I got super busy this week at work, into the weekend and haven’t played in almost a week.
I agree w /Jason though, the Merchant missions are a drag. Pigs dying on me if I don’t keep them fed (while navigating, often repairing leaks, and running other missions) is an utter chore.
I’m looking forward to playing more though. I do wish you’d occasionally be given a narrative/scripted quest instance. Ie, inspired from a Sinbad movie. Even once in a while, to break up the repetitive nature of the basic mission structure.
I had a blast over the weekend with two sessions of a galleon full of friends. The horizontal progression made it very accessible to us. Each session had moments of pirate terror, with more experienced crews (with lovely painted sails) attacking us. The first session we were sunk, and our 5 treasures lost. “Never Again!” The next session we managed to flee, and returned 2 of our 3 treasures while cannon balls and pistol shots exploded around us on the beach.
Those moments would not have been as much fun if those characters had weapons or skills we could not compete with. After the second attack we knew we would respawn with a full ship, and that galleon experienced 4 cannons all firing and being quickly reloaded to fire again. Boom boom boom boom! We sunk that ship and its pretty sails. Arrrrrrrrrrr
For the record, that was about 6 hours of play time, and about 1 hour total of PvP.
Ship respawn distance - When a ship sinks, we have significantly increased the distance at which the crews new ship will respawn. Ships will now respawn outside of visible view of the ship that sank them. This is in response to lots of player feedback which highlighted that the previous spawn distance was resulting in “griefing” behaviour and stalemates at the forts!
With my wife and daughter away for a week, I’m hoping to finally have more time to play this week.
My buddy has decided the best way to earn gold is to cycle Merchant faction quests until you get a quest for a Golden Chicken then sell it for 1500 gold. We did it last night and we were able to get golden chicken quest done in about 15 minutes. The bonus was we had so many extra crates from cycling quests, that we were able to capture 6 golden chickens on 1 island and sell the extras for 400 a pop.
So the other day some friends and I had spent an hour or two just doing a grab bag of faction quests, finding all sorts of other booty along the way, including a captain’s chest, a fancy jeweled goblet and a crate of exotic silks (these three items were worth more than all our voyage goods combined). We had quite a hold full of stuff and decided to set a course for the nearest outpost. Lo and behold a galleon appears and starts pursuing us and we’re only three pirates.
Panicked and wondering how to shake them off quickly, I decide to go up the crow’s nest, grab a powder keg and hurl myself off the side of the ship while they’re directly behind us. I somehow find my way up to the surface and manage to grab their climb ladder as they sail past me in the water. At this point I’m reeling because I didn’t expect to actually manage to board them. I run across the deck and into the bowels of their ship before anyone can fire a shot off. I hadn’t thought this far ahead and giddily I just drop the keg on the lowest deck and shoot it right there like a twat. I die, obviously, and perhaps take another dude out, but on respawning find we’re still being pursued and we’ve not really gained any distance. (My explosive barrel stunt has been echoing in my mind ever since and I’ve been chewing over all the things I could and should have done. Next time, I’ll do better.)
Anyway, we’ve got no time to stop at an outpost and can’t even do drive-bys given how much we’ve got to turn in. I tell my crew to prepare for an anchor handbrake turn, setting the sails ready for our new direction and making sure they get the anchor back up so we’re back moving as soon as possible. I also tell them we’re going to take cannonball fire as they sail past but we have to get the anchor up and sails adjusted first. We drop the anchor, our sails catch the wind as our ship spins and we’re able to get the anchor up quick enough to deal with fixing holes. We watch our pursuers struggle behind us as we move further away. We escape, make it to an outpost a short time later and get our gold. Phew!
I’m still amazed how Sea of Thieves is able to go from being incredibly relaxing and peaceful one minute to being heartattack-inducing tense the next. I’m not sure it’s good for me.
So my 12 year old daughter is asking for this game for her birthday. Evidently, one of her good friends (also a 12 year-old girl) has it and has been talking it up. So, this is multiplayer, yes? What’s the community like? Is there voice chat?
I love the game for its spirit, simplicity and ability to create really amusing stories and moments. It can be fun solo but the real magic is co-op with friends, navigating, sailing, sightseeing and finding treasure together. There’s no progression power curve either so everyone’s on an even keel throughout.
There is in-game voice which can add a lot to the experience but obviously you’re at the mercy of other players there so discretion would be advised. I’ve not come across that many talking players but nearly all of them have been civil for what it’s worth (I’m in Europe).
I play it with my 11 year old daughter, but either in a 2 player sloop or with my sons or wife to make up a galleon crew and it’s a blast.
The graphics are colourful and engaging. The puzzles and missions are certainly approachable at her age.
You can use communications using in game chat, an Xbox Live party or your favourite chat tool on PC.
The main downside is that, being purely multiplayer, you never know who you will encounter. Your daughter and friend might get sunk by another ship before they have a chance to sell their treasure.
And, in rare occasions, maybe have to scuttle their ship to evade players who decide to camp and kill them every time they respawn. The latter has never happened to us though.
This game having no skill progression, it means the other players aren’t inherently stronger than you by virtue of having played for longer. And the loot simply gives you money to buy cosmetics in game.
So, if you don’t get upset at losing your chests once in a while, it’s a really engaging and fun pirating game. The coop sailing experience is awesome.
