The Best Pirates Gain Access to the Best Quests and Treasure
We’re very close to the Sea of Thieves launch, and we’re still learning new things about the IP, which is a good sign. But this latest tidbit from Rare comes from an interview with EDGE Magazine (April 2018, issue 317). Along with some talking points about what makes the game unique, the developer mentioned a possible new feature.
The most instructive parts of the interview (brought via Wccftech), were delivered by Design Director Mike Chapman. Firstly, he discussed developing Sea of Thieves as a dev who’s never worked on an MMO. Rare had the benefit of fresh eyes when looking at a shared world designed for console. Since the most important element is having fun with friends, apparently, power leveling is something the studio wholeheartedly embraced.
“The idea is that players share voyages. Power-levelling is, I guess, a bad thing in other games. It’s the best thing in Sea Of Thieves, and we’ve fully embraced it. You want to play with people in your crew at a different level of promotion. You want to have that feeling of, ‘They’ve got something I don’t yet have access to’. And by forging those connections with others, it’s that whole story of, ‘Jack Sparrow’s got the map to Fountain of Youth – but he needs a crew to go and get it.
“People want to be friends with a Pirate Legend. They can’t get access to the hideout or Legendary Voyages unless they’re with you. This is kind of the endgame for Sea Of Thieves at launch. It’s going to be fascinating to see. Do Legends play with Legends? Do they play with people who’ve just started, and shepherd other people into the game?”
In essence, one byproduct of being the most badass pirate in the sea is that others will flock to you. Higher level players are meant to help noobs, so to speak, explore the areas that would otherwise be inaccessible. It’s inherent to the experience and one way Sea of Thieves caters to parties of friends… or strangers.
Lastly, Chapman mentioned a new feature that may arrive in the form of a painting canvas.
“One of the things we prototyped early on, which we loved, was a painting canvas. And as part of our service, and the game growing and evolving, there’s something really interesting we want to do with that. It’s possibly my favorite thing we’ll ever do in Sea of Thieves – at least of what’s on the mid-term roadmap.”
Sea of Thieves arrives for Xbox One and PC Windows on March 20th. The game will support Cross-play and will be available in Xbox Game Pass. Stay tuned for more news until release and beyond.
Happy gaming.