Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019

  • Ahoy maties!

    Yes, it's me again! And... it's that time of the week again (back to its usual day), another amazing developer update!


    Tune in to this week's Developer Update for the latest Sea of Thieves news. Plans for the Mercenary cosmetics, ongoing combat tweaks and all the juicy stuff being tested by Pioneers - Executive Producer Joe has all the specifics!


    Talking points include;

    • Friends Play Free - Mercenary cosmetics will be coming to the game for everyone to have in the next month or so.
    • Swordplay will be being looked at soon - punishments added to misswings again?
    • #SoTAndMe - New social media campaign - Get involved!
    • Pioneer Update - First version of Arena and quest stuff tested - Thanks for the feedback!
    • Next update in Early March - Including Opt-in Pioneer access!
    • Next update will have more Mercenary Voyages!

    And just because it made me laugh this morning...

    https://twitter.com/AdriElric/status/1098029846343618561

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  • @musicmee social media campaign? So that means, I, who has no twitter, no facebook can't play, or what?

    Friends play: And what do I get? Because I bought 3 months of gold to get the mercanaries outfit

  • Swordplay will be being looked at soon - punishments added to miss swings again?

    I was liking the fast sword.. have to try this updated sword with slight penalty.

  • @schwammlgott I just think Rare hasn't had the chance to upload it just yet. It might take a bit longer as well since the video posted to Facebook has about 7 minutes and 35 seconds of just empty black screen. They may have caught it after it uploaded and decided to reedit it before posting it to YouTube.

    Edit: Ah ha! My bad, I mistakenly assumed you were talking about the video not being uploaded to YouTube. @Musicmee correctly answered your question, good thing he's around :D

  • @schwammlgott Ahoy matey!

    It's just a social media campaign for the community to share their stories... there is no prize, so, luckily you are only missing out on hearing others' stories and no cool in-game cosmetics.

    The Mercenary set was recently given out free to new players who Joined Sea of Thieves via the Friends Paly Free promotion - The set will be purchasable via in-game currency very soon!

  • Glad their addressing that mercenary cosmetic set controversy.
    I can finally rest now...
    alt text

  • @musicmee sagte in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    The Mercenary set was recently given out free to new players who Joined Sea of Thieves via the Friends Paly Free promotion - The set will be purchasable via in-game currency very soon!

    I know, that's why I am asking...what do I get? Because I paid money, real money for the 3 month gold plus the code for SoT a year ago...

  • @schwammlgott Ahhhhh I see! Good question, I also did the same....

    I suppose that purchase gained us a year of advance exclusivity to the item? Plus three months of Xbox Live Gold.

  • @musicmee I don't buy 3 month codes, because 1 year codes are cheaper...just did this for the mercenary stuff...if I would have been waiting I would have saved money...

  • @schwammlgott sagte in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    @musicmee sagte in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    The Mercenary set was recently given out free to new players who Joined Sea of Thieves via the Friends Paly Free promotion - The set will be purchasable via in-game currency very soon!

    I know, that's why I am asking...what do I get? Because I paid money, real money for the 3 month gold plus the code for SoT a year ago...

    And I paid money for the Cookies for 4 Pieces of the Black Dog Set and the Onyx Compass was an Mixer giveaway for everyone! It’s all ok :)

  • Thanks to the Rare team for giving us these updates! Excited for a lot of this, especially a chance to maybe join the Pioneers program!

  • Updated: YouTube video is now up (and in OP) for those that are trying to steer clear of Facebook :)

  • @musicmee I agree with @Schwammlgott ... Rare has said over and over that this game is horizontal progression. So whats the point if everyone can get it? People are crying that they didn't have access to it so they should be able to get it. They had the same access to it as I did, and guess what I got it. So should they bring back the day one patch, the glass bottle eye of reach, the meg drum?

    I enjoy seeing/finding rare sets on the seas. Seeing a ship with the meg figure head, seeing the banana sails but if everyone has everything it gets boring.

    For a game that Rare themselves have stated they wanted cosmetics to be the main source people can show off, they have very little cosmetics to show off.

  • @el-dth-taco I totally get that sentiment...

    I would have loved to have seen them give away a different set entirely and to the guys who gave the codes away too!

    But one thing I always keep in the back of my mind is... these are just digital clothing/figureheads that could be released to the wider population at any time.

    But I do agree that the things that came at launch (Launch Crew EoR and Day One Eye Patch) should 100% stay sacred!

  • @el-dth-taco I agree with you on all points, and strongly hope that all time-limited merch remains time-limited and exclusive. However, this whole mercenary debacle seems a bit like a separate issue, where Rare intentionally took a pretty nifty exclusive item and made it broadly available to people who didn't put in any work to earn it. So in a sense its "exclusive-ness" was already broken before this update here. Maybe the difference is just in my head though, am I making any sense?

