Rare looking at different ship types for Arena in Sea of Thieves
Players have been asking for more than just galleons in Arena, and Rare is listening.
We here at Shacknews love Sea of Thieves. We cover it extensively and even popped on over to the Rare studio to get our hands on an early build of the Anniversary Update. With E3 2019 in full swing, we had the pleasure of speaking with Executive Producer Joe Neate about developing a game like Sea of Thieves and what lies ahead.
During the interview, Joe confirmed that Rare was still looking at how different ship types might work in Arena. It may have only been a brief mention, but it’s enough to ease our minds. As it stands, the only way to play Arena is in a galleon, which can be difficult for those players who don’t have three friends to play with and who might not want to team up with randoms.
Adding new ship types to Arena obviously presents some different problems. Putting sloops and brigantines in the same matches as galleons could result in some imbalanced play, which is problematic given the aim of Arena is to make a level playing field. However, creating different servers for the other two ships may split the population too severely. We’ll have to see how Rare chooses to address these problems. Alternatively, we’d love to see a 2-v-2 galleon mode where 8 players man a single ship.
Joe also spoke about how Rare wants to create a clearer picture of what lies ahead. The team wants to ensure there is a regular rhythm to content releases that players can get used to. While Sea of Thieves grew from strength to strength in 2018 and 2019, the content drops weren’t at a regular cadence. It sounds like, in 2020, players can expect some more regularity in the offers.
Rare wants to do more with Arena. At the moment it’s just about playing and earning Sea Dogs reputation, but it can be expanded further. When we got to speak with Joe before the Anniversary Update launched, he spoke about wanting more from the Arena platform. Joe and Senior Designer Shelley Preseton both spoke about tournaments and the desire to take Arena to new heights.
There’s also a whole community supporting Sea of Thieves that Joe absolutely loves. Things like memes about the rare Shrouded Ghost and the abundant Ruby Splashtail brings him and the team a lot of joy.
Even though the Anniversary Update has only just released, it sounds like the team is hard at work bringing players the horizon. If you’re looking for guides on Sea of Thieves, we’ve got you covered with our extensive Sea of Thieves Guide and Walkthrough hub.
Make sure you stop by the GamerHubTV YouTube channel for more developer interviews and gameplay from E3 2019.
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