Why can’t I enjoy the game without being jumped

every time I finish a fortress or literally just have a bounty skull onboard somebody in a bigger ship comes by and either pretends to be nice so they steal all my loot and kill me

Argue they are pirates...and you are somewhat at fault here.

half the time they just toss a firebomb up and scuttle their ship so they can come back and kill me again they don’t even take the loot

Water puts out the flames
I dont have a clue what scuttle has to do with coming back....sink them and they still will, since you proveb to be good fighter.
Not all loot is silver and gold.

I get that it’s a pirate game but I can’t even have another player on my ship because they always just take control and force me to do something other than I wanted to do so I’m always alone

Be open minded. OR open a Looking for group, saying what you "wanna do" and go from there. Frankly, you should be open to switch it up but that just me.
You could...Play Safer Seas.

there’s always a galleon sitting at the outpost or a brigantine that’s got nothing but cannon balls and time

Sneaky sneaky...you can be

@trb9524

A golden rule in this game is to never trust other players.
Also, PvP isn't toxic. Anyone can sink you at anytime for any reason in this game. Practice PvP so you can defend your ship from others. Loot isn't yours until you sell it.

If anyone is saying anything toxic to you, record and report.

@trb9524 Forts are designed to be points of conflict, or cooperation if you can arrange it with the crews in the area. In fact they were the FIRST and you should have seen it when that was the only server wide activity like it in the game - people would flood towards the glowing skull from all over the server to contest them. Alliances were formed & betrayed, multiple ships fighting over one point on the map.

Nothing toxic about people deceiving you into a false sense of security, or even just sinking you for no apparent reason - its just part of the game and the quicker you come to terms with that the better it will be for you. It can be aggravating at times, but not getting emotionally involved helps that as it is only a game and loot flows easily in the game (especially now). You just need to play differently when outmanned or outgunned, develop a stealthier approach and deal with acceptable losses. I've been playing solo sloop since the beginning and done so about 95% of my game play time. One I started caring less about what someone else was doing, my outlook improved as well as my gameplay & strategies.