Average SoT Player Perspective

I manage fine on duo sloop using text chat. I prefer it over party chat sometimes.

@pathet1c2152 I prefer to have a line of communication with the players I play with. If you can text out what is going on I can work around it. Voice goes a long ways with me but I have had games where I have been in a crew that didn't speak and we did just ok.

@pathet1c2152 the ingame chat wheel is not very good at all. its usually hard to tell what they are saying. as in i will have to be like do you mean? do you want? say yeah for this and nay for that? and thats the best communication we can get. if a fight goes down i will have no idea, because they will be too busy fighting, and may only spam one thing. i have no idea if they can handle it on their own, if they are doing something succesfully, and stratagy or plans they have. if someone is coming. in competetive gamemodes or serious gameplay it is just much better to have someone with a microphone. otherwise you really are better off without them, that way you feel no need to rely on them. if you know what i mean. i just find that i sink alot more when playing with others because i rely on them too much and place too much trust in them. sometimes i will go do something will come back and have no idea why our ship is sunk.

for example we were digging chests and this guy on my team had no mic, suddenly all the chests were gone, there were only 3 but there should have been 9. I tried asking him what happend and i still have no clue. its also harder to know if you are effectively communicating to them and if they understand what you are saying

@d4m0r3d First of all, I'm talking about Adventure Mode(I understand that Arena requires instant communication due to continuous fighting). To make it clear, I don't want to equate voice chat with text chat. Obviously, voice chat has a lot more advantages than text chat. But, someone who wants to communicate WILL communicate, especially a PC player who can manually write something fast, even in a difficult situation. I always find a way to specify what I'm going to do and make it understandable to my crewmates, so I think everyone else can do it too. I will consider the situation you described as a "troll" behaviour of this guy since he could do that too even if he had a mic.

for slooping solo or duo, I dont think it's so important, but as soon you get more players, there is something you just miss out when not having a mic.

Im hot mic. an everything I say can be heard by other crews, unless that they have done something in there settings.
Personally I dont think that I would have been half as succesful with alliance an combat without a mic, but that is just a personal feeling.

But I have 1 I sail with, almost from the beginning of the game, an have never heard him/her speak, But he use the chat wheel very well, an I understand what he means, just with one or two chat wheel text.
But we have also been playing for such a long time, so many things just happen without any form of Communications.

But social an competetive it's just better to have a mic. compared to not have one.
An the excuse that you may be bad at English, my counter is that you dont get better without practice.
Im not English man, I freaking Danish, but still learning to say hello In different language just for the social aspekt.

You’re correct playing with no mics can be done. As an Athena 10 PL, often I’m bored when my main crew mate isn’t around. I set sail solo This past weekend. Ran into a duo of fairly new sailors on a galleon. Set up an alliance, they were doing the first Shroudbreaker TT and needed help. Basically, they abandoned their galleon and jumped on my sloop. I walked and talked them through each step as they would show me their journals. It worked out perfectly. I literally got nothing of value (in game) out of it. I got out of it, exactly what I love about this game.

@jofjjay I agree with you and it perfectly matches my situation. Of course, I would be very happy to play with you.

@pathet1c2152 yea people who can type are fine. but people with no mic that cant type are bad to have on your team, not only for arena but for general adventure. first of all its boring and wierd to talk to a wall. when all you can do is reply with the pirate wheel the convos get stale if thats the right word. its just boring. and its disadvantageous. cant be mad at people for not wanting to play with someone who cant communicate.

My mic broke which left me without a working one. Apparently I have a new one but I don't get it until Christmas. I'm not even supposed to know yet. I needed to communicate to find someone willing to trade skull and bone crates with, so I decided to start using my keyboard. My regular crew has no issues understanding me with the chat wheel and being able to type has helped me communicate with others I find in game.

Unfortunately one night, this was a problem. I tried LFG to do some fort of the damned. The first group invited me into their party, found out I only had a keyboard, and slowly one by one, left the party until I was alone. The second group just kicked me from the party. The third group, which was a multi ship alliance, invited me onto a galleon. In the load screen, they realized I didn't have a mic and wanted to kick me but I already loaded in. So they brigged me. I typed to them asking if I really needed to have a mic. They said yes. I told them I could still hear all 9 of them in the party and that I could still type anything. I asked why I needed a mic, and they said I just needed one. I left because I didn't want to be that stubborn childish guy in the brig. I felt like it wasn't as big of a deal as they made it though.

