[Mega Thread] Player Griefing - Part 3

  • I just jumped back into the game with some randomers, after a while one of the players was either AFK or trolling by staying on the wheel, so we voted him into the brig but couldn't as there was another player who was also AFK.

    I can't report players as I don't allow the Windows 10 overlay (Game Bar), please implement in-game reporting. I shouldn't have to use what is effectively third-party tools to report. I don't want to enable the Game Bar as it's intrusive on other games which are not part of the Windows 10 store.

  • Not sure if anyone mentioned it yet but there is a large amount of people in the player base that join 4 player galleons with their controller sticks rubber banded. They never get kicked because they are constantly moving and there is no other way to get them out of the crew. They simply stay in the game and reap the rewards their other crew members work for while they watch tv or go to work or whatever else.

    Pleas RARE, I know you hate putting your foot down, and you want to promote co-operation among crew members, but you HAVE to let us kick people out of the crew. I've joined eight games in three days that are four man galleons with at least one afk rando, sometimes more. Locking them in the brig isn't enough. I want to play WITH people, not FOR them.

  • @khaleesibot
    I play this game with my daughter and she is trying to love it but after yet another night of brutality last night she is filled with dread when we play this game.
    After at least 30 attempts at both of us trying to take the "skull fort" only to be sunk by a full crew galleon sporting their legend attire and emblems, last night we spent about 2 hours fighting through the waves of skeletons, managed to fight off 2 fellow sloop crews, to finally defeat the fort and get the key.
    We couldn't believe it, finally, would we get it? We were so excited at our accomplishment, we hopped and skipped as we loaded our hard earned treasure onto our wrecked sloop.
    Almost finished loading the loot..... I spotted a Galleon full speed towards us. We raised anchor and tried to get away. My daughter's face was filled with panic as I did zig zag motions across the ocean and she adjusted the sails... only to be matched by the fully crewed Galleon while they shelled our little sloop. We spent the next hour trying to evade them, I cannoned my daughter onto their ship as a diversionary tactic while trying to get away.
    We tried everything! Needless to say, over an hour and a half later they were breathing down our neck with baited breath and laughing loudly through the chat at us poor average gamers having the cheek to try and get what is clearly theirs.
    After our exhaustive battle to just try and get some treasure, we saw the other crew take it from us, dispatching the both of us to the depths while we heard our sloop crack up and sink and their laughing as they picked up our loot.
    Now I know what you're thinking, its an online PVP game, get over it, but it's just a shame that we are simply unable to enjoy this game unless we dedicate all our time to get better at PVP, which we just don't have the time to do, and frankly we don't want to attack other players.
    Yet again, we realised this was a game for highly skilled (or unemployed) gamers with nothing but time to perfect their PVP skills.
    We resigned ourselves last night to give up on the idea that we could compete in such a brutal and unbalanced game where casual gamers in small dinghy's have to try and fight fully crewed galleons.
    It desperately needs a "passive option", or PVE mode albeit with less loot value where we can just enjoy the game without constantly having your hard work stolen from you.
    For now. we are going to leave this game to the "professional griefers"

  • @laurenmccarthyx said in [Mega Thread] Player Griefing - Part 3:

    @khaleesibot
    I play this game with my daughter and she is trying to love it but after yet another night of brutality last night she is filled with dread when we play this game.
    After at least 30 attempts at both of us trying to take the "skull fort" only to be sunk by a full crew galleon sporting their legend attire and emblems, last night we spent about 2 hours fighting through the waves of skeletons, managed to fight off 2 fellow sloop crews, to finally defeat the fort and get the key.
    We couldn't believe it, finally, would we get it? We were so excited at our accomplishment, we hopped and skipped as we loaded our hard earned treasure onto our wrecked sloop.
    Almost finished loading the loot..... I spotted a Galleon full speed towards us. We raised anchor and tried to get away. My daughter's face was filled with panic as I did zig zag motions across the ocean and she adjusted the sails... only to be matched by the fully crewed Galleon while they shelled our little sloop. We spent the next hour trying to evade them, I cannoned my daughter onto their ship as a diversionary tactic while trying to get away.
    We tried everything! Needless to say, over an hour and a half later they were breathing down our neck with baited breath and laughing loudly through the chat at us poor average gamers having the cheek to try and get what is clearly theirs.
    After our exhaustive battle to just try and get some treasure, we saw the other crew take it from us, dispatching the both of us to the depths while we heard our sloop crack up and sink and their laughing as they picked up our loot.
    Now I know what you're thinking, its an online PVP game, get over it, but it's just a shame that we are simply unable to enjoy this game unless we dedicate all our time to get better at PVP, which we just don't have the time to do, and frankly we don't want to attack other players.
    Yet again, we realised this was a game for highly skilled (or unemployed) gamers with nothing but time to perfect their PVP skills.
    We resigned ourselves last night to give up on the idea that we could compete in such a brutal and unbalanced game where casual gamers in small dinghy's have to try and fight fully crewed galleons.
    It desperately needs a "passive option", or PVE mode albeit with less loot value where we can just enjoy the game without constantly having your hard work stolen from you.
    For now. we are going to leave this game to the "professional griefers"

