My thoughts on PvP vs new players.

Sure I try to take it easy on new peeps. But it isn’t always readily clear.
I also think too many people believe sinking isn’t a natural part of the game.

I’ve received many toxic Xbox messages from crews who had an emissary up, some expensive cosmetics, and a pirate legend aboard… messaging me to tell me how I ruined their friends first experience of the game, because they were showing him/her the ropes.

There seems to be something so brutal in this games design loop, that many people just can’t see being attacked as anything but an assault on them personally.

I think we need some encouraging loading screen messages in this game that remind people that it’s okay to sink. It’s just loot. Enjoy the battle and try again. It’s all part of it.

1. wait to be attacked or attack first. (Warning shot). With the new flares, I fire off White as “we good” or red for “bring it”

2. I still do the whole, Someone on an island, and I need that island. I wait or go to a nearby island. Unless it’s part of a tall tale or end of a voyage and I need to be finishing. I’ll push in :p

3. I still follow the rule. Cannons up? No need for a fight. Cannon down? Let them decide. (Mine are mostly up as I don’t look for pvp)

4. alliance flags mean nothing for me. I’ll have mine up just for the sake of it.

5. no mic? I’m leaving. (Sailing away) or have 0 trust. :p

Those my set of rules. Minus a few

@jeroenxp1

Depends, if I’m solo on a sloop I tend to attack anyone unless they’re fishing. I like to take on larger crews and sink them if possible or have a good fight if I lose. If I’m with an experienced crew Or playing with an inexperienced partner I’m more likely to show mercy or leave people alone or help them if possible. I guess it’s mostly situational but I’m pretty bloodthirsty when I’m playing alone. I like to challenge myself but I would be lying if I said I haven’t sank people that had no chance just for the thrill of finishing a fight I was outnumbered in.

Well, is part of the learning of the game to get sunk a lot of times, but in my personal case, If I attack someone and I see that is a new player, I tend to let them free and keep with their stuff.

Unless they become toxic or start insulting, in that case I sink them just for their behaviour. I understand the frustration that getting sunk causes, but is not a reason to be rude with other players.

The game has a big problem with new players retention, I don´t want to make this problem even bigger just for a few skulls.

Anyways, it doesn´t matter at all, PvP is not skill, is luck and rng on gunfights so It doesnt matter how much skill you have, if the server decides to eat shoots, a new player can oneshoot you with the blunder after tanking 2-3 pistol/sniper shoots, and that let skill on a second place, sadly.

Just let them leave, remember that if you board them, you are tossing the coin, and could not favor you, SoT is not a skill based game since servers get worse and worse with updates, so do not tent luck xD

@elci-poteh I sank the same fully crewed brig tonight three times in a row. I was literally toying with them.Alone in a sloop. The idea you have thats everything is rng is just false. Yes.. excretememt happens. If you are skilled you can make rng in your favor and destroy new players.

I'll leave new looking crews alone, might pop over to say hello and offer some guidance. If they have a reaper emissary up then I'm sorry but it's just good business. If I'm reaper then I'd sink them if they have an emissary. Had some players calling me all sorts of colourful language over the weekend when I sank them because they had a reaper emissary up (they were fairly new). I think some sort of warning might be a good idea for new players that if you fly x emissary flag, you are inviting PvP.

@ghostpaw said in My thoughts on PvP vs new players.:

@a10dr750 said in My thoughts on PvP vs new players.:

I think some sort of warning might be a good idea for new players that if you fly x emissary flag, you are inviting PvP.

This would be a good idea. Too many players just think of it as a loot and faction bonus. They don’t realize it was meant to enhance PvP for players who decide to opt into the system.

The earlier explanations of Emissaries were IIRC more wary about this. Now it's on the last line of the last page of the tutorial (and then only warning for the Reapers).

The merchant representative seems to be the only one to be warning you when you ask 'What is an Emissary?', the rest are about the way of GH, earning more &c.

OTOH, new players don't have the ability for raising an emissary though. Don't know how long it takes now for a new player to get to L15 of a Trading Company. They should realise that having a long pendant is an indication of amount of loot you might have ... and that it makes you a target.

@liberance

That's really quite sad.

I wish that some adjustments were made so that only crews that are doing tall tales or PvE related things had access to white flares whereas the red ones could be found at the reapers hideout.

It wouldn't completely negate the possibility of a crew being toxic or hostile, but it would add a little friction to their trap.

