Sea of Thieves

[Officerpuppy]

So has anyone tried out the Beta? Any thoughts or opinions?

 

[Neon Samurai]

I liked it, but its not very realistic. Its kind of cartoony, but the sailing isn't too bad at all. You have to plot a course on the map, raise and lower your sails to what ever level you want, you can turn the sails to help face the wind (you have to leave the wheel to adjust the sails). The behavior in the wind is ok, you get the most speed from putting your sails facing against the wind, but you still move forward when heading into the wind, or if the wind is against you, but its not very fast. you also have an anchor youThe combat is fast and fun, but sinking ships can be a bit of a chore due to needing to flood the ship by putting holes into the sides with cannon balls (they do have to be below the waterline to flood the ship at least), and can be repaired/bailed somewhat quickly. Land/boarding combat is fun though fairly simple (swing, charged swing, block, or shoot em). The beta though mainly only let us hunt for treasure (quests where you find the x or solve riddles/clues and searching sunken ships/islands), fight other players, and fight skeletons on the shore. You also get to play musical instruments (hurdy gurdy & concertina), and other players can join in the same tune with mostly appropriate music. The full game should have other activities beyond the above. As for ships, there were 2, a 2 gun "sloop", and an 8 gun "galleon", the sloop is intended for a crew of 1-2 players, and the galleon is up to 4 players. They also feature brigs that players can vote to lock you in, which tended to happen a lot when trying to play with random players.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

You have to plot a course on the map

You've got me really curious there! How does that work?

 

[Dat Scharger]

Wait, why do you need to plot a course? Can't you just get behind the wheel and sail wherever you want?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Wait, why do you need to plot a course?

Navigators in real life do as well.

Operating the helm directly is generally not done by the captain or officers of a ship. It is delegated to sailors or quartermasters.
The captain or navigator plots the track and the officer of the watch gives the course to the helmsmen.

There are several reasons:
- If you want to navigate your ship safely, you can't be distracted by having to work the rudder.
- Working the rudder can be hard work, especially on sailing ships.
- You need to check your position against the charts, which you can't do when you're at the helm.
- Getting anywhere takes a long time.

Games vastly simplify and speed up the reality of sailing a ship.
Having worked at sea for several years myself, I quite welcome a more realistic approach.

 

[Dat Scharger]

Navigators in real life do as well.

Operating the helm directly is generally not done by the captain or officers of a ship. It is delegated to sailors or quartermasters.
The captain or navigator plots the track and the officer of the watch gives the course to the helmsmen.

There are several reasons:
- If you want to navigate your ship safely, you can't be distracted by having to work the rudder.
- Working the rudder can be hard work, especially on sailing ships.
- You need to check your position against the charts, which you can't do when you're at the helm.
- Getting anywhere takes a long time.

Games vastly simplify and speed up the reality of sailing a ship.
Having worked at sea for several years myself, I quite welcome a more realistic approach.

No, I think you misunderstood.

"Plotting a course" implies that you open the map, set a point there and you sail automatically instead of taking the steering wheel, doing it manually and basically sailing wherever you want.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

No, I think you misunderstood.

Are you seriously telling a former real life navigation officer that he misunderstands how "plotting a course" works?

"Plotting a course" implies that you open the map, set a point there and you sail automatically instead of taking the steering wheel, doing it manually and basically sailing wherever you want.

What you describe is a lot of fun and works well on a small scale, with a motorboat or sailing yacht in an area that you already know.
On a big ship with lots of crew and many sails, travelling large distances over long periods of time, that is no longer an option.

Anyway, "plotting a course" doesn't necessary mean "automatically sailing".
"Plotting a course" has been done for many hundreds of years by sheer necessity and for safety.
"Automatically sailing" with a regular Autopilot just goes straight in a single direction (as if you tell somebody to steer a course), but you still have to manually alter course if necessary.
Fully "autonomous shipping" doesn't really exist yet, though there are recent developments toward that goal.

There are many interpretations of "plotting a course", which is why I'm hoping @Neon Samurai will elaborate on the "Sea of Thieves" version a bit further.

 

[SessionExpired]

Are you seriously telling a former real life navigation officer that he misunderstands how "plotting a course" works?


