Summary of X018 Sea of Thieves Panel 11th November

  • X018 Panel Summary

    https://mixer.com/Xbox?vod=65374380 link to vod.

    What is Sea of Thieves aim?
    'To bring players together creating stories together in the world of Sea of Thieves'

    Some players asked for an on demand experience, shorter session lengths, opportunity for a different experience with still the sea of thieves experience but a competitive edge.

    New Elements of Arena Mode

    “It’s a really different experience. Right at the start when you get dropped in you can see the other ships and you’ve all got given treasure maps, you got the same maps. You are looking at where the other ships are going and you’re going to head to the same island or are you going to head to a different place? You’re really making choices based on what other people are doing, moment to moment. It’s a different kind of experience.”

    New trading company called Sea Dogs.
    Leader is DeMarco from comics.
    Sea Dogs tavern is social space to begin the matches, will go into session compete for treasure, will be placed and go back to tavern to earn rewards.
    Hot tub to relax in.
    Trying to bring what is special to sea of thieves into this mode, played with good sportsmanship and a social aspect.
    Intended to bring the magic moments of sea of thieves to a shorter more focused experience, emergent aspects, strategy etc.

    Sea dog cutlass reward from Arena for example -
    Arena is another opportunity to give players a chance to gain unique rewards.

    Play tests for arena - they know it will require changes, everything so far designed to hone the adventure mode, arena needs to have these things addressed, thinking about location, mechanics etc.

    Want to use pioneers and players to test arena take feedback and iterate on that, will take a period of time to do this.


    Comic - always planned to have wider universe around the world of sea of thieves, want to bring it together into the game bit by bit.

    Key design vision - players being heroes and notorious pirates in the world

    Mike Chapman is the link between all the elements of the wider world, lore and content.


    Questions

    Arena can you play alone or part of team?
    Will be testing this for the best experience and crew size.


    Sea of Thieves was meant as a game where crew cooperation was important, soft skills, a lot of multiplayer games are about hard skills, a crew that works well will generally be more successful, they think it will play out like this in arena too.
    Rare think it will feel different to other session based multiplayers.


    Arena - will there be any teams/groups/fleets?
    Lets build and get it working well first then have something to iterate on, a platform for ongoing investment that will continue to evolve, likewise adventure mode will continue to evolve and be added to.


    With this new arena, what is next and for how long will rare be adding content? - as long as people are playing it

    There is another future update to enhance quests, more lore, more story.
    Rare know players have asked for competition on demand and they hope arena will supply this.
    Arena is designed as an addition to build on top of existing content.
    Teams are working on content for adventure mode as well as arena.
    New type of explosive barrel for example, 3x power of existing barrels.

    Will progress in arena be same progression system?
    Yes, rewards will carry over to adventure mode.

    Will a mode more aggressive be added ever to hunt other players?
    Arena is platform to grow and expand after the first iteration depending on feedback.

    Will always want to have a Sea of Thieves spin on any mode or arena, they will feel unique and distinct, first iteration might be treasure hunting but there will be plenty of pvp.

    Crab - a little easter egg in all the trailers.


    Tools not rules - want to add content which can be used in a variety of different ways


    Shrouded spoils being tested with pioneers a collection of features
    Fog
    Ship customisation - wheel cannon capstan
    Explosive barrel v2
    Rewards from Meg and Kraken
    Skeleton ships more emergent roaming the world


    What are the plans for the cooking pots on the islands and fish in the sea, casual interactions just to have fun in the world of Sea of Thieves?
    Lots of plans and idea, teams are playing around with the possibilities, it would be done in the Sea of Thieves style and distinct, Mike is very passionate about these features.


    Will Arena be in the existing world?
    Sea Dogs tavern will be a theoretical part of the main world and be the entry point, the mechanics of choosing the mode and the lore and story aspect has taken some while to sort out, it's about competition coming to Sea of Thieves, want it to be talked about as an 'in world' aspect, so how do players get into this and matchmake for this experience?

    There will be a choice on the login screen not in the world.


    Would like to see people make friends there, share stories in this tavern and be a friendly social experience.
    Rare are reading feedback, will take this into account while trying to make this experience the best it can be.

    They want to bring as many players as possible to Sea of Thieves to share in this world, but what has made SoT special is the adventuring and the stories in the main world. It's always about doing more and trying to provide more, Sea of Thieves is nothing without the stories and the players.

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  • In regards to the Hot Tub and on behalf of @Erinom3, @DrBullhammer and myself, i'd like to say "You're welcome!".

