PvE? Just checking in ...

  • Hey guys, first, let me just say that I'm not trying to start a war (which is what this topic was a while back), just asking a legit question. It's been a while since I've played the game and I haven't been keeping up with the news like I use to. Has RARE added any kind of pure PvE gameplay yet? I wanted to hear from other players, hoping it would be added in some way, what they know about this topic.

    On a side note that is kind of related, having played a bit of Fallout 76 (yes, flaws and all), I find their way of handling PvEvP interesting in that PvP isn't initiated until both parties engage in it. Other players in that game can attack you, but it does very minimal damage until you retaliate, then it becomes full blown PvP. Not sure if it would be worth adding this concept to SoT on a different kind of server (choice to log into full PvP server or soft PvP server). I imagine it would be difficult to soften the impact in a meaningful way with shooting pirate ships (does cannon balls bounce off the hauls of other player ships? That seems silly).

    Anyhow, I'm just asking because I want to get back into SoT, but I don't want to always be engaging in battle with other players because most of the time I just want to play in peace or only be challenged by the NPCs.

    I welcome discussions on this, but know I'm not interested in rehashing the debate on PvE versus PvP. I have my preference, just like everyone else, and I took the advice of a lot of pirates on here that said go play something else if I don't like how the game is played. I enjoy the gameplay and love the concept, which is what brought me back to the forums here to ask if any of the recent updates cater to PvE players.

    Thanks guys!

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  • We got a lot of PvE. We have lots of Krakens, Megs, Skeletons, Skelly Ships. The game is now a PvE game with random PvP encounters.

  • Yes, there is a lot of new PvE stuff, but if you are looking for peace you will disappointed. Just about all of the new PvE stuff wants you dead. So many new threats to you and your ship. Other players initiating PvP will be the least of your worries.

  • @ghostpaw I apologize, what I meant by "peace" is not being attacked by other players, or in the very least, not have to engage with other players. I totally get the NPC aspects of the game in that yes, you don't just sail up to an island and dig up treasure. You're going to be attacked by skeletons, attacked by the meg, etc. Heck, I tried the update with the volcano islands and it was fun trying to get to one to find the skeleton crews without being sunk by a volcano blast, but quickly turned sour when I kept being attacked by other players. I just wanted to do the quests, but was interrupted by being forced to engage with someone else when that's not my interest. Being frustrated takes away the peaceful play I would like to experience in this game. I do find it peaceful being challenged by the game itself, not so much by other players (not all the time anyways, there are times when I like to dabble in PvP, but most of the time I prefer PvE).

  • @samurai2083

    See what happens after Arena.
    Most of the pvp may end up in there and not in the wild.

  • @samurai2083 Okay. Then the answer is...
    New PvE content? Yes.
    Pure PvE content? No.

    As far as a player receiving limited damage unless they reciprocate, I will pass on that idea. I do not want a player from another crew jumping on my ship and dropping anchor, blowing up my kegs, messing with my sails, stealing my supplies, grabbing my steering wheel, and tossing treasure overboard into the sea without my being able to do meaningful damage to them to defend my ship.

    I really think you are not hearing me though. The PvE stuff you described earlier is not as severe as what you will be facing now. You can be sailing along and a skeleton ship with an unlimited supply of cursed cannonballs will emerge next to your ship from under the sea. The Kraken will pop up and attack sloops now and with more difficulty. Megaladons are everywhere. I still do not see the difference between a player sinking your ship or another ship filled with skeletons. You will spend 30 seconds on the ferry and then return to a sunken ship either way.

  • @samurai2083

    Shrouded Spoils does cater to pve players, but the threat and risk of pvp will always be present in Sea of Thieves, it's what the game is.

    We know the team are working on the Arena, a competitive mode as well as a questing overhaul both of which are due early next year.

    Sometimes there are content releases which encourage a friendlier way of playing with a focus on teamwork and the 'feel' of the game can swing too and fro from more to less dangerous, pvp wise, with each one depending on the focus.

