When does the game start being fun?

@honkytonk1154

Like I know piracy is a part of the game's scaffolding but this is awful and not at all fun, and I'm clearly new and alone.

Bolded where the problem lies, take a step back and look at the game you are playing. This is a crew based multiplayer sandbox game. While certainly you can play the multiplayer game without anyone else, but it will be substantially harder. This is universal with almost all games that are multiplayer. If you don't want to struggle as much, find a crew or a partner. Better yet, find a 4-man of experience player willing to show you the ropes.

Plenty of tools exist out there to help you find people. Those include Open crew, the thousands of player Discords, Official Sea of Thieves Discord, and Xbox LFG. Every time you hit sail, you ignore the solution to your problem.

(once I was even in the harbor clearly loading up my ship with voyage items.)

and? Your boat is in the way. I get that sounds rather blunt, but there exists plenty of reasons to sink you regardless of your fresh spawn status. The big one being, they want to cash in and you are a potential threat that could steal from them. You may state your friendly, but that doesn't change the reality that you could just walk over to their ship and start robbing them. Better safe than sorry, if anything, it costs you nothing just to hop onto a new server.

@honkytonk1154

Pirate Code #6, buddy.

Number six isn't a free pass to be unsinkable, buddy.

As replied to your other post, respect can be shown in many methods. The very basic is being treated as an equal, and as an equal, you are subject to the same treatment as the rest of us.

You can't learn this game if you're dead all. the. time.

Ah yes, I've never been new so I can't relate. Snark aside, plenty of other games just throw you in the deep end and hope for the best. Rust, Mordhau, TF2, and pretty much any other game with server browsers.

you honestly have to admit that's kind of a terrible solution. I'm not expecting to thrive as a solo player

I can honestly say that I don't need to admit anything. This game is predominantly based around crews and groups. Just look at how the game is designed, every aspect to run ship can be utilized by multiple people. No UI means players must feed map information to the Captain, mast location translates to low viability which also requires players to feed information. While certainly you can play alone, but your success isn't guaranteed like any other game that pins you against crews. I challenge you to find any other game that has groups being on an equal playing field to solo's. While simultaneously being perfectly balanced.

@Honkytonk1154

If you're a soloslooper theres loads of things you can do but most of the times you're getting uglyworded on by a Gally or Brigs. "Less people, easier targets" - Is their way of thinking.
So is not the case though, i've sunk Gally's and Brigs on my own but it takes practise brother.

The game is always fun with a friend, i can recommend the Official SoT Discorde Channel or if you're on Xbox simply do a LFG and you will get friends.
That's how i did when all my friends abandoned me when the game first came out, i got stuck on it and diden't play much cuz i was alone.
One day i decided to do a LFG.....several actually and MANY of those LFG's has turned into good friendships latley and yea....well good thing that those exists.

If you're afraid and social distanced and don't want to talk over the mic, use the text functions.

If you don't want to do any of it then this game is probably not for you, it's a shared world....sandbox game, sometimes you're lucky and sometimes you're not.

I'm sorry you're having so much trouble. As a general rule, my crew doesn't sink solo sloopers without emissary or obvious newbies, but I know that we're probably the exception. Fortunately, my entire family plays so I've never had to deal with going it alone or trying to find someone to play with, but let me say this:

I hope you'll do that. This game is worth it.

I've only been playing for around 4 months, but I haven't had this much fun with a game in a LONG time. Put the time in. Find a worthy crew, learn how to defend and learn from every sink. If someone is griefing you, jump servers and start again. You'll get it, and if you don't let it get you down and put in the time, you'll have the time of your life. Don't give up on it just yet. Even though we always roll in with a full crew, we've still met so many great people who are just starting out and invited them along to show them what we've learned. If you want to add me, we'd be happy to do the same with you. :)

@king-deka said in When does the game start being fun?:

I don’t get it maybe I’m lucky or Europe has more peaceful servers because I’m gettin attacked rarely! Sometimes I’m fishing for snow wreckers at the same ship wreck for hours without any PvP encounter! And then I’m hearing story’s like this, I don’t know what to think!?

It isn't just Europe Servers, the ones in the US are also relatively calm on the cross play enabled ones as well.

I played most of the holiday weekend and only was fired upon once, and it was because we were caught unawares while finishing up the last stop on our voyage. We passed one ship while heading to the island (it actually pulled up and left as we approached) and gave them our standard "Ahoy" greeting to gauge their hostility/friendliness. Me and my first mate went ashore at Shark Fin when he announced to me that the ship was turning around. I immediately went back to the ship and noticed it was not the same ship, and they had started firing on us (one of which included one of their pirates). Even though I was set for a quick exit, I wasn't quick enough and failed to realize we had been boarded until too late (their pirate having similar clothing to my first mate didn't make spotting him any easier). Needless to say we lost treasure that but would have been worse had we not unloaded at Plunder 2 islands back or had started digging up at Shark Fin. And they were flying the Reapers Bones flags so we should have spotted them sooner and they were likely what spooked the other boat moored there.

But other than that the seas were peaceful, even on Sunday I spied a RB emissary while I played but not once did they make a move towards my boat when I was solo then (nor did I lower my GH flag until I was finished, just kept an eye on his location). Most other encounters were just ships passing in the night, and nowhere near 12-13 ships in a couple hours of time (much less that many aggressive ships). Even in the past week I'd only encountered 2 aggressive ships while playing (including the above account) on the cross play servers. Something doesn't add up in the majority of posts like this.

