What would you have done?

  • MortarChelle
    Master
    Insider

    So I'm the "don't fire until fired upon" type. When I'm on a brig or a galleon though, I can sometimes be outvoted on whether or not to attack. The guys I was playing with last night are the "sink on sight" type, but they generally don't attack if I'm in the crew because they know my feelings about it.

    So last night, we pulled up to Marauder's Arch and there is a sloop already there. I slow our brig down, pulling the sails, while keeping a watchful eye...they were flying the jolly roger, and although some people fly that flag because they like how it looks, most fly it to indicate they are hostile.

    As we roll up, the sloop drops sail and leaves. "Ok then," I say to my crew. "Let's work on this riddle." I'm pulling the ship up to the island when one of my crewmates says, "They just anchor turned on the other side of the island." Then a moment later "One of them shot over to us".

    Hmmm...sketchy. We watch as the sloop rounds the island and comes back our way. One of my crewmates boards their sloop and the fight begins. Once they were killed and sunk, their loot floated to the top. I have never encountered a sloop with THAT many items onboard. It ended up being worth 27K.

    So here's the main point of this post...I'm not entirely sure what their intentions were. They never communicated, they left, then came back....they sent someone over to board us. No "ahoy"s, no "we're friendly"s....just silence and a jolly roger flag. I apologize to the sloop occupants if they didn't have bad intentions but if your intentions are unclear, and you've got that flag, and you're not communicating, and you're making your way toward our boat, I am going to assume you're not coming for a chat and a grog.

    So, my question is.... for those of you who don't normally fire until fired on, what would you have done in this situation?

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  • Smootwala
    Master
    Insider

    @mortarchelle Would have done the same thing. It's hard to risk what you have when others do not wish to or cannot communicate. If they approach with a weapon or cutlass I assume they intend to fight. If they approach with banana, plank or nothing in hand then I assume they are attempting diplomacy, but most will quickly make some effort to communicate.

  • Il Milky Joe lI
    Seafarer

    @smootwala something similar happened to me, I was at an outpost and a sloop rolled up. I was solo playing at the time. I was running back to my ship when I saw a guy carrying a chest to the gold hoarder, I would have been easy to kill him and take it for myself but I was nice and I left him.

    When I got to my ship, the other guy was in my lower deck and it looked like he was taking my supplies. I said ahoy and he didn't reply so I cut him once with my sword, to which he ran off my ship.

    They then both boarded me and killed me. When I respawned They were running my ship into the rocks but I managed to kill them and repair it before it sank.

    After we engaged in a 2 vs 1 battle I managed to sink them.

    All in all it really annoyed me that I let them sell their treasure only for them to attack me after....

  • WLBCrash
    Marauder

    Sounds reasonable to me. Had one instance where I was on an island solo once as I was grabbing a bit of money. I came back and a sloop was anchored next to my sloop.

    But I watched as he took my loot to his ship from a nearby hill.

    I then made my way back to my ship and looked at him as he tried to say he was peaceful. I then started attacking him straight away and he tried to raise anchor all the while saying "yo, dude, w*f?!" And many other types of things.

    I took my loot, took his, set his ship sailing off into the rocks and went on my way.

    Long story short, you did good.

  • Admiral RRRSole

    @mortarchelle
    Thanks, it good to know that I'm not the only one with that attitude.
    Sometimes when you get a psychopathic crew mate that refuses to listen to reason it goes against every fiber of your body.

    In your situation they refused to communicate for whatever reason, but to then fire a person over whilst turning the vessel around and doubling back towards you would indeed sounds suspicious.

    I think that I would have reacted in the same way. Don't beat yourself up.

    As for the flag, well we can't say why people choose to fly any particular colours.
    We certainly can't assume why "most" fly the jolly roger except that it is the most common flag for pirates and even I prefer it over anything else on offer. This doesn't mean that I'm hostile in any way.
    We have been attacked by ships flying all types of flags, plain white, rainbow, jolly roger, etc. I don't even bother looking at their flag as most are wolves dressed in sheep's clothing..

  • Genuine Heather
    Captain
    Insider

    @mortarchelle I’d have done the same. I generally leave sloops alone, unless they come between me and my loot. Most sensible sloop captains will give a galleon or brigantine a wide berth. If they come too close, they want something. Whether they intend to obtain that something peacefully or violently is the question. It’s up to them to clearly communicate their intentions. If they fail to do so...they have only themselves to blame for the consequences.

  • XxHypnoToadx
    Master
    Insider

    A kind pirate should know better than to approach without making their business known. Blow them to hell!

  • ElectricKnights
    Legend
    Insider

    I generally take the same approach, and I would have done the same.

    Actually, @Genuine-Heather perfectly stated anything more I could say on the matter, hehe. ;)

    It's not easy being a kind pirate, but (no matter how many times I question myself about it) its rewards win out.

  • Emmire9573
    Marauder

    Play how you want to play. Usually i find that it's much more profitable to work with other crews rather then against them.

  • gatorwocky
    Captain
    Insider

    I (we) would have managed it the same way. Zero communication is risky and zero communication while approaching another ship is dangerous. I always speak and use the text chat when approaching another's boat. Even if I'm pretty sure they know I'm there and we've been working together.

