New players being slaughtered on first game.

  • Craftin248
    Marauder
    Insider

    So me and a friend were introducing a buddy to the sea, for the first time, ever. We were showing him the ins and outs of stocking a ship and collecting resources. I was keeping an eye on a brig nearby and lo and behold they came after us. Me and my more experienced crewmate got us off the island and moving and the brig followed. I got aboard and let em know we were getting a new friend on the sea who had to that point not 20 minutes of playtime. You can guess how that went. One sunken ship and a transfer of 0 loot later I'm unsure if my buddy will even play again after such an awful first experience.

    Unfortunately this isn't the first I've seen this sort of thing happen. My very own brother's first game went about the same. Way back when the tutorial was just a gold hoarder voyage on the outpost my brother was dead and sunk before leaving the tavern for the first time. I've even found new players doing the older tutorials on the outposts before.

    With this being this common I really feel as if something should be done to allow new players to "merge" into the sea, rather than be tossed head long into a battle with some level 20 legends. I'd like to hear yall's thoughts on the matter and any ideas you might have to help make the experience for new players better for their first game, without interfering with the established players.

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  • shifty189
    Marauder

    @craftin248
    did your friend do the "maiden voyage" first? this is a sad situation, but i think its a good learning experience! your friend should now know people will kill and sink him with absolutely no reason at all. After i learned this lesson the game changed a lot for me (for the better).

    I'm sorry if this isn't exactly what you wanted to hear, but i don't really know what else can be said.

  • Legendary Liz
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Moderator
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @craftin248 Ahoy! New players are encouraged to do the Maiden Voyage to get used to the mechanics of the game, but this doesn't really prepare them completely.
    Keeping one eye on the horizon at all time is a must. There will be good times and bad times on the sea of thieves as each play session will be completely different from the last. Tell your matey not to give up, take the good with the bad and as s/he becomes more proficient will be able to successfully fight back or sail away without loss. It can be a steep learning curve but worth keeping at it in the long run.

    There's also The Pirate Academy players guide to read through for hints and tips.

  • GrumpyW01f
    Legend
    Insider

    @craftin248 It's not as common as you think. Your friends just got bad RNG.

    My question is, why did you think the other crew would care that one of your players is new?

    When you start out, you've got to learn the ropes (in some ways, literally) and so you end up spending a lot of time on an outpost.
    If I'm trying to get to an outpost and I see a ship sitting there, it is my (and most other pirates') policy to destroy the ship at the outpost I'm going to. I just can't trust a random ship while I'm selling loot! I don't care if all the crewmembers are noobs, they have to run or die. That's not your exact scenario, but it still shows the mindset of those trying to go to an outpost.
    And then you acted as if you still had loot, and a hostile action of boarding. Of course you were going to get sunk, even to take supplies.

    You shouldn't have trusted the other ship to be buddy buddy with you just because one of you is new. You should have saved yourself the time and trouble and just went to a new server.

    I'm unsure if my buddy will even play again after such an awful first experience.

    I doubt that getting sunk is that bad for a new player. They don't even know what any of it means yet! It's more likely that you made such a big deal out of something you could have easily escaped from and it rubbed off on them (as negativity tends to do).

    Try to get your friend to get back into it so they can see what the game has to offer.

  • OtherFanboy
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    Yea sadly for new players it can be rough the first time you play .... it’s impossible to tell who’s new to the game or if they have loot and from my experience it doesn’t usually mater if your new or not just gotta look at it as just another risk in the game...also if on an aggressive server switch servers

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    This is a game where we all get slaughtered at some point our entire pirate careers

    Losing fights never stops. Might as well make peace with it early so you can deal with it more productively later

    Making it easier for beginners just sets people up to fail and gives them unrealistic expectations. Take the pain in the beginning and adapt to the reality of the environment then people can move up the food chain.

    Build that tolerance early. Get desensitized to loss. Then it just becomes factored into success and doesn't prevent it.

  • shifty189
    Marauder

    great replys here. I'll add my experience here as well. My friend bought me this game as a birthday present. I played it for weeks before we got to play together, so much so that i learned more or less what the game is and is about before we got to play.

