My crew and I love this game and we enjoy almost all aspects of the game. Three of us are autistic and none of us have more than 12 hours to spend a week on the game. Considering our time constraints, none of us can understand how even children are expected to keep up with caustic PVP players who would rather engage with people who are begging them to stop than other players more interested in PVP.
We play in the High Seas because Rare has ensured the Safer Seas is much less enjoyable and has less to do, but where we struggle the most happens to be our fellow pirates. We understand the game's central focus is Community, but there doesn't seem to be one. Every time we dock with the Sovereign to sell our loot, the ship docked at the other end of the island tries to come around and attack us for no reason. This is not a community, it's more like a mosh pit for bullies.
As a Community, we would all benefit from a server-wide Alliance as there is no drawback to being in an alliance with people, but the few times we've made allies they drop their flag before selling their loot despite making their share from our sold loot.
In the game there is a Flag to indicate you are into PVP. You can sign up for the Hourglass as well, but people don't seem to respect that we don't want to PVP with them. Instead they harass us by giving chase and attack us, despite the fact we have shot a white flare, shot fireworks and even have used the trumpet to indicate we're friendly. They bully us by sinking our ship despite our declarations we're not interested in PVP.
It would be great if Rare would openly start dealing with these people. A three-strike rule based on video evidence from the beginning of conflict rather than hear-say or mid-combat sounds like it would protect players on both sides from misleading reports as well.
It would also be great to include a Parley in the communication dial or as an emote with notification so that we can trade, socialize or even just give our treasure in exchange for our lives.
I made a complaint in a Discord group I'm no longer apart of and they openly laughed at me, so I'm pretty sure the community here might have something to say against my claims that general PVP can be considered harassment and bullying: the Code of Conduct.
https://www.seaofthieves.com/code-of-conduct
"Any activity you engage in that is solely designed to target and upset another player or crew constitutes bullying. Repeated activity designed to ruin the experience of another player or crew constitutes harassment."
By engaging a ship that doesn't desire PVP you are engaging in an activity solely designed to target and upset another player or crew.
By chasing a fleeing ship that has declared it does not desire PVP you are repeatedly following them, trying to ruin their experience, and thus harassing another player or crew.
The game is meant to be fun. If I want to PVP I'll put up the Flag or sign up for Hourglass. If you think I should stick to Safer Seas, then Rare needs to add everything but other players to Safer Seas so I can do the world events that I enjoy doing.
If you agree with me, please share this with your friends so we can put a stop to unwanted PVP by bullies. The more this continues, the less Community-thinking players there will be and the game will be more akin to Call of Duty for Pirates.