Good God. Sometimes I just want to play the game...

I have long said that a PvE server would not be a bad idea for many reasons. And I still maintain that SoT can survive having a PvE server. However, I just don't know how you would be able to create it. So many mechanics that are for both PvE and PvP. Gun Powder barrels being one of them. Or how do you stop someone from boarding your ship and grabbing your loot if you can't counter attack? Honestly, I just think it would take far too much work on Rare's part to create a PvE server, which is why you won't see it.

That being said, I understand your pain. It is not fun when you just want to enjoy the beauty behind this amazing game. The swash buckling pirate experience is amazing. I guess if I am you, take some of the above comments and spin them into motivation to make some changes.

The first thing I would say is, keep an eye on that horizon. If I am sailing solo, I am not just looking for other ships, I am looking for mermaids and row boats. If I am at an island doing a quest, and it is taking a little longer than normal, I go back to my ship and double check, or I run the island and check all directions for any unwanted guests. If I do have a ship nearby, then I am watching them even more, especially looking out for any thing between me and them that might indicate a swimmer or rowboat coming towards me.

Sell often if you don't want to lose the loot. It is not always convenient, but selling often at least ensures you get something for your efforts rather than nothing at all.

And try and enjoy the experience. Don't get to rattled by the fact that even with doing everything you can to try and avoid bad situations, they can and will happen on occasion. If you do become more vigilant, those bad situations will be a lot less than if you are not vigilant. But they still will happen. And it might not even be another player. You could get the kracken, meg and skelly ship, while a storm rages above, event that always is a blast on a sloop solo.

For me, the biggest thing I had to learn was, when I play the game, it is about the experience, not the loot. If I lose, I try to learn from it and move on, but I don't allow myself to get upset. The only time I might get upset is if the encounter is toxic. But having a pirate simply take your loot is not toxic. And for all you know, they may have had a quest on the island you were at, and simply wanted to force you away from the island.

So, keep your chin up, enjoy the game as it is, even those bad situations.

Fair winds and calms seas to ye matey.

You where playing the game.

@gelidus91 said in Good God. Sometimes I just want to play the game...:

@ghostpaw The guy sank the ship with a single skull on it. He didn't do it for some epic loot haul, he didn't do it because he gained anything from it, he did it out of spite. I'd say that's pretty toxic, hardly in keeping with Article 6. But hey, maybe I'm just kinder than the majority of the community here.

You can hardly tell what someones motives are, especially since you were not there and there was no communication between the players. There was nothing toxic about that encounter, and yes the other player did gain something from it (other than the single skull you seem to have missed in this story). He got a possible threat away from the island by sailing the ship off into the sunset and setting the fire was a delaying tactic to prevent a hasty return of the ship to the island.

There is no rule saying a ship must have loot on board in order to justify attacking or sinking said boat. Not one. Nor is it in any way toxic to do so, how it may be done can considered be toxic (either with verbal abuse or repeated stalking of the same ship) but the act of sinking and attacking is not - regardless of any treasure at stake.

Get off your high horse already.

@lethality1 said in Good God. Sometimes I just want to play the game...:

@xatencio6729 All I know is Rare is knee-capping themselves by not offering PvE servers. The player base could easily be triple what it is.

They are barely able to fill the bucket with new players than frustrated players leaking out the bottom of it. The Steam thing helped, but there are no more rabbits like that in the hat. It's declining pop from here on out - EXCEPT if they introduce PvE servers.

Oh sheesh, another one of these chicken little posts. The game is NOT losing players and your supposition that the player count would triple is truly hilarious (and unfounded). The game is NOT shedding players, it has a relative steady population which has held as one of the top 20 played games week over week on Xbox/PC for over 2 years now (and this is without including the influx of Steam players as well!). It led sales and concurrent player counts on Steam for weeks (and is still one of the most played and sold games on the platform), it had grown daily player counts daily for weeks after release where most games fall off after a couple of days.

PvE servers are NOT the answer nor will we see astronomical growth if they were introduced as many of you like to claim without a shred of evidence to back it up (other than the anecdotal " I know 10 friends that quit but would buy this if it had PvE server" tripe). It would be a colossal waste of time, money and resources just to satisfy a small minority of players who frankly refuse to get what the game is about, seeking to change it into something else because they cannot adapt to the game made by the developers.

