It’s time once again for production director Drew Stevens to sit in front of a camera and talk to Sea of Thieves players about upcoming changes, only this time it’s not just about game adjustments but policy updates as well.
A large portion of the video discusses the mid-season update that launched earlier today, which introduces a throwing spear that can both damage targets or be lodged into a ship to cause harder to repair damage, but the patch primarily focuses on optimization and bug-fixing. Improvements include better ship and trinket loading, refinements to floating treasure loading, and a new system that manages event activation; this will govern megalodon events but will be used for other events later.
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Enforcement of the sandbox’s code of conduct was another major portion of the video, with a new points-based enforcement system that will be rolling out over the next few months that Stevens claims will provide transparency and grant unruly players the opportunity to learn from their actions. In summary, players will earn points for incurring fractions both in-game and for being abusive to support staff, with several warning thresholds that can lead up to a maximum of 12 points, after which a permanent ban is issued. Players will be able to check a special section of the game’s site to see how many points they have and how much time is remaining on a ban.
Speaking of enforcement, Stevens noted that ancient coin dupes occurring during a community goal event have seen offending players see their ill-gotten gains removed. It’s here that he once again reaffirms that exploits won’t be tolerated and further explains that harsher penalties like rollbacks of commendations or cosmetic unlocks take far too much time to do. However, he does leave the door open for further punishment to be considered by the devs if duping and exploiting continues to run rampant.
Other points of note in the video discussion include a list of bug fixes that will arrive in the mid-season update, the promise of further anti-cheat enforcement and assurance that current layers are working, and the removal of the restriction of traps being used in outposts in an update later this week; Stevens reasons here that this will allow for more player “creativity” in using these items and aligns with the “tools not rules” approach to gameplay mechanics.
