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Sea Of Thieves Closed Beta |OT| Yo Ho, Yo Ho, its a pirates life for me!!

Alx

Member
Woah, I just realized that when you are sailing solo, you can see the map from the bridge. I was running up and down the stairs to check my position when all I had to do was turn around and look down. ^^
 

Mattyp

Gold Member
Woah, I just realized that when you are sailing solo, you can see the map from the bridge. I was running up and down the stairs to check my position when all I had to do was turn around and look down. ^^

Bloody hell, had no idea either. Makes things a bit easier.
 

munroe

Member
Had quite the blast tonight while playing SoT. While my little schooner was docked at an island this 3 mast ship comes along and sinks my ship.

For revenge, I found a gunpowder barrel, managed to swim with it to their ship and destroyed it right next to their hull, causing numerous holes in the hull and they didn't even realise until it was too late! mwahaha!
 

Unmoses

Member
Had quite the blast tonight while playing SoT. While my little schooner was docked at an island this 3 mast ship comes along and sinks my ship.

For revenge, I found a gunpowder barrel, managed to swim with it to their ship and destroyed it right next to their hull, causing numerous holes in the hull and they didn't even realise until it was too late! mwahaha!

Um... Glorious?!? :) I have to read up, didn't realize what level of "mmo" this was. can't wait to try it
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Rare had some Press come in and play the full game. I very seldom ever take Jez seriously so take it for what its worth but he thinks SoT will be this years PUBG.





 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Rare had some Press come in and play the full game. I very seldom ever take Jez seriously so take it for what its worth but he thinks SoT will be this years PUBG.







My only concern is variety in activities.
While looking for treasure by solving riddles and using maps is fun and the creativity in treasure hunting could go much further eg you could use you watch and the time of day to solve puzzles etc.
It has got tedious after about 30hrs with the beta.
 
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JMZ555

Member
I'm not touching the Beta as want to go in fresh. Looks really fun and i have got at least one friend who will jump in with me.

I have concerns about content though which is keeping my hype level in check. Only checked a few videos but keep seeing the same skeletons..... Is there a lot of enemy variety?
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
I'm not touching the Beta as want to go in fresh. Looks really fun and i have got at least one friend who will jump in with me.

I have concerns about content though which is keeping my hype level in check. Only checked a few videos but keep seeing the same skeletons..... Is there a lot of enemy variety?

As far as enemies those skeletons have been it since early on betas though they have hinted at larger creatures like the Kraken.

Content really concerns me as well these errand missions get old very fast.

Honestly I know a lot of people were really happy about Microsoft Studios games coming to Game Pass on day 1 which I am hyped for but also kind of scares me Microsoft is looking at games like Sea of Thieves and Crackdown 3 and saying to themselves I dont think many people are going to buy this as a full priced game.

But thats just me.
 

hiphopcr

Member
Honestly I know a lot of people were really happy about Microsoft Studios games coming to Game Pass on day 1 which I am hyped for but also kind of scares me Microsoft is looking at games like Sea of Thieves and Crackdown 3 and saying to themselves I dont think many people are going to buy this as a full priced game.

But thats just me.
Hope that's not the case. I don't think that's the case. I don't think they're worried about these games and future Halos, Gears, Forzas, Fables, etc not selling. I think they just want to create the best service and get the most subscribers.
 

hiphopcr

Member
Rare had some Press come in and play the full game. I very seldom ever take Jez seriously so take it for what its worth but he thinks SoT will be this years PUBG.


I thought perhaps the betas did this game a disservice, making it look boring or empty.

But then I saw that it was the most streamed game, and Podcast Unlocked was raving about it and claiming it had tons of positive feedback.
 

WaterAstro

Member
I thought perhaps the betas did this game a disservice, making it look boring or empty.

But then I saw that it was the most streamed game, and Podcast Unlocked was raving about it and claiming it had tons of positive feedback.
New games are always most streamed. Monster Hunter has been switching places depending on if the big streamer feels like playing whichever game.

I've actually been hearing bad feedback from a lot of streamers. Some streamers like it, but know there's nothing to do as a goal. Unless a person plays for more than 6 hours, they won't get to the point where you feel like there's nothing to do.
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
I have been in beta for quite awhile and it does get boring fairly fast.

Game is not great for solo players at all as the majority of the fun revolves around having good friends to play with.

Hopefully they have been holding back a lot of content, which I am sure they have but as the game stands its fun for a couple of hours then gets boring fast.
 

Green Saber

Member
I have had a blast with the Beta so far, I have only played solo so far, was so much fun sinking a ship with 4 players on, they were not organised at all, made it easy pickings for me.
 

WaterAstro

Member
Yeah but this game isn't even out, the beta was only available to those who pre-ordered or are part of the Insider program. Taking over a game like PubG with 30 million players is phenomenal to me.
Not when two of the top streamers actually don't like PUBG anymore. It's the reason why Fortnite is beating PUBG at a lot of times.