    I'd recommend having a listen to this video by Joe to get a real feel for what Sea of Thieves is all about -

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/77489/vit-talks-2018-sea-of-thieves-creating-a-new-type-of-multiplayer-game-joe-neate

  • These kind of posts flummox me.

    “I played Sea of Thieves for a little while after launch, but got annoyed / bored / distracted and went away to do other things. Have Rare finally come to their senses and made the game I wanted it to be?”

    My answer always is: If you didn’t love Sea of Thieves back then, chances are you won’t love it now.

    Yes. The game has changed, improved and grown. If you want to find out how: PLAY IT!

  • @samurai2083
    Players have created their own PVE mode. Check out discord crews and join their server takeovers with alliances. It's PvE as they police themselves and go up in voyage rankings without any PvP.
    Happy sailing!

  • @ghostpaw I think I am hearing you. I wonder if you're dismissing what I'm saying though, which is fine. I just wanted to ask a question (and subsequently get thoughts on a corrolation between the method Fallout 76 does PvEvP and SoT).

    In an attempt to address what you replied with, let me first comment on the premise of your concern with limited damage. You bring up valid points and concerns. And maybe a "limited damage" scenario won't work. But it may work if paired with an option to indicate your intent. I like the addition of the Alliance flag, perhaps there could be a flag that allows a player to indicate their intent on playing the game in a PvE setting. Sail around with other pirates, but they can see my flag that says if they attack me, it'll do very limited damage. If they come on board to cause me grief, I can fully damage them to protect my ship. I don't know, it may not work in this kind of game, but that's the reason why I'm back here ... to find out if anything has changed to make the game more PvE friendly.

    I also want to make clear that I'm not asking (nor do I see other PvE players asking) to have their environment softened. I get there are environmental challenges, those are what we all expect, and frankly, the reason I want to play the game. There is a BIG difference between fighting against a Kraken and a human player. This is why for the longest time games have had separate Campaign and Multiplayer experiences. Its just within the past few years that we've been introduced to the PvEvP concept (aside from games like WoW, etc) on console and it catching on in games like Destiny and The Division. Even with those games, they, have separate PvE and PvP experiences. Destiny has raids that you do with other players, which is what I would like to experience with Skull Forts (even though Skull Forts are not nearly as challenging). If other teams in Destiny can ruin your raid experience, that would take a lot of the fun out of it (for me).

    Honestly I don't really care to debate the merits of PvE and why its important to gaming. I've done that to death in the past, and I think I've come to the conclusion that PvP players play games the way they want and PvE players play games the way they want. There are some that enjoy both aspects of that type of gaming. Other's are mixed with different ratios. I enjoy a good MP session once in a while, especially when I can do that with friends that I play with on a weekly basis. That's not going to happen with this game because they're not interested in playing SoT (mostly due to the frustrations of losing time spent from unintended encounters with other players), and I'm not interested in pairing up with people I don't know (my choice, right?). I was just reading another thread where a player was asking about offline servers, and a lot of the responses are typically "nope, we don't want it, not going to happen, move on". And you know what, that's fine. This community is going to be what it is, and I have the choice to move on, and I have. Doesn't mean I can't hope for some changes that will make SoT a game I can enjoy. Like I said, I love the pirate concept, I like the challenges brought on by AI encounters, and, if in the right mood, I like having ship battles with other players. I just don't like spending a bunch of time defeating a skeleton captain, only to have a team of players take the skull from me (and I do understand that there is challenges getting said skull from island to outpost along the way, but its entirely different when its an AI skeleton ship, or Meg, being a roadblock on the path ... than a crew of players hell bent on stealing it from you).

