So I've been testing Sea of Thieves for a couple of months now and there is 1 massive difference between the closed alpha sesssions and the open beta we've had in the past days. In the closed playsessions players were friendly. Like, honestly friendly towards each other. You weren't locked in the brig as soon as you joined a party and even other crews didn't immedeately open fire once you're in their reach. Like I said, I played some sessions before. The open beta however gave my best friend and my brother the opportunity to play as well. Ofcourse we had a lot of fun and it was nice to see them learning the game mechanics so quickly.
However, I noticed that my brother was acting like the majority (whom I encountered) of the players in the open beta: hostile. As soon as a ship sailed by the island we were on or as soon as he saw a ship in range, he opened fire upon it. I read through the forums quite a lot and saw a lot of fellow pirates complain about this type of behaviour. Personally, I'm standing right in the middle. I'm aware that new players want to experience everything first hand. Which also means naval combat. They want to experience for themselfes what it is to be in an open sea battle or to shoot other crews. I admit, being in an open sea battle with another Galleon is just epic and will create memories for sure. I think that it just takes some time for the dust to settle. Once the game is a couple of months old the seas will probably calm down a notch and people start being more friendly since they now know what it is to be in a battle. Give it some time and things will work out is my personal opinion about that.
Moving on to the game itself. Without having inside knowledge about what Rare's plans are, I think they've reached a point where they can make or break this game. I know that in the Beta a lot of stuff was kept out purposely. I'm aware of that. However, this game has so much potential and with the hype that lives within the community, they will let that community down if they deliver a game that just isn't living up to it's expectations. I know that ship customisation is a big thing for, like, 98% of all players. And yes, you will have the opportunity to customise your ship. But I don't like the idea of Galleons being ''unlocked'' straight after you're in the game. I think that every player should start in a sloop, and make money by completing quests or through trading with the trading company (that was missing in the beta but was in a trailer). After one aquired enough gold, he or she can buy a Galleon. In the meantime, the player could customise their sloop. Once the Galleon is bought, the sloop is ''stored'' somewhere. Then the player can continue their quests, make more money and customise their Galleon. As soon as the player wants to go solo again, he leaves the party he's in, connects to another server and picks the sloop, to find himself back on his own sloop, customised and all. When a player wants to ''show off'' his Galleon, he/she needs to go into the lobby again and when clicking on the Galleon image, he/she has to have the option of wanting to be a captain, or a deckhand. When one chooses to be the captain, he/she has to wait untill 3 deckhands join, and then they will spawn at the Galleon of the captain.
As far as other progression goes, I've read on the forums about having your own Island. And that idea sound as music to my ears. However, I'm aware that having your own island on the map can and will create chaos after a couple of days. But take GTA 5. Players can buy property on certain fixed spots on the map. Once you're in there, you can store your car safely and be free of all harm. I think something like that could hugely benefit the player experience of this game, especially when you can kind of customise it as well.
