An update for solo/sloop player

To Rare, if they read this post: I play almost exclusively solo (not many friends to play with), and I do not feel that any changes are necessary. If anything, Karen and Megan play a little too gently now.

To the OP: by what metric do you call things "useless"; if it adds difficulty or threat, then it serves a purpose. Sure the tempest is irritating, but that's the whole point. It (and all the other things you mentioned) require skill to overcome, which is basically the definition of a game.

I always solo. Skeleton ships are not a problem, circling a gallion or brig while filling with holes isn't a problem. If you choose to play the game in "hard" mode.
Git gud & practice

I think it's critically vital to SoT that solo sloops never get a break.
Sure you should get a voyage or a cargo run every now and then, depending on your seamanship, but the sea is a cruel mistress and it should not calibrate its difficulty to a single sailor on a sloop.

Which is why fully crewed vessels rule the SoT. So if your new and alone, be advised, your cannon fodder for everyone else.

Act accordingly.

It is a lot harder, but to be fair (And I don't know if it still does this) but it used to flat out warn you that solo slooping was the hardest way to play the game. But it's also not impossible, and the personal reward plus the emerging story of david vs goliath when david wins is always entertaining.

Have you tried playing w/ the alliance flag up, @MASTERCHIEFYOSH ? Its been my experience that a good chunk of players will either respond in kind or help, and from then on the experience can/should be easier.

The solution is at everyone's fingertips, sail with other people. LFG and Discord are great tools. Can we stop the complaining that Solo is too hard? When the game wasn't originally designed with solo play in mind. Sloop was only added by request during beta.

Your playing the game in the hardest way, its going to be difficult.

@soopavillain420 said in An update for solo/sloop player:

'Picks hardest mode, complains it's too hard'

Ugh. You did it to yourself.

Well, I imagine a good portion of solo sloops dont play that way for the challenge, but rather the solitude and lack of dependable crew options.

After 2 months, we finally survived our first Kraken attack, twice! (did not try to fight it, just repair only). Yay!

@khompewtur said in An update for solo/sloop player:

@soopavillain420 said in An update for solo/sloop player:

'Picks hardest mode, complains it's too hard'

Ugh. You did it to yourself.

Well, I imagine a good portion of solo sloops dont play that way for the challenge, but rather the solitude and lack of dependable crew options.

After 2 months, we finally survived our first Kraken attack, twice! (did not try to fight it, just repair only). Yay!

The key to solo slooping though, is to keep your boat in a state where it's as trashable as possible. Keep treasure off the boat, prepare darting speed runs to outposts, be ready to lose an item or two when trouble shows up, turn off your lamps. think Bilge Rat!

@khompewtur said in An update for solo/sloop player:

@soopavillain420 said in An update for solo/sloop player:

'Picks hardest mode, complains it's too hard'

Ugh. You did it to yourself.

Well, I imagine a good portion of solo sloops dont play that way for the challenge, but rather the solitude and lack of dependable crew options.

After 2 months, we finally survived our first Kraken attack, twice! (did not try to fight it, just repair only). Yay!

This is how players git gud.

/raise tankard

sorry @masterchiefyosh, seems like you're getting a lot of negative feedback. Just wanted to remind myself and others though, that the original idea was not bad -- there are just a few of us that disagree. So to the OP, hope you haven't taken any of this feedback personally. If you'd like to duo sloop, feel free to shoot me a direct message!

I've done a fair bit of solo slooping, including doing the whole 5 Order of Souls and 5 Gold Hoarders voyages in the roar solo. (had 3 GH voyages in a row with crying chest -.-)

It's pretty much impossible to defeat an galleon/brigantine of skeletons or players on your own, especially when you have some loots on your ship.

That's the way it should be a group of 3 or 4 people should be able to defeat one person. Why should a solo player be able to be able to defeat and sink a ship with more people? What does having loot on your ship have to do with this it doesn't slow your ship or anything this part makes no sense at all? Skeleton ship difficulty is already based on ship size at least the ones that spawn on you are and you shouldn't be going after the roaming PASSIVE ones if you can't defeat the one that spawn on you.

The fights against skeletons in fortresses are annoying and long, and you die a lot because each time, some of them have powder barrel so it take a very long time (at least 30 minutes) so that way, others ships can come, sink your ship and get the loots (of course, none of them offers you an alliance, it happens only once for me, in 300+ hours of game).

