I'm sure this will rile up all the try-hards here.
I played SoT back in the early Alpha (and much later, the Beta) but recently decided to give it another try now that there's actually content in the game. Sadly, almost all of the major concerns I had then still apply now, and I quickly remembered why I never bought the game.
First of all, I really love a lot of things about the game and I'd love to play through the content and experience it. Unfortunately, that won't happen because I spend all my time getting griefed by a bunch of 12-year-olds.
Of course it's fun to do some ship combat now and then, but it gets really obnoxious and frustrating when you are trying to do anything else.
There is a massive section of gamers that just want to enjoy a game and it's content, especially with their friends, without getting greifed and constantly cussed out by angsty, insecure pre-teens. However, SoT alienates these players by specifically curating and encouraging a toxic community and game.
"It's a pirate game and that's what pirates do!!!!" I'm guessing you don't really know much about real pirates and what they were like. Also, its a video game, the idea is to make it fun. This excuse would be like activision making a CoD game that actually gives you PTSD and then you get on the forums and yell at anyone criticizing it: "real soldiers get PTSD so that's why the game does!!! Get gud!!!!" Think about it.
"Get gud!!" You clearly don't understand that some people simply don't enjoy or want to play pvp, particularly in a system that makes it so easy to repeatedly be killed by the same people (not to mention being at a major disadvantage if you don't have three friends or want to play with rando's). I don't have the time, energy, or desire to play this game enough to "get good", nor do I enjoy filling my crew with random obnoxious teens.
"Go find a new game, then!!!" Yes... that's what I'll be doing. Just lamenting that solo players and PvE fans can't enjoy an otherwise great game.
"It's not griefing, it's just the game" It IS griefing and that's my point. The devs made griefing a core mechanic and that's the problem.
It's truly a shame that the developers decided this was the only way they wanted the game to be played, rather than allowing options. Online gaming is toxic enough as it is, it shouldn't be forced onto gamers by developers.
So, my feedback + suggestion to the devs: If you want to increase the player base, make it more enjoyable to more people, and reduce toxicity then
- add protections for players who don't enjoy pvp like a PvE server (if they have arena, why not PvE?)
- Or, some kind of non-combatant mode where enemy players can't attack you or interact with your boat or things
- Or, at the very least, some kind of system that marks anyone who has recently killed other players on the map so they can more easily be avoided and put a bounty on them so other players seek them out and thus keep them too busy to grief. Add to the bounty with the more people they kill. Possibly slightly slow down their ship when they have a bounty to let others flee, and force them to continue fighting anyone chasing the bounty.
Do I really think the devs have the time, resources, or care enough to make these changes? No. I wish they did. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised one day. But I don't see it happening, which is why I sadly can't stick with this game, like the many, many other players who quickly realize what this game is. Such a shame.
