[Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion

@mferr11 That issue comes down to the general complexities with the game, its players, and its community. While I don't want to add on to that as I want to keep this on topic, maybe someone should note this:

The amount of things to do in Sea of Thieves today absolutely trumps ANYTHING you were able to do back from beta and even at launch. We have easily accessible story-based quests, multiple world events, 4 regions, 7 different trading companies, 5 with an emissary to help boost leveling up in said trading companies; numerous threats, secrets, cosmetics, rewards, and so many more things that make this game tailored much more to PVE over PVP.

Calling Sea of Thieves a PVP game is essentially incorrect at this point, but it's not a PVE game either because of the thrill of PVP and its unpredictable commonality in the world. PVEVP is what this game's environment is. Most of the people that want a PVE server is because they find a LOT of things better to do in the game other than shooting cannonballs, double tapping lesser players, and stealing loot. The highest and most stressful risk players like these would have are the kraken, skeleton ships or the megalodon... or all 3 at once. To them, adding players to the mix sounds interesting as a thought, but when their foes are leagues better than them in a lot of cases, the fun is no longer there for them, especially because the game continues to appeal to the casual pacifist crowd over the hardcore "sweaty" crowd that this game continues to foster because of its namesake.

I genuinely hope Rare can figure out a way to force more PVP outside of another player's choice in adventure, cause once you've done all you want to do in the game, all you have left is the PVP.

@nex-stargaze said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

I genuinely hope Rare can figure out a way to force more PVP outside of another player's choice in adventure, cause once you've done all you want to do in the game, all you have left is the PVP.

I'd prefer Rare force more player interaction in a way that makes a genuine question of whether it will be a PvP interaction or an alliance interaction. There's plenty of ways to force player interaction, but it's not the "fun unknown experience" people keep claiming, because there is no meaningful chance that they aren't trying to steal your stuff if you are interacting.

It's weird how people think that the solution to a portion of the player base wanting to avoid PvP encounters is to force PvP on them. All that will do is make them stop playing entirely.

The Season concept appears to be separating progress and loot in a way that eases the "feel bad" of losing your loot haul, so that is good thing for player retention.

@cptphteven

I'd prefer Rare force more player interaction in a way that makes a genuine question of whether it will be a PvP interaction or an alliance interaction. There's plenty of ways to force player interaction, but it's not the "fun unknown experience" people keep claiming, because there is no meaningful chance that they aren't trying to steal your stuff if you are interacting.

Force players to do X in sandbox game? No thanks. Encouraging players to do alliance to complete world event together like during Hungering deep and Coursed sails, Yes Any Day!!!

For a bad example. Make The Ashen lords what they are supposed to be, Powerfull generals of Flame heart, Making them greater challenge that could require few crews to complete.
Would feel better in my opinion to have long fight against an Ashen lord with other crews and finally killing it after a good fight. At least would be better than having an maiden voyager solo an ashen lord in 8 minutes.

@rastigan I mean you're not having fun because they fore PvP on you. But it they would not get PvP they would not have fun.

Like others have already said in this mega on an threat. PvE would hurt this game in long run if it would just be copy of adventure bit without PvP. Yes it would bring players but all of them would come just for the PvE experience because why else would they suddenly then join? it would take all PvE'ers liked they PvP or not to grind in PvE servers leaving adventure as PvP gamemode because there would not be any reason to grind in it. And then the community would be divided into two. It would become game with PvE and PvP modes, not one PvEvP game that it is and should stay as. Wonder of the game is that than you sail with other players with their own motives and goals and then interact with them, was it through PvP or alliance.

After all you bought PvEvP sandbox game so complaining about core of the game and hoping change for it may tell you that it may not be game for you. I don't see any PvP:ers complaining about PvE as an playstyle.

@stundorn said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

@combatxkitty
Tell me the challenge in outnumbering a solo sloop and spawnkilling?
What challenge do you speak of?
What challenge is there to beat others while exploiting and glitching around?

You missed the entire point of my post.

People split this game into two all the time;
PvE'ers
PvP'ers.

