How can we communicate (as an Advice or a Guide) to players who want private/Pve Servers? [Meta thread?]

  • I still see constant threads about complaints on Pirates that attacked them, harassed them (But in a totally acceptable way and not toxic), or generally disrupting their PvE gameplay. Their complaint is aimed at a core part of the game, and because of their annoyance towards these encounters, they also then do not understand what makes the game so good.

    The simple aspect of having to look over the horison in order to gauge any amount of danger when doing whatever it is you want to be doing, is only one of the things that shakes up the Adventure in this game. And when a player starts to become comfortable with this, the player starts to manipulate and relax more and have more fun, even in failure.


    When these players show up and voice their opinions, we greet them with maybe some patronizing remarks about how they should not be playing this game. I agree that the complaint is going against what the game is, but I do not agree that they should stop playing. Rare does cater to even these casuals, and so we see constantly methods and influences of which that eases disruptive behaviors such as attracting PVP'ers to the Arena. Or looters to the Skull forts. Or rewarding being an ally (Alliance).


    My question is...

    How do we effectively communicate something to inspire these players into playing the game with these aspects of dangers in mind? I always think about a nice and soft but long video, that advertises and shows the appeal of these kinds of dangers in Adventure mode. However, it should also show that sinking and loosing all treasure is OK, and how it is OK to switch servers when they feel like it.

    A lot of people think jumping in that they need to get something done, and progress as much as possible, but in reality, you just have to play, and in Sea of Thieves, anything can happen.

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  • @crafek

    My question is...

    How do we effectively communicate something to inspire these players into playing the game with these aspects of dangers in mind? I always think about a nice and soft but long video, that advertises and shows the appeal of these kinds of dangers in Adventure mode. However, it should also show that sinking and loosing all treasure is OK, and how it is OK to switch servers when they feel like it.

    I've got a cynical approach to this, and that is that their is no convincing these people. The kind of people who bought this game for the simple farming, either ignored the description of the game, or simple didn't care to believe it. Now they have this game that isn't meeting their expectations, and they are trying to campaign it into something different. They never had intentions on engaging with potential confrontational Pirates to begin with, they seem to not have any plans to change that. Evidence of this is the myriad of near identical post of calling every time they sink griefing and harassment. Even when they had loot and stuff to lose, but even if they didn't have loot, they would still call it griefing. They interpret every attack as a personal attack, their is no words or campaign that will change that attitude.

  • @nabberwar I do believe these people exist, but I also believe that they have to sort of convince themselves. They are simply stuck on a Kneejerk reaction of negativity. They sort of have to witness for themselves why these aspects make for fun gameplay. Either by powering through it, finding confidence in the difficulty or seeing/be told of how to play properly.

    So like, they shouldnt be complaining. Instead, they should be asking of how to do deal with X or Y. And, in a way, we can do better by seeing through their frustrated complaints and ask them like an IT employer "So what is it you need help with?".


    Small story:

    I play a lot of fighting games, my friend does not. He sucks at it and plays them incorrectly. However, he happened to change his opinions about his likeness for fighting games when he liked the theme for one. Ok, so a fighting game that hooked him.

    So I started to teach him the basics, which is hard because there is a lot of restraint needed in order to perform well in a fighting game. Anyway. I started lecturing him about what is best to do, be patient and use few attacks as fundamentally as possible, and not just press buttons. Suddenly, we started to fight. He now started to make plays where hes trying to play around my gameplay, and started to do stuff that I had to be cautious of. He still could not beat me, but he was no longer playing any game, he was playing a fighting game.


  • @crafek
    I don't tell them to stop playing, but I do tell them why their idea is bad for the game. I ignore at least half of those threads though.

  • @crafek As one of those pve players that really enjoys the progress of achievements and has a hard time with the pvp element of the game, I think this is the perfect topic for gamers like myself. I have recently been looking up more threads about how to play the game more proficiently/strategies to keep my loot safe and overall make the game more enjoyable for myself.

    I recently wrote a post about how difficult the pvp element is for me and how it really makes it difficult to accomplish my goals.

    (https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/92067/personal-feedback-and-possible-suggestion)

    So now I'm looking for ways to keep the game alive for me. I know I'm a particular case (I'm a PTSD Soldier, stress can be overwhelming at times) but I think that with the right strategies I can still enjoy the game and I really don't want to give up on it.