    ^ This right here is why Rare should add options. So players can choose to opt out of PvP or have some other Server selection. Wake up Rare, Families and Friendly Gamers are not enjoying their experiences and will leave this game.

    I have talked with friends that felt same way, and I personally won't play until I see options and am waiting and watching these forums to see IF Rare will change.

  • @laurenmccarthyx said in [Mega Thread] Player Griefing - Part 3:

    @khaleesibot
    I play this game with my daughter and she is trying to love it but after yet another night of brutality last night she is filled with dread when we play this game.
    After at least 30 attempts at both of us trying to take the "skull fort" only to be sunk by a full crew galleon sporting their legend attire and emblems, last night we spent about 2 hours fighting through the waves of skeletons, managed to fight off 2 fellow sloop crews, to finally defeat the fort and get the key.
    We couldn't believe it, finally, would we get it? We were so excited at our accomplishment, we hopped and skipped as we loaded our hard earned treasure onto our wrecked sloop.
    Almost finished loading the loot..... I spotted a Galleon full speed towards us. We raised anchor and tried to get away. My daughter's face was filled with panic as I did zig zag motions across the ocean and she adjusted the sails... only to be matched by the fully crewed Galleon while they shelled our little sloop. We spent the next hour trying to evade them, I cannoned my daughter onto their ship as a diversionary tactic while trying to get away.
    We tried everything! Needless to say, over an hour and a half later they were breathing down our neck with baited breath and laughing loudly through the chat at us poor average gamers having the cheek to try and get what is clearly theirs.
    After our exhaustive battle to just try and get some treasure, we saw the other crew take it from us, dispatching the both of us to the depths while we heard our sloop crack up and sink and their laughing as they picked up our loot.
    Now I know what you're thinking, its an online PVP game, get over it, but it's just a shame that we are simply unable to enjoy this game unless we dedicate all our time to get better at PVP, which we just don't have the time to do, and frankly we don't want to attack other players.
    Yet again, we realised this was a game for highly skilled (or unemployed) gamers with nothing but time to perfect their PVP skills.
    We resigned ourselves last night to give up on the idea that we could compete in such a brutal and unbalanced game where casual gamers in small dinghy's have to try and fight fully crewed galleons.
    It desperately needs a "passive option", or PVE mode albeit with less loot value where we can just enjoy the game without constantly having your hard work stolen from you.
    For now. we are going to leave this game to the "professional griefers"

    I have bought 3 copies of this game (for me and the 2 kids) with the prior impression it was an openworld adventure game where we could go on some pirate adventures. This experience however mirrors exactly what we have experienced.
    Yes we knew it was an online game so would get the usual griefer community of mountain dew gulping, dorito munching hardcores getting their rocks off ruining other people's fun, but boy was I shocked that actually, this is hardcore Call of Duty on the Sea!
    We very soon realised that our game consisted of spending an hour sailing around a few islands, picking some shiny booty only to be sunk on the way back by some shouting kids and waking up on an empty boat on a distant island thinking, what just happened?... Well that was fun!
    About 6 hours of gameplay later, we've been sunk by countless galleons, managed to get a few chests back to the skinny guy in the tent and managed to buy ourselves a new coat and pants!
    The game has gone in the cupboard now with the rest of the Call of Duty's and Battleground games while I reflect on what could have been such a fun game for the family!
    Oh well! Maybe, the game developers may just make a game that doesn't involve investing tens of hours learning to kill somebody else and focus on the different aspects that openworld games can bring.

