The most hostile and unfriendly game I have ever experienced in gaming...

@vhoren
How long do you spend on those outposts before you set sail ?

@vhoren
I completely understand the need for the first time (or two-three times) to get your bearings and taking the time to familiarize yourself with everything going on at an outpost. When you gain more experience that would really cut down on your time spend there and therefor also the chance of another crew showing up while you try to pick up the best option for equipment or voyage.

Normally you'd have ample time to make a few walks over the island to get resources from the barrels and then set sail. If all goes well, the game will spawn you not too close to other crews (though it does happen occasionally). The longer time you spend there, the chance of another crew showing up increases either because they spotted you and are wondering if there's anything left to steal from you or they need to be there to deliver or sell stuff.

We would normally not fight a fresh spawn or a new player, but the "I'm new" line is also used by more experienced player trying to lure players into a false sense of security and sink them instead.

Before you set sail to an outpost to turn in, make sure there are no other ships there or close-by and if you've got more than a few treasures to turn in, keep a look-out during going back-and-forth for ships that may set a course to you.

You could try using Looking for Group to team up with a crew that's willing to learn you the ropes. There is no choice for servers.

@vhoren

If you're playing on a console, go into your settings and find the option for xbox/controller preferred.

It's less aggressive than playing with mixed. It is only a preference so you could still end up with PC players. YMMV, but as someone who doesn't like player combat I rarely have to deal with it.

I couldn't even leave the starting outpost in multiple occasions because there would be crews that burn and sink my boat.

How long does it take for you to leave an outpost? This “issue” I have never heard any of my friends encounter and they would sometimes fish from the starting outpost.

Everyone is out to kill you as soon as you step out of an outpost for 0 profit other than sheer bordem of their own existance

Not true. Some will run from you. And sure people will attack you but, maybe they have an achievement that requires they steal loot?
How am I gonna know you don’t have anything or if your a fresh spawn?
You don’t.

How can new players even expect to enjoy an ounce of what this game offers when there is absolutely no chance to push forward? I have never in any game experience such willful hate and hostility...

Same way I and many before you have done. Buckle up and go forward. Ignore all your own faults and keep going.

Never?
CoD, Halo, Minecraft, Fortnite, Apex, Overwatch. Just gonna me a few “hostile and hateful” players.

@vhoren said in The most hostile and unfriendly game I have ever experienced in gaming...:

Are there servers that are selectable as non-aggressive or at the very least have crews that help other startups like me?

The most useful thing any of us can say to you is that alliance servers exist, unofficially and handled out-of-game (like on Discord), and if that's really what you want, go find one. A whole server where everyone is a bunch of pvers pointedly not engaging in any pvp whatsoever.

That aside:

It used to be a standard occurance for me that I would launch the game, spawn in the tavern as one does, and walk outside to see my ship already sinking.
I guess I may have missed an update where they improved spawning systems or something, because that hasn't happened since I started playing again some days ago.
But it did happen enough in the past that seeing it happen in the future would never be a surprise to me.

This game is a "sandbox freeform multiplayer experience".
The first and most imporant thing to learn is that any game fitting that description, does not fit that description.
Because they never offer a freeform multiplayer experience.
They only ever offer one multiplayer experience. Pure, immediate, and absolute hostility. Sea of Thieves, Rust, Ark, the million other examples, it's always the same.
The game itself leaves the technically present physical possibility of other kinds of interaction, but that doesn't matter, because people are people.
This game allows players to use proximity and typed chat to communicate with other crews and have friendly interactions, but that doesn't matter, because it never actually happens.
You will only ever encounter people who have in game voice chat turned off, are using 3rd party comms to talk to their crew without being able to be heard through the proximity system (completely invalidating the system), and automatically + instantly being fully hostile to anyone they end up near, anyone they see. If you're lucky that will mean they're afraid and run away because they're worried about losing when you attack them. If you're unlucky they'll be confident and attack you.
I have hundreds of hours but depsite much effort to the contrary, I have only found maybe 4 friendly encounters with other crews. And two of those were more or less forced by an event happening at the time, that required multiple crews cooperating to make "a thing" happen (when Megs were added to the game).

Not to mention the additional forms of pvp/hostility, other than regular "we are fighting you", you may not have encountered yet:

Keggers: You may have noticed gunpowder barrels exist. Most people never put any on their ship for safety reasons, but if somebody has one or you're at an island that does, you may find that people detonate them inside your ship. This can basically instantly sink a ship, and if you weren't on your ship at the time it'll be sunk before you know you're under attack.
Kegs as a mechanic are a good inclusion in the game, imo, but I figured I'd mention it in case it hasn't happened to you.

