Game is horrible for new players.

@averageskate286 said in Game is horrible for new players.:

this is mostly me rambling and ranting but its also my actual experience in a game, I want so badly to love.

Give it some time. Let things settle.

It's overwhelming in the beginning but that's true for everything new.

Don't worry about "getting stuff done" just get some time in, gain some experience, find some laughs, spread some joy.

You'll be alright. I don't say that to dismiss where you are right now, I say that because I've seen so many go through this and get through it. You will too, at the very least just settle in and give it a bit more time before you move on.

It gets better, you'll see.

Everything you've ever enjoyed took some time to get used to it, this is no different.

@averageskate286

Safer seas is an excellent tutorial. Your gripe with it seems to be that the loot is less, but why would you expect the same loot from a tutorial?

I’m not sure I’ve ever played a game with a mirror world which acts as your own personal learning experience. Safer Seas offers you just that.

Does it prepare you for PvP? Not really, but it allows you to learn the basics of the game without interference. Nothing in any game will prepare you for PvP other than PvP itself. Want PvP practice? Go get it. It’s not like you lose anything, you’ll get a brand new ship moments after sinking.

In any game that involves competing vs other players there’s a learning curve.

Day 1 witness and later player because...it's pretty cool

You can't get SoT in anything else. It just doesn't exist. She has a stupid steep learning curve.
I would suggest safer seas. Do the voyage Tutorials and the Tall Tales in SS. After that, trial by fire baby!

It's a lot more welcoming than it used to be even tho it's stupid problematic still.

@averageskate286 said in Game is horrible for new players.:

Me and my friend recently started playing SOT, and in short it is PAINFUL (I was an overwatch copium player for years and this is worse)

First:
Pvpers, I get it you want to pvp but why is there not a mode or some form of sbmm? like everyone ive run into does some crazy stuff and im sat respawning whilst they burn my ship. I dont see why a game like SOT cant implement something super simple and for those saying do safer seas, why? what do I gain from that? why would I spend triple the time for the same amount of loot? like that mode doesnt exist.

Hourglass has SBMM, technically... Whether it's functional on any given day is a spin of the proverbial wheel, but it's there. It's not possible to implement SBMM for adventure mode because there is no "score" by which to rank players. You can't use hours in game because old players with new accounts will go bunny thumping. You can't use gold because that is just a measure of time spent in game not skill. Plus, not knowing the skill of the spotted ship's crew is most of the tension and excitement of the game. Do you attack? Do you sail by hoping they don't attack you? Do you divert your voyage to avoid it all together?

The basic premise of a game is to voluntarily overcome unnecessary obstacles (Bernard Suits), and to make a series of interesting decisions (Sid Meier). The other players in your session are the unnecessary obstacle you're volunteering to overcome, and not knowing their skill level gives your decisions gravitas and impact. No SBMM is what makes Sea of Thieves interesting—this isn't an FPS where every round is "fair." Sea of Thieves is an adventure game where you don't know what lies in store for your and finding out is the game.

Second: The tutorial is probably the most barebones tutorial ive ever seen, it shows you how to dig up stuff and set your ship off but thats about it, what am I supposed to learn here? cool I dig up stuff with a shovel, but that doesnt matter when you dont have any way of practicing canons or any of that before being thrown into PVP.

This is fair. It'd be nice if they gave you a tour of an outpost, showed you how to get supplies, how to post a voyage, and even more what if at the old Sea Dog's Tavern they had like ship silhouettes you could use to practice cannons? That's be neat.

Third: Me, my friend and others we have played with are all considering just uninstalling we are all new players and all of our experiences have sucked and they have sucked hard. I dont see why you would release an "open-world" game that is essentially rust but on the ocean without including some form of help for new players, even RUST has places you can go and practice, where can I practice in SOT? shooting ghost ships? not realistic, they wont jump on my boat quickscope me and anchor me.

