All Sea Of Thieves Character Models
Alena Taves
The Infinite Pirate Generator, or IPG for short, is the character creation system in Sea of Thieves. Instead of individually creating their character, players will have to choose their pirate from an essentially infinite system of randomly generated character models.
After launching the game for the first time, every player is taken to the Infinite Pirate Generator where they choose their permanent pirate from a wheel of randomly generated models. Players will be presented with 8 randomly generated models to circle and choose through. If they are not satisfied with the 8 models on offer, they can generate a selection of 8 new models by pressing the designated button for Create New Pirates below. Players also have the choice to favourite any models by pressing the designated button over the chosen pirate. Any favourited models will get a yellow circle below their feet and will stick around after each newly round of generated models.
Once a player model has been chosen, the player will be taken back to the main menu. Once accepted, the model can only be changed with the purchase of a Pirate Appearance Potion from the Pirate Emporium.
With the February 2020 Crews of Rage (Content Update), the Pirate Appearance Potion was added as an exclusive Pirate Emporium purchase. The potion allows players to return to the Infinite Pirate Generator through the log-in screen and reset their character without resetting all of their in-game progress. The potion costs 149 Ancient Coins, which is a premium currency acquired through real money purchases or from extremely rare Ancient Skeletons.
There are various unique characteristics that can be generated by the Infinite Pirate Generator. The basic randomised features are the body shape, size, age, skin tone and the shape of the face. Hair, hair dyes, clothing and tattoos can also be randomly provided, although these can be switched for free from the Vanity Chest and Clothing Chest once in-game.
The Infinite Pirate Generator can generate unique hair dyes that cannot be purchased from Outpost shops. Once overwritten by other hair dyes, these unique dyes can be reverted back to when removing a hair dye in the Vanity Chest. Aside from lighter shades of regular dyes, pirates can also spawn with three shades of aged two-tone dyes, which can normally only be purchased by Pirate Legends from the Athena's Fortune Hideout. Male pirates have a chance for having an unique 5 o'clock stubble beard, which is permanently on their character.
The Infinite Pirate Generator can create unique lips and teeth for pirate models. Female pirates can have either dark or pink, large lips, or no lips at all, whereas male pirates spawn with either large pink lips or none at all. The APG can also generate pirates with missing or no teeth at all. Beauty marks can appear above the mouth.
The Infinite Pirate Generator can create various types of eyes, ranging from barely visible eyes, to large, wide open eyes. The APG can also generate a blind left eye (the side where an eyepatch can be worn). Pirates can also have unique, permanent makeup around their eyes in the form of dark eye-liner.
We each were lead into one of the twelve sound proof booths and got comfy awaiting go time. On top of the equipment I mentioned each booth had a green and red light to signal when to start and stop playing. We each sat down in our individual booths, put on our headsets and awaited the the green light.
The televisions were off as we waited to start but the game was running. During the wait we had the chance to really appreciate the incredible sound design that will be in Sea of Thieves. From our headsets came the sounds of wind, parrots, crabs scurrying through the sand, flies and rustling foliage. Before being given any visuals we were already immersed in this pirate world Rare has been creating.
The green light turned on and with it the television. I was treated with a gorgeous beach lush with green plants, pink flowers, rich coarse sand and the other players in my crew. Being excited to play Sea of Thieves for the first time, my crew in the game all jumped around each other admiring the character models and switching through our inventory which consisted of a mug full of grog and a wooden plank.
Each of our characters were very unique and extremely detailed. One of us had an eyepatch, body full of tattoos, a scary looking metal claw for a hand and a peg leg while another one of us looked a little less menacing with some small piercings and a bandana wrapped around their head. This level of detail into the character models really made your crew feel like a real ragtag bunch of pirates. It also made it easy to distinguish one another especially against other crews.
Last thing to do was grab the helm before we ran into some rocks. One of us volunteered to be captain and steer the ship. We all decided to head to this large island on the horizon. Another visual queue we noticed while playing was the ship wheel had gold pegs that are visible when the wheel is positioned in the left most, right most and center position. Along with the visual queue was haptic feedback in the controller. Without these hints you might find yourself continuously swerving left or right while sailing.
