Starting New Characters in SoT

@natsu-v2 The killer for me, the final nail in the coffin if you will, was the lack of ownership of ones ship. Mike Chapman recently bragged about a players ship being an extension of yourself. And come to find out, ship ownership isn't even a thing planned for release. In fact, the whole game sounds like a arena shooter with boats now. You don't own a ship, you have access to one. Just like a player has access to a SCAR-L in Battlefield. Its interesting that you can change the color pattern of your SCAR-L in Battlefield and it persists between sessions, but apparently someone at Rare thought not letting your ships customizations persist was a good idea. Whoever that was needs to be smacked up side the head with a paint brush, because that person has no creative insight at all.

I really had high hopes toward creating myself a pirate that really enveloped the name Ethnine. I've done that with so many other games that its kind of become a thing for me and my video gaming hobby. And to know that I will be forced into a procedurally generated character really kills that idea. I can only hope that the amount of dyes and customizations (beards and peglegs) far exceeds the standard we've been shown. But to also know that the ship I started my journey to becoming a pirate legend will be nothing but a blank meaningless object really kills the immersion and more importantly kills the legend itself.

My friend and I were talking last year about how he wanted a White Ship with Green sails and would be known as a trader to many. While I would have a Black Ship with Red sails. Between the two of us we could set sail in the same world together, I would be his escort, protecting anyone who dared attack him. While he would run trade routes. Now it seems like that idea is dead more than ever before.

@avirex-idyll That was my understanding as well until the most recent news came out.

"Once you have a pirate, you’ll need to choose a ship - and here we finally get an answer on how boat ownership will work. Like the beta, your selection essentially boils down to a galleon (built for four players) or a sloop (built for one or two) - but the ship you choose only lasts as long as the gameplay session you’re in."

"The point here is that in a game built around the flexibility to sail alone, with strangers or with friends, everyone “owning” a boat doesn’t make sense - whose would you pick?"

"The compromise is in how boats are customised. Players can buy cosmetic upgrades - figureheads, sail designs, and specific hulls - that they keep forever, in the same way as clothing or equipment. They can be applied to any boat, meaning each time you play, you and your crew can decide on the look of the ship as you sail."

Joe Skrebels  /  Feb 13, 2018  /  Preview

Sea of Thieves: How It Starts, What You're Aiming For, and Kraken Attacks - IGN

We've known how you'll play Sea of Thieves for a long time - now we know why you'll play it.

Basically you will be given a blank ship of your choosing (Sloop or Galleon) and at the start of each session you can go in and customize it. It doesn't persist, it isn't "your" ship, its just a insignificant object that has no real meaning to anyone, and it sounds like you will have to go through the hassle of customizing it each time you play if you want even a little be of uniqueness. Its possibly the dumbest design decision I have ever seen, especially in a game so proud of its customization and since of becoming a legend.

@avirex-idyll You will not need to keep purchasing them, but you will need to continually apply them to your ship at the start of each session. So if you have a Green sail and a Red Hull today, when you log back in tomorrow you won't have that on your ship anymore and you will have to re-apply it again. Because its not your ship, its just a randomly generated ship that's blank each time you play.

EDIT: Of course, trying to spread the news around as much as possible. Hopefully Rare realizes this is possibly the least creative thing ever thought of and makes some minor adjustments to allow our customization to be persistent between sessions.

@therealcaptain3 That's not how I read it. Sounds like whatever character you choose is permanent. What isn't is the customizations it sounds like. So hopefully this doesn't mean you will have to re-apply your beard and coat at the start of each session, but that is what it kind of sounds like me.

Again, completely stupid in my opinion. No idea why the game wouldn't persist from your last play session and save whatever customizations you had on your character. But hey, they're doing it with ships too apparently.

@djm-xr07 You actually might have a point. The articles are kind of going against each other here:

Joe Skrebels  /  Feb 13, 2018  /  Preview

Sea of Thieves: How It Starts, What You're Aiming For, and Kraken Attacks - IGN

We've known how you'll play Sea of Thieves for a long time - now we know why you'll play it.

"Once you have a pirate, you’ll need to choose a ship - and here we finally get an answer on how boat ownership will work. Like the beta, your selection essentially boils down to a galleon (built for four players) or a sloop (built for one or two) - but the ship you choose only lasts as long as the gameplay session you’re in. You can try manning a galleon alone, log out, and then over-fill a sloop with four players. The point here is that in a game built around the flexibility to sail alone, with strangers or with friends, everyone “owning” a boat doesn’t make sense - whose would you pick?

The compromise is in how boats are customized. Players can buy cosmetic upgrades - figureheads, sail designs, and specific hulls - that they keep forever, in the same way as clothing or equipment. They can be applied to any boat, meaning each time you play, you and your crew can decide on the look of the ship as you sail. You might want to make it known that you’re a threat, rigging black sails and making clear to your server that you’re bad news. Or maybe you could do up your sloop as a merchant vessel, hoping that players will take mercy as you pass. If you’re disappointed by that, lead designer Mike Chapman hints that there’s a more concrete sense of boat ownership as you get further into the game - we’ll say more on that later."

"Speaking of transportation, becoming a Legend offers another major perk - you get a legendary ship, a different model to the standard galleons and sloops. Rare won’t tell us the specifics of what this entails, or exactly how it works with a mixed crew, but Chapman provides a hint that “owning” a ship is entirely different after you become a Legend. “This is a whole other game type,” says Chapman. “The ship starts building reputation, the ship has access to things other ships don’t.” The idea is that when players see a legendary ship “it’s like seeing the Black Pearl.”

Feb 13, 2018

Sea of Thieves' kraken and endgame explained, and Rare's post-launch plans

Everything you can expect from the game in the near future.

"Executive producer Joe Neate tells me what he sees as the step beyond pirate legend status post-launch, building on the idea of the hideout and bespoke voyages. "The first update we want to deliver to pirate legends, the most engaged of our player base, is the ability to be able to captain ships. Become a pirate legend, and you'll get the ability to captain and own ships from that hideout. So when you're out in the world, people will see you and know that you are a pirate legend. Players will start becoming the Blackbeards and Black Pearls of our pirate world. We always want to have new things our pirate legends can aspire to, but also new things for everyone to have and do." Instead of beginning the game in taverns, legends will start the game in the hideout, and take charge of the legendary ship there."

Its like these two articles are contradicting themselves. One says that a post-launch update will allow pirate legends to own legendary ships, while the other talks about how you become a ship owner after you hit the legendary pirate status. I'm confused. Either way, ship ownership doesn't look to be a thing till you hit that legendary status. Or does it? Chapman provides a hint that “owning” a ship is entirely different after you become a Legend. So they're saying you did own your ship before becoming a pirate legend? How so if at the beginning of the article they said: ..."everyone “owning” a boat doesn’t make sense - whose would you pick?"

God bless, I wish someone at Rare would clear this mess up.