When Sea of Thieves began Season Eight, it started a new chapter in the game with the Battle for the Sea of Thieves, with on-demand ship combat adding a new PVP option. The latest update seeks to balance out some aspects of the feature. Meanwhile, the team addresses some of the lopsided matchmaking issues.
Various balance changes in the new patch include making some discoveries less frequent, like Blunderbombs or Barrels of Plenty, but increasing the chance of finding better items. If you're defeated in battle, you'll appear on the new server at an outpost, so you should be able to restock and get back in quickly if you choose. This is, of course, if you can get matches in a reasonable time.
With a game like Sea of Thieves, the structure can make things distinctly off balance. Long queue times are frustrating players, since the new PvP option and faction support can earn players some new curses and rewards, if they’re able to get enough matches.
The Guardians of Fortune and Servants of the Flame are the two factions, and the team notes that some regions have a large imbalance between those siding with each faction. Another issue is that Rare divides the servers into what they call “stamps”. It’s not possible to migrate between stamps, so players you can matchmake with have to be on your same stamp.
One of the proposed solutions they are looking at is skill based matchmaking, with a variant of the ELO system, or providing an estimate of what matchmaking times might look like if you decided to queue. They will be opening up battles within the same faction as a fallback if a q with a rival faction is not found within a certain time. They’re also looking at building in cross-stamp migration. You’ll have to wait until early 2023 for these tweaks though.
Read more over at Sea of Thieves.
