Friendly PVP Mode

Initially, when I read how you were thinking about practicing and learning better tactics and defensive strategies, I thought, "music to my ears," because when I was new to this game, safer seas didn't exist, and I had to learn by being sunk each day everyday. I watched guides, and would think back after each fight about what I could've done differently to prevent this or that.

Then you mentioned a flag where all PvP stops, and that's where I stopped reading. Hold up. The golden rule in this game, is that loot's not yours until you sell it, which means if you get done with a vault, fort, world event, etc. any ship can contest you for it, and having a game mechanic of what you describe isn't fair to other players willing to fight you to try and take it.

If you find yourself having to think of ways to invent game mechanics to protect yourself against PvP, (safe zones, a flag that protects your ship, etc.) it's a sign you need more experience and practice at PvP. When you log in, take a sloop and do hourglass right away. You have nothing to lose, and the experience or skills you'll gain will help you learn offensive/defensive skills, so if another ship tries to take your loot, you won't have to ask Rare to make a PvE-only flag that hurts those contesting you.

Right now, our only option is safer seas, where we cant sail our own ships, cant rank up our emissary levels, and it seems like not all voyages are available as well.

Besides Ships, yeah no Emissary because those are a "Risk=Reward" system.

75% of the time someone just comes by and kills us before we get to finish our voyage

PvPvE Open World Adventure game.

We just want to play this game with our wives

We? Wives? 0-0"

we would love to see an option for like a ship flag that signifies you don't want to PVP. And if someone attacks you while flying that flag whatever damage they do to your ship immediately gets done to their ship in a 1 to 1 ratio, or their cannons immediately stop working for 1 min, something along those lines.

yeeah...that is horrible Punishment for those people Playing the game as advertised.

We just wasted an hour and a half getting our ship ready

Hour and half? That be Player problem, not the game.

finally completing a ghost ship battle, just for a Brig to show up right at the end and absolutely roll our Galleon. Its just getting old.

Brig defeated a Galleon, and it rolled on you after beating a Ghost Fleet, which has some good loot and possible Curse balls. High value items to fight for.

Its getting old...That Grown adults are upset over these things and use excuses such as that.

@generalmcrib317

You have 3 days played in total sir. You might need a bit more practice and experience before deciding to throw in the towel. No one is asking you to be a "god" at pvp. In many cases you don't have to be. Being observant and noticing a brig coming so your crew is well-prepared beforehand doesn't require the Divine to develop experience for that. Seeing mistakes they make/how skilled they are based on how they're sailing, doesn't take the Divine to learn. Knowing what to shoot and when, preventing boarders, giving good angles for your cannoneers, good communication, predicting what they're going to do, etc. all come from experience, and experience comes from playing the game a lot longer than 3 days in total.

You don't need Rare to create a flag that prevents ships from attacking you, when all it takes is time, experience and a little dedication/thinking out of the box to outwit, out-maneuver, and out-smart your opponent.

I don't see why having a friendly PVP server for those that want it would be detrimental to anyone.

Because you are wanting freebies from a game that needs conflict to achieve it.
You got the carrot (safer seas) don’t be demanding the whole farm because you want more free stuff without the work

Something an adult learns. Nothing is free and sometimes you just got to enjoy what is already give. Instead of blaming others or the game.

Safer seas as designed was for players like yourself. Play with the family without other players to mess with.
With that. They have to readjust every little thing that requires other players involvement
Which take time and rare would rather spend those days moving forward than backwards.

That is all. Take what you got, enjoy the little things. Like spending time with your love ones in a game together and maybe making new friends.

@generalmcrib317 Just admit you want SoT to be a single player game

@generalmcrib317 What does "Friendly PVP" even mean? You detailed a server where players couldn't damage each other. What would be PVP on that server?

@generalmcrib317 said in Friendly PVP Mode:

I don't see why having a friendly PVP server for those that want it would be detrimental to anyone.

This is a PvPvE game, it works best if all players on the server have that mindset and those goals.

If most ships on a server are only in it for PvP, that will hurt players who do mostly PvE or do a more mixed session.

If there would be PvE servers, there would be people who get their commendations, gold, &c on those servers and join the Adventure PvPvE servers just to get loot from other crew's ships or take over a fort last wave &c.

Just don't be greedy; if you see a brigantine sailing towards you when you just finished a fort, take the best loot, skedaddle, sail to an outpost and sell. They might lose interest in sinking you when you no longer have loot - perhaps giving you a chance to sail back to the fort and pick up the rest of the loot uncontested.

You can absolutely have a friendly PvP mode AND get progress towards either a skeleton or ghost curse, whichever you want to get first, by doing hourglass. Wouldn't it be amazing to earn progress towards a cool curse as you gain experience?

Don't run from an opponent. Use it as an opportunity to practice PvP instead. There's an infinite amount of treasure in this game you can always get.

@generalmcrib317 said in Friendly PVP Mode:

@Th3-Tater thank you for the recommendation. We're all on PC except for my wife but I will relay this to her!

@Lem0n-Curry thank you for discussing the idea with me. I hadn't considered that creating a friendly PvP server would just turn High Seas into absolute chaos. While I think that is a possibility, it's not a guaranteed outcome. I still would like to see them try a friendly PvP server and see how it plays out. If it turns High Seas into a warzone then remove it and go back to normal unless they can think of a different remedy.

That would be a waste of dev time if they return gain wouldn't it. They already spend too much on that by creating Safer Seas for a PvPvE game.

I also notice in your OP that one of the reasons you won't play on Safer Seas is

cant rank up our emissary levels,

Raising an Emissary means sailing with more risk from other crews, there should not be a bonus to your loot when there is no such risk; look into the pletora of topics about Safer Seas why they won't add that and other features.

Unfortunately, there was a game mode early on that was meant for the dedicated PvP crowd called Arena and it had its own achievements and rewards, but it was mothballed not too long after because I believe only around 2% of the player base regularly played that game mode, so, they didn't see a reason to continue support. It's not a matter of wanting to battle players who also want to PvP, it is more about bullying people who don't regularly play PvP. And the usual response from these players is simply "get good". But, I have a feeling that if everyone suddenly got good, those players would no longer want to play and move on to the next game because it's not about wanting a challenge, it's because they just want to punch down