I understand that this is a "pirate game" but it is just wrong that high level PVP players can just hide out on your ship while you spend an hour doing an instance, and they wait for you to get to a port, then take you out repeatedly because you don't happen to be good at PVP, then sink your ship and take all that you worked hard for! There should be levels of play. It is sad that in Safer Seas you can't even be a captain of your own ship(s), not because you don't want the challenge of the game, but because you don't want to deal with evil people ruining your day. Our most recent encounter made one of my daughters physically sick, she was shaking with frustration and anger... not a fun way to play a game!!! I'm not sure of the suggestion here, maybe a better Safer Seas where you're not so limited, or non-PVP servers if you don't want to have to deal with that, maybe a Friendly Seas where PVP isn't a thing. Also, if a crew leaves the game, the people who forced them off, shouldn't get the reward of all of the loot they'd gathered... it should just disappear when the crew leaves the game! That would be me choosing not to get the reward I worked so hard for, but they don't get it either! Personally, my daughters and I don't play as pirates, but as treasure hunters, not out to steal from or injure any real players but only going after the in-game enemies but it's hard, near impossible, to even play the way we want to play as it is. Maybe there should be a word you can type like PARLEY, or a Parley emote that they have to obey because it's the pirate code, or they insta-die, and then, together, you have to come to terms for an armistice. It's just so sad to have such a beautiful and fun game ruined by vengeful and mean people. Sadly, Season 14 is catering to and encouraging this type of behavior and making Sea of Thieves unplayable for people like me and my daughters who don't want to play that way. :( Ultimately, this may cost you money because we, at least, will not be recommending this game to others because of players' behavior like this. And we were just about to try to have a "Sea of Thieves - Treasure Hunters" series on my YouTube channel... not sure we want to do that now. :(
Love the game, can't stand evil players!
The game design and intent for Sea of Thieves is a shared world adventure, and it always will be. Those who wish to play in the confines of Safer Seas will always have the option but we will not bring the rewards and activities in line with those of High Seas when many of the restrictions are in place due to the risk vs reward factor that is inherent in Sea of Thieves - removing any risk means rewards must be balanced accordingly.
Safer Seas will act not only as a safe space for our Tall Tale players but also for families with children who just want to pirate, for people who want to play the game but learn the ropes and it will organically feed into Adventure mode, keeping the player pool there healthy and upskilled as they've learned the mechanics.
This is not only useful for new players but also families and players with accessibility needs - the whole game suddenly becomes available in a way it hasn't before, letting them naturally progress to High Seas and become a Pirate Legend. SoT has grown a huge amount in 5 years and it can be fairly overwhelming.
The borders put in Safer Seas mean that to experience the full depth and breadth of the game you will have to hit the high seas BUT if you're playing with your family you don't have to, you can just enjoy the game and have fun as a family.
