[Mega Thread] - Player Griefing -Part 2

ok so i tried collecting chickens by myself - didn't do too badly navigating and such - even caught a couple - but didnt take kindly to being rammed by a galleon and being called all sorts of names just for being there.
now im sad

So this was my friends first solo experience.
First of all, to all of you guys saying there is nothing wrong, or other players are doing it wrong, you are part of the problem. Just because you experience the game a certain way does not mean that it should be that way for all players.

I clicked on a link on the forums that read:
Our community Guidelines
(Play nicely)
and it went to a page that said: this thread does not exist.

I think players in this game are rapidly becoming very toxic and it is getting more and more rare to see anyone "playing nice".
I would like to see some more encouragement/rewards for "playing nice".

Or maybe a Captain's Log where we could detail an experience we just had with server timestamps so you guys might have a way to investigate players that are behaving badly, or other in game issues.

@capt-crunch1969 Sloops already run considerably less fire power. They have 2 cannons, one on either side. Compared to a galleon, they aren't a match.

A speed upgrade to sloops would be a good idea. Or even a way to customize speed over durability or some sort of stat system where you could build for pvp, pve, or avoiding pvp. Maybe a bot/npc crew that could fill spots. Then a solo could run a galleon. Make the bots good at repairing and sailing or just have a defensive AI so they aren't overpowered on the offensive.

I'd also be content with better rewards for turning in treasures as a solo, to offset the occasional loss to being ganked. But going to an outpost and having no way of detecting other players, less their ship is docked, then getting ganked, t****s the gameplay experience. Heck, maybe have town guards to attack players that engage in pvp at an outpost.

Plenty of ways to address the issue effectively.

@virus-strain I think the majority of us want a kill-free zone at all outposts. The only ones opposed are the rock spiders that sit and wait to ambush unarmed players.
Simply disable all weapons within cannon shot of the outpost shoreline.

@capt-crunch1969 Just imagine if outposts were filled with pirates and traders. A neutral meeting ground where you could recruit crew members or trade /sell disused (upgraded) items between each other on the shore lines.
I mean everything is so freaking expensive anyway, why not get some of that hard earned gold back when you've upgraded?
Outposts could be alive with the hussle and bussle of crowds of players not just a few guys desperately looking over their shoulders in case of ambush.
Taverns could have notice boards "Seeking crew members" or "Galleon sails for sale" etc, where you click on the listed item and you are in a private chat with the seller/ captain.

I think this game isn't going to hype a long time if the devs doesn't do anything against spawn kills, outpost kills and lobbies with galleons and small ships together. They say they want a beautiful game experience for everyone. But this is a goal which only will be reachable if there are rules the players need to follow. Even a pirate game doesn't make fun if you are killed over and over again when you are in the Outpost and want to bring your treasure home. And there must be a player kick options for randoms that just do c**p. For me this game is not finished at all. Theres much work to do for the devs. Good luck for this quest.

@admiral-rrrsole said in [Mega Thread] - Player Griefing -Part 2:

@capt-crunch1969 Just imagine if outposts were filled with pirates and traders. A neutral meeting ground where you could recruit crew members or trade /sell disused (upgraded) items between each other on the shore lines.
I mean everything is so freaking expensive anyway, why not get some of that hard earned gold back when you've upgraded?
Outposts could be alive with the hussle and bussle of crowds of players not just a few guys desperately looking over their shoulders in case of ambush.
Taverns could have notice boards "Seeking crew members" or "Galleon sails for sale" etc, where you click on the listed item and you are in a private chat with the seller/ captain.

I agree with the idea of neutral territory.
Maybe leave outpost they way the are but add in some Ports where you cannot engage in PVP.
PVP is part of the game dynamic and other players are currently part of the challenge of completing voyages/raids and as intended I believe. I do not think we need a change there.

@jksarge63121 Yes the PVP can remain off-shore and on other islands.

@Rare-Employee
Do you guys have Game Masters?
If so, what are they doing?
If not, why not?
A Game Master could easily investigate player grieving and stop it from getting out of hand live.
They could listen in to shut down all the name calling.
Give them the ability to summon the Kraken or in worst case time players out or send them to the ferry of the damned for an extended period of time.
They could make sure people are "playing nice" and not being bullies (which is possible if you are reading some of these stories).

@mcstabbypants A reputation system is a really good idea. If a player is in a crew or by themself, and frequently attacks other players, they should get an unchangeable flag on the ship. The ships have smaller flags on the crows nest and top of the masts. Maybe these could change depending on what the player likes to do, a jolly roger for pvp people, maybe a mercant symbol flag for people that just do voyages. Or have it based off a voting system. Even just a static skull who's facial expression changes based on the votes the player receives.

@virus-strain Good idea. They could easily implement a vote system in the "My Crew" menu to change the flag status between aggressive and friendly.

