I'm seeing a lot of posts about how playing solo is not balanced or not fun. As a person who plays almost exclusively solo, I must disagree. I choose to play solo because I am aware of the challenge and possible rewards of going against 4 man crews. The most fun I have had in this game is when I was able to sink a four man ship as they went to sell their chests. I began the fight by ramming into their ship and boarding. After killing the first two, the other two were not able to repair the ship in time. Before I could go after them, they chose to swim for the mermaid leaving me their unsold chests. This is just one example of success if had backed by countless examples of failure. In my opinion, the challenge is what makes playing solo fun for me. That being said, the respawn system is something I have more of an issue with as instead of it being 1 v 4 I find it more to be 1 v 12 since they respawn on their ship so quickly.
Solo play
I fully agree, i played solo for the first time yesterday, generally to try and really learn the art of sailing and looting, without people doing crazy things (as fun as it might be).
I did a few voyages, had a few navel and pirate to pirate battles (only one on one at any given time) but i really enjoyed the experience. So far i have enjoyed my time when playing in a crew and when playing solo.
My only grumble of being solo is the constant rushing between helm and map table, which generally means, whilst looking at the map i can see my boat crashing into an island or watching it go wildly off course.
There are also a lot of hints, tips and advice for new solo sailors in this thread collected over the past year or so - it can definitely be a more challenging but also a great alternative to sailing with a larger crew.
First off, @Gobbs10 I salute. I agree about the challenge part. I think my friends think I am a glutton for punishment or something. However I think it goes against the level playing field the devs keep trying to create. They want the game to be as "fair" as possible. I also do not see it as sporting. If my friends and I came across a small ship, I would not attack it as I would see little challenge in it, unless it is you? Having said that, if the small ship attacked me, then of course, they initiated it.
As for the respawn, consider it the other way around. What if they boarded your solo ship? Then the numbers might be 4 vs 4.
