To preface this post, I’ve been playing this game since 2022, and my player interaction time has dwindled over the years, especially as the seas have become more treacherous. To further explain, I am very much a pacifist on the seas and a nimble runner. I play on the defensive, I don’t shoot other ships unless they shoot first, and I am quicker to get away and escape most of the times I have been chased… But yesterday was perhaps the most interesting chase I’ve experienced of all.
A friend and I were doing a treasure vault, and we were struggling to find the last piece of the map, so we were sailing between three islands. It was then that I spotted a ship on the horizon, and as usual began to plot our course to detour around these islands so the other player ship lost sight of us… But no matter what I was doing, or how far away we were, this ship also obviously saw us early on and was dead set on chasing us. In my experience, anyone who gives chase for an uncomfortable amount of time is out to see me sunk, so I started to test this fellow sloop’s resolve. I shot off a white flare signaling we weren’t down to fight and wouldn’t entertain it— in the past I have done this, and even ships approaching to sink me have left me alone either to respect my wishes, or because the signal that I knew they were there killed the stealth they were going for.
This other ship then shot off a white flare… and then a red flare. I was baffled. Either this sloop was sending me mixed signals or didn’t communicate a meaning to them. At this point we had to make a few turns, so the other ship was getting closer in range. This was bad, so I began to load cannonballs on either side in case we did have to get into the thick of it. At this point I use my telescope to observe our pursuer while my friend is on the helm, and I see a sole helmsman jumping up and down… I assumed at this point he was the only pirate on board his ship, as unless he had a buddy hiding below deck, he very much seemed to be handling his sloop alone, my assumption was further justified because even when he had the opportunity to fire, he didn’t seem to do so, so I chalked it up to clumsiness. For a while he STILL kept jumping at the helm, but I saw he had a firebomb loaded in one of his cannonballs… It made me very suspicious. All the while I was shouting through my megaphone asking if he was friendly but received no response other than his jumping. Was he pretending to be neutral to lure us into a false sense of security? Since we had nothing of value on our boat and the chase had gone on for a good 30 minutes now my friend and I decided to take what we thought would be a foolish risk. I should note this captain also had a very menacing ship name, which I also took into account.
We anchored at a nearby small island and waited for our pursuer to catch up. Eventually, he did, and he was in fact alone. He halted his ship, firebomb still loaded, but jumped down into the water and started playing music for us. I’m still a little apprehensive at this point, as I have had pirates feign friendliness in the past like this, only to shoot and kill me after the song was over… but he made no effort to board our ship and remained in the water. I took this as a good sign of respect, so I began playing along— from our deck, but after a few songs then jumped down into the water with him. It was after a few minutes of this he returned to his ship and I hesitantly followed, we pulled out some grog and started to get wasted together on board. At this point, my apprehension is waning, and it was solidified when this lone captain FINALLY got his mic working and began to talk with us!
He first apologized for following us so long, and that he did because his buddy logged off for the night and we were the first ever player ship he’s seen… ever. He had only 14 hours in the game and just bought his sloop that evening! He also apologized for the loaded firebomb, as he had it loaded from earlier and didn’t want to try unloading it and indirectly scare us to see him on the cannon. I laughed and said it was alright, and also apologized for giving him chase for so long, as I was trying to figure out his intentions… The mixed flare signal made sense now. At this point, we’ve now taken this new pirate under our wing and plopped the few skulls we found on the island we were anchored to below his deck. We spent the rest of the night sailing our ships side by side and took him along to the vault with us. I had forgotten about the alliance feature in SOT, so we just let him have all the treasure we found (which he kept refusing to take, but we insisted). My friend helmed my ship, and I helmed his while teaching him about the game. The evening ended with him 200k gold richer and asking if we could play again sometime… Needless to say we became friends after that.
I never knew I could be chased so long by someone who just wanted to make a friend! The sea still has its magic! He joked that maybe I could make a novice pirate like him a pirate Legend… I said I’d make sure it happens.
