Ok so, from my experience in Sea of Thieves. And this has been my experience since day 1, and its only gotten worse. The only players seeking out to sink other players on high seas, are your pvp mlg sweats who double gun. Board and spawn camp ect. There is very little actual naval combat going on, since the majority of the sweats can just board and make the fight take 1/10 the time. There is really no reason to have a drawn out naval battle.
The whole point of having ship combat, is to enjoy the ship combat. Not to abuse the jump spam, and jump around like its mario brothers and sink people randomly. Even if they have no loot, or just say a level 2 merchant flag at a seapost because you can. And then taunting them to git gud.
The general theme of this game is good. But the toxic nature of losing hours of your work. Just makes many people rage quit. It took a long time to realize that many people, dont want to lose hours of progress with literally nothing to show for it. And release safer seas. Which has such harsh restrictions on it, even with the buff, that its basically not worth doing if you actually want to progress in the game.
There is 2 types of players on the high seas, that make up like 99% of the playerbase. You have your mlg sweatlords, who want to sink everything and be as toxic as possible. And your casual players who want to progress and play the game, and run from every sail in the distance. In all my time playing the game. I have only twice been in situations where it was actually competitive fights. Every other time, its the marauders who just board, and destroy my entire crew over and over. Including my buddy who is elite at games, and is top 1% and former mlg competitor in cod.
If SBMM isnt a thing, it needs to be. If it is, then it needs some serious work. If there isnt enough players to feed to the mega sweatlords, you need to make safer seas a way for people to enjoy the whole game.
As long as the games been out, the mega sweatlords have slowly and methodically hunted themselves to where there is nobody left but them, and people who solo or always run away. I like the danger of never knowing if someone wants to fight, but not that if they want to fight. They're probably mega sweatlords who are going to destroy me. And im not average at games either, im actually quite good. I dont get why this game has so many mega sweats, but many of the people who enjoy the game. Who always choose to run now because we've learned just how unbalanced the matchmaking is. Would like to be able to enjoy the game at times, and have competitive fights with people.
I get that its meant to be a pvpve game. And i enjoy the danger of never knowing if someone wants to fight. But here is the big problem. The only people who want to fight, are the toxic sweatlords. Everyone else has learned to run away from others. And the matchmaking based on skill, seems to be non existent, or the game has only sweats and runners left. I dont see any in between in this game. And trying to solo, or duo. Eventually you always run into a brig that sinks you just because you exist. And its like playing against a world champion at the game, pretty much every time they seek out to fight.
If you cant make safer seas without restrictions, by maybe buffing pve difficulty to compensate and keep the danger presence a thing. Then please fix the matchmaking and stop pairing normal gamers up against mega sweatlords. And if the game has that many mega sweats. Then just make safer seas a place where people can play the game and reduce the emissary values for the leaderboards to compensate. But still allow them to play the game. Im no stranger to pvp, but the way this game is, it just feels like im being thrown up against the best in the world all the time. Because thats the only people left who actually want to fight.
There is literally NO reason for people to be on the same server as me, who is a fresh pirate legend now cause i rage quit multiple times. Who are pvp junkies, hundreds of levels in on factions, and only care about getting into pvp. Fix the matchmaking please. Stop feeding normal gamers, and newer players, to these hardcores. Or, make safer seas a way to enjoy the game pve style.
Thats all, rant over. I love and hate the game. And it could be so much better. Theres good reason in all these years it hasnt changed a whole lot. And if you think to yourself, "The game is healthy" Think about this. Battlefield 2042 has more players, by almost 3x on steamdb at the time of writing. If it was healthy, a game that flopped harder than my grandma walking on black ice wouldnt be outdoing it. I see far too many montages of 1 guy sinking brigs, and soloing whole crews over and over and stealing their fotd loot. To believe that they care who they throw together to fight. Eventually, people get tired of losing if the only people left are your hardcore players. PVP is only rewardingly fun, when you are winning.
Alright, iv said my peace now. Im sure the sweats will comment their git guds, and tell me how wrong I am for having a different experience than them. Because well, they're probably young and extremely skilled and grew up living and breathing try hard pvp shooters. And people who will defend the premise of this game, by saying its risk reward, ignoring the fact that if what i talked about wasnt a problem. The game would be healthier.
Its such a huge time investment of a game, that keeping the pvp relatively competitive and not lopsided is a must. Otherwise people are just going to realize just how outmatched they are at every turn. And learn to just pve and run away, or just not play. Many have chosen the latter. Because the game isnt near as enjoyable in just pve alone. But people get real tired of losing to your hardcore players.