  • @underwrldqueen

    The other night I started a 4 man gallon with no other crew. I was delighted to have a random "custom ship" with black sails and green/black hull. After starting a quest I headed to the island waiting for my crew to spawn. Just before reaching the island 2 crew mates joined. They ignore my hails and communication even though they had mikes. To my surprise, i suddenly spawned in the brig. Funny right? I laughed it off and advised my "crewmates" to slow down and drop anchor because we were at our destination. This other "pirate" gets off muttering in some kind of devil voice until they both drop out while my ship crashes into the island.

    Okay, it happens. I got "trolled" by losers trying to break the game. Move on. I repaired my gallon, secured the treasure and sailed on solo manning my gallon until I found a deep sunken ship. I soloed the dive and came up ecstatic. Finally, two more pirates joined my crew with mikes. Again, they were muted. No worries, they were in "party" chat. I sailed my ship to the next island on my quest but needed to check the map. I was close! No thanks to my crew. By the time I came up, someone else had grabbed the wheel and was now sailing AWAY from the island clearly circled on the map.

    It's just one moron right? Nope. The blissful idiots added a 3rd member to their gamechat mutiny and locked me in the brig until I quit, stealing my ship, my treasure, and an hour of my life.

    I flagged them online for cheating or "unsportsmanlike behavior". It was a hollow victory.

  • Spawn killing:

    If there where AI ships to attack, Pirates would be more safe. Just sayin.

    Arr!

  • Ferry of the dammed camping. Can this be fixed please. People kill them self and sit there not helping. Seems to be happening more and more.

  • @lxbadda5sxl My son and I like to play. All we get is players shooting us even thou we are minding our own business. Then they spawn camp on our ship. PVE much needed. I also like solo sailing after a hard long day at work. Idiots ruin my 1 hour of relaxation. If I crew up randoms dont listen or camp in the ferry of the dammed for hours.

  • You dont get to mind your buisness in a shared pvpve world. Thats just how it works. The thrill of protecting and delivering your treasure is what makes the game fun. Maybe someday they might repackage the game and make it have a full story. But i dont see that happening anytime soon mate

  • @armedjet-stream said in [Mega Thread] Player Griefing - Part 3:

    Not sure if anyone mentioned it yet but there is a large amount of people in the player base that join 4 player galleons with their controller sticks rubber banded. They never get kicked because they are constantly moving and there is no other way to get them out of the crew. They simply stay in the game and reap the rewards their other crew members work for while they watch tv or go to work or whatever else.

    Pleas RARE, I know you hate putting your foot down, and you want to promote co-operation among crew members, but you HAVE to let us kick people out of the crew. I've joined eight games in three days that are four man galleons with at least one afk rando, sometimes more. Locking them in the brig isn't enough. I want to play WITH people, not FOR them.

    They also stay on the ferry of the dammed and do not play in the game for hours on end. You never see them as they drowned themself when they joined.

  • @echodoctrine said in [Mega Thread] Player Griefing - Part 3:

    @laurenmccarthyx said in [Mega Thread] Player Griefing - Part 3:

    @khaleesibot
    I play this game with my daughter and she is trying to love it but after yet another night of brutality last night she is filled with dread when we play this game.
    After at least 30 attempts at both of us trying to take the "skull fort" only to be sunk by a full crew galleon sporting their legend attire and emblems, last night we spent about 2 hours fighting through the waves of skeletons, managed to fight off 2 fellow sloop crews, to finally defeat the fort and get the key.
    We couldn't believe it, finally, would we get it? We were so excited at our accomplishment, we hopped and skipped as we loaded our hard earned treasure onto our wrecked sloop.
    Almost finished loading the loot..... I spotted a Galleon full speed towards us. We raised anchor and tried to get away. My daughter's face was filled with panic as I did zig zag motions across the ocean and she adjusted the sails... only to be matched by the fully crewed Galleon while they shelled our little sloop. We spent the next hour trying to evade them, I cannoned my daughter onto their ship as a diversionary tactic while trying to get away.
    We tried everything! Needless to say, over an hour and a half later they were breathing down our neck with baited breath and laughing loudly through the chat at us poor average gamers having the cheek to try and get what is clearly theirs.
    After our exhaustive battle to just try and get some treasure, we saw the other crew take it from us, dispatching the both of us to the depths while we heard our sloop crack up and sink and their laughing as they picked up our loot.
    Now I know what you're thinking, its an online PVP game, get over it, but it's just a shame that we are simply unable to enjoy this game unless we dedicate all our time to get better at PVP, which we just don't have the time to do, and frankly we don't want to attack other players.
    Yet again, we realised this was a game for highly skilled (or unemployed) gamers with nothing but time to perfect their PVP skills.
    We resigned ourselves last night to give up on the idea that we could compete in such a brutal and unbalanced game where casual gamers in small dinghy's have to try and fight fully crewed galleons.
    It desperately needs a "passive option", or PVE mode albeit with less loot value where we can just enjoy the game without constantly having your hard work stolen from you.
    For now. we are going to leave this game to the "professional griefers"