  • @king-deka sagte in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    @schwammlgott sagte in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    @musicmee sagte in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    The Mercenary set was recently given out free to new players who Joined Sea of Thieves via the Friends Paly Free promotion - The set will be purchasable via in-game currency very soon!

    I know, that's why I am asking...what do I get? Because I paid money, real money for the 3 month gold plus the code for SoT a year ago...

    And I paid money for the Cookies for 4 Pieces of the Black Dog Set and the Onyx Compass was an Mixer giveaway for everyone! It’s all ok :)

    But you paid just for the cookies...they didn't throw 2 cookies out of the package so that you get your code
    Because that's exactly the thing that happened here...I had to buy the more expensive 3 month code instead of the 1 year code to get this

  • @musicmee said in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    Updated: YouTube video is now up (and in OP) for those that are trying to steer clear of Facebook :)

    it's too late, I opened Facebook 😭

    https://media.giphy.com/media/IScTu2L6wFJYc/giphy.gif

  • @skulliah Noooooooooooo, scrub your hands, scrub them quickly! Stay clean!

  • @musicmee

    @musicmee said in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    @el-dth-taco I totally get that sentiment...

    I would have loved to have seen them give away a different set entirely and to the guys who gave the codes away too!

    But one thing I always keep in the back of my mind is... these are just digital clothing/figureheads that could be released to the wider population at any time.

    But I do agree that the things that came at launch (Launch Crew EoR and Day One Eye Patch) should 100% stay sacred!

    I would argue, no disrespect btw, that the merch and the preorder black set(the name alludes me, black dog?) would fall under the category of "launch" items.

    I also wondered why they didn't give out a new skin, or a simple recolor of the set would make me happy. Let the OGs who already have the set the same color while the new set is different color same model. Take LoL, Riot knew that if they were to rerelease something that was limited it would be a slap in the face to the people who invested it in early on. So what did they do, they made it slight changes but it still gave a sense that it was rare.

  • @musicmee said in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    @el-dth-taco I totally get that sentiment...

    I would have loved to have seen them give away a different set entirely and to the guys who gave the codes away too!

    But one thing I always keep in the back of my mind is... these are just digital clothing/figureheads that could be released to the wider population at any time.

    But I do agree that the things that came at launch (Launch Crew EoR and Day One Eye Patch) should 100% stay sacred!

    I agree 100% with that mate, but when it comes to things such as the Regional Sails and the Forsaken Ashes Ship set I'm kinda conflicted.
    On the one hand they were time limited, but on the other their so cool, and I feel bad that other people can't use em.

  • I did enjoy seeing the rare green outfit from time to time.(we called them peter pans) They were super rare to see in the wild.....When you saw one you knew they had been in game long time.

    It wont be the same to see it all the time.

    Be cool if they gave the gear some meaning.Like giving new purchasers a new solid green jacket and pants n guns.AKA(Green horns) The OG guys could get the original green with white pants. It would be great if I saw the new guys and could tell they just joined.From the friend's play free gear they had on. Make outfit mean something.

  • @sgt-palooggoo said in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    @musicmee said in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    @el-dth-taco I totally get that sentiment...

    I would have loved to have seen them give away a different set entirely and to the guys who gave the codes away too!

    But one thing I always keep in the back of my mind is... these are just digital clothing/figureheads that could be released to the wider population at any time.

    But I do agree that the things that came at launch (Launch Crew EoR and Day One Eye Patch) should 100% stay sacred!

    I agree 100% with that mate, but when it comes to things such as the Regional Sails and the Forsaken Ashes Ship set I'm kinda conflicted.
    On the one hand they were time limited, but on the other their so cool, and I feel bad that other people can't use em.

    Yeah they are super cool and I don't have all the sets(SPINAL FIGURE HEAD I NEED YOU) but what makes it cool is that its rare, its something you want. If everyone has it you wouldn't even slap it on your boat/body.

  • I'm interested to see how Rare goes about Opt In Pioneer testing. Will they just open the floodgates, allow anyone and everyone to join, and then remove the NDA from the program? Or will they still require Pioneers to meet a specific requirement but just make the process of getting in easier? It's going to be interesting to see what route they decide to take.

    If they open the floodgates everyone will be able to join and there won't be a need for the NDA anymore. Which is fine, except there won't be a ton of new surprises when new updates are released. The majority of the excitement will no longer come on launch day but instead on the day the patch hits Pioneers. I suppose as always we'll have to wait and see what the future holds!

    As for the rest of the update I'm really glad to see that we'll all have a chance at purchasing the Mercenary outfit. I'm more of a ship guy so I already got the cosmetics I'm worried about but even still...my wardrobe could use more than just a few pairs of pants, two shirts, an a couple of hats...

  • Absolute trash decision by Rare on this merc set.

