few seconds after a match and then disappear? Further, why does it not appear while waiting in lobby for the match to begin?

There's also been talk prior of the Man O War and additional modes, can it be surmised that the introduction of this great ship might come in conjunction with a new mode such as Fleet versus Fleet? I'm sure everyone loves to see huge ship battles and it would be great to have another level of team work between multiple ships introduced!

Thanks guys, hope you all have a nice day, it's hot down here in London!

@clumsy-george said in Live Q+A: Gregg, Shelley and Jason talk all things Arena - WE'RE LIVE!:

You know , or may not know , that the "feel" of the game is the most important to me than the great graphics , Music and Sounds...People , Pirates to be correctly , make or break a gamesession , Arena or Adventure game alike… In Arena ,those feels are always swirling around two extremes : Or they are very hostile towards persons gameTalent or accent they carry , or the atmosphere is so Great and pleasant that even God , like always hiding in the shadow ,takes a seat and laughs along with all of us...But ...Now , the server changes crews immediatly after one match , while sometimes the five teams were having the fun they hadn't experienced in months...Is there no possibility to choose either to leave or have a "rematch" with the Pirates that also want to stay?

Shelley: We are currently looking at giving players the control to find new rivals rather than doing it automatically. This is something we got great feedback from for our Insiders.