Who wants to be a pirate tonight?? @mono and I were thinking of trying to get together tonight at 10 Eastern and wanted to see if anyone else wanted to join and try a galleon?
I have been playing…some of you are already on my friends list…
Mynnotaur911 is my xbox name
Thanks!
Ill be on 7 pst (10 est), gamer tag same as here.
Will probably be tooling around solo at the time, feel free to message.
OK, cool! I’ve added you folks.
Best advanced tips:
I’d love to play with you guys but I probably won’t be on until later, likely 9 or 10 Pacific.
I might still be on. I’m central and have nothing happening otherwise. I think we’re friends, so message me when you get on.
For those of you who are really enjoying it, could you list 3 highlights that you think other developers could learn from it?
The way team play so naturally fits the setting and benefits every crew member. This isn’t about 1 person carrying their team. This is a game where working together benefits every crew member.
The feeling of immersion in the game’s nautical space is unequalled. I haven’t seen sailing so satisfying, immersive and yet very approachable anywhere else.
The pace of the game is slow enough that you can take time with your crew to enjoy the adventure, play some music, talk about what to do next. And even when another ship shows up, naval battles are paced slowly enough that you have time to formulate a strategy and work together to execute it.
Those naval battles are a blast. And the interval they occur at is cleverly manipulated so that, just as you start to relax with your hold filled with loot, or even a couple of chests, the moment a lookout spots a sail, the tension is real. Are they alone? Should you run? Should you fight? Can you risk it?
And, finally, the lack of progression is actually a bonus in a game where pirates can be anywhere. You don’t have to play forever to be competitive. Everybody can play when they feel like it and have a good time. If you get sunk, you aren’t losing rare items that required hours of raiding. The game isn’t about the grind. It’s about the sandbox and the emergent gameplay.
My kids and I keep diving back into it. It just calls to is and feels so good and so much fun while you are sailing together.
I’ve played plenty of coop and competitive games with them. But this one is a different experience altogether.
It has downsides too. But those are some of the things I wouldn’t mind other developers offering too.
I’m DrJonezMD on Xbox, add me! I’d be down for some pirating tonight. McMaster knows how to reach me.
Great session tonight. Played with my son. He was on the XBox and I was on the PC.
Near the end of our session we had just dug up a chest and were planning on logging off for the night. As we approached the outpost, we noticed another sloop was anchored and throwing caution to the wind, we agreed to just dock and see what would happen. I scouted ahead, and I ran into the another pair who seemed friendly at first. While I was chatting with them, my son snuck around and cashed in the chest.
By that time the other team had moved on, and we decided to return to the ship and log off, but as we approached our ship, through the proximity chat, we heard “Aw man, they have nothing on their ship”. I guess they were hoping to rob us.
We got back on the ship, and they were like, “oh hey, how’s it going”. They then raised our anchor and lowered our sails causing our ship to beach and it started leaking.
They jumped off our ship and run back to theirs, and as we repaired they started shooting at us with their cannons. The sound of the incoming cannon balls was horrifying as we madly patched and bailed our ship.
We got underway and I returned fire a few times with the intent to kill, but totally missed. My son said “Nice warning shots, dad”. We had the wind and started pulling away from them and and started dancing. I fired a few more “warning shots for good measure”.
We had escaped!!! We started hi fiving and laughing and then noticed we were sinking. We couldn’t patch and bail fast engough, so we sunk.
We didn’t care though and we were lauging so heard we were almost crying. What a great gaming session we didn’t lose a damn thing, except our pride :)
Wendelius, great summary of why the game appeals. It really comes down to the emergent gameplay. You just couldn’t script the little adventure I had with my son tonight.
And see, that’s the type of thing I think the developers were going for- simple systems, emergent gameplay. I read through the Reddit thread linked upthread a bit, and the artist there kept saying “we offered feedback that it was too simple, but were ignored, and I don’t know if they ever knew what they were going for”. But I could see it as “that guy kept saying we needed to make it more like loot grind games and we didn’t want that”. I’d certainly like them to add more things to do- as long as they keep the super-minimal HUD, and basic item interaction without stats or leveled off any kind. Dude in that thread mentioned cooking and catching ships on fire were in at one point, and those would be great.
