@gtothefo
PVE is not solely long term success, it is actually if played well consistently the winner. Long and short term, it actually is the best strategy. If you cannot accept that on times it isn't 100% time efficient, not everything goes exactly as planned and you have to adjust due to other players... don't play a multiplayer game. The best strategy in short and long term is PVE that avoids PVP conflict. Like you like calling the PVP crews the Hawks, while the PVE crews could also be considered the hawks in the equation. To be honest, in my sessions on the seas I have more difficulty finding combatants than peaceful crews... I would enjoy the fact that I would have to be less the initiator to get the variety of PvE and PvP or social interactions. The PVE fleeing parties seem to outnumber the other 2 strategies...
Tig for tag is the best, as you do your PvE, stand your ground, do not avoid conflict and learn to do both sides. What are you calling a bully tactic? Tig for Tag players are able to handle themselves in PVP. Sinking ships is not bullying people... this is a PvEvP game. Tig for Tag will switch from PVE to PVP when the situation calls for it and they have an opportunity to do so. The strategy is about setting out a PVE plan and engaging with PVP when it happens, to actually fight as both the attacker and defender. Some battles you fight for your treasure, some battles you fight for both yours and theirs. Sometimes you just fight, because your PVE plans are pointing to that island the other crew is on... loot or no loot, that island is key for doing your PVE. It uses the strongest aspects of the PVE strategy and combines it with the strongest aspects of the PVP strategies.
I think that "Socialize", or, "Attempt to Socialize" is here also an encounter strategy, but its one that is so poor when offered against a full Hawk as to be largely absent from the game. Part of the point here I think is that it needs to be significantly incentivized when successful because currently the costs when unsuccessful are so significant compared to the far easier and less costly Running Dove.
The majority of people are not full PVP. Yet to socialize and have success, you actually have to be actively engaged in it. You believe that just sitting on an island and letting them decide is trying to be social, while there is nothing social about what you are doing.
The point isn't that people don't like losing, the point is that endowed loss changes the nature of losing. Its been shown, measured and re-created time and again in studies that the loss of something given or earned is more painful than the loss of something recently taken.
This just shows you do not understand PvEvP games. A loss in a PVE game means you will lose things you acquired to other players. If you cannot handle these type of losses, than you cannot handle playing a PvEvP game. The whole idea is that you have an invested value in the items you collect and that losing it triggers an emotion, it is built on the premise that your losses will have meaning.
It is subjective if you can handle these type of losses or not. If you are not the type of player that can handle a loss of some treasure that is purely focused on the cosmetics in a video game... you shouldn't be playing PvEvP games. If you are losing more than you can handle, than you are not selling often enough and you have only yourself to blame! Do not sail around with more than you are willing to lose. You yourself are the only one that chooses how much of an emotional value is attached to your haul.
Even Pirates cared to communicate to know the intentions of those they encountered on the seas. One of the most famous things about Pirates is that they designed and flew their own sails as a method of communications built on reputation. Anarchy is one thing, but undermining the building blocks of communication itself is quite another.
The building blocks are not undermined. This is not reality and therefore we have more ways to communicate... shooting a person in the face is a form of communication, launching a cannonball at someone's ship is a message being sent, setting their ship on fire is an indicating your intensions, etc. Unlike in real life, we are pirates that do not have to worry about death and non-verbal communication are forms of them.
This is an anarchy world, where you are the one that determines how you respond and how you uphold your own authority. The reputation that you build on the seas is of short duration, not sure how you would address that. It is based on the session you are playing in, we aren't bound to a specific section of the community by our overall server or grand world. We enter a world of only 6 crews, meaning 5 other crews than your own compared to the tens of thousands that exist and on top of that the crew you are a part of can be different every single session.
People have suggested bounty systems, yet how do you justify a bounty being made on a PvP galleon transferring over to your solo sloop adventures? Maybe your 4 man crew and your solo crew are simply very different type of crews which would warrant different type of reputations?