    Once we did get to play together, we got a few hours in and a decent loot haul on board before another ship came by and sunk us. My friend was SO mad. He started yelling at them and calling them names. I simply told the other crew "GG, we'll get you next time"

    My friend didn't know what to say to me as we play a lot of games together, and never has he heard me act so casual about loosing a fight. I had to explain to him that the victories aren't as sweet if you have never known the bitter taste of defeat, and calling the victor names only brings yourself down in this game.

    Since that first shared voyage, the both of us have had the same great attitude about wins and losses. We just enjoy the voyage not the (meaningless) loot.

  • Ishtaar1357
    Master
    Insider

    As our ship is sinking to the locker on my friends first voyage my response is usually " aaaaand welcome to Sea of Thieves."

    We laugh and continue on. The biggest thing I tell my new friends is "don't get attached to loot, it may only be temporarily yours."

    no amount of merging will work; you're only going to get your "sea legs" by being out on the seas getting sunk over and over again until you start sinking other people.

    I've been playing for a year now and I'm barely breaking 50/50 in my ship battles; but I've seen stark improvement since when I first started.

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    The greatest weapon in your arsenal is by going to youtube and searching for

    Rocky IV - " No Easy Way Out " by Robert Tepper

    and playing it loudly and confidently

    It's so effective I'm surprised it hasn't been banned for being performance enhancing

  • Craftin248
    Marauder
    Insider

    Lots of good replies! I want to clarify that my buddy did do the Maiden voyage, that was what most of his 20 minutes were made of. It is good for my friend to understand that the sea is unforgiving and he will sink often. But like shifty189 said, it isn't about the wins or losses, nor the loot, the fun is in the voyage. However, the issue is we didn't get to experience the voyage either. While experiencing pvp early is good to understand that the loot won't belong to you forever, I still feel there should be a way for new players to get a better understanding of the game than what the current tutorial provides. They can't be vigilant for ships if they don't know what it means to do so.
    We ended up finding a new server after grabbing some food and had a whale of a time harpooning the ship up the tallest of rocks. I think my buddy will still be good for some more time on the sea.

  • BurnBacon
    Vanguard
    Insider

    So. if I want people to leave me alone...
    all I must do is tell the enemy ships "Im new/My friend is new" and they should leave me alone.

    In the end, Im a pirate who Lied.

  • double D 343
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    No different than entering with no experience in any other pvp game. Learn to adapt or stick with single player

  • CotU42
    Lord
    Insider

    @craftin248

    In the end we are all thrown into the deep... nothing will beat the chance to sail under a more veteran captain. It is not saying that the new player experience cannot be improved, but you are your friends best chance of learning the game and set their expectations.

  • StraaandviG4309
    Castaway
    Insider

    While I'm perfectly aware that "it's a pirate game, you should expect hostility", having 5 hours of progress ruined by a full galleon crew "because we could make like 2k gold off of you" is just demoralising and leaves a real bad impression on newer players like myself. The ability to have solo sessions would improve the experience for newer players drastically imo

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    @straaandvig4309 said in New players being slaughtered on first game.:

    While I'm perfectly aware that "it's a pirate game, you should expect hostility", having 5 hours of progress ruined by a full galleon crew "because we could make like 2k gold off of you" is just demoralising and leaves a real bad impression on newer players like myself. The ability to have solo sessions would improve the experience for newer players drastically imo

    Pvers that can't handle a loss should NEVER stack loot

    Sell every 15-20 minutes. There is no reason not to as a pver that values loot. Outposts are all over.

    There is no excuse for stacking loot new or not new. It's never been safe to hold on to something someone can steal in the history of gaming. If it happens once never let it happen again and the problem is solved.

    New players aren't carrying anything they won't replace a million times over anyway eventually. Gold is easy to get and loot is easy to lose. Accepting both as fact makes life easier on the seas.

  • StraaandviG4309
    Castaway
    Insider

    @wolfmanbush I do that (selling after every trip), thing is, the wayfinder voyages don't just let you save when you have the key, otherwise I would've done that as soon as I found it.

