Doubloon Currency - Developer Update

  • Sonicbob
    Champion
    Rare Employee

    Hey Everyone!

    Last week during our latest Developer Update video, we announced plans to rework the Doubloon currency as part of Season 19. We've been reviewing the discussions and questions raised following the announcement and felt it best to jump back in, bring some clarity and answer a few frequently asked questions ahead of our planned follow-up news.

    Doubloons were introduced after launch back in 2018 as part of Bilge Rats Adventures and over time the ways players can earn Doubloons has slowly grown. The opportunities we made available for players to spend their growing Doubloon piles, however, has been one that we've failed to maintain as our strategy has continued to evolve.

    We know that the currency you earn from your adventures at sea should be a fundamental part of the core loop of Sea of Thieves. However, with both Doubloons and gold, they've lost their value over time. We feel it's time to bring them back as a core part of the Sea of Thieves experience, and we're starting here with Doubloons.

    Why are we resetting everyone's Doubloons and not just providing things to spend them on instead?

    It's a great question and one we considered when we started discussions on how we could rework Doubloons and give them a clear purpose in the current experience.

    As we explored the size of Doubloon wallets across all of our active players, it was clear that there was a massive difference in the quantity of Doubloons players were carrying. This posed a challenge; while we could easily re-establish a more controlled flow of Doubloon sources and introduce new items to purchase, the massive disparity in wallets meant that we would be unable to price items in the Black Market that would allow everyone to participate, earn and enjoy the rewards.

    Pricing these new items to accommodate our veteran players’ Doubloon stashes would effectively lock this set of rewards out from the vast majority of both active players and any players that join Sea of Thieves in the future. On the other hand, pricing them so they can be earned by the majority would feel completely underwhelming to our veterans, who would simply purchase them all on arrival, with no sense of meaning to the currency.

    While we appreciate that taking something away is never going to feel good, we knew that in order to create a Doubloon currency that felt meaningful to earn and spend, we had to take the drastic step of resetting wallets and starting the currency again from scratch, but with a commitment to managing the economy with a much tighter control.

    We were prepared for the impact this would bring though, and created a plan to reward those players who had spent their time on the seas collecting those shiny blue coins...
     

    I've collected lots of Doubloons, are these just going to be lost?

    So - prior to the full reset, Larinna will begin offering a range of exclusive new commemorative Doubloon-themed items in her store that can be purchased with said coins. She will offer the:

    • Exclusive Title
    • Eye Patch
    • Belt
    • Sword
    • Sails
      These items will be priced highly, aimed as recognition purchases for those dedicated players who have spent time amassing a Doubloon fortune. We won't be sharing the cost for these items for now as we're making sure we get the prices of these just right.

    For players wanting to bag themselves one of these commemorative items, they will remain available for a whole month, so there's still a chance to earn some Doubloons and grab one before they go.
     

    Why are these commemorative items time-limited? What if I can't log in and purchase them?

    These commemorative items are designed as recognition purchases for those dedicated players who have spent their time amassing their Doubloon fortune, so once the Doubloon reset takes place, these will no longer be available to purchase. However, we've heard your feedback loud and clear on time-limited tactics, so have devised a plan...

    For those players who are unable to log in during this time, fear not. During the Doubloon reset, if players haven't been able to purchase these commemorative items but have sufficient funds, we'll begin granting you the items automatically. For each player we'll purchase the items behind the scenes on your account and place the item in your inventory, starting with the most expensive item first, and then working through the list. Players with sufficient funds to afford everything will find all of the items in their inventories when next logging into the game.

    Hopefully this approach takes away the fear of missing out here, and ensures everyone who has invested their time in earning Doubloons is rewarded for their efforts.
     

    What if I still have Doubloons left over after purchasing these commemorative items?

    Some dedicated players will no doubt have Doubloons remaining after purchasing these commemorative items. While players could choose to convert these to gold via Larinna's store manually, at the time of the big reset, we will ensure that any remaining Doubloons found on players’ accounts are fully converted over to gold automatically.
     