On a side note, one of my regular crew I would duo with a lot, stopped sailing with me after my mic broke. Says it's too boring and I get that. No worries. I guess it's just more important to some than others. I've had no issues with it more often than it causing problems though.

@testakleze You see, I find this attitude a little dumb, I don't think talking in voice chat with complete strangers makes the game more interesting or less boring. Anyway, we can't do something, some people just see it differently.

I solo...

I did keep a keyboard hooked up to my xbox to message faster. For those rare times someone got close.

@glannigan Well, I guess I belong to this 1% :) I respect the choice of yours anyway.

I use a mic now. I bought a headset specifically for this game.
I understand others do not have that luxury.
As with the OP, I do not understand the mindset that rejects other players for their hardware capabilities.
I just roll with whatever communication works.
I find those that have issues with someone not having a mic to be an unfortunate mindset.
It is a game for fun. It takes little effort to adapt to the situation to welcome a fellow player in, and all have fun.

@ipathet1c said in Average SoT Player Perspective:

I didn't actually know where to put this topic in order to be relevant so I write it in the SoT General Discussion. Anyway, as a fan and regular player of this wonderful game I only do not like one thing about the community. Only a minimal percentage of players accept other players who don't use microphone. I can't understand why they immediately reject players who do not have a mic; some of them might be not able to speak proper English either feeling uncomfortable speaking with complete strangers or simply they do not have a microphone. Plus,I don't think this prevents proper communication since the text chat in this game is perfectly designed and easy to use. Do not they have the right to enjoy the game as most of the player base does? I've been bored of solo slooping and I want to play the game at its most. And this kind of others' perspective does not let me to. Thanks for your time, tell me your thoughts about this.

I think a captaincy update would fix this.

I have a mod and im a fellow solo player, i regularly not use my mic because im not always in the mood to chat.

Theres a perception that if you cant talk you wont listen and because you cant lock a person in a brig on a 2 person ship etc, you could get a troll.

A captaincy update would let the ship belong to 1 person, a captain. Who can brig people who arent playing by their rules.
Stops molotov cocktail trolls too.

Sure, this would get abused but not by everyone.
It could be a new crew to select i.e adventure mode (Pirate crew) which is the original everyone votes.

Or the latter, which is more authoritative.

If you had a host crew type in addition to the current one, i reakon people without mics would find a crew that will accept them more.

I must admit, finding randoms in matchmaking im usually grouped with either noobs or people who hijack the ship.
Not all the time, but enough where i would rather use the xbox crew finder and...you guessed it, speak to them with open mics.

A captaincy update would only add more and take nothing away.
Thats where micless players would really thrive.
Because if they do troll and sabotage, they’ll get locked away.

People who wish to troll can do so on the current priate crew democratic system.

I'll be honest: I'm one of those players who probably would rather not play with someone who has no mic.

I'm not mean about it or anything, it's just that for me, this is a social game. I normally play solo with hot mic engaged (there's no reason not to talk to everyone when you're solo and it's gotten me out of a few jams)

People communicate just as much information from the words they use, their tone of voice, accents, mannerisms and text chat and typing just don't convey the same level of information.

This is a game about people, if you want to work with or against people, you need to be able to put yourself in their shoes. If you want to manipulate behaviour the key is how they feel, and how you make them feel, not how you feel.

Knowing where they're from, level of education, mental state, stress levels, level of trust/distrust, level of aggression etc. is a massive advantage when running a crew and trying to keep morale high and crew members motivated, especially under pressure. You can gather a lot of that info from just how they say hello.

I don't have any problem with no mic pirates, but I enjoy the game more when I play with people who have mics. I'd rather be solo and talking to everyone than on a Galleon with 3 mutes. I can only play for a few hours per night, so I tend to try and make sure that when I play, I play in a way that maximises my own and my crew's enjoyment.