    ^ This right here is why Rare should add options. So players can choose to opt out of PvP or have some other Server selection. Wake up Rare, Families and Friendly Gamers are not enjoying their experiences and will leave this game.

    I have talked with friends that felt same way, and I personally won't play until I see options and am waiting and watching these forums to see IF Rare will change.

    +1 PVE please. Or flags to say you are not a PVP player.

  • @darren4444
    Agree! +1 for PVE servers
    "From the very beginning, we've been determined to make Sea of Thieves a truly welcoming world in which players of any creed, culture, age, skill level and circumstance can voyage without fear of friction or frustration." - Devs

  • -1 for PvE servers.

  • I am just writing this on the off chance someone that works at Rare actually reads this and cares. Here is my perspective as a new player (just got the game like a week ago and have played a few days only)
    I get what the game was going for and I was even a little interested in the pvp aspect although primarily I just wanted to did up treasure and fight npcs and such. However other players make this game difficult to enjoy. It may be that matchmaking who is on a server or instance whatever needs adjustment but I have found myself very often getting killed by experienced players too quickly and easily for me to even learn and get better. Then when I respawn I keep getting killed again before I can even get to the mermaid. Often times people do this when they have already seen that I have nothing for them to take. I have noticed that the idea of a PvE only option is something a lot of people hate but my guess is that its because they benefit from the current lopsidedness that experience with the game gives you. I appreciate that they tried to make sure everyone has the same equipment to try and level the playing field but it just hasn't worked in my opinion. People have different skill levels and if you can't do a good job sorting them then it creates joy for one player at another's expense.
    It seems I should have researched this game more before I bought it because it seems these issues have been around since early on and still have not been addressed. I can't blame you for building the game you want to build but the messaging on what kind of game this is has fallen short unless you dig through forums and see how toxic people are in the game. In either case I hope something is done soon because I do enjoy other aspects of the game but player mismatches have a way of ruining the end of what would have been an enjoyable time playing.

  • @ve111a said in [Mega Thread] Player Griefing - Part 3:

    @khaleesibot People are not asking for more on a sloop, from my point of view I am seeing nothing but negative things on this as it will break the delicate balance in the game. Make smaller galleons sure becuase that has no advantage, a sloop with 4 people are unsinkable as its too easy to bail out with one person let alone 2 extras.

    This is a thread about Player Griefing not about ship sizes.

  • I have a person, yunghako, who's in my crew right now getting credit for our treasure rewards while he just sits on the ferry.

    Your support links are not helpful and confusing.

  • Griefing at skull Forts.

    Personally I believe the key shouldn't be able to leave the island or even make it so the door auto opens. Having done most the work as a sloop then being over taken by a galleon only for them to run of with the key, is the worst feeling ever. Physics denies tha possibility for me to ever fight for the key again as long as they stay in the wind, basically giving them immunity while the treasure stays locked up.

  • @miteenthemagi
    Thats not griefing

  • What is griefing
    I see a lot of posts here that are just bad experiences with other players, usually getting sunk or shot without them seeing any reason for it or beating a skull fort and then getting your loot stolen. While I do symphatize with people that had that back luck, this is in not griefing but just PvP.

    Griefing is continuous spawnkilling, brig abuse and other acts that deliberately ruin the gameplay of players which they usually cannot resolve themselves. Everyone probably experienced at least some of it and stories about your sad PvP expierences give some form of relief, but that won't really solve the issue.

