Been reading a lot on the forums where players complain about the state of the game and the mechanics behind it. This is a very long read and in no way is suppose to be condescending.
- Griefing - This word gets thrown around more than it should. Actual Greifing in this game is only when a player on your own crew does something to undermine your ability to play the game. Again the only actual way to grief in this game is from players on your own crew. Someone repeatedly dropping anchor, sailing the ship into islands, exploding the GPB's onto the boat or even tossing treasure overboard, and etc.
"But what about when I've been at a raid for an hour and right as I finish it someone comes in and kills me and steals it. THAT IS MY LOOT!" ---- No it is not your loot. Nothing belongs to you in this game. The only time loot is yours is when you already sold it. Until it's turned in, it is fair game.
"But a ship came out of nowhere and sank me. I don't even have anything on my ship worth sinking." ---- Again not griefing. Hearing this frustrates me so much. For goodness sake we have no way of knowing whether or not you have loot. The only way to know is to sink you, or get on your boat and check. Since I'm sure players won't go with "Hey let me on your ship to see if you have loot." The only viable option is to sink you.
"But they are just sitting on my boat and killing me over and over again." --- Again not greifing. You have the ability to scuttle your ship and spawn somewhere else. The reason that you don't scuttle is because of a sense of ego or pride, that just scuttling your boat would be admitting to yourself that someone had forced you to do that and you don't like it. All I can say is get over yourself and suck it up and just scuttle your boat.
"I've scuttled and they just keep hunting me down." --- Again not greifing. You have the option to go to another server. Just because you are being forced into doing something you do not like doesn't make it go away. Stop begging everyone to come and change the game just so you don't have to feel that personal shame of scuttling your boat, and if need be switching servers.
"I'm playing solo and they just come out of nowhere and sink me, that's not fair." --- Again not greifing. Just because you are playing solo or flying some random color flag does not mean you are safe or that we will abide by your own self made up rules of the game. You have to check the horizon constantly and if you are not, then you have no one else but yourself to blame.
"But all I want to do is the weekly without having to worry." ----- Again not Greifing. Just because you are doing weekly's does not mean you are safe. You are never safe in this game. Anyone you trust is a possibility of being stabbed in the back. Nothing personal its just the game.
Please for the love of all the kittens in the world. This is the game. Its open world PvP and honestly even if you think there are people who do not like that, there actually are. Learn and read. Even if this community is a bunch of pirates I haven't seen any issues with people not finding help when they ask for it.
Sloops VS Galleons ----
So I see this a lot. Players saying that galleons vs sloops is unfair and that they need a sloop only server because galleons are just overpowered. This is frankly not true. My teammate and I have sank countless galleons in a sloop. The ones we couldn't sink have been few and far between. For every 10 I sink I might run into 1 that I can not and when that happens we just run. If you can't run away from a galleon in a sloop then you need to watch some vids or ask someone for help in teaching you what to do.
"But what about when you are a solo sloop? That is not fair against a galleon. I don't want to have to run away everytime I see one coming." --- I have sank galleons solo before, yes the conditions have to be perfect but its not impossible. If you determine you are not able to successfully sink the galleon chasing you then run away. Just because you do not want to run away doesn't make the galleon stop going after you. Also it is so hard for a galleon to catch a sloop its not even funny and if you do by chance have loot then just do drive by's and turn it in.
Side note - I was on a galleon the other day and a sloop rolls up at a fort asking for help with commendations. I said okay but we were not going to share the loot. We didn't feel safe with his sloop being so close so we prepped his ship to sink after the captain spawned. The player from the sloop got angry "Bro you are seriously scared of a solo sloop so much? Like really are you that bad of a player that you are worried about a solo sloop?" Honestly I have NO idea if he is solo or not, there are no indicators anywhere that label his ship solo. Taking his word for it is stupid and just asking for trouble for when the captain spawns. What if he wasn't solo and the whole time his partner was gearing up with barrels to sink us, or shoot and kill us. So yeah sloops are scary even if you are in a galleon.
I hope this helps. If I remember the rest I was going to write I'll add more.