Fortresses aren't designed with solo players in mind nor should they be it's a fun challenge to solo a fortress. I've seen galleons take ages to clear a fortress and cleared one out solo in about 10 min (granted they were all basic sword/unarmed skeletons) it's all a matter of skill and wave luck. It's risk vs reward if you want the reward of doing a fortress you have to accept the risk of being sunk while there.

-you got the same amount of money when you sell something, why ? ($100 for a crew of 1, 4$100=$400 for a crew of 4, not logical)*

It's the way the game works, everything has a price range that stays the same no matter how big or small the crew money is pretty much meaningless anyway

-your ship is the slowest so you can't escape

Sloop is fastest against the wind use that to your advantage

-your time of spawn is equal to other players so your death is more punishing that others

That is as it should be you shouldn't get a faster spawn time just because you're solo.

-fights against skeletons/krakens/megalodons with same amount of skeletons/life

The skele ships, karens and megs are all based on ship size already and are easy to deal with solo with a stocked ship unless they come together. if you don't want to fight a Meg just sail close to an island/rock and it'll leave. Karen is a joke and is defeated quickly. Skelly ships sink fast stay close to them so they can't shoot you and put holes in them and they'll sink with minimal damage to you.

Others things are annoying and, in my opinion, useless in this game:
-the fog : ok, it is impressive the first time you get in there, but it is way too big, and you don't see anything even if your are on your mast.
-the tempest : same as fog, it is too big, most of players, especially single player will avoid it or wait until it passed. And why is there always a tempest ? Can't it appear, last 12/24 hour and the disappear ?
-the Devil's Roar : wow great ! a new zone, I can't wait to explore it. Two hours later : I would never want to go there again : volcanoes hit you, 3 holes on your ship, if your are not on your sloop, it will sink in 30 seconds, great. Geysers and earthquakes are also annoying.

Fog, slow your ship and check your map regularly it's not that bad. Storm just go around it, it's not that big if the island you need to go to is in it just go do another island 1st or suck it up and go through it's a lot better than it used to be when the lightning had aimbot. The Devil's Roar is great I love it there once again it's a risk vs reward situation.

There also could be more events on the map like 2 fortresses can be active at once so several people could have the choice.

Fortresses already re spawn way to fast and having 2 on the map isn't going to help you as a solo player when you're already taking 30+ mins to clear it a decent galleon crew could clear the other and come to yours well before you're finished or they could come to yours 1st then what you now want 3 on the map? as i said earlier you want to do fortresses solo that's fine but you have to accept the risk that comes with it.

There also could be trade between pirates why can't your give money or quests to others players ?

Why would you need to trade money or voyages? Money comes fast and once you get the cosmetics you want it just sits there accumulating doing nothing.

If you want to solo on SoT feel free but don't complain about it being so difficult when you're playing on the hardest setting as it were. There are plenty of ways to find people to play with if you don't want to solo and open crew if you get some terrible/lazy players just leave and try again you can also find great players to make friends with and sail with again.

Sloop is fastest against the wind use that to your advantage

Can we verify this? I feel like I tried this tactic a few times against Brigantines, and got caught.

Karen is a joke and is defeated quickly.

Our experience differs, we did not have a single Karen escape for 5 weeks. Our first survived Karen was after recent nerf. Maybe experienced players found it easy, but to newer players Karen could be a momentum sucking "game reset" plague.

Also, the 10 minute skull fort hasn't been typical for us. Skull forts have gone from 45 minutes to 4 hours, with an hour+ seeming the norm (even for a galleon crew w/ legends on the crew)

I can understand your frustration. It is hard to be a solo slooper in this game. I am a Pirate Legend and it is hard for me. I recommend playing with random crews or using the board to select crews to play with until you find a few people that you can play with semi regularly. That is truly what makes this game fun is eventually finding a group of people that you can play with and enjoy the adventures.

Also remember when fighting Brigs and Galleons that you maneuver sharper and are faster against the wind.

@khompewtur sloop is only faster going into the wind if you do it right; it's technically a bug, if you're sailing directly into the wind and set your sails perfectly perpendicular to your ship, you'll outrun anyone. As for the Kraken, have you looked around the forums for some assistance? Some people have posted great guides to how to deal with her, and the tips really do make a difference. And haha, I agree about the forts! If I take a one solo, it's usually around 45 minutes (on a good day)

@khompewtur if you're sailing directly into the wind the Galleon is the slowest and sloop is the fastest if you're getting caught by a brig you're not going directly into the wind or the wind has shifted so you're not sailing straight into it anymore.

