The game desperately needs a non-PvP mode

I think the big issue is that PvErs are essentially 'sheep' who are fattening themselves up constantly for the 'wolves' to devour, and there are also groups of friends and so on who will do nothing but relentlessly chase people down for no reason other than to sink them.

Also another issue is that on the forums the PvP crowd tends to be more vocally dominant. This is true of any game where involuntary PvP is a part of things, and they expect the 'sheep' PvErs to simply b*******r and take it in order to feed them the content that they specifically want.

While I've only experienced 2 chases so far, both were done by 2man sloop crews vs me as a solo player. One of them even completely ignored another sloop they passed by in order to specifically sink/kill me.

Simply put this game is relaxing and fun as heck during its best moments, but PvP brings out some of the worst moments which are highly irritating and kill the fun/mood. I do not enjoy wasting 20+ minutes of my time being chased by people who have nothing better to do than waste my playtime, especially after I spent 20-30 minutes just to get a bit of treasure to try and bring back to an outpost (only to see that every outpost around seems to be occupied). The worst part is that the folks who will chase after you typically just cashed in at an Outpost so they have literally nothing to lose other than their own time, so even if you sink/kill them they didn't lose anything.

It's also frustrating because PvP is designed solely to favor numbers. On one hand this makes outplays more amazing/invigorating but due to the mechanics of combat and how all crew sizes are limited in weapons that they can carry, it's hard to actually pull off against non-newb players.

So here's my proposal: add in "High Risk" or "Hardcore" servers that increase rewards (reputation + gold) by 100% but killing players after sinking their ship gives you 10-20% of their accrued gold. Then have a "Low Risk" or "Softcore" server type that is what the current game does - however, increase gold/rep gains by 50%. Then have a "No Risk" or "Casual" server type that doesn't have PvP and allows people to relax/enjoy the rest of the game without worry at normal progression rates. Could even add in exclusive cosmetics/titles for those willing to risk their neck in the most treacherous of waters.

'cause honestly I don't want to have to deal with the stupid feeling of paranoia all the time, or worrying constantly about running into other ships when I'm playing solo. The first 10-30 minutes of a SoT session are so relaxing and enjoyable until you inevitably spot another ship in the distance, and then it tends to go downhill from there and become needlessly stressful for those who do not wish to partake in PvP 24/7. PvP brings absolutely nothing productive to this game beyond purposely interrupting the PvE side and wasting time for those who do not want to deal with it. Not to mention it brings in a much more toxic community environment where people shoot down any complaints/concerns revolving around the damage PvP does to folks who are just trying to have fun playing the actual game. This forum is already a prime example of the toxicity spreading from PvPers who don't want to lose their precious sheep to slaughter.

@tri-crossfire dijo en The game desperately needs a non-PvP mode:

@djiem
Then at least give smaller crews some kind of advantage, crews of 4 have more guys, more cannons, a bigger and FASTER ship, and smaller crews have nothing to fight or put run them. And on top of that I didn’t know pirates transported chickens and pigs from port to port.

Sail AGAINST the wind, you are faster than a galleon. Galleon is only fast with the wind.
Sail around rocks, shallow reefs and islands, if they are good they will loose time, if they are bad they will crash.
With experience two players in a sloop even can put a fight.

@nerosmagaera said in The game desperately needs a non-PvP mode:

Ahoy, considering I've just spent the last half our being hunted by the same pirate "crew" despite respawning on different islands, I once didn't even make it off my "respawn" island before they had my ship damaged beyond my ability to repair it. I get it... solo is hard, and not the "way to play" but seriously.... there needs to be an immunity period or switch me to another server shard after getting ganked by the same crew in X minutes. I've only been able to complete one quest despite digging up treasure on target islands multiple times.

Yeah unfortunately this could become the norm over time. :/

The only answer you'll ever get around here really is "just quit out and log back in so you get thrown onto a different server". Which is such an inelegant and poor bandaid solution that doesn't actually address the problem at hand.

