Safer Seas FAQ

@aurash8863 said in Safer Seas FAQ:

Considering Guilds are coming out in a week's time - will Guilds be available in any form within Safer Seas or at all? Or will Guilds and their features be reserved to High Seas only?

Thanks for clarifying things :)

Ahoy! It is not possible to progress your Guild in Safer Seas as you cannot set sail on Guild Ships in the same way you cannot set sail on Captained Ships.

@loinbread said in Safer Seas FAQ:

Will there still be a timer that kicks idle players after ten minutes (or so)? If so, please consider disabling it for Safer Seas. There are no player slots being taken up on the server and the relaxed pace would really benefit players who have families and other commitments in the home.

Ahoy - I will add a section on Lazybeard to the FAQ. I had actually removed this section originally because the post is already very long and I wasn't sure how much it would be of interest, thanks for raising it!

How does Lazybeard work on Safer Seas?
Lazybeard will be the same in Safer Seas as it is on High Seas, if you are not active then you are removed from the game. This makes the experience equal between High Seas and Safer Seas, and helps prevent gameplay exploits such as earning Commendations whilst you aren’t even present (for example Sailing X Miles).

@phantaxus said in Safer Seas FAQ:

Are the maps on the map board the auto-generated maps or will maps from High Seas appear there?

I suspect auto-generated only, otherwise it would be possible to transfer Athena loot into Safer Seas

Ahoy! That's a great question - you won't see other player's maps in there, and there will not be any way to get treasure items that are High Seas only.

@vege00 said in Safer Seas FAQ:

would it not be possible to in theory earn pirate legend by purely playing safer seas by buying the monthly letter of recommendation from larinna with doubloons 10 times after reaching level 40?

Ahoy - There aren't as many ways to earn Doubloons in Safer Seas, but in theory you could save them up and then go to buy Letters of Recommendation in High Seas. You'd have to load into High Seas to buy the letters and then when you return to Safer Seas, you would not have access to any Pirate Legend content except the Hideout as a space. In order to draw a clear line for the FAQ, we've effectively approached it as whether or not you would need to load into High Seas to earn it.

@enemybritbomber said in Safer Seas FAQ:

Thanks for this, very informative!

Wouldn't it have been easier, and more informative for the people looking to play Safer seas, to have listed the "available" achievements, so they could directly see a list of what they will get to work on. Where as currently, each individual person has to comb through and see what commendations and achievements remain as to what they then can work on. Until some kind person of the internet does that list...

Could have just been you guys since you already had to go through the list, no?

Thanks again!

P.S For anyone that might think about being negative to my comment here, I will already have all achievements in the game prior to Safer Seas. Just looking for a more new person friendly list to pass around to the few people i'm trying to introduce to the game via Safer Seas.

Ahoy! I felt that the most important information is focused around what you cannot achieve, as the information about the existing commendations and achievements is already available to everyone. I felt it would be easier to see those that are unavailable and why - whereas with a list of everything you can get, you'd have to work out what is missing. The post would have simply been too long to include both :D

@thelunararmy said in Safer Seas FAQ:

Three points of clarification:

1. Are Ashen Chests and Ashen keys possible, despite no Ritual Skulls or Tomes?

2. If opening an Ashen Chest is possible, is it fair to say that Bags of Gold, Bags of Doubloons, and Ashen cups/coffers will be the only possible loot?

3. Is fishing for Ashen Keys still possible?

Thank you!

Ahoy, all great questions! Yes you can still find Ashen Chests and Keys (including fishing them up!). You can earn Gold Bags, Doubloon Bags and Ashen Trinkets from within them.

@dumbzilla7249 said in Safer Seas FAQ:

I believe that Safer Seas is a blessing in disguise, but only when done right. I've been wondering if there are any plans to grow this separate sandbox experience since there is so much potential to grow it further.

Having no real players around could give an empty vibe to new and veteran players. Sea of Thieves has always been a thrill because of the risk associated to losing loot or having to fight. This gives meaning to all the commendations that are unlocked, whether those commendations are for the OoS or Gold Hoarder. I hope this risk and social interaction will also seep a way into Safer Seas in the future, but in a different way.

Some features I've been thinking about that could at least enhance the social interactions and offer a more co-op and narrative oriented experience:

1. Safer Seas could offer crews within a guild to band together in a friendly environment;
2. Safer Seas could offer guild specific voyages like Athena or Reaper raids where at least one strong crew or multiple crews defeat bosses or ghost/skelly fleets;
3. Safer Seas could offer crews the ability to replay adventures as part of exclusive safer seas tall tales.

