Console only servers do not exist on SOT.

will place you into a standard crossplay lobby so you can actually play the game.

Game tells you when this happens. It will say at the top of the screen what server your in.

Keyboard and mouse can still be used on console so there that but yeah. It still a console only.
Never once has the game put me in a pc lobby unless I choose.

If you can’t tell the difference between console players over pc, might wanna practice.
Heck I can easy tell by checking profiles :/ majority pc/steam players have a young and blank Microsoft account/xbox account.
Most console player use mic over text chat.
Super easy.

@burnbacon

I've been playing the game for a very long time mate, since beta, I do alright in PVP but it is important to get the facts straight for players and openly suggest an actual hard lock for disabling cross play to level the playing field.

The game never announces mid-game if it pairs you with PC players ever. The only way of verifying 100% whether you have encountered a PC player beyond speculation, conjecture and going by anecdotes is by adding suspected PC players as friends and hoping they appear online to check to see if the PC icon appears.

Considering the technical advantages PC players have against console players stated above, and the availability of cheat software for PC Vs console, the fact you CAN tell the difference so easily indicates you are the one that needs the practice 😂

What follows is not my words, it is consolidated from online sources pertaining to Sea Of Thieves and cross play:

Sea of Thieves does not announce when it "relaxes" crossplay in lobbies. Crossplay settings are fixed before your session begins. If you select controller-only matchmaking, the game warns that it is only a preference, not a guarantee, to maintain server health.

Also not my words, just facts:

Crucial Things to Keep in Mind, It is a preference: Even with controller settings active, the game may occasionally place you in crossplay lobbies if you are on a sparsely populated server.

Matchmaking times: Disabling or limiting crossplay significantly reduces your matchmaking pool. You may experience longer waits to find a game.

Not trying to be mean, it is what it is.

You will have been paired with PC players in your sessions, statistical probability is very very extremely very high for this. I would like to think you don't bother to check to see every player after a challenging encounter you have in the game and the chances are the ones you have thought were console players using keyboard were some of the time PC players without you knowing, investigating or veryfying.

Veteran players are leaving Sea Of Thieves mate, and let's face it, new players are begging for unrestricted safer seas. Gotta ask why.

Newer players and returning players on console using controllers stand a better chance of enjoying the PVP experience with other console players using controllers as well. There are no unfair technical advantages if we are all using the same systems with the same specs on the same game, then it would just be a skill issue for some and practice would be the solution. What you believe is already in place isn't in place but it should be! Players should be able to choose to be in strict console controller only lobbies for the entire duration of their sessions with no risk of being paired with keyboard and mouse users or PC players at all. This would improve the player VS player experience on High Seas and Hourglass which would improve server population and lessen the requests for unrestricted safer seas, it would significantly reduce issues regarding cheating also which in turn would also improve the health of the game.

The downside for PC players if this were to happen would be that they would be left with PC only lobbies because the vast majority of console players using controllers would opt out of cross play if it was actually a real option and not just a preference. This means that people with high end PC's with better specs than consoles and people running cheat software would be mainly competing with eachother minus all of us and it would deprive those players of easy pickings which I understand would begin to discourage some of those players from engaging with the game... This in my opinion would also be good for the overall game health.

But if crossplay opt-out players end up getting mixed so often with the regular pool, wouldn't that mean that a very small minority of the community even uses the opt-out option to begin with?

Feels like if so many people were using it, stumbling upon PC players would be quite a rare occurance for them no?

Veteran players are leaving Sea Of Thieves mate,

I always wonder where one gets the stats to confirm or is it just rumors.

There are no unfair technical advantages if we are all using the same systems with the same specs on the same game

Always something, and if you play enough you realize even console players find ways to break and exploit.

What you believe is already in place isn't in place but it should be!

works both ways, What you beleive that isnt working, is or could be working. But not enough data is given to prove it, just experience.

@bloodybil

A fair and not unreasonable thread of thought to arrive at but no, not when so many players are quitting the game.

In fact what you will find is veteran players are bored because updates have been terrible for too long, currency has no meaning, time limited events suck and once you've done it all, seen it all and bought all you want with nothing new or interesting left to check out, your free time feels better spent on different games with more to do and more to see which is sad because SOT has so much potential still. With new players it works differently,.the amount of content in SOT is maybe a bit overwhelming for new players at this stage and they don't seem to like the PVP which I feel is because of how unfair the gap is between more experienced players and them and even more so with more experienced players with technical advantages to new players playing on console with controllers, so looking at it objectively, I think what we are seeing is a diminishing number of players playing on console using controllers with a diminishing number of veteran players and new players feeling put off after insurmountable PVP encounters with PC sweats (and console sweats using K&M) which is likely fanning the flames of what forced cross play is supposed to be mitigating.

not when so many players are quitting the game.

