I was just watching a streamer on pc playing Sea of Thieves.
And i was a bit shockend about the loading times.
I took the guy a second from entering the door on the ferry of the dammed back to his ship.
I have played many many hours on my Xbox one x and waiting for ages and hearing my ship gaining water.
Is there anything that can be done about that because that is a huge advantage. Besides the aiming and movement.
@weaxle78 A lot of the delays for spawning are reliant on your hardware. The biggest issue with Xbox consoles including the X is the hard drive. They come with installed older slower hard drives. I installed an external SSD Drive on my one x and cut my load times in half or better. And on my PC, my load times are even faster yet. A lot of times though, it is also dependent on what is happening around you. Ship battles, kraken, close to an island or active vulcano. But the biggest impact is your setup.
@weaxle78 said in Loading times:
Is there anything that can be done about that because that is a huge advantage. Besides the aiming and movement.
Either buy an SSD to your xbox or buy PC.
The respawn time varies quite a bit from patch to patch depending on what they've changed. I think imposing a minimum 'black screen time' value could be a good compromise but then you'd likely still see complaints that some people load slower than others which, as a user of a 7+ year old PC at the moment, is just a fact of life.
The recent dev update said that the next update will reduce the size of the install considerably which may improve loading time (as less time would be spent reading off the drive) but those gains might be lost depending on how the assets are packed under the new format.
They need to just go ahead and switch the term "cross play" to " cross domination" due to the huge advantages pc users have. RARE knows what's going on and turns a blind eye to it. It's a joke the way they dance around the issues. As of now you basically have to team with a pc user to stay competitive against other pc user ships. That's not cross play........... It's BS!
The implementation is just unprofessional.
This is how it currently works:
1: You die
2: The game unloads the world
3: The game loads the ferry of the damned
4: You spawn on the ferry
5: The door opens (a specific time after your death)
6: You enter the door
7: The game unloads the ferry
8: The game loads the world
9: You respawn
Thats simply not how it should work. Until 7 there should be no significant difference depending on the setup but 8 makes this unfair for players with longer loading times.
This would a better implementation:
1: You die
2: The game loads the ferry of the damned asynchronously without unloading the world
3: You spawn on the ferry
4: The door opens (a specific time after your death)
5: You enter the door
6: You respawn immediately
7: The game unloads the ferry
This would solve all the problems. Unreal supports async loading of levels. It should be an easy task to do so.
@garv3 I completely agree with you. It shouldn't work like that and maybe with the coming patch this will be adressed and fixed.
Rare's used Unity for a long time into development and then shifted to unreal angine. There's a good chanse that either this is the cause of this problem or the X-box/ minimal spec PC can't handle the load.
I could also speculate that it has to do with how the ferry of the damned used to be designed as a sort of do work here and you'll go free place making it more asset heavy so unloading the world made more sense.
@Weaxle78 Don't worry too much, a lot of PC gamers don't have the heavy rigs a streamer has. Some X-Box players have SSD's and load quicker and some people have an X-Box one X that's beefier.
On top of that perception can be realy bad. If you're relaxed watching a streamer time will seem to pass more quickly, but if you're being attacked and you're in a hurry to repair/ bail get out of dodge every minute seems like an hour (I've got the same problem and I've got a beefy PC with SSD) Hope this helps a bit.
Otherwise, look up the specs for the PC that streamer has, buy that and hook it up to your TV and plug in your X-Box controller ^_^
I know I don't have the money for it but you'd be the man! :-)
@hynieth Yeah, switching from one Engine to another is never easy. Switching from Unity to Unreal is a hard task. I suppose they were not able to reuse anything but the graphics and audio assets. The code has to be rewritten because you can't just convert C# to C++.
But this particular problem is probably not caused by this switch since Unity supports async scene (term for levels in Unity) loading as well.
I'm hoping the February 6th patch will help mitigate some of the optimisation problems and maybe that will help with respawning.
As Hynieth said, it's partly perception in the moment and partly that a lot of streamers invest more money in their rigs than the average PC gamer - the vast majority of PC players have fairly modest specs.
@realstyli said in Loading times:
I'm hoping the February 6th patch will help mitigate some of the optimisation problems and maybe that will help with respawning.
As Hynieth said, it's partly perception in the moment and partly that a lot of streamers invest more money in their rigs than the average PC gamer - the vast majority of PC players have fairly modest specs.
So basically you are saying pay to win. I don't think that should be what is the mind set of rare at this point. I hope the next update will fix this issue.
But I don't think it will haven't heard Nate mention anything about this in his developer update. I think I have never heard anyone complaining about it.