Ahoy! We feel really good about what Safer Seas offers in contrast to High Seas. We still believe very much in the shared world adventure of High Seas being the epitome of Sea of Thieves play, but want to give players more options and ways to enjoy our pirate world. The vision for Safer Seas is not to have specific gameplay features or experiences that are unavailable in High Seas. Safer Seas is a slice of High Seas - not a different game mode that evolves separately.

However, I completely get why you are excited about the idea of crewing up with a fleet; we have long talked about this idea too, it's inherently so inspirational! Whilst we're not working on anything like that right now, I don't think that Safer Seas is the only way we could approach this ;)

@veedrock said in Safer Seas FAQ:

The "Get off my lawn" commendation can be gotten with skeleton ships.

What's the reason for disabling tomes?

Ahoy! On the Commendation, great spot thank you. This was an error in the FAQ and has been corrected.

With regards to Ashen Tomes, Humble and Generous Gifts and Rag and Bone Crates - these are all thematically tied to the Reaper's Bones and award you Reaper's Bones reputation for selling them. In contrast the Ashen Chest is also a vehicle for other items that are not solely Reaper's Bones aligned (Gold, Doubloons, Ashen Trinkets), and so we felt this should still be obtainable.

@realstyli said in Safer Seas FAQ:

Just confused about some of the comms being unavailable that you can do against skeleton ships? Was this never an intended feature?

Surprised about the Shrouded Ghost comm being available but I guess that will avoid major disappointments.

Otherwise, this was all kind of assumed, but good to get confirmation.

Ahoy - You can earn commendations that are achievable through Skeleton Ships. This was just an error in the FAQ, but not an intended one! These should have been rectified in the original post now.

@pedroxtarrrr said in Safer Seas FAQ:

Will 30% also affect the monthly emissary value?

Ahoy - Emissary play is not available at all in Safer Seas, so you cannot earn anything towards your monthly ledger outside of High Seas.

@woodybus2033399 said in Safer Seas FAQ:

The section on Ashen Treaures Commendations:
Ashen Treasures Commendations

The following Commendations are unavailable in Safer Seas:

Key of Thieves - Use a stolen  Ashen Key.
All Tome Commendations

Why is Using a stolen Ashen Key unavailable but opening a Stolen Ashen Chest (don't remember the name) not unavailable also? Was this a post mistake or an oversight or intentional?

Question 2: With Safer Seas being a PVP free zone, Will the new World Event (skull of siren song( I honestly dont remember)) be available on there?

Ahoy! Thank you for pointing that out, was just an error and is indeed also unavailable; I have updated the FAQ now. To clarify:

Ashen Treasures Commendations

The following Commendations are unavailable in Safer Seas:

• Tome Raider - Open a stolen Ashen Chest.
• Key of Thieves - Use a stolen  Ashen Key.
• All Tome Commendations

And also to confirm that's correct, the Skull of Siren Song will not be available in Safer Seas.

@cpt-dawncaller said in Safer Seas FAQ:

@shelley-preston Are the Voyages that have you dig up a ritual skull and skull of destiny disabled then?

Ahoy - that's correct, these Voyages will be unavailable!

@general-keys735 said in Safer Seas FAQ:

Good that you limited Safer Seas.

Personally, I won't use it since I don't like the idea of having PvE servers.

One request, PLEASE limit players from doing the "Complete this Tall Tale 5 times" commendations.

In December, my hard-fought gold curse isn't going to mean anything anymore...

Your Gold Curse still represents your own personal journey that is unique to you. Sea of Thieves has and always will evolve over time, which means it's natural that players will reach milestones in slightly differing ways. As an example, there are more ways to get to Pirate Legend now than there used to be, but it's still a meaningful and memorable milestone for all who achieve it. Ultimately, we believe that all players should be able to enjoy and be rewarded for Tall Tales in Safer Seas.

@pack6519 said in Safer Seas FAQ:

@shelley-preston will players be able to sell to the reaper hideout or only at outposts?

Ahoy! You cannot sell any items to Reaper's Bones or Athena's Fortune in Safer Seas.

@cpt-dawncaller said in Safer Seas FAQ:

@triheadedmonkey Didn't some folks have a quest for the Skull of Destiny though? I assume if "somehow" you got a debloon quest for the ritual skull or the SoD then it just wont appear at the end of the voyage. I was hoping that for instance I hop on to High Seas grab the quests and pop back over to safer seas they would be locked and you cant start the voyage.

Ahoy! We have a twofold approach - the Voyages will be locked so you will not be able to propose them. For voyages or other features that have a chance to spawn High Seas only items, we also have a system that swaps these items in Safer Seas with a different treasure.

@aiko8999 said in Safer Seas FAQ:

Legend Of The Veil still available in Safer Seas?

