So we have some confirmation from Rare as to how the Skeleton Crews will remain in game after Cursed Sails.

1. There will be random encounters but it doesn't sound like they'll suddenly appear beside you and attack, rather they'll be sailing around on their own and you could choose to approach and attack.

2. They do want to keep the battles like we experience in Cursed Sails, but they don't seem to know exactly how they'll implement this.

They discuss this in the video below. Sorry I don't know the exact time at which they mention this, but I'd suggest watching the whole video anyways since they discuss a lot about the future of SoT and it's really interesting.

Gaming With... the Developers of Sea of Thieves!

Not randomly spawn but just sail around warning players to stay away or fight, but have some one in the island who can tell you where they've been sighted recently.

@someponyscribbl said in The Skeleton Ships after the Cursed Sails:

As for the missions idea, I think it should be given out by the Pirate Legend guys. I like this because let's face it, the road to Pirate Legend could use some work. Working to gain five levels only to be met with just another rhyme to get five more levels is frankly the most boring and nearly the most disappointing thing about the entire "journey". So how about instead of only getting a rhyme, you get handed a quest from the guy and completing it will give you something like an Athena item that you could hand into the guy, thus "proving yourself" to him to be worthy of going to the next step.

I misunderstood you, at first, but I actually love your idea. By "Pirate Legend guys" you had meant the NPC person in the Taverns, and not actual players (lol). This would actually give those NPC characters a purpose, and that's why I like it. There's no real reason to talk to that person until you reach lvl 50x3, except to be told some rhyme about the next promotion level(s) you need.

@surveyorpete
Yeah I think it's possible to have a little bit of all three options where you have single ships roaming around along with pitched fleet battles and OoS quests. Just as long as they're fairly balanced so you're not running into them every minute (unless you've chosen a OoS quest).

And, of course they need to be rewarding enough to bother with in the first place.

The first time you see the Kraken, it's kind of exciting. But, after the first time or two, it becomes an "Oh no! Not again!" sort of experience. It just gets in the way of whatever you are doing, an inconvenience that holds you up, but seldom presenting a real danger of sinking, and which offers no reward. The emphasis often is trying to sail out of the dark water, as quickly as you can.

The Meg is pretty to watch, and usually presents even less danger than the Kraken. She is pretty harmless compared to the monster than Merrick introduced us to.

While I don't mind these random encounters, they seem a waste of the work that was put into developing the threat when we first met them. I see no harm in having both: "pretty, mild Meg" popping up randomly to distract and perhaps attack us. AND "mean, nasty Meg" which we can summon (using Merrick's tune???) to give us a real fight, and perhaps drop some treasure. Maybe you could even summon Meg, in the hope she will attack another crew that is harassing you!

Similarly, we could have random encounters with single skelly ships that provide a distraction, and small amount of loot, if defeated, PLUS pitched battles with entire fleets of skeleton ships when we choose to go hunting for them. The lore might be that the single ships, randomly encountered, are ones sent ahead of the fleet on reconnaissance missions.

I have, and often choose, the Shark Hunter skin on my ship; but there is no real opportunity now to BE a shark hunter. I never fly the Shark Hunter flag, because there is no point, any more. Now, we are being offered new generic "Hunter" clothing, and cosmetics for our ships. Are they going to be similarly pointless (merely decorative) after the Cursed Sails three-week event is over? So, too, the three regional sail sets? Will they have any meaning or special use into the future?

@skullmanbeard
Really? I hope that's true.

I hope they expand on the existing guilds so that they give a greater variety of missions, so the skeleton crews would be a great addition to OoS. They're going to add a new guild with the Forsaken Shores expansion so I hope they're not as simple and one dimensional as the existing ones.

I really like the idea of the random outpost banners, it would add some more variety to the game

@skullmanbeard
That would be a neat concept if they only appeared at night. The glow of their lanterns/cursed cannonballs make for a cool effect and would give you a reason to fear/love the night. Interesting.

Here’s a crazy thought: what if, rather than attacking a skeleton ship patrolling one of the unused forts, player crews have to team up to DEFEND an unused fort against waves of skeleton ships? Then when the last one is sunk, they drop the key to that fort?