What they do is they leave out PvPvE'rs. Someone who is out numbering a sloop is not in it for the PvP this is a PvPvE game they most likely want the loot.

Im just tired of people making PvP'ers out to be big bad meanies who want easy fights, we want a challenge! If someone is looking for an easy target they want your loot most likely they are not in it for the thrill of the fight.

Also people really need to stop acting like sloopers are the poor defenseless mice of the sea around here. As a former slooper who held her own I find it offensive. A good slooper and specifically a good sloop duo can be any bigger ships worse nightmare. Another thing, I use a brig most times with my friend and you know what type of ship comes at us the most? The sloop!

Also there still is a challenge when you out number someone. You need to actually catch them! Myself and my crewmate give ships a challenge when they try to attack us and 99 percent of the time they never catch up. You play the game, you should know that. Its not like you just pick a ship out on the map, press a button to attack them and then boom you teleport to cannon range.

@limend said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

@cptphteven

I'd prefer Rare force more player interaction in a way that makes a genuine question of whether it will be a PvP interaction or an alliance interaction. There's plenty of ways to force player interaction, but it's not the "fun unknown experience" people keep claiming, because there is no meaningful chance that they aren't trying to steal your stuff if you are interacting.

Force players to do X in sandbox game? No thanks. Encouraging players to do alliance to complete world event together like during Hungering deep and Coursed sails, Yes Any Day!!!

For a bad example. Make The Ashen lords what they are supposed to be, Powerfull generals of Flame heart, Making them greater challenge that could require few crews to complete.
Would feel better in my opinion to have long fight against an Ashen lord with other crews and finally killing it after a good fight. At least would be better than having an maiden voyager solo an ashen lord in 8 minutes.

I think you missed my point. Forcing anything is bad, therefore forcing PvP is bad was my point.

And Ashen lords were pretty much what you said at the beginning before nerfing and it was hot garbage. Because nobody wants to cooperate when they know that immediately following the boss fight they have to fight another crew that didn't participate in the boss fight. That's why simply making harder bosses isn't enough to encourage players to cooperate - all it does is cause players not to do the content.

@rastigan said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

i havent played for a while now and i will not start again without a pve mode... as much as a would like to play sot again, especially with the battlepass and seasons next year, pvP kills the game for me. going on an island to get loot with a 2man crew just to come back to the ship

Well there ya go! I am a two person crew aswell and we do not have this issue ever. You know why? We take turns watching our ship.

and see its not there anymore because some pvp idiots had fun sinking a ship is no fun for me.

Again with the PvP'ers are bullies. How do you know they were PvP'ers? Why? They sunk a empty parked ship? Maybe they were bored PvE'ers!

me and my friend are not really good in pvp, mostly because we dont want to and have no motivation to do pvp, so we stopped playing long time ago. which is unfortunate because SOT looks so nice and its so fun just so sail around, find treasure, loot, fighting megalodons etc... but pvp kills the game for us

Well as a duo crew myself, if you ever want advice just message me if you do ever decide to get back into the game. I avoid any PvP pretty much 98 percent of my time on this game.

so PLSSSS bring a pvE mode for every player who dont want pvp

Dev's said no.

@rastigan I never said i never hear any PvP:ers to complaining about CONTENT but PLAYSTYLE. You even red my post? Big difference. I let this be because i assume there is an language barrier.

"same problem with apex beeing a "teamgame" and without solomode. there are not real arguments against it, its just the people complaying who would loose the freeloot of noobplayers/solo players"

What are you on about? I Can't tell if player is new before i'm already sinking him. Also usually when i solo sloop the most aggressive players are new ones. If we would lose all new players to this PvE servers then what happens when all veterans quit? The players who have never had PvP in their playtime wont stand a change and will quit because they find PvE dull after doing it for countels hours. And before you say it won't become boring tell that to the 100% gang who are currently only PvP:ing

"dividing the community? who cares? you are playing with xx crews on the same server, you wouldnt even notice the difference if there where a pvE server, only that the pvE players could have the same fun and good game experience like the pvp palyer"

WHOLE REST OF THIS DAM COMMUNITY WHO ARE OK WITH HOW GAME IS AND DON'T WANT IT TO BE SOMETHING IT ISN'T!!!
Why would you think play style in adventure wouldn't change? Human nature wants to do everything the easy way. IF there was a way to get loot/rep more easily why bother risking it being stolen from? it would 100% move everyone who does PvE into them in month or two. Community isn't black and white, PvE and PvP only but it has other shades of gray between. Ofcourse you notice difference if every server had only blood thirsty pirates because they would all be going for it. There wouldn't be 3 players doing PvE preventing server from becoming total mess.

