Ahoy pirates!
It's time for another update. This one brings your maiden Mercenary Voyage, seeking the treasure and tipple of the Rum Runner!
That's not all: there's a trove of performance improvements and bug fixes so you can enjoy some smooth sailing.
▶ Sea of Thieves Developer Update: February 6th 2019 (Duration 5:14)
Duke's in the tavern, offering a lucrative voyage for would-be mercenaries. Recruit some new pirates for your crew and start grabbing loot!
To learn more about the vision for combat in Sea of Thieves and get further detail on these balancing improvements, check out our recent Developer Update Forum post by Design Director Mike Chapman.
Double-Gun Switching – The Pistol, Blunderbuss and Eye of Reach have new wield animations and enforce a delay when equipping and switching between these weapons.
Fluid Swordplay – Missing a cutlass swing no longer slows down player movement, ensuring a more fluid swordplay experience.
Eye of Reach Hip Fire – Reduced accuracy when hip-firing the Eye of Reach. Under pressure you can still get lucky with a hip-fired Eye of Reach shot; however, at mid- to long range this is significantly reduced.
*Weapon Knockback *– Pistol and Eye of Reach shots will no longer apply knockback to enemies hit. Cutlass and Blunderbuss, however, will still retain their ability knock back players. Skeletons wielding a Pistol, Blunderbuss or Eye of Reach have also had their ability to knock back players removed.
*Weapon Reload Improvements *– Following the recent changes to the Eye of Reach, now the Pistol and Blunderbuss both reload the moment the hammer is pulled. This allows players to sprint sooner when reloading without restarting the animation.
Bullet Projectile Speed – Bullets fired from a Blunderbuss or Eye of Reach now travel faster through the air, providing more predictable accuracy at range.
Weapon Damage Falloff – Bullet damage no longer decreases over distance.
Eye of Reach Damage – Eye of Reach Damage reduced by a small amount to ensure this weapon's damage is balanced following the improvements to bullet speed and damage falloff.
Game Repackaging – Sea of Thieves has now been repackaged to give a smaller install size, leaving your device with some extra room! This means that you'll need to reinstall the game for this update, at the new smaller size.
New Player Onboarding – New pirates joining Sea of Thieves will be greeted with a new onboarding flow. This now takes players through a range of new activities before leaving the Outpost – they even get some rewards for their troubles!
Show Nameplates Above Other Crews – New Settings option allows players to hide the nameplates of any non-crew members they meet, reducing the opportunity for stream sniping.
Keybinding for 'Toggle HUD' – Players can now assign a keybind for the 'Toggle HUD' option to give fast access to removing the UI for those beautiful screenshots. The FPS, Ping and Player Chat indicators are also correctly hidden when activated.
Ocean Crawler Cannons – Layout of the Ocean Crawler Cannons has been adjusted to improve line of sight in combat.
Floating Treasure – The speed that treasure floats to the surface after being released in deep water has been significantly increased.
What's That Whisper? – You can now hear stationary Bounty Skulls when they're close by.
Calming the Kraken – The Kraken has learnt to pick on someone her own size and will now take it easier on Sloops. Tentacle wraps that block access to lower levels have been significantly reduced.
A Ghost on the Waves – Rumours of a pale beast in the waves have been circulating heavily, with sightings becoming slightly more frequent as it's grown in infamy.
Message in a Bottle Cargo Runs – Cargo Runs can now be found as a Message in a Bottle.
Skeleton Ship Encounter Range – Skelly Ships will wait until you're further away before they consider returning to the depths.
Cannonball Impact Audio – Cannonballs hitting rock and wood now sound even better. You'll also be able to hear the difference between a cannonball hitting you above or below deck.
Triple Buffering – On Windows 10, a new video option allows players to enable Triple Buffering, which will improve the 'VSync' option's performance.
Island Shadows – When set to Legendary or Mythical settings, islands now cast a shadow on the ocean.
Company Reputation – Entering each of the Company Commendation screens now plays a sound effect relevant to that Company.
Did You Hear That? – Barrels and Rowboats now make a noise when you hit them with your ship.
Kitchen Delivery – The Shipwrights have fitted new stoves and roasting pans to Sloops, Brigantines and Galleons. We weren't expecting delivery so soon, who signed for this order?
Streamlined Hulls – The Shipwrights have been busy streamlining the hulls on Sloops, Brigantines and Galleons. They all now have strange cutouts near the bow, they've said this is more streamlined – we're yet to be convinced...
Fortress Under Construction – We've seen that the skeletons have been constructing a new Fort inside The Devil's Roar. So you can visit Molten Sands Fortress, but due to challenging conditions this Fort is still under construction and isn't active yet...
We are constantly reviewing the performance and stability of each patch and providing performance optimisations and stability improvements.
Gameplay
Sound and Visuals
UI
Environment
We are working on fixes for both of these issues for a future update.
Download size:
Xbox One: 10GB
Xbox One X: 27GB
Windows 10: 27GB
You can discuss these patch notes in the Forums here.
You can leave your feedback on the game in general here.
Looking for new crewmates? We've got a bunch of places you can visit to seek out like-minded pirates, so sail on over to these official Sea of Thieves hangouts:
