The "What are you playing now?" Thread

[Cassity14]

Had a hilariously awesome encounter last night in Sea of Thieves. A skull cloud was in the distance when we loaded into the server, signaling that a raid was available, so we sailed toward it. As we approached, we saw two other galleons fighting near the skull island. One of them sank while we were still several minutes out. We made it to the island and engaged with the remaining ship. During that time, the other ship had respawned with its crew and made its way back to the island. They came near our ship and offered us a truce, saying that all they wanted was revenge. Apparently they'd been dueling with the other ship for about an hour off and on and just wanted them to die. We accepted. We had like two loot items on our ship and thus not a lot to lose.

I'd been stockpiling explosive barrels for fights like this and keeping them in our crow's nest (they can't blow up and make holes in the ship up there). As the enemy ship neared us, I grabbed a barrel and dove from the crow's nest into the water. I swam under the path of the enemy ship and grabbed the ladder on the side opposite from our ship. They were all busy looking toward my ship, so none of them saw me. I ran down into their hold, dropped the barrel, walked an appropriate distance away, and shot it. It exploded, creating four holes in their deck.

I quickly ran next to the stairs down from the hold and hid beside them. First guy comes down and doesn't notice me. I follow him and shoot him in the back with my blunderbuss. Instant kill. I see another guy using a bucket to remove water from the ship, so I wait until he runs back top side. I hide next to the stairs again and, when he appears to get more water, I shoot him. Instant kill. The ship is half full of water and sinking and I move onto the second deck. Third guy sees me and starts shooting. I use a wood column in the ship to dodge him and gun him down. The ship is gone now, so I jump off and go to shore.

I see their fourth and final guy running on the bowsprit. He jumps into the water. He's got a pistol, which is much better at a distance than my blunderbuss, so I do some bunny hopping and get in close. I shoot him once. He's still in the water. I see a shark come up behind him and the shark finishes the kill for me.

Shit like this is why I play games. I got to kill an entire enemy crew and sink their ship, all because I have a fondness for explosive barrels. We didn't even make any money from the run, as the skull disappeared while we were busy fighting other players, but it was still the most fun I've had with this damn game so far.

I've been on the fence, but this post will be the reason I end up buying the game sometime in the next week or 2.

 

[TyGuy]

I've been on the fence, but this post will be the reason I end up buying the game sometime in the next week or 2.

You can do a free 14 day trial and then pay 10 dollars a month for it which will include other Microsoft titles.

 

[TyGuy]

Had a hilariously awesome encounter last night in Sea of Thieves. A skull cloud was in the distance when we loaded into the server, signaling that a raid was available, so we sailed toward it. As we approached, we saw two other galleons fighting near the skull island. One of them sank while we were still several minutes out. We made it to the island and engaged with the remaining ship. During that time, the other ship had respawned with its crew and made its way back to the island. They came near our ship and offered us a truce, saying that all they wanted was revenge. Apparently they'd been dueling with the other ship for about an hour off and on and just wanted them to die. We accepted. We had like two loot items on our ship and thus not a lot to lose.

I'd been stockpiling explosive barrels for fights like this and keeping them in our crow's nest (they can't blow up and make holes in the ship up there). As the enemy ship neared us, I grabbed a barrel and dove from the crow's nest into the water. I swam under the path of the enemy ship and grabbed the ladder on the side opposite from our ship. They were all busy looking toward my ship, so none of them saw me. I ran down into their hold, dropped the barrel, walked an appropriate distance away, and shot it. It exploded, creating four holes in their deck.

I quickly ran next to the stairs down from the hold and hid beside them. First guy comes down and doesn't notice me. I follow him and shoot him in the back with my blunderbuss. Instant kill. I see another guy using a bucket to remove water from the ship, so I wait until he runs back top side. I hide next to the stairs again and, when he appears to get more water, I shoot him. Instant kill. The ship is half full of water and sinking and I move onto the second deck. Third guy sees me and starts shooting. I use a wood column in the ship to dodge him and gun him down. The ship is gone now, so I jump off and go to shore.

I see their fourth and final guy running on the bowsprit. He jumps into the water. He's got a pistol, which is much better at a distance than my blunderbuss, so I do some bunny hopping and get in close. I shoot him once. He's still in the water. I see a shark come up behind him and the shark finishes the kill for me.

Shit like this is why I play games. I got to kill an entire enemy crew and sink their ship, all because I have a fondness for explosive barrels. We didn't even make any money from the run, as the skull disappeared while we were busy fighting other players, but it was still the most fun I've had with this damn game so far.

This reminds me a bit of all the stories people have of Eve Online. Except this game has fun mechanics. Yet people are out there bitching endlessly about lack of things to do, no content, no vertical progression, no story, blah, blah.

They would have a point if this wasn't a multiplayer game. If all you did was sail the seas, fight some enemy npc's, collect loot, return for money. Then yeah, it would be super boring after awhile. The unpredictability of humans and those engagements is clearly what makes this game, and quite a few other games where people spend hundreds of hours doing the same thing over and over.

