GRcade

Photek wrote:By the way Monkey, it's playable all this week for alpha insiders 6-9pm and 11pm-2am, I think it's the E3 build. I'll be on tomorrow from 7ish if want to get on same ship and get drunk!

Their podcast gave hints about bounty hunting AI characters and other bits and bobs, the base game is excellent, if they can make the world sing with a variety of things to do it'll be huge.

They already have specific content to coincide with holidays etc.

While this is perhaps the sole Xbone game that makes me wish I had the console, what you describe - bounty hunting quests, holiday-specific events - sounds very typical of the MMO genre. I mean, ESO, Final Fantasy, Destiny et al. all have those staples.

What I am hoping for from the game is something new, perhaps a Rare-esque touch similar to what they used to be capable of. How satsifying or grind-y is the base game? What sort of things can you do? Is it more than just a "theme-park" MMO? As from what I have seen, it looks quite similar to ESO but with ships?

Is it cross-play on PC? I also wonder how lively it's going to be after release too, in a crowded multiplayer market and in a crowded MMO genre. If it does the business, I might pick up a sub-200 quid Xbox if the price drops when Scorpio comes out. Still the issue of only 3 people having one in Japan and not being able to find the games anywhere, mind.

It doesn't appear to have a levelling system so can't see where grinding comes in, it doesn't play like ESO at all, to be honest I can't really catogorize it. Nothing like an MMO though. It's cross play with PC.

Grinding doesn't necessarily rely on a leveling system - if there's gear and loot in the game (I mean, it's pirates so there must be treasure and booty), then it will surely have grinding in order to get optimal stuff. I don't necessarily mind grinding, if the grind is doing stuff that's enjoyable.

I'll check some videos of it out after work, as I'm pretty much in the dark. I've seen it described as an MMO on various sites - and it's on some MMO-only websites too. I know that they came out and said it wasn't an MMO but "a group co-op game", which is basically another definition of "massively mutiplayer online" game.

I think an MMO is the easiest way to describe it, I don't think Rare are trying to skirt the issue by denying it is one though, it just doesn't play like one.

There are 2-3 major issues with the Alpha. Staying out of Party chat is a must, in the insider program you know everyone went through a sign up process to gain access so, so far most other players have been chatty, not sure how it will be when it releases, that said, I've had a couple of silent ship mates that didn't hinder things too much. Rewards for gold are also non existent, I think you'll be right in terms of customisable characters.

Last one is that, AFAIK, you can't really play solo but with gold and things being the groups goal and no team killing, it makes everyone in theory work towards same objective. Slightly minor is the lack of things to do en route between islands but they've added cannons to load, storage items and they've said that there's lots coming. Personally, looking at the sheer beauty of it all from the crows nest while searching the horizon for enemy ships is enough.

Monkeymans played it, maybe he can categorize it better. One thing I'm certain of is that your first few hours of this are extremely exciting. They cite the monkey island games as inspiration and it shows, definitely the same feels.

Photek wrote:Staying out of Party chat is a must, in the insider program you know everyone went through a sign up process to gain access so, so far most other players have been chatty, not sure how it will be when it releases, that said, I've had a couple of silent ship mates that didn't hinder things too much.

Has it got any built in commands that you can use to "talk" to the silent team-mates? Like the Resi "wait, wait, I can't right now, GO! I need an 'erb" commands?

The chat wheel is super useful in stuff like World of Tanks, too. Would make sense for something like this to have one.

Frank wrote:

Photek wrote:Staying out of Party chat is a must, in the insider program you know everyone went through a sign up process to gain access so, so far most other players have been chatty, not sure how it will be when it releases, that said, I've had a couple of silent ship mates that didn't hinder things too much.

Has it got any built in commands that you can use to "talk" to the silent team-mates? Like the Resi "wait, wait, I can't right now, GO! I need an 'erb" commands?

The chat wheel is super useful in stuff like World of Tanks, too. Would make sense for something like this to have one.

It currently doesn't but it is something they are looking into.

When boot the game up it says something along the lines of "to get the most out of sea of thieves we encourage everyone to have a headset"

Played E3 build tonight. Wow, the improvement over the standard alpha is massive. I can't unders estimate how pretty this game is, I now think it's one of the best looking games on X1. The water was always amazing but now with the storms and lightning it's genuinely awe inspiring.

The lighting adds an over all hue to everything, creating dozens upon dozens of wallpaper type moments. The islands have caves and water falls, some have cannons which the skeletons use to fire at you. Shooting myself out of a cannon onto an island, swimming deep down in the hull of a sunken ship, sharks all around it's honestly amazing.

Played with 2 Scottish lads and a non speaker. Amazing time. We hauled 9 chests NINE back to outpost and fled a couple of skirmishes with other pirates, one managed to fire himself on board but we quickly killed him.

At out post we drank and played our instruments that all play out of tune when drunk, we walked outside the pub and seen a ship approach, it didn't know ours was on other side of the island, we decided to set up an ambush but it went hilariously badly as we could only stumble about, we got our asses kicked but managed to raise anchor once we respawned back on our ship, and get out of there, they followed in pursuit then as we rounded another island the skeletons fired on us, then our pursuers showed up on other side so skellies fired on them, 3 of us got onto island and tried to find a chest buried on a beach but seriously, with headphones the sound of cannon fire overhead and shooting skellies then their crew members running into a cave... just epic stuff. An absolute riot from start to finish.

Best Sunsets in any game ever made by the way.

Anyone know if this will have cross-play between Windows and X1?

Alvin Flummux wrote:Anyone know if this will have cross-play between Windows and X1?

Yes it does, well they tested it in Alpha amongst themselves and it worked. They put a video up showing how seemless it is a few weeks ago, I'll look for it in the morning.

Finally got an invite, so I'll be trying this out at the weekend.

twitter.com/seaofthieves/status/889908127910514689

Alpha on from 7-11pm tonight, Saturday and Sunday.

Right, let's see if I can make any sense of this.

"Today's session is over."

Good start.

Wow.

Wow good?

I'm going on tomorrow night.

Wow totally effing brilliant!

I'm not sure how little we're supposed to say about the game, so I'll keep it vague. Started out on a team where nobody was talking. Still got on OK. But it came to life when I was on a miked-up crew. Loved it.

rinks wrote:Wow totally effing brilliant!

I'm not sure how little we're supposed to say about the game, so I'll keep it vague. Started out on a team where nobody was talking. Still got on OK. But it came to life when I was on a miked-up crew. Loved it.

Imagine a grcade crew!

Dat water tho.

Oh god, yeah. This could be something really special.

10,000 new pirates and I didn't get an invite

rinks wrote:Oh god, yeah. This could be something really special.

Hunting, bounty hunting and trading incoming.

The wait is long tho.