If you are being spawn camped, just switch servers.

if im camping you, then you kept coming back after we sank you.

stop coming back

U cant change the game its self. The game is steal stuff, find stuff, be a pirate or against all odds.
But what we need to change is the ballance between the ships.

● Make all ships the same Speed. "Get
caught" or "get good" needs to depend
on the micromanagment of the crew.

● Let the Sloop have two cannons on each side so both players of the Sloop can shoot at the same time. ( Galleon has 4 cannons on each side so all four members can shoot at same time)

● increase the speed of sail management when playing solo

● implement ingame chat for xbox
● let us choose a higher sensivity for controller sticks.
● add an option to choose between crossplay and current plattform only

● add some visuals like Shipnames, own choosen charakter names, ect..

● add savezone, when set food on outpost u cant get any damage. Water is still PvP zone, ship can be damaged. Chests still can be picked up by others on the outpost.

● let us choose colour themes to have more unique sails or shippaint.

● let us choose between different symbols in 3 shades to create unique crew logos
● better lobbies, more control for the captain, kick option, private option, players who where send in to the cage will be removed after 5 minutes automatically
● make the itemswitch instant instead of waiting untill the motion is done ( on xbos its not posible to change to bananas, while animation of the swordswing)

Mmmh the list goes on and on...

@cartridgebrosp1 you misunderstood the intent of my story. I apologise if it came off as me bragging about haunting players. That was not the intent or what happened. First of all we didnt have two galleons we had 8 people on 1. Two different groups that met on the sea and became adventuring friends. Something that wouldnt be possible if other players couldnt stay on ships besides their own.

Secondly we didnt sink a single ship or kill anyone that we are aware of. Yes we chased a couple sloops for a few minutes and fired shots at them. But they skillfully outmaneuvered our drunken crew. And Im certain they came away from the encounter with a great sense of accomplishment. And we left them be, recognizing that they out sailed us.

Im sorry your experience is not what you had hoped for. I truly hope you can find some good moments and not be frustrated. Its a great game with alot of possibility.

@doctor-n****e how about instead of a cap on crew members you instead change the reward system to split the base gold drop evenly between all crew members between 1-8 meaning that if you opted to bring the maximum crew each piece of treasure would be reduced in reward price by 7/8 and add a small multiplier for number of items turned in within say 5 minutes as a bulk purchase bonus like 1% per item. that would still limit the number of people you would bring with you since a serious game would have a goal of being as profitable as possible, and also encourage crews to hoard their treasure longer making each pvp engagement potentially more rewarding as fewer players will go grab 1-3 items then scurry back to turn them in and instead opt to risk it all for a greater reward.
mark any ship or island carying more than 50 treasures on board on the map in real time as a treasure ship/hoard and you turn that doom crew 8 man galleon that has harassed and plundered the seven seas in an effort to make their quota into a far better boss fight than any skeleton fort ever could be.

Another night of a 1 person completely destroying my crew with little to no effort. Getting one shot, spawn camping out boat, being surrounded and shot at burning my entire crew only to kill us all and not die him self. What is going to take to make you see that cross platform is a horrible idea. PC should be on their own server. When I unload a blunderbuss at close range and then hit them with a sword all with out them eating a banana they should die. This is beyond unfair to the regular players.

@khaleesibot really need to lock each ammo crate on boats to crew use only, spent the last 3 days being spawn killed on my own ship from people who just board the ship and camp on the ammo box. There needs to be something done to stop this griefing. Maybe make it so you can only refill ammo on your own ship or an island.

@khaleesibot Like the brig idea and think it will work just find once you implement more control over parties, etc. For instance, I want to start playing with maybe one or two but need space for friends to join me while in game. I also agree this should have been in a full release for a game...

The easiest solution to the problems here is to separate PvE and PvP. Yes I know that goes against the vision of Rare for this game, but it may be time to accept that vision is hard to implement because far too many people are stupid trolls and only live to make everyone else's experience miserable. Rare can add AI ships instead for the occasional ship battle encounters.

Another solution would be, as others have pointed out, to create areas where people can't attack each other. Outposts should absolutely be peace areas. The very first time I started this game, I spawned next to some other player in a tavern and he immediately killed me.
This is not the best solution, because an idiot (or group of idiots) with nothing better to do could simply follow you out of a peace area and kill you.

This is a really good game, but in its current state it risks alienating a lot of people pretty soon. Videogames, especially a game like this, should not be frustrating to play.

@blake-macbride said in [Mega Thread] - Player Griefing -Part 2:

@cartridgebrosp1 you misunderstood the intent of my story. I apologise if it came off as me bragging about haunting players. That was not the intent or what happened. First of all we didnt have two galleons we had 8 people on 1. Two different groups that met on the sea and became adventuring friends. Something that wouldnt be possible if other players couldnt stay on ships besides their own.