  • @surveyorpete I'm not sure why my post confused you like that. What you quoted isn't at all what I was saying, and frankly, disingenuous of you to put words in my mouth. The length of time I played SoT doesn't matter. I'm not aware of a measurement of time one has to play a game in order to truly know if one is satisfied with such game. To be clear, I'm not "annoyed" by the game mechanics or the content, nor was I bored with the game. I never said that Rare has to align themselves with my desire for the game to be played (or what options the game has to have). SoT, in the grand scope of what it truly is, is a product. I, as a consumer, am entitled to consume or avoid said product. As such, I believe I, as well as you and any other "consumer", have the right to make requests, which is what I've done in the past. I never said the game is bad, I never said the game should die, and I've never said the game should be avoided. I've always stated that if this is where Rare wants SoT to be with its potential player-base, then that's completely up to them. I have the right to be human and be "frustrated" with the forced PvP aspect of the game. I WANT to consume the content in this game, but I CHOOSE to avoid playing the game if it causes me frustrations due to the reasons I've posted several times in the past.

    And you're right. I can play it to find out if the game has become more PvE friendly (or more precisely, added ways to avoid PvP). But I CHOSE to ask a simple question first, while working, instead of waiting for Thursday night when it's my "game night" to load up SoT.

    I hope I was able to explain in more detail why I and other community members post these kind of questions.

  • @d-jaguar Thank you for the suggestion and the information. That sounds real interesting, and I may check it out. It's kind of cool to see the community build their own environment within the parameters of the game structure. Again, thank you for the information. :)

  • @katttruewalker I'll admit I have little to no understanding of what Arena is or what it means to player interaction. It sounds like they are building in a PvP-only aspect of the game (like old school MP sessions?). Which is interesting because, if hearing the arguments from the PvP players, the whole point of SoT is to create this environment completely based in PvEvP, and deviating from that premise surely ruins the experience for everyone. So then, if PvP-only is welcomed with open arms by the PvP community, why does having a PvE-only environment a bad thing? It seems kind of hypocritical.

    But then again, I may be completely missing the point on Arena.

    I'll have to check out the link you posted. Thank you for that! :)

  • @samurai2083
    The arena is a faster paced game. Each ship will receive the same voyages and now you must compete against others to complete. You can start with any voyage, but have to be aware that others may be doing it too. This will bring more ships together which is why more of the pvp players may play this version.
    Check out the announcement.

  • @samurai2083 a few crews from our forums. There are many more. I am just tired of searching and copying from my phone.

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/65226/rogue-legends-fleet-join-us-on-our-journey-fleet-community-events-global-members-18-discord-pc-xbox

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/30356/join-the-fleet-of-thieves-official-recruitment-pc-xb1-discord-partnered-add-a-unique-twist-to-your-sot-experience

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/20681/fortune-union-legacy-crew-social-pvp-pve-events

  • The game has changed a lot and in a very positive way.
    Some things still have room for improvements but overall the game is delicous.
    We've passed some really dark times in the past few months but Shrouded Spoils made it clear that SoT is getting where it needs to be.. in my opinion at least ^^

    Play it!

  • The content caters to both pve and pvp players, with that said, if you can't enjoy either one of these components, then u are going to have a hard time liking the game still. Now, with that in mind, the game has updated the game throughout the year, I do not know when was the last time you played but their was additions of a new area, npc ship fights, shark boss fights, fog, more commendation, more cosmetics, brigantine ship, drum music tool, row boats different hued lantern colors manipulated by player death, and alternative to merchant alliance voyage: cargo runs. With that said, almost all I mentioned does nothing to improve the state of the game except add in a couple of extra things to distract you from the main problem. Voyages has been and are still boring, repetitive, seek and retrieve basic missions with no story enrichment of any kind. Funny enough, minigames haven't been added, no drunk race platforming, labyrinth, flooding hallways, traps, Simon says riddle locked door, no epic boss battles tied to the story in a voyage, no magical gate that lets u sail in the cursed ferryman netherworld as a race against time, no extra weapon types, etc. As for pvp, I heard devs will try to add an arena... so if pvp is ur thing you will have a part of the game that only relies on that. PVE content so far is only more of the same which isn't so bad but don't go expecting any crazy changes like a full on voyage sailing through the world's end gate portals to the nether world, labyrinth with different hued door that are unlocked with corresponding torches, racing across thin and maybe moving platforms while drunk on grog, story quest elements where you learn about a crew of pirates who met their demise, only to have said crew turn out to be a final battle of cursed skellies, an obstacle between you and the treasure, while you are blasted with curses, ectoplasm, fire breath, and summoners. Oh and we still can't select our own songs to play.

