Why does everyone flee?

Ahoy there, @Natsu-v2 !

Please keep in mind that Rare has designed Sea of Thieves to have optional PvP. Basically, you can either engage or not when someone approaches you with hostile intent. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe the player ahead of you really doesn't have any interest in fighting? Food for thought.

Please keep in mind that not everyone is as thirsty to fight as you are and for them just exploring or engaging in PvE content is more than enough.

Be honest with me. If someone told you that they had no loot, you'd just turn around and sail away? Let's be honest here, you'd never trust that and just go ahead and chase them no matter what.

@eredhar But if their goal is to continue doing PvE, they could get back to that sooner by giving up.

And of course I wouldn't believe them if they say they have no loot. But if they scuttle and let me see that they had nothing, I won't bother their next ship. They would save more time by doing that and coming back to where they need to go than by running forever.

The game also is not optional PvP. There is simply nothing you can do to stop a skilled crew from catching up to you. It will happen. It may take up to an hour, but you will get caught and anchored. That isn't optional PvP. In fact, the chase itself would be considered PvP, so once that has started then you're in it.

@natsu-v2
Let's say, for argument's sake, that you're chasing me. You want me to scuttle my ship so that you can see that I don't have any loot? Please tell me you see how absurd that is. I don't believe it for a second that you won't come after me, let's say 30 minutes later, when you'd know i would have loot. You don't want to waste time chasing me? Well, switch target. Go chase another ship. You do realize that by what you said, you'd be forcing me to play Sea of Thieves how you want it and not how i see fit.

Regarding your second statement, i don't think that you can catch up with someone who's also skilled. If me and my crew want to run away from a fight, i wholeheartedly believe that you won't catch us.

Your concept of PvP engagement differs from mine. While you consider that PvP starts from the moment a chase ensues, for me a PvP starts when the two parties engage in active combat.

@eredhar I do actually switch targets if you brush past a more lucrative one, but occasionally I will be frustrated to the point where I might attempt to ally with them to help kill you repeatedly. I might attack you again if you scuttle and come back and I have seen that you haven't cashed in for a long time. But if you scuttle and go to a different part of the world and start questing there, then you won't have to worry about me.

Also, you can obviously run away from a fight, but you legitimately can't run away to the point that your pursuer completely loses you. That basically won't happen unless they get hit by a kraken or you happen to get really lucky with a storm placement that allows you to break out of the storm in a multitude of different ways to break line of sight.

No matter how fast you are you would have to break into one of the other three seas and make them lose draw distance on you for a couple minutes before you can truly say you've escaped.

@nikjw I agree with you. Everyone has different play styles and to force someone to play how you want, is not going to work.

Furthermore, @Natsu-v2 , i wouldn't suggest to underestimate other crews, for they can be more knowledged in the game than you. You will definitely stumble upon some crews that can outsmart, outrun and outmaneuver you. If someone knows their ship and the seas, trust me you'll eventually look at them from afar. #youmaynotbethebestoutontheseas

@nikjw I actually didn't even think about running being fun for some players. Even when I run, I kind of do it in a hit and run, stick and move fashion as if I'm fighting while backpedaling. To just only run away for fun hasn't occurred to me because I would take every opportunity to try and get better at outright killing so I wouldn't ever need to run.

But I still don't get why someone would run away for hours and then complain about the pursuer wasting their time.

Because some people don't want to pvp and want to be left alone.

I haven't played in awhile but I got tired of pvp and when a ship attacked I just scuttled. Wasn't worth the time and effort.

I just want to dig up treasure and kill skeletons. This game really needs a pve mode.

Well, I have better things to do with my time than offer it to you for your own idea of fun... you'll chase me on my terms :)

@natsu-v2 said in Why does everyone flee?:

@eredhar But if their goal is to continue doing PvE, they could get back to that sooner by giving up.

And of course I wouldn't believe them if they say they have no loot. But if they scuttle and let me see that they had nothing, I won't bother their next ship. They would save more time by doing that and coming back to where they need to go than by running forever.

The game also is not optional PvP. There is simply nothing you can do to stop a skilled crew from catching up to you. It will happen. It may take up to an hour, but you will get caught and anchored. That isn't optional PvP. In fact, the chase itself would be considered PvP, so once that has started then you're in it.

I will waste every ounce of your time and drain every will you have to play before I pull over with even an empty sloop.

I choose to make your PvP optional.

Come get me, pirate!

I dont think natsu ever mentioned that different playstyles arent allowed to exist or that they have to play in a way that makes sense to him.

He is describing oximoronic gameplay for what is supposedley a pirate game, with pve literally only providing loot for cosmetics to cater to social interaction, and pvp being a core ideal of that design with items being stealable before that gold is banked, i mean the gold still has no purpose other than these cosmetics, and i would say someone actively running away in this game for no reason than to upset the chasers with no care for your ship or victory at anything other than mindlessly farming loot for pointless gold, is more trolling and illogical than what most describe as griefing in this pirate game with no safe zones called Sea of Thieves.

Arena is a godsend for pvp players that is one thing we can all agree on im sure.

And like someone said, its clearly a pride thing for a lot of people, same way it is for us, we just arent proud of being cowardly for the sake of not being sunk piloting a valueless ship.

My post is long to but no actual tangible point has refuted the lack of logic described by the OP of running players except for maybe new players and sloops, but like he said since launch its like every ship i see is completely oblivious to the game around them or they run, with maybe 10-15% people who attack at all.

One valid point in the thread is that man cannons and sword surfing and the inability to raise ladders or have other variables makes ship sinking more about guarding holes on enemy ships that naval tactic. Maybe if this was changed players wouldnt run all the time.