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  • Nothing on shrouded spoils yeah

  • Very disappointed. I was expecting news of some great game changer to Sea of Thieves. Something that was going to tell me Rare had a coherent strategy and a reason to bring out another game mode such as Arena.

  • @skuldleif There were a few things, but most of the time was spent on The Arena update.

    The biggest reveal for Shrouded Spoils was Kraken and Meg will now drop rewards.

  • @katttruewalker As skeptical as I am about this new mode, I do like the idea of a social hub before and after the game. Always wanted a social port city that you loaded into and could find people to crew with before entering the Sea of Thieves.

  • Thanks for the summary!

    I'm still wondering if this Arena update will only bring this new mode or if it will bring something competitive as well in the original experience.

    It makes me also wonder what will be the purpose of the Sea Dog Tavern in the Sea of Thieves world if you make your mode choice on the login screen and not in the world. Is the Sea Dog Trading Company only for The Arena mode or will players be able to do things for them in the Sea of Thieves world as part of the adventure mode?

    A bit surprised that The Sea Dog Cutlass has the same colours as the Legendary set: gold and purple.

    Still worried about how the two modes are going to evolve and how the development times for features for both will be affected, even if they said they have now teams for both.

    I'm feeling more excited about the update after The Arena with improvements on the quests and more lore into the game!

    Well I'm not against to test this whole Arena thing, I may like it, but I'll still feel worried about the future of The Sea of Thieves - ahem, "adventure mode".

  • Ok so, see you at summer 2019

  • As the bullet gets dodged on a day to day basis, and even on Mixer. Ill write it on here as it clearly will be brought up and i hope the community can thumbs up this.

    We Pirate Legends, Athena level 10 players once your here. The game is doomed right after, the reason for this is the fundamental of getting commendations its all done.Meaning my objective now is sink ships, this does not give me any satisfaction as it ruins a players experience. I want to be able to focus on my leveling and enjoying the game but i am currently on ''HOLD'' which is a massive shame. Developers need to update more things for both new comers and Pirate Legends.

  • @kadaj1991 said in Summary of X018 Sea of Thieves Panel 11th November:

    As the bullet gets dodged on a day to day basis, and even on Mixer. Ill write it on here as it clearly will be brought up and i hope the community can thumbs up this.

    We Pirate Legends, Athena level 10 players once your here. The game is doomed right after, the reason for this is the fundamental of getting commendations its all done.Meaning my objective now is sink ships, this does not give me any satisfaction as it ruins a players experience. I want to be able to focus on my leveling and enjoying the game but i am currently on ''HOLD'' which is a massive shame. Developers need to update more things for both new comers and Pirate Legends.

    I am in the same boat ;)

    There is a gaping hole not filled by Athena quests once players hit PL.

    Pirate Legends go to Arena seems to be the answer Rare has given Pirate Legends. Rather than content for PL in Sea of Theives (You know.. the game we brought)

  • @biter-wylie I just think Pirate Legends need to come together and honestly get this moving. I get we don't pay a subscription and they can take their time in getting things done and released. But its just a massive shame pushing Legends out of the game.

    They could just apply a Prestige in leveling so that it never dies with leveling?

  • @musicmee said in Summary of X018 Sea of Thieves Panel 11th November:

    @skuldleif There were a few things, but most of the time was spent on The Arena update.

    The biggest reveal for Shrouded Spoils was Kraken and Meg will now drop rewards.

    Also Roaming Skeleton Ships are coming as I predicted!

  • @sgt-palooggoo Ah yes, that too! Nothing gets past your eagle eyes!

    I can't wait to take on the roaming skeleton ships, I hope they are a menace on the seas!

  • @katttruewalker sagte in Summary of X018 Sea of Thieves Panel 11th November:

    Will Arena be in the existing world?
    Sea Dogs tavern will be a theoretical part of the main world and be the entry point, the mechanical choice about choosing the mode and the lore and story aspect, it's about competition coming to Sea of Thieves, want it to be talked about as an 'in world' aspect, so how do players get into this and matchmake for this experience?

    There will be a choice on the login screen not in the world.

    @KattTruewalker Can you do me a favour please? As I am not native speaker, I need some explanation, what do you mean by "theoretical part of the main world"?

    I personally have no problem to choose one of the game modes in the main menu of the game, but I absolutely would love to visit the tavern in The Adventure, even if I could nothing do there really. Or do you think, it will be kinda like the Pirate Hideout, so it's not reachable by ship or even not reachable in The Adventure at all?

  • @musicmee aye, nothing gets past em.


