Hey everyone! Following a week of intense battles in the Seas of Sailor's Grave, we wanted to jump back in here with an update on where we're prioritising as a team on improving Last Ship Standing.
Some fixes have already rolled out behind the scenes, while a game update scheduled for later this week will target improvements to shrinking battle bounds. Further fixes and improvements are heading through Insider testing and will be introduced when Last Ship Standing returns in the upcoming Live Event Calendar.
Note - This is a non-exhaustive list so if your issue isn't listed here it may still be in the backlog, but raise a bug report to be sure we've seen it!
Match Stability
Stuck Black Loading Screens - As shared in the OP, we launched last week with the expectation that players may continue to experience stuck black loading screens at the start of battles in the Live game while we worked on a fix.
While this did affect some players at Launch, we released a hotfix behind the scenes over the weekend that has addressed the root of the issue and we can see from match data that this has now significantly improved.
Flying Ships - The issue causing some ships to be ejected up into the sky at the start of the battle has been addressed and will be heading to Insiders for testing before being released as part of a follow-up update.
Shrinking Battle Bounds
We've seen LOTS of feedback on the shrinking battle bounds in Last Ship Standing and while they are crucial in drawing crews together to fight and ultimately bringing battles to a timely end - on reviewing your feedback there were some unexpected scenarios in what we were seeing play out in matches.
Tiny End Zone - Each match if drawn out will reach a point where the zone will shrink to a tiny final area, forcing a stalemate fight to a close. After investigation however, this zone was starting much sooner than intended at the ~30min mark rather than the intended ~60min mark - resulting in fights being brought to a close much sooner than intended.
A fix for this issue will be rolling out this week, bringing the zone timings back to their intended levels.
As this issue has affected battles and heavily influenced your feedback, the team will be on the lookout following the fix to assess your feedback and where further improvements could still be made.
THE Last Ship Standing
Crews victorious over their rivals should feel they have sufficient time after the fight to collect themselves, reap the rewards from sunk ships and then make their way back to the seas.
Grace Period for Winners - The winning crew will now recieve additional time after the battle concludes to gather their treasure and head to the portal. Players previously had ~2 minutes before being moved on, but will now have ~4 minutes to collect their well earned rewards!
End Portal Location - Crews affected by the tiny end zone and who then went on to win would also find that end portal appeared on top of their ship and caused them to be aburuptly returned to the seas. While this should be much less frequent with the above fix in place, the team are assessing alternate options to ensure the portal is located at a safe distance at the end of the battle.
Parity with Faction Battles
The team have been making good progress to bring the quality of Last ship Standing up to parity with existing Faction battles.
Ship Cannons & Ammo Crates - Fixes to allow players to interact with these items while waiting for a match will soon be heading to Insiders for testing before being released as part of a follow-up update.
Quick Requeue - Stability improvements have begun heading to Insiders for testing and once verified will allow Quick Requeue to be enabled for Last Ship Standing Battles when they return in the Live Event calendar.
Matchmaking Times
As the rush of the weekend has slowed, we've seen the reports of extended matchmaking times slowly grow. We can see the majority of players are finding suitable skill-based matches in their region in a timely fashion, but there are clearly some outliers causing players to wait considerably longer for their match.
Nothing to share further on this right now, but the team are investigating!
Allegiance Rewards
Finally, we wanted to demystify the current approach for how crews earn Allegiance during Last Ship Standing as while players earn significantly more than during Faction Battles we are seeing lots of requests for boosted rewards.
As a summary, the rewards for Last Ship Standing battles with 6 ships are as follows;
1st - 450% of an Faction Battle Win.
2nd - 270% of an Faction Battle Win.
3rd - 120% of an Faction Battle Win.
4th - 70% of an Faction Battle Win.
5th - 30% of an Faction Battle Win
6th - Standard Faction Battle Loss Amount.
@Shelley-Preston has written an in-depth breakdown on the design approach to rewards and streaks in the Last Ship Standing FAQ - so suggest heading there for more info!
We're continuing to monitor your feedback on these rewards however and assessing how players are progressing during Last Ship Standing behind the scenes to see where improvements could be made. Again - nothing to share further on this right now but we're monitoring your feedback!
Thanks again for your patience as we continue to make improvements and balance this exciting new addition to Sea of Thieves, we're loving hearing all of your battle stories from the seas of sailor's grave!
Drew 'Sonicbob' Stevens
