So my friends and I just recently bought the game and we are getting really frustrated with it. We love the sailing and looting and fighting but PvP just seems kind of toxic. We spend hours just collecting some booty and having a good ol time just to have a crew come over and just burn our ship down. We don´t even have treasure that is worth the will. This point I still can get. It is part of the game to loot other crews and stuff like that. But here it is where it is getting awfull. People just start chasing you. They burn the Ship down, get on land and start to kill us, just for us to respwan and them killing us again until we are finally set back to another island. But as we still want to complete the Voyage we go back to the Island just for them to wait for us and just burn us down again. It´s is just so nerve racking to play the game for hours without making any kind of progress just because some other players think its super fun to harrass Noobs. How are we supposed to get a hang of the game if after just a few hours I am so frustrated that I don´t want to play it again? And this didn´t just happen once. Multiple times this happend to us. Games like these live and die by the community and by new players finding and enjoying the game. Me as a Noob player I can say I fairly enjoy the game but hate how other people just kill all that joy by just plain being mean.
I know I know just gid gud. But I needed to Vent a little bit and hope to find some decent players on my next Voyage.
Noob Venting
@xrekkoffx nice you don't know common sense not victim blaming reread what he posted? people are toxic in game do you think pirates say oh yay I killed you look at all the rainbow flowing out of your body
@xrekkoffx okay but like I think you already do mate? in what sentence did I victim blame him or do I report you for senseless accusations
Just wait till you start doing Tall Tales, and lose progress due to that galleon that figured out what you were doing and camping the island you need.
I used to be annoyed by the PvP aspect as well. Had to change my thinking. When starting a session, I needed to make a game plan as to what I was doing. Was I doing Tall Tales, rep grinding, or general loot?
If it's the first, then I only focus on that. Unless there's an outpost nearby that I can dump loot, ignore loot in general. Focus on getting the Tall Tale done as quickly as possible.
If I'm doing voyages, then make frequent stops to sell off loot. If you hit two islands and get 10k worth, sell it before continuing.
If you're just sailing to sail, then you can 'chill.' If you pick up loot, don't think of it as an objective. Just as something extra. Sell when you want. If you get attacked, use it as a learning experience. If you spot another ship, load up on everything possible. Don't run unless you have something really valuable. You'll never get better at PvP if you're always running.
You can also run Arena. Great way to pick up PvP tips, and you lose nothing. I'm still mediocre at PvP, but Arena, and Youtube, taught me the basics, enough that I now have better aim with cannons, know where to hit, and how to handle boarders.
Would I like PvE server? Sure, I prefer it over PvP. Yet that isn't the case, so all you can do is adapt. Since you're playing with friends (as opposed to my solo slooping), you should have a more enjoyable time. And stand a better chance at defending yourself.
Best thing I can say is remember this is a PvP game. It's not a story game. Yes, there is story here to uncover. Yes, you can alliance. Yes, people will constantly try and shoot you.
My advice is, if someone is bothering you... sink them. If you can't. change servers, it's not a big deal. I know it sucks to hear, but it's not. If you're losing a lot of loot turn in more often. Outposts are everywhere.
I get trying to hit pl asap. TTs are fun and I understand why you want to complete them. The center of this game is completing your objectives around PvP combat. Like plunder mode in warzone. Some servers are just going to be more difficult than others. Good luck to you.
-"Sloop against the wind."
Not a single thing you listed is even close to "Harassing"
- You went back to an island, knowing they still be within the area to complete a voyage.
- How can they burn the ship down, and you respawn..to be killed? if ship is down/gone how are you respawning near them?
Question: How does one tell if one crew of pirates are "Noobs"? What says on your ship, HEY Im a noob?
Most like every game out there, is a Learning experience. You learn by the actions you make and others. You join CoD, do you complain because someone shoots you first? or never get a single kill in a match? How about simple game of checkers? Can't get a single King Me? Maybe Old Maid? Always getting the little old lady?
You simply forget things. Learn about the game, practice the different ways to play. Scuttle can quickly get you out of harms way. Suck it up and switch lobbies.