  • @dotcomrobots The PvE may be fun but I feel all the fun players have left. If you like spending hours doing PvE missions then getting killed by another crew then this is your game. Gone are the early days when alliances meant you helped each other and larger crews wouldn't harass the smaller ones.

    I feel in love with the game visuals but, like OP, would also like to see a PvE option.

  • @samurai2083 said in PvE? Just checking in ...:
    while working, instead of waiting for Thursday night when it's my "game night" to load up SoT.

    @Samurai2083 I myself am quite limited to play time during the week, and have had many encounters where I've been unable to cash in loot due to being sunk by other players which can get very frustrating. "C'est la vie"

    I know this isn't an answer to the questions you've been looking for but if your looking to complete some PVE and would like a ship mate then send me an invite. It's always a little more reassuring collecting loot and getting back to an outpost when you have someone there to assist, especially if you have limited playing time like myself.

    GT: jimmy l1zard

  • The game is pretty much PvE now anyway. Very rare to see aggression.

  • @biter-wylie said in PvE? Just checking in ...:

    The game is pretty much PvE now anyway. Very rare to see aggression.

    got to agree, I got back in to the game recently after taking a month or 2 out (since devils roar update) and I think in maybe 4-5 hours of play I have only had 1 ship battle. There are other ships about but people aren't so gung ho like when the game first dropped.

  • @biter-wylie I sink ships everyday sir!

  • @dotcomrobots said in PvE? Just checking in ...:

    @biter-wylie I sink ships everyday sir!

    👍🏻 Good man

  • @samurai2083 said in PvE? Just checking in ...:

    @katttruewalker I'll admit I have little to no understanding of what Arena is or what it means to player interaction. It sounds like they are building in a PvP-only aspect of the game (like old school MP sessions?). Which is interesting because, if hearing the arguments from the PvP players, the whole point of SoT is to create this environment completely based in PvEvP, and deviating from that premise surely ruins the experience for everyone. So then, if PvP-only is welcomed with open arms by the PvP community, why does having a PvE-only environment a bad thing? It seems kind of hypocritical.

    But then again, I may be completely missing the point on Arena.

    I'll have to check out the link you posted. Thank you for that! :)

    There's also a mega thread devoted to suggestions and discussion of the forthcoming competitive mode, which you might like to read - Taking part in the Arena events will allow players to gain reputation with the Trading Company called Sea Dogs, so we'll have a choice of 4 different companies on the voyage to Legend status. This means that players will still need to gain reputation with 2 other companies in the main game.

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/75705/mega-thread-the-arena-part-2?page=1

  • @jimmy-l1zard I might take you up on that. Thank you. :)

  • @mr-dragon-raaar написал в PvE? Just checking in ...:

    @ghostpaw said in PvE? Just checking in ...:

    Just about all of the new PvE stuff wants you dead.

    Love this :) Never a truer word spoken :)

    I remember a time (not so long ago) when you could arrive at an outpost and drop your loot off. Take a long deep breath and maybe a toilet break. Now if I dare to do that i've got a skelly ship bombarding the poor little sloop.

    skelly ships shouldn't attack you while you're at an outpost or any other islands, they attack you only if you engage.

  • @bundui said in PvE? Just checking in ...:

    @mr-dragon-raaar написал в PvE? Just checking in ...:

    @ghostpaw said in PvE? Just checking in ...:

    Just about all of the new PvE stuff wants you dead.

    Love this :) Never a truer word spoken :)

    I remember a time (not so long ago) when you could arrive at an outpost and drop your loot off. Take a long deep breath and maybe a toilet break. Now if I dare to do that i've got a skelly ship bombarding the poor little sloop.

    skelly ships shouldn't attack you while you're at an outpost or any other islands, they attack you only if you engage.

