How to teach noobs gently?

I'm not quiet sure about that, but I believe in the first couple of hours, lets say 20. I never met another ship. I do not know if Rare is offering some "Beginners" Server and as soon as they play with you they get to the "normal" servers.

But it also could be just random luck I've never met someone the first 20 hours.

My tips would be, to avoid Servers with active reapers on it, maybe don't set up any emissary flag for the first few rounds and try to avoid fights with looking around as far as you can and make a big nono arround every other ship.

@smuntface honestly, if you don't have anything to lose, just fight. Even in loss there are things to learn. Otherwise make it like the first quests of the game. Low level quests keep you close to the outpost and have you do simple tasks for a reason. Even if you do higher level voyages, only do 2-3 islands before cashing out until they become more seasoned.

By all means, a more thorough tutorial could be provided. That being said, mechanically this game isn't complicated. Even the sailing mechanics are relatively easy to grasp. Sail in wind go fast, sail not in wind go slow. There is a bit of nuance, but most of that can be explained in a sentence or two. The only things newbs should struggle with is minor details like what are the streamers rising into the air in the distance and where do I turn them in. Sea of Thieves has a lot of the latter.

When you guys & gals are learning up noobs, what are your techniques?

A pseudo apprenticeship typically works. Play with an experienced person to lead while the rest just follow along based of the advice given. When pertaining to PvP exactly, do a lot of it. Sounds simple, but like anything you do to get better it takes practice. Just try different stuff until you find something that works and don't afraid to sink. What worked best for my crew was placing people in basic roles broken down into Captain (dedicated steerer), Deck-hands, and boarders. Boarders do the boarding when its opportune, but still do basic maintenance if its required. That include patching when overwhelmed. Deck-hands stick to the ship and don't leave. They primarely fix the ship and fire the cannons. Captain steers but calls out actions like anchoring, adjusting sails.

The biggest thing though is just develop how you communicate. My team developed rules to follow. Within those rules is how to communicate. Call out what you plan to do. If you go to patch, call it out. It is required of the patcher to call out the needs required to get sailing. Do we need an extra bucketer or is one person plenty to patch and bucket? Things like that. Also don't assume If no one is calling out what they are doing volunteer yourself. We have sunk too many times assuming someone was repairing or didn't need help.

But so far, it's been impossible to show them anything,

Nothing is impossible if you give up.

Best way?
Let them encounter the world as it is. Don’t hide or bash anything. Toss them into the deep end of the water, if they have questions, answer them. But never bash anything. Don’t get upset if nothing goes right.

Everything happens in the game will happen. Nothing should be hated on or hidden.

Also. YouTube :p

@smuntface I've taught a lot of people who were new, teach them:

1- How to prepare the ship (Materials)
2- You (The skilled player) should always be on the wheel because new players are terrible at it.
3- Kill anything PvE on sight (Skeleships-Megs-Krakens-Forts (This will build up their combat skills)
4- You should focus on PvP as much as possible with minimal PvE just so they don't get that sense of wasting their time, basically do no collect loot just to lose it all, new players get higher stress the higher the treasure count on the ship is.

To make them "evolve" lol, do one vault and put the treasure all on the bow of the ship (Pointy end) and focus on full PvP (This teaches them to not care about losing the loot which will make you a lot better at SoT)

@capt-soul-beard said in How to teach noobs gently?:

@smuntface I've taught a lot of people who were new, teach them:

1- How to prepare the ship (Materials)
2- You (The skilled player) should always be on the wheel because new players are terrible at it.
3- Kill anything PvE on sight (Skeleships-Megs-Krakens-Forts (This will build up their combat skills)
4- You should focus on PvP as much as possible with minimal PvE just so they don't get that sense of wasting their time, basically do no collect loot just to lose it all, new players get higher stress the higher the treasure count on the ship is.

To make them "evolve" lol, do one vault and put the treasure all on the bow of the ship (Pointy end) and focus on full PvP (This teaches them to not care about losing the loot which will make you a lot better at SoT)

Tldr;

Make them do PvP regardless of loot count on the ship to make them better able to defend themselves (Also you constantly gotta remind them to repair the ship-angle the sails-etc.)

@captain-coel said in How to teach noobs gently?:

@smuntface honestly, if you don't have anything to lose, just fight.

Yeah, we're talking brand new players. And server hoppers who spawn right next to your boat every session. They'll learn eventually, but I'd like them to enjoy the game, not feel as though it's a futile exercise.

@capt-soul-beard said in How to teach noobs gently?:

1- How to prepare the ship (Materials)
2- You (The skilled player) should always be on the wheel because new players are terrible at it.
3- Kill anything PvE on sight (Skeleships-Megs-Krakens-Forts (This will build up their combat skills)
4- You should focus on PvP as much as possible with minimal PvE
To make them "evolve" lol, do one vault and put the treasure all on the bow of the ship (Pointy end) and focus on full PvP (This teaches them to not care about losing the loot which will make you a lot better at SoT)

This is pretty much what I'm trying to do. So far, not going too well.
When I first started this game, I had a mix of aggressive players & others who would keep their distance. Lately, aggressive players are the only ones I see, including my normal seasoned crew I play with.

I understand that "playing the game" is where this discussion will end, just wondering if anyone had any more insight than that. Cheers

@wolfmanbush Strike First Strike Hard
sometimes you need to be the iniatator. get them by surprise

No Mercy

take them down at all cost

Okay so My crew does this quite regularly. While I'm not sure if you are on console or PC I will say, that when I start the game alone, and add my Xbox friends in, we tend to be in a friendly server. So if you have a friend on PC have them start the server.
Again, not sure if this is even how rare does this but the one time my Xbox friends started the game and invited me there were 3 reapers and ships chasing us. The seas are full of those doing quests and others hunting.

To get them started, you want to do everything you can to mitigate risk. Set the ship to the correct heading and let the deckhands steer and move sails. You go to the crows nest and check for danger. Scan that horizon. Any ship you see, can definitely see you. Stay hidden for as long as possible.
When you get to the island, let them find the treasure. You stay in the crows nest and watch for danger. It may seem annoying but you can do it.