I'll bet player retention in this game is horrendous

similar experienced players together. I prefer to play peacefully and explore, never attack other players. But, my god, I can't play more than 20 minutes without getting attacked, seemingly by a much more experienced crew.

Or they just happen to be quick learners and it’s there first day

I do too. But that the fun of the open sea, changes and switches directions on a dime.

20min? Some would say they go 3 hours without ever seeing another soul.
Again, experience players? Doubtful. Since you rather go alone “peacefully” I can say you don’t do a lot of pvp so your level of expertise is low enough, even a newbie could sink you.

Just saying.

The whole point of the game is that you are sailing on the open sea's with other players. It's up to you to keep an eye on the horizon. Other players are not difficult to spot. I can go hours without interaction and I seek PVP out frequently. Player retention on SteamDB seems to be fairly stable at around 7-10k players. If you need pointers or a crew to sail with to show you the ropes I'm sure many will be provide that help. Feel free to PM me. It's very much a marmite game for people. You either like the constant threat of piracy or you do not.

I can only speak for myself. But since I’ve been playing (since launch on Xbox) I’ve had some very friendly and memorable moments. I do understand that sometimes the pirate on the other end is only there for a fight. In those cases you give them a fight. I’ve made a quite a few friends after good sweaty fights. Hopefully your encounters become better.

The whole point of the game is everyone can be in a server despite of skill or intention, but you shouldn't be attacked every 20 minutes 99% of the time, even with reapers up the only time that happens is when it is the same boat coming back over and over

@cadetleopard60
You had a bad experience or two. That doesn't mean that you "can't play more than 20 minutes without being attacked." It's hard to get in a fight if you know how to avoid it.
As you play the game, you will learn either how to engage in PvP, or avoid it. Every experience is a chance to learn more about the game. Hey, I still sink from time to time, it's just that my experience increases the time between sinks.
If there were servers that put experienced players together, what would decide how experienced you are? Even a noob that is a hardcore fps player is going to beat others in a fight. And you don't want the real trolls making smurf accounts just to attack new players exclusively.

Alliance servers might seem great, but anyone in there just wants to get rewards for playing SoT without actually playing SoT. This leaves most personalities as monotone, with most people just trying to leech off another crewmember's work. Actual interactions with people in the real game are better, and you don't have to waste time waiting for a server to be created or for a ship to get an opening. If you learn how to play SoT, you won't need alliance servers as a crutch and you will have a better time.

If you're just starting, focus on voyage efficiency, island knowledge, PvE combat, and "defensive" PvP such as PvP avoidance. Eventually you'll be skilled enough to try out PvP, because really it doesn't matter all that much if you get sunk. Trying is better than giving up.

You're sadly rejecting the whole variety side that this game has to offer, no matter who you are no matter how experienced you are you'll stick to the same lads as always, from day 1 to now.

It's sad to set sail knowing full well that you've got nothing to risk and that your session's gonna go exactly how you expect it to go... Where's the adventure in that?
I set sail in the seas with that excitment and hope that crazy stuff will happen, that a big fight will blow or that maybe an amazing interaction will come up.

I don't want none of your premade-already chewed matchmaking.

A lot of people here are quick to go out and flame you for not playing the game and many doing so started playing years ago when the skill level was much much lower.*

That being said I don't agree with the idea of skill-based matchmaking or changing any bit of the game however people really don't try to sympathize with new players who are actively quitting this game.

The real problem is that getting good at this game is way too hard and time consuming. One should not have to sail around for 45 minutes to find another ship to be able to "practice" in an extremely hectic fight. This game needs quite simply a practice tool where you and a few other players can hop in and practice against each other. This game quite simply needs a shooting range for cannons and a place to practice hand to hand combat vs other players. People need a much better and more controlled place to practice and learn the mechanics and get better at them that is not as punishing as being sunk in adventure and having to sail for 45 min to find someone to practice against.

Want a simple comparison thing practice tool in league of legends best thing ever implemented in that game and let players actually practice without wasting 5 minutes to try a flash combo.

*For anyone who does not believe me go look at old videos of people PVPing it was so random and hectic and people we so clueless. In comparison now much more people are DG sweat lords (myself included)

@wolfmanbush good on you guys. Epic wholesome pirate moment.

@d3adst1ck I agree would that not be nice if there was a game mode that let me practice immediately...

