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Eight years later, Skull and Bones repeats The Division’s biggest sin

Skull and Bones is in open beta, and the pirate game has carried over an irritating issue from the launch of Ubisoft's The Division.

Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones is finally playable! After 11 years in development, the pirate MMO is in open beta, ahead of a full launch on February 16. Players have been enjoying taking to the high seas, however, we’ve found a troubling feature that’s hamper our experience.

We’ve already been busy in Skull and Bones, quickly setting sail in Ubisoft’s expansive pirate game. But between learning about every Skull and Bones ship and Skull and Bones pet (not to mention the Skull and Bones Twitch drops), we’ve had to suffer an all too familiar annoyance from the release of The Division.

Back when that multiplayer game opened its doors to players, everyone discovered a problem with obtaining certain mission-critical information or items: you had to wait in line. The respawn rate was way behind the amount of people playing, causing people to have to wait around for certain items or NPC dialog. Sometimes that wait could be quite long.

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Cheri Faulkner, PCGamesN guides editor, just had such an encounter. “I waited over ten minutes at a tree that didn’t respawn in that time, so I have no idea how long it actually takes,” she said. Ten minutes is a long time to be stood around waiting for something you need to progress, and we know it could take longer. Likewise, we don’t know how common this is, could be rare, or it could be every second encounter.

The Division and Skull and Bones are from very different teams, the latter being developed by Ubisoft Singapore. Skull and Bones has opened a way to report bugs, and I’d recommend using it if you encounter anything. There’s going to be lots of teething, possibly well beyond what we’re discussing here.

It’s worth noting too that The Division ironed out the queuing soon after launch, so Skull and Bones should right itself in short order. We’ll keep you informed if we see any other discrepancies. The Skull and Bones open beta runs until February 11, and the full release arrives February 16. Here are guides on how to level up Skull and Bones infamy and how to harvest Acacia to keep you sailing on high winds!

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