Learn and have fun in the process.He also said he was mainly just venting.
I know it's fun to hop on the forums and hit people having a rough time with a good zinger or two, but it's not really helpful. We want people to play this game, especially if they are already enjoying most of it.
Criticizing a post that's fairly even-tempered as far as "I'm upset about how I was attacked" posts go helps nobody and drives away potential players.
Hey, glad to hear you're having a good time with most of the game so far. I understand some players can be frustrating. Believe me, I've come across some folks who try some really creative ways to try and goad a reaction from me.
Now everyone is different, so my methods may not work for you, but here they are anyway, just in case.
Sometimes the best course is the path of least resistance. If the other crew follows you on land and insists on killing you, spawn elsewhere and take your time getting back. There's plenty of treasure washed up on shores, so explore a couple islands before heading back.
If they're still there, then go do something else. I know giving up on voyages seems counterintuitive, but it's all just gold and rep. Getting to the end of a voyage only really matters in Tall Tales and Athenas. A good idea is to buy two or three voyages at the outpost so you can cancel and start a new one right away if needs be.
As I said, everyone's experiences are different, but I've been playing since before launch and have found that I have many more good sessions than bad, so don't give up too easily.
In SoT, the only cost of dying is whatever loot you had at the time. Turn in often and that cost will never be too high. Try and find enjoyment in the game mechanics themselves, so even if a session ends up a bust, you won't feel like you've wasted your time.
I think one of the best ways to combat unruly behavior in online game communities is simply to outnumber the bad apples. If enough of us are in here playing with good, clean fun in mind (both PvE and PvP), then not only do we overshadow the bad examples, but we provide a role model for other players to follow.
Those type of players can never stop your progress, only delay it slightly. They want the reaction. Stay calm and unfazed in the face of their childish actions and their attempts to antagonize you will be no more bothersome than the spray of sea water on your face as you sail on to glory.
Fair winds and happy sailing, matey.
@Heimdall2010 : I feel your pain. I probably have close to 75+ hours in the game. Level 43ish on Gold Hoards and level 35 on Merchant Alliance and Order of the Souls. The first 30+ hours a buddy and mine just sailed around endlessly taking in the game. The last 45+ hours have been miserable. Had one boat follow me for close to an hour to try and sink my ship, I had just loaded into the game and didn't have anything other then what I could find at the outpost (food/wood/cannon balls). After sailing through a storm three different times, the ship decided I was not worth it. So now I was an hour into a game and hadn't been able to enjoy any of it.
Also, I recommend running EVERY time. The people that are good at the PvP in this game are VERY good. I have tried to fight back on several occasions and it was never close. I'm terrible at PvP, if I was good at PvP I would play a FPS. I too wish there was a PvE server and unfortunately after tonight we probably wont be back on until there is either a dedicated PvE server of they make game friendlier for people who prefer PvE.
Some examples: (1) If you give the pursing ship a way to attack from the front (harpoons) you should give the fleeing ship a way to defend. Have a rear facing cannon. Several times I have been harpooned from the rear sections of the ship but my side cannons are useless and I can not throw firebombs far enough. (2) From my understanding there is a PvP island, why can there not be a PvE island. An outpost in the middle of the map that is considered a safe zone. (3) There is an Ally Flag, it has worked from me once, create a flag that makes your ship a safe zone. (4) Add a plank option to the ship to dock at outposts. It is a pirate game, every ship had planks.
Someone advised changing servers. I play on the original Xbox One. It takes close to 10 minutes to load into a game. From the home screen. Usually close to 2 minutes after a death. My buddy usually has done three or four stocking runs to the boat before I load in. Changing servers means losing all the progress you've done, in hopes of getting a different server. I have switched servers and five minutes into playing the message pops up on my screen and puts me in a new server. It almost seems like the game does not like if you are the only one playing.
Someone else compared it to warzone in plunder. I would have to disagree. In some aspects I can see the connections, but plunder is typically a four man team. A sloop is a 2 man team. Always. No matter what. The largest ship is a four man team. Even with CoD there is a campaign where you do not have to worry about PvP.