Sea of Thieves also has been pretty hyped up. I don't know if it's marketing or the time it took to make, but Monster Hunter doesn't have that same hype in the West. You can see Asian streamers getting top spots on the Monster Hunter section.
 

Droxcy

Member
Forgot I had access, I really haven't touched it. My Discord have been playing it last couple days, they can't get enough of it what's so special?
 

BionicRoo

Member
Xbox just revealed that completing Sea of Thieves and becoming a pirate legend unlocks a hideout and new quests, ships and treasures. Plus you can buy pets to have on your ship. And there's a Kraken that can pick you up from the deck and throw you into the sea! https://news.microsoft.com/en-gb/20...eout-new-quests-ships-treasures-rare-reveals/


seaofthieves.jpg
 

YoshiMax

Member
News embargo is over - remember when people decided they'd seen everything the game had in the beta?

 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
News embargo is over - remember when people decided they'd seen everything the game had in the beta?

Looking good, hopefully the quests are varried and expansive enough.
I do worry that quests will just be variations on the same thing.
If
 

Azathoth

Neo Member
If anything the embargo lift confirmed my fear that it's just going to be repeating the same single, basic gameplay loop. I've already played and it was fun for a little while but with nothing significantly different to do I'll be passing on this, at least for now. With some future content updates it could become much more though.
 
News embargo is over - remember when people decided they'd seen everything the game had in the beta?
..because the beta had less content than the alpha lol

The only new thing in the previews is the legendary pirate cove thing, which sounds.. okay. I don't see as something that alleviates longevity concerns.
I'd love to be wrong but I just think they're going about this the wrong way. I want to open a treasure chest and find something cool in it that I can keep and use; taking chests back to an outpost to sell it and buy a new cosmetic item just isn't that engaging after a handful of times. Yes, there's two other factions but from what I remember (it's been a while since alpha), the gameplay loop feels the same.
 
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Alx

Member
The "gameplay loop" may change a lot based on the other users and events. For example all the fort attacks seem very interesting with all the co-op/competitive approaches. They're apparently hard to tackle on your own and there's more money than you can carry back, so you'll need to make alliances with other players, but how long can you trust them ? And will people stalk you waiting for you to return with your loot, just like others could wait and clean up the remainders from the Kraken's lunch ?
All the spice of the game should be in the emergent gameplay, not the "go there, do that" missions.
 
The "gameplay loop" may change a lot based on the other users and events. For example all the fort attacks seem very interesting with all the co-op/competitive approaches. They're apparently hard to tackle on your own and there's more money than you can carry back, so you'll need to make alliances with other players, but how long can you trust them ?
In my experience, alliances are a complete and utter farce in this game. They never work for more than 5 minutes lol so it would be interesting to see how they turn out in the full game where players have more permanence.
And will people stalk you waiting for you to return with your loot, just like others could wait and clean up the remainders from the Kraken's lunch ?
Was that in a preview? Because that's just an efficient way of griefing to me. I like to think I made a science out of it! I sunk my ship at the outpost (so it respawns elsewhere and appears as though no one is home), then hide by the Quest guy with a bucket of puke and a blunderbuss, and then splash + kill people when they arrive. EZ Money.
All the spice of the game should be in the emergent gameplay, not the "go there, do that" missions.
For sure! But you can't reliably count on such moments to have fun, especially when many players just run away at the sight of sails. After all, smart players aren't going to engage another player while their ship is full of chests.

But I digress.. don't mean to be overly negative, I just have concerns. I hope I'm wrong. But who am I kidding, I'll probably end up picking it up anyway.
 

Alx

Member
In my experience, alliances are a complete and utter farce in this game. They never work for more than 5 minutes lol so it would be interesting to see how they turn out in the full game where players have more permanence.

That's true, but that's also because there wasn't a good reason to make an alliance in the game. That's where the task of the devs is : create the need, and let the gamers decide how they're going to handle it. I agree that it's not an easy task and has chances of failing, but that's also the exciting part of the project. I'm sure the devs will follow closely the user behaviours and try to tune the risk/profit balance for an optimal amount of cooperation and betrayal. :p
As a matter of fact I hope in a year or two there will be a speech at GDC explaining all the knowledge Rare got from user data mining (yes, that's what true data mining is about).
 
My only concern regarding this game is lack of real progression system/lack of that “carrot to dangle” in terms of playing past 25 hours

Concerns of gameplay loop are valid here. I’m not saying this needs to be Diablo 3 with endless progression but right now there’s really nothing outside of cosmetics
 
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Alx

Member
Sounds fantastic.

And it's only $10.

C'mon now.