On some level it reminds me of modern boardgaming. When Settlers of Catan came out (yes, I was there, and got into these arguments) old-school Civ-heads were saying “but it’s too simple! There’s none of the meat of a good Civ game!” missing the fact that that was the point.
I see a few of you in “main menu” right now (9:45 PST), and so am I! Invite away!
EDIT: and I just took my first stab at a Look For Group (friends only) post on XBL.
at 50 in a faction you unlock a bunch of cosmetics and titles. At 50 in all three factions you unlock Legendary status which opens up a social hub and other stuff to do supposedly.
Sorry about the condition my condition was in. I could not get my headset to operate, and then it was my first time playing on the PC so I was trying to get the hang of the controls. I should probably just stick to the Xbox in the future.
it’s all OK! Had a good time!
Me, too! Thanks for the invite.
@Brad_Wardell I used this summary up-thread, I still think it works: “Sea of Thieves is Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator with a Master and Commander theme, played inside of a wacky PvP sandbox.”
The game works so well for me for three reasons:
Immersion: Everything in the game is meant to keep you in the world. There is no mini-map, HUD, quest list, waypoint list, skill tracker or damage indicator. You play the game by existing in the world and you get better by learning how the world reacts. In addition the this, the sea and weather physics are great, but this is not important because of the “stunning graphics” but because it adds to the feeling of being there in the world on the sea.
Horizontal Character Scaling: There is no way to progress in game at all. Nothing you do or find causes your character to become more powerful. Every weapon, ship and piece of useful equipment you will ever need are all available to you from the first minute. I see this referenced on Reddit often as something that people hate. I love it for two reasons. The first is that no character has a mechanical advantage over my character. And even better, the purpose of the game is to allow you the flexibility to get better by interacting with the game world. Its player skill and knowledge and experience that matter, not levels, loot or hit-points.
Theme: Just like a good board game, the strong pirate theme allows you to intuitively understand the mechanics and interact with the game world sensibly simply by imagining what pirates do and then doing it. Don’t sail into the wind. Avoid the storm. Use your bucket to empty the water in your hold. Aim that cannon carefully (and practice reloading, if you have watched Master and Commander). And more importantly to the PvP sandbox: guard your treasure jealously. Be suspicious that ship might be chasing you. Shoot that guy in the back. And after you win then drink some grog and dance a jig. None of that is in a manual or tutorial or pop-up or quest icon. But everyone knows it and does it right away.
Separate from those three, I appreciate what Rare are doing because it seems like real dedication to the modern IT development concepts of agile methodology. This is also used on Reddit all of the time as a curse: they don’t even publish a road-map! Of course they don’t, because guessing what your customers want and trying to build everything ahead of time is the old way of building software. They are taking games as a service quite seriously and also adopting the philosophy of the large software-as-a-service and platform-as-a-service vendors, the best of which are staying close to customers, building as they go, and iterating quickly based on feedback.
In fact, the dictionary definition of the agile methodology fits almost perfectly:
“Working Software over comprehensive documentation” - They have obviously spent most of their time building a strong foundation for the future: sailing works. And my points on immersion and theme show there is no need for instructions.
“Customer Collaboration over contract negotiation” - In this context it means clear, concise communications with their audience and iterating based on their feedback, one obvious form of which are the many player-based easter eggs they have planted to show the community they are listening. (link)
“Responding to Change over following a plan” - “WTF no roadmap!” is part of it. Time will tell if they continue to respond to feedback in a productive manner. I can only assume by their resources and the fact they are not dedicating them to multiple pre-announced feature releases means they have enough horsepower in reserve to pivot and iterate quickly.
Games that have the resources to evolve based on market reception and customer feedback are games that will survive as services. See the Division, which has a similar development philosophy but discards horizontal character scaling entirely for a well-refined power and loot crescendo. (For the record, the Division gets a lot of points from me for also being immersive and having a strong theme.)
Rare are brave. Sea of Thieves is bold. Microsoft deserves some credit - let’s see how the next 12 months evolve.