    What's going to happen to all the existing items priced in Doubloons?

    Once the reset takes place, all current items in the Outpost stores priced in Doubloons will be converted to gold. Players may choose to purchase these items with their current Doubloon stash ahead of time and save themselves the gold they would need to spend after the reset.
     

    When is this all going to happen?

    This is all going to take place during Season 19 - so let's break it all down.

    Season 19: Act 1 - March 19th

    • Larinna's shop opens, offering new commemorative Doubloon items for sale.

    Season 19: Act 2 - April 16th

    • Players without the commemorative items will be granted those items based on the size of their Doubloon wallet.
    • The big reset. All Doubloons in players’ wallets will be converted into gold.
    • Commemorative items in Larinna's shop are removed from sale.
    • Existing Doubloon-priced Outpost stock is converted to gold.
      Expect further notifications both in-game and out as these activities take place to remind players of what they will need to do and by when!
       

    So, after the reset, how can I earn Doubloons for future items coming to the Black Market?

    While Doubloons can still be earned at sea from activities such as cashing in Reaper's Chests, earned as part of the Season Renown track, etc., these will be changed to only offer small amounts under much tighter control. During Season 19, however, a new monthly recurring Live Event, the 'Bilge Rat Weekender' will be introduced, providing ways for crews to earn (and steal) Doubloons and browse the items held within the Black Market.

    We're excited to share more of our Bilge Rats Weekender plans, but will hold that for a later update!

    We appreciate everyone taking the time to share their feedback on our plan to rework Doubloons announced in last week's Developer Update. We know that taking something away is never going to feel good, but we truly feel this is the right approach to reestablish Doubloons as a currency that feels meaningful to earn and sparks joy when spending.

    While we fully expected to follow up with further information and details closer to March, it was clear that we should get back in front of you more quickly and address these more frequently asked questions. Hopefully this breakdown shows how we've approached a pretty gnarly problem and the steps we're making to try and ensure it feels fair to all of our players.

    Thanks as always for your support!

    Drew 'Sonicbob' Stevens

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  • heslashthem
    Champion
    Insider

    Thank you for the clarification, looking forward now to the commemorative doubloon cosmetics and what they will look like (Title guesses: Hoarder of Wealth, Doubloon Hoarder, Blue Coin Bandit etc. one of these would be fun!). Hoping I can bag myself all the items considering I have 26k-ish sitting there, but maybe it won’t be enough! 😅

  • Jumperovsky
    Legend
    Insider

    Don't want exclusive new commemorative Doubloon-themed items for my Doubloons. I gathered them for a reason to buy stuff I missed in the past not be forced to buy new stuff only to those old items show up after the reset. Thats another FOMO tactic, another time limited offer, another time limited event, another hey we reset your progress so you will stay with us longer.

  • AblePirate
    Captain
    Insider
    Boatswain

    Will there be clarification on what exact items will/won't be returning to larinna's shop post-reset before the actual reset takes place?

    This is quite a large grey area and it might be a good idea to lay down at the start of the new doubloon system and might clear up a lot of the grievances people have with the possibility of X or Y item returning if you explain the thought process in a bit more detail about why certain items are or aren't returning than what was shared in the youtube news video.

  • samhain602
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @sonicbob
    Sharing the cost of the items ahead of release would be a good step in making sure they're right.

    I think part of the outrage is from how sudden this is, with the reveal being dropped on everyone at once (insiders, public, partners, etc.)

  • Pirateye8594
    Captain
    Insider

    I hope that the bilge rat weekender won't be all around pvp, bc as a solo player im sick getting attacked by brigs/gallies most of the time, while I have over 400 hourglass levels and did a lot of pvp, its just frustrating and punishable if you are solo.

  • D3ADST1CK
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    I did have a massive doubloon fortune, but I ended up spending them to convert to gold after holding onto it for months because it didn't look like anything was happening with them any time soon but I always kept a float of about 2000 just in case.

