how much do you socialize and be friendly to others

@katttruewalker
I think that our experience on the seas, which allows us to 'read' most situations accurately - the intent and purpose of other ships and their crews, is something which really does help to build confidence when approaching other players.

Can only agree with that, think that confidence is the key to all encounters.
Some simple "tricks" is to give a compliment, If player have bought any personal or ship cosmetic, then some will become more relax.
Firring yourself over to them, an announce your present, if killed, I know they are aggressive, if not we can talk, an Ill bring my ship to join alliance.

The KoS players without the experience, should think a extra time before shooting at someone, just because it's a sloop an they are on a galleon, It could be a PL without anything better to do than getting revenge.

But in general, I never shoot first, always looking for alliance, mainly because I need to do some forts for commendations, but I dont really want to bother with the loot, so the alliance it perfect for me.

My friendly/kill rules:

• Noobasabian: don't engage unless they fire first
• You're not allowed on my ship unless invited
• Never trust crab lords, parrots or kraken guys
• If you got loot worth taking it's mine now and if u try to stop me I'll sink you
• I alliance only with noobs
• "I'm only doing tall tales!" fair enough but everything on your ship that isn't tall tales related is mine
• If you're already in an alliance that means automatic your going down mode
• Fresh spawn at an outpost: I leave alone or scavenge for supplies and sink if I have stuff to sell.

@bugaboo-bill

Depends on my ship.

1 - solo sloop I live and let live. Can alliance up if they like but to me when I solo it's a throw away ship and I don't care if I get attacked.
2 - duo sloop about the same but is more stocked up for battle and may have some shenanigans.
3 - brig is starting to lean towards kill on site. Really looking for the bigger targets.
4- galleon time to pull out the big boy pants. No quarter and death to all unless we want your vehicle for another crewmate to come in and join us.

All and all the only social interaction would be on a solo sloop but after that I'm in a party to my friends and that's all I need.

I don't trust people without a mic, mostly i can hear on their voices if they are up to something shady 🏴‍☠️

My basic rules is the same as what @iTz-Majman said. I especially always try to help new players. That is what will help keep the game alive for much longer. I never really search out people but as @KattTruewalker said when in doubt sinking is the answer. Have even teamed up with people after sinking them.

Two great things recently I had happen was I got my Legend of the Sea of Thieves title and had to chase someone down to give them my loot for a celebration. Love that. Nothing like chasing someone to give them everything you have.

The other was a brig that was hostile towards my brig. We fought a bit then the guy messaged my crewmate and joined our chat to ask for a truce. While he was talking I had boarded their ship with a keg and they didn't know. He seemed a bit shocked and surprised when I told him if they wanted a truce I wouldn't blow up his boat because I was on it with a keg. They had no idea how I snuck on. A few seconds slower in calling truce would have been a different outcome but we all went on our own way on friendly terms.

You never know how game encounters will go. That's what I love about it so much.

My friend just told me a story of a new player recently pulling up to their galleon and asking how they did the sword lunge. He saw them doing it as he passed and had to turn around to learn more. He had treasure on his ship but was clearly ok with the risk of losing it just to talk to this other crew. During this encounter, he realized that the chat wheel existed after someone used it. He said he had only been playing for a couple weeks and it was clear that he had missed out on a lot of little things we think of as second nature simply because everyone he found would kill him instead of socialize.

I enjoy socializing if the other crew isn't trying to sink my boat. I sometimes sail with a young man who can't be more than maybe 12. He's a good pirate, but still very naive overall in-game. We encountered another crew and one boarded our sloop. I, at first, assumed the worst but waited to see the intent. The pirate asked what we were up to and I explained I was helping a younger crew mate out as we searched for ashen keys and chests. Once he realized we were no threat to his crew, he said his farewell and went on his way. That isn't exactly socializing, but it showed that both crews were willing to determine the other's intentions before firing cannon. That works for me.

Normally, my crew and I avoid others. Recently though, with the opt-out option, we've been having more positive interactions with other players.

If my crew and I aren't in a mood to fight (such as doing a tall tale or we just dealt with some obnoxious AI threat), then we'll try to wave to the other ship or promote a friendly interaction in some manner. However, we're always prepared to make a run for it if we need be.

For instance, we were doing the Seabound Soul TT and had a sloop approach. We explained that we were doing a tall tale and weren't interested in treasures tonight, they said that's cool. We joined into an alliance and they sailed off. A few minutes later, after recovering the TT item we needed, we saw them engage a pirate galleon and we went over to help. After sinking the galleon, we left the loot for them to have.