If they are not random ships sailing around and are "encounters" akin to the Meg, Kraken i'll be sad.

If they are like skull forts, like a dedicated raid, ill be sad.

They should just be apart of the environment, sailing around, another "mast" on the horizon that makes the world feel full. Anything else is just boring.

I'm hoping that along with random encounters, they can appear at active skull forts randomly. Also as others have said Order of Souls quests. Also hoping they spawn at the same time as being chased by a megalodon at the same time as being attacked by a Kraken so I can point and laugh as I pass by solo in my sloop.

@shibby-544 As of now they function like skull forts so it is safe to assume that they will continue to serve that function they just wont be as frequent as they are now. The set times link to IRL times may change also. The purpose of the event is to introduce us player to the new content by giving us set times and locations for us to trigger the content under controled conditions. so that we can test what works and what doesn't to help us develop strategies and build skills for a random encounter. Not sure if the totems are going to remain it would be nice if they randomly appeared at outpost from time to time. I wouldn't mind having both random encounters with single skelly ship out in the world and larger fleet battles at certian times in set locations.

pretty sure they'll become a random encounter like the meg and kraken, that said it could be that outposts at one of the 3 map zones have banners stating when a skeleton fleet will attack that zone abit like it is now, and the type of curse and attacked zone could be random per server.

@shibby-544

Definitely a fleet.

Personally I'd rather the symbol just took you straight to where the skelly ships are as I think it'd end up broken if rare have to consider the ship movements in relation to symbol. I think the symbol should just be a skelly ship sail.

Only concern I'd have with these events alternating every hour an half is whether the servers can cope if they overlap and also rare actually implimenting without braking 10 other things

@themasterplan84
Spacing it between forts would be good for a reliable activity, but would you still want them to be a fleet of ships, or just one or two ships?

I'd prefer them to be a fleet because it's a proper challenge that you need to organize for and encourages alliances. Also, as a result you'd need to know about them ahead of time to prepare for which is why I'd prefer the totems because they tell you where to find them and at what time. I also think if they weren't such a common occurrence it'd make them a little more exciting when they do appear.

However, I'm open to them being a regular activity. If they were to be represented by a symbol rather than a totem what do you think the symbol should be? Also, would you want them to be roaming around or just have the symbol hover in one place and once you get near then the ships appear?

I'm hoping they are not random because they'll be nerfed or worse won't attack the sloop. Also it'd be cool the first few times then it'd just be an annoyance like Meg and kraken.

I'd prefer they spawned every 3 hours like the forts so we have an event every hour an half apart and definitely some kind of beacon to let everyone know where it is

I would be OK with random encounters.

I think it would also be fun if they were encountered around the unused forts, and after sinking the captains ship (RNG fleet size) the key floats up and you unlock the fort for the loot inside.

@someponyscribbl
I would agree that the ships after the event would need to give enough reward to be worth fighting. I like how it is now with it giving you a little bit of treasure and doubloons, but if they're to remove doubloons as a reward then yeah give us more treasure.

I'm not pirate legend yet so I'm not familiar with the quest structure, but I think the pirate ships should be accessible to everyone (at least as an occasional encounter). If they're to add a creative quest using the skeleton ships for pirate legends' quests I'd be fine with that.

@shibby-544

Either order of souls or totems and I am happy

I like them breaching up randomly, but the loot they have has to be worth the time it'll take to sink them. As for the missions idea, I think it should be given out by the Pirate Legend guys. I like this because let's face it, the road to Pirate Legend could use some work. Working to gain five levels only to be met with just another rhyme to get five more levels is frankly the most boring and nearly the most disappointing thing about the entire "journey". So how about instead of only getting a rhyme, you get handed a quest from the guy and completing it will give you something like an Athena item that you could hand into the guy, thus "proving yourself" to him to be worthy of going to the next step.

The higher the level, the more waves spawn, handing in the Athena item unlocks commendations so the game can keep track (say you finish the quest but someone robs your Athena item, you can just get the quest again or something along those lines), and getting through all ten unlocks the Pirate Legend status.

I think it would fit more into the status of the title, because really all you're proving is that you're good at fighting skellies, digging up treasure and babysitting animals before this. This allows you to sail, to fight, to BE a skilled pirate