Actually, yes, ghost ships and skeleton ships are for practice. Essentially, PvE is all just practice for PvP. I will 1000% agree that the leap from PvE to PvP is big, and the learning curse is steep/punishing. But you do have the right idea. Until you can complete a skeleton fleet sloop/brig duo, you really aren't ready for PvP. So, yea, keep practicing. Learn to multitask, when to focus on which activity. When to fight and when to reset.

Then, you need to learn the PvP. When to engage, when to reset, when to flee. The hardest truth to learn is that sinking isn't losing. We've all sunk. The biggest hurdle to new players has always been the psychological connection between sinking and losing. The stigma of sinking needs to be eliminated to enjoy the game. If you can't come to grips with the fact that there is always a better crew on the waters and they will beat you, then this game may not be for you.

I have a few options I can give you coming from someone who has played since launch

1. You can give up and play something else (I have done this twice already)

2. You can put in the hours upon hours of watching, researching, and applying all that you can learn in practice (This has done almost nothing for me personally)

3. You can take less time and learn how to play while dodging almost all fighting (This is my personal method)

Now there will almost certainly be a ton of negative response to me giving you the advice to learn how to run but personally I have incredible effectiveness with it. I returned roughly a month before season 13 and have found they added a dive mechanic that as long as you are hyper aware you can escape. I have had 100% effectiveness with escaping thus far in the around 100 hours I have played since returning. Its not the most efficient method but it is WAY better than losing hours of your week to someone you had no chance against in the first place. You will lose some loot but you just have to make sure you are constantly watching and constantly selling and you'll find that you are succeeding before you know it.

@f1r10n1 said in Game is horrible for new players.:

I have a few options I can give you coming from someone who has played since launch

1. You can give up and play something else (I have done this twice already)

2. You can put in the hours upon hours of watching, researching, and applying all that you can learn in practice (This has done almost nothing for me personally)

3. You can take less time and learn how to play while dodging almost all fighting (This is my personal method)

Now there will almost certainly be a ton of negative response to me giving you the advice to learn how to run but personally I have incredible effectiveness with it. I returned roughly a month before season 13 and have found they added a dive mechanic that as long as you are hyper aware you can escape. I have had 100% effectiveness with escaping thus far in the around 100 hours I have played since returning. It’s don’t thinot the most efficient method but it is WAY better than losing hours of your week to someone you had no chance against in the first place. You will lose some loot but you just have to make sure you are constantly watching and constantly selling and you'll find that you are succeeding before you know it.

No negative response here, I think that everyone should learn to play to their abilities and desires. My first few months in SoT were very similar to the approach that you eventually landed on. I was just really enjoying everything about the game, but I also knew that I had no chance against just about anyone. So I did things that I figured were relatively safe, and eventually I got really into Athena shipwrecks in the roar. I’d do everything I could to minimize interaction with any ship at all. I was always scanning the horizon, checking the map, and even parking my ship in such a way that it wasn’t as visible from the western parts of the map. I was very successful with this approach even as a newbie.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, imho. I eventually decided to do a lot of HG in order to increase my competency versus other players, but that isn’t necessary to play the game. I think that a lot of pirates feel entitled to all content in the game without having to fight over it. Based on many of the post I see on these forums, I get the impression that many new players go straight to the high end content like a FoF or FotD, then get upset when those events are contested (as they appear designed to be).

Everyone should play to their abilities and desires. Everyone also should at least become competent at running away, as there are no pirates in SoT who haven’t had to run away before.

So the first time you picked up Overwatch, you were an expert right? Or maybe your first Fall Guys, or RUST?

Does Sea of Thieves have a learning curve? Yes. Is it steeper than other games? Maybe. But to just say "this game is terrible for new players" begs the question, what game isn't??

Candy Crush?

