00:04So in the end of the last year we did the big progression update and Mike talked a lot about
00:08horizontal progression and of course a big part of that is about character customisation and as you build your path
00:14and journey towards pirate legend how the rest of the world perceives you and we've done a lot of great
00:19work on IPG which stands for?
00:22Infinite Pirate Generator. So Infinite Pirate Generator is a system we've been working on for probably about four years now.
00:30We always knew we wanted the way to get cool characters in the game without having a million sliders and
00:35toggles and kind of wait for everyone to be able to have a cool character that represents themselves even if
00:43they've got no artistic skill.
00:44Yeah, me.
00:47And I think we've come up with a good system.
00:49Yeah it's great and like I think it's really hit that tone around that normally in a game I would
00:55spend two hours doing loads of different sliders and I'd probably get the nose right.
00:59and then be like oh screw it and then I'd just do whatever and now it's really nice that you
01:03sit there on that we call it the carousel and I'm rotating them and I'm finding someone who kind of
01:08takes my appeal of like what stories do I want to like tell through this pirate.
01:12One of the first design considerations we were given was to be the pirate you want to be and I
01:18think just the range of characters you see on the front end you can imagine a million different stories from
01:23them and then once you get in game and you get the progression system the different clothes and hair and
01:27beards you just take that wherever you want.
01:30So we've got such a vast range of clothing that from that point on once you've built your pirate you
01:37then layer it all in but of course from a tech art and an engineering perspective that proves to be
01:42quite a problem right to solve like how do you wear jackets with trousers and you can mix and match
01:47with any body type like it's fascinating work that's gone into that.
01:49Yeah there's a lot of work gone in the background so at the minute we've got a range of body
01:54types and genders all of our clothing and hair and beards work across all those but we obviously don't want
02:02to build sort of 10-12 different versions of each jacket or each boot so we came up with a
02:08system which we basically create each asset at once
02:10and then we basically morph that jacket on all the different body types and as long as each asset fits
02:18onto a base template system they should all work together so you could put on long gloves and your jacket
02:24sort of ruffles up or you take them off and it gets the full length sleeve put a jacket over
02:29a shirt and you still see the shirt you can swap that shirt in and out so everything's fairly seamless.
02:33Of course you wouldn't be a pirate without a hook for a hand or a peg for a leg and
02:37that's been a major part of really how we build out this system and when we talk about horizontal progression
02:43what we're kind of talking about is your reputation level within the world of Sea of Thieves and as you're
02:48moving up towards pirate legend that you're not power progressing it's very much in that this item of clothing is
02:56exactly the same as this item of clothing apart from of course the cosmetics and that we want you to
02:59wear whatever you feel represents and I guess chop and change as you go.
03:03Yeah you can mix any sort of styles together and you can be any sort of pirate you want but
03:07there definitely is a sort of progression of coolness of items so yeah we've got peg legs and hooks as
03:15you say and they don't affect your abilities in the game sometimes if you hobble when you've got a peg
03:19leg.
03:19And I think as well like when I think about horizontal progression and what that means to like me as
03:24a player I love that as you progress through companies you actually gain access to new clothing that other players
03:30who haven't progressed wouldn't yet have access to.
03:33So again it's if you see someone wearing like the red admiral hat you know that they're of a different
03:39reputation level to you and that that might mean something in the world and of course you completely roleplay the
03:43opposite that you could be pirate legend and then wear like the worst bilge rat clothes and no one would
03:50notice and equip the sort of the sailor title above your head and people are like oh what a noob
03:55and then you do a 360 no scope and prove otherwise.
04:03So one of our key goals was to allow people to be their own blackbeard and so on top of
04:09item customisation and character customisation you've obviously got ship customisation which ties in that.
04:14So if you go to the ship right you'll be able to change your hull, sail and figurehead deliveries.
04:21Of course that felt like the next extension right is you've I guess decorated yourself however you want to represent
04:27yourself in the world and you've got your crew.
04:29And then you can be like how do we want to represent ourselves within the ship because we know that
04:33players want to at some point after launch own ships and that's that'll be one of our updates that we'll
04:38be rolling in post launch.
04:40But it's really important to us that for launch that when you see a particular sail on the horizon that
04:46has a meaning and that means something and you might have heard about that crew and therefore it kind of
04:51shows almost like a sense of stature within the world.
04:53that if someone has, I won't spoil it, but a certain livery then you can see that and know and
04:59again like we were just talking about with the clothing they could have the opposite they could have the worst
05:03sail in the world and then you're like oh these guys know nothing and then surprise.
05:08So yeah I think it's fair to say that we can't wait to see how players represent themselves as pirate
05:12legend and beyond and cheers.
05:22Pre-order now to receive the black dog pack when the game launches.
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