What you describe is a lot of fun and works well on a small scale, with a motorboat or sailing yacht in an area that you already know.
On a big ship with lots of crew and many sails, travelling large distances over long periods of time, that is no longer an option.

Anyway, "plotting a course" doesn't necessary mean "automatically sailing".
"Plotting a course" has been done for many hundreds of years by sheer necessity and for safety.
"Automatically sailing" with a regular Autopilot just goes straight in a single direction (as if you tell somebody to steer a course), but you still have to manually alter course if necessary.
Fully "autonomous shipping" doesn't really exist yet, though there are recent developments toward that goal.

There are many interpretations of "plotting a course", which is why I'm hoping @Neon Samurai will elaborate on the "Sea of Thieves" version a bit further.

Plotting a course in Sea of Thieves is essentially going into the room where the large table with the map is located, accessing the map by interacting with the Table and the map shows your current location and orientation of the ship, you can scroll around the map looking at all the islands and while you do this other players who happen to be around you can see the map get moved around and see where you are looking which makes discussing routes with your crew easier. You essentially find the island you wish to go to, drop a marker on the map just so you can easily find it on the map again and then work out where that island is compared to your ship.

Example:

I need to go to an island in the north east but I'm facing south so my crew mate would tell me (through In-Game voice proximity chat) to adjust course to the North east, he may tell me if there are any other islands around us that I should be aware of while making the voyage. When you are at the helm steering the ship usually you can't see infront of you due to the sails blocking your view so it's essential that you have a navigator to guide you and keep watch of hazards (Other islands or Reefs or other players ships) Of course you could have the sails at half mast if you wish to be able to see while you steer but you obviously sacrifice speed for that.

You usually need one man on the Wheel, One to alter the sails to catch the wind when the wind shift and one to navigate and keep a look out. The game looks very interesting and entertaining and I can't wait

 

[LarryHookins]

Thanks, that sounds pretty good. The only thing I don't care for is not being able to see ahead of the ship from the helm. Does the helmsman have a compass? Can I just take a reef in the courses (mainsails) to see under them without going to battle sails?

No matter where you're going, you need to "plot a course" before you start. Otherwise, how do you know what direction to sail? You can't always see your destination.

(Hook just hit 2000 hours in Vehicle Simulator)

Hook

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I'm impressed, @SessionExpired!
That sounds really cool and I'm glad that apparently, despite the cartooney atmosphere, they actually did this bit far more realistic than most other pirate games I ever heard of.

The only thing I don't care for is not being able to see ahead of the ship from the helm. Does the helmsman have a compass? Can I just take a reef in the courses (mainsails) to see under them without going to battle sails?

I'm currently doing a training course to sail with large sailing vessels and apparently not being able to see ahead from the position of the helm is actually quite normal.
So indeed you'd have to sail by compass, by looking at your sails, have somebody else checking the chart and have another person on the bow or in the mast to look ahead.

And whenever you need to tack, the first thing you do is to get rid of those big sheets on canvas in front of your face so that you can see what's going on.
Also during manoeuvring, it is common to not set those large bottom sails, precicely because they impair visibility.

I also discovered that tacking is FAR more involved in real life than it seems in these games of ours.
You first have to change the direction of one mast, then another, then the third. And you are guaranteed to move backwards for a while during the tack.
Plus you need plenty people to do all that.

In other words: Actually sailing a ship like these is nothing much like the games suggest and requires a huge amount of teamwork.
It is also super interesting!

 

[SessionExpired]

@LarryHookins

You can raise the sails ever so slightly to be able to see where you are going if you wish, there is a "Two-player" ship available which doesn't impair your visibility if you wan to go Solo or with one crew mate but the Galleon ship takes 3 - 4 players to effectively sail it as it has three sets of sails and each has to be altered at different areas of the ship, meaning a single person cant move all the sails at once. Also when you raise the sails slightly you get more maneuverability so there's benefits to that.

And yes, everyone has a compass on their person and there is a Compass next to the Wheel of the ship so the person who is steering can always see the direction they are heading, beware though as storms interfere with the compass and it will spin around until you manage to make it out of the storm, so you could end up drifting off course during a storm.

