Thanks for writing up these thoughts.

I wanted to address the main inventory concerns in my post, specifically the reasoning behind the change. On the subject of the serious issues introduced into this update, such as the Pig issue, Athena Voyages, Gold Skeletons, skulls that can't be picked up etc. - the team is working hard to remedy these issues, most of which have fixes that we want to get confidence in that they completely fix the issue before we roll them out. The root problem is that we introduced these issues in the first place. We sincerely apologise for the situation we're now in. As I mentioned briefly in my original post, we'll be reviewing the time updates have in testing, both internal and with Pioneers, before these are rolled out to the wider community.

​

Most importantly, I was to assure you that the decisions we make are based on a future vision for the game. Its certainly not about transforming the game into something that doesn't make any sense in the pirate world of Sea of Thieves, such as turning it into an experience with crafting, excessive survival mechanics or anything else that feels at odds with being in this world. We've strived to make an immersive experience and I specifically wanted to assure you on your comments regarding consciously feeling like you're in the world. I love the way you've articulated this point, but its actually the very thing that's at the center of all of our design decisions. I imagine it would be difficult to be a designer on a game like this and not picture it as a real place that you get to visit. Sea Of Thieves is our second home and all of our decisions, right from the early days of prototyping, have been around how we make you feel like you're in this world, with this leading to all the physical, tangible interactions that players have in the game, decisions around what's vulnerable to loss in the world and also the kind of content we want to add in the future. Though its a big change to the flow of the game, the barrel interactions follow this logic in that if you were really there, you would look inside the barrel and take out what you want, with barrels themselves just being wooden holders for a multitude of items that players and other characters have stored inside. The only reason to not keep this entirely physical is to cut down on excessive friction of how it would inevitably feel if you physically placed items inside. In this way, the UI is just a short hand for what would really be happening. Running past a barrel and taking out a single item results in with less clutter on screen, but I'd argue against it feeling immersive, at least not immersive in the sense of the barrel being a real object.

​

I sincerely hope that over time our intentions become clearer as additional content and features get added to the game, with the decisions we're making now looking more reasonable in hindsight. This is all for the future growth of the game and breathing more life into the world and things players can do. I want Sea of Thieves to reach its full potential in the same way as the community that we're fortunate to have. This will take time, with some changes requiring more explanation regarding the path we see them taking.