How do you guys introduce new pirates to the game?

  • Nitroxien
    Captain
    Insider

    I'm a big believer the new player experience in a game is of the utmost important to having a healthy player base and strongly believe as SoT is a community based game we need to take part in that! So what do you guys do when introducing SoT to a new player!

    I personally choose to have the first adventure with them slow and relaxed doing their low level voyages, letting them do most of the work and treating them like the captain of their sloop to let them really learn the ropes! Than for the second experience I like to bring them on a gally with some of the best players I know including some NAL and former NAL players and bring them straight into some PVP letting them have the thrill and joys of battle! I make sure also they take the Flex role to let them experience a bit of everything without them having to much pressure to perform well! At this point almost once a month I am getting asked or asking my friends to help bring a new player in a PVP experience and every time it is incredible and they love it highly recommend!

    So what do you guys do?

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  • Red0Demon0
    Commander
    Insider

    It depends, the first step for me is observation. If I notice they are trigger happy, do things without asking, and are impatient to start things, I stay quiet and let them learn on their own. If one wishes to learn, they must first be ready to learn, people who don't have patience in this game are in for a rude awakening, everything in this game is about patience, awareness, and planning (Skill is always learned after and in conjunction to these things). One wrong move or you don't plan ahead of time, or you're not aware and rushing through things and the game will punish you.

    With that said, if a player is patient and willing to learn, then they pass my first step, and I provide them with a summary or an overview of everything the game has to offer and the basics on how to play the game. I also warn them at this point what they are getting into. They will practice with sails, bailing water, repairing, and learning awareness. A good defense is a good offense, and defensive play is always appreciated when compared to offensive play.

    Once that's done I let them pick their own voyage. If they have already done the regular basic voyages, then I don't ask them to choose those, I ask them to pick one from, the selection of what the game has to offer including tall tales, vaults, or the lost merchant voyages. I also use the time spent on sailing from objective to objective to go into depth about the game's mechanics including combat, awareness, strategies, and mastering ship sailing. The treasure amount shows the potential reward that they can receive if they continue playing.

    Finally if they still choose to stay on in the game after that voyage and they are ready, I introduce them to some ship combat vs npc. And if we both still want to push for one final experience, I try to expose them to pvp combat.

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    Everyone is different. Some will take the game serious and some won't.

    Some will choose to put in the effort and dedication and some won't

    Some will eventually be alright and some will always struggle.
    It's a long and personal experience. A slow process. Flooding information in a short amount of time just makes the day overwhelming.

    Like 98% of the crew mates that I have played with have been random open crew people and I typically stick to playing with the newer players when I open crew. Imo approaching with a universal approach is often people entering into contrived situations for content. I think that isn't really focused on their experience it's prioritizing the content or the good deed, it doesn't much do much for their learning process.

    That's why I just don't view myself as anything other than a dude that might be able to help out during the random lightning strike of ending up in a session together.

    I don't see myself as a guide for their journey or a representative of the experience I'm someone that will try to use my experience and ability to contribute to us staying afloat.

    At the end of the day I'm every bit as much of a meal as they are.
    If I can pick them up I will, if I can help them out I will, if I can help them get gold I will, if they have questions I'll try to answer them but we are just surviving together for a little while. They will figure it out through their own passion and effort. I'm just passing through.

  • Vaca Hombre
    Champion
    Boatswain
    Founder

    I've never had the occasion to, but what I would probably do...

    First session, no progress. Learn how to sail, fight some skellies, tour an outpost, the basics.

    Other than that, we are doing nothing but dying. Seek out every player we can find, hunt down any Reaper we see. No fighting or ship battles, we are rushing head long into their cannons and/or gunfire. We are dying as many times as we can as quickly as we can.

    Bonus if we can find someone to spawncamp or trash talk a bit (nothing too extreme). The first voyage would be all about desensitizing them to dying. Death is common, death is fine, death can be fun. My goal would be to make death as common to them as collecting supplies or cooking meat.

    Second session we would collect all the treasure we can find and give every cent of it away. Maybe even dump it in the Red Sea if we can't find anyone. Treasure is transitory, treasure is optional, treasure is easily replaced. This will also get a bit more dying and possible spawncamping in at the same time.

    And while everything else is going on, there will be the constant background mantra of "scuttling is your friend". Scuttling is good, scuttling is smart, scuttling is one of the best tools provided to you.

    After all that, THEN we could focus on what interests them. Voyages, Tales, PvP, etc.

    Probably a terrible idea, but that's what I would do. =P

  • PithyRumble
    Rogue
    Insider

    I don't.

    I talk about it and see who plays.

    If they don't play I find out which rumors they've heard and confirm or deny. That's usually all the convincing ppl need one way or the other lol.

  • BurnBacon
    Vanguard
    Insider

    How do “I” introduce new players to the game?

    • show them YouTube videos
    • show them tutorial videos
    • show the dev videos

    Then play the game for them. Show what I do myself and what to expect. Then hand them the controls.