My crew never uses them, and my guess is that they were introduced to help players communicate but it just seems that people use it to betray each other.

@touchiertooth28 said in My thoughts on PvP vs new players.:

@liberance

That's really quite sad.

I wish that some adjustments were made so that only crews that are doing tall tales or PvE related things had access to white flares whereas the red ones could be found at the reapers hideout.

It wouldn't completely negate the possibility of a crew being toxic or hostile, but it would add a little friction to their trap.

My crew never uses them, and my guess is that they were introduced to help players communicate but it just seems that people use it to betray each other.

Don't the flares work as lanterns when fighting shadow skeletons ... ?

@lem0n-curry

I think they do, I haven't fought any shadow skeletons since this patch came out.

I honestly forgot they had that purpose, too.

@jeroenxp1

I am not talking about Naval Combat, that is 70% skill, sometimes you get chainshoot without any reason but is not luck based.

I mean when you engage into Gunfights, when you board someone with mast down, there is coinflip PvP because guns works like trash. I got oneshooted by a blunder backtrack a lot of times, a person shooting to the mast and I was reloading inside the ship and I took the hit, for example.

That is not skill, is servers being what they are xD

Even worse in arena, I shooted 5 times a person WITHOUT HEALING with the Sniper and that person tanks an entire Sniper magazine, my face was like .... -_- really?

For that reason I say that PvP between players is RNG, naval is fine, works a lot better than Gunfights and that is a nightmare if you are trying to get TSD weapons, for example.

Imagine trying to 300 kills with the Sniper with the actual hitreg

@jeroenxp1
You are a diamond!

My gaming experience is 60 hours, I play with friends who have just started playing and it's hard for them, for me as well. Not everyone wants battles, they like the beauty of the game. Someone loves read stories of islands or characters.

Toxic community. We met a player in the fort. He said "hello". After selling the items, he started shooting at our ship. We sank his ship. After this incident we will never be friendly. I understand that this is a "Sea of Thieves". But Сode of conduct is this a joke? Most of the points are fictitious. The first player I met started with insults. All players do this. No matter what nationality or age.

Need to control the behavior of the players by the mechanics of the game.

My suggestions:

• Safe areas for everyone.
• Add pvp rank. Divide servers by rank. (new players VS new players, pro VS pro)
• Add pve servers. Someone just wants to swim with friends and dig for treasures.
  It will increase the number of players.

I bought game to have fun with driends and relax, not to suffer the first 100 hours of playing. Some players at the beginning of the game change the server to "best" one without emissaries. This is funny. No choice for player.

Sorry for my english.
All the best.

@mostexpendable Does seem so. Sometimes the organisation is "Something" and how players are treated, is not right. Like, at the end of the day, its just a game. it's nothing important and just somewhere to disconnect from the world, and not to be in more drama. I really do wonder it's taken to seriously..... and it not just kids, but adults alike.

@mostexpendable said in My thoughts on PvP vs new players.:

Sure I try to take it easy on new peeps. But it isn’t always readily clear.
I also think too many people believe sinking isn’t a natural part of the game.

I’ve received many toxic Xbox messages from crews who had an emissary up, some expensive cosmetics, and a pirate legend aboard… messaging me to tell me how I ruined their friends first experience of the game, because they were showing him/her the ropes.

There seems to be something so brutal in this games design loop, that many people just can’t see being attacked as anything but an assault on them personally.

I think we need some encouraging loading screen messages in this game that remind people that it’s okay to sink. It’s just loot. Enjoy the battle and try again. It’s all part of it.

I think you made a great point. Getting sunk and having loot stolen is a natural (and encouraged) gameplay mechanic, but it seems like a LOT of players don’t realize it. I think it’s obvious, but maybe that’s just because I’ve played for a long time. If they added more explanation around the PvP risk of the game, it might help give new players a better understanding and more acceptance. I get that Rare has “tools not rules”, and there’s no rule against never firing a shot at another player, but I think there’s a large subset of players that take personal offense to being attacked because they don’t understand the motivation when “you would make more by allying”, or “I have no loot, why would you attack me?” (while they fly a grade 4 merchant flag).

People don’t realize - a grade 3 flag is worth about the same gold and rep as a chest of legends. People will spend hours tucking, hours scheming and battling, hours chasing, just for the chance to take a chest of legends. Meanwhile, that grade 3 flag you have is a literal chest of legends flying on your deck for all to see lol. Even a grade 2 flag isn’t far off.