In a developer update today, it was confirmed that Sea of Thieves will be adding a private crew option in an update dropping next week. After giving an explanation for delaying this week's update, executive producer Joe Neate detailed plans to address a host of issues brought up by players. Finally, pirates will have the option to hold positions on their vessel for a friend waiting to join the game.

The issue has been negatively impacting the experience of both team players who lose their spot on their team's vessel, and solo players, who frequently fall victim to the shameful practice of "insta-brigging." The art of trolling at its finest, insta-brigging is when a crew votes to lock up a solo player who had the misfortune of auto-matching to their vessel. Often, a three-player crew will wait for a random player to join them, and then insta-brig them simply to laugh at their misery. The only way out is to quit the game or by majority vote. The option for crews to restrict access to "invite only" has been one of Sea of Thieves' most frequently requested updates.

Another common issue caused by unfettered public matching is AFK players joining a team and essentially leaving an incomplete crew to man their vessel. The option to block strangers from joining a crew should improve quality of life pretty dramatically.

Sea of Thieves first outlined plans to add the private crew option in an earlier developer update. The fix was to be included with the update planned for release this week, but it was announced today that the update would instead be released next week. In the latest developer update, Neate argued for prioritizing a fix for "an issue that was affecting some of our PC players on the build internally."

Alongside the private crew option, Rare is responding to feedback regarding cosmetic options patched into the game last week. For example, the conspicuously missing Imperial Sovereign set will be included in the next update. Additionally, the patch will remove certain items deemed "not visually distinctive enough" and adjust prices on items that were set too high.

The upcoming patch precedes more substantial content updates planned for 2018. This includes six DLC packs and a new ship.

Sea of Thieves is out now for Xbox One and PC.