  • Smitael
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    When 2 of my friends started we did some arena so they learned the basics of combat - i think that helped them a lot in the long run. Then we later went to do a lot of pvp in advanture and had a lot of success with it.

    Granted nobody was really interested in pve like at all, they tried some forts and even a fotd stack, but they didn't like that it takes so much time + it was mostly boring since nothing happened (expect that one time someone harpooned the mega keg).

    Sadly most of the people i know have quit and moved on to other games by now. I still play with some people i met over time, if anyone messages me on the xbox app thing, but very rarely - I have mostly quit due to lack of updates on the pvp side of things + everyone running all the time is getting old, not to mention the lack of challenge and especially the amount of time it takes to even find people to sink - this has been getting worse in recent months... We also couldn't be bothered to server hop / rejoin lobbys to find emissarys constantly - it just seems to waist way too much time.

    We might give it another shot next season i guess, but im honestly not too optimistic that we will last long.

  • RiftenWatcher
    Captain
    Insider

    I recently had a friend join me on SoT for the first time. To introduce him to the game, we did a few things.

    First we went and done a sea fort, was quick, easy and got my friend used to the combat.

    Then we sailed to an outpost to sell the loot and my friend learned what items was sold to who.

    After that we went out and looked for some players to fight. PvP is inevitable in this game and I feel it's better you find it before it finds you. It gave my friend an idea of how PvP is in this game and what to expect.

    In the times where nothing was really happening, I let him sail the boat to get used to sailing.

    I also gave him some YouTube recommendations if he wanted to get more invested in stuff (Captain Falcore, PhuzzyBond, AShinyRay, etc)

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    I discuss combat techniques and strategies and emphasize awareness and careful planning, preparedness, and awareness so that they may better defend themselves should the moment eventually arise.

  • Mrat13
    Marauder
    Insider

    @remove-bougette If only we had a gamemode entirely focused around PvP......

  • BruvHandles
    Ship Mate

    I’m the only one of my friends who can stomach PvP they all hate it so I haven’t been able to successfully bring anyone over :\

  • Scheneighnay
    Ship Mate

    I was dunked in headfirst in an Athena voyage immediately after the tutorial.
    Killed my first meg and my first kraken during the session.

    Granted we were running 2 galleys so there wasn't exactly risk involved.

  • ZerRryy
    Master
    Insider

    Whenever I try to engage with new players, I just get firebombed or rammed by them and have to dunk them.

  • a10dr4651
    Commander
    Insider

    Introduce them to the first voyage of gold hoarder then go and island hop for abit so they can get a feel for ship handling and the islands. Mob spawns introduce combat. Constantly remind the player to keep an eye on the horizon and repeat many times, this is a PvPvE game, other players will try to sink you and it's not a big deal if they do.

  • StoutOdin809
    Seafarer
    Insider
    Founder

    I usually take them on their first voyage. Firstly when introducing I ask them to do the maiden voyage to get the feel of the game and how to repair their own ship and dig up treasure etc.

    Having done all that, I take them on their first quest / voyage, an easy run, to find their first treasure. I guide them, but I let them find the treasure and dig up. :) And I let them sail the ship etc. Nothing beats guiding new pirates and let them do the work so they can learn more.

  • FaceYourDemon
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    @nitroxien With the end of my barrel 😉

    I try to avoid sinking new crews players who are doing Tall Tales, should they try to be rude the will get the more authentic experiene of Sea of Thieves.

    PvP is fun but when it comes to a crew that does not have a clue, its not satisfying.
    Give them a good experience and youll create a good community, even if it comes to sinking them which is completely fine, make them laugh and show them that its all in good sport.
    They get nasty because they sank in a video game? Show no mercy!

  • HotDogCheese111
    Castaway

    I tell them it's a waste of time because the community is 98% toxic players who will erase your progress and the other 2% are too on-edge to trust you.

  • Pellahh
    Lord
    Insider

    It depends on the player, but in most cases I've introduced my friends by making them try some basic stuff on the first day (usually at least 1 Gold Hoarder voyage and 1 OoS Ghost ships voyage, so they can try the naval combat), if I see they've enjoyed the naval fights and started to understand the basics on day 2/3 emissary hunting starts in order to create inhuman monsters to accompany me on my journey of destruction. Jokes aside, all the people I've introduced to the game are comfortable with PvP and usually enjoy any type of player interaction (from PvP to roleplay/having fun with other people). But most of these players came from League of Legends and were Diamonds friends of mine (as I am Diamond too I got to know quite some people of my same elo), which means they are used to competitiveness and learning the game's rule/training at PvP.

    As said, I might be biased as the type of players I've introduced to the game were already used to PvP in a decent MMR with League, but the fact I made so much people comfortable with the PvP aspect of the game in the first days of their experience by making them understanding that part of the game still makes me even more convinced that the game itself still does a very bad job at introducing players to PvP and making them comfortable with it on its own (both with marketing and the first hours of gameplay).

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