    I'm guessing these exclusive items are going to be beyond my price range now. Fantastic. I'm fine with the reset, but adding a bunch of exclusive items before pulling them seems like a bit of a rug pull for players who were under the impression that they were only going to be used for items in Outpost stores which were under no time limit.

  • Phivalur468
    Commander
    Insider

    Blaming veterans because you ignored doubloons for 5 years is really something.

  • BaR00kaBlast
    Marauder
    Insider

    @jumperovsky I think you're misunderstanding some things

  • Dorgi3
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    I think a better way to go about granting these doubloon commemorative items would be to grant them based on your lifetime doubloon count rather than being able to be brought as many players' doubloon counts are extremely low due to the extortionate pricing of past season items. Missing one season could set you back nearly 10k doubloons to buy it all. If players have decided to catch up their doubloon count will be low as an insane amount of nearly 300k doubloons would be needed buy every season item.

    TLDR: Players who should have enough dobloons to buy the items dont if they missed a few seasons and decided to catch up on lost items. Granting the items based on lifetime doubloon count would alleviate this issue.

  • BaR00kaBlast
    Marauder
    Insider

    @ablepirate agreed, it would be nice to have clarification on that

  • Jumperovsky
    Legend
    Insider

    @bar00kablast What did i misunderstood?

  • Kaoteek
    Lord
    Insider

    Oh, so it's really the same old [announce controversial update in a video] / [explain the decision in a dev update post a few days later after the playerbase gets angry] / [change nothing and go through with the update] routine.

    Also, called it re: the exclusive items that most players will never use (a title, really ?).

  • White Wolf9278
    Seafarer
    Insider

    if most of the comunity wasnt rageing to devs, this is not a bad change. But people are egzhousted about time limited events and they are thinking this is another think to be hurried to ddont miss anything.

  • BaR00kaBlast
    Marauder
    Insider

    Thank you for clarifying all this, it's much appreciated! I'm really glad you guys are taking steps to prevent FOMO for some people at least, it would have been easy to just let them miss out. Overall I think this is all pretty good, and I'm pretty excited to see these new commemorative items and to see the Black Market.

  • Taaaamas
    Champion
    Boatswain

    It honestly feels really overdue, and I'm personally quite glad doubloons are getting a proper purpose rather than just "Gold 2.0".
    I'm sat on so many doubloons that no doubloon incentive is worthwhile to me anymore.

    Think my remaining concern with it though, is I hope the issue with doubloons doesn't essentially 'restart' from this.
    Because there will still be ways to earn doubloons (Season Pass / Reaper's Chests), won't that essentially continue to inflate the currency over time like it did from the start?
    Unless the earnings from them are REALLY small compared to the events I guess, or unless there were a 'cap' to your balance, though I can't imagine that being popular.

    I just hope it's managed right after the reset, because I preferred how it was back at its introduction when it was more tied to events.

  • GrayUr
    Legend
    Insider

    I'm glad to see you've opted out of the usual doubloon reset in favor of converting them to gold.

    One question remains: what rate will the automatic exchange take place at, @Sonicbob ?

  • Phantaxus
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    If the Black Market includes any previously time limited items then you still have not learned from the Golden Sailor Cannons debacle.

  • RorenXBOX
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    You're joking. You announced that doubloons were gonna be reset, so I got on to spend them in advance, now you tell me that there are cosmetics for the doubloons? I DON'T HAVE THEM ANYMORE.

    This has been horribly handled

  • MopWieldingHedgehog
    Legend
    Insider
    Moderator
    Boatswain

    @rorenxbox If you watched the whole dev update (where it was announced) - limited time cosmetics to buy for your doubloons was mentioned there too.

  • allikatoculi
    Marauder
    Insider

    i genuinely do not understand the thought process. some people have a lot of doubloons that's for sure. i play nearly daily and i have like 600. So if someone could point me to the magical doubloon voyage where i get hundreds of thousands of doubloons that would be awesome.

  • GrayUr
    Legend
    Insider

    @rorenxbox пишет в Doubloon Currency - Developer Update:

    You're joking. You announced that doubloons were gonna be reset, so I got on to spend them in advance, now you tell me that there are cosmetics for the doubloons? I DON'T HAVE THEM ANYMORE.