I think the most important thing about safer seas to remember is it’s not used for gold it’s SAFER seas you get to learn the pvp with ai you get to learn naval with the skeleton fleets you get to learn the basics there, anchor turns how close to an island you should raise your sails, you get to practice your canon aim and the different cannon balls in a fight you can afford to lose instead of learning it on the fly you get to learn all the core mechanics and then you will be ready for high seas I mean be grateful it’s even a thing lol I joined before that was ever a thing. I will say you’re doing something right, play with friends best way to play and id say the other price of advice is watching content creators if you don’t know where to start, learn the events and best ones to start with, ghost forts are practically abandoned, I’d watch cliff the story guys video series on making a million from scratch he will cover the things to do to progress like emissary flags and captaincy

@gunnner1 said in Game is horrible for new players.:

@averageskate286 This game is designed to beat down players. Rare set up servers so that hostile vets and newbs play together, which inevitably leads to new players being sunk at a disproportionately large rate. Rare does not attempt to put fighters together or adventurers together, but mixes them to achieve their PVPVE or whatever their goal is.

It's more of a trade-off game that has some pretty unpleasant metas that last for a very long time sometimes.

A person can run a brig crew in this game and everything is pretty easy to achieve, but then people are dealing with schedules and personality/preference conflict and all the situations that arise from that play style. Win a lot, get a lot done, lots to deal with along the way. People burn out, move on, all sorts of stuff happens.

Then some people play like I do. Solo, super chill, everything takes a long time, lots of losses along the way, but the experience is so peaceful from the freedoms of no obligations that it's easy even though it's challenging. This way is all mindset, not skill or outcome, just mindset.

The main thing is finding what is right for a person. A lot of people are fighting the system rather than doing what makes sense for individual success. Once a person says "I am going to work around this no matter what happens" then it's all thriving after that, no matter how long something takes or how many times someone sinks.

Us experienced solos lose more than we ever did in the past, that's what kind of game it is now. We are gonna lose more challenging fights, but we can still do alright even when facing that reality.

Fighting the system is like stepping on a rake. It's gonna just keep knocking on the noggin. Work around it, work within the system, build within what exists. People have a chance to do well here, just takes time and effort to do what makes sense.

@capt-greldik Safer seas is not an excellent tutorial its about the same as the "not-hardcore" mode on rust being a tutorial, it doesnt prepare you for other players as such experience gained there would be way less worthwhile then being blown up, railed, cannoned or any other way of dying to actual pvpers.

@averageskate286 said in Game is horrible for new players.:

Safer seas is not an excellent tutorial its about the same as the "not-hardcore" mode on rust being a tutorial, it doesnt prepare you for other players as such experience gained there would be way less worthwhile then being blown up, railed, cannoned or any other way of dying to actual pvpers.

You can literally do everything right in a fight, perform well, and still lose regularly in this game. Happens to smaller crews in adventure all the time (against experienced players)

Dealing with pvp in this game is all mindset.

People don't stop making progress because they lose fights in this game, they stop making progress because they let sinking become a personal experience. Taking it personal and making it personal is adding surrender to a sink.

To succeed here all you gotta do is work on your mindset about the game, about pvp, and about sinking.

Sinking and losing a fight in a game is only as difficult as people make it on themselves.

You 100% get stuff done if pvp is just a part of the experience, same for sinking and losing.

The odds worsen significantly when letting them get in the way of adventure.

This game isn't for everyone, that's true.

BUT, I think you really do need to have patience and do Safer Seas. For a new player there is so much you can do AND you get really good practice.

Learn how to take down Skeleton Lords.

Learn how to sword lunge and wipe out an entire squad of skellies. And blocking.

Learn how to quick fire and double gun.

Learn how to take on a skeleton fleet.

Learn how to fight the Ghost fleet and WIN.

Learn by doing.

Do all these things, THEN you can start your path down the PvP route.

Besides the cheaters in the PvP aspect of this game, the game rocks for many (but not all). And some PvPers are so good they don't need to cheat. They are gods among pirates.

In the beginning for me, it was PAINFUL as well, so I know how you feel. But it does become less painful as you play longer. Then it gets downright enjoyable. But yeah, you have to cut your teeth on it for a while to find your rhythm.

Weeny Hut Jr's Safer seas is that way bub.