@xatencio6729 said in Good God. Sometimes I just want to play the game...:

How about this for a compromise? Give SOLO PLAYERS the option to join a PVE server. Solo players typically love the game for its PVE content, right? So on a PVE server, take away any PVP content like Reaper's Bounty and let us do story missions and basic voyages in peace.

You are already being graced with a compromise, you will be able to join a custom server soon where you can accomplish your wildest dreams all by your lonesome or with friends if you want, at the cost of seeing your progression paused for that time and not earning commendations or currency.

Be grateful, be patient.

@xatencio6729 said in Good God. Sometimes I just want to play the game...:

I don't see the harm in allowing solo players the option to pick an instanced PVE environment. Period.

Ok. That's your problem. Period. Everybody else can see it, even the devs.

Repeating the same thing ad naseum won't change anyone's mind, and clearly not the devs's stance according to all the content they released merging both PVE and PVP aspect.

If there was a single activity in the game that would be a prime example of pure PVE content maybe deserving a separate mode, it would be tall tales right? Guess what? the devs prefered adding check points rather than splitting playerbase. What does that tell you about the direction of the game?

Checkpoints and custom servers are the two last nails in the PVE servers coffin.

Sea of Thieves Weekly Stream - ShockwaveZ3RO

Joe Neate: "The whole core premise of SOT is that it’s a shared world. To get to Pirate Legend, there will be danger and there will be other players, the risk and the reward is all part of it …that’s what SOT has always been, it’s a shared world adventure game, there is a purpose to that…it’s all about a shared world and we have no intention to deviate from that."

Sea of Thieves Weekly Stream - ShockwaveZ3RO

We don't want to split players, we don't want to split player types, the whole identity of sea of thieves is a shared world and the different kind of motivations within it.

Be grateful, be patient.

@xatencio6729 PvE servers exist and they didn't kill the game although everyone here is a soothsayer with the darkest prophecies at hand.
These servers are called alliance servers, look into the recruitment section. No drawbacks like no progression etc.
Well, whether you enjoy getting everything valuable shoved down your throat in no time is another question and up to you to answer.
Personally I prefer playing on normal servers with the kick to never know if I'll make big emissary cash again or if someone will come after me and everything heads to a completely different path. Not necessarily a worse one, but different.

@xatencio6729 said in Good God. Sometimes I just want to play the game...:

Nope. I'm done with this game playing solo mode. Solo mode sucks balls. I just quit another 1+ hour session (remember I usually only play 2 hours a night) after I got about 8 skulls, was going to sell everything, and a 2 or 3 person brig somehow caught up to me going against the wind (sails were perpendicular to the wind as they should be) and basically wrecked me. Yet another 1+ hours down the drain for ZERO reward.

Lesson learned, don't carry more than you are willing to lose! Sell whenever you have time if losing loot is so dramatic to your eyes.

Sailing perpendicularely against the wind isn't a magical immunity strategy, they simply outsailed you by going in zigzag, tacking the sails.

ATTENTION RARE! THIS IS NOT FUN! PLEASE DO SOMETHING TO LET SOLO PLAYERS THAT DON'T HAVE SUPER AWESOME PRO STREAMER SKILLZ ENJOY THE GAME.

Solo is hard mode buddy, always has been presented as such. If you can't manage on your own, go open crew or join communities and make friends.

Yes, I've seen streamers solo sloop an entire ghost fleet while defending themselves against a two ship Reaper alliance. I'm not them. I'm a guy who sees the greatness of this game and just wants to play it within the two hours I get a night.

No one needs to be an elite player to survive solo, just a bit of experience, strategy and situational awareness coupled with a bit of multitasking. Sell more often and you will lower your chances of loss, simple as that.

For example, make sloops much, MUCH faster against the wind than any other ship. That alone would've helped me out in a few scenarios already.

As mentioned above, they already are, you simply got outsailed. Now you know you aren't untouchable and can't simply go in a straight line forever against the wind to survive, learn how to manoeuvre between rocks, close to islands, use your harpoons, and use the fact that the sloop is way more nimble than the other ships already to your advantage.