In the end, it appears there are two types of people who play the game. A) The people who like the PvP and everything the game entails. B) The people who play the game to get away and have fun with a buddy (PvE). Unfortunately, it appears the PvE crowd is on the backburner.
Side Note: There is a pirate chat where you can let everyone know you are new and would like to be left alone. Fair warning, it has never once worked for me.
Chances are, the guys didn't care whether you had loot or not, you were simply in their way.
Chances are as well that they weren't waiting at the same island for you. They very likely had their own voyage there which is why you were in their way. I do that too. If I need an island and need to be there for a time, I'm not spending my time wondering about the other guy, it's easier to just sink them, so I will.
They have absolutely no way of knowing you're new, and to be honest... in the spirit of deception and piracy, there are a lot of people who will pretend to be new to lower someone's guard, only to flip in on that now unprepared, unsuspecting crew that took it easy on them. That's the beauty, and the curse of a game designed around forming uneasy, rocky relationships, and not being 100% confident in who you can trust. It's intended.
There's nothing toxic about it. It's a part of the game, and a part of what players need to be ready to learn to defend themselves against, run away from, or take the L and move on to another island/voyage, scuttle the ship, or whatever else..
You're going to have a handful of the usuad people around here who like to just constantly play the victim try to reinforce to you that the way this game is designed is toxic, and honestly, I urge you to ignore those types of people.
Vent sure, be annoyed by it, sure. We all get that way when we get junked by another crew. Don't jump on the "toxic" bandwagon for people playing this PvEvP game the way it's supposed to be played.
You and your crew learn from it, stock up, be ready to shoot first and ask no questions if for any reasons that matter only to you, you don't like the way someone is approaching you, or the way that ship is lingering just and island away from you.. you don't have to feel bad about it.
If you're going to sit around like some people here and make yourself a victim every time, when you get in game all you're going to be is a victim, you'll be the easy target everybody will love to sink because watching a ship you've nailed with cannonballs go down is highly satisfying, and you'll make it easy because you're already resigned to being a victim of "toxicity". Everything will be toxic because you won't move passed the fact that it's part of the game.. every single one of us goes down, sometimes we go down disgustingly hard, yet we know that's what the game is, and that we'll likely do that to someone else at some point for any number of reasons.
The seas are rough, sometimes you make friends, sometimes you don't and just see a few people in passing... sometimes its kill or be killed, and sometimes you just react to a certain situation by shooting at and utterly destroying someone and their ship who unbeknownst to you had nothing but friendly intentions.. and in the end you'll have never known, and they'll probably be upset.
That's the game. We all go through the same thing, and we all put each other through the same thing.
Being annoyed, frustrated, and venting about it is cool man. We've all been there.. We'll talk toxic though when you try to scuttle your ship, the enemy crew is out bailing the incoming water preventing your ship from despawning and respawning while they're dropping racial slurs on you for respawning your character on your ship that they refuse to let respawn.
Hey guys. So first of all I want to say thanks to all the replys. I really didn´t expect that. In my experience you get one reply and thats it. So thanks.
To the guys telling me that I am not good at games or how the hell I play a CoD or something like that if I just start crying about it. In other Games there are normally meassueres to not get paired with Pros or Higher Level Players and even if there are not I at least get a feeling of getting better at the game until I can keep up. In this case I don´t really get the feeling of getting better as I just got the hang of the PvE aspect of the game and while I try to figure this out I get into PvP right away. Like somebody told before changing servers on Xbox is quite the hassle. Especially when you are in a Group of 4. Also its just annoying having to do that.
Somebody else asked how it is possible to "look like a noob". In my, fairly limited, expierence you can tell just by the look of the Ship. If you don´t have a Paint Job you can just assume they are newer Players. Sure there are people trying to lure you in but it is at least a hint.