@Pieter Boelen

Indeed! It''s Cartoony graphics are quite pleasing and the Sea is actually pretty great, it feels alive and the ships actually ride the sails with the waves which some games don''t seem to accomplish very well, ,you see the spray of the sea as your boat rides through the waves and you can have water come aboard the ship during storms which means you will have to bail the water out with buckets otherwise it will weight you down, decrease your speed and can eventually sink you if you take on too much.

The benefit's of the Cartoony graphics means the game can run on extremely weak computers (I believe 360p) all the way up to 4K so practically every person with a PC built in the last ten years can run the game.

The servers are 99 players large with Seamless migration if the server population you are on drops, so while you are playing the game could put you into another server with more players without you even noticing (No loading screens or anything).
The devs have made it so you will see another player out in the Sea every 15 - 30 minutes so you can choose to fight them / make friends / run away. You can be a true pirate by fighting these players and stealing any Treasure they may have on their ship and take it for yourself.

Each player has the same "stats" so a person who has been playing a lot longer than you won't have any edge over you apart from knowing how the game works, so new players have an even chance at fighting as there is no levels or better equipment in the game, the differences between players is mostly cosmetic which I find to be a great choice .


P.S: Beware the Kraken!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Sounds like a surprising amount of realism, @SessionExpired!

 

[Officerpuppy]

I showed the trailer to the unofficial GF and she seems to really like it. If she decides to get it, I might get it too so we can play together and if that happens, I'll be sure to post my impressions of the game once I'm in it for a few hours.

 

[Dat Scharger]

I just hope the game has something to offer long-term-replayability.

If you can trust the voices from the beta, then the content is seriously lacking. Skeletons are the only enemies (next to players), and the quest rewards are solely used to buy cosmetic stuff and the same quests over and over.

So most agree that while it looks gorgeous and it's fun to be in charge of an entire ship, it gets boring fast.

 

[Officerpuppy]

Well, I've been playing for a few hours now (solo). Everyone raves about how real the water looks and I gotta say it really does look amazing.

Unless I missed the tutorial somehow, the game quite literally throws you into a tavern with no explanation of the controls and that's about it. Sailing is quite fun once you get the hang of it, you can totally do it solo but one take away I got from the game so far is, it's definitely more fun with friends. Sailing solo means having to steer the ship, raise and lower the sails as needed, check your map to make sure you're going where you want to go, checking the compass to make sure you're headed in the right direction and do small course corrections but once you get your heading right, you can roam around and use your spy glass to see what's around you. Stopping the ship is another challenge solo but not impossible, you just have to work quick and make sure you don't beach your ship, especially when trying to pull into a port. I already somewhat beached a ship of mine going into a port, chances are I'll have to run aground, let the ship sink and respawn. To be honest, I have no idea how I'll manage to do ship to ship combat solo if it came down to it. I can't possibly do most of the things I listed above all at once.

Speaking of respawn, when you lose a ship, you're given another one automatically after a few minutes. A mermaid/merman finds you at sea and fast travels you to a nearby island with a ship waiting for you. If you actually die at a sea, you get transported to the "ferry of the dammed", the games equivalent of the Flying Dutchman I suppose, you can't do much other than roam around the top deck, it probably serves as a interactive loading screen but it's pretty nifty, it quite literally ferry's you after death back to the world of the living.

So far the world seems fairly empty of players. I tried to raid a skeleton fort and got sunk by a much larger ship just outside the island, human crew or NPC skeletons, I don't know, I never got a look at them but I'm guessing they were NPC's because the island had these small gun tower emplacements which were shooting at me but not the bigger ship. My real experience with other players came after I semi-beached my ship at a port and there was a two man crew unloading their haul. One waved at me and announced in-game that they were friendly (not sure how to do that yet). Sure enough I didn't bother them, nor did they bother me when I unloaded a chest I got in a quest. One of them even gave me a chest from their haul saying they just finished a raid and would let me have one (not sure how they conveyed that message, maybe they were on PC and were able to type?) but that was a really nice gesture. How often something like that happens? Who's to say, I'm guessing not often but the fact that there's SOME friendly people out there is a nice feeling. With that previous experience in mind at the skeleton fort, I thought to myself here we go...about to get cut down by some other players and lose my haul but I was pleasantly surprised.