*"maybe give players on the pvE server 20% less loot or something,"

Any free loot would still rune this. I could stack as much loot as i wanted because there wouldn't be any risk so that wouldn't work.

" but there are way to many pvE player who dont want to defend their ship/loot against other players while looting on an big island or while fighting a meg etc"*

So what you're saying is that they don't want to defend them selves so they should get free pass? That's not an excuse. They are playing PvPvE GAME. They know what they bought so why complain. Game shouldn't treat lazy players better because "they don* t want to do it". You just want mode that was never planed for game. You just want to change core mechanics and burn the game so YOU could enjoy it and ruin it for current community who enjoy it and that's why the community keeps growing.

@rastigan Hi, first of all, I'm going to tell you that there is PvE "zone" in game already and its called devils roar, no PvPer would ever go there unless you have reapers flag or something to "attract" them, but if you want actual PvE server, I have good news, it's coming to the sea of thieves and its called custom server (you can make it PvE server), you will be able to invite your PvE friends create up to 6 crews and do whatever, BUT obviously, you will NOT be able to progress in game, you won't get any gold, any rep or commendations/achievements, its basically sandbox mode, that's best you will get from this game ;)
(we don't know how long will it take to release custom servers to the public but we know that it won't be free)

@rastigan said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

@combatxkitty sagte in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

Im just tired of people making PvP'ers out to be big bad meanies who want easy fights, we want a challenge! If someone is looking for an easy target they want your loot most likely they are not in it for the thrill of the fight.

Also people really need to stop acting like sloopers are the poor defenseless mice of the sea around here. As a former slooper who held her own I find it offensive. A good slooper and specifically a good sloop duo can be any bigger ships worse nightmare. Another thing, I use a brig most times with my friend and you know what type of ship comes at us the most? The sloop!

you say that pvplers want a challenge, yet every pvp players is against pvE severs..if you really want a challenge let all the pvP noobs play on an pvE server. than you have a chellenge against all the pvp player - the real fights, not the "we kill the sloop while they are on an island looting" or while fighting a megalodon
how often did a pvpler destroy my sloop while i was on an island, alone or with a friend, ruining my game and having gooten no loot because i just respawned anyway without loot. where is the challenge in that? i dont want to look out from my ship while a mate is looting on the island. everything takes the double amount of time and makes no fun.
you can have fun fighting for your loot, defending your ship, i dont care, but i dont want to. i want to enjoy SOT relaxed and without pvp.
but yeah you are right, i cant have that, so i loose a great game and SOT looses probably thousends or even millions of players. but hey, pve would be bad for the game after all....

You are continuing to make the same, misguided assumption that there are only two groups to pigeon-hole players into. I reckon the MAJORITY of people playing the game fall into NEITHER of your little groups but in fact embrace BOTH elements of the game...hence its continued success.

The problem with your idea of splitting players is that by making such docile servers is that there will be a set of people who would flock to those in order to get the path of least resistance to play, thus shifting the aggressiveness of the standard servers. Besides those like yourself that want to play without conflict, you'd have the OCD types that want all the commendations who'd flock there (because it is easier and quicker) as well as achievement hunters (who generally seek the path of least resistance towards 100% a games achievements, some falling into that OCD category as well). This means fewer possible friendly interactions for those of us who embrace BOTH sides of the equation. A lot of us appreciate the uncertainty of potential encounters and would not be happy if that balance was disturbed because a few don't "get" what the game is supposed to be about so seek to change it to meet their own selfish desires.

