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

Dev Update (video)

The swords they are a-changin’. Dev Update Videos
The next game update is due December 11th, so Joe’s here to cover some incoming quality-of-life changes. Expect more information about the “appropriately themed” (🎅) update next week. But for now, here’s a summary: Sword combat changes. The overall goal of these changes is to make sword combat more fluid. Joe clarifies this is “one step along the path to improving personal combat”. Changes include: Reduced cool-down for missed swings Successfully blocking removes your own stun-lock (meaning you can block and move while absorbing hits) A brief delay when equipping the sword (brings it in line with gun wielding). Ed:…

The Seabound Soul Content Update (video)

Fire. Fire. Fire. Trailer and Announcement Videos
The pirates of the Sea of Thieves are no strangers to strangeness, but even they must admit that something has been amiss for a while. The latest rumours speak of Sir Arthur Pendragon returning to the world, a man with his own supernatural history. Meanwhile, the skeletons act to preserve mystical secrets from the past in their Ashen Chests. Even Duke is no longer content to just sit by! What will you do, and how far will you go? Check out the full release notes here.

Dev Update (video)

Ghoul and Glory! Dev Update Videos
A short dev update this week, but a small handful of interesting tidbits. You should watch the video above as always, but here’s a summary for piratical posterity. Fort of the Damned The update has landed really well with players. It’s created a huge variety of player stories, with amazing moments. A Fort Completion hotfix has rolled out which should completely clear up any missed commendations moving forward. (You should note this is not a retroactive fix, which is disappointing). The Arena Duo Sloops has been very popular in Arena, and the overall number of players playing both Galleon and…

Join the Creator Crew

Rare launches a suite of tools and assets for Creators. News
As promised in a Dev Update video a couple of weeks ago, Sea of Thieves has officially launched its Creator Crew program. The team explained their motivation for rolling out this new program, as well as the details of the program itself, in a news post on the Sea of Thieves site. Since launch, 593,000 players have livestreamed the game, with hundreds of thousands more sharing content across Xbox Live, social media or YouTube. The creativity, humour and storytelling ability shown by our creators has been an inspiration to us, and they’ve played a huge role in making Sea of Thieves the…

Behind the Scenes: The Pirate Emporium

Exchange real coins for Ancient Coins. Behind the Scenes Videos
In this Behind the Scenes video Jon McFarlane is joined by Joe Neate to discuss the upcoming addition of The Pirate Emporium in Sea of Thieves. Watch the video above for the full run down. As always, if you don’t have time to watch the video we’ve included a full summary below. The Pirate Emporium The Pirate Emporium is an additional revenue stream to help the continual development of Sea of Thieves. The core ideas behind the Emporium are to “never sell power”, no separation of players, completely optional, and no loot boxes or random chance items. To make purchases…

Behind the Scenes: Pets

Who’s a good monkey? Behind the Scenes Videos
In this Behind the Scenes video Jon McFarlane is joined by Mike Chapman and Josh Mitchell to discuss the upcoming addition of Pets in Sea of Thieves. Watch the video above for the full run down. As always, if you don’t have time to watch the video we’ve included a full summary below. Mike loved the idea that pets could “become a sidekick” and “feel like another member of the crew”. At launch the available pets will be Monkeys (Capuchins & Barbarys) and Parrots (Macaws & Parakeets). Pets can be named and dressed in outfits, and each breed of pet will have…

Dev Update (video)

The August release, Dark Relics, and a little bit more. Dev Update Videos
Hooray, this month’s release is here! Here’s a summary of all of Joe’s utterances: Monthly Updates Moving forward, the game update will happen on the 2nd Wednesday of every month (meaning the next update will be the 11th of September). With this in mind, players will know when to expect new content and voyages, as well as being aware of the end dates of each event. Dark Relics The Dark Relics voyages, commendations and rewards are all time-limited. The Reapers Chest This chest will appear around the world, signalled by glowing, swirling lights. When you bring it aboard, all other…

Dev update (video)