The ship battles themselves are glorious to watch and be apart of. Puffs of smoke billow from the cannons, cannonballs fired from the enemy ship whizzing by your face and pieces of wood flying in the air from contact. All of this happening while you skim by rocks and islands with the waves crashing over the bow.
We start setting up our second pass, but are rained on by cannonballs from the other ship while moving into range. I hear the sound of leaking water again and hop off the cannon and head down stairs to start repairing the holes. My crew mates let me know our ships are about to run parallel to each other. I can hear the cannons being exchanged and the hull is filling with water. I run up to the higher level of the hull as the lower is filled all the way with water. This higher level is also riddled with holes and the ship really starts to sink. Some of us make it off this ship but I unfortunately was stuck in the hull as we capsized to the depths of the ocean. Shortly after my screen turned dark we all spawned back on a new beautiful beach.
After the first play through, we all were amazed at how easy it was to command the ship! No one was assigned a role. In one moment I could set the sail length, run up to the crows nest to spot a ship and jump down to fire cannons at this same ship. This freedom really made it easy and fun to sail a ship in Sea of Thieves. Every encounter was fluid and you always felt like you were doing something for the group.
With each session we learned more about the mechanics and how better to utilize them. In our first play through my crew was just firing cannons blindly at the enemy ship. It turns out that if you shoot the bottom part of the ship first, it will fill the lower hull causing the ship to sink and fill the next level of the hull. Makes sense right?
Another strategy we implemented on our second play was to raise the sails half way. When the sails are down the captain cannot see so other players help direct them from the front of the ship or in the crows nest. Raising the sails halfway did cut down our ship speed, but allowed the player on watch the freedom to put their efforts elsewhere. Speaking about the person steering the ship and their view, the captain could help direct the cannon shooters with the angles of their shots as the helm was raised higher than the cannons.
One of the biggest takeaways after playing three different sessions with this build of Sea of Thieves is the foundation of ship sailing and battling is remarkably intuitive. It was really impressive to me that myself and three other crew members in a matter of minutes were able to traverse the game world with ease in our huge ship with zero prior knowledge.
Another thing I am left with is Sea of Thieves is a blast to play. Since playing I have a terrible itch to play the game again. The cooperative gameplay, huge open world, first person view and pirate theme make it easy to immersive yourself into the game. With just the focus on ships there was still always something fun to experience. You could be coordinating who is steering and who is firing cannons while a barrage of enemy cannonballs fly towards your ship. In one moment you are ensuring your sails are catching wind so you can quickly maneuver around an island for cover, and, in the next, yelling to the captain that you are about to hit a small island while the captain is yelling back at you to aim your sights up because your cannonballs are falling short.
The cooperative play and communication during tense moments like these makes Sea of Thieves a memorable and very rewarding experience. No matter what role you are playing in that moment your actions help contribute to sinking or evading an enemy ship. And, of course, you and your crew can avoid all the commotion and just sail in the open waters looking for islands to explore.
Sea of Thieves is a gorgeous game with extremely well thought-out and implemented gameplay. If you have been reading any Sea of Thieves news, you have heard Sea of Thieves is based on player driven stories. I can confirm that the sandbox Rare has created more than facilitates this gameplay. Each crew had different epic stories to tell after each session. Someone I played with recalled when he accidentally fell off their own ship onto ours, but it worked out because they were able to lower our anchor and swim back to theirs. Another person wanted to let everyone know how irresponsible his crew was. While he was busy steering the ship into safety, his crew was drunkenly trying to set the sail angles to gain speed.
One of my favorite experiences was when all three crews we were playing with agreed to a truce and met up in a tavern for drinks. As soon as the two other crews started to down their grog, I signaled to my crew to bail and commandeer the three ships docked outside. My face started to hurt from laughing so much as we looked back to see the other two stranded crews. I swear I am not that evil in person.
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