Returning player with questions

[Zero-Five]

Okay so I played this game a bit a few *years* ago. To give you an idea of how long it's been - I probably last played seriously just before harpoons were added to the ship. I vaguely recall hearing about the harpoons after I left, so I returned for a day to play with them a bit, then kinda faded away again.

So, a lot has changed in that time. I have some questions and I'm honestly a bit pensive about asking some of them because I'm reading these forums and wow people are really passionate about this game, for better or for worse.

Today I had to uninstall and reinstall the game to get it to work, played it for about a half-hour, works fine now. A couple of notes.

1: That harpoons thing. That's cool. You can harpoon cargo and people. That's sort of helpful. I don't know if it does any more than that, but it's cool.

2: You now spawn with a decent amount of supplies (thank freaking god). I'd honestly have come back a lot sooner had I known that was a thing.

3: There's that thing that gets people all riled up and argue about. The safer sailing thing. Okay, I see what it is, no need to get into arguments with me or other commenters about it. Moving right along.

Now I have some questions.

A: There's an option on the main menu to buy a ship or set sail in one? What's the difference? It's a "my ship". I tried searching the forums for "my ship" but both words are so common I couldn't find a topic about the feature instead of people talking about their ships.

B: I bought this game via the Windows store because back then that's the only place it was available. Now that it's also on Steam I have some Steam friends that play. I see in the game description that it's cross-platform, which is good, but how does one link up with Steam friends when playing from a Windows account of the game?

C: What is the "hourglass" I keep seeing reference to on the forums?

D: Other than that, I have no idea what other major changes have taken place. What do I need to know about this game?

[IvLion]

Ahoy and welcome back to the seas!

To stay updated on the latest major game updates, you may find this link[www.seaofthieves.com] useful.

Additionally, you can find a detailed explanation of the Hourglass mode from our team in this video.

[BRIMStone]

1. harpoons can pull your ship to land or other ships as well! by holding RMB, it can also lock to help stop or maneuver your ship with R.

2. storage crates can be bought from the merchant or shipwright...and if you go to barrels and such you can take or put things in without opening a menu, making looting islands super easy and sorting your ship easier as well...the 80 or so cannonballs you start with go rather fast in a naval fight.

3. ok

A. charter ship is the same as it's been...buying a ship lets you be the 'captain' of it...this lets you save cosmetics to it to be auto applied every time, lets you use the new sovereigns which is a fast and central way to sell loot, though they dont deal with reapers for the most part and give you less money when selling hunters call stuff. otherwise you get full money and reputation and such.

along with this is guilds, you join one with other players, can share your saved ship, and use theirs if they share, and the guild emmisary works similarly to reapers...you can sell everything (just about) for the bonus money, as opposed to only some items like the other trading companies...

B. im not sure on windows....it might use xbox app as well? i know with gamepass it uses xbox app, that's how i play.

C. new sea dogs...vote for athena or servants of the flame, and you might get invaded or can queue to matchmake and invade someone else, essentially....crew and ship will be even, so if you're solo slooping youll match a solo sloop...get high rank in it and you can unlock ghost curse for athena and skeleton curse for reapers...

D. that's most of the major changes...golden sands got a facelift to 'port merrick' now...rowboats? harpoon rowboat...cannon rowboat...oh you can get ALL voyages from your little table in your ship, and can dive to them too, hopping servers, very handy.

[Terron]

Originally posted by BRIMStone:

1. harpoons can pull your ship to land or other ships as well! by holding RMB, it can also lock to help stop or maneuver your ship with R.

2. storage crates can be bought from the merchant or shipwright...and if you go to barrels and such you can take or put things in without opening a menu, making looting islands super easy and sorting your ship easier as well...the 80 or so cannonballs you start with go rather fast in a naval fight.

3. ok

A. charter ship is the same as it's been...buying a ship lets you be the 'captain' of it...this lets you save cosmetics to it to be auto applied every time, lets you use the new sovereigns which is a fast and central way to sell loot, though they dont deal with reapers for the most part and give you less money when selling hunters call stuff. otherwise you get full money and reputation and such.

along with this is guilds, you join one with other players, can share your saved ship, and use theirs if they share, and the guild emmisary works similarly to reapers...you can sell everything (just about) for the bonus money, as opposed to only some items like the other trading companies...

B. im not sure on windows....it might use xbox app as well? i know with gamepass it uses xbox app, that's how i play.

C. new sea dogs...vote for athena or servants of the flame, and you might get invaded or can queue to matchmake and invade someone else, essentially....crew and ship will be even, so if you're solo slooping youll match a solo sloop...get high rank in it and you can unlock ghost curse for athena and skeleton curse for reapers...

D. that's most of the major changes...golden sands got a facelift to 'port merrick' now...rowboats? harpoon rowboat...cannon rowboat...oh you can get ALL voyages from your little table in your ship, and can dive to them too, hopping servers, very handy.

Great summary. One little question about hourglass. If I vote to represent one of the two but DONT actually dive. As I go about the high seas will I just automatically dive at somepoint? or perhaps an opposing faction ship might suddenly rise out of the ocean near me? As in I am waiting to be the one invaded rather than the one doing the invading? Coz that would be awesome not having to sit and wait for 20 minutes underwater. Also can everyone see me on the map when I have voted for hourglass? I see a symbol on my ship on the map.

[BRIMStone]

Originally posted by Terron:

Originally posted by BRIMStone:

1. harpoons can pull your ship to land or other ships as well! by holding RMB, it can also lock to help stop or maneuver your ship with R.

2. storage crates can be bought from the merchant or shipwright...and if you go to barrels and such you can take or put things in without opening a menu, making looting islands super easy and sorting your ship easier as well...the 80 or so cannonballs you start with go rather fast in a naval fight.

