News, updates and info from the Sea of Thieves.
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We figured out the ship cutouts!

And there’s prototype footage of the feature in action. Tidbits
🚨  Although this is sourced from public information, it may contain heavy spoilers about those cutouts, so if you’re precious about potentially being spoiled, turn back now.  🚨 Since the inclusion of the cut outs at the bow of the ships in the latest build of the game, observers have been trying to figure out what the might be for. Some figure they’re confirmation of fishing, or potentially for mortars, perhaps for swivel guns, or even for deck-mounted harpoons. Eagle eyed reader @PersonalC0ffee reached out to me via Twitter DM with some interesting images captured from early prototype Sea of Thieves gameplay footage….

The latest Pirate Times teases a new voyage type

Another reason to be a little bit mercenary. Tidbits
Pictured: another reason, if required, to be a little bit mercenary In the latest Pirate Times, the Sea Of Thieves community team has teased something new coming to the game. In a section titled “Tip-Top Tipple Treasures” we see a graphic of a new voyage type: a scroll adorned with a scorpion seal. From the article: The Pirate Times is informed that a tenacious but unknown rum runner has recently chosen to scatter their stash of illicit alcohol and loot around the Sea of Thieves! All three Trading Companies are interested in this haul, so Duke is working on tracking…

Live Stream: Non-Stop Boombox Action

Questions and answers galore! Tidbits
This was a really fun and entertaining stream with explosions and shenanigans galore. And, lucky for us, a huge amount of Q&A too (despite Jon starting every stream letting the viewers know they won’t be taking questions, nice try Jon). If you have time, definitely give the full video a watch. But if you’re only interesting in the goss, here are the notes:   Event Frequency Burger: Is the fort frequency going to stay? Andy: We looked at a bunch of events and things that can happen inside the world – so the forts, the kraken, the megalodon and the…

Sea of Thieves in the Top 10 most searched video games on Google

It’s the most searched new IP on the list. Tidbits
Sea of Thieves has garnered the 7th spot in the trending “video games” search results in Google’s Year In Search 2018. While it’s a genuinely impressive result for a supposedly “dead game“, it’s worth keeping context in mind. According to Google “lists are based on search terms that had the highest spike this year as compared to the previous year.” With this in mind it makes sense that Sea of Thieves might be higher on this list since it launched this year. It is notable though that it’s the highest new IP on the list, and the other franchise games all…

Sea of Tease: New ship-to-ship interactions are on the horizon

New and interesting ways. Tidbits
Reddit user Decoraan spotted this interesting tidbit from the most recent weekly dev live-stream (1:00:13): Joe (reading question): “Have you ever considered boarding ropes?” Hmmmmmm James: Ah, interesting..! Joe: That’s an interesting questions isn’t it. James, have you ever considered boarding ropes in Sea of Thieves? James: Boarding ropes is, ah, it’s an interesting one. I’m not usually that into PvP so, ah, it’s something I’m sure I could look at using? [Gameplay mayhem] Joe: New and interesting ways for interactions between ships and stuff in the future, it’s definitely [something] we’ve got our eye on. Not directly boarding ropes,…

More forts, ships, megs and krakens is a permanent thing

The increase in encounters – introduced in Shrouded Spoils – is here to stay. Tidbits
If you’ve played many of the major Sea of Thieves content updates or Bilge Rat Adventures, you’ll know that it was quite normal for the spawn rates of items or enemies in the game to be increased during the event – the increased numbers of sharks in the lead up to The Hungering Deep, boom-skellies during Gunpowder Skeletons, or mermaid spawns during The Sunken Curse, to name a few. This has lead to some speculation that perhaps the increased encounters that have made Shrouded Spoils so engaging might be reduced after the event. Never fear, pirates. Senior Producer, Drew Stevens,…

How the Mermaids made their way back into Sea of Thieves

“I feel like you can lay the blame at my door.” Tidbits
Not long after Shrouded Spoils arrived, Rare coder James Thomas hinted that he’d tell the story of why the Mermaids were removed from the game for Forsaken Shores, and how they made their way back in. One day (probably this week) I’ll reveal the petulant tale of how I held these mermaid statues hostage until they were given a purpose. — James Thomas (@BIGsheep) November 28, 2018 Later that week James dropped some fantastic behind the scenes info, which gives some great insight into how the team at Rare are developing Sea of Thieves. We’re reproduced the thread here: James…

What’s up with Forts and Skelly Ships?

Improvements to how Forts stack behind Skelly Ships are in the works. Tidbits
Since the end of Cursed Sails, and the introduction of the fort-like Skeleton Ship encounters (signified by the cloud ship), you will have noticed that Skull Forts no longer activate until the Skelly Ships are cleared. Because the payouts for defeating the fleet captain were initially half what they were during the event (they’ve since been increased), pirates have been much less likely to tackle the Skelly Ships, meaning a huge reduction in Forts activating overall. Senior Producer, Drew Stevens, dropped by one of the many Reddit threads discussing this topic to shed some light on the situation. Hey Everyone, I’ve…

Blocktober

See what those now-familiar islands looked like as low-poly placeholders. Tidbits
In October 2017 Michael Barclay, from Naughty Dog, started the Twitter hashtag #Blocktober with the goal of showcasing the rarely seen stages of game development where rough versions of objects and mechanics are put into action, giving devs an idea of how those systems play together. Luckily for Sea of Thieves watchers, Design Director, Mike (Chappers) Chapman, joined in the festivities by sharing some screenshots and information from early in the development of the game. Read on to sea Snake Island like you’ve never seen it before! Mike Chapman: Time to get involved with #Blocktober! Here’s one the first islands that…

The Forsaken Shores web page is up

Get a look at those sweet, sweet cosmetics. Tidbits
The Sea of Thieves website was just updated with their dedicated Forsaken Shores page. There’s not really any new information there, but it sure is nice to see all those delectable cosmetics on show. One important note: Cargo Runs voyages on behalf of the Merchant Alliance are due to drop into the game on “Week 3” of Forsaken Shores, so you can expect that to land around October 10-11th. If you feel like having a reminisce, you can also check out The Hungering Deep and Cursed Sails web pages too. Them were the days.

Panel: Tales from the Creation of Sea of Thieves (video)

EGX panel with Shelley, Mike, Joe, John and Craig from Rare. Tidbits
Some of the team from Rare sat down at EGX to discuss what it’s been like to build Sea of Thieves, then take questions from the audience. It’s worth watching the whole thing above if you’re interested – but, if you don’t have time, here’s some notes of interest: Forsaken Shores: Geysers destroy skeletons. Forsaken Shores: During Cargo Runs, carrying plants partially obscures your view making them difficult to handle. Tease: Shelley mentioned they’re currently “cooking up some new stuff for the future”. Six ships per server was always based more on the experiential aspect rather than performance. It’s something…

Sea of Thieves is on sale!

Its a good time to buy. Tidbits
Sea of Thieves rarely goes on sale, but now is one of those times! The Microsoft Store has the digital, Play Anywhere version of the game on sale for 35% off, across all regions, until September 25th 2018 October 1st (ish). That’s USD $39 / AUD $65 / GBP £32.50 / EUR 45,50 € …etc. LINK! With the Forsaken Shores update coming at the end of next week it’s a great time to take the plunge (get it?). Of course, if you’ve yet to try the game, you can always get a 14 day free trial of Game Pass to dip your…

New in the Forsaken Shores update: Sea Posts!

Kids sea posts sometimes… Tidbits
Coming in the Forsaken Shores update, and new to the Sea of Thieves, are Sea Posts. Sea Posts are mini-outposts with one trader. Think of them like a bargain store: they’ll carry a handful of random cosmetic items that the major outposts stock, but will sell to you at a discount! Additionally, the new merchant quests, Cargo Runs, may start or end at sea posts. There are a couple of sea posts in each region, including Devil’s Roar, so from September 19th remember to keep a close eye out for these isolates trading posts when you’re sailing the seas. You…

San Diego Comic-Con 2018 Panel

Battle Royale? Battle Royale??? Tidbits
Notes of interest from the Q&A section: Q: If you square your sails into the wind you sail faster. Mike: I think we should look into that… Q: Why is there a brig on the sloop? Mike: The reason why the brig is there… it may we have a function on the sloop in the future. In terms of level design we needed to earmark space on the sloop. Other reasons to brig players in the future we may be considering as well. Q: Have you thought about implementing a bounty system? Mike: Yes, quite a lot actually, we even prototyped…