With Rare moving away from weekly Sea of Thieves updates, it has been some time since the pirate adventure title has seen new content. But today, the brand new Halloween-themed 1.3.2 Bilge Rat Adventure update has arrived for the game, carrying along quite a few changes and bug fixes.
Named the Festival of the Damned, the new event revolves around the Ferry of the Damned vessel that transports players back to the world of the living when they meet an unfortunate end.
Now, depending on the way that pirates die on the Sea of Thieves, the ferry will light up with different colors. These lights can then be captured by players using their lanterns and brought back to the real world to be used for changing colors of ship lanterns, among other uses.
This being a Bilge Rat Adventure, time-limited ship and pirate cosmetics, as well as titles, are up for grabs while the event is underway. There are also new commendations that players can earn for receiving up to 110 doubloons for their troubles. An additional 50 doubloons are up for grabs for Pirate Legends through several exclusive legendary commendations.
As for other updates and changes, stormy weather has been turned up a notch for the duration of the event, and The Devil's Roar will now hand out better rewards more frequently to players, while rowboats and the sniper have been tweaked a bit to allow for faster animations. The visual effects surrounding the new cargo crates as well as the cannon tooltips have been altered to be clearer. Pirate make-up has also been added to allow for more customization options.
Here are the performance improvements and the massive amount of bug fixes included in the update, along with a short list of known issues that the developer is working on:
Performance Improvements
- The physics engine has been upgraded, improving overall client and server performance.
- Loading times have been improved.
- Significantly increased server migration blocking range of Skeleton Ship encounters.
Fixed Issues
- Oars no longer appear to disconnect from the Rowboat when rowing.
- Rowboats now correctly collide with the Kraken tentacles.
- Rowboat oar splash VFX will no longer trigger even when no one is in the boat.
- Rowboats now take significant damage when rammed by a Megalodon.
- Rowboats will no longer appear to float into the air following a server migration.
- After server migration players no longer jitter around after jumping on the rowboat.
- When using the rowboat oars, the player's shadow no longer appears detached from the oars.
- Migrating server (indicated by the on-screen riddle) with a message in a bottle / barrel map in your map radial no longer prevents in-progress voyages from counting towards Commendation objectives.
- Floating treasure can now be collected after server migration.
- Merchant Alliance crates on board a ship that sinks will now float to the surface and can be picked up.
- Cargo crates can now be collected from Merchants if you have a contract that requires a crate pickup.
- Reduced chance that Cargo Runs cloth crates will get wet when placed in a rowboat. Beware - rowing through rough seas can still dampen your cloth!
- Cargo Runs plant crates in water no longer fluctuate between losing and gaining health.
- Cargo Runs from a Message in a Bottle can now include all Cargo Run NPCs.
- Lethal blows to a pirate holding a rum crate will now damage the rum.
- When dropping Rum cargo, the damage SFX will no longer be heard even when the cargo is not damaged.
- When dropping Rum cargo, the damage SFX will no longer be heard even when the cargo is not damaged.
- When carrying Plant or Cloth Cargo underwater, the bubbles now have representative SFX.
- Seagulls are now louder.
- Players' hands no longer disappear when they look up whilst in the Ferry of the Damned.
- Reduced chance that Cargo Runs cloth crate will get wet when placed in a rowboat.
- Fixed visibility issues when viewing the date on the clock face of the Forsaken Ashes pocket watch when in shadows.
- Explosion VFX correctly occurs when a gunpowder barrel is held by a player/skeleton and it explodes.
- Seapost NPCs animations now have audio.
- Water will no longer appear too light or dark from a long distance.
- The Ghost livery will now appear correctly if applied to the ship after the Kraken livery.
- It is no longer possible to map the Push To Talk key to same bind as the row boat keys.
- Improved skeleton ship movement and obstacle avoidance.
- Pirates will no longer experience a stutter when entering water and colliding with the ground.
- Skeletons and players can no longer shoot through lower hull of the Sloop and Brigantine.
- In the Skeleton Fort vault on Keel Haul Island, players will no longer see a water plane above them.
- Climbing the ladder on Ancient Spire Outpost towards the tavern will no longer teleport you back to your spawn point.
- Player will no longer get stuck between rocks on Kraken's Fall.
- SFX when damaging rum is now more prominent.
- The Sanctuary Outpost Pirate Hideout entrance no longer becomes flooded with water when a player enters it directly after joining the game.
- It is now possible to collect cargo from the Merchant when you have an active Merchant contract.
- Players will no longer collide with the terrain when fired out of a cannon on Old Boot Fort.
- Rendering issues around the rowboat when landlocked in Blind Mans Lagoon have been resolved.
- Resolved a part of the terrain on Ancient Spire Outpost where players would get stuck and safe teleport.
- The animation for the second swing of the three hit combo with the cutlass now appears as intended.
- Whilst in the water in a Pirate Hideout lightning will now appear correctly.
- Stripes no longer appear in error at the top of some Riddle maps.
- Walls to the left of the Fort entrances now have collision as intended.
- It is no longer possible to get stuck on the terrain on Scorched Pass Island.
- Order of Souls NPCs now transition between animations correctly.
- The Spoils of Plenty store has been moved away from an area where Skeleton ship battles regularly occur.
Known Issues
- Trend Micro internet security antivirus may prevent users from being able to launch and play Sea of Thieves. Please read this Support Article for more information.
- Islands can appear in low LOD or not at all in occasions.
- All 'Commendation Unlocked' messages pop up twice
- Players can server migrate while looting a Skeleton Fort Vault causing the door to become relocked.
The update is a very hefty one as well, weighing in at 4.31GB on Windows 10 PCs and 5.19GB on Xbox One consoles.
Recently, Rare revealed some details on the next major content expansion heading for Sea of Thieves in November, Shrouded Spoils. The studio will also be present at Microsoft's upcoming X018 event on November 10 to announce what else is incoming for the game in the future.