Sources

In fact what you will find is veteran players are bored because updates have been terrible for too long

Sources. Because me and my fella vets whom I still play around with. Are never bored, we find silly ways to entertain ourselves as we wait.

Not all Vets are bound to chairs and look at the world as empty. Some of us are still enjoying it.

@burnbacon

I give up. Believe what you want buddy but I do think you spend more time on these forums than you do actually playing the game 🤣

@burnbacon

If populating servers with players was not an issue then having real console controller only servers wouldn't be an issue because there wouldn't need to be a mechanism in place to force cross play to attempt to maintain server capacity.

@SoloVenture6142

So what is it?

a) Veterans (mostly pc sweats) are tough to fight against → we need console/controller only servers.
b) Veterans are leaving the game. [also, says who? Clickbait youtubers?]

If veterans were indeed leaving in masses, would that not mean less of those players on servers that are harder to fight therefore more easy enemies you actually want? So, you should actually be happy about them leaving?

Thus, one of these statements must be false.

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unfair the gap is between more experienced players and them

That is basically every online multiplayer game, esp. those that exist for years.

SoT on the other hand has the advantage of learning the ropes in Safer Seas. You can practice sailing and navigation mechanics, naval fighting, quest and events expertise, and environment knowledge there. Doing Safer Seas first before High Seas would solve your stated issue of "overwhelming content".

---

I don't agree on all PC advantages. Controller players aren't just in a disadvantage in my view (aim assist can sometimes be overpowered amongst other things) but yes, it would probably nice for you to have the option of controller-only servers.

Although I do not think they will sustainable in the long run. I'm thinking of a problem that is probably also the reason why it does not exist: harder to fill in the lobbies; many players do not care and would not turn it on. I myself play with controller players and they can definitely rock as hard as others.

@mrpalmerdixon

We don't have data to go on regarding numbers sadly but veteran players giving up the game is happening and yes it is all over YouTube and less players seems visible in the game itself and it's also visible in LFG numbers and posts. I've been playing since beta and no one I used to play with is on anymore. I haven't even been on for a bit and I love this game but it's turned a bit stale over the past year.

Veterans (are not mostly PC sweats) giving up the game may seem like a good thing for newer players but there is a demographic of die hard PC sweats (and console K&M sweats) that likely only play Sea Of Thieves and also newer players on PC Vs newer players on console too so when they encounter them, regardless of practice in safer seas or not, they are at a technical disadvantage along with the other more acceptable and obvious disadvantages like inexperience. Having console only controller servers would benefit the game at least in terms of having a fair playing field for competitive play and this would likely benefit newer players on console the most which would help to maintain server capacity far more effectively than what's in place as it would be less discouraging to have fair fights and a more fair and equal chance of winning.

Even if an experienced console crew play for hours and manage to hold it together against other console crews, being rolled over by a PC crew that your forced into a lobby with due to being at a technical disadvantage is a turn off. If it was only skill and skill alone then it wouldn't be a problem. Your not going to win every hostile encounter, there is always a bigger fish of course but that bigger fish should be because they are more skilled or more lucky not because they are playing with systems with higher specs and better performance than you.

It doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree with the technical advantages PC has over console or not, what I've listed above are not my words, it is well covered territory, all well known long established facts about playing on PC Vs playing on console in competitive online games, it's not an opinion its hardware and software and specs and performance differences.

@SoloVenture6142

no one I used to play with is on anymore.

That is confirmation bias, sorry. I also trust in numbers, not Drama YouTubers claiming it to get clicks.
Community actually reported back an increase in player encounters since Rare fixed their server merge issue

all well known long established facts [...] it's not an opinion

Yes, it is.
Those facts may exist, but you are weighing them as way heavier as the counterarguments and blow them out of proportion.

Maybe PC players sank you or other controller guys a lot. But maybe that's just because there are simply many of them you encounter and not because they use a PC.

Most newer players do not lose due to a mechanical disadvantage but by game knowledge alone, i.e. they make grave mistakes -- which they can either learn and suffer in High Seas or just learn first in Safer Seas, preferably the latter.

---

In any case, this does not even matter. I am actually on your side for wishing this in the game. Sure, why not? Other games have it, too.

But what really is the issue now?

This setting is in the game. But yes, it has the fallback: "If the game cannot find enough console and controller players to fill a server within a reasonable amount of time".

But what is the alternative? Seems like there are just not enough players then. You cannot force an empty server if players are missing.