As I respond to this post of yours sitting in an arena lobby still waiting for my next low quality match to start to then have to wait another 20 min in lobby for the next game to start... I can almost play a full game of league between arena games...

If only Rare would you know update it and turn it into a proper practice tool so we can tell new players where they can practice and get good and not send them to a trash game mode left to die...

@d3adst1ck hey my guy I got like 5 TDM servers to join and a bunch of NAL players to pester if I want consistent and good practice since I spent a year building connections.

So let's just go with your reasoning then who cares that new players literally get destroyed by older veteran players with no way to practice... Who cares if the retention of new players in Sea of Thieves is awful and half the reviews on steam are of brand new players complaining they are getting wrecked...

Why worry about a clear issue that is going to hurt the longevity of the game if it is not affecting you directly?

This community fascinates me as they pretend to welcome new players to the game and then proceed to never push for any good changes for them to be able to enjoy the game. Just instead going with the approach "I had to suffer through this bad design (despite the game being easier back when you started since everyone was awful back then) so it only seems best that you have to suffer as well"

Sadly, this game has one of the worst communities on multiplayer videogames, closer to Dead By daylight one (I am not speaking about forum users, here people tends to be really nice) and there is nothing we can do against that, Rare cab but seems they dont want to do nothing.

Skill based MM is not a choice, the game has not enough players to divide us on skill layers, because the "Veterans" one will be empty and the noobies one will be full of new players doing pve and avoiding PvP and smurf accounts trying to stomp them.

I agree with how difficult is to Get good on SoT, I just play between 5-10 hours per week because as solo slooper I feel absolutelly frustrated when I face Brigs or gallys, low chance to success and high risk of loosing all my loot and effort. I faced a lot of crews and other solo sloopers better than me, 80% were toxic people that spam mic sounds or emotes laughting at me when they sunk my ship so... The only advice I can give you is, be patience and accept that this game is really hard to master and is full of people who have fun with others suffering, so you will be harassed and griefed a huge number of times, just scuttle or leave because is not worth it deal with this kind o players.

The problem with the idea of matchmaking in this game is that there isn't any sort of metric that exists today by which to properly do skill-based matchmaking.

There's players with 100 hours that have more PvP skill than players with 1000 hours.

There's players that don't even have Emissaries unlocked that could absolutely destroy max level players.

The only players I have sympathy for are brand new players. I think Rare really needs to introduce a whole bunch of playable tutorials.

Use an Arena sized area of the map and let people practice taking down skeleton ships, megalodons, krakens, repairing their mast while under fire, a whole bunch of stuff to get them comfortable with just operating in this game. It's a steep learning curve for a lot of players and the only way to really learn is to jump right in and probably get dunked on a whole bunch before you start to understand things.

@wolfmanbush

I just speak from my experience on SoT, and that is my opinion about the comunnity.

• Spawncampers on arena because I don´t want to TDM with them and just dig chest and win games for Commendations and Legendary Sea Dog tittle.
• Spawncampers on adventure just for laught at me via mic or spamming the rolling from the ship while they repair my ship just for keep griefing and harassing until I disconnect.
• A Sot Partner, an american girl, insulted me a lot on her stream for using the portal to server hop after being chased for more than 30 mins.
• Another Sot Spanish partner invited me and a friend to his brig to "Helps us" with FOF and at the end he used the ancient power barrel to sink the ship just for trolling because he made a pool on the stream and viewers voted for blow up all the loot.
• A 4 man crew insulting me and my wife for sinking their gally while they were doing Skelly raid with a barrel, sent her private on xbox live with sexist insults and threats.

Do you understand why I say that this community is extremelly toxic based on my experience? 70% of my interactions are toxicity or harassement/abuse. Not now, because I do not spend too much time playing sot, just for level up emissaries for rewards and a few arenas and then leave untill next month because is not fun for me playing solo, my wife quitted after that incident and told me that she will never play again so ... that´s pirate life I think, is not sea of friends .

@wolfmanbush said in I'll bet player retention in this game is horrendous:

Important update on the op

Survived his first ambush at reapers while a reaper 5, sank a brig as a sloop, and gunned down a scurvy dog trying to take his loot.

Legend

OMG.
A legend was born. That's what we talk about when it comes to living an adventure. She started here in the forum, with an almost withdrawal, and ended up in the game, with a victory.
Congratulations to you, with great sincerity