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    @straaandvig4309 said in New players being slaughtered on first game.:

    @wolfmanbush I do that (selling after every trip), thing is, the wayfinder voyages don't just let you save when you have the key, otherwise I would've done that as soon as I found it.

    If you ever want help and have an open spot let me know and I'll help you with the vault or watch your ship

    After you have the key if the seas get hot just sell the key. You can always fly by an outpost and sell it. Better than losing it.

  • StraaandviG4309
    Castaway
    Insider

    @wolfmanbush I would have if I didn't have to try to escape for over an hour, it seems people are very desperate to just be a nuisance

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    @straaandvig4309 said in New players being slaughtered on first game.:

    @wolfmanbush I would have if I didn't have to try to escape for over an hour, it seems people are very desperate to just be a nuisance

    only takes a couple minutes to sail into an outpost jump off with the key and sell it

    If you can survive an hour running you can crash into the gold tent and bounce the server

  • StraaandviG4309
    Castaway
    Insider

    @wolfmanbush I probably could have, but as a new player not knowing that, I'm sure you can see where the frustration comes from. I hope you agree that the game doesn't do a fantastic job of teaching new players the ropes, you really have to have a friend who knows how to play

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    @straaandvig4309

    @wolfmanbush I probably could have, but as a new player not knowing that, I'm sure you can see where the frustration comes from. I hope you agree that the game doesn't do a fantastic job of teaching new players the ropes, you really have to have a friend who knows how to play

    I've never had a regular crew of any kind. I've only played solo and open crew. It's an uphill battle every time I play because I'm either always outgunned or I have a random group of people where we haven't played together at all before so there is no established chemistry or coordination and some of them literally are first day players and the more skilled people are usually there because nobody wants to be around them for personality reasons.

    That's why I'm always telling people they can do it because I do it all the time. I did it then I do it now.

    It's tough out there and it's always tough when you don't have 1-3 people always watching your back and performing well as a well maintained crew.

    but if you stick with it you'll do pretty much everything that you set out to do. Maybe it takes a while but it'll get done eventually.

    I still get spawn camped sometimes. I still sink plenty of times. I still make mistakes. I still get dunked on by bad luck. I still lose a lot of loot from time to time. Unless a person is a part of a seriously skilled and coordinated crew this happens to ALL of us still. Just like when we were new. Since it never stops people might as well adapt to it right out the gate.

    The thing about a food chain is that no matter where you reside on it getting eaten feels the same. Whether you're a first day guppie getting gobbled up or a lionfish getting torn apart we are all equals in the end

  • shifty189
    Marauder

    @straaandvig4309 said in New players being slaughtered on first game.:

    While I'm perfectly aware that "it's a pirate game, you should expect hostility", having 5 hours of progress ruined by a full galleon crew "because we could make like 2k gold off of you" is just demoralising and leaves a real bad impression on newer players like myself. The ability to have solo sessions would improve the experience for newer players drastically imo

    This is the problem. Never think of it as time waisted. If you don’t have fun in that 5 hours before sinking, this might not be the rite game. I hear what your saying, but it is what it is, and that isn’t for everyone.

  • Ishtaar1357
    Master
    Insider

    @straaandvig4309 said in New players being slaughtered on first game.:

    While I'm perfectly aware that "it's a pirate game, you should expect hostility", having 5 hours of progress ruined by a full galleon crew "because we could make like 2k gold off of you" is just demoralising and leaves a real bad impression on newer players like myself. The ability to have solo sessions would improve the experience for newer players drastically imo

    It's been said multiple times above but it's only time wasted if you let that be you're final thought on it.

    some ideas that may help...

    My Crewmate and I constantly scan the horizon and map table during game play. Calculating what other players are doing and how they're approaching us. If we see reapers on the board we calculate how fast they're ranking up and what region they're operating in compared to us.

    If we deem them a threat we dump loot and depending on how nice we're feeling keep or drop flag and then go take the reaper out. If we sink, hurray! we made the right decision in selling our loot. If we sink them hurray! free Reaper flag and whatever loot they also had on board.

    After awhile you're going to care less about losing loot; but until then, keep an eye on the map and sell if you're worried about losing it.

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