Secondly we didnt sink a single ship or kill anyone that we are aware of. Yes we chased a couple sloops for a few minutes and fired shots at them. But they skillfully outmaneuvered our drunken crew. And Im certain they came away from the encounter with a great sense of accomplishment. And we left them be, recognizing that they out sailed us.

Im sorry your experience is not what you had hoped for. I truly hope you can find some good moments and not be frustrated. Its a great game with alot of possibility.

Cool story, but that kind of experience is extremely rare in this game.

In the current state of the game, i don't see myself playing this for more then a moth at most. Don't get me wrong, i love the game but everything you can do in this game becomes repetitive really quickly so heres a list of suggestions that could help bring more life into this game.

Order of Souls:
The order of souls quests in my opinion are immensely lacking depth. Go there and kill the crew and the captain. While this is fun the first 2-3 times it soon becomes repetitive. Id love to see the following added in the game:

• Forts overtaken by a pirate crew.
• Ships (sloop or galleon depending on either the level of the player's voyage with order of souls or his current ship and crew size) controlled by a pirate crew that you must sink and that could maybe hold a few treasure.
• A pirate hideout to clear.
• Sunken Ships: Clear a sunken ship of all its "resilient" crew.
  ( all the above could be controlled by npcs, living or otherwise)

Gold Hoarders:
Now those quests also get repetitive quickly and aside from other players theres no real danger involved.

• Traps: Why not add traps on islands, in caves, etc...
• Sunken Ships: We do currently have sunken ships to loot but gold hoarders could have quest based sunken ships you could find using coordinates and such that would only spawn once a voyage is started.
• Puzzles. some pirate inspired puzzle would be nice to have.

Merchant Alliance:
Well, those quest become boring and annoying very quickly at higher levels especially with the pigs.... they must eat...

• Raids. Yep maybe have us raid an outpost for the merchendise it contains because lets face it, not all merchants are honest.
• Merchant vessels. Vessels you could raid or trade with for goods and such.
• More diversity in goods

The game in general:
Sea of thieves lacks life may it be in the ocean, on land or on an outpost, there is very little going on. The game should be filled with life to make every part of it all the more alive.

*Customisation. Freedom to create your pirate, a flag to make your own, ability to paint specific parts of your ship, dye your clothes, simply way way way more customisation options.

*NPC Ships: Merchant, pirate, fishing ships could be added.

*Fishing

*More events, sea monsters and even islands monsters to spice up the game a tad.

*The sloop. Add a cannon to each side or maybe a front one.

• Allows us to keep our voyage and found maps upon leaving a game.

• Change the way the crew system works. i shouldnt have to leave a game to add or remove players to my crew. Or even to change from a sloop to a galleon.

• Respawn further away from your last location.

• Skelly fort raids need to be reworked. Their current state makes them more of a hassle then anything else.

• Maybe add a ship thats a median between a sloop and a galleon.

• More chest types, items and such that you can find.

I guess thats it for now

The brig system NEEDS to be changed. I've joined plenty of games where I get immediately brigged to free up a slot for a friend, and yes adding more party customization options or 3-man crews would help. The final straw for me though is when my crewmates left the game, leaving me the only member, and I decided to finish a voyage. Two new people join the game and immediately throw me in the brig. They fill the hold with water and leave me to drown repeatedly. This griefing and trolling won't be stopped unless the brig system is changed. The solution is not just ignoring them and joining a new game. That just leaves them open to do the same to somebody else. We shouldn't have to leave our game to get away from the trolls. We should't be punished for their actions. We need to stop this toxicity before it gets worse.

An important way to mitigate player griefing is to put something in place that makes it so that THEY CANT SINK YOUR SHIP WHEN YOU'RE NOT LOOKING THEN LOCK PEOPLE IN THE BRIG, ADMIT TO THEIR GRIEFING THEN LEAVE WITHOUT A TRACE. Sorry, for the all caps, I came to these forums to vent my frustration because that just happened to me.

I’ve yet to play really. If I try multi players I get locked in the he brig by people that join (they must be grouping ahead).
Single player it’s like being in an empty game.
Anyway disappointing and shelving it.

The players I come across that aren't being nice seem to have a common thing with each of them...they're new to Xbox and are kids (or rather pre-teens/young teens).

I'm fine with people trying to take anything I have a value on my ship, that's part of the game, but what isn't is just straight up killing me and sinking my ship because it's allowed in the game when I have no treasure on my ship and/or you feel like doing it repeatedly just for you to have fun. That's being a bully.

Yet every person I've come acrossed that sinks my ship repeatedly when I have nothing on it have been kids who are new to Xbox. Different kids, different profiles, but still kids. Is it just me or what?

I'm not sure if these are spoiled rich kids who are just throwing their money around who should be taught a lesson, or if there is a serious problem with other people's kids. Whatever the case, if it's your kid, talk to them about their actions and tell them that it's ok to attack in this game when they're going for loot, but not if it's just cause they feel like doing it cause it's in the game.