@cpt-parr0t-head said in Loading times:
They need to just go ahead and switch the term "cross play" to " cross domination" due to the huge advantages pc users have. RARE knows what's going on and turns a blind eye to it. It's a joke the way they dance around the issues. As of now you basically have to team with a pc user to stay competitive against other pc user ships. That's not cross play........... It's BS!
I don't think they're turning a blind eye too it at all. They're massively condensing the client; this SHOULD in theory reduce load times drastically considering it will be a fresh clean install.
Top this off with a previous comment of get the SSD upgrade; I can confirm that this is a MASSIVE improvement over the old HDD. Doing this and getting the Elite controller is such a massive advantage that I would not be surprised if the new controllers / X-box that come out in the future have all these features because of how insanely potent they really are to game play.
There are some other things that Rare could do and very well may do in the Feb 6th update such as PTT option for X-box client, and an some alternate graphics modes for X-box Enhanced / X-box S.
Unfortunately I doubt the X-box 1 (original version) will see much improvement graphically due to its hardware being 7 or 8 years out of date. The OG system launched in 2013, and it's not getting any younger or better.. However the S model and Enhanced models are a very nice improvement with a ton of extra far more modern graphical power.
@cpt-parr0t-head said in Loading times:
They need to just go ahead and switch the term "cross play" to " cross domination" due to the huge advantages pc users have. RARE knows what's going on and turns a blind eye to it. It's a joke the way they dance around the issues. As of now you basically have to team with a pc user to stay competitive against other pc user ships. That's not cross play........... It's BS!
This post seems to be a bigger joke, the subject has been beat into the ground and proven the advantage isn't as big as some people make it out to be. Situations are much worse when your mad ;)
@swimplatypus7 said in Loading times:
There are some other things that Rare could do and very well may do in the Feb 6th update such as PTT option for X-box client, and an some alternate graphics modes for X-box Enhanced / X-box S.
I'd like to see it done for party chat on Xbox One, being able to be in an Xbox Party, and still hear and have PTT in-game on PC is awesome. It would be great when I'm playing with my Xbox buddies so that they could hear everything too and I don't end up being a translator/go between.
Unfortunately, this would have to be done at a system level by Microsoft, due to how parties work on the console.
But the Xbox One X enhancement (60FPS, 1080p) is a good call. Could very well be the "surprise" Joe Neate mentioned and would make sense if they are optimising the game further that it would be a reality at last.
And, yeah, hoping loading times improve as a result on all systems.
@realstyli said in Loading times:
@swimplatypus7 said in Loading times:
There are some other things that Rare could do and very well may do in the Feb 6th update such as PTT option for X-box client, and an some alternate graphics modes for X-box Enhanced / X-box S.
I'd like to see it done for party chat on Xbox One, being able to be in an Xbox Party, and still hear and have PTT in-game on PC is awesome. It would be great when I'm playing with my Xbox buddies so that they could hear everything too and I don't end up being a translator/go between.
Unfortunately, this would have to be done at a system level by Microsoft, due to how parties work on the console.
But the Xbox One X enhancement (60FPS, 1080p) is a good call. Could very well be the "surprise" Joe Neate mentioned and would make sense if they are optimising the game further that it would be a reality at last.
And, yeah, hoping loading times improve as a result on all systems.
Man I would be soooooooooo pumped if they increased the frame rate for a trade off to go down to 1080P instead of the ridiculous 4K.
As for the PTT, what we have done to go around this problem is the addition of a smart phone app that gives us Voice over IP connectivity while leaving the in game chat on, but we turn off our mic so that we can hear everything yet communicate with out the enemy hearing our scheming.
Works great as a work around, but sure would be nice to have a default platform solution.
@capndeath Cap I'm far from mad, more disappointed. You see I've achieved nearly everything this game has to offer (PL on May 6th, Athena 10 over the Summer and have completed every Bilge Rat adventure to date) and have done so in a class manner. Between Alpha, Pioneer and the actual game I've logged in a good 3500 hours plus. The crews I've sailed with ( @Murphy576 , @Shugmat @BRADBRE-360, @Wheelhause, @IceMan-0007, @Punk4lif3, and many others) have sunk 1000's of ships and looted millions. During the days we've helped Greenhorns get their Sea Legs and by night wreaked havoc on servers from Australia to the USA. We've represented this game well and embraced all facets. With all that said I believe my input holds far more weight than that of an "Angry" pirate. G'day to you mate.