We try to flee all the time but often just get overwhelmed as we just got the gist of things and get sunken anyway even tough we hold our Cups up to other people just to signal them that we are friendly. The Chat Option on Xbox is fairly limited to or takes ages to type in (or I am missing a mechanic here) so communicating that you are friendly isn´t really possible.
We will play the Game some more and maybe we will get to a Point where it is a little more fun.Vigilance is your best friend. Always be checking your surroundings. Be aware of how long you've been on an island and have someone regularly run back to a good vantage point to check for approaching ships.
Having a rowboat is always worth it, especially with a two man crew. They are harder to spot and can make good escape plans for your loot if one of you can slip away.
Don't make the mistake of trying to compare SoT to other online games. There are many aspects of SoT that are very unique to itself, and can be frustrating if you try to force them into the mold of other PvP enabled games.
Death is NOT losing. I will often kill myself or allow myself to be killed, just because I feel spawning elsewhere is more advantageous to me at that moment.
I would even suggest playing a session now and then where you purposefully make no progress. Experiment, play around, just do whatever tickles your fancy, but turn in no loot. It's amazing how much more you can enjoy the game if you manage to divest yourself of the need to make "progress".
As always, these are just my own thoughts and methods and may not be useful to you. But I have so much fun with SoT, if my advice can help even one person enjoy it as much as I do, then it's worth it.
Just like in Rust, the bad news are you can't trust anybody. Not even when they agree to alliance. My experience is also if they are kids or sound younger, chances are increasing they will betray you as soon as they get the chance.
The only thing you can do is play ruthless and stay away from people. Don't take any risk, especially if you have loot. If you don't have loot and don't want to fight, stay away from people. It's possible, although it will eat up a lot of your time. Sometimes I sail miles and miles around islands just to avoid running into people because they most likely are hostile.
It's part of the game, nothing can be done about it.
I did the same one time because I felt like just killing people, so I went out and sank a lot of slupes. One guy felt texting me over xbox, calling me toxic and threatened that he was some kind of community manager, went reporting me to the devs, because people like I aren't welcome on "his" peaceful PVE-ocean and him and his team would get rid of players like me.People are just salty like the sea, it's natural. Accept it and have fun.
@xrekkoffx said in Noob Venting:
@soundwavedebomb The grammar of that sentence gave me [mod edited]. lol
Don't be a plumb.
@xrekkoffx As per the Forum Rules we all must remain respectful towards all other community members when posting on the forums. I have moderated your post as it was not in accordance with these rules, failure to remain respectful of all community members will result in a temporary ban from the forums.
Please read and abide by the forum rules going forward.
Thanks!
@heimdall2010 Hey. First of all if you want to prevent such experience in the future ill recommend you to use an ingame voice to communicate with other crew before any attack could be made. This will improve your experience and develop new possibilities.
When crew is muted is mostly hostile.
- Do not sail with more than you are willing to lose - aka sell frequently; at some point you will lose it all.
- Pay attention to the horizon and don't put on blinders while on a voyage, this will allow you to spot them minutes before they are even close enough.
- Respond as you please be it flee, fight or talk.
- Just because you want to be friendly doesn't mean that they want to be friendly.
As you indicate yourself you are new to the game, this is a PvEvP game and both styles are totally viable but both require you to learn, practice and #BeMorePirate.
Regarding priorities:
- The victor is the one still floating, so your ship should be your priority. Even if you don't sink them but get away with your loot... that is a victory in my books.
- The loot that you already collected on your ship is more important than progressing in the voyage or any treasure that is laying on the island; many over the few.
If you notice an area is busy and you have a voyage there, it might be time to cancel the voyage and start a new. Keep yourself safe might require you to adapt your plan based on the situation at hand, the seas are a dynamic place and one should go with the flow.
Good luck and happy sailing.
@heimdall2010 what you have experienced is more or less a Sea of Thieves right of passage.
We've all been there, new, confused and getting wrecked in PvP. We've all thought salty thoughts or posted a rant/vent on the forums about losing a big haul. It's like you're getting jumped in to the Sea of Thieves gang.