    Do yourselves a favour and never use the words "exclusive" for anything ever again, because apparently all it takes is a couple reddit babies to whine together for whatever they want.

    Can't wait until the day these people aren't satisfied with merc outfit now and focus their attention on Ferryman.

    Literally no point doing anything promo related for Rare now since eventually it'll end up free, or rereleased. So much for being able to tell a story with our characters.

    Collecting might as well just die along with this now too for those of us who took pride in our collections..

    When do I get to whine for Banana sails and outfit? I've been playing since day 1, and still play (probably unlike those guys, from what I've heard.) I'm obviously more deserving /s

    Trash decision to cave the way you did.

  • Can Rare explain what is exclusive and what isn't? What about those people who bought the Gold Game Pass just to have these outfits? How many times Rare will make those available for free despite promoting it as exclusives in the first place?

    Server fix is a priority. I don't know why the devs never mention the abominable lag that we are all experiencing since day 1 whatever our internet speed!

  • @el-dth-taco said in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    @sgt-palooggoo said in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    @musicmee said in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    @el-dth-taco I totally get that sentiment...

    I would have loved to have seen them give away a different set entirely and to the guys who gave the codes away too!

    But one thing I always keep in the back of my mind is... these are just digital clothing/figureheads that could be released to the wider population at any time.

    But I do agree that the things that came at launch (Launch Crew EoR and Day One Eye Patch) should 100% stay sacred!

    I agree 100% with that mate, but when it comes to things such as the Regional Sails and the Forsaken Ashes Ship set I'm kinda conflicted.
    On the one hand they were time limited, but on the other their so cool, and I feel bad that other people can't use em.

    Yeah they are super cool and I don't have all the sets(SPINAL FIGURE HEAD I NEED YOU) but what makes it cool is that its rare, its something you want. If everyone has it you wouldn't even slap it on your boat/body.

    It is just like in the DR Seuss book The Sneetches. That book sums up my feelings on this.

  • @schwammlgott said in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    Friends play: And what do I get? Because I bought 3 months of gold to get the mercanaries outfit

    ^ this

    I am actually kinda fed up at the moment. Now I am wondering how long it's gonna take before you will release the Ferryman Cosmetics and the Black Dog Pack to the public... This is one step towards losing exclusivity and I find it completely unfair towards the players who got these cosmetics buy actually buying goods.

  • Gosh dang it. Hearing Rare talk about combat/weapon balance is so frustrating. They really don't seem to get it. The removal of the miss swing punishment was 100% a good thing. The problem is not that people are't punished enough for missing, it's a TON of other stuff: they are rewarded too much for hitting(with the completely absurd slow that the sword applies), they nerfed all the guns compared to the sword with the animation timers(over nerfed them by adding animation lockout to already equipped weapons), pretty heavily nerfed the the EoR which was the best gun, the blunder has been just bad and couldn't compete with the sword since it's nerf so nerfing it again completely ruins it and they still haven't fixed the broken sword momentum bug(this is a legit exploit unlike the double gunning). Sword play still has a long ways to go, but you should never balance a weapon by making it feel worse to use. Make the weapons feel GOOD first then tweak the numbers and stats accordingly.

  • I really hope they aren't opening pioneers to the public that's just a scary idea imo. People are gonna start trolling the testing ground like the regular game if they are making it public they should have a standard for eligibility

  • @SirioNDB cough cough Starting to look like I was on target with my thoughts on the sword changes ;)

  • @ajm123 Wouldn't that create a much more realistic testing ground? The answer is "yes" BTW.

  • I'm glad they are adding a penalty for missed sword swings. It was dumb to make it the way it is now with all the sword spam at full speed. Adding the penalty brings back some skill set that was lost due to the last update.

  • @tre-oni sagte in Official Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 20th 2019:

    Absolute trash decision by Rare on this merc set.

    Do yourselves a favour and never use the words "exclusive" for anything ever again, because apparently all it takes is a couple reddit babies to whine together for whatever they want.

    Can't wait until the day these people aren't satisfied with merc outfit now and focus their attention on Ferryman.

    Literally no point doing anything promo related for Rare now since eventually it'll end up free, or rereleased. So much for being able to tell a story with our characters.

    Collecting might as well just die along with this now too for those of us who took pride in our collections..

    When do I get to whine for Banana sails and outfit? I've been playing since day 1, and still play (probably unlike those guys, from what I've heard.) I'm obviously more deserving /s

    Trash decision to cave the way you did.

    I want to upvote this a hundred times, please

  • @musicmee true for the most part I wouldn't care about any cosmetics other then the blackdog founder sails and day one stuff everything else should be available eventually maybe at random for dubloons at seaposts

  • @ajm123 Aye it's odd... I know, I have very mixed feelings about different cosmetics for different reasons.

    I can see Rare probably also had a tough time deciding, while equally probably not knowing what the sets mean to individuals/the community as a whole.

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