@mrpalmerdixon

There have been other examples of "confirmation bias" arguing against me here. I didn't think it was out of the question to offer anecdotes considering comments like "I play with my vet friends and we still find fun things to do on SOT" Which I read earlier on this thread from someone else. I didn't bother to mention their bias because a lot of what we are discussing is anecdotal. Rare have the numbers so they will know for sure more than we will. Still, numbers of LFG are down from what they used to be by a lot and the kind of posts going up seem like a lot of new players doing early to mid-game stuff contrasted against hourglass sweats. There hasn't been much of anything that smells of "long time player" in a good minute.

Hate is such a strong word man, I don't "hate" anyone and I don't hate PC players at all, some of my friends play games on PC, some of my friends are solely PC gamers. I have no issue with people playing Sea Of Thieves or any game on whatever they want at all but I do think it's VERY lame that there isn't a way to actually opt out of cross play properly so that console players using controllers only can guarantee there sessions are spent playing with and against others with the same system specs and performance as them. I fail to see the problem with that honestly.

I actually think PC players should get the same luxury, I wouldn't mind if PC players requested PC only servers. I think there is a glaringly obvious reason why they don't but I'll leave you to work that one out. 🤔 😂

An advantage in a competition is an advantage at the end of the day and there is no two ways about it. If someone is playing on a system that performs better than another system even if it's not by a massive margin, then they still have an unfair advantage separate of experience, skill and luck and it's the unfairness of that, that I dislike. That's all.

The point of this post wasn't to bash PC players at all, it was to dispell the myth that the ability to fully disable cross play was a feature that exists and to request that it becomes one.

@soloventure6142

I edited out that sentence just before you commented. Felt, it was a bit harsh indeed, yes.

Also added a paragraph going back to the actual topic.

@mrpalmerdixon

I have a very simple view of this.

I think that if you have over 300 days in the game and someone comes along with 5 days in the game, moves faster than the speed of thought, can't miss a shot with gun or cannon, bends the fabric of time and space, can time travel and warp physics resulting in you losing and sinking, this is not due to skill or luck and so although arguably playing on high seas and HG is always a gamble, with that element in the game, I don't like the Vegas odds and it puts people off (which is where I think the unrestricted safer seas requests are coming from.)

Safer seas isn't good for high seas and it'll kill the game if Rare yield to those requests so what's the best course of action to encourage players to High Seas and HG? A more fair playing field is the best I could think up.

My intention is not to offend or insult people here, I just can't think of anything better than having a real opt out of cross play option.

Players are driven by in-game progression systems but they likely don't enjoy going up against T1000 terminators in high seas and HG hence why more and more players want safer seas uncapped. I think they probably don't understand those unpleasant encounters are not necessarily because they are bad at PVP and if there could be a way to have a real opt out of cross play, they might feel the difference which may restore their confidence and get them engaging more with the game the way it should be played which is the more fun way to play too!

As a console player using controller, even if you only ever encounter a PC sweat or a cheater once a week on high seas or HG, it's still once too many in my opinion.

@soloventure6142

Ok, fair. Let's go with all of that for now.

a real opt out of cross play option.

Seems like it is simply not possible to 100% guarantee it. That's why it probably is how it is right now.
So your alternatives to the existing preference setting would be:

• Wait a loooong time until a server gets filled with console-only players + additional wait time when people leave again
• Empty servers (big no-no in High Seas)
• Play at a different time/day where more players are online/available.

No good options, yep, so ... probably just have to accept how it is. Sucks, I know :(

Maybe some discord will create some Custom Seas Servers next season which are controller-only ...

@mrpalmerdixon

The problem with custom seas is the lack of in-game progression which players enjoy in games. Open seas will be great for machinema though... Although I'm not sure how many people will be interested in watching movies made using SOT assets now. 🤔

I think the reason there is a problem with maintaining server capacity is because of forced cross play, or at least it is a contributing factor.

Hopeful view is: If Rare introduced opt out of cross play, servers may re-populate, thrive, numbers would increase as the overall experience improves for console players using controllers. Maybe Safer Seas refugees would begin to migrate back to High Seas too. You get the idea.

Less hopeful view: The players that would have wanted this and benefited from this are mostly long gone and probably not coming back. The players that are here that might actually benefit from this probably aren't even aware that they would benefit from this because of the misleading game settings that have players convinced that it disables cross play when it actually doesn't in the way they think it does. Lastly, maybe it really is worse than we think and there is a rapidly diminishing number of players and Rare have dead locked the game into having it this way to maintain server capacity which will contribute to the numbers continuing to go down and we are past the bell curve.

I'm glad Arc Raiders exists 😂