    On the contrary, I had a skelly ship chase me all the way to an outpost and as I was getting the last of my loot off the sloop, it still hung around to sink it. Luckily I got it all off in time :)

  • @wipe-nd-clean said in PvE? Just checking in ...:

    @biter-wylie said in PvE? Just checking in ...:

    The game is pretty much PvE now anyway. Very rare to see aggression.

    got to agree, I got back in to the game recently after taking a month or 2 out (since devils roar update) and I think in maybe 4-5 hours of play I have only had 1 ship battle. There are other ships about but people aren't so gung ho like when the game first dropped.

    I think one of the main reasons is now supplies are much more of a premium than they used to be. If you use up too many boards or cannon balls fighting other players you are going to be up creek when that skelly ship spawns on top of you. So I also agree the PvP is way less aggressive and PvE is more of a threat than PvP ever was in my opinion especially in the Roar.

  • @bundui said in PvE? Just checking in ...:

    @mr-dragon-raaar написал в PvE? Just checking in ...:

    @ghostpaw said in PvE? Just checking in ...:

    Just about all of the new PvE stuff wants you dead.

    Love this :) Never a truer word spoken :)

    I remember a time (not so long ago) when you could arrive at an outpost and drop your loot off. Take a long deep breath and maybe a toilet break. Now if I dare to do that i've got a skelly ship bombarding the poor little sloop.

    skelly ships shouldn't attack you while you're at an outpost or any other islands, they attack you only if you engage.

    No. You can be at an outpost and attacked by a skeleton ship without provoking them. We have had it happen twice at Daggertooth. We nicknamed it the treasure delivery service.

  • @thr-wildwin7 I will have to disagree with the PvP being less aggressive.

    So, after having not logged into the game after several months, I decided to take the advice of a lot of people on here and check out the changes to see how toned down the PvP aggression has gotten. I logged in last night and accepted the gold horders guilded quest. Pretty awesome that it gave me 8 maps to check out ... 4 islands with 8 captain treasures, 4 with 3 captain treasures. So I figure it'll be a good night of getting loot.

    I will say this ... the AI environment is extremely volatile and challenging. Right after leaving the outpost I run into a kraken (keep in mind that the months prior when I've played I've only encountered the kraken once). It was a challenge to just get away from him and to sail on. Pretty cool. As I was heading to one of the islands in my map list, I see several larger glowing ships in the vicinity. Obviously the skeleton ships patrolling the waters. It was kind of cool to have to figure out an entry to the island I was going for that put me out of their range so they wouldn't attack. I get to the island and after an hour or so was able to dig up the 3 treasures on there. Yes, it takes me a while because not only is the sea more aggressive, the island skeletons are a lot more aggressive as well. I don't know how many times a skeleton with a powder keg killed me. It didn't matter what I did, I would run, shoot behind me while running, go in the water and try to pick it off, the barrel wouldn't detonate unless I got stuck on a tree, rock, or I was within range of dying when trying to shoot it.

    Anyhow, I get my 3 treasures and head to an outpost. Along the way, in the distance, I see a sloop battling a kraken. As I veered towards the outpost at a distance, I notice the sloop, after finishing with the kraken, heads towards my direction. I sail a bit longer in various patterns and its clear they are tailing me. So I start sailing in different directions, only to have them get closer and eventually one of them kills me with a sniper. The other guy shoots himself onto my ship and as I spawn I get killed. I try to do all the things I am suppose to do and indicate that I'm not looking for a fight, but they keep spawn killing me anyways. Anyhow, I scuttle the ship, and appear on a different island. So much for a toned down PvP experience, can't even get my one-time treasure chests to an outpost.