Ahoy - you cannot access any Pirate Legend Voyages in Safer Seas, so you will not be able to play Legend of the Veil.

@nex-stargaze said in Safer Seas FAQ:

I know this isn't the place to be argumentative or anything like that, but I'm having a LOT of trouble behind the reasoning of very long-winded commendations like Seeker of Ancient Vaults, Hoarder of Barnacled Gold, and even World Event commendations like Hunter of [Ashen Lords] and Raider of Cursed Strongholds just... being freely available to complete without issue in what's supposed to be the tutorial. I understand some people may have not had to fight for some commendations in the past, but...

Vaults are one of the only high tier voyages that not only encourage stacking but have a very inherent risk of getting a lot of loot stolen from post voyage, which is still fairly healthy for the game.

Hoarder of Barnacled Gold has consistently been given advice to tackle the Ship Battle World Event to find more barnacled chests, enticing those not looking to do said world event currently to just steal from crews that go out of their way to obtain the same treasure.

The world event ones are even more concerning. Hunter of [Ashen Lords] is one of the stronger incentives to keep doing Ashen Winds currently, and if players could perform that on Safer Seas, they may have very little reason to do so on High Seas, which is supposed to promote conflict.

Then there's Raider of Cursed Strongholds, which is opening the vault of 120 Skeleton Forts. I recently completed this one because the current Stronghold World Events are so very poor in content and profit, and I barely have crew to do it with. I still had to fight over these forts even post Fort of Fortune because I sought to complete it for the commendation (and deny loot to any trespassers who dared to be in my cannon line).

A tutorial really shouldn't allow you to complete 720 commendations in pure peace, but it shouldn't be devaluing the entire point to keep doing content where contesting is intended and part of the experience of completing the game. Yes, we still have Reaper's Bones, Athena's Fortune, and their respective Hourglass Factions, but they're not world event related, they're more advanced portions of the game that newer players wouldn't even tread well on. The main 3 Trading Companies and most of the world events are still just as purposeful in the nature of the game as everything that is staying on High Seas, and it would be appropriate if there are enough restrictions to prevent players in Safer Seas from "getting too comfortable" there.

Ahoy! Whilst we do refer to Safer Seas as a tutorial, it's not Safer Seas only purpose and goal. Absolutely we believe that Safer Seas will be a tutorial for many new players, providing them a safe space to learn the ropes before heading to High Seas. But for others, Safer Seas will provide an ongoing space where they can enjoy the pirate world of Sea of Thieves in their own way. That might be exclusively Safer Seas, or it might be a mix of the two. I've personally played Sea of Thieves in some form at work and home for close to a decade and I'm extremely comfortable in High Seas, but I'm sure I'll be popping into Safer Seas for a chilled fishing session with friends, or to enjoy some narrative Tall Tales.

We've been building upon Sea of Thieves post-release for over five years now, in that time we've heard a growing community of players who just want to enjoy our world without the threat of other players - for a wide variety of reasons. We still believe in the original vision of Sea of Thieves being a shared world adventure game, and High Seas will always be the main way to play. We feel really good about where we've landed with what each has to offer and we do not believe that Safer Seas takes anything away from High Seas.

Whilst other crews are present in High Seas, there is no guarantee that they will interfere with you earning every Commendation. If a commendation was intended to require you to involve other crews, it would specifically have been authored to require it, such as 'Gunpowder Plot'. We totally appreciate that your experience might have been affected by other crews, but soe other players won't have been affected at all. And players in Safer Seas should be able to enjoy this content and earn Commendations for it.

There are plenty of exclusive rewards in High Seas and ultimately, we believe Sea of Thieves should be welcoming to as many players as possible, and that everyone should be rewarded for playing. After all - "The Sea Calls to All"!

@lethality1 said in Safer Seas FAQ:

Convenient Stores - Supplies from the Merchants will save you a wait. Buy every Resource and Commodity Crate!

I supposed this is a list that could be nit-picked to no end, but why would this one be excluded, for example?

Ahoy - You cannot buy the Commodities this refers to without being an Emissary. Given that Emissary play is not available in Safer Seas, there is no way to earn this achievement.

@grumpyw01f said in Safer Seas FAQ:

How do Ancient Coins work in Safer Seas?

Ancient Coins are earned at 100% Value in both Safer Seas and High Seas.

Ancient Skeletons will have the same chance to appear in Safer Seas as in High Seas.

Am I right in assuming that this means that Ancient skeleton odds are tied to individual players then? We wouldn't want Ancient skellies to be 6x more likely because there's only one crew to spawn on.

Ahoy - good question! Ancient Skeletons are spawned on a per crew basis. This means it doesn't matter how many crews are on the server, or how many players are in your crew, you have the same chance of encountering one.