State of The Captain's Quarters

Ahoy there fellow Pirates!

After another great topic last week about the Gunpowder Skeletons, I started thinking about what more there was to write about for the Sea of Thieves. Writing an entire post for a simple Quality of Life update, like we had this week with patch 1.1.5, seems a bit too much. Specially because the updates are usually focussed around making things better. I had a talk with @KattTruewalker and she encouraged me to write about the different ideas that are floating around.

Then I got note of the following topic: Will there be a June edition for The Pirate Times, started by @Skulliah. After a bunch of back and forth between community members, myself included, wanting to see a roundup with community input I asked them to join in on me little adventure called 'The Captain's Quarters'.

This week marks the first The Captain's Quarters chapter made as a crew. Thank ye to our crew mates:

• @Skulliah
• @JetOrchidee97
• @sir-lotus
• @mr-shatango
• @murkrage (meself, obviously)

Here's this weeks The Captain's Quarters!

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(by @OmarDelPino, found here)

Sunken ships and their cargo

We've all sunken our share of vessels and some even had treasure to steal! Sinking a ship is an effective tool to reveal any hidden treasure a ship might have. Chests, Skulls and even the Fortress Key. Once a ship sinks, they'll all neatly float to the surface so it's easier for us to collect them.

While this is great, some community members have suggested that the stock of a vessel should float to the top in the form of barrels. This would look exactly like the barrels you can find in the sea, surrounded by a flock of seagulls. No, I don't mean the 1980's band of the same name. I mean the actual group of flying birds that come in two sizes: small and large. Large indicating a shipwreck and small indicating a bunch of floating barrels.

What could be an upside of such a feature? Well, for starters, the moment a ship has 'officially' sunken (i.e. the sunken sound has been heard), you can no longer obtain items from any barrel aboard the ship. So sinking a ship could, at the very least, give you a new batch of supplies to continue your voyage.

What could be a downside of such a feature? Honestly, I'm not really sure. Having more ways to gather supplies other than buying them seems like a good idea.

Topics by the community mentioning this:
Why not make ships drop Barrels of Bananas, Cannonballs and Planks when sank? by @OmarDelPino
Shooting down a ship rewards barrels by @Jack-LittleShoe
Floating Barrels by @NotSooFriendly1
Sinkin ship should always have resource barrels as loot. by @DuelRiceMaster

What should we do with the dru... sloop's brig

This week a topic was created by @dcr-lt-kanada named Replace Sloop Brig With Something More Useful. In the topic a very justified point is made: The brig on the Sloop is useless. Unless you got the Copperbeard error and then joined your friend's session, there really isn't a way to get into the brig on a Sloop.

So what else could we do with it? Well, the OP (Original Poster) suggested it could be used for an escape hatch. This would allow the Sloop to have a little more uniqueness over the Galleon. While I feel the Sloop's bottom deck could make those that suffer from claustrophobia very uncomfortable, it also enables you to easily defend yer ship if you need to. So I wouldn't say that an escap hatch is the best option.

Others in the same topic have mentioned more shelves, to showcase all yer hard earned trophies! Like those amazing Foul Bounty Skulls and Elaborate Flagons. A bed has been mentioned as well, I mean... the Galleon has one. Aren't the Sloop crews allowed to sleep? No rest for the wicked, I suppose?

Whatever the case, the brig on the Sloop feels like a useless element and, honestly, that's because it is.

(Original images by @archangel-timmy)

Bilge Rat Flags

Aye, I know what yer thinking: 'Oh for the love of Karen... Not another 'I want flag X in the game because of Y' topic. They never end well.' But hear me out, there's some really great ideas regarding flags, specifically the ideas regarding flags for the Bilge Rat Adventures.

So the idea is that a crew has the ability to fly the Bilge Rat flags to indicate they are interested in working together, but not really looking to make friends. Something similar actually was in the game; Shark Hunter Flag. Crews could fly the Shark Hunter Flag to indicate they were looking for another crew to kill Megan back in 'The Hungering Deep'.

@archangel-timmy created a whole bunch of concepts for flags that we could use in-game that are all related to in-game content. The eight flags you can see above all came from him. If you want to look at them in more detail, or check out the other flags he created, go check out the imgur album.

Topics by the community mentioning this:
Bilge Rat Flag by @clav1cus
Bilge Rat Flag by @anubis316
New Flags, Updated Flags, and Flag Meanings by @archangel-timmy

(Image by Windows Central)

Random Pet Generator

We have all seen the above image at least once in our Pirate career: the Pirate Generator. We used the tool to create our unique looking Pirates and Rare has gone out of their way to make sure that no two players look the same (apart from clothing, of course).

Last week a topic was created by @jettyswagger talking about this very feature, but with a little twist: it generates Pets, not Pirates (both start with the letter P, it's confusing). We know from articles like these over on Windows Central that Pets were going to be the first feature added to the game that players could buy with real money. Rare could, of course, choose to create a few basic animals: parrot, monkey, dog and cat. We would all have the same pets and they would all look the same.

That is where the Pet Generator could come in! Starting out with a few 'base' model animals, they could all be unique and different through the use of the generator. Something like this already works in a different game called 'The Sims 4'. For those that are unfamiliar with the franchise, there is a feature called 'Create a Pet' which is based off of the 'Create a Sim' feature. Both features have the option to randomize the outcome, so each model is unique. In other words: it could definitely work!

What this means is that spending your hard earned real life money on a pet, gets you your own unique pet and not the same pet that everyone else already has. Pretty neat, if you ask me.

Tavern Tale of the Week

Our crew is going to try and pick out a tavern tale to highlight each week from now on. Tales that will lighten up yer salty mood because you just got blasted to the depths while ye were turning in that golden piggy you called Bacon. This week's tale is called: 'Matey, where's me sloop?'

I find meself laughin' at this as I set perched upon this tavern stool and laugh a bit with friends and a bit of grog. "So, like I was sayin' I set about me day handlin' mostly contracts. Just needed gunpowder an' a gold snake." I let that soak in a bit as those gathered around me listen. "So, go on lass." grumbles one of the privateers. "Okay, hold yer grogg." I smirk slightly. "So I was windin' down the day and headed out to Devil's Ridge for a bit of a leisure voyage and... " A moment's interruption, "And you was attacked by the kraken?" I shake me head, "Nooo, the megalodon." Gasps are heard, even from the deepest reaches of the tavern. With their full attention now I continue.

Read the full Tale in the original post by @tenableclown15

Your weekly tankard refill on Sea of Thieves talk

This week's TCQ has been a joined effort by a few community members and any future chapters will be a joined effort as well. I want to thank the crew for their input on the different ideas that we think currently stand out and could enrich the game moving forward. Obviously there's more ideas that are interesting and we will most certainly cover them in a future chapter!

What do you think the ideas that have been highlighted? Let us know in the comments, maybe even show your appreciation in the original posts we linked in the different sections.

We'll be trying out new things with The Captain's Quarters and we would love to hear your feedback! Let us know in the comments what you liked and what we could do better next time.

Next week will be all about 'The Sunken Curse', our third Bilge Rat Adventure!

Smooth sailin' to ye