    I hope there's a special fog encounter for Skeleton Ships as well.
    https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/429351106817294338/506963524933910540/1531841474_3c092804-481b-4a99-9307-3ea4a131c23f.jpg

  • @skulliah Good points sir. I believe they will not just have it be only for competitive but they will add a few details to the over world of the game. If you notice carefully, DeMarco has potions on his belts. There's a chance that will be added to the game all around or maybe there's a mini game of pvp in the original world. Lots of ideas can come around, don't worry we as pioneers will gaurentee it won't just focus on the Arena alone.

  • @musicmee

    I can't wait to take on the roaming skeleton ships, I hope they are a menace on the seas!

    A menace? They should fear us! :D

  • @darkmore111 From listening to the stream, it sounded like the arena will be constructed from elements within the world, an area where the shroud has drawn back and revealed new islands?

  • @katttruewalker Thank you very much for your opinion about the stream! :-)

  • And people say i like to complain just for the sake of it... this is an unarguable step forward for the game as a whole, though i would prefer this tavern just was the main menu, with adventure mode and arena both joinable from it, rather than going to the tavern just to reamatchmake arena, because crews for either could be formed there, and they could even allow players still at the mm tavern to watch the arena matches somehow, or get some updated play by plays or something.

  • @katttruewalker I thought the discussion had during the stream on how this ‘arena mode’ was integrated was pretty confused. I may have misinterpreted but, at one point, Major Nelson said something like ‘so I’m not going to be picking a server from a menu’ - there was a sense that it would all be one seamless in-game experience. The response from Craig and Joe sounded like an agreement, ‘the new Sea Dogs tavern will exist in adventure mode’ but then the caveat was added that you’d pick the mode from the menu at the top of the game.

    Perhaps this is not going to result in a separated player base focusing on PvP or PvE games (I really do hate these terms) and everything will continue to feel like a single world we can play in together but I’m very sceptical right now.

    I also really hope that I’m wrong - been playing Rare games for almost all of that 30 odd year history and verge on being blindly loyal (I once had the number 1 ranked Syrupent in Viva Piñata!). Whilst I love Sea of Thieves and don’t really want to see the faults - the grind is almost impossible to ignore and I believe that is because the game is still too lacking in fun things to do and reasons to go and do them. A PvP faction is absolutely a great way to add much needed variety but I don’t think separating the game into different modes is the right direction.

  • @mancfoo said in Summary of X018 Sea of Thieves Panel 11th November:

    @katttruewalker I thought the discussion had during the stream on how this ‘arena mode’ was integrated was pretty confused. I may have misinterpreted but, at one point, Major Nelson said something like ‘so I’m not going to be picking a server from a menu’ - there was a sense that it would all be one seamless in-game experience. The response from Craig and Joe sounded like an agreement, ‘the new Sea Dogs tavern will exist in adventure mode’ but then the caveat was added that you’d pick the mode from the menu at the top of the game.

    Perhaps this is not going to result in a separated player base focusing on PvP or PvE games (I really do hate these terms) and everything will continue to feel like a single world we can play in together but I’m very sceptical right now.

    I also really hope that I’m wrong - been playing Rare games for almost all of that 30 odd year history and verge on being blindly loyal (I once had the number 1 ranked Syrupent in Viva Piñata!). Whilst I love Sea of Thieves and don’t really want to see the faults - the grind is almost impossible to ignore and I believe that is because the game is still too lacking in fun things to do and reasons to go and do them. A PvP faction is absolutely a great way to add much needed variety but I don’t think separating the game into different modes is the right direction.

    Right but adding a sanctioned activity with specific rules with the game enforcing them is much harder and nigh impossible to do in the open world. Having a seperate mode allows the control an arena mode needs to be viabley enforced and therefore fun because even if you lose you understand it was because of either luck, skill, or effort, and not because of an unnecesary uncontrolled variable.

    Dont get me wrong i see the fun unexpected occurences can bring to the adventure mode, but they are two different ideals, that should probably be separated to have a true fair competition in the arena mode.

    This doesn't mean that design assets being made now and in the future cant improve both modes at the same time either.

    Think halo3 campaign, multiplayer and custom games. They all use the same assets. Does any one existing ruin another? No in fact i would argue the balance for the campaign weapon sets for battles with ai likely played a large role in the multiplayer being so balanced fun and successful (and ofcourse xbox live) and beyond that different gamer playstyles all get what they want. “Serious and dramatic” story, pvp matches, and fun and silly gameplay in custom games, which also allow a lot more than that too.

    And custom games and forge where they take the assets the game has and let the community tweak and invent more to do with their game on an exponential level, Every game should embrace this ideal of less is more with their games, while also striving for a large quantity of quality content. It only makes sense..