You do the same thing in basketball, hockey, football, ect over and over right? Wheres the carrot on a stick for basketball that is played non professionally?

 

[TyGuy]

@Jack Brickman Does shadow-play work with Sea of Thieves? If so, you should record some of your adventures. This is one of those games that is very viewer friendly.

One thing I hope they don't do is add pve content for the plebs that are complaining about the lack of content that might discourage crazy pvp battles because that is what makes this game.

 

[Jack Brickman]

You can do a free 14 day trial and then pay 10 dollars a month for it which will include other Microsoft titles.

It's also on that Xbox Game Pass thing, so you can pay ten bucks a month and play it that way. I just bought it, because I won't use Game Pass for anything else (don't have an Xbone) and didn't want to forget to cancel it.

@Jack Brickman Does shadow-play work with Sea of Thieves? If so, you should record some of your adventures. This is one of those games that is very viewer friendly.

One thing I hope they don't do is add pve content for the plebs that are complaining about the lack of content that might discourage crazy pvp battles because that is what makes this game.

I assume it works with Shadowplay, although I haven't tried.

As for the PvE stuff, I doubt they'll add anything that's strictly PvE, although I don't think it would hurt if they added some variation to the missions in the game. I think I'd be more inclined to do them if they were more fun and varied.

 

[TyGuy]

@Jack Brickman I haven't played this game yet because I haven't been able to play games this week at home. I'm seeing people claim they have played 5 + hours and not run into a single enemy ship. I'm calling bullshit on that. How hard is it to engage in PVP if that is your intent?

Everybody is complaining that there is nothing to do, sailing around aimlessly not finding anybody and i'm doubting that claim.

The skull Island seems like the marker if you want to raid enemy players.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I've never had any issues encountering other ships. Sometimes you'll go an hour or two without seeing one, but that's just the nature of the game. It's a big map and the game can't really predict which way you'll sail. We had a long stretch last night where there were no other ships around, but then we rounded an island and there was a sloop parked there, and then a little later we got into that battle with the two other ships that I detailed above.

Typically, if you're not encountering other players, I think the best way to do so is to take on missions, as I'm pretty sure the game will send you toward other players if you haven't seen one in a while. Sometimes the game will migrate you to another more populated server too, presumably if most or all of the other people on yours quit. You get some text on your screen and the game freezes for about ten seconds and then you're in a new server, but in the exact same location as you were on the old one.

I'm guessing some people are just sailing around looking for ships, but just doing missions is the way to go, as you'll organically encounter them while doing so and also make some money doing the missions.

And yeah, you'll often find other players around the skull island. Sometimes you'll get an island to yourself, but more often than not other ships have the same idea as you do.

 

[TyGuy]

I've never had any issues encountering other ships. Sometimes you'll go an hour or two without seeing one, but that's just the nature of the game. It's a big map and the game can't really predict which way you'll sail. We had a long stretch last night where there were no other ships around, but then we rounded an island and there was a sloop parked there, and then a little later we got into that battle with the two other ships that I detailed above.

Typically, if you're not encountering other players, I think the best way to do so is to take on missions, as I'm pretty sure the game will send you toward other players if you haven't seen one in a while. Sometimes the game will migrate you to another more populated server too, presumably if most or all of the other people on yours quit. You get some text on your screen and the game freezes for about ten seconds and then you're in a new server, but in the exact same location as you were on the old one.

I'm guessing some people are just sailing around looking for ships, but just doing missions is the way to go, as you'll organically encounter them while doing so and also make some money doing the missions.

And yeah, you'll often find other players around the skull island. Sometimes you'll get an island to yourself, but more often than not other ships have the same idea as you do.

How often would you say a skull Island appears?

 

[Jack Brickman]

How often would you say a skull Island appears?

Honestly, I have no idea. When I'm with a group, we'll often server hop until we find a skull island. I have seen it pop up during play, but I have no idea what the cool down timer is for it.

 

[TyGuy]

Honestly, I have no idea. When I'm with a group, we'll often server hop until we find a skull island. I have seen it pop up during play, but I have no idea what the cool down timer is for it.

You can server hop as you please?

 

[Jack Brickman]

You can server hop as you please?

As far as I know. We just leave the game we're in, create a new party, and search again. Usually time of day and weather are different, so it appears to be a new server.

 

[TyGuy]

As far as I know. We just leave the game we're in, create a new party, and search again. Usually time of day and weather are different, so it appears to be a new server.

I see, so you probably can’t do that with three other randoms.

 

[TyGuy]

My Xbox live account is Tygeezy. I need some pirates to sail with.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I see, so you probably can’t do that with three other randoms.

You can just leave the game and search again and it will pair you with three new randoms. I do that whenever I get a crew that either sucks or doesn't talk.

 

[TyGuy]

The randoms I’ve been paired with have been awful so far. One group threw me in the brig for some reason, and another group was just dicking around in a docked boat.

I haven’t come across anybody that uses mics yet.