With Karen with a stocked ship either sail out of the ink while repairing/bailing or shoot the tentacles repairing any damage you get and bailing before going back to shoot, if you start getting sucked run below deck and repair/bail until it stops same with wraps.

Granted the 10 min fort was a one time super lucky occurrence but the only time a competent galleon crew should be taking over half and hour for a fortress is if you're fighting off other crews. They aren't that hard especially if you use choke points correctly on all but gold waves then you use the gunpowder on the gold waves.

Edit: I did one the last time i played with me PL and 2 others about mid levels while our 4th went afk for about 10 mins as we were getting to the fort and by the time he was back we were sailing again. This was all different types of skellys we used the door as the choke point and cut them down with one person holding a lantern during shadow waves and used barrels for golden waves

@bobalicious88 said in An update for solo/sloop player:

@khompewtur if you're sailing directly into the wind the Galleon is the slowest and sloop is the fastest if you're getting caught by a brig you're not going directly into the wind or the wind has shifted so you're not sailing straight into it anymore.

I thought this was what was tried, but will make note next time whether it was at a slight angle. Should sails heading straight into wind get positioned fully turned to side, or flat against wind?

Granted the 10 min fort was a one time super lucky occurrence but the only time a competent galleon crew should be taking over half and hour for a fortress is if you're fighting off other crews. They aren't that hard especially if you use choke points correctly on all but gold waves then you use the gunpowder on the gold waves.

Am trying to improve barrel work, choke points.

finding an experienced crew is 30-45 minutes of skelly combat, 15-20 minutes to load & sell.

But when you're in an inexperienced crew, and can't finish off a particularly tough wave (commando skellies all armed with pistols & eye of reach that just won't get out of regenerative water?), the skull fort can drag on for hours.

Skellys with guns should follow you if you go out of line of sight... I'm sorry i just don't see how it can take anyone hours to complete a fort (unless you're constantly defending it from other players) even with a inexperienced crew.

open crew

@bobalicious88 Yeah, even in my early days, I've never spent hours at a fort, that doesn't even sound fun.

Fair winds and following seas!

While solo is sea of thieves "hard mode" it definitely gets easier with experience, I don't want any balance in place for solos though otherwise the sea would just be full of sloops which would be kinda boring, I solo quiet often, even more so recently since my only objectives have bin skeleton ship/meg hunting which can be very boring for others to have to sit around and wait for somthing to appear while I'm quiet content to just sail for hours waiting 😂 I've solo sank every type of ship, solo'd many forts, athenas, last night I solo'd the fleet cloud, 3 krakens, 3 megalodons and 3 roaming skeleton ships (on the same server) with relative ease so aslong as you know what your doing its pretty simple, obviously choosing solo does put you at all the disadvantages, during the fleet cloud I got one shot killed by a skeleton ship, spawned back to immediately get one shot killed again 😂 those are the breaks, it happens, but in no way do I ever want to cry out for a change in game mechanics because of it, if you can't except the badluck that somtimes falls upon soloing then you really shouldn't be soloing imo, I find the sloop the easiest ship to outrun any ship tbh since there's only one sail to adjust, ease of quick turns and maneuvering close to islands to get them to hit the reef, even when i have nothing to loose I love to sharpen my skills and will happily "run" from other ships just to see if I can, so far I havnt bin caught, so I'm confident when the time comes for me to need to run for real I have the tools and ability to do so, if you must solo. Then just keep at it, keep learning, put yourself into the positions to learn also, goodluck!

Solo sloopin is some of the most fun ways to play. I’ve sunk many pirates attempting to steal my treasure. Skull forts are a breeze once you know how to get them done quickly.

All in all it’s just about experience. Even the new update makes Krakes super easy on a solo sloop. Just got to put the effort into learning the seas and becoming a danger in your own!

@iloveponies15 As per the Forum Rules we all must remain respectful towards all other community members when posting on the forums. I have moderated your post as it was not in accordance with these rules, failure to remain respectful of all community members will result in a temporary ban from the forums.

Please read and abide by the forum rules going forward.

Thanks!