    A lot of games could learn from this type of stuff, and even though my halo comparisons dont run parallel to SoT’s development, hopefully it will be a better version of fortnites success, with more staying power to the adventure mode.

  • After seeing the conference of today , i'm more reassured than this afternoon...Call me daft , but it was something in the eyes of Mr Duncan that settled the nerves down. They have tested this in their own little circle of creativity ...Things are still going to be added or finetuned , no i was sceptical at first but i see that it will all gonna be allright ...Maybe not directly after release but it will be tweaked to make sure that every Pirate can have his/ her kicks out of this game....

    Oh , and Mrs Truewalker , you forgot to mention one question...One Mexican asked to Mr Joe, how long will you be adding stuff to SoT? Mr Joe answered :" As long as People play"....Hahahahaaa, i will keep you to that promise because i'm going to play untill God Himself turns my light out , or untill a lesser god Mr Spencer pulls the plug out of the servers...

  • @katttruewalker truly helpful post here Katt for those of us otherwise engaged today for the stream.

    Not enough info from the team at Rare sadly at all here. Not at all...

  • @katttruewalker
    We did it boys!! All the BR and PvP mode threads payed off!

    I figured this would come eventual, but not this soon(glad it is though). Main problem I see is that Rare won't be able to ignore the poor combat balance in the game after this is released. Hoping for the best.

  • @betsill said in Summary of X018 Sea of Thieves Panel 11th November:

    @katttruewalker
    We did it boys!! All the BR and PvP mode threads payed off!

    I figured this would come eventual, but not this soon(glad it is though). Main problem I see is that Rare won't be able to ignore the poor combat balance in the game after this is released. Hoping for the best.

    I see it as very bad for Sea of Thieves.

    Arena will largely appeal to organised teams using discord or team speak. Random crews will get annihilated.

    For many they will only play this mode when there friends or clans are online. So it will be limited by that.

    The flip side of this is the other game, you know the one we brought for £60 that had little content will now get less attention as Rare are working on two games and splitting their resources.

    So when you can’t play Arena, Sea of Theives standard version will not be improved significantly.

    So in sort, besides splitting the player base wide open, Sea of Theives is now unlikely to ever reach a full game.

    Sea of Theives desperately needed to bring PvP back to the game and that is now dead.

  • Thanks Katt! :) I didn't manage to catch this live, so I just finished watching it.

    Everything they are saying is sounding great to me.
    I see the arena as part of the SoT world and it'll be another fun option for getting up to things. I much prefer PvP when it is mutually agreed upon (why I don't fire first on others - with a few situational exceptions). And I tend to avoid PvP, altogether, when I am sloop'ing. Yet, I'm looking forward to this.

    It sounds like it should be a lot of fun, but it's not going to take away from the Adventure game (what I'll always think of, and refer to as, the Main Game).
    Lore-wise, it's an in-world thing and makes sense.
    I think people are being alarmist about it (hey, my very initial reaction wasn't one of conviction, that's for sure, so I can understand). People have been Fort-Hopping from the beginning, and that never killed the game. I think it will be similar, in scope, to that... but it could be even better for the game, overall.

    I LOVE the entire game. The player vs player combat is another amazing aspect of the game, and this will give those wanting a more concentrated focus on that, exactly that - without destroying the rest of the game.
    This is actually a great defense of the way the game is, today (No! It won't be PvE and it won't focus more on PvP - it will remain as designed - a free experience). And it adds a bonus game mode as well, in the form of The Arena. I've gone from hesitant, to truly psyched.

    Hey, what do I know. We shall see!! :)

  • @katttruewalker thanks for this buddy😁

  • @biter-wylie

    Arena will largely appeal to organised teams using discord or team speak. Random crews will get annihilated.

    This is the same for every team PvP mode in all games. There seems to be a sloop option meaning that you can compete even if you have only one other friend to play with. Solo can even be a potential, but obviously you will be at a big disadvantage. The real problem will be PC players. This is a problem for the entire game tho not just arena.

    For many they will only play this mode when there friends or clans are online. So it will be limited by that.

    No more than any other teambased PvP game. This will probably work much better with open crew than the normal servers, since players Q up with a specific goal to achieve.

    The flip side of this is the other game, you know the one we brought for £60 that had little content will now get less attention as Rare are working on two games and splitting their resources.

    It's the same game bud.

    So when you can’t play Arena, Sea of Theives standard version will not be improved significantly.

    You're just working yourself up with this statement. Most of the changes that are made to arena will be shared with the regular server(things like combat balance/fixes, new equipment, etc.). Having a focused PvP mode will give a much better picture of PvP in the game that the normal mode simply fails to do because of how rare PvP is and tons of potential factors that obscure what's really going on.

