Sea of Thieves - Closed Beta Notes

Hello one and all!

Haven't had the chance/opportunity to play and experience Sea of Thieves? Let my notes guide your hand. Unlike reviews, these aren't fully hashed out, but more guidelines and explanations to what to expect in the game when it releases.
Without further ado, let's go!

EXPLANATION
Sea of Thieves is exactly that, an online pirate simulator where you are a pirate in the purest form: drinking grog and vomiting on your crew, playing shanties while hunting for booty, tearing through helpless enemy pirates to steal their plunder and solving clues to find your own. 

FEATURES
-Full control over sailing: adjust the direction of your sails and their length
-Find chests using your compass, map reading skills and solving various puzzles and riddles
-Fight off enemy pirates and skeletons with your weapons; sword, pistol, rifle and shotgun (optional purchase)
-Explore the world to find treasure on sunken ships, supplies on outposts/island etc
-Buy Voyages to explore islands for chests, or go out and see what it offers
-Large customisation; clothing and items you carry around (Tankard, musical instruments, watch, etc)

EXPERIENCE
Overall, I cannot be more excited for this game to be fully released. After almost 20 hours of gameplay, I am still keen to explore the map, the islands I haven't explored and discover what I can before the Beta runs out. I have battled against enemy pirates as they selfishly try to take my well earned booty, fought off sneaky pirates trying to get away with said booty, and parlayed with many friendly pirates, all the while making new friends. Imagine having a helmsman so bad that the rest of the crew turns one of the shanties into a song exclaiming to the world at how bad he is! 
Admittedly, hunting for chests does get a bit tiresome, but the riddle solving does help ebb this feeling away. A further explanation will be provided in the lower tab.

There were plenty of moments the riddles did confuse me, forcing me to spend plenty of time on an island searching for one specific spot. But the euphoria from finally hearing that victory tune to the chunk of hitting a chest buried underground is fantastic. There were plenty of bugs and glitches, to be expected in a Beta, but the Sea of Thieves team worked tirelessly throughout the beta to provide the best support possible. 
I also have to give special mention to the graphics team. Even in beta, this game looks beautiful. I cannot stress enough how many times I ignored so much of what was happening at the time to create the perfect screenshot. The animation in the waves are utterly stunning, the lighting and effects are great and at times, this game is so utterly peaceful.

In closing, my anticipation for this title is now higher than ever. I eagerly await the March 20th release date and will happily review it when it releases in full.

SUGGESTIONS AND NOTES

+Allow the players to zoom in on maps.
Flipping them for others to see does help immensely, but having the ability to zoom in would help making scavenging in one area missing the chest by centimeters can be annoying.

+Make key words glow after extended time in riddles
Sometimes the entire crew is confused by the exact riddle (personally speaking, I had no idea what a scarab beetle was until this game made it a clue), and making key words glow after an extended amount of time on the island may help players.

+Lower prices in shops
While I understand many of them are cosmetic, lowering some of the prices would definitely be an asset. Perhaps lowering them for single players would help getting those items for them. Because most enemies will steal all the special chests and leave the Castaway chests behind.
Castaway Chests will earn you 50-60 Gold Pieces. The Blunderbuss costs 960. You'd need 20 chests minimum, but don't forget voyages cost gold too.

+Harvest animals
Killing sharks are a need when they're chasing a crewmate with a chest. Imagine a Shark themed costume for your pirate, or perhaps selling shark skin to get some cheap gold in a hurry if you're a few pieces short of a new Voyage (which happened to me a few times).

+Dyes for clothes

+Extra songs for new equipment
Spending 400-500+ gold for new, better looking musical instruments is fine and all, but why still the same shanties? Hopefully there's more added in the finished game. "Drunken Sailor" plays with the Chest of a Thousand Grogs, why can't we play it?

Rare/Microsoft, Brownie Points if you can beg Disney to give you the rights to "He's A Pirate" or "Hoist The Colours".

+More customisation
The weapons can look a bit dull after a while, especially when you're pimping yourself out. Weapon skins, custom ship colours, and a biggie for me
CUSTOMISABLE PIRATE FLAGS
How AWESOME would it be to have a pirate flag of your very own?!

+Damage Up Blunderbuss
For an expensive optional weapon, it is fairly weak against Skeletons and pirates alike. Maybe upping it a bit would be for the best.
(At current rate on average - 4 shots to kill a Skeleton, 5+ for a Pirate. Possibly lag)