If you wanted a game without PvP/conflict, you should done more research on this title beforehand. What you are asking is no different than if I said "I love the game Vigor and collecting all the supplies to upgrade my shelter, I just want to do it without others trying to kill me and steal what I've gathered". Not every game is meant to cater to everyone, those that do tend to be pretty shallow.

@cptphteven said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

@limend said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

@cptphteven

I think you missed my point. Forcing anything is bad, therefore forcing PvP is bad was my point.

What like forcing somebody to sail a ship to an island instead of having an autopilot or teleport is bad?

Forcing someone to have to carry that loot all the way back at a slow tedious jog when they could just get awarded the gold as soon as they dig it up is bad?

Forcing somebody to fight a Kraken when they're just on their way back to the outpost from a fort with a loot strewn deck is bad?

Or are we just going to cherry pick a generalisation here?

@rastigan said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

@combatxkitty sagte in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

Im just tired of people making PvP'ers out to be big bad meanies who want easy fights, we want a challenge! If someone is looking for an easy target they want your loot most likely they are not in it for the thrill of the fight.

Also people really need to stop acting like sloopers are the poor defenseless mice of the sea around here. As a former slooper who held her own I find it offensive. A good slooper and specifically a good sloop duo can be any bigger ships worse nightmare. Another thing, I use a brig most times with my friend and you know what type of ship comes at us the most? The sloop!

you say that pvplers want a challenge, yet every pvp players is against pvE severs..if you really want a challenge let all the pvP noobs play on an pvE server. than you have a chellenge against all the pvp player - the real fights, not the "we kill the sloop while they are on an island looting" or while fighting a megalodon

First off cute, do not quote my actual reply to you, that is fine you can ignore it but my offer still stands if you actually want advice from a fellow more PvE oriented duo crew member just message me.

What you are failing to understand is that this game mostly consists of and is market to PvPvE'ers. We PvPvE'rs do not want PvE servers for reasons that have zero to do with the fact that you and others are not good at defending yourselves. Not everything is about your lack of PvP skills. We do not want the balance of the game to be screwed up it has nothing to do with "easy targets" oh how people love to cling to that though even though reasons that have nothing to do with that have been stated how many times now????

how often did a pvpler destroy my sloop while i was on an island, alone or with a friend, ruining my game and having gooten no loot because i just respawned anyway without loot. where is the challenge in that? i dont want to look out from my ship while a mate is looting on the island. everything takes the double amount of time and makes no fun.

You dont want to look out for your ship. I find statements like this rather funny. People buy a PvPvE game and then they do not want to be bothered with a huge part of the game. Look, its fine if you do not want to be bothered to pay attention to your ship but do not then complain when it gets sunk.

Also this goes for ANY PvPvE game. Other night I was playing a PvPvE game with my friend and I had to run to a trader area while she stayed with my parked car and guarded it. I had to make multiple trips back and fourth and yes it could have been faster if she came with me but someone could have stolen our car and in that game once your car is gone its gone!

This is the nature of these types of games. You keep a look over your shoulder, you take turns keeping a look out with friends. If you do not like the idea of being on the look out for other players why in the world do you buy games of this genre? Can someone answer this question for once?

you can have fun fighting for your loot, defending your ship, i dont care, but i dont want to. i want to enjoy SOT relaxed and without pvp.

You want to enjoy what you want SOT to be, you do not actually like Sea of Thieves.

but yeah you are right, i cant have that, so i loose a great game and SOT looses probably thousends or even millions of players. but hey, pve would be bad for the game after all....

Millions? Oh stop with the drama. SOT loses ZERO players! Why? You were never their targeted customer. They do not need you or other pure PvE players like you. They never marketed towards you, its not their fault you went out and bought their game anyways. SOT player base has shown growth every year since release, the game is doing great. They have ways to generate income from within their game aswell as new players within their target market. Now they are coming out with the Plunder Pass which will create more revenue from their target demographic. Why do sole PvE players act like games just cant survive without them?

If you would like to discuss a PvE mode that doesnt compete with main adventure though I would love to since I wouldnt really mind that but still its like why would Rare really want to spent time on it. Look what is going on with their side mode Arena. First off I think dont qoute me but I think Rare contracted Arena out for another developer to focus on but anyways Arena seems to get no attention and has become the red haired step child of SOT.