    So in sort, besides splitting the player base wide open,

    It's not splitting the player base. You guys look like NPCs saying the same thing over and over. Splitting the player-base is something like battlefield premium, or destiny DLC that locks players that don't have from playing together with the ones that do. A player being in the arena is no different from someone playing Slayer in halo and another playing swat, or one playing SoT and another player ALSO playing SoT, but on a different server.

    Sea of Theives is now unlikely to ever reach a full game.

    It's much more likely now if this goes well. SoT has been failing. It started out unfinished and Rare hasn't been getting content into the normal mode even close to as fast as they need to. Arena will both bring back players and give current players lasting content for the first time in this games life. They are also adding actual rewards for doing things in the next update, so things are looking up(which really says something coming from me).

    Sea of Theives desperately needed to bring PvP back to the game and that is now dead.

    Nope. Nope. Nope. Not saying that they shouldn't add PvP content to the regular mode, but PvP in a shared world(especially one with only 6 groups of players) can never work well. Having a separate instance for reliable PvP was inevitable and needed to happen. I'm just glad they didn't push it back to even later in this games life(if it lived that long).

  • @skuldleif They confirmed you'll get rewards for defeating the kraken and meg, and emergent skeleton ships that roam the map are in. Plus the new gunpowder barrel that is 3 times more destructive is in as well.

  • @biter-wylie You can apply "organized teams using chat will destroy random teams" to literally any multiplayer game in existence.

  • @katttruewalker said in Summary of X018 Sea of Thieves Panel 11th November:

    @darkmore111 From listening to the stream, it sounded like the arena will be constructed from elements within the world, an area where the shroud has drawn back and revealed new islands?

    Its going to be a separate server instance with a much smaller map, likely re-using island assets but in different locations in a tighter configuration. Players will queue up in a separate queue and get dropped into the Sea Dog Tavern (lobby) until there are enough players to start the arena game. Once there is a winner, players will be able to return to the tavern and spend their winnings. The tavern will appear in the adventure side, but only for the purpose of managing the Sea Dog shop - you won't be able to queue up from here, you'll likely have to exit back to the main menu. That's my best guess.

    Still not clear if the sea dog stuff will use doubloons, gold or a new 3rd currency (likely, given the silver coin being flipped around in the trailer).

  • @personalc0ffee said in Summary of X018 Sea of Thieves Panel 11th November:

    @betsill said in Summary of X018 Sea of Thieves Panel 11th November:

    @katttruewalker
    We did it boys!! All the BR and PvP mode threads payed off!

    I figured this would come eventual, but not this soon(glad it is though). Main problem I see is that Rare won't be able to ignore the poor combat balance in the game after this is released. Hoping for the best.

    You had absolutely no affect on this decision, hate to break it to you.

    This feature has been planned before SoT was even named Sea of Thieves. This mode was always planned to enter the game, just had to work it in.

    Those aren't me just being snide, either. They came directly from Mike Chapman when he confirmed this feature's always been on the road map.

    No way, it was definitely the forum posts! #thoughtsandpvp

  • @personalc0ffee said in Summary of X018 Sea of Thieves Panel 11th November:

    @wkd1337 Wishful thinking, I'm afraid.

    Either way, we're getting the mode and no amount of moaning is going to change it.

    More excited for this stuff, tbh.

    Shrouded spoils being tested with pioneers a collection of features:

    -Fog
    -Ship customisation - wheel cannon capstan
    -Explosive barrel v2
    -Rewards from Meg and Kraken
    -Skeleton ships more emergent roaming the world

    Yeah Shrouded Spoils sounds pretty cool. I am curious what the next round of commendations/cosmetics is going to be. I know more Pirate Legend stuff was being teased.

  • @personalc0ffee said in Summary of X018 Sea of Thieves Panel 11th November:

    @wkd1337 Wishful thinking, I'm afraid.

    Either way, we're getting the mode and no amount of moaning is going to change it.

    More excited for this stuff, tbh.

    Shrouded spoils being tested with pioneers a collection of features:

    -Fog
    -Ship customisation - wheel cannon capstan
    -Explosive barrel v2
    -Rewards from Meg and Kraken
    -Skeleton ships more emergent roaming the world

    I agree there is some stuff here that many pirates have been wanting for quite a while. Would have liked to have heard more about new Pirate Legend stuff.

    Nice to see that Meg and Kraken will have more purpose and offer rewards. Hopefully the skeleton ships can appear anywhere and be very engaging with player ships.

    My crew and I always gathered all the barrels that we could find. The new barrel will change things.

    The more we can personalize our ships the better!

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