The Power of Running and Why its your fault you got Caught.

  • Nabberwar
    Lord
    Insider

    I believe people seriously underestimate how easy it is to run away in this game. With or without loot, anyone can run for an hour. If you get caught with loot and all you have been doing is fleeing, you have only yourself to blame. Here is why it is your fault:

    Teleporting Pirate Ninjas - Their are very few circumstances that you or your crew should be caught off guard on an approaching ship. These ships don't come out of nowhere. Unless they traveled through the storm or fog, their should be no excuse. Time and time again on this forum too many people post "This ship came out of nowhere and attacked us" All I ask is, "Did it really come out of nowhere?" The seas are vast and their are very few islands tall enough to actually block sight of a ship. Watch the horizon, having a vague idea of what ships are around you and in what direction will save you a lot of trouble. Even if you are stopped at a ship wreck solo, a glance before you dip your toes in the water should save you from getting caught of guard. It takes 5 minutes for ships to sail from that far. You ain't no mermaid, you shouldn't be under the water that long anyways. On a large island? Take a stroll to the other side, it takes little to no time and will save you in the long run. You have a telescope, use it.

    Ship diversity and their strengths - Here's looking at you sloop, a Galleon should never be able to catch you. If you sail against wind you will gain distance. This in itself is already demoralizes most ships to stop chasing. The chase will be delayed for an hour, and very few ships are willing to actually chase that long. Same for the Brigantine.

    Delay tactics of the Runner - If you are in a position of being directly behind a ship you are chasing, you are at a disadvantage. In this position, you can be attacked and can't attack back. How you may ask? Through Gunpowder and boarding tactics. If you the Runner have gunpowder, just set your ship going straight and drop one off the back. If you want more of a guaranteed success, just jump with it. The Ship can't afford to veer off, otherwise they lose ground in the chase, so a board is an easy thing. Even if they watch their ladders, they either have to pre-detonate it or let you board. Neither is a good thing, no matter what they do they will take holes and lose players. If you don't have Kegs, just go for an anchor drop. Dropping it once, will cause them to lose a large amount of ground.

    Being caught with Loot - If you do any of the previously listed things, you should never lose loot. If you implore any delay tactics and know when to flee cause you see them rolling up in the distance, you should be able to beeline to an outpost. Just sail close to the dock jump off and sell. Be careful not to do it when they are close to cannon off the island. Mermaid back after loot is sold. Ship should be fine if you set its course straight.

    Never Anchor - Unless your in a storm, and even then you can get away with not anchoring the most you will do is rotate in place. Learn to lift sails and coast in, this provides the benefit on be able to flee at a moments notice. Its a good habit to get into, learn it now rather then before you sink. It also is a great way to rotate cannons on an approaching ship. Lets be real though, your fleeing not fighting.

    Proactive Sailing - The