    Prevent splitting up PvE and PvP
    Let me start by saying that I think seperation of groups on special servers is something I'm against because there are better and easier way to solve this without spending time breaking out game mechanics and turning the game into something completely different. The time spent on breaking up the game would be much better spent invested in the game as a whole on new features everyone could enjoy.

    Here are some suggestions against griefing and general PvP frustration. These are not all my ideas, I've seen several around the forums as there are enough people that think in non game breaking solutions that would benefit the entire community instead of just a specific group.

    Suggestion 1: Improved matchmaking / searching the seas (PvE/PvP balance improvement and get griefers to annoy eachother)
    Instead of creating seperate servers that require complete rework of the game's core mechanics, I think it would be a better idea to try and make sure that people that kill a lot of others and sink a lot of ships end up dealing with people that are into the same.

    To do this I think Rare should calculate a number to each player based on the amount of player kills / ship sinking / deaths / voyages completed and when matchmaking take the average of everyone on the ship to add them into a server that has around the same number. It doesn't have to be the exact same but I think they could create several steps or leagues of server slots. This doesn't have to be surfaced to the players.

    The result would be that everyone on the server is about as experienced as the others and usually have a somewhat similar way of playing. This way pure PvE players would be matched with more like minded players, but at the same time it would put all the griefers and kill on sight people together with others that enjoy that type of gameplay and most importantly away from the rest. This also at the same time allows PvE players dip their toes into a more fair PvP setting with equally experiences people.

    I think this solution would benefit the entire community without changing the game's core mechanics to cater to specific people. It will allow everyone to play the way they want without removing the 'danger' of other pirates.

    Suggestion 2: Private crew / invite only crew (Rare is already working on this one)
    This one has been suggested a lot and Rare is already working on it as far as I know. Having a invite only crew will definitely reduce the amount of brig abuse, the sooner this can be implemented the better.

    Suggestion 3: Don't move victims, move the guilty
    I would like to see the people commiting the 'crime' to be punished, not the people being victim to it. Keep a counter that counts up each time someone gets killed on his or her ship within a minute of spawning by a certain crew. Once the counter hits 5 the griefers ship and crew get transferred to another server and make sure to show them the reason why they get moved: "Ruin other pirates experiences as you please and you will be surprised by different seas".
    This could even result in a auto ban after being moved a certain number of times.

    Suggestion 4: Name and shame, but keep it ingame
    Whenever someone has multiple offenses of griefing they'll probably be removed from the community with a ban or something. Before that however we could basically show everyone that certain people have spent time griefing other players. Make them walk around with a title of shame, a unchangeble goofy outfit or pink dress, a sign around their neck, something that punishes them for not respecting honor among thieves and showing others that it might not be someone you want to play with. Hopefully making them change their ways, but also warning others.

    Suggestion 5: Removing players from your crew
    While private crews will prevent brig abuse, playing with random people is still a great way to meet new people. If you encounter someone who does spent time acting like an a*s to your crew or (to pull it into this topic) seems to enjoy the act of griefing others, it should be able to remove this person from your crew.

    Suggestion 6: Have Rare report back about what's being done with griefers/cheaters
    I understand that Rare can't give full details on all their internal actions, but maybe as a comfort to some and a warning to others Rare could give an update every now and then about their actions against griefers and/or cheaters.

    A general message that for example something along the lines of:
    "We've heard your concerns and received a lot of reports about griefers, hacks or cheats. As said before we have a zero tolerance policy on these matters and want everyone to be able to enjoy the game without encountering these kinds of behaviours. So since the release of the game we issued 12,457 warnings to players about griefing, gave 7521 players a temporary ban for repeated griefing offenses and banned 2501 accounts for cheating/hacking. We will continue the fight against behavior that only has the intent of ruining other peoples experience. Thank you for your patience and understanding, we hope to see you all on the seas!

    Other PvP suggestions
    There were some other suggestions to improve PvP aspects like flags to indicate your intention or a bounty system to reward players for going after the ones that murder/sink a lot of others but that's not really related to griefing, so I'll skip that for now.

    That's all folks
    That's all suggestions against griefing I could think of, let me know what you think or share some other suggestions that help us grow this community into something greater.

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