Also the other night, we have picked up a reaper chest from a sunken ship (there was no other ship anywhere in site) and as soon as we got it we had to engage a skeleton galleon. We sunk her but then noticed a player galleon came come over the horizon and was headed towards us. We took off in our brig but they gave chase. We dropped the reaper chest off at a nearby island and continued on our way. We noticed the galleon stopped at that island and picked up the reaper and never pursued us after.

We always try to be friendly (as we don't want to mess up someone else's night) but we are always prepared to fight or run depending on how the interaction goes.

I'm a fan of the atmosphere of the Arena tavern; it's unfortunate that we can only experience something like it in a pre-game lobby. I've always been a proponent of suggestions that request an Adventure-mode island or tavern for pirates to meet or play mini-games in. Though this would aid in the socializing part, not the friendly part.

Being friendly shouldn't require much, even if you KoS/SoS. Just be a good sport. "Well played" when they beat you; "roll on the deck laughing" at your own botches. Whether you win or lose, don't be toxic. Do what you will to the pirate, but be nice to the gamer behind it. We're all here to have fun.

Edit: I always say "Thanks!" after I loot a ship and, when I remember, I play Becalmed as a ship sinks. Polite pirate.

I’m always passive looking to sail along side another crew knowing 50% of the time it can result in combat anyhow.

@bugaboo-bill

I agree with a lot of these comments that it depends on the situation! I will follow that up with some fun stories!

1. (Friendly) YESTERDAY. I sailed up to an active fort and noticed a galleon on the horizon. I play solo so immediately they became my priority as I can easily solo the fort but if I was to win a fight with them I would need to know they were coming ahead of time, cuz bomb barrels and such :) As I was watching them i noticed they had a blue and red lantern. My curiosity got the better of me and I actually left the fort I was at to sail up, say hi, and offer the pink light in the event they were doing FOTD. Turns out a legend was helping new players level up and wanted the loot to help get his team to pirate legend also. We allianced and spent the rest of the day spamming Fotd and regular forts to level them up! I would go to a fort, solo it, take one or two items I wanted for commendations and gave them the rest. (There are good pirates out there lol)

2. (You shot me first) I met a galleon on an outpost, again I was solo. I had been playing with a team on a brig and they quit so I was goofing off alone shopping when they showed up. I was friendly, helped them load their boat, played music with them, never pulled out my gun. I rode with them to an active fort and started helping them clear the waves. Suddenly a few waves in they decided to start shooting me and hunting me all over the fort. I remained passive as a "dunno what your doing but I'm not agressive" gesture but the chased me up into a tower and a gunpowder barrel blew up killing me. I was helping you with a fort and helped you load your boat and your gunna kill me? Lol np!! I loaded back in on the brig, caught wind and chased them to golden sands (still solo). They pulled up with me right behind them, I used my boat as a distraction..sailing directly into them as i jumped from my mast onto theirs, grabbed the nuke, lit it and...BOOOOMMMM. both ships sank, i picked off the one guy that survived the blast and ended up getting all the fort loot for myself. 🤷‍♂️ they coulda had all of it I was just goofing off helping but hunting me on the fort randomly made it personal lol sorrryyyy!

3. (aggressive) I was working on the commendation for the new gold 25k reaper chests and I sailed all the way across the map to grab one. That's a longgggg hike so when i got there and saw a brig had gotten it I couldnt just turn around and sail back to the devils roar now can I? So I went the reapers, let my boat ghost sail off into the distance and I hid. The brig pulled up, just the one guy ran to turn in. I killed him at the turn in! Like...the chest dropped at her feet! I turned it in and mermaided away before they could hunt me. Lol

So it really all depends! I'm typically really friendly, love alliances, loved the big meg event, like teaming up for skull forts but I also dont care about loot anymore just commendations lol if you need help np! Wanna team up? Absolutely! But from time to time I can be that guy you hate that chased you or stole something cuz that's the nature of the game! 😉

I personally love social interactions in this game, however. I do not count PvP itself as a social interaction, so I don't do a "KoS" thing unless you have attacked me previously and I was just coming back just to screw with you with a Kamikaze ship - I just find this to be fun. When I did this as a test run, I had a noobie 3-man Galleon chasing me but I wanted to sell my mermaid gems first... So after I sold my gems, and made sure that all of my kegs are ready. I ram right into their ship... I saw all three of them on the Ferry and I said "Well, Hello there!"... Apparently they must've sunk because shortly after I got that message about moving to another server so I assume they rage quit after losing whatever they had on that Galleon... But they did fire first and chased me for like 15 minutes, and I wanted to do my first test run on a Galleon (a skeleton galleon originally but still)...