That's where everyone's journey starts. You want to get to PL? It's not your reputation level that gets you there though. You have to earn your place on the Sea through hardship and adventure.
There's some things you can do to help make it an easier learning curve. As mentioned above, turn in loot often and never carry more than you are willing to lose. It also helps to remember that the loot doesn't really matter, there's always more loot. The loot is there to give you something worth fighting over but it doesn't really matter if you lose it, you can always get more.
My advice would be to try to learn how to handle yourselves and your ship in a fight. Next time you sail, don't bother stocking up your ship, just set sail and go start a few fights. Try to figure out where you can improve your PvP ability, improve your combat sailing, cannon aim, repairs, boarding + defence. Learn who on your crew is good at which bits. If your ship gets sunk you'll have lost nothing.
Once you're confident that you can put up a decent fight then try the voyages and Tall Tales. You'll still get attacked, but this time when you get attacked you'll be able to fight back effectively. Confidence doesn't come from nowhere, it comes from experience. Confidence is crucial when it comes to PvP in SoT, battles are won and lost in your minds well before they're lost on the Sea.
Good luck and fair winds. It seems tough for you right now, but as someone who has played since launch I envy you, you still have so much to learn and so many interesting experiences to have. When you get to PL/A10 and have millions of gold in the bank and millions of miles under your belt you'll miss how exciting and challenging everything used to be when you were a "noob" like you are now.
Stick with it and you'll earn your titles just like the rest of us did.
I got my right of passage very early into the game. Within the first few hours, noob sloop, no loot, mindlessly exploring an island. Some guy rowboats over and steals my ship.
No problem I think, so I mermaid back on board and he one-shots me right to the back of the head. "Git Gud son" he screams in his heavy accent.
I try again, and again, and again, and again to no avail. Each time he one-shots me with the blunderbuss, he always seems to know exactly where I am going to spawn, his aim is impeccable and he ends every shot with a famous one-liner like "Cry some more" or "Try again noob".
he's not taking my boat anywhere, just sailing round in circles. SO I scuttle it.
He doesn't like that, starts screaming LOUDLY in Spanish as the ship sinks around us, manages to kill me again then drowns himself so he can brag about how many times he killed me on the ferry.But I wasn't angry, I wasn't upset, I wasn't even slightly mad. I found his ridiculous manner, the over-serious attitude he was taking, even the edgy black & red way he was dressed...laughable. I pitted him; that this person had so little in his life that picking on a defenseless new guy for no reward was, for him, such an awarding and joyous experience. In a game where within 30 seconds I was on a brand new ship sailing off to another adventure.
Yes I wish there was some way to stop people like this, I wish there was some way that new players could be protected and always have fun adventures without harassment, but it is not the game.All you can do is learn to laugh it off, not take things so seriously and remember no amount of treasure in this game is worth you losing your temper over.
@heimdall2010 Hi sorry you are having a rough time. I remember my first ten minutes of this game, I got sunk and cussed out lol. With that said I am happy I stuck with the game, you are new and will learn like I did. Feel free to message me on here if you want any advice. Also @CotU42 gave some good tips.
@heimdall2010 said in Noob Venting:
Hey guys. So first of all I want to say thanks to all the replys. I really didn´t expect that. In my experience you get one reply and thats it. So thanks.
To the guys telling me that I am not good at games or how the hell I play a CoD or something like that if I just start crying about it. In other Games there are normally meassueres to not get paired with Pros or Higher Level Players and even if there are not I at least get a feeling of getting better at the game until I can keep up. In this case I don´t really get the feeling of getting better as I just got the hang of the PvE aspect of the game and while I try to figure this out I get into PvP right away. Like somebody told before changing servers on Xbox is quite the hassle. Especially when you are in a Group of 4. Also its just annoying having to do that.We all had to go through the baptism of this game. If you think the game was bloodthirsty now, you have no idea what it was like during launch. The game is utterly docile in comparison.
There are no "high level" players. You learn how to play the game by playing the game. Some players suggesting that learning at the own pace is better but its not. We still have crews that have played the game for a year or more complaining that PvP is too hard and that they need more time to learn.