    This has been horribly handled

    And the same announcement said there would be unique rewards before doubloons were completely reset (6:13). But it's Rare's fault, not your attentiveness. /s

  • Vorack
    Lord
    Insider

    My thing is the reset is a worthless solution to an issue only rare created and that action won't change anything and have the exact same problems immediately.

    Ive been playing since release and have 80k doubloons with nothing to spend them on because I've played through all the past seasons. When I get my doubloons reset I'll end up with thousands of doubloons with nothing to spend them on since I already have all the past cosmetics they are putting in the black market.

    As a new player you need to grind thousands of doubloons to get cosmetics from previous seasons,h when the reset happens a new player will have to grind for thousands of doubloons to get cosmetics from previous updates.

    There is no change , we have actually done this previously with the black market and doubloons previously. Doubloons were first used to buy from Dukes black market, for time limited items. Then that got scrapped and we used doubloons at Larinnas for recoloured event items. Then that got scrapped and the. We used doubloons for things like the barrel hide and dice emotes and now that's got scrapped. Nothing changes at all and this iteration will be no different.

  • Stinkus Minimus
    Rogue

    @sonicbob gold is not out of control, theres around 300 millions worth of cosmetics in the game, if you want people to spend it, add more, if you're going to reset a currency stick to doubloons and dont touch gold

  • Jumperovsky
    Legend
    Insider

    @bar00kablast Could you elaborate what exactly did I misunderstood? Or you just said that just for saying that.

  • Fat Darth Vapor
    Legend
    Insider

    Great changes the best year 1 moments were meeting people doing dukes adventures and this will hopefully bring back some of that cooperative gameplay instead of just sink on sight. Looking forward to new challenges for earning doubloons just please don't make it " kill 3 megs" " do 3 forts " these new bilge rat adventures need to create stories and it can be a great chance to bring pirates together again like hungering deep did.

  • Loktai1917
    Sailor
    Insider

    Well shoot. I wish I had known about the exclusives before I blew all my doubloons.

  • Wakito64
    Master
    Insider

    It is exactly what I said it was on the insider forums so I am just going to copy and paste my message here :

    • Be Rare
    • Introduce a new money for time limited cosmetics because people have too much gold
    • Don't do anything with the new money for years
    • Players start hoarding the new money like dragons because what else is there to do with it ?
    • Add even more ways to get the (not so) new money over the years
    • Still don't add anything to buy with it for years
    • Player population starts free falling
    • Only do FOMO content
    • Player population dives even faster
    • When your reputation and playerbase confidence is at an all time low announce that you are replacing the old new money with a new new money that will have the exact same theoretical purpose as the old new money
    • surprisedpikachuface.png when the community is not happy about it

    Rare, you brought it upon yourselves. You allowed people to hoard doubloons for years without adding anything to spend doubloons on except gold, you know, the one thing players are already drowning in despite all the gold sinks you added and now you are removing those years of grind to introduce the exact same thing but harder to get to drive player engagement up. See you in a few years if the game is still there for the next doubloon reset and the new new doubloons introduction

  • Magus104
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    This is not a good reason for resetting the currency.

    Rares mindset has always been "players have to EARN the new cosmetics we add" so by allowing us to amass so many doubloons we could essentially just buy up every new item without actually having to participate in the new content... This isn't a new problem. You had this same problem in 2018 when the events would pay out more doubloons than the items available for purchase. Back then as the time limited events were the only way to get this currency it made them more precious than gold. But since you had the same issue... People stock piled doubloons now they can just buy the cosmetics and not do the content. So lets lock the content behind commendations so they have to at least complete the content once to then be able to spend their doubloons.

    You have this same issue currently with gold. The only exception there is there are much more items available for gold... And you removed the value of one of your more expensive items, the Dark Adventurer sails just because it gave a visibility advantage... Now you allow us to increase FOV also giving us a visibility advantage. Make it make sense?