  • Ve111a
    Ship Mate

    Ain't no rest for the wicked. They had ill intent if they doubled back. You did the right thing.

  • BaHaMuTxZeR0
    Marauder

    After stocking up for one of the cursed sails crews we were doing the battle in a sloop and a galleon shows up. I try to communicate but we get nothing... One of them boarded and I gave them more than enough chances, alone let them on my boat without a word. Guy climbs to the crows nest grabs a keg and is running around my ship with it. I constantly ask him what hes doing and since he gave no answer i'm going to assume hes up to something and could easily sink us at any moment...

    So I make the first move after many warnings so I killed him and then it was war between my sloop and the galleon in the middle of the 2 skelly ships. In the end we get a keg on their ship and sink them and when in the Ferry of the damned the guy finally decides to plug in his mic and starts name calling like we were the ones who betrayed. People definitely suck and I would have done what you did every time. People need to learn to speak up even if its the pirate chat options.

  • Ve111a
    Ship Mate

    @bahamutxzer0 said in What would you have done?:

    After stocking up for one of the cursed sails crews we were doing the battle in a sloop and a galleon shows up. I try to communicate but we get nothing... One of them boarded and I gave them more than enough chances, alone let them on my boat without a word. Guy climbs to the crows nest grabs a keg and is running around my ship with it. I constantly ask him what hes doing and since he gave no answer i'm going to assume hes up to something and could easily sink us at any moment...

    So I make the first move after many warnings so I killed him and then it was war between my sloop and the galleon in the middle of the 2 skelly ships. In the end we get a keg on their ship and sink them and when in the Ferry of the damned the guy finally decides to plug in his mic and starts name calling like we were the ones who betrayed. People definitely suck and I would have done what you did every time. People need to learn to speak up even if its the pirate chat options.

    maaaan. I hate when they don't communicate. If you don't talk you deserve the betrayal coming your way that can easily be avoided by communicating one of the easiest things possible.

  • m1sterpunch
    Master
    Insider

    Any pirate approaching without a hail gets put to the sword.

    Some pirates that approach with hailing also get put to the sword.

    If I have no use for them it's not worth my time, but if there's a shot fired I will go full aggro if there's not much loot on board my boat. Makes inexperienced folks think twice about not leaving sleeping dogs lay if they don't have the skills to back it up.

  • PaladinDH
    Master
    Insider

    Sink them if they fire on you. They want to talk fine they want to fight that's fine to. I usually talk but nobody boards my brig unless I give permission. If you swim over to climb up with out permission you are getting a lead shot to the face. Been burned to many times by letting others board the ship.

  • InboundBomb
    Commander
    Insider

    You and your crew done what was right. Plenty of chances were given and there were tools that could’ve been used to communicate which they failed to use. I raise my mug of grog to you and your crew with a job well done!

  • hammy hamstar
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    I normally play with crews that work on the basis of don't shoot first. I have a simple approach. Shoot at me or kill me with no engagement through communication and you die. I may get killed by you but I will come back again and again and again until you learn a lesson. This unfortunately is normally the approach with squeakers as they often shoot first like this.

    The other thing that will get the same response is if you board my boat without asking first. Come on my boat and no matter what rubbish story you have I will shoot you and then attack your boat.

    Nobody comes on my ship without permission. This has resulted in me upsetting my own crew in the past but stops any backhanded messing about and loss of treasure.

  • zZ Emerz Zz
    Captain
    Founder

    @mortarchelle Obviously everyone plays differently but I'm much like you, I don't like to fire until fired upon, and even then I always give people a second chance. I typically play my concertina, I think that's the official unofficial sign of "I don't want to fight". If I don't have any important loot or I'm not on a specific journey and they attack, I tend to just take refugee on an island and wait for them to leave.

    Occasionally I'll give them a few warning jabs with my sword or run around and poke them with the sharp end. But that's only when I'm feeling pretty fiesty. And more often than not I've converted my would be attackers into friends or allies.

  • escuzme
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    I would have honestly done the same thing.
    Especially with them leaving the island, then sneaking up on you and your crew.
    Maybe they were trying to sneak on board to see if you had treasure?
    Anyway, you were right to attack.
    With their intentions very unclear it made it too risky of a situation not to.
    The Sloop was at fault for not communicating or trying to indicate that they’re friendly.
    Unless in a battle, I never board another Players Ship without Permission because some think it’s a little hostile and it puts the Crew on edge. I tend to avoid being blasted off another Friendly Crew’s Ship with a Blunderbuss! Some may be Friendly, but also like their own space.

  • Da German420
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    2 days ago i were on my solo brigantine athene mission,,i was on cannon cove collecting animals digging chests,i noticed my marauders chest r gone and discovered a sloop n the other side, i killed them both they were just seafarers i set sail on their sloop n dropped they chest over board marauders n some captains 7 chests around, after the guys was yelling u spawn kill me i helped him get his chests back, end of story his crewmember sunk my ship in the meantime:D

  • MortarChelle
    Master
    Insider

    Thank you so much for all the feedback! It makes me feel better to know that many of you understand our side of it and would have reacted the same way. :)

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