I wasn't misusing it, and sinking people is a part of griefing. Repeatedly here tweaks and alterations have been suggested and the response from some has been that it wouldn't stop true griefers griefing, all I'm saying is that a solution that still allows true griefers to engage in that behaviour would be fine so long as it led to players that aren't griefers from adopting pointlessly negative behaviours, that's all. You're missing my point. My point is that there are some negative behaviours that you really can't stop with reasonable tweaks, but there are some you can, I'm just saying that working on the ones that you can is a good idea.
Between other crews the following actions are simply not griefing or bullying:
- Sinking a ship.
- Killing a pirate, even repeatedly.
- Betraying them in an alliance.
- Blowing them up.
- Stealing the treasure.
- Tucking on their ship.
- Claiming an island of their own.
The act of griefing is mainly done within someone's own crew, as those are the people that are supposed to be having your back. There are very rare cases of other crews griefing. Frankly normal crews do not really encounter other crews griefing, they might get frustrated with them or wish they would simply stop coming at them, would leave the island they want to be on, etc. yet that is the game and when you have to either adapt or enforce your own rule. Another crew is not responsible for your enjoyment and fun. If you are stuck in a cycle of defeat versus a better crew, scuttle the ship or swap servers and try again.
You sound very inexperienced in being the attacker or in a more PVP focused crew. You are misusing the terms of bully and griefer in the genre of PvEvP and confusing it with simple PvP tactics and strategy. You are placing intent in these actions, while the intentions of the majority is simply their own fun and not the destruction of that of others, while that might be the effect.
Yes, absolutely, this is the point, stealth, stealing and battles are part of the fun, but not getting to engage in battles and events due to players swatting you while you're still learning isn't part of the fun, and can probably be eased off with a little bit of tweaking the system.
Beating people that are less skilled than you is part of the game, just like facing those that outclass you. There is no MMR system in place, veterans and new players meet each other and engage in battles and one party might slaughter the other with ease. It is part of the learning curve! Also trust me the one side outclassing the other side isn't limited to brand new players either. The amount of times I have dominated "Pirate Legends" in a fight that was extremely one sided is remarkable and I have met some crews that no matter how good my crew would have played, they were at a different level (which I personally enjoy, but we stood no chance of victory).
This game does not offer you protections outside of the maiden voyage. Engaging and meeting people that are better than you is part of the game, welcome to the shared world experience of PvEvP games. If you enter a game like this you will meet people that are simply just at a different level, embrace it and learn to do better. You will also sometimes be on the other end, it is just the nature of the game. True new players actually have the benefit, that veterans if they notice will actually show some mercy in comparison to those that aren't, do keep in mind a crew is judged as a whole not as an individual.
My problem is less that I'm having trouble creating friendly encounters, more than there's rarely anything to do interestingly once they're created.
And that is my entire point about difficulty, if you had content that was truly challenging and that 95% of the population wouldn't be able to do with a single crew... guess what, once you strike an alliance and make some friends.... you have something you could suggest to try and do together? We already agreed upon that joint forces should have more to do.
The prisoner's dilemma shows that a Nash equilibrium disadvantageous to the population as a whole is inevitable no matter what level of communication is engaged in.
Actually that is not true. The premise of the prisoner's dilemma and why it applies, is because the two parties are in isolation and cannot communicate. If they could they could simply agree to not snitch and get 1 year each, instead of ending up with the 5 years in prison and they would have noticed that the better outcome would be to cooperate together. The ability to communicate changes the premise and creates a new dynamic that can counter the standard outcome.
The Nash equilibrium is focused on people picking a strategy and having no incentive to adjust it. Communication is what can cause an incentive and showcase why it would actually be smart to adjust and change ones strategy.
You seem to have a steady understanding on the principles of game design, which is making this back and forth quite interesting. I am just starting to truly wonder how much understanding you have on the genre itself: PvEvP. Have you played games like Eve Online, DayZ, Rust for instance, the inspirations of the game?