Patch Notes Discussion 1.4.4

  • Release Notes - 1.4.4

    Ahoy pirates!

    Good news for Pirates who enjoy adventures, encounters or both! This build introduces an all-new Mercenary Voyage type, the Reaper's Run, perfect for those who thrive in the heat of combat.

    Looking for something a little less stabby? No problem. This build also brings two Mercenary Voyages that take place outside of the action-filled hotspot so you can adventure at your own pace.

    That's not all! You'll also find a bunch of new performance improvements and fixes to make your sailing smoother than ever.

    Adventures await on your Mercenary Voyage


    MERCENARY VOYAGES

    • Reaper's Run of the Wanderer's Refuge – Duke’s shop now holds a treacherous new 'Reaper's Run Voyage’ costing 5 Doubloons. Any crew willing to accept this challenge must brave the waters surrounding Wanderers Refuge - with multiple crews all heading to the same location, prepare to do battle!

    Grab a new Mercenary Voyage, doesn't it look pretty?

    • Reaper's Mark Challenge - Looking for more of a challenge? Equip your Reapers Mark Flag before you set sail in order to warn rival crews of your presence. Pirates who complete The Reaper’s Run of Wanderers Refuge with their Reaper’s Mark raised high will unlock progress towards a Legendary Commendation ‘Legendary Reaper of Wanderers Refuge' and 'The Wandering Reaper' Title - only for the most fearsome pirates.
    • Wandering Reaper Ship Cosmetics – A Legendary Challenge deserves a Legendary reward! A new set of Ship Cosmetics are available in Duke’s Shop locked behind the ‘Legendary Reaper of Wanderers Refuge' Commendation; The Wandering Reaper Sail, The Wandering Reaper Hull and The Wandering Reaper Flag.

    Show that you're loyal to the coin with these new Mercenary liveries

    • Mercenary Voyages of the Wilds & Ancient Isles - Duke also has two new voyages in his shop. These voyages cost 5 Doubloons and direct pirates to visit a specific sea region and complete a mixture of Voyage types.
    • Mercenary Voyage Commendations - Alongside the Legendary Commendation, there are a total of 4 Commendations available in this set for completing each of Duke's latest Mercenary Voyages. Unlocking all these commendations awards 90 Doubloons!

    Merchant Alliance Improvements

    • Merchant Animal Payouts - The value of successfully handing in animal cargo has been significantly increased.
    • Cargo Run Payouts - The value of successfully handing in Cargo has been significantly increased.
    • Cargo Run Robustness - Cargo is much more robust and significantly easier to get to its destination in good condition
    • Cargo Run Sailing Distance  - The average delivery distance for Cargo Runs have been reduced, and are now a shorter sailing distance.

    Updates

    • Floating Treasure - Significantly increased time loot floats for at the water surface before it begins to sink
    • Sword Miss Swing Recovery - When swinging your sword and missing your opponent, there is an increased recovery delay before you can swing again. Players can move freely during this recovery, however, are prevented from attacking.
    • Food Barrels - The Shipwrights have been busy and added more food barrels to the ships.
    • NPC Dialog Styling - Updated styling when interacting with an NPC during Dialog.
    • Colour Contrast Accessibility - Updated the colour contrast of selecting items in the Settings menu to better support accessibility for WCAG standards.
    • Service Status Messaging - Our Live Operations team now have the ability to communicate changes to our service status to players in the game as they happen. These messages will appear and persist in the Chat Notification area when sent.

    Performance and Stability Improvements

    • Improved loading times when loading from the front end into the game.
    • Voice Chat should now be much more reliable when many players are speaking at the same time
    • Resolved a number of game stability issues
      We are constantly reviewing the performance and stability of each patch and providing performance optimisations and stability improvements.

    Fixed Issues

    Gameplay

    • When blocking cutlass attacks from an enemy, resolved an issue where light strikes could penetrate your block and cause you to be stunned.
    • Switching between guns should now consistently play the full wield animation and firing delay.
    • Skeleton Captains and Players dropping Skeleton Fort keys should now consistently drop the key onto the fort floor, reachable by players.
    • Resolved an issue when rapidly firing a weapon where a bullet would not be correctly registered as fired and would trigger the hit marker without applying damage.
    • Resolved an issue where dropping your Capstan did not function as expected and ships continued to move.
    • Shipwreck Chests rewarded by Skeleton Ships or found emergently on beaches will now correctly count towards the Hoarder of Barnacled Gold commendation.
    • Mercenary Voyages progress bar now showing the correct number of commendations.
    • Push to talk setting now persists between sessions.
    • Legendary Skeleton Exploder title now unlocked when criteria reached.
    • Sprint now works correctly when bound to 'Q' or 'E' keys.
    • Drowning players can once again interact with barrels.
    • Cargo Run maps should no longer display 'Hopscotchbeard' instead of NPC Name

    Sound and Visuals

    • Sovereign Wheel Cosmetic now uses the correct Red & Gold texture
    • Floating Rivet removed from Bone Crusher Wheel
    • Resolved an issue where the Aim SFX for the Eye of Reach would play inconsistently
    • Rain is no longer visible inside Skeleton Ships.
    • Fog now visible from the Captain's Quarters.
    • Players Left hand should no longer detach from steering wheel and capstan.
    • Wailing Barnacle Hull Livery no longer leaves blue colouring when unequipped.
    • SFX can be muted from the Front End
    • Ship hull textures now show the correct LOD
    • Players should no longer hear a bubbling sound along with low volume when in indoor areas.
    • 'Rotten Bilge Rat Gloves' now rendering correctly.

