Sea of Thieves is an extremely social game that encourages players to make friends with other pirates at sea or betray their own alliances for gold and glory. The only catch is that players are limited to a maximum of four players on one ship. While it is technically possible for players to get more than four players on the same server, this is a major hurdle, and it is probably not one that will change any time soon.
Right now, if players want more than four players on one server, they need to find another player on their own ship. Using the social features of Xbox, the outsider can invite one of the friends of the galleon to their ship, then sign out and dismiss the new member of the party. It requires a galleon to chase another ship, negotiate with its owner and go through the rigmarole to invite the outsider a fifth friend to their ship.
At the moment, Rare has ‘no specific plans’ to change it, but creative director Mike Chapman said in an interview with Polygon that the studio “has all the different ways you would expect in terms of changing ships in. the world and its expansion, discussed in detail. crew sizes. ”
Part of the issue comes from clarity – when a player sees a galleon in Sea of Thieves, Rare wants them to be able to understand right away, which means they can end up with four players and react accordingly. Another part of the release comes with Xbox Live infrastructure and netcode.
“It’s more complicated than we thought in terms of Xbox Live session sizes, and all that,” Chapman said. “It’s quite complicated.”
This does not mean that Rare will never offer an option for players to start the game with a fleet or a six-person ship. But it will take a lot of work from Rare, and there are no updates on the horizon. Right now, players will have to get used to playing with three of their buttons, or chasing ships down the horizon to create their own fleet. In June of 2020, Rare launches private servers for content creators. The feature enables streamers or community figures to generate a code and share it with community members so they can join a Sea of Thieves server, though one that does not award gold or reputation out of search.