@cpt-parr0t-head said in Loading times:
@capndeath Cap I'm far from mad, more disappointed. You see I've achieved nearly everything this game has to offer (PL on May 6th, Athena 10 over the Summer and have completed every Bilge Rat adventure to date) and have done so in a class manner. Between Alpha, Pioneer and the actual game I've logged in a good 3500 hours plus. The crews I've sailed with ( @Murphy576 , @Shugmat @BRADBRE-360, @Wheelhause, @IceMan-0007, @Punk4lif3, and many others) have sunk 1000's of ships and looted millions. During the days we've helped Greenhorns get their Sea Legs and by night wreaked havoc on servers from Australia to the USA. We've represented this game well and embraced all facets. With all that said I believe my input holds far more weight than that of an "Angry" pirate. G'day to you mate.
Oh I more than respect your achievements and time in this game, just really tired of hearing the pc advantage raging. You admitted yourself you have sunk many ships so you have got to know it's not as bad as some make it out to be. I play both pc and xbox but for me the controller is just not my thing.
@capndeath said in Loading times:
@cpt-parr0t-head said in Loading times:
@capndeath Cap I'm far from mad, more disappointed. You see I've achieved nearly everything this game has to offer (PL on May 6th, Athena 10 over the Summer and have completed every Bilge Rat adventure to date) and have done so in a class manner. Between Alpha, Pioneer and the actual game I've logged in a good 3500 hours plus. The crews I've sailed with ( @Murphy576 , @Shugmat @BRADBRE-360, @Wheelhause, @IceMan-0007, @Punk4lif3, and many others) have sunk 1000's of ships and looted millions. During the days we've helped Greenhorns get their Sea Legs and by night wreaked havoc on servers from Australia to the USA. We've represented this game well and embraced all facets. With all that said I believe my input holds far more weight than that of an "Angry" pirate. G'day to you mate.
Oh I more than respect your achievements and time in this game, just really tired of hearing the pc advantage raging. You admitted yourself you have sunk many ships so you have got to know it's not as bad as some make it out to be. I play both pc and xbox but for me the controller is just not my thing.
Raging is not the intention when I started this thread.
And i am not saying that xbox players are always losing to PC players.
There are some PC players using anhancements like macro's, monitors with crosshairs.
there are even some XBOX players using Advanced controllers which is also an advantage over normal conrollers.
some people have just better skills.
Besides all of that it would be nice when loading times are consistent and equal to all.
And I hope this will be fix on the 6th.
@weaxle78 loading speeds is based on the hardware people use.
The latest xbox one series has also faster speeds than a original. People installing and using SSD also gain in performance both on PC as xBox.
Streamers tend to have top of the line systems, seen streamer setups of over 10.000 (o.O) and therefore isn't your average PC. They tend to load quicker than everyone else.
It is an advantage and Rare is working hard to minimize the impact, but I doubt it will be completely resolved due to how hardware performance will always matter.
@elysianlegion89 As per the Forum Rules we all must remain respectful towards all other community members when posting on the forums. I have moderated your post as it was not in accordance with these rules, failure to remain respectful of all community members will result in a temporary ban from the forums.
Please read and abide by the forum rules going forward.
Thanks!
@weaxle78 Using anyone as a base for comparison is not a good idea.
First, the load times you are mentioning are subjective at best. Sometimes I load within a few seconds sometimes 10 seconds. Even PC players get black screened.
A lot of players think that PC has a huge advantage due to load times but its actually pretty even. I've tested it out and I can confirm that the timers are the same with a margin of error of like 1 second or so, and this is only when going from ferry to ship or mermaid to ship. Again that is only because of the game itself deciding to be shorter or longer with load times.
PC Player -
Load Time to Ferry - Wait time in Ferry - Respawn
2 to 3 seconds - 25 seconds roughly - 3s or 10s or longer
XBoX Player -
Load Time to Ferry - Wait time in Ferry - Respawn
5 to 10 seconds - 15s or less - 3s or 10s or longer
The timer for a respawn starts when the character dies. Not when you load into the ferry. So if we both die at the same time but I load into the ferry 10 seconds faster than you, the door will still open at the same time for both of us. The respawn from ferry and from mermaid are relatively the same across all platforms. Sometimes its longer or shorter depending on the game itself. There are factors that go into where and when it decides to spawn you on your ship.
The only platform I know off that has a significant disadvantage to load times is the original XBoX One. Some but not all. It could be due to lag or due to hardware.
So please do not compare or suggest that PC has some overwhelming advantage over load times.
@vz-blue-vz First, put the game on an SSD. I run on an OG Xbox One and my load time is 3-5 seconds. Sometimes less. Second, this is a very old thread. It is against the forum rules to revive old threads. One reason is because the game changes over time and issues and solutions raised in old threads may no longer be relevant.
Ahoy @vz-blue-vz,
As per the Forum Rules we all must remain respectful towards all other community members when posting on the forums. I have moderated your post as it was not in accordance with these rules, failure to remain respectful of all community members will result in a temporary ban from the forums.
Please read and abide by the forum rules going forward.
Thanks!