@rastigan said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

but yeah you are right, i cant have that, so i loose a great game and SOT looses probably thousends or even millions of players. but hey, pve would be bad for the game after all....

I think this "Dying game and player exode due to PVP" poor myth can be put to rest. The game is more alive than ever and keeps growing more and more.

Seasons, Merchant Detectives and the Festival of Giving: Sea of Thieves News December 2nd 2020

Time to put the fearmongering tactic on the shelf lads.

@stundorn said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

@combatxkitty not talking about you - i respect your stance about SoT, but talking about what is popular content in YT and Twitch etc.
recently watched some seconds of pace and the highlights. they were showing off kids again and made themself look funny, but all it was was showing off beginners kids and making joke on their cost.

Sorry to say but most PvP content shown is not challenging fights, its stomping on new players, kids etc...

I will be honest with you to me people like that are not true PvP'ers and I do not refer to people who look for easy targets with the sole purpose of killing them for kicks as PvP'er s , I wont say here what I call them lol. If I am on a game and I see someone killing a bambi over and over or a one being ganged up on I will go over and will step in and the person or people doing it 9/10 will leave. Why do they leave? They leave because an actual PvP'er just showed up. I am not exaggerating. This is literally the story of my PvP life, I show up to help someone and everyone leaves lol, me and my friend laugh about it.

Also there is tons of good PvP torments out there to watch. I recommend those if want to see true PvP and what its really about; the challange, the adrenaline, the controller throwing lol.

@bloodybil said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

@rastigan said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

but yeah you are right, i cant have that, so i loose a great game and SOT looses probably thousends or even millions of players. but hey, pve would be bad for the game after all....

I think this "Dying game and player exode du to PVP" poor myth can be put to rest. The game is more alive than ever and keeps growing more and more.

Seasons, Merchant Detectives and the Festival of Giving: Sea of Thieves News December 2nd 2020

Time to put the fearmongering tactic on the shelf lads.

You know what it reminds me of.

For example I read alot of make up reviews. There is always that one person like "I hate you Cover Girl your lipstick made my lips dry and I am telling all my friends not to buy your products!" As if that is going to be the nail in Cover Girl's foundation compact.

Same here "RARE! You better put in PvE server! I am done with you and so is all three other people I know!"

@combatxkitty said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

@bloodybil said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

@rastigan said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

but yeah you are right, i cant have that, so i loose a great game and SOT looses probably thousends or even millions of players. but hey, pve would be bad for the game after all....

I think this "Dying game and player exode du to PVP" poor myth can be put to rest. The game is more alive than ever and keeps growing more and more.

Seasons, Merchant Detectives and the Festival of Giving: Sea of Thieves News December 2nd 2020

Time to put the fearmongering tactic on the shelf lads.

You know what it reminds me of.

For example I read alot of make up reviews. There is always that one person like "I hate you Cover Girl your lipstick made my lips dry and I am telling all my friends not to buy your products!" As if that is going to be the nail in Cover Girl's foundation compact.

Same here "RARE! You better put in PvE server! I am done with you and so is all three other people I know!"

Digressing a bit but I bought a pair of micro studio monitors (speakers) to replace my bigger Yamaha neighbour annoyers. They are designed to sound best 1.5 - 3ft in front of you pointed at your head in a triangle and they do sound freakin' awesome (even though I only got 1 working ear lol)..

Some guy reviews them on a popular sound forum, "I put these 6ft away on a shelf and the bass just wasn't there blah blah blah.. they are no more than toy computer speakers, I don't know how anybody can mix on these, don't buy 'em.. blah blah.."

A quick glance on youtube shows you that many famous engineers/producers use them on the road in hotel rooms etc and love 'em.. Yet another case of not reading the script and buying something that's not suitable for you or your needs.

@rastigan

Pirates are not only out for a challenging battle, they are also out to steal... we are thieves afterall. If everyone gathers treasure in one world and goes hunts in the other... there is not much left to steal. Sure we hope that with time pirates learn to fight as well as flee, but it is their choice in the end.