But in general, I follow a very peaceful rule and sometimes I may come up to you to offer help. Some of my best moments in this game so far are peaceful ones with other crews. I was once adopted into another crew's galleon after we did a fort because the kraken sunk me (granted, Kraken only sunk me because I got picked up and thrown into the waters and then picked up a second time... So I wasn't on my sloop to repair it). They thought I died and were coming to collect my loot I had from the fort but I already collected it onto my rowboat and came to them... Ended up having a blast with them for the rest of the session and they helped me with a few commendations.

Actually, I finally had my first encounter that I've been wanting to do. My goal in Sea of Thieves is to be a Hunter's Call type of pirate and hunt down Megalodons, Krakens, etc and save other crew from them if possible. Megs are too easy though but I saw a Sloop in the distance and was watching it curiously to see what it would do... Then it got a Kraken, so I came in and helped them, and they were friendly and had mics for once! I love players who has mics. So much easier to communicate with them than just pure silence...

Sorry for telling stories. Ha-ha.

@bugaboo-bill

General practice for me:

• If you threaten my ship, you are my enemy and I will try to sink you.
• If you board my ship without permission, you are my enemy and I will try to kill you.
• If you leave an open opportunity for me that seems like fun, I will most likely take it.
• If you have a ton of loot when we meet, I will most likely try stealing it.
• If you communicate, a deal can be struck. Else you will become my enemy most likely, nobody trusts a silent pirate.
• If you are running an initiation voyage or you are really bad, I will fix any damage I might have caused, provide a gift if I have one and give some pointers. Then take off and leave them be.
• If my crew makes a call, I will act accordingly.
• If the other crews member makes a move the whole crew will be held accountable. Naturally brig the culprit and negotiations can be opened.

The best encounters are the more friendly ones, I am always going to be open to negotiate but will do so from an advantageous position or adapt to be in one. I express the boundaries and I am not hesitant to call to arms at the sense of danger, which provides very funny stories about my crews responses when we go from friendly to full on combat based on seemingly minor shifts in situations and their sometimes delayed response. I tend to be a bit snippy when commandeering my crew in battle: We are fighting, stop fooling around! Kill them, get that ship moving... drop the sails, go go go. What can I say I like to win.

In the end I nearly always scout the enemy, get a feel of how they play, how good they are and their intentions towards our crew. Adapt to the situation at hand and see where it leads.

@bugaboo-bill said in how much do you socialize and be friendly to others:

As of last i read often that nobody trust anybody else anymore.
Some say they never have friendly encounters.
I can agree that the social experience and interaction in this game depends very much of the players you meet.

How do you treat it?

KoS and SoS?

Trying to socialize friendly sometimes?

Ready to parlay or never show mercy no matter who and what?

I for myself are willing to also socialize in the SoT and it's not only KoS and SoS all the time.

Imho this needs to be balanced.
The community can have some pure PK's but the best is we have a mixed community, what socializes the one and fights the other day.

What do you think, how do you treat it?

i'm friendly unless i have loot to protect

Avid solo Slooper here rules of sailing are as follows:

1. Passive Pirating, only fire if fired upon.
2. No one is welcome on ship unless invited.
3. Ships bigger than your own are to be treated with wary scepticism.
4. All Sloops in a session are believed to uphold the Sloopers Code until they show they in fact do not.
5. Parlay's rules are to be hashed out at the beginning of any Alliance, if one Pirate breaks it we all do.

Most of my playtime is on a solo sloop. I will never attack first. If you approach me I will most likely give you the old 'Ahoy!' from the chat wheel. If you don't fire on me nor silently try and board my ship, I will remain quite friendly.

If you attack me in any way (be it cannonballs, bullets, swords, or kegs), you will instantly and permanently become just another enemy on the seas. I will fight or run, and I won't stop until you sink, I sink, or I escape on a rowboat (laughing as you continue to chase my now empty ship).

Maybe that's harsh, but I gave you an 'Ahoy!' from the chat wheel as you approached. You could have chosen to respond with words or weapons. You chose weapons, you chose to be enemies. I accept your choice.

I try to be friendly, but the only pirates I ever find are the kind that think it's fun to try and drive people away from the game. "Spawncamp for an hour, don't take anything, hunt you down to do it again if you scuttle" type. My general rule is if you don't announce yourself somehow, I'm sailing away. Pirates who announce themselves tend to be the friendly type. I'll also hold fire if alliance pennant is up.

@bugaboo-bill

I don't 😋

I worked in call centers for 15+ years. The last thing I wanna do is put on a headset. If it can be said in quick chat that's about it. I actively avoid others. I do use emotes to wave, blow kisses goodbye and dance a saucy little dance when I'm being chased, along with the shoo lol.

When I play with my son (the infamously skilled pl10 lol) I leave the mood of the ship up to him, but I actively vote non aggression when we happen on others.

Overall I'm a pretty friendly pirate that just wants to be left alone to dig up treasure and fight some skellies and sharks here and there.