Today's Update for Sea of Thieves Is WEIRD.

Rare looks at hunters call: "screw you in particular"

I think for Quality of Life they should change the cosmetic equip menus. This is especially for weapons. There should be an option to select skins for your 4 weapons and a menu where you just select the weapons. This would make it easier for weapon swapping(since some people have too many skins).

This update just makes already long standing content feel fresh. Diving to a bounty voyage then getting slightly new loot and rebalanced values just makes it feel much better

I'm an older player (2017-18 era) that returned to the game when Safer Seas released since I can switch between High and Safer depending on the vibe I want. I'm enjoying the game, and the bit of the update I've played so far. I'm of the thought that the changes they've made for S11 are QoL for updates they have planned in the future. I did find that the Sea Fort voyage is quite nerfed if you dive to it, rather than just sailing there (I just did a dive as a test, don't know why you'd dive to one since most of them are only a couple of minutes from an outpost). Instead of the 4 chests, 4 skulls, 4 merchant chests and the other misc loot you get (plus the locked room at the top), it's only 4 items from one of the factions and no extras, room or otherwise, at least that's what I've seen from mine and from a dude on reddit (I was level 44 for Order, his was 75 for Gold Hoarder). I got 4 skulls in mine, with 2 being higher value new ones, 2 being lower value. I def think it's that way to discourage diving all over the place, or maybe it has some weird scaling after you prestige the faction since me and someone 30 levels higher got the same loot value. Wonder if the other voyages are the same way? I'll have to test some. Edit: After thinking it over, I now see why the rewards are likely lower. Since dives are meant to facilitate a drop-in drop-out style of play for those that don't have as much time and can onl play for less than an hour, the rewards are lower to likely stop abuse from the rest of the playerbase, like I thought above.

I think this is the most substantial system update since Ships of Fortune. Was it needed right now for the game? No, but it certainly brings in some much wanted changes for me. I'm surprised about how many QoL features there are. Now I'm just hoping for the Flameheart Season (which might line up with the 6th anniversary).

I am honestly shocked any time I hear someone say they are sad ab the new quest system bc they enjoyed going to the specific faction to get the quest... Any time I did it, I clicked through as quickly as possible to get the quest I needed and then went back to my ship, it's not like I was engaging with the NPC in any meaningful way whatsoever.

I think they could give us at least costume on lvl 100 and then separate parts for it on every other 100 or 50 lvl

As a day 1 player who hit legend chasing pigs. Rare needs to work on getting a cohesive vision for this games future. Its good but i felt the same years ago. Im just not sure they really know where they are going with it.

We need distinction rings to be useable with skeleton curse. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I think this is what the game needed. I’m in full support as no one has really the time to sail for hours

if nothing else it hurts the immersion a decent amount

The diving is just a shortcut to start your adventure. Sometimes voyages sent you FAR away. Now its not a 15 minute trip just to try and do things. Once you have loot or supply crates you don't wanna lose, diving becomes disincentivized. I personally see this update as a framework upon which they can start building anew. The community is clamoring for new things to do, not just new ways to do the old things. Being able to add new things and have ready-to-go categories in which to drop them streamlines the process. I think season 12 we may see new things to do for all the factions. At least, I hope so.

Honestly i don't even know what else to expect from the game anymore for season 12. The past few season have completely changed the game fundamentally being the pvp system, opting into pvp, opting OUT of pvp, and now completely changing voyage and pve. They've hit pretty much everything there is to change about the game, I don't know what else they will do next other than brand new content or bringing back old content (arena)(reaper runs)(wall banging (LOL)).

Been playing some today, and the new update is actually fun! I think this update will revitalize interest from me for a long time.

The skelly pajamas do look fuckin badass. But the bucket stays on

It does take from the immersion, but the bite size dives are great. I got on before I got ready for work and put up Athena emissary, dove to a sea fortress and got like 3 Athena items, sold them and my rank 2 flag and went off to the ready for work. It brings the ability to do quick runs alongside my longer sessions thru the week

Didn't know there were actual insane maniacs out there doing the caged animal quests

Having just jumped into SoT in the last couple weeks with my son I appreciate the focus on shorter yet rewarding sessions. Our time to play is usually limited to 2 hours at most. The next thing I'd love to see especially for players with captain ships is a form of persistent universe. Similar to star citizen!

I don’t think it was necessary persay, but it lets players jump right into the thick of things. It doesn’t remove sailing, but it makes getting to where you wanna go a much quicker and cleaner jump

This is a small thing but the removal of voyages Kinda hurts my imersion a bit. Like the little chore of going to a vendor and buying a voyage, then setting it on the captains table made the game feel like you were there in a sense i can't place. But I know that now that the captains table is functionally a computer preloaded with all the voyages you can do, is a weird change and makes the game feel less immersive.