Sea of Thieves is already shaping up to be a great game, but here are five things that we believe would add value to the game. We are hopeful that at least some of these will make it into the game at some point in time.
There’s little chance that Sea of Thieves won’t be a hugely popular game that receives favorable review scores. With several betas before its launch, there’s been plenty of opportunity to jump in and see what the pirate life is all about in digital form. However, this is just a beta and there are bound to be features and content missing. At TL;DR, we’ve been spending a lot of time on the water and wanted to give you a list of our most desired features for Sea of Thieves when it fully releases on March 20, 2018.
Hotkey to Disable the HUD
Sea of Thieves is one of the most beautiful games that I’ve ever played, and I don’t say that lightly. My list of games that are gorgeous are pretty much The Witcher 3, maybe some Assassin’s Creed: Origins, and The Long Dark because of its unique art style. The thing is, The Witcher 3 has Ansel support so you can stop the action and take incredibly high-quality screenshots. The Long Dark has a single hotkey that allows you to take a HUD-free high-resolution snap in the blink of an eye. Assassin’s Creed: Origins has its photo mode, but Sea of Thieves has nothing. That’s not entirely true. You can remove the HUD in Sea of Thieves, but that requires menu navigation, and nobody has time for that in the middle of a battle.
One of my biggest wishes for Sea of Thieves is that it launches with the ability to take a HUD-free screen capture with a single button press. C’mon, Rare, you have a game this gorgeous and you’re going to make us click through the menus to disable the HUD? Tell us this is just a beta thing.
Additional Hotkey Support
I get why not every item in the game has a hotkey assigned to it, I really do. If I could quickly access my bucket or my shovel with a single press of a button, that would put my cross-play Xbox One pals at a big disadvantage. Thing is, I don’t care. I bought Sea of Thieves on PC because I have a monster gaming machine that costs thousands of dollars. I’m playing the game in 2K resolution and 144 Hertz. If the scallywag in the sloop I’m chasing down decided to play on Xbox One, that’s their business. If Microsoft wants to get serious about PC gaming, give me the full PC experience and let me access everything via hotkey. None of this press Q and fuss with a navigation wheel nonsense.
Rentable Private Server Support
This one is a must, and I hope that Rare and Microsoft understand why. Sea of Thieves is a game people want to play. They want to love it. They see the potential for some of the best gaming experiences they’ve ever had, but that can’t happen if everyone is forced into public servers with the potential for toxic PvP. Think back to the days when Twitch streamers rented DayZ severs for subs and put in roleplay rules. Consider the current Grand Theft Auto V roleplay community. Not everyone is fine being chased down by a teenager and having expletives hurled at them. Myself, I want to play this with like-minded people that are as interested in a meaningful roleplaying encounter as they are trolling. Make it so, Rare.
Larger Crew Support
I’m on the fence with this one, but I believe that support for five-person crews would be better than capping it at four. Five-person crews allow for one captain, three people working the sails, and a lone pirate in the crow’s nest looking out for trouble. When a battle begins, you still have enough people to fight, navigate, and repair. The counter to my point is that having more jobs than crew members means everyone is always doing something and never bored. Perhaps you haven’t figured out what kind of gamer I am then because I’m looking to take in the view and slow-roll my Sea of Thieves experience. I don’t mind a bit of boredom here and there, and I’m not alone.
Where is My Cockboat?
I was going to call this my rowboat or lifeboat, but upon further research, it’s called a cockboat. It’s not in our comprehensive Sea of Thieves lingo article, but it’s a thing. This would be a small boat that could be lowered into the water, allowing you and your crew to anchor further off the shore, then row to shore instead of swim. For me it would add a bit of immersion to see a treasure chest sitting in the boat while two people row us back to the galleon and I work on my tan. It would also be a logical next step as far as mechanics go, and it would prevent you from getting bitten on the ass by sharks non-stop. Come to think of it, I now understand why Rare has decided to skip the cockboat.
It’s not often that I make a wish list of features that I want in a game, but it’s not often I see potential in a game in the way I do Sea of Thieves. It’s cool in a way that no other game has ever been cool to me, but I can also see how it might fade from prominence rather quickly. Hopefully Rare understands what they have, and that being great doesn’t mean there isn’t massive room for improvement.
