News, updates and info from the Sea of Thieves.
Tidbits

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. Talks & Panels
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??? Talks & Panels
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…

Inside Xbox – August 2018

Watch the show LIVE to acquire the Huntress figurehead, and get a sneak peak of Forsaken Shores. Tidbits
Inside Xbox is almost upon us. If you missed out on getting the Huntress Figure head by attending SDCC, or via the Sea of Thieves shop, you can still get your hands on it before it drops into the game for everyone around the 20th of September. Watch Inside Xbox live from gamescon today August 21 at: PDT – 7:30am EDT – 10:30am BST – 3:30pm  AEST – 12:30am (22nd Sept) Ensure you log in to Mixer with the same Microsoft/Xbox account you use to play Sea of Thieves. Don't forget to tune into Inside Xbox tomorrow live from Gamescom for…

Eventually you’ll see banana crates more regularly (updated)

And the 1,000 crate achievement may change too. Tidbits
Update , 13 August 2018:  Rare’s PC Design Lead, u/justteddii, has now confirmed that “Step 1” of a three step improvement to supply crates will be coming with the next Bilge Rat Adventure: The first change going in to our … next Bilge Rat event (almost accidentally revealed the name then!) … will contain increased drop rates and payouts for all three resource crates; cannonballs, wood and bananas. Think of this as step 1. Step 2 will be an effort to rebalance the commendations/achievements, with plans for Step 3 being a “bit grander” in scope. If you’ve been reading Sea…

The Reaper’s Mark

Will the next Bilge Rat Adventure feature a PVP bounty mechanic? Tidbits
Updated, 23 August 2018:  We now know the next Bilge Rat Adventure is called Cursed Crews. There is indeed a PVP focus as commendations will centre around ship combat with cursed cannonballs. The Reaper’s Mark is a special flag; by raising it you’ll broadcast your location on the map of every other ship on the server. Updated, 16 August 2018:  As per this Developer Update video, the next Bilge Rats Adventure will bring Cursed Cannonballs into the world. Commendations will be earned based on how you use them, and who you use them on. This addition will add a “lot of value…

Cursed cannonball effects will be re-balanced after Cursed Sails

Dance while you sink, pirate. Tidbits
Skeleton Ship battles will indeed remain in the Sea of Thieves after the Cursed Sails event. Whether they’re there immediately afterwards, or a few updates later (like the return of the Megalodon’s children), we shall see. Senior Producer, Drew Stevens, re-re-re-confirmed this after being asked about it on Reddit: We have these awesome server-wide Skeleton ship battles, of course we want to keep them! We’re working on how these exist in the emergent world along with the frequency of all our other threats, but expect to still be able to encounter these epic multi-wave sea battles. Stevens also re-confirmed that cursed…