Hi, I'm a relatively new player, only logging about 20-21 hours in the game, and most of which has been spent solo-slooping. I'm terrible at ship combat, especially by myself, so I usually avoid any altercations that may arise. I learned a couple of tricks for avoiding hostile players for sloops, the usual sail against the wind, that sorta thing. I also use the environment around me quite a bit to help avoid people like sailing into storms and fog. The last couple times I played though, I met with two ships that had a certain persistence that I could not shake.
The first time I encountered a questionable crew, I had been fishing with a friend by the Spoils of Plenty Store. After some time, I heard cannonfire, and noticed a Galleon on their way towards us after sinking another sloop in the area. We raised anchor and quickly began sailing into the wind, away from the Galleon. We had a good chase for about 20 minutes to half an hour, with at one point a Meg spawning and further raising the tension, but we managed to get away from them a couple times, with them finding us again shortly thereafter. We managed to get a real good slip on them, with them seemingly giving up and sailing away, so we made out way to an outpost, purposely avoiding the closest one so as to not be too predictable. As we were dropping anchor, I noticed the Galleon had found us again, and we scrambled to sell everything and wait to ambush them on the beach. We died very quickly, but we had a laugh for wasting their time, as we had nothing of value on us. I didn't think anything of it at the time, just thought they were really good trackers.
The second time was a lot more suspicious. I was minding my business when a ship in red appeared on the map. I made an effort to keep away but they managed to find me and I was sunk. I had nothing on me, so I wasn't too worried, I just picked up somewhere else and went about my business. I was in the middle of killing some skeletons when I decided to check my map again to make sure the galleon kept away, but it was making a B-line for me. I hadn't had my anchor dropped in case this happened, so I sailed against the wind again. The galleon was hot on my tail for a while, and I managed to get out of eyesight. I turned off my lanterns on my ship and hoped that the wind would take me away from the edge. Checking the map, the galleon appeared to be moving to cut me off, so I tried a hand brake turn and moved the other way with the wind. I knew it was risky, what with the wind coming from behind us now, but I wanted to see if it would shake them. I moved south west, deeper into the fog and hoped they wouldn't be able to find me again. I set myself on a course for an island I had business on, but checked the map, and the galleon had once again homed in on my position, making a B-line for me. I tried to lose them around some rocks and tried to make it into the wind, but once again I was harpooned and firebombed. I jumped ship and swam underneath them to hear one of them say "Wow, they really had nothing, huh?" I only had a single bounty skull, so I was happy to have wasted their time at the very least. I clung to their ladder to listen in a bit more, and then another person aboard asked "Is there anyone else nearby?" That was the first time I honestly wondered if they had some sort of Ship ESP or something of that sort. They then took notice of the mermaid still being in the area, and began to search for me. I was found and I jumped into the water, only to get gunned down.
It should be noted that I had a white flag raised the first time around with my friend, but the second time I was solo and not flying any flags. Are these galleons just employing some crazy good tracking tactics, or is there a chance they were cheating? Any advice on how I should deal with these kind of players in the future? Thanks!