This is going to be a lengthy post that is essentially a tl;dr: get good post. My aim is not to trigger, troll or toot my own horn but to share my experience with players struggling from what is essentially the most fun I've ever had in any game. If you are truly interested in upping your game I hope I can share some thoughts with you. If you are going to be upset because we rolled on you and stole all your loot you're going to have a bad time so you might as well stop reading now.
Let me start with this: you are probably playing the game wrong and that's ok. I'm not going to stand here and pretend I am better than you at the mechanics of the game but I would bet money our crew is top tier and it's not because we are the best shots, the best raiders or the best sailsman. We are good because we understand and exploit human nature.
This game is human nature at its base. You need to view this game as an RTS/FPS that is your crew vs the world. This is what makes the game so unique and why PvE/Safe areas and vertical progression would destroy it. This is a game of human nature and literally the only thing that separates us and you is the piece of grey matter between our ears. All of us humans are born with essentially the same tools and the reason some rise and some fall is due to how they use these tools. You can be upset with how people act but you should never, ever be surprised. Are you mad at the rattlesnake that bites? Do you scorn the wasp that stings? No, you avoid them or kill them. Humans are aggressive by our nature and you should treat every ship as hostile until they earn your trust. As a crew, we choose to kill, we choose to be predators because we do not want to be prey. This game is tribalism at it's core. It's your crew vs the world and your sole job is to protect each other.
Human nature applies to every PvP encounter in this game and what makes it so exhilarating. When you see a ship in the distance you have no idea who or what they are. Are they friendly? Are they aggressive? Do they have loot? The answer to all of this is: who knows. Your choice is how you react to the unknown. That unknown is where you need to strike first when encountering players. Let's start with about 90% of our encounters. We see a ship on the horizon and we give no c***s as to who they are and what they are doing. We head straight at them and I make sure they know we are coming for them. I make my intentions clear: we are coming straight at you and not slowing down. We are not afraid. It's your move.
We watch to see how you react.
Half the time you don't even move. If you don't move you are dead and we won't even hesitate. Why? Because it is hilarious and there's a great chance at securing loot for little to no effort. We would have to be idiots to pass on such an easy opportunity. Some people indicate friendly intentions. I never believe you and I never will (we are wary of you sneaky predators out there). What you are doing is allowing me to maneuver in a favorable position and I will take every inch you give me. You may well have been friendly but now you are dead. I have no way of knowing for 100% sure you aren't trying to bait us in and I will not take that chance. Both of these reactions are Prey reactions. When you flee or simply sit there, our morale instantly improves and we become a tighter unit, focused on our goal. We have taken the upper position in the fight and you have demoralized yourself while potentially causing panic and discord on your ship. Nothing is more fun than listening to a crew fall apart over chat as we hunt them down while they try to run.
Some people will position themselves for a fight. Some people will come straight at us, some people will raise anchor and position cannons towards us. You are also a predator. These are the reactions that makes us think twice and react accordingly, these are also the most enjoyable fights. When you make your move and your move is to signal intent that you will fight, our confidence remains neutral and so does yours. What you have done is shattered our initiative and caused us to think you are better players than the rest. You have done this simply by not running away and we still have zero knowledge on who you are.
Every action you take puts you generally into one of these predator or prey categories. When predators fight it is usually drawn out, cost intensive and may end in a draw. We know this and this is why our initiative and state of mind changes. Prey actions will embolden us because the fight is quick and usually indicates an easy win and potentially some money.
I take this all around to my main point: we don't know anything at all about you and you know nothing about us. You need to use this to your advantage. A good example: I was in a sloop with a buddy and we were trying to do the skull island fort. Another sloop is coming at us in the distance. Our move. I choose to position the cannons toward them and fire a single shot over their ship and gauge their reaction with my scope. I see their scope reflecting back at me, I know they are watching. A moment later, they changed course and went on their way.
Why did this work? Because the single shot and us not moving was confident and I made it clear that I saw them coming and we would put up a fight. They decided it was not worth it and sailed off into the distance. Someone tried it once on us. We were coming up on a sloop and he fired several shots over and around us. This told me he was panicking and probably trying to actually hit us, this was a prey move. We didn't even hesitate to ram him into the shore and drop a powderkeg because we knew we had them panicked. His reaction increased our morale and focused our plan. Of course, this isn't necessarily true 100% of the time but you need to know that every action you do is watched by a predator. You need to become a predator.
Now, we are aggressive predators and this is the choice we made and this isn't how you have to play at all. There are defensive predators, the ones who will not back down from a fight and make it clear they are confident and will make us pay for fighting. There are sneaky predators, the ones who try to hide on forts or pretend they are friendly to lure in targets.
There are just straight up chaotic predators and I think most people assume all agro players are like this and honestly, we've only met a few. Generally, these are the a*****s who spawn camp and go into a fight simply to fight with zero regard for their own well being and to troll. These are the only players we actively hunt down over and over till they rage out and honestly, we've only seen one or two.
You can play any way you want but I have noticed the most successful crews in our vicinity tend to live on and make money because they react to us with confidence. I have no idea their skill level. All I know is that they are telling me that if we want to sink them it will cost us and sometimes we will ignore you. The only people we have actually played nice with are those defensive predators and we had a wonderful experience today with a couple of new guys on a sloop. We came barreling at them with the wind at our backs. They slowly turned their ship towards us and scoped us out, weapons drawn. We decided to see if they would shoot first, they did not. We slid into a favorable position and approached. To our surprise they were totally new players but were ready to fight to the death. They earned our respect and we spent the afternoon raiding skeleton forts while we showed them the ropes. They will be a great addition to this game.
To wrap everything up, I wanted to share these stories because it is my opinion that you may need to change your mentality to the game if you find yourself reacting in the manner of prey and constantly upset about being sunk.
I see numerous threads of people complaining about players like us and it makes me sad. I am not griefing you, I am having fun and you are not because you are choosing not to have fun and learn the necessary skills and behaviors to make you more succesful. There are numerous guides written by fellow predators on this board with more specific mechanics like sailing and combat tips, but the core of the problem is that most people seem to be afraid of combat.
My tl;dr: Don't be afraid of PvP. Embrace it and always fight to the death. Choose to be a predator and not a prey. Make them pay for daring to come after you, even if you lose. You will die and you will lose your money sometimes and that's ok. But guess what, you will also die and lose your money if you run from us so you might as well go out fighting and get some combat experience. You may just earn some respect and some skills along the way.