    UI

    • Company Rank within the Company Shop UI is now correctly scaled on wide screens
    • Control Settings pages no longer have unlocalised strings.
    • Riddle maps no longer have font cropping issues
    • Removed Back button prompt from 'Choose Your Experience' screen in the front end.
    • NPC Tooltips should no longer be missing the first letter of the NPC's name.

    Environment

    • Treasure Chests should no longer spawn beneath undiggable locations on Discovery Ridge & Flintlock Peninsula.
    • Galleon map deck player collision improved.
    • Players are no longer able to jump through the broadside of the galleon's hull and hide inside.
    • Cannon on North Side of Molten Sands Fortress no longer obstructed.
    • No longer possible to get stuck on Mermaid's Hideaway between trees.
    • No longer possible to get stuck near a tree on Discovery Ridge.
    • No longer possible to get stuck between rock and fence on Molten Sands Fortress.
    • No longer possible to get stuck between tree's on Ashen Reaches.
    • Ramp on the fort in Molten Sands Fortress now repaired.
    • Ladder leading up to Ancient Spire Tavern no longer obstructed.
    • Terrain no longer floating on Molten Sands Fortress.
    • Waves no longer clipping through ground textures on Fetcher's Rest.

    Known Issues

    • Extended Black Screen on Loading - There is a chance that players may be held indefinitely on the Black Loading Screen with Spinner when returning from the Ghost Ship.
      We are continuing to investigate this issue, however, have identified a potential workaround if you are affected by this and are in a crew. If you find yourself indefinitely stuck on the Black Loading Screen have your crew select your Gamertag from the My Crew menu and 'Vote to Lock in the Brig'. Once arriving in the Brig you can then be released to bypass the Black Screen Issue

    Download size:

    Xbox One: 3.9GB
    Xbox One X: 4.9GB
    Windows 10: 4.9GB

    Xbox Installation Instructions can be found here.

    PC Installation Instructions can be found here.


    Looking For Crew?

    Looking for Crew?

    Looking for new crewmates? We've got a bunch of places you can visit to seek out like-minded pirates, so sail on over to these official Sea of Thieves hangouts:

  • 147
    Posts
    290.9k
    Views
  • @opticalmatrix love the look of these voyages and I'm glad to see loads of fixes😁

  • @opticalmatrix said in Patch Notes Discussion 1.4.4:

    Merchant Alliance Improvements

    • Merchant Animal Payouts - The value of successfully handing in animal cargo has been significantly increased.
    • Cargo Run Payouts - The value of successfully handing in Cargo has been significantly increased.
    • Cargo Run Robustness - Cargo is much more robust and significantly easier to get to its destination in good condition
    • Cargo Run Sailing Distance  - The average delivery distance for Cargo Runs have been reduced, and are now a shorter sailing distance.

    Wow there is so much in this... but to single out the above ... thankyou RARE.
    On the chase to Legend... I'm sure this is going to help a lot..

  • It's pvp time, mateys!

  • So it begins!!! Loving these fixes!

  • Personally I'm not too keen on these Mercenary voyages costing doubloons.

  • More Foooooooooood (Barrels)!

  • @thor-von-blitz Eat more food you say?.....

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

  • @piratecraggy IDK, IMO they didn't need to make the cargo all around more "robust." Just make it so ship damage only damage bottles if the ship damage is in the same part of the ship. I don't see why a cannonball to the hull near the bow should instantly shatter my bottles that are stored in the stern. So I don't think they needed to touch plants and cloth, and I don't think falling with the bottles should change.

    Everything else is welcome though :)

  • Nice to see the fixes and additions. But no mention of the 'opt-in' for Pioneers program.

  • @friedwilly Keep an eye out for the developer update video matey!

  • We are continuing to investigate this issue, however, have identified a potential workaround if you are affected by this and are in a crew. If you find yourself indefinitely stuck on the Black Loading Screen have your crew select your Gamertag from the My Crew menu and 'Vote to Lock in the Brig'. Once arriving in the Brig you can then be released to bypass the Black Screen Issue
    or
    log out and log back in... unless you're playing on console... then 5 minutes of being locked in brig isn't that bad. Good Luck!

  • @friedwilly said in Patch Notes Discussion 1.4.4:

    Nice to see the fixes and additions. But no mention of the 'opt-in' for Pioneers program.