@lethality1 said in Good God. Sometimes I just want to play the game...:

@xatencio6729 All I know is Rare is knee-capping themselves by not offering PvE servers. The player base could easily be triple what it is.

There's absolutely zero evidence of this.

They are barely able to fill the bucket with new players than frustrated players leaking out the bottom of it. The Steam thing helped, but there are no more rabbits like that in the hat. It's declining pop from here on out - EXCEPT if they introduce PvE servers.

Again, zero evidence. The game has been out well over two years now. Rare has consistently and clearly stated that PvE servers are not something they're interested in considering. Yet Sea of Thieves is somehow still going strong. The open world "anything can happen" philosophy is one of the most fundamental concepts of Sea of Thieves, around which everything in the game is balanced. We're not talking about a few minor tweaks here. A "PvE" version of Sea of Thieves would be like designing an entirely different game. People demand PvE servers all the time, yet nobody ever has any idea how that would even work in practice. Even assuming they somehow made a PvE mode work, it would spell death to the game as we know it. All one needs to do is think the idea through a bit to realize this is true.

Sea of Thieves has been doing just fine. It's nonsensical to claim the game will be in trouble unless they relent and give the minority what they want. The reality is just the opposite. The day they give in and neuter their great game to appeal to the vocal minority would be the beginning of the end of Sea of Thieves.

50% of of the value of the loot, comes from the fact that you can actually loose it. When you have the chance of loosing it all, you start protecting it, securing your surroundings... fighting for it.

@xatencio6729 said in Good God. Sometimes I just want to play the game...:

If RARE won't give us PVE servers, then they should at least give us solo sloop players certain strategies to survive better against other players.

At least now you're talking sense. Everybody wants Sea of Thieves continue to improve. Making small tweaks to the game's balance here and there is the proper way to solve these problems. Giving everyone a big fat easy button is the way to destroy the game for everyone. I suspect almost everyone would agree that we're open to changes that improve the game for the majority of players. The challenge is coming up with viable ideas that address common issues in a way that maintains the balance of the game.

Rare has shown that they care about the needs of solo players. Initially their concept of the game was strictly for group play. But early on they recognized the need to serve smaller groups and individuals who wanted to play. That's why we got sloops, and later brigantines. Most of the PvE encounters scale to match the size of the crew, allowing even solo players to accomplish almost anything that's possible for groups. You must understand this was a huge concession for a game designed for group play. What I'm getting at is the fact that Rare has already made many compromises for solo players.

What Rare cannot do is give solo players a magic wand against larger crews. Nor should they. Sailing by yourself is inherently dangerous, just like it would be in the real world. You already have many tools at your disposal for dealing with threats on the seas. Developing "strategies to survive" against other players is entirely up to you. That's not something Rare is supposed to do. What they do is provide tools and a fairly level playing field. They've actually done a phenomenal job of this.

I'm open to small tweaks here and there to improve game balance. But it's always been "tools not rules." Solo slooping was never meant to be easy. It's the ultimate challenge in Sea of Thieves.

@xatencio6729

You come across a skeleton ship and say cool and engage in battle.
You get attacked by a megalodon and are at peace with it and flee.
You get attacked by a player and you rage about them ruining your voyage?

This is a PvEvP game, where both players and monsters are threats you will encounter. You saw them heading towards you and decided not to do anything. Your response was not to engage or flee like you did versus the other threats. Then complain that it took no skill to take you out? Well, you didn't put up much of a fight either?

Also, you are by yourself and solo is the most difficult mode of the game. Crew up if you want to have an easier time?

You state you want to play the game, yet it sounded like you were playing the game didn't respond properly to a threat that came by and lost because of it. It is a game and you will lose at times, which is expected and acceptable. Next time you play and spot a ship heading for you maybe you should respond in a different manner?

The question is not what will those sails do on the horizon it is how will you respond to them?

@xatencio6729 Well, running didn't work. Maybe you should have tried fighting them.