You are a pirate that does not want to look out, watch over, protect their ship? That isn't much of a pirate, imagine Jack Sparrow not caring for the black pearl... A ship can easily be watched over while being on the island, just keep one eye on the horizon and your ears open. If a solo can do it, any crew should have an even easier time.

You don't want to engage in battle, that is also totally viable and fine. Watch your surroundings and sail away from others, park smart, use rowboats. There is an array of skills and strategies that you can use to purely PvE.

Why should you not learn to be a good PvE player? You entered a PvEvP multiplayer game and expect not to learn to play with the consideration that others roam the seas? You got exactly what you paid for, playing purely PvE for hours on end is super easy with a tiny bit awareness and thought.

@COMBATxKITTY you really have someone on guard duty?

@stundorn Beating people in a videogame, regardless of skill level, will always be more satisfying than beating an ai. Its why competitive multiplayer games are usually far more popular and longer lived than single player ones.
Yes, new players are at a disadvantage and will struggle, over coming that and mastering the game is part how sandbox games work. Not every game needs to coddle its players, not every player even wants to be coddled.

As far as your "stomping noobs" and going "4vs 1" well yeah that going to happen, and keep happening, SOT is a sandbox, and an empty sandbox at that. There are not enough ships out on the seas for us to be picky, like I said before, so we take what we can get. Also interaction in a sandbox is supposed to happen organically, not regulated along the lines of skill or crew size.

And mate, we agree, server hoping is cheesy and not really in line with how a sandbox should work, but it's practically necessary if you are looking for a good fight over decent stakes. Server hoping is a symptom of a larger problem in SOT, not the cause of problems.

Well... I decided to go ahead and check the Sea of Thieves official forums, as every other forum I got kicked off of (I will admit I got pretty saucy, but I won't go in to detail about that. Will try my best to be a good boy here). This is going to be a long post because passion drives me or I wanna get this off my chest or something.

I bought the game around August/September. I knew exactly what the game was like and still got it due to getting constant dreams about it (No really, I dreamed about Sea of Thieves at least three times), but I did at the very least expect that people were going to be good sports, go around actually "Roleplaying", rather than give the word "Roleplay" lip-service, or at the very least people being good sports about the "Player Combat" segments. Turns out I was wrong, should've gotten the idea when a lot of forumers react very negatively if you even breath a complaint about how you don't enjoy being PvP'ed at.

So, first few hours were quite fun; I didn't encounter any players, I sailed between a few islands, killed skeletons and digging up treasures. Then when I started to actually meet players, my "Fun" deteriorated rapidly. Still remember the first other-crew encounter: They were jumping around my ship, I told them to "'Oy, get away from there" (I didn't have anything valuable, so I guess I wanted to make my presence known). First thing the three-man crew does? Start shooting at me and proceed to sink my ship. Did I fight back? As best I could, I did kill one out of two players once or twice, but of course being new and outmanned, my ship got destroyed and I lost one fancy skull. Second ship ten minutes after that had some guy blow up my ship with a keg, and then start chasing me while his buddy shot at me from a distance. I killed the guy chasing me but of course got killed by sniper fire.

Not exactly all that enjoyable, but it was mostly whatever. However ever since then I started feeling anxious just knowing that there were players out there. The game proved itself to be less of this "Authentic pirate adventure" and more like "All players are just interested in killing you". In fact I even met another player who had children who was paranoid with me, didn't even trust me when I had a box of supplies that I wanted to drop off to him (I was finishing up that session and wanted to give a ship something nice). What really killed my enthusiasm was when I decided I'd be singing, found two ships in the middle of a fight and I decided to sit there at the end of my ship and try my best to sing Country Roads.

What happened? The big ship decided to focus its attention to me, the other ship got away, and what proceeded was one player who was clearly a better player killing me, screaming "DEADE" at me, and kept calling me "Noob" and to "Quit the game". I managed to kill him once, and then badmouthed me on the Ferry, and said that I am "Supposed to bring him chests". What am I supposed to think of Adventure after that? I will admit that it was a tipping point for me and it lead me to be one of those "Toxic PvErs" that people like to call anyone dismissively whether or not they have legitimate qualms or not.