    That'll probably have nothing to do with this patch matey. I dare say more info will come out in the dev update this week.

  • @musicmee said in Patch Notes Discussion 1.4.4:

    @friedwilly Keep an eye out for the developer update video matey!

    👀

    https://media.giphy.com/media/O4P2rZboNPvfG/giphy.gif

  • @musicmee waiting with bated breath.

  • @friedwilly We're not far off from talking more about that. It's something coming sooner rather than later!

  • @xcalypt0x

    Yeah... I agree it's a really daft mechanic that a cannon hits you in a certain location, & that elsewhere safely away from the damage a nudge shatters your bottles. I'll be interested to see if this is the "Robustness" they are mentioning, and the area of effect has been addressed... we shall see later.

  • Thanks for the update. When will the issue where you can not interact with barrels if you are taking damage from boiling water in the Roar be fixed.

  • @skulliah

    https://media.giphy.com/media/a5viI92PAF89q/giphy.gif

  • I'm at work, so I can't log in and look at the commendation details -- since the exact wording above was "unlock progress towards" the commendation, can anyone confirm exactly what I have to do to get that nice new Reaper ship set?

  • @opticalmatrix Where's the information about Pioneer access and opt-in?

  • please hire whoever runs Epic to run Rare/Sea of Thieves...these once a month updates for what we actually get are ridiculous...

  • My Xbox One X update was 6.13 GB

  • Booooo! to mercenary missions costing doubloons. boooooooo!

    other than that thanks for the fixes.

  • @opticalmatrix said in Patch Notes Discussion 1.4.4:

    @friedwilly We're not far off from talking more about that. It's something coming sooner rather than later!

    It was mentioned by Joe in the last developer update here and it was said today was the day...

  • The "Extended Black Screen on Loading" can happen with mermaids too and also when you respawn due to being stuck. I've experienced this regularly ever since the game came out and it always made me give up on continuing playing. Happy to see that it's finally acknowledged, little late but hey. Fix quickly please. c:

  • Great update Rare, I'm downloading it now!


    I hope there's some new teases to find!

  • Kudos as always to the whole team at Rare.
    Some really nice fixes and additions sure to make many a fellow Pirate pleased as punch.

    One small gripe i have picked up recently though, why do you call these releases "Sets" as they are clearly not due to the lack of Figurehead or even cannon, capstan and wheel skins but mainly the Figureheads.
    Why are these not released for ship customisations like with the other ship sets released bar the Mercenary one just past?

    This half set releases Hull, Sails and Flag for one set then another Hull, Sails and Flag from a different set gripes me so it does.
    Don't get me wrong i love me some variety i really do but the eye sore of having half completed ship and clothing customisations that i'll have to mix and match to use or simply leave customisation slots default has finally gotten to me.
    Furthermore i hope we can expect to see the missing parts to other past "Sets" released e.g. Wailing Barnacle gloves/trousers/shoes, Bear and Bird set items, Hungering one set items etc.
    I sound petty i know. Apologies.

  • @treefittymonsta said in Patch Notes Discussion 1.4.4:

    Booooo! to mercenary missions costing doubloons. boooooooo!

    other than that thanks for the fixes.

    I can agree with that - yes it is something to do with doubloons, but who has a load to spare and what if the next item set needs a load of them??

  • Ok have to ask the question. What if you don't have doubloons and have already done most of the achievements? How are you supposed to take part in these mercenary voyages when the only way to get the doubloons right now is to do achievements?

  • @sshteeve Information is coming very soon on that front.

  • @opticalmatrix said in Patch Notes Discussion 1.4.4:

    @sshteeve Information is coming very soon on that front.

    But does that mean Today? Tomorrow? A week from now?

    Will we hear it here? Twitter? YouTube? Facebook? Joe Neate's personal blog on some random backwater website somewhere that only randomBob visits because it's hidden on the web somewhere??! :D

    It's hard not to be frustrated when we have been teased with this since October matey...

  • https://gph.is/2I4N0Iv

  • @sshteeve We'll have plenty of messaging about it on channels, the website and through video. Pretty much everywhere. There's a plan in place and information will begin to roll out over the coming week or so.

  • @piratecraggy said in Patch Notes Discussion 1.4.4:

    @opticalmatrix said in Patch Notes Discussion 1.4.4:

    Merchant Alliance Improvements

    • Merchant Animal Payouts - The value of successfully handing in animal cargo has been significantly increased.
    • Cargo Run Payouts - The value of successfully handing in Cargo has been significantly increased.
    • Cargo Run Robustness - Cargo is much more robust and significantly easier to get to its destination in good condition
    • Cargo Run Sailing Distance  - The average delivery distance for Cargo Runs have been reduced, and are now a shorter sailing distance.

    Wow there is so much in this... but to single out the above ... thankyou RARE.
    On the chase to Legend... I'm sure this is going to help a lot..

    Wow, just did a cargo run, payout has DOUBLED for pristine goods, as well as increased rep payout.

147
Posts
290.9k
Views
18 out of 147