A huge cache of upcoming features! Dev Update Videos
In a huge dev update, Joe Neate takes us through a raft of upcoming features. As always, it’s a great idea to watch the full video above. For reference, heres a full summary: Digital Business strategy – AKA in-game purchases Rare have been upfront about pets being paid additions to the game right from launch. Now, with pets coming to testing soon, Joe has confirmed Sea of Thieves’ broad monetisation strategy. The stated principles for digital purchases are: No power advantage Nothing that will “separate players” Completely optional Know what you’re buying – no loot boxes. Pets will be hitting…

Black Powder Stashes Content Update (video)

Boom kegs go boom! Trailer and Announcement Videos
We’re kicking off monthly game updates with Black Powder Stashes, an explosive good time for everyone! Visit Duke to pick up new voyages, all paying out gunpowder kegs. Turn them into any Trading Company for reputation. Boom! Job done. As if the smorgasbord of features that landed with the sea of thieves anniversary update weren’t enough to keep even the busiest of pirates occupied, we’re throwing even more into the mix with the introduction of our new monthly content updates – starting with Black Powder Stashes. Duke has word that the various trading companies are looking to stockpile explosive gunpowder…

Dev Update (video)

Black Powder Stashes! Dev Update Videos
A summary: How the game will be updated moving forward An acknowledgement that updates have been sporadic since launch. Rare wants players to understand the rhythm of updates, so they’ve moving to a cadence of monthly content updates. Each update will bring “new voyages”, “new rewards”, “quality of life updates”. Any new Tall Tales, updates to Arena, or new mechanics will drop into these monthly releases. Black Powder Stashes Update A new set of voyages which send you to forts to collect kegs and other rewards. A ‘lost shipment” of mermaid gems are washing up around the world. A range…

Dev Update (video)

More of what’s coming on July 17th… Dev Update Videos
I summarise, you read: Black Powder Stashes: July 17th. “It’s going to be very explosive.” Duke will send players around the world to collect merchant creates, gunpowder barrels and stronghold barrels. What else is coming in the update? “A range of areas” have received some additional balancing: The Hunter’s Call will have increased rewards The Skeleton Lords have been better tuned for various crew sizes Megalodons have been better tuned for various crew sizes Megalodons generally” have been tuned so you’ll see more “distinct behaviours” Cursed cannonballs have received balancing “Upped the rewards for exploring” More details on all balancing…

The AI of Sea of Thieves

A four-part series exploring the AI systems behind the game. Videos
Tommy Thompson of AI and Games has just released the final video of his four part series on Sea of Thieves. Thompson interviews some of the programming team at Rare, and covers subjects like enemy AI, quests and voyages, pathing in Unreal Engine, and much more. You can watch the whole series here. For posterity, here are a few points of interest from the series: Only skeletons, pigs, chickens and snakes are controlled with Unreal’s built-in AI framework; for everything water-based, Rare had to custom-build support by extending Unreal via access to the engine’s source code. Voyages (islands, bounty targets…

Dev Update (video)

Black Powder Stashes: July 17th. Dev Update Videos
A summary: Black Powder Stashes Black Powder Stashes will be “the first of a regular set of activities coming to Adventure”. The event brings a new activity with its own motivations and incentives, along with cosmetics and commendations. Joe mentioned the previous Reaper’s Run Mercenary Voyages as an example of how the BPS will work, although different in its own way. With this in mean, we can safely assume these will be Mercenary Voyages, with similar set ups for voyage format, commendations and any titles and cosmetics that may be included. The Dev Update video thumbnail surely offers a hint…

Dev Update (video)

A new Adventure “activity” soon + Shelley rocks! Dev Update Videos
This week’s summary: Capstan Damage In this week’s dev update Joe returns to give the studio’s thinking on the updated capstan damage change. In last week’s game update the ability to drop a ships anchor by hitting the capstan with a cannonball was removed. This lead to some interesting feedback and discussion around the change. Many felt it went too far in removing the tactical ability, in Arena especially. Others felt it opened up some much need fluidity to the ship to ship combat. In Joe’s words, the original functionality “really didn’t fell right for the flow of ship battle……