@saladbrains said in The game desperately needs a non-PvP mode:

i still don't understand why people are so bothered by the idea of a PvE mode, they would have more people willing to engage in PvP with them. we 'waste' a lot of time sailing from island to island already, going to two plus different outposts to turn in (when not doing a merchant quest) just wastes a lot of game time, why should 'running away' be the acceptable solution?

there's a lot of potential for great experiences and bad ones. either a PvE mode, add in fleets/multi-ship bounties (maybe you can sign up to ferry a lot of merchant goods, since they don't want AI ships/fleets), ship trading/finding crates you get points/gold for delivering to any other crew, PvP Risk, or SOME other mechanic where ships have a reason to interact other than 'you might have treasure so YOLO'

The reason people don't want a PvP server option is because most of those types of folks want to prey on people that either: A. Don't fight back, or B. Aren't as good as them at the game. They want to dominate, not be dominated.

I mean there are some folks who might casually enjoy PvP too. But I think the problem that people have with the idea of a PvP server is that it separates the sheep from the wolves, and wolves want to prey on sheep instead of other wolves. That's how open PvP in PvE games functions.

@saladbrains said in The game desperately needs a non-PvP mode:

@sorenthaz it seems to be that way, as there are very few people who provide a reasonable argument for why a PvE mode would be a bad idea. the arguments against it usualy are:

• it's a pirate game, get over it, sail away
• it would be boring
• you shouldn't be able to play in a pvp free mode

Rare wants to support this game for 'ten years' as a 'games as a service game' which means they would need to draw in and retain as many players as possible, which separate modes could only help. if you find it 'boring' simply don't play that mode, the argument about 'free rewards' is moot as there is only horizontal progression. there are already crews just farming strongholds so the 'race' to pirate legend argument is also pointless. those crews are going to achieve it long before anyone else.

they could also add in other reasons for crews to interact, etc etc which would hopefully help as well, but there is always going to be the hyper-aggressive pvpers and those that enjoy the PvE and would like to do only that. i casually enjoy PvP, but sometimes you want to hop on and have a chill sailing session, especially if friends aren't on but then sometimes you have to 'just sail away' for almost the entire play session.

TBH this game has literally all the elements needed for a Battle Royale mode and I almost wonder if Rare has intentionally set it up that way, given the Red Sea wasn't a thing until beta and previously you would just pop up on the other side of the map for sailing off the edge. All it'd need to do is increase in size and steadily whittle the playing area down while throwing in storms and krakens to further trip ships up. Early phase would involve scouring islands for supplies so you can do more sustained battles, and eventually only one ship/crew would be floating (right-side up). Heck shipwrecks could even still be a thing for scouring supplies and whatnot. Only thing that wouldn't transition well is the presence of skeletons and of course keeping the reputations out of it.

But then cosmetics could be sold for real money ala the other BR games, and it would offer a unique spin on the BR model with very unique gameplay and a beautiful game environment.

And then PvE could be split up and be its own thing with major content updates and some vertical progression elements thrown in. Heck maybe even roles/perks could become a thing where folks could learn to excel at different skills and playstyles.

@toastedflowers said in The game desperately needs a non-PvP mode:

@sir-green-day It's a game about PIRATES.... so you're upset someone tried to steal your stuff (which you didn't have at the time) because its what pirates do. Maybe think about your expectations of the game, and not willingly park next to a galleon ship at an Outpost.

Can you give any other excuse or logical reasoning beyond "it's a pirate game that's what pirates do"? Because I'm pretty sure other online pirate games did just fine without the need for open PvP.

@splatulated said in The game desperately needs a non-PvP mode:

Everyone would go get 100% on a risk free pve server and then the real servers would become fortnite and it would suck

Gee it's almost like a majority of players enjoy the PvE side of things but don't want to be interrupted regularly by nonconsensual PvP. : ^)

You know what's going to eventually happen though, right? The PvErs will leave and it'll just be the PvPers fighting amongst themselves and getting bored when there's no easy targets to chase after.

@zeeeph said in The game desperately needs a non-PvP mode:

No this game does not need a pve only mode. The game content is already thin enough. If you get a pve Server, i believe like 5 minutes later you would open a new thread like"game is boring"

That's kind of where the whole "live game as a service" part comes into play where they add more content to the game on a regular cadence.

With a PvE only mode they could even add some depth by having vertical elements brought in. Make it more like an MMO/online sandbox RPG.