There’s a Difference Between PvP and Griefing

I've played solo a large majority of my time in the game and I have played a very extreme amount of time in the organic playstyle.

Stuff annoys me sometimes, people annoy me sometimes, just a mild thing, no biggy.

I have fun after all this time because of a few things I stay committed to.

I never take it personal and I respect the freedoms of others as much as I respect my own.

What I love most about this experience is doing whatever I want to do in a shared environment. It's necessary to support the freedom of others to do the same.

I play by a code and always have but it's not the obligation of others to follow my code, that's why I can enjoy this experience day after day even though I've been sunk thousands of times and lost thousands of fights. Been attacked without loot a lot, been camped thousands of times.

I move on when it's time to move on and let it go. It allows me to love the experience as much as I ever have even though my style is becoming more rare as the game evolves.

We get to do what we want to do, we aren't guaranteed a win.
others get to play how they want to play
we don't have to play by the rules that others want to impose, only the code of conduct of the environment.

@undercover60 said in There’s a Difference Between PvP and Griefing:

The mental gymnastics performed in this forum are baffling…

Yes, we understand it’s a PvPvE. Yes, we understand we are going to encounter other people who aim to take our loot and sink us.

What we are NOT understanding of, is the defense of players who aim to (what in any other game would be considered) grief others. Sinking someone’s ship with no loot, or with a smaller ship and crew, is contrary to the concept of PvP. It constitutes no “win” for the aggressor for anything other than bragging rights.

And you know what that encourages in the long haul? A dead High Seas, and an even more dead game. Defend it if you want but it’s irrefutably a poor experience and a detriment to the health of the game.

Solutions could be comprehensive improvements to the combat systems, rewards/progression in PvP activities (overall improvements to Hourglass given it seems to be on the decline), bounty systems for PvP players to put them more on the defensive, etc.

Sorry, but you don’t decide when it’s acceptable for players to attack you, Rare already did that. If something is considered griefing in SoT, Rare has identified it as such, not you.

How do you know a player didn’t sink you because they want your supplies? Did you decide that your supplies aren’t worth taking? Rare didn’t, which is why we can harpoon and loot them after you’ve sunk. How do you know another player doesn’t see you as a threat? Maybe you’re at or close to an outpost they aim to sell at, maybe you’re at or close to an event or other content they aim to participate in, and they consider you someone who might contest that content?

Why are you so worried about being attacked when you have no loot anyway? You decided that your loot is worthless and therefore shouldn’t be too disappointed about losing… nothing?

My favorite thing about your post is the “dead seas” comment. I’ve heard this narrative so many times on so many game forums. What you essentially just said is: “make changes to the game which cater to me, otherwise your game will fail!”. Some people are so used to pushing this narrative that they forget they’re on the forums for a 6 year old, very successful game. I don’t think that SoT is going to go back in time and be less successful to suit your narrative, your thoughts on “dead seas” are a bit out of touch, and far too late. Sorry to break it to you, but SoT is very successful without implementing your dream sheet.

The mental gymnastics regarding PvP that I see on these forums is from players who clearly don’t even like SoT for what it is, calling players who are playing the game as intended and within the rules put in place by Rare, griefers or toxic. That in itself is toxic, imho.

How about we all play the game as Rare intended, and if we don’t like it move on instead of making entitled post on the forums?

In another post on this forum you basically said that you don’t like PvP, or that it wasn’t “enticing for good reasons”. Why don’t you just lead with that? Just say that you don’t like PvP and that you want your encounters with other aggressive players to be limited. You wouldn’t go too far on these forums with that post, either, but at least it would be honest. Calling other players griefers because they sunk you and asking for the game to be changed for you, is the real mental gymnastics here.

Edit; I didn’t even notice your thoughts on crew sizes. Really, so attacking smaller crews is considered griefing now? Are the ship and crew sizes not well within the design of SoT, and the limitations and capabilities within them not entirely acceptable in accordance with the ToS of the game? What DO you consider acceptable? Btw, I almost always play on a sloop, both solo and duo, and I am also selective about with whom I choose to fight.

I've been playing for only a week, yet I've enjoyed some successful runs and even purchased a Sloop ship. However, upon logging in recently, I chose to fish at the pond before boarding my ship. When I returned, I found someone destroying it. It was still docked, untouched by me, and stocked only with default supplies. They seemed to sink it just for fun, without any real reason.

Additionally, I suggest the creation of a new, safer PvE server that allows players to level up very slowly and engage in all activities available in the regular game, excluding major bosses like the skeleton crews. Due to my disability, ((cerebral palsy)), which affects my hand-eye coordination, I struggle with fighting NPC ships or handling other challenges alone. My goal is to collect items, sell them, and purchase cosmetics, not to engage in PvP. I prefer PvE exploration over combat and believe there should be an option to opt out of the latter. That's my viewpoint.

@burnbacon and until the recent rerelease it was… your game has been dying. Read the writing on the wall…

@capt-greldik you unequivocally crossed my points and fed your own in. Rare has been quite dismissive of many attempts for feedback regarding this exact thing, for years. Which is why you still see people posting about it for 6+ years. All in all if your viewpoint is “daddy Rare said so,” you’re not worth convincing.

@undercover60 said in There’s a Difference Between PvP and Griefing:

@capt-greldik you unequivocally crossed my points and fed your own in. Rare has been quite dismissive of many attempts for feedback regarding this exact thing, for years. Which is why you still see people posting about it for 6+ years. All in all if your viewpoint is “daddy Rare said so,” you’re not worth convincing.

So what you’re saying is that SoT CAN actually go back in time and fail as a game based on your prediction 6 years after its launch? Fascinating.

The fact remains that what you call griefing, Rare doesn’t, nor do I. You may not care to convince me, but I sure do think that you’d like to convince them. On that note, trying to convince them that players behaving well within the ToS of the game, and breaking no rules that Rare has established are griefers, is probably going to fall short.

Just because other people on these forums sometimes agree your beliefs does not validate them. By your logic, your beliefs are meaningless since those on these forums clearly overwhelmingly don’t agree with you.

Keep asking for Rare to make you a new game, though.

@undercover60 said in There’s a Difference Between PvP and Griefing:

@burnbacon and until the recent rerelease it was… your game has been dying. Read the writing on the wall…

Citation required. We’ll wait. Spare us your Steam online player count investigative journalism, as I’m sure you’re aware the vast majority of players don’t log in via Steam.

I started playing season 9, and all I’ve seen is success upon success. This old game just hit a 40 million player milestone, which you can look up yourself, while also implementing a much asked for anti-cheat, and while also being the best selling ps5 game for the moment. But yea, it’s failing because someone sunk you.

If you’ve got some numbers to share with Rare that they don’t have, you should probably let them know, because for 6 years they’ve managed a successful game without listening to you, maybe you could help them bring in the big dollars with your very well thought out proposal.

@capt-greldik so you think this game is such a ground breaker that it defies the same logic every other online multiplayer game has ever been held to? I'll wait too...

@goldsmen it's quite simple. Remove the game pass stats.