Tuckers: People who dress in the least visible outfits, find a good spot on your ship while you aren't there, and use one of the multiple stealth emotes the game has.
This removes their name from showing on your screen, and can make them very hard to see.
So while you are in a vault, or in a cave for some Tall Tale, or underwater doing a siren shrine, or whatever else, they'll make their ship sail away so you won't see it, and hide on your ship. After you're done whatever it was you were doing, then they kill you. Possibly with a keg. Possibly after you already sailed back to the outpost. Heck, they might even wait to blunderbuss one-hit-kill you at the outpost, just to turn in the one best piece of loot from your activity while you respawn.

This game is very big on and designed around the premise that nothing you get is actually yours until you've already sold it to an outpost npc.
And people are people, in a pirate game no less.
So you either accept the inherent pvp nature of the environment,
or you play on an alliance server,
or you don't play.

It's much easier to get into the game if you have someone to play with who knows the ropes but in my opinion you lose the experience of discovery if most things are done for you while you learn.

I started playing this game completely solo on my own. It gave me a wonderful feeling of exploration and is totally doable but you have to have a particular mindset when going in like that.

You have to accept that you will be met with frustrating moments and lopsided encounters with other players. Don't get super focused about losing your boat or any loot at this stage. It doesn't matter right now. Use everything as a learning experience and set your own individual goals as a way to measure your personal progress in mastering the game mechanics. It can be as simple as doing a couple of treasure hand ins without getting it stolen off you. Then doing a voyage without sinking. And building up from there.

Going in with a crew is always an option as it releases some of the burden of having to manage a ship on your own. Plus it can be fun to share in all the frustrations and hijinks that SoT has to offer.

I've been playing SoT for more than 3 years now. I've only ever had one occasion where I was attacked immediately after spawning in at the Tavern. And I've had a couple of times where players were either trying to camp the outpost I was on or just wanted to shoot my parked ship either because they wanted to use the dock or fancied their chances against a parked boat. Ship happens sometimes. Shared world online games where you meet players out in the wild are a circus and you just have to roll with the punches.

The majority of the time you will have an outpost to yourself when spawning in to a server. And as long as you don't spend hours sitting on an outpost you should be fine unless there was already a player ship in the vicinity.

Some key things to remember are:

• You can use the "Pirate's Life" tab to spawn in at the beach on an outpost instead of inside the tavern. You skip the wake up animation that way and can move around immediately.

• Sell often. Don't try to amass a huge loot pile on your boat.

• Don't keep gunpowder kegs on your ship. They are easy targets for players and stray shots from AI to do a ton of damage to you and your ship.

• Don't leave your anchor down when parking. Get used to raising your sails in order to bring your ship to a stop. An anchored ship with full sails down is a dead giveaway of a new or inexperienced player. If you have to use your anchor to stop remember to always raise it again so that you can leave in a hurry if you need to.

• Go to the FOV option in the settings and increase it to the max, which is 90. The default field of view in SoT is insanely zoomed in.

• Another useful option in the settings is to switch off camera shake. This will remove the camera shake when firing a canon and it makes it easier to get better at aiming canon shots.

Welcome to Sea of Thieves. Enjoy the good experiences and chuck the bad ones over your shoulder. 🏴‍☠️

I have trouble even running into a single player ship when i start the game up, more or less get attacked every time i start, that sounds like the most horrible luck in the world rather than typical gameplay.

Tbh, as others have mentioned, that is not typical of SoT it would be a far better experience to learn when your servers' peak times are and simply play when they aren't as busy. However, a crew-mate and I did encounter a sloop crew yesterday with the Reaper's Mark flag up (not emissary) who rode up on us quickly loading supplies to leave and they began to attempt unloading their cannon (although most of their shots missed) on us. Apparently they weren't expecting any resistance (or players with more experience than they had) because they quickly sunk when fired upon in kind by carefully aimed gun & cannon. It took them a couple return trips to actually learn we were neither going to go down easily nor did we have any loot. Although I certainly do share your unfortunate experience from previous sessions and I have lost loot to being sunk many times which ended in frustration and ending game-play for a while. I've come to accept that every single bit of experience counts whether it's a win or a loss and there's no sense in getting angry at your gaming device or shouting through your device at another player (who most likely doesn't sympathize much less even registers their actions have actual impact on another human being). I've met many players in-game who suffer from PTSD (like enlisted soldiers/retired military service members) and play this game because of the calming effect the sea has. It's unfortunate that anyone would take advantage of other disabled players. The only advice I can truly offer would be to increase your level of skill by getting as much practice as possible as often as you are able. Happy pirating and may your sails always be blessed with wind.