Few tips for the solo sloop.
Check the horizon for ships as often as you can.
Leave your anchor up so if you need to run you can just drop sail and always keep your ship pointed at your escape route.
Try to park your ship where people cannot see it.
Use the wind to your advantage if possible
Gallys and brigs go slower against the wind and if you go against it keep your sail flat to the wind.
Sell often.
Dont keep kegs on your ship unless you plan to immediately use it.
Use a rowboat as a getaway vehicle if need be. Just send your ship off when they get near and row a diff direction when they make chase.

Other than that you can still complete your voyages u just might not end up with the loot. If someone sinks you and parks at an island u have a voyage at maybe park a few islands away once u get back and monitor them till they leave and go finish after. That or start a new voyage in a different area. The devils roar while a bit more difficult generally doesnt have a lot of people there. But always always always look at the horizon to see whats on store for you.

Also a solo slooper, and one of the few remaining pacifists on here, you don't need a crew. But you do need to adjust the idea of successful sessions.

Like our unquotable Hombre said, It's more fun once you stop caring.

Focus on dailies. Most of the ones that give doubloon rewards are usually commendations too. Sometimes the daily is all I have patience for and then I'm off the game lol.

Get a cosmetic set you like. Blow through the first chapter of Battletoads or grab the Nightshine Parrot bits from the Game Pass rewards (if you're xbox) for a couple of freebies.

Turn in often.
If you see a ship, presume it's coming to sink you. Cut your losses and cash in what you have.

Fly the Alliance flag, but expect everyone to still attack you.

Don't worry about what certain titles and cosmetics mean. There is someone, some where who will attack you because of your cosmetics and titles.

Dude. I mostly play solo. You can stay away from people if u need to. Remember. Its not about the gold, its avout the glory. Dw avout voyages, plenty of time to do them. Or gold. Its all cosmetic. The satisfaction comes at being succesful. Work pro success bot pro gold. Try to sneak. Try to steal. Throw yourself into situations but thibk them in advance. This game reaches you to prioritise and play the long game. I hope this helps. I hot +8mil miles sailed abd 3 quarters were as a solo. In favt i get more stuff dobe as a solo than ad part of a team. Your crew will always as good as the crews weakest link. See you on the seas... Hopefully.

EDIT# TOO MUCH GROG...

@theyspraythesky said in When does the game start being fun?:

Rare should add solo sloop only servers and give solo players the option of whether they want to be matched against other soloists or full crews.

This new server variant would probably solve about 90% of the PvE mode requests.

No.

@honkytonk1154

When will you start having fun as a solo?

When you learned to do the following things:

1. Watch the horizon, all pirate threats can be seen coming a mile off. Don't put on blinders, you should be checking the horizon frequently.
2. When you learned how to sail and maneuver your ship in order to avoid those that you want to avoid.
3. When you learned to guard your ladders properly, so when you make a mistake and someone is able to grab your ladder you can knock them off.
4. When you learned that when parked your sails and anchor must be raised.
5. When you are able to do voyages quick enough to minimize your time on the islands, as moving is your best friend.
6. Never sail with more than you are willing to lose.

Optional:

1. Learn to battle ship on ship.
2. Learn to battle pirate on pirate.
3. Sneaky approaches to be a thief.

Solo is extremely punishing if you make a mistake or multiple small miscalculations in a row. It is mainly for the stubborn sea dogs out there.

If you want to have a fun time before that I would recommend that you find a crew, there enough old weathered captains that would be willing to teach you the ropes. Once you got the hang of it, you can try out solo captain mode.

Good luck and happy sailing. Just remember even the best of us lose at times and it is these losses that made us better pirates. Always try to learn and improve, adapt and become the pirate you want to be.

Something I didn't see, use your mic. The amount of scraps I've gotten out of because I saw someone coming, boarded them, and talked to them is pretty big.

Their reaction will tell you a lot too. Closely guarded ladders with lots of glowy cloths that kill you immediately means run, you're in for a fight. No one watching ladders they probably are on the inexperienced side. But just the act of getting on their ship, maybe hitting the anchor and saying, "Hi, whatcha doing rolling up on us?" can dissuade a lot of fights. Always say us, even alone. There still be some you can't talk your way out of, but a lot you can and some lead to really cool experiences.

@honkytonk1154 code #6 is about crew mates helping new pirates

I have been playing mostly solo and already level 50 in GH and at 48 on OS. All the advise given here is excellent. I have been sunk on more than one occasion, usually my own mistake of not watching the horizon. One additional piece of advise I would throw out there is to sail around the large islands to make sure there are no other ships stopped there. I have been killed and sunk on more than one occasion because I didn't see the ship on the other side and the crew was able to sneak up and get me.

Not counting my ship and skeleton ships, the most I have ever saw were 4 ships. If you don't give up on the game you will find it fun and addicting. I have actually stopped playing my other games and have been playing SoT exclusively.

I think you can do it, slowly you will learn.

If your choice is solo then it will take longer. I am a looong time player but when my crew is offline I love to jump on a solo sloop.
Learn the strengths and weaknesses of your ship (sloop is the fastest again the wind, creating an easy escape route), learn how to solo menage the ship and when to repair or wait to do it....

I think new players have harsh time but that's the nature of the game. The gratest tips I've is to watch the horizon often, a skilled crew can also hide from you but that's rare, you usually will be able to spot a treath from afar and establish a plan.
A solo slooper is always ready to leave no matter what, solo slooper if want to be successful need to play different, don't show your muscles but show your brain. Always have a raw boat attached, sometimes hiding a rowboat with your loot on an island or behind some rocks is the way to go.

Have faith and you will rule the server even in solo