$10 a month, though. Still a good bargain with the 150 games that come along, and less scary than forking out $60 day 1, but that will add up with time (hopefully, otherwise it would mean the game isn't worth playing for long)
 

munroe

Member
One of the issues I had in the beta is that, I rarely joined a crew that had mics and it was rare to find other people that also had mics or weren't in party chat. So trying to make an alliance will be difficult if you can't even chat to the other players
 
I already preordered I played a ton of the alpha and beta and I found it to be the perfect just chilling game when I don’t want anything too intense. My only though is would it be worth it to cancel my preorder and pay monthly instead..
 

Mattyp

Gold Member
Received an email this weekend, more testing for anyone wanting to get some more hours in.

test Sea of Thieves this weekend!

Your support during the Closed Beta was amazing! As we continue on the voyage to launch, we need your help to get all hands on deck this weekend.

We'll be running a Scale Test from February 16th at 10 AM GMT to February 18th at 10 AM GMT. The objective is different from our usual tests so there's no need for you to focus on feature feedback or bugs! Instead, all you need to do is play as much as you can over the weekend to help us test how we scale and ultimately give you the best experience for launch.

Sea of Thieves Executive Producer, Joe Neate, dropped by the tavern to explain everything you need to know as you prepare to set sail this weekend. We'll see you out there!
 

ultrazilla

Member
Sorry if it's already been discussed but can PC players who don't own an Xbox still buy the Xbox game pass to play the games on PC?
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
Sorry if it's already been discussed but can PC players who don't own an Xbox still buy the Xbox game pass to play the games on PC?

I can answer for games like Sea of Thieves that are play anywhere have been confirmed will work on PC day of launch with Game Pass.

Game Pass can only be used on Xbox but I would assume as long as you have Xbox Live account and tie Game Pass to it then Play Anywhere titles would show up on the PC app.

Totally could be wrong but at $10 for a month of Game Pass its worth a shot.
 

Mattyp

Gold Member
Sorry if it's already been discussed but can PC players who don't own an Xbox still buy the Xbox game pass to play the games on PC?

No idea as don't use it personally but can get a 14 day free trial on release and test it out before purchasing :)
 

Kyle8497

Member
I really want to play this game, but my "experience" with the beta left a sour taste in my mouth. The final beta was free to Insider Programme members, and I've been one for over a year. However, the method to download the beta for Insider Programme members was bugged, and I could not get access. I know that doesn't say much if anything about the game, but it gives me an idea about Rare's inability to provide a smooth experience. Hopefully the actual game isn't as a bumpy ride as that.
 

munroe

Member
I really want to play this game, but my "experience" with the beta left a sour taste in my mouth. The final beta was free to Insider Programme members, and I've been one for over a year. However, the method to download the beta for Insider Programme members was bugged, and I could not get access. I know that doesn't say much if anything about the game, but it gives me an idea about Rare's inability to provide a smooth experience. Hopefully the actual game isn't as a bumpy ride as that.

If the insider program is bugged, isn't that more on MS who made the thing rather than Rare who has to use it as a distribution platform? Your "experience" isn't really with the game but more the insider program
 

blacklotus

Member
This stress test use the same build as last beta? Or it has more content?

Really enjoyed my experience. Sceptical about content though.
 

ultrazilla

Member
Thanks Heisenberg(let's cook!) and Matt! I also inquired on Twitter to Mike Ybarra(Xbox Corporate Vice President) and someone answered that we *CAN* use the pass on PC as well. :) So I'll give it a 14 day trial when Sea of Thieves hits and see how performance is as I don't own an Xbox One(though do have my Xbox account active on my pc)
 

Havoc2049

Member
News embargo is over - remember when people decided they'd seen everything the game had in the beta?



Some great articles! This is looking good! I enjoyed the beta, but was worried about content because of the limited scope of the beta. It looks like Rare is on the right track.
 

kingwingin

Member
Got to try out the beta since im in preview and im sold. I was worried about having to play alone since no one i know in real life plays consoles let alone play on xbox but instantly i was put in a crew with some very nice people.
 

munroe

Member
Stress test is live and there's some changes since the beta. The character selection is now available and the UI has been updated

You can also talk to NPC's like Tina the barmaid
 
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Superkewl

Member
Got the invite lastnight via the insider program, and gave it a whirl this morning. Played for about an hour before I got bored. Definitely a game that is best enjoyed in groups, which sucks for me as I prefer solo play.

Will still keep an eye on it and see how it turns out after release.
 

lefty1117

Gold Member
I hope there is a ton of content to be released, QoL and single-player stuff, on release, or I just don't see this game having a lasting appeal. It's really cute but from what we've seen so far, limited in scope. hope I'm wrong. Reminds me of Elite Dangerous but with less to do.
 
Better gear? Do you level up or something?
Nothing so far will give you a real big advantage (we have yet to see the ship that you get as a reward in end game). All cosmetic. Character/Ship/Weapon/Gear customization.

This game is more about skill and stories you make on your own or with others and less about grinding to get a level 100 revolver that one taps everyone along with a helmet that reduces bullet damage or whatever.
 
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