3. ok

A. charter ship is the same as it's been...buying a ship lets you be the 'captain' of it...this lets you save cosmetics to it to be auto applied every time, lets you use the new sovereigns which is a fast and central way to sell loot, though they dont deal with reapers for the most part and give you less money when selling hunters call stuff. otherwise you get full money and reputation and such.

along with this is guilds, you join one with other players, can share your saved ship, and use theirs if they share, and the guild emmisary works similarly to reapers...you can sell everything (just about) for the bonus money, as opposed to only some items like the other trading companies...

B. im not sure on windows....it might use xbox app as well? i know with gamepass it uses xbox app, that's how i play.

C. new sea dogs...vote for athena or servants of the flame, and you might get invaded or can queue to matchmake and invade someone else, essentially....crew and ship will be even, so if you're solo slooping youll match a solo sloop...get high rank in it and you can unlock ghost curse for athena and skeleton curse for reapers...

D. that's most of the major changes...golden sands got a facelift to 'port merrick' now...rowboats? harpoon rowboat...cannon rowboat...oh you can get ALL voyages from your little table in your ship, and can dive to them too, hopping servers, very handy.

Great summary. One little question about hourglass. If I vote to represent one of the two but DONT actually dive. As I go about the high seas will I just automatically dive at somepoint? As in I am waiting to be the one invaded rather than the one doing the invading? Coz that would be awesome not having to sit and wait for 20 minutes underwater. Also can everyone see me on the map when I have voted for hourglass? I see a symbol on my ship on the map.

no you wont dive, you might get invaded though...

one time we dove as servants of the flame (SoF?) and just found a sloop chilling by a shrine (underwater thing) and just blew it up and left, never saw the crew...prob forgot they had it on...


could potentially be used to your advantage, maybe keeping ship near a place with cannons on land?

no they dont see you on the map just due to hourglass...

[Terron]

Originally posted by BRIMStone:

Originally posted by Terron:

Great summary. One little question about hourglass. If I vote to represent one of the two but DONT actually dive. As I go about the high seas will I just automatically dive at somepoint? As in I am waiting to be the one invaded rather than the one doing the invading? Coz that would be awesome not having to sit and wait for 20 minutes underwater. Also can everyone see me on the map when I have voted for hourglass? I see a symbol on my ship on the map.

no you wont dive, you might get invaded though...

one time we dove as servants of the flame (SoF?) and just found a sloop chilling by a shrine (underwater thing) and just blew it up and left, never saw the crew...prob forgot they had it on...


could potentially be used to your advantage, maybe keeping ship near a place with cannons on land?

no they dont see you on the map just due to hourglass...

Nice one. Thank you.

[Larry]

Did they ever add a player hub or main city people "lobby" into and you can invite people to join your crew?

Also, are there any player safe houses you can store trophies and buy stuff for?

I'm similar to OP, not played since harpoons and bought it on Windows Store. Very ahead of it's time, quite chill too but it was very different back then I'm assuming as I've not played since. Might pick it up on STEAM during the next sale for the convenience. I'm guessing you still have to log into your xbox account and keep your old progress/account from windows store?

[Bad Harmony]

Originally posted by Larry:

Did they ever add a player hub or main city people "lobby" into and you can invite people to join your crew?

Also, are there any player safe houses you can store trophies and buy stuff for?

I'm similar to OP, not played since harpoons and bought it on Windows Store. Very ahead of it's time, quite chill too but it was very different back then I'm assuming as I've not played since. Might pick it up on STEAM during the next sale for the convenience. I'm guessing you still have to log into your xbox account and keep your old progress/account from windows store?

1. Currently no, the legendary sea dogs tavern used to be such a place during Arena games, but the mode has been disabled since, however the location still exist. I still wish it was repurposed in some way instead to be left abandoned and uncharted, it's such a cool place with rocky spires and a nice view from the top.

2. There's no thing like that and probably never will be, the game is all about adventure and constantly travelling to do quests, events, face or escape other players, and so on. You can still get your own ship, name and decorate it to your heart's content, unlocking trophies and trinkets as you progress into commendations while sailing with it.

3. Yes you still need to log into the xbox account, but you can also wipe all your progress and start over with a new pirate if you wish.

[Larry]

Originally posted by Bad Harmony:

Originally posted by Larry:

Did they ever add a player hub or main city people "lobby" into and you can invite people to join your crew?

Also, are there any player safe houses you can store trophies and buy stuff for?

I'm similar to OP, not played since harpoons and bought it on Windows Store. Very ahead of it's time, quite chill too but it was very different back then I'm assuming as I've not played since. Might pick it up on STEAM during the next sale for the convenience. I'm guessing you still have to log into your xbox account and keep your old progress/account from windows store?

1. Currently no, the legendary sea dogs tavern used to be such a place during Arena games, but the mode has been disabled since, however the location still exist. I still wish it was repurposed in some way instead to be left abandoned and uncharted, it's such a cool place with rocky spires and a nice view from the top.

2. There's no thing like that and probably never will be, the game is all about adventure and constantly travelling to do quests, events, face or escape other players, and so on. You can still get your own ship, name and decorate it to your heart's content, unlocking trophies and trinkets as you progress into commendations while sailing with it.

3. Yes you still need to log into the xbox account, but you can also wipe all your progress and start over with a new pirate if you wish.

Interesting... if I wipe my character do I still keep the unlocjs I had during my time or is it a complete account wipe? I wouldn't mind going in fresh considering it's been so long but I had pets and stuff if I recall and some decent cosmetics for my boat.