PvPers: Why are the servers so empty?
Also PvPers:

@imperatormorsus I wasn't talking about spawn bugs, I was talking about other players sinking my ship before I even finished loading in.
Spawning, leaving the tavern, and watching my ship sink because the enemy ship next to it had already filled it with holes.

@vhoren another tip I have for people who want to spend a bit more time at an outpost is to spawn at Galleon’s Grave. Set sail alone at first instead of assembling your crew on the set sail screen. Use Pirates Life instead of adventure and when you spawn in at the outpost, if it isn’t the one with the broken ship atop the tall archway then leave and set sail again until you get that outpost. It’s a few extra steps but that part of the map is usually quieter and will give you a little more time to get you bearings.

I personally always “hop for outposts” to get the one I want that day. Depending on what my goal is for that session there is always an outpost that’s preferred for that activity. It’s worth it to me to spend the few extra minutes to get the spawn point I want than to sail from one side to the other.

@imperatormorsus
Allow me to clarify again.
What I said is that it used to be a standard, common, and regular occurance that I would launch the game, click sail, load into the server, spawn in the tavern, immediately walk outside, and see my ship already sinking because their was another crew at the outpost who had already sunk it before I could even spawn and leave the tavern.
A process of mere seconds. Or less.
I also said that this used to be such a common thing when I used to play.
It has yet to happen since I started playing again. Which, to be fair, was only like a week ago. Thus the remark about there maybe being some spawning rules update I missed or forgot about.

At any rate with a spawn-sink you've literally added nothing to your boat to lose, not even a single bananna, so it's not like there's any basis for it to be frustrating. It's just amusing.
Maybe get a little extra entertainment value out of the players being all proud of themselves for sinking your ship. Your unmanned, anchored, defenseless ship.

@the-old-soul800 said in The most hostile and unfriendly game I have ever experienced in gaming...:

@imperatormorsus
Allow me to clarify again.
What I said is that it used to be a standard, common, and regular occurance that I would launch the game, click sail, load into the server, spawn in the tavern, immediately walk outside, and see my ship already sinking because their was another crew at the outpost who had already sunk it before I could even spawn and leave the tavern.
A process of mere seconds. Or less.

I also said that this used to be such a common thing when I used to play.
It has yet to happen since I started playing again. Which, to be fair, was only like a week ago. Thus the remark about there maybe being some spawning rules update I missed or forgot about.

At any rate with a spawn-sink you've literally added nothing to your boat to lose, not even a single bananna, so it's not like there's any basis for it to be frustrating. It's just amusing.
Maybe get a little extra entertainment value out of the players being all proud of themselves for sinking your ship. Your unmanned, anchored, defenseless ship.

That's some awful bad luck you had there. In all my time of playing, I think I've had two or three times when a ship was close when I spawned in a new session and the crew was there before I did my supply gathering.

I've had two times when I was at the end of a session on an outpost without a ship when another crew spawned in.

Did you used to join an open crew perhaps ? They might have been a longer time there before you joined and got sunk or scuttled.

Have you played call of duty or Leage of legends? Those games are ten times worse than this.

1. Not everyone is out to kill you, it's not logically possible, that's an overexaggeration.

2. It's not 0 profit, do u have cannonballs? Wood? food? If yes to any of these 3 then it's profit

3. There is content out there that is designed in a way that will give u some free space, try tall tales out. Specifically the Pirate Life ones, 5 voyages of those.

4. Are u sure ur not inviting others to attack you? Make sure none of your sails or flags have description that deliberately state that others will be able to hunt you down.

5. Learn the mechanics of the game. Maybe it's not even other players and just the npcs roaming about. Give yourself time to learn and master the ropes, until then, hold off on criticizing it.

6. New players can expect to push forward like every other player has done before them and how many current players do, by just pushing on and learning from their mistakes. It won't be easy, but for most that play it, it's fun. You're not a special or weird case, we're all on the same boat, like me and many others have done, I believe you have the potential to learn how to flow through the game.

Good luck, and hope u have fun