    Basically you have been guilty of these kinds of changes multiple times. Pirate legend commendations didn't exist so despite you being max level we don't have a record of you accomplishing anything, captaincy... Year 1 players who have stuck around have a pretty high completion % so since milestones are just copy pasted commendations (admittedly with some additional ones) you still couldn't just give us all those cosmetic unlocks... We have to EARN them. Our past play wasn't working for that goal since the goal didn't exist. Therefore the effort isn't valid. But it was. I recall some people being excited on insiders when they logged in and found cosmetics were unlocked and they ASSUMED this was insiders unlocking stuff based off their live game progression. They were so happy and thankful that their past progress was going to count toward the trinkets. Little did they know the unlocked stuff was purely just so we could equip them on our ships to make sure they displayed properly. So for testing.

    You went a long span... I want to say years? Without adding stuff to use doubloons on. Since it seemed like you abandoned the currency I know a few people, myself included, who foolishly turned doubloons to gold. I suggested years ago just remove doubloons. You can't handle managing multiple currencies. Keep It Simple.

    Also another reason we are hoarding the doubloons... You stopped letting people buy multiple levels per month. I hated arena. The only reason I got that faction to 50 was because I bought 35 levels before you introduced the 1 per month limit. The irony that you let us buy arena levels which had a cap of 50 while hourglass levels are unlimited? Or at least 1000 which even at a limit of 1 expensive level per month would take people forever to hit 100 for a curse.

  • Shaixys
    Legend
    Insider

    As I said, if you're not around during "Bilge Rats Weekender," we have no way to get a reasonable amount of doubloon since they're going to nerf other doubloon sources.

    You do realize that people can't play 30 days a month, and knowing you, like with Community Week, the event will only last 2 days at most.

    More gatekeeping of content reserved for those who spend their lives on the game.

    It's not like I'm not used to it; in 4 years you've completely destroyed the single-player experience, creating a monstrous imbalance between solo and multicrew players with all the new tools you've added without thinking about balance.

    I imagine I should expect another event where all the multicrews will gleefully focus on kill all solo players, making it unplayable like all your recent "events" and "quests" where you've made a habit of placing markers to pinpoint players' positions on the map, just to further ruin solo play as usual.

    I imagine we'll have to search for Bilge Rats chests marked on the map during the "Bilge Rats Weekender" to really rub salt in the wound.

  • MORT216
    Captain
    Insider

    This will be a good change. Just like the weapon swap change the outrage will die down once it releases and players realise that it’s better. That’s my prediction.

  • RealStyli
    Vanguard
    Insider

    While Doubloons can still be earned at sea from activities such as cashing in Reaper's Chests, earned as part of the Season Renown track, etc., these will be changed to only offer small amounts under much tighter control.

    How about commendations that give doubloons? Will they be adjusted or changed to not give doubloons?

    During Season 19, however, a new monthly recurring Live Event, the 'Bilge Rat Weekender' will be introduced, providing ways for crews to earn (and steal) Doubloons and browse the items held within the Black Market.

    Those of us who work a lot of weekends are going to miss out on this event a lot. It's already bad enough that we rarely get the most out of a Community Weekend, now we going to miss out on a key way to get Doubloons.

  • DerMasterBob
    Commander
    Insider

    Looking forward to the dublooncost anouncement, for the time limited items before the reset and a list of items that will be sold in the blackmarket, after the reset.

  • Vorack
    Lord
    Insider

    @bar00kablast just make sure to log in for every monthly weekend event. This totally isn't a way to create fake engagement at all.

  • Il Yusuke lI
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    I feel a little better after reading this, so I appreciate the post. I also appreciate that you will be converting the doubloons to gold after awarding the cosmetics automatically.

    However, I do not like this precedent. For me, gold is a number I build up over time and compare to others. I own everything and I know that is rare, but once you own everything gold and doubloons are the things that set you apart and make you unique. As long as we get to compare our gold piles and those are never reset, I’m okay with losing doubloons because they are getting converted to the larger comparator: gold.

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