  • @warrior576 Oh man, you do make a good topic. If I were to write or record a guide, I would want to have people who try to avoid pvp in mind.

    [Long post, woops]

    I honestly do believe that Sea of Thieves still has this conflicting issue between playing to accomplish and playing to play (and just have an adventure). They have this bilge rat character that emphasizes to go and have an adventure, yet he still hands out objectives to be done before the timer runs out.

    Yet, there is a learning process that can be appreciated towards pvp situations. I was doing the "Reapers mark" challenge in completing voyages, the fastest was the Merchant animal voyages. I had to pick up chickens and deliver them, but this voyage turned into a 2 and a half hour Voyage due to a Sloop, Brigantine and then another sloop. I had the most fun and this was all solo-slooping. Simply being able to fend them off (And then re-require chickens cus they died, and then learning to place them in the crows nest) gave me what was seemingly just 1 voyage grind, into a battle for the chickens.

    And that! Is what im trying to get to the bottom of, communicating exactly how one can appreciate the game for what it is, and how those PVP elements shake up the rest of the game. I accepted eventual defeat when seeing the brigantine. But with the absence of pvp, I do believe people will notice sea of thieve's shortcomings a lot sooner. Servers with many alliances feel good because of the progress and chance that it took to finally be alliances with so many ships. A day playing like that is enough, but if you would expect to have a server wide alliance, then it is predictable and taken for granted.


    Finding the sweet spot of teaching players about how to play around pvp is really hard to pinpoint. For now, all I can say is "Learn to defend yourself". But there is a whole lot of detail and experience that comes with that.

  • @crafek I've played a few sessions since I've posted last and I've tried a couple of strategies that have helped me enjoy my time in game even after being sunk by a pair of players in a brig that just cussed me out the whole time.

    Strategy #1: Have goals that other players have little impact on. If I am going into the game expecting to get a goldhoarder voyage, solve it, find the treasure(s), and sail back to turn it in without possibly coming against some sort of opposition then I am setting myself up for frustration. Instead I focused on just accomplishing the voyage (finding the chest so that the map or riddle disappears) and consider turning anything in a bonus on top of completing a voyage which works towards rep and titles. Shifting my goals to something broader and allowing for player interaction, positive or negative, helps me be able to make some progress and continue playing.

    Strategy #2: I'm a solo slooper mostly because it's hard to match schedules with my friends that play so I need to come up with strategies that help me progress in spite of hostile player interactions. Aside from defeating an enemy in combat (which I'm not good at yet) I've found that a drive by method works well at outposts when being pursued. I ultimately crashed the last time I had to try this but I was able to get all but one chest turned in while being chased by a brig. Just aim your ship in a direction towards open seas while passing near enough to an outpost to jump and turn in your loot, then use the mermaid to get back to your ship and loop back around or sail on to another outpost and do it again. If you stay out of reach they can't sink you and you still get to turn your stuff in without conflict. Turn in enough so that you are satisfied with possible losses and either turn and fight for the practice, or scuttle and begin working in another part of the map.

    A larger side goal that I will need a lot more practice with is to just know what to do in a battle. Each game has their flow and dance with attacks and countermeasures and while that is not the way I prefer to play it would be silly to not at least work on that skill if I'm planning to continue playing SoT.

    I have also learned that the way to handle players that are just foul and cuss and curse for no reason is to report them to Microsoft or Rare and let them decide what to do with them. These people are out there and it's a real shame, but I don't want to mute other crews because after I got sunk by them I met a great pair of people that were friendly and gave me some great pointers. That was very exciting and I hope I get to meet more people like that.

  • @warrior576 Well, if we are going to talk strategies, I have this one that fits my bill atleast.

    [https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/92329/pvp-ship-tactics-and-the-defensive-offensive-priorities].

  • @Crafek
    Ask yourself what it needs to convince you from the opposite of you personal position and you get the answer vice versa.

    I agree all about the PvEvP concept (i put the E before the P extra :-)
    And to me personally it would not neccessarily need a PvE mode, but i support private servers to setup as you like to create scenery, modes, whatever you can imagine including PvE Servers.

