Last night I logged in with a friend in a brigantine. We were in the mood for a relaxing evening so we dropped an Athena’s voyage and figured we would just cruise for an hour or so. We didn’t take much time to stock the ship as we were not going to the Devil’s Roar or doing Skeleton Ships or planning on much resistance.
As we headed to our first island, we happened to check the map and noticed that there were three ships running the Reaper’s Mark at various points on the map. It didn’t take long for us to see that the Reaper’s Mark ships were ALL heading in our general direction. It became quite apparent that they were all coming for us and that they were in a coordinated alliance. We weren’t sure whether it would be worth our time to attempt to complete the Athena’s voyage we had just started. However, it was at this point that a third friend joined our crew. Now with a full crew, we figured we would attempt to complete the Athena’s voyage while fighting off this three-ship alliance – two sloops and a brigantine. Even if we didn’t finish it, we would have fun trying.
And so, what we thought would be a relaxing evening turned into an exciting night of constant PVPVE, basically what this game was designed to be. It turned out to be some of the most fun I have had playing this game. As we sailed from island to island completing the Athena’s voyage, we traded cannon-fire, sent boarding parties, and continuously out-maneuvered their traps. We set traps of our own by sailing through tight areas and hitting their ships with gunpowder that we had managed to pick up along the way. We dropped their anchors so many times I lost count. We also had to gather resources as we could from islands, floating barrels, and the enemy ships since we had failed to stock up in the beginning.
After sinking them a few times while completing about 75% of the Athena’s voyage, we decided to take a more definitive stand. So we set up at an inactive skull fort and played defense just as if we were defending an active skull fort. The fort gave us a steady supply of resources and gunpowder barrels. And we managed to park our ship in an “unsinkable” spot. What had been a steady back-and-forth turned into a slaughter.
Eventually, the three-ship alliance called for a truce. They were quite impressed with our ability to sail in such a way as to not give them good angles to attack us even though they had three ships and we only had one. They had been communicating and coordinating with each other in party chat and were amazed that we continually thwarted their plans. On top of that, they couldn’t believe that we were actually completing an Athena’s voyage while fighting them.
We decided to oblige their request for a truce and joined their alliance as they had provided us much entertainment. Now that we weren’t fighting off other ships, we quickly finished our Athena’s voyage, turned in our loot, and gave them our ship as we logged off for the night. What we had thought would be a relaxing hour of sailing turned into three hours of excitement, and good times were had by all.
Some thoughts about this experience:
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Knowing how to sail is just as important as knowing how to fight! We were only able to succeed at fighting them because we were able to sail into positions that gave us the advantage. This isn’t just for good cannon position; but also for things like hitting them with gunpowder and boarding their ships while preventing them from boarding ours. This involves constant working of the sails and good steering, as well as knowledge of the map, knowledge of how the different ships turn differently, and knowledge of how the different ships respond to the wind differently. It also means making use of islands and rocks in the water to force other ships into certain positions.
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A good crew is key! I have no doubts that what we were able to do would not have been possible with a random crew. The three of us have been playing together basically since the game was released. We know each others’ strengths and weaknesses. We know when and where to fill in for each other. We know how to communicate with each other. This is not to say that you can’t have good fun with a random crew, and I often do, just not this kind of fun.
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Voice Communication! I understand that the game can be played without voice communication. With the chat wheel, you can cover most of the basic functions, in addition to many silly comments that really serve no purpose. I do that at times if I just don’t feel like talking, and have been able to have fun, even with random crews. However, successfully fighting off three coordinated ships while doing an Athena’s voyage would definitely NOT be possible without voice communication. You can play the game; and you can have fun; you just can’t experience everything that this game has to offer if you are not using voice communication.
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Griefing! I can very easily imagine someone posting a complaint about how what these three ships were doing was griefing. I mean we were just trying to complete our voyage and they just kept coming back and wouldn’t leave us alone. They had formed an alliance and were just out there to take over the server and prevent anyone else from doing what they wanted, even though they weren’t gaining any rewards from it. However, it is NOT griefing. A key part of this game is sinking ships and fighting other players. If you don’t want to play the game that way you are missing out on part of the game… but that is also a perfectly acceptable way to play. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for any PVP. But I know this game has it and on those days I have no problem moving to another server to avoid it. I would also say that if you continually find yourself frustrated with other players, then working on points 1, 2, and 3 may help.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and I look forward to seeing you on the seas! I'm always looking for new friends to sail with!