Dunno why people are so surprised at the PvP heavy nature and potential gankng…it does have Thieves in the title people.
Yeah I just sort of raged quit here. I was in Sloop with one other guy and we got chased around by a Galleon with full crew until we were boarded and had our three chests stolen. Like, I get that it is a game about Piracy and there will be conflict with other crews, but it is still a game and that they don’t really make it easy at all to separate yourself there. All I could do was was toss the chests overboard or run off the map. Either way I get nothing, they get nothing but the pleasure of griefing me and do we really want that to be a reward?
Tom Mc
Indeed - like the famous ganking game Thief and Thief 2, or The Guild of Thieves. Oh how I laughed when I ganked people in that one. I laughed and I laughed, as I wrote “Gank newbie N”.
Yeah, and it’s about pirates, and online. This is a multiplayer game. It offers solo play and I’ve no doubt there’s fun to be had there but thinking you can play safely in total isolation from other people is crazy, particularly at this point now we know what the nature of the game is. If you don’t like PvP just move on.
I was playing just now and had a couple of chests in my hold. It was nighttime and I’d turned off all my lanterns so I was as inconspicuous as possible. A ship came sailing by (the first one I’ve seen in a couple of hours), and someone fired a shot off at me. The fear of having my booty stolen suddenly made the game so much more exciting and tense than if I’d been able to quietly plunder the seven seas at my own pace, meandering from port to port.
I also found a shipwreck and a barnacle encrusted chest. When I jumped back on to my boat, I could hear the contents jingling about in the chest and the squelch of sea water in my boots. Sea of Thieves probably has some of the best sound design I’ve heard since Thief. And we come full circle!
@Tom_Mc I’ve heard that sloops can outrun galleons so it should have been possible for you to escape them.
Still not as good as Puzzle Pirates though.
It’s quite clear most of you just won’t like open pvp games, and it’s just not your thing. Game probably just isn’t for you.
If price is the problem, grab the game pass and play it for a month for roughly $10 and you might be bored by the end of the month.
The game works just fine solo fwiw, most of my time has been solo and you can hold your own with a galleon (or two even) once you know how it all works. Sloops have lower top speed, but much faster speed into or nearly into the wind. They also turn much faster, use that.
I just remember when people were honest about just not thinking a game was for them vs shitting on a game because it isn’t for them. A fair number of the comments here sound more like the latter. The game definitely has some rough edges, but I’m not sure the core pvp philosophy is one of them.
To be fair, some people only like good games.
Why, when it oh so much easier to troll instead. Case in point: see post above.
After playing this for an hour or two, I can’t imagine paying 60 bucks for it, let alone enough for me and Sarah at 120. There just isn’t a lot of game here. It also punishes anything below a galleon, it would appear.
Wow you played as a pirate in those game too! And they were multiplayer focused. Amazing!
Gonna have to do way better than that weak sauce sarcasm.
To do what? I’m having fun, and poking fun at “Thieves in the title” bit - Come now, you must admit - it was fun! :-D
My 11 year old daughter and I played on a 2 man sloop together and had a great time. She insists on playing the full game now.
We went on a mission to find chicken. On the way, we stopped on a tiny unmarked island. My daughter was delighted to find a message in a bottle in the sand. It took us on a treasure chase. We took turns steering, reading the map and learning how to handle the sailing together.
By the we had found the hidden treasure and had some fun hunting for animals, we headed back with our loot. That’s when another sail appeared on the horizon.
Putting our newfound sailing skills to the test, we headed for a nearby storm. We spent as much time bailing water or of our little ship as holding our course in the tumultuous waters. But by the time we emerged in the other side, we had lost the other ship.
We made it to the outpost without further incident.
And if the other ship has caught us and sunk us? Big deal. My daughter would have shrugged and insisted we went on another treasure hunt.
The game is not upsetting. The sailing is awesome. The sunsets in the high seas are inspiring. The sightseeing and music playing while you sail are a joy.
I don’t know for how long the reputation hunt and the emergent gameplay will keep the gameplay fresh. But we’re both really excited for the full release.