Lastly, I tried my hand at that skeleton fort two more times before giving up. The second time I dropped anchor near by and swam to the island, fought off two skeletons before I got overwhelmed. The final time I tried attacking one of the gun towers, there were two skeletons inside, I pressed a button on my controller to take my sword out and....I pressed the wrong button and took out the last equipped item I used which was my spyglass, needless to say I didn't survive long enough to get my sword out in time.

I started my own RP club on Xbox if anyone is interested, search for Sea of Thieves RP Guild.

 

[TheBlackKnight]

If Larry and a few of us were in a crew, I think I would have a blast, as I have watched quite a few beta videos.
Especially during the storms.
However, not many cannon on the ships though to have proper naval battles.
More about running around killing skeletons, digging up chests, and capturing chickens.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

capturing chickens

Seriously?

 

[Officerpuppy]

Seriously?

Yes! The Merchant trading company has missions where you have to collect a certain number of supplies and deliver them to another island. Included is livestock which I think you have capture on your own like pigs and chickens. I haven't tried it yet but from pictures I've seen, you run around with a cage to trap the animal then take it back to your ships hold.

The devs have said that in the future we're supposed to get pets. I certainly wouldn't mind having a pet pig follow me around. When you talk to one of the shop keeps who sells weapons, they mention different kinds of pistols like matchlocks and wheelocks, currently the game only has flintlocks. That statement made me wonder if in the future they'll add more weapons with different attributes. Speaking of pistols, I think you can fire them underwater...

I'm also curious to know how joining someones crew once in game works or if the game allows it. When you sign in it gives you the option of going solo or playing with someone else, either a friend or via the match making system but say I start my game solo but half way through I want to join someone elses ship and crew, would it let me? Sloops are meant for one to two people but you could easily have three or four people on one at a time. I haven't seen how big the galleons are but those are meant for three to four people. Perhaps in the future they'll add a larger ship which requires a five or six man crew, who knows but it would definitely be a beast of a ship.

Update: I was in my first ship skirmish. I was on at a port and saw a ship coming so I stuck around and it was some guy unloading some goods, he said hello, I said "ahoy" via the in-game text chat. So I was playing some music, watching him run around. Saw him board my ship and snooped around, he then came up to me and shot me twice, no reason given. Guess he didn't like my music? Well, I died and spawned on my ship which was still moored by the port. So I set half sail and went where he was docked, sure enough I saw him pulling out too. I loaded up a cannon and fired a few shots at him, I think most fell short but as he approached me I gave him one good shot into his hull. He then jumped off his ship and said "Yahh..!" but he missed and fell into the water. I heard him say "Oh no..." as my ship kept sailing forward. Since I'm sure he didn't lower his sails or anything his ship kept sailing on without him and I'm more than certain the shot did some damage which left untended, would sink the ship. Such is the pirates life.

 

[Officerpuppy]

Well, after several hours of playing, I can say that most of the game reviews are right when they say that content is pretty bare at the moment. I'm sure with time that the devs will add more things to do. Also, the game is much more enjoyable with friends or people who have an idea of what to do.

My first experience on a galleon was pretty good, there were some communication issues at first, not everyone had a mic but we were still able to communicate due to everyone being able to hear each other. We had a pretty good time, I piloted the ship and did some light navigating but I depended mostly on the others to call out what direction we're headed in and such. We docked near an island looking for some cages, I stayed on the ship while the others landed to look around, that's when I saw a sloop near by. One of the guys on the island found a canon and fired a warning shot which didn't dissuade the sloop. Before I knew it, they were along side boarding us, I got cut down instantly. The other guys tried to scramble to get back on the ship and fight off the invaders but unfortunately they ended up sinking us. Talk about having guts to attack a much larger ship and crew! We all had a good laugh there.

My second experience on a galleon was the complete opposite. No one really knew what to do, only one other guy had a mic who was new so I had to walk him through things. Long story short, we found a lot of loot but some guy sunk our ship when trying to stop the ship. He ended up sinking our ship three other times before he finally left the team. I don't think he did it on purpose but it was annoying for sure. Ultimately everyone just left after a while.

Communication is super important, even if the other person doesn't have a microphone, if they listen and can follow simple orders, you can make it work but if people just do what they want, your voyage will be a brief and frustrating one.

 

[Dat Scharger]

So currently, Salt is the better Sea of Thieves?