Apparently Rare is doubling down on the doubloon change https://www.seaofthieves.com/community/forums/topic/182227/doubloon-currency-developer-update. I am beyond frustrated, not because I will personally lose doubloons, but because of the reasoning behind it. The justification given is that both gold and doubloons have lost their value over time because players are hoarding them, so the solution is to reset those currencies. This is the result of a cosmetic-progression game that has steadily stopped adding meaningful cosmetic progression. This situation was created by Rare, not by the players.
We currently have:
-
Shops filled mostly with recolors, while many unique sets remain incomplete (for example, the Jacket of the Damned).
-
A prestige system that, after level 100, rewards you with only a single ring every 100 levels.
-
Very few cosmetics for Hourglass, which requires an enormous grind.
-
Guilds with 1,000 levels, where after level 80 there is essentially nothing meaningful left to earn.
-
The majority of truly unique cosmetics locked behind the Emporium, FOMO events, or season passes.
In a game built around cosmetic progression, players hoarding currency is clearly a content problem. Resetting or devaluing doubloons does not fix the source of the issue, it is just another band-aid solution. On top of that, the handling of legacy cosmetics has been extremely inconsistent and, frankly, disrespectful. We were told that cosmetics would “tell the story of your pirate” and that time-limited items would remain exclusive. Many of us stressed and grinded to earn things like the pirate legend plunder pass rewards under that promise. Yet now some of those items return, while others, such as sails, scars, and tattoos that were objectively easier to get, remain unavailable. Even more confusing is the selective reintroduction of sets like Bone Crusher, while items such as the drum of the deep (which has already returned for an event) are still being gatekept. To be clear, I am not against older cosmetics returning. In fact, I would prefer everything to be available. What I strongly dislike is arbitrary favoritism with no clear rules or reasoning.
The community response to this doubloon change has been overwhelmingly negative. If this change goes through without addressing the underlying problems, it will feel like Rare is ignoring the root cause while punishing players for symptoms they did not create. And honestly (this is not a threat, just a statement of reality), if this goes live without those issues being meaningfully addressed, I will stop playing.
Sea of Thieves has lived long enough to become the villain...