    I decided to try a different quadrant of the map (apparently the guild maps have locations in all four quadrants of the map, 2 per quadrant). I sail to the first island, dig up the 3 treasures, and decided to go for the other 8 treasures on the island next to it ... not seeing any other ships in the area. After several hours of digging up those 8 treasures (again, the powder keg skeletons are extremely frustrating ... I can't figure out how to deal with them), I head to a completely different outpost. Along the way, I encounter the Meg (which actually leaves me alone), a few skeleton ships on the horizon, which I maneuver delicately to avoid a confrontation, and arrive at the outpost. As I begin to drop the anchor and turn my 11 captain chests in (plus a skull and gold box that I found), I get sniped and see a sloop pummeling my ship with cannon balls. As I spawn back in, my ship is sinking and I see that other sloop sail off. Now I don't know why they just came by and sank me without taking all my treasure, but somehow spawning on my sinking ship kind of shot me towards the outpost island. I then see some, if not all, my treasure chests floating up on the water. I swim out to get one and somehow a shark spawned and killed me in one bite. To add insult to injury, because my ship sank, I spawn on an island on the opposite end of the map. Hoping to find at least a few treasure chests, I spend however long it takes to sail from one side of the map to the other, get to the outpost, and nothing is there.

    So this is basically the whole problem I have with this game. I spent a lot of hours digging up treasure, not being able to cash them in. It also seems kind of unfair to lose the quests when logging off the server. I'm guessing that one-time guilded quest is gone because I logged out before completing it all. What a waste!

    @jimmy-l1zard thank you for offering to partner up in this game, but I think I'm done with SoT for a while. I've spent a lot of hours in it last night and left frustrated and really not having any fun. Except for the AI battles and challenges ... if I can only deal with that, I'd play this game a lot more. But just like in real life I don't like to be around jerks and be taken advantage of, which it seems one still encounters frequently in this game as it is right now.

    So in the spirit of my original question in this post, yes, PvE has changed in that it is extremely more challenging (a good thing), but the PvP aspects of the game is still the same. I hope one day Rare will provide the ability to play this game in a way that allows the player to only be challenged from the game itself, because a lot of us like to "check out" of the real world having to deal with jerky people. We don't want to have to deal with them here too.

    I will also end with saying I understand that there are players that love this kind of gameplay. I'm not suggesting to take that away from them, nor, ruin that experience for them. If the new Arena addition provides more satisfaction for those players, I don't see why it's unrealistic to ask for a PvE-only experience with this game. Either way, if you enjoy this game, that's awesome ... keep playing and have fun! But for me this game is not enjoyable, and that is a real tragedy to me because I've always been wanting to have fun with a good pirate game. Who knows, maybe I'll come back here sometime next year and ask about where things have progressed with PvE and PvP. But for now, I'm pretty much checked out of SoT and not really expecting it to change for players like myself. And really, that's ok.

  • Finally bought the game for my son (9 yr).
    Within 30 minutes of playing, when he was still trying to figure out the objective and how to sail, he was boarded and killed repeatedly while hearing profanity over the in-game communication. Is there a way we can learn the mechanics without experiencing trolls? Can we disable other players microphones? I can't believe this game doesn't have dedicated pve only content when you have so many people trying to ruin the game for kids. The game is geared towards children, yet forces them into online, unfiltered engagement with immature man babies.

  • @sinistrsausage said in PvE? Just checking in ...:

    Finally bought the game for my son (9 yr).
    Within 30 minutes of playing, when he was still trying to figure out the objective and how to sail, he was boarded and killed repeatedly while hearing profanity over the in-game communication. Is there a way we can learn the mechanics without experiencing trolls? Can we disable other players microphones? I can't believe this game doesn't have dedicated pve only content when you have so many people trying to ruin the game for kids. The game is geared towards children, yet forces them into online, unfiltered engagement with immature man babies.

    The game is rated T for teens. The game is not geared towards children. Not sure where you that idea from. The ESRB rating makes it clear that alcohol, crude humor, and violence is built into the game. You get to decide, as the parent, if your kid is mature enough to handle the content, but it was recommended for teens and older. Also, nothing in the advertising, promotional materials, or developer interviews suggests there is a PvE mode. They are considering it but have no plans to do so in the near future.

    With that out of the way, yes, you have the ability in both Xbox and in the SoT game menus to turn off communications from other players and other crews. You just have to open the menu and search for it. That would have been easier than finding these forums, searching for this thread, then insulting others.

    Also, it is against the forum rules to necro threads this old.

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