PvE players will avoid PvP. No amount of time spent doing PvE will help you learn how to PvP.
Some players are telling you to run and just keep running. Don't do that. Don't listen to the PvE players. Listen to the PvP'ers giving you advice.
@Chrusher30 talked about how he spent an hour trying to run away from a ship when he just loaded into the game with no supplies. Do you understand how he wasted his own time over nothing?? He blames the other ship but honestly it was all his fault. He knew he had nothing on the boat, he just started and all he did was spend it running away. He could have just turned around and fought the ship and if he sunk, then he sunk. What changes after he sinks?? Nothing. The boat spawns with exact same equipment he had when he started.
There are a few players that started the game like you, they were frustrated with PvP. Its okay to be frustrated. Losing sucks. They complained. The best part is that most of these players that hated PvP eventually decided that they would have to learn if they wanted to survive. After they learned, they did a complete 180 on their stance. Now they understand the importance of PvP and how great it is in the game.
There is no vertical progression in this game. So a brand new pirate has the same exact things as a pirate who has been playing for 2 years. Same abilities. The only difference is knowledge and that is learned. How quickly you learn is up to you.
PvP, get your feet wet. Attack people. Defend yourself. Learn the game. Don't look at PvP from other players as a problem, look at it as a way to learn more about the game and yourself.
Don't understand something, ask questions. This community is one of the most helpful if you are willing to ask for help and not blame the game.
"Hey guys I had a ship do this and it caught me, what could I have done differently?" - Questions like this lets us know you are willing to learn and want to get better.
"I hate this game, Rare needs to get rid of PvP, I want PvE servers. I was minding my own business and someone attacked me and greifed me and they should be punished!!!" - We will rip into you if you act like this.
Ask for help, understand that WE'VE ALL BEEN THERE. We all had to go through this. Every single one of us got sunk in the beginning and lost loot. All of us. So don't be afraid or ashamed to ask for help.
Somebody else asked how it is possible to "look like a noob". In my, fairly limited, expierence you can tell just by the look of the Ship. If you don´t have a Paint Job you can just assume they are newer Players. Sure there are people trying to lure you in but it is at least a hint.
A lot of older pirates don't fly skins on their ship while sailing. Scares other pirates away. I've been playing since launch and I use the sailor title or the gold picaroon title which is like level 5 gold hoarders? I also don't put skins on my boat, I fly vanilla.
Its not a hint AT ALL. A lot of older pirates don't fly colors. So I am sorry for that lol
We try to flee all the time but often just get overwhelmed as we just got the gist of things and get sunken anyway even tough we hold our Cups up to other people just to signal them that we are friendly. The Chat Option on Xbox is fairly limited to or takes ages to type in (or I am missing a mechanic here) so communicating that you are friendly isn´t really possible.
This is a one of the most important things I can tell you. Just because you are friendly doesn't mean you have some kind of protective shield around you from hostile pirates.
A lot of pirates will lie "I have no loot" then we get on board and they have a ton of loot in the bottom deck.
Others will be like "Lets form an alliance!" and when you let down your guard they come in and sink you.
Others will say "We're friendly!" and again try to sink you.
The only constant in this game is are you prepared to defend yourself?? Just because you are in an alliance doesn't mean you won't be betrayed.
My crew and I follow strict guidelines with other ships that want to approach us or even when we form alliances. Ships have only tried a handful of times to betray us and all of them failed. Other ships try to approach us with the "We're friendly" only for us to catch a swimmer with a keg, we kill the swimmer and sink the ship.
You are the captain of your ship. You are the protector of that ship. You crew is as safe as you make it. The beauty of this game is that its completely in your control. So figure it out man and have fun:).
We will play the Game some more and maybe we will get to a Point where it is a little more fun.
Ask for help from the forums or LFG posts asking for players to give you pointers. Again be willing to learn and don't let the PvP get to you, its part of the game and its actually one of the best parts of it. Without PvP the game would be incredibly boring.