    There is only one valid argument against it, but it does not convince me because i believe Rare that the playerbase is healthy and of good amount.
    But even if not i personally would risk this aproach to get more customers who just cannot deal with PvP and dislike it to the fullest for whatever reason.
    Nobody need to justify himself about this, i also don't need to justify why i dont like this or that game or game mode.
    First thing we need to consider is,
    If we say that the ...vP is the salt in the seas and the extra portion what makes it tense and not boring is completely personal.
    I can wholeheartedly see, understand and easily accept someone saying he's already challenged with the Ai threats.
    I'm an oldsql player and i know players of all ages, from 9 to 68.
    And i know players from all styles.
    Hardcore PK to PvE only, traders, explorers, achievers, lazy casuals and all mixed up and in between...

    I cannot see the fun in playing a Citybuiler or playing Football Manager or whatever Management game. If i see Excel Tables with fancy colors it's boring like hell to me. But who i am to judge this is a boring game. To me it is, to others it is the holy grail of gaming.

    So what we need to ask ourselves is, do we grant players with a different aproach to play the game to their likings and grant them a peace mode or at least give us/them the possibility to create servers for whatever reason.

    I imagine 3v3, 5 Galleons hunt 1 Brigg, Races, fun competitions with 23 friends from you crew Discord. PvE, PvP, no Ai, increased Ai and whatever you can imagine to setup.

    The best argument against it is that the Adventure mode becomes less and less participants and in the end there are not enough players to fill a couple of severs worldwide and you end up on empty servers or meet the same people all day.
    Same for xbox opt out for PC players i guess. But if Rare / Microsoft do this then they do it, because they trust in having enough players on both plattforms and in all modes.
    I dont know it and i allways treat official announcements what say:" all is fine, dont bother" with a little doubt and cautious.
    But in the end i want to stay positive and not paint the devil on the wall.

    So, if the playerbase in total is healthy and a good amount of it has valid concerns about the gamemode including PvP we can consider to offer and grant them what they want.
    In the end more options and ways to aproach the game means more participants and to all modes the right participants who like it like it is and don't get salty about things they dislike, but try to overcome all the time.
    Who is left in PvEvP mode if we have an Arena and PvE servers (or private Servers to setup as you like)???

    The players who love Adventure mode like it is.
    Count me in!!!

    The pool of possible participants will decrease if you add more modes of course.
    Already done with Arena and it would decrease further with private or PvE Servers, but the players left are the players who like it exactly like it is.
    And think of players who are happy playing the way they want and got motivated over time to try other modes as well.
    Maybe someone says: PvP full loot? Never ever! Start to play PvE, start to like it , starts to get better and understand that PvP in SoT is not comparable to generous PvP games.
    Many haven't played open sandbox PvP games with full loot where you mostly can see an aproaching opponent 2-5 minutes before he reaches you.
    What we actually have is a good gap of knowledge about the game and playerskill.
    I mean i remember myself being unable to find an island and park my ship without to sink myself at a fort for example XD
    This game is heavily about player knowledge about the environment and skill to deal with it.
    Not levels, not items, but your knowledge of your surrounding and how to use the tools you have to aproach and survive in the environment.

    So someone who played a lot in peace one day may feel good enough to give it a try and see what is it what all the others say is so important to SoT and why they think PvE only is boring as hell.

    Imho if we got one million more pure PvE players who completely refuse to play the game because of open PvP, there is at least a chance that a fraction of them and even if it's only 50.000 who will try Adventure mode or even Arena.
    To me this would in total be a benefit and no damage to the game or the community or the playerbase.

    So to answer the question again.
    What does it need to convince you to think over this and grant them what they wand instead of trying to persuade them from your personal opinion while you disrespect theirs?!

    If the game had only 500 players like some niche MMO i'd say no! dont split, but i believe we do good and have at minimum 500k players out there.
    So imho it would add and nit damage SoT in the end.
    More customers=more money.
    More money, more development,
    More development / content= longer lifespan.

    I can say since SoT i hardly play anything else.
    I can imagine to play this game for a couple of years for sure and i want it to endure and evolve.

  • @bugaboo-bill I often reply and react to your comments in these forums, smart sensible guy that makes a extremely valid argument majority the time, I see you have taken many of the real points to the pve side of the argument whilst actively being a PVPVE player which is refreshing all arguments are if or buts so it’s all people’s assumptions but I think this is the only post anyone need to see and I salute you for putting down a sensible considerate answer.

  • @itskingbertie
    So many nice words blush

    Thank you :-)

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