If you are upset at the thought of a PvP pirate game, then it probably isn’t for you. It’s hardly shaping up to be a hardcore exercise in trolling from what I’ve seen though.
Similarly, if you only care about getting to max reputation ASAP and can’t abide the thought of having some of your sea voyages end in failure and having to go hunting for more treasure next time, it probably isn’t for you either. It will be the nature of the beast I’m sure. The game is very much about the journeys.
And the way it captures the romanticised pirating adventures works for us. YMMV.
I was typing something up last night but then Vermintide called. But, yeah, you’ve pretty much summarised a lot of my thoughts on this too.
Based on my time with Guns of Icarus Online (which is dedicated to ship vs. ship combat) I think the pvp here will have more legs than people give it credit for, particularly when you consider there’s wind, the rolling waves, dynamic weather, day/night cycles, various other controls for sailing, swimming, crew boarding, melee and pistol/rifle combat, explosives, hull leaks and bailing water etc. Lots of things that will combine and impact how players engage each other (see Wendelius’ example above in the storm). None of these things were in Guns but that didn’t stop me sinking over 300 hours into it with friends.
So that kind of experience is what I’m pinning a lot of my initial excitement on here before I consider the open world adventuring, high seas hijinks, navigating, hunting for treasure, making runs back to port with holds full of booty, finding shipwrecks etc.
I’ve also got mad respect for Rare doing away with stat based loot, character leveling, on-screen GPS maps and markers and giving most actions in-game visual or aural feedback instead of UI pop-up, like the gold ring on the helm wheel for when you’re set dead ahead, or having to consult your map downstairs to work out where you are exactly, or all the little co-op touches like being able to physically show your quest or compass to your crew for example. From my short time with it I got the overwhelming sense that they’re aiming for simple intuitive play and emergence with bags of flavour and plenty of tension from the co-op pvp. And that honestly sounds delightful to me. Guns of Icarus Online meets Wind Waker and Curse of Monkey Island is a fine mix.
Oh, that’s brilliant! I had no idea they existed.
Yeah, it’s really magical if you’re into this kind of thing. It had me grinning a lot.
I preordered after my first session with the beta. I canceled it this morning.
I really don’t think there’s anything more to this game than fetch quests or trolling other peoples fetch quests. If, at least, you could open the treasure chests to find loot that would be something.
Let us find new sea shanties, a rowboat to go ashore, new ammo types, armor for the hull, anything. It’s go to an island, find a thing, bring to vendor, get some gold to buy shaders.
I think that’s already planned. But I might be wrong and remember wishful thinking on Reddit.
I really do like the sailing and the design. The sound is, as has been noted, absolutely fantastic. The storms are something to behold. Finding treasure is a lot of fun!
What I worry about is lack of content for people who don’t mind the combat and stuff, but their main thing is the sailing adventure. I know they have stuff held back and plenty of stuff to do, but this is a 60 dollar game in a world where you can buy a lot of games with tons of content for half that price.
Man, that sailing, though…
I think this is a perfect fit for the Xbox Games Pass. I have loved my time with Sea of Thieves but I also couldn’t see it being my primary game; more of a casual experience to dip into here and there.
The storm was amazing. Skull fort was crazy. I found a message in a bottle but couldn’t open it. I found a shipwreck and dove to get an barnacle crusted chest which we sold for 2000 gold each. I bought a captains hat with that money. We battled galleons in a sloop and sunk it.
It was amazing fun. But those things should be fun distractions from the core game. The core game is get a chicken, chest, or skeleton hunt quest, find the island, return to vendor. That is not fun after the 10th time.
Is clear now that the gaming community have hyped the game a bit too much. Is not a bad game, it looks gorgeous, but is shaping to become what No Mans Sky was for PS4.
How so? That’s a bit of a bold statement/comparison.
Rare has clearly stated what will and will not be in the game. They have explained the initial plans to expand on it. They haven’t promised the moon. What you see is, at the core, what you get.
There is hype around it, but they also gave players plenty of opportunities to try it for themselves. And some have realised this is not the game for them. It was never going to be for everyone.
How exactly does this warrant a comparison with No Man’s Sky?