Arena and no more double gunning will likely increase the amount of ship combat because everyone will have a place to practice before fighting in adventure mode, and wont be one shot from 30 feet away, just to lose all their loot.

Man, strategy. You know how many times we have sunk a ship because they followed us in a straight line. Have 1 guy jump off with a barrel, one guy hang on the ladder until it explodes. It's easy pickens.

Someone's we lure them into an island structure. My captain has sailed for 500+ hours. He can make insane turns that the average player just can not do. They crash, and we board for the sink.

Outside of strategy of baiting, we will run if we have a ton of treasure, but we will do outpost drive bys. Its extremely rare, extremely rare for a ship to catch us when we do this.

@ghostpaw said in Why does everyone flee?:

If you are out for gold and not just straight up PvP then you have to evaluate how you spend your time. If you spend an hour chasing someone, you have to weigh that time spent against other activities you could have been doing instead. Could you have been working on a fort? Did you pass up shipwrecks? How many skulls could you have turned in during that hour? The longer you stick on someone, the more you are betting they have enough to make it worth your time. And it will take more and more to justify it. This is why it is frustrating to you when you find they had nothing on board. You wasted a lot of opportunities along the way as you went all in on the ship leading you around by the nose. There is a point during the journey where your pride kicks in and you won’t let go, even though you know the ship ahead is probably not worth all this time.

On the other hand, if you are just looking for PvP then it is a different story. The gold is not the goal. You just want a challenge and the chase might make more sense. But that is not what the OP was about. They said they were looking for lucrative targets.

I would disagree that his post is about lucrative targets, i play with the OP often and its more about how this game needs to eliminate pointless gameplay that exist with no real design encouraging or making the tactic of specifically running with no loot have any point or benefit, which is as we agreed partially pride based on both ends, but is fun for neither, the point of playing a video game. And then someone said they enjoy it just to waste the other crews time like that itself is their fun in the game, as opposed to the gaining of loot being fun when you sink a crew, which does stink for that crew, but it is just kind of ironic that people feel piracy in a pirate game is griefing and would rather just turtle the whole experience for everyone for no actual reason such as having loot,which is more griefing imk than killing a crew multiple times to steal resources, or loot without sinking them, or stowing away to then kill them for hours of work. That is call pirate tactic. Joining a pirate game to not even battle or apparently do much pve but to sail away for hours is like me playing minecraft and just running around burning peoples structures, sure it is allowed on some servers and may have a place at times, but it is the exact opposite of the intent of gameplay for the co op building survival rpg that minecraft is. Attacking and playing pirate in SoT is like building things in that game.

No amount of empty words about inclusivity will change a pirate game from being a pirate game, and if rare didnt want pirate tactics and behavior at the forefront they should have made a game about co op adventuring and had actual in game mechanics enforcing less pvp. As is they designed a game world for pvp and a reward system for roleplayers, i understand why these players might run, i dont understand why anyone would make a pirate game and then try to sell the game to these players rather than players who would embrace piracy more.

The post about tactical manuevers is not what the OP was talking about. I wish crews would try that stuff on us, havnt seen anything like that since alpha and cant wait for arena lol.

I guess the goal is to have fun, is my point, with pve lacking in that and serving only to increase the fun of pvp. If you have no loot, fight and have some fun win or lose, if you have loot, run if you want but fighting defensively is usually more engaging than standing there changing sails for an hour. Losing your loot isnt fun, and if hours of running gets you your loot go for it, but the game as is shouldnt encourage running and never having loot as much as it does now.

A faction system with higher player populations would allow running to be viable and not make the server feel empty if even 2 ships decide to run.

@v-hombre said in Why does everyone flee?:

@a-cranky-eskimo said in Why does everyone flee?:

we just arent proud of being cowardly for the sake of not being sunk piloting a valueless ship.

Hey, don't diss cowardice, my dude.

It was an integral trait for more than a few pirates.

Living to fight another day to protect something is different than living to run everyday to protect something that spawns back with more resources though lol.

I hear you guys and people can play how they want and if thats fun who are we to say, but for this pirate game its kind of pointless and time consuming for not much of a reason besides like we all said, pride. Hence my comment about cowardice which isnt directed at anyone, except myself and how i choose not to play.

I just dont think its something to be proud of to run away at first sight of a ship unless you actually did pull some manuvering genius or something.

Again, arena here we come lol.

@ghostpaw said in Why does everyone flee?:

@a-cranky-eskimo Thier entire post was about following because they were sure the ship ahead must have something. That they would go away to find more promising targets if the could be convinced the ship is empty. If it is about the fight, how many fights could you get into by leaving the runner alone to find a more willing target rather than chasing them for an hour? Either way, whatever your goal, you have to weigh your options to find the one with the greater benefit (whatever that is to you).

We do all the things you stated, if we can but when you switch target and everyone just runs before you’ve even sunk anyone on the server its all just wasted time to pvp in a pirate game, sure maybe the roll of the dice offsets the consistency of pve rewards.

He was saying he was sure the ship had something because why else would they run so frantically without any sign of hostility, because the only reason someone has to do that based on the game is their loot or even empty ship with an athena quest going, or just a sloop running because of a rowboat and some 2 by fours and some nanners they collected.

We get that will happen, but these are usually the few crews that actually engage in a parley or battle.

The ones that run forever never seem to have a reason to lol...

Maybe bad luck lately and an influx of new players because of the recent streaming numbers? Seems to have been like this for a little while now though and even happens with PL ships far more than it should imo lol.

This is where some sort of system that moves crews to new servers as they are sunk within certain parameters could be useful, so that crews are more willing to engage rather than expect multiple waves of attack from the same crew with freshly spawned and supplied ships.

And again, arena here we come.