I decided "Forget this" and decided to just go play Arena. And you know what? It was a fun time. Sure I didn't exactly play amazingly, but I still had a good time... That is, when I had a teammate who didn't abandon me to go on his own, or when I wasn't abandoned to have to do everything by myself. But at some point I got tired of even that, less because "Oh this is boring", but more because "I don't have any reliable teammates with me".

So yeah, I got pretty salty on forums, until I eventually got booted off of those. But in my defense, I tried being diplomatic at first, but I think it's fair to say that "Forum Trolls" got the better of me, and got me really riled up, which wasn't hard considering my experience in the game.

In case anyone is thinking "Oh, why not play with friends? This game isn't played best solo"; I don't have friends who want to play this game. I usually play online games with my girlfriend, but she doesn't like the game when I showed it to her. There are also some internet buddies, some who also are Sea of Thieves veterans, but even they have the attitude of being bored of how every single encounter with other players consists of either "Being attacked by the other ship" or "Other ship sails away because the helmsman thinks you're after his booty".

Look. I like this game, I like what it is trying to do. I however can't get behind it due to other players. I may be primarily a PvE player, but I am not someone who is against PvP either. I see this game having potential to also be a fun game where people can get together and take on different oceanic challenges, and on the other coin be this ocean in which the other sailor ahead could be either interested in teaming up, or be out to shoot at you.

As it stands right now, Adventure seems less interested in having an "Adventure" and seems more interested in being Arena, only taking up the whole map rather than a portion of the map. I mean heck, there are players who call PvE players "Content" in an attempt of dehumanizing their preferred playstyle, then there are players who talk about being "PvEvP Players", but show no interest in actually doing PvE, and just go on and talk about killing other players for their stuff.

Well, that is a load off. And if any Rare Employee is reading this; Please don't delete it, I want to try and have a constructive discussion now. I will be on my best behavior now.

@kalgert said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

As it stands right now, Adventure seems less interested in having an "Adventure" and seems more interested in being Arena, only taking up the whole map rather than a portion of the map. I mean heck, there are players who call PvE players "Content" in an attempt of dehumanizing their preferred playstyle, then there are players who talk about being "PvEvP Players", but show no interest in actually doing PvE, and just go on and talk about killing other players for their stuff.

Who's to say they aren't doing PVE? That seems to be the primary misconception people have. This is gonna sound outlandish but bear with me: You can actually do both PVE and PVP in the same session, you aren't confined to do only one or another.

Because you are being attacked by a crew doesn't mean in the slightest that they didn't just do voyages for 3 hours beforehand, and attacked you on their way to cash in and finish their night. They might have just cashed in to and saw you on the horizon, while still having a ship full of supplies, and thought "what the hell, let's go see them and whatever happens happens". Doesn't make it toxic, doesn't make it griefing.

I think the ideal session is one where a bit of everything happens. That's what makes it an adventure, the uncertainty of what is gonna happen at any time. You know what doesn't? Knowing exactly how your session will go because no one can mess with you.

And if any Rare Employee is reading this; Please don't delete it, I want to try and have a constructive discussion now.

Do you see any posts here being deleted?

With my first post out of the way detailing my experiences with the game, I want to post a few ideas that I've read from PvE players on the Steam forums (Before they got shouted down by PvP players).

Now, I am not sure how serious this thread is about discussing the idea of PvE servers, or at least, the PvE preferred playstyle, but I still want to chip in.

1. Fewer features/commendations
A lot of PvP-minded players have this worry that their achievements will be "Invalidated", because people would get everything on PvE servers. This idea of "Fewer features and/or commendations" would make it so that players would still get SOME of the rewards, but not ALL of the rewards.

You want to go do Athena or Reapers on a PvE server? Well, you can't, as they're not available there. You can however get stuff done for the Gold Hoarders, Merchants and Order.
Do you want to get commendations for completing specific activities? Well, you can't, as they involve some sort of combat with other players, so you're better off going to Adventure or Arena for that.
The result: You can't be Pirate Legend playing only on a PvE server.

2. Slower progression/A cap on rank from PvE
Another idea that was tossed about consisted of slowing down progression and smaller payouts on PvE servers. After all, doing only PvE is "Risk-Free", if you discount the random events that can happen, such as sea monsters and skeleton ships appearing to sink you (Believe it or not, not everyone is a master buccaneer who mastered the art of killing everything in PvE so you still can find yourself with bad luck against oceanic monsters).
So, the solution? Slower progression. You could also put a cap on the factions so that if you want to get the most bang out of your sailing, you could consider Adventure to be a good place to go to.

3. Separate progression for both
I am not sure how good of an idea this it, it was suggested a couple of times when PvP-minded players kept expressing concern about how PvE players would get everything easily because there would be no "Player Threat" present.
The idea would be that the achievements you make on PvE servers wouldn't be recognized on the classic Adventure servers. So if you were to say... Looking to grind out PvE and then look like the most menacing buccaneer of the five ocean quadrants (Or was it four?), you wouldn't beable to show it off on Adventure, threfore kind of leading you to showing that you can do it all over again.

I can't remember any other suggestions, no doubt there were some good ones offered, but those were the three that I could remember from the top of my head.
What do these two suggestions have in common? They still incentivize players to go to Adventure for the "Classic PvEvP experience". While there will be some players who are content with the PvE server's offerings, there will be others who will mix between the two, while another bunch will slowly migrate to Classic Adventure after they got everything out of PvE servers.

Although looking at the third idea, it may not be so good in encouraging people to give Adventure a try, so let's say the first two ideas can incentivize you to go give Classic Adventure a go.

Now, do people agree with the ideas? Not necessarily, but I think what I missed the most on forums is discussing the ideas, rather than people shooting them down with another copy-paste of a message from a Rare representative.

So... Thoughts on the ideas?

@cotu42 Guard duty as in someone on ship at all times? Yes I do. Me and my crew mate we dont mess around when it comes to our ship. I stay on ship she goes and does whatever or she stays on ship I go do whatever but you will never find our ship with out not one of us on it if we are "working". Our ship is ready to drop sails at a moments notice and skedaddle on out.

We play on PvPvE games where if you die its actually a really big ordeal so SOT is no biggie for us, it doesnt bother us being cautious one bit, we are use to it.

@scarecrow1771 "Beating people in a videogame, regardless of skill level, will always be more satisfying than beating an ai. Its why competitive multiplayer games are usually far more popular and longer lived than single player ones."
Thought I'd reply to this, saying that this attitude varies from person to person, you should admit this.

While you get more satisfaction killing players, others might get equal satisfaction from killing NPCs. Or even from just sailing around. I watched a Zero Punctuation video on Elite Dangerous where it was basically Yahtzee saying that he gets a very "Zen" feeling from being a space trucker, which is good on him. Also that game allows you to play singleplayer or multiplayer so... There's also that.

I got satisfaction from the game sailing, fighting Megalodons and harpooning the back of a skeleton ship while then swimming up to it and tearing it down from the inside, at least that was before I gave up on Adventure and then switched to Arena.

I am perfectly fine with players playing how they want (So long as they're not horrible people about it in-game or on forums), but I do wish they'd at least acknowledge that their preferences shouldn't echo across all players and through the game.

@bloodybil said in [Mega Thread] PvP and PvE Playstyle Discussion:

Do you see any posts here being deleted?

I saw one post on the first page that got deleted. Not sure who deleted it though, if it was Rare or the poster.

To the rest of your post however; My problem isn't that I am "Being attacked by crews" necessarily, but rather that it is the first thing anyone does when they see a ship. It is "Shoot first, ask questions never", which really doesn't do much for the "Fun of the mystery" when you know what's going to happen.

In fact, the only times when it didn't end with gunfires instantly, was.... When I was the one who approached a solo player as a solo player, and when I was spamming how I have stuff to give. That happened only once in the entire time I last played the game. All other times when other ships approached me it ended with being shot at.

And I think I can gauge myself as to what the intentions of the ships were. I was the one who got attacked by them after all.