Shiver me timbers, it’s time for another weekly Sea of Thieves developer update. This time, Executive Producer Joe Neate gives players a taste of what they can expect from the upcoming Black Powder Stashes event that will be going live next week on Wednesday, July 17th.
Neate says the event will be “very explosive” and will involve Duke sending players to the myriad forts scattered throughout the seas, where they’ll be hunting for gunpowder barrels, merchant crates, and stronghold barrels. The devs hope that the event will “[freshen] up the adventure sandbox” and “drive interesting social interaction between players.”
In addition, the next update will be focusing heavily on game balance “in a range of areas.” Notably, the Hunter’s Call trading company will provide increased rewards going forward, providing players more incentive to rise through its ranks. The devs have also done some difficulty tuning, making the skeleton lords that players encounter as part of the Tall Tales missions better balanced for different crew sizes.
The ocean-roaming megalodons have also received some balance tweaks, which are likewise focused on making them better balanced for crews of various sizes, as well as some changes to their behaviors. What exactly those behavioral changes entail isn’t entirely clear, but it’s probably safe to assume they aren’t going to be any less terrifying than they already were.
Neate also spends a good chunk of the video recounting the dev team’s experience hosting the Sea of Thieves PvP tournament at the recent GuardianCon and discussing how the team hopes to use that experience to help shape the future of the Arena. To hear all about it, you can check out the full dev update video just below.