A sloop is a formidable foe in the right hands. It can literally sail rings around all of the other ships due to its manouverability. It's also harder to land a shot on because of its size. Combine that with good aim on your cannons and you can take advantage of the major drawback of the Brig. The Brig is fragile, any hit on it will let water in and it fills up much faster than the other ships due to its single deck. It's also a low profile ship so it's easy to kill crew who are on deck with cannon fire or at least knock them overboard. Kill one or two, juke a boarding attempt and put some holes in it and they're toast.

Next time a brig comes at you don't run, turn and fight. Win or lose it'll be over faster. Put up a good enough fight and they frequently just run away. A lot of the most aggresive pirates are only interested in fighting people who can't or won't fight back.

As bad as it feels to lose 2 hours worth of loot, there are few better feelings than taking down a bigger ship with a full crew as a solo pirate.

@xatencio6729

Can't steer my ship, fire cannonballs, fix my ship, AND defend myself from a boarder all at the same time.

If only there was something you could do to fill that void?

There is plenty of resources out there besides open crews, Discord has thousands of communities including the official Sea of Thieves one, Xbox LFG has crews that use certain traits to weed out candidates. Time to use said tools. You are playing a multiplayer game in the hardest capacity out there. Not a single game has found a solution to get solo's on the same competing level against groups in a game designed around multiplayer. Either crew up or find a game that isn't multiplayer. Nothing more can really be said. Don't play a multiplayer game with the expectation of never facing overwhelming numbers.

@lethality1 said in Good God. Sometimes I just want to play the game...:

@xatencio6729 All I know is Rare is knee-capping themselves by not offering PvE servers. The player base could easily be triple what it is.

So the number of players would go from 15 million to 45 million? Nope.

They are barely able to fill the bucket with new players than frustrated players leaking out the bottom of it.

Sea of Thieves just hit 15 million players. I think that the bucket is filling faster than it is leaking.

The Steam thing helped, but there are no more rabbits like that in the hat. It's declining pop from here on out - EXCEPT if they introduce PvE servers.

...or its an upward pop with the introduction of private servers.

@xatencio6729

If they are already on the island running to your ship, you already were late at spotting them.

There are multiple tools to crew up other than open crews and I personally still at times enter those. It is a bit of a gamble and I always try to first check if they can communicate and take a moment to inspect my crews behavior, the ships stock and such to determine whether it is worth staying. I am willing to be a tutor or a sailor.

You state that you have issues with a different crew, brig, due to their boarders. That means you need to watch your ladders better, grab a blunderbuss if needed. Learn to anticipate when they will try and position you ship better. You claim to have a chance to battle them out on the seas, then ensure that you keep it at that type of battle.

You claim it is impossible, but in reality it isn't the case except if you come across an actual good coordinated crew... which frankly is very rare, you stand a pretty good chance if you are good at survival.

If you claim I do not know, I am a pirate that picks a fight while solo. I keep my ship moving and am a master at keeping it floating. I try to board them and yet rarely get boarded myself, if they manage to grab the ladder I nearly am always there to greet them. I don't win all my pirate fights, I die in nearly every single battle and yet I rarely sink when I am solo, unless I mess up or take a risk that I shouldn't have, choices choices.

I don't claim it is easy, I don't claim it did not take me time to learn... but in the end that is the choice one makes when when you head out alone. You stand a chance while solo, you can even fight them while solo and yet if you make a mistake, if you don't respond properly it might just be the end. It is the most difficult type of pirate you choose to be, the stubborn salty pirate captain.

@purr2344 said in Good God. Sometimes I just want to play the game...:

however the events of which u speak do NOT scale to crew size they scale to boat regardless of how many players are in the crew...

Yes, you are correct. The point remains that emergent PvE events scale to allow solo sloop captains a fighting chance. In many cases, the scale is tipped too far. Many encounters (e.g. the kraken) are far easier for a solo slooper than for a full crew on a brigantine or galleon.

You had a case of bad luck. It happens to all of us. Just like in real life, car accidents happen and people die. While, that's a terrible analogy, let me continue and say obviously this is a moment that you will remember for a very long time. Something, most games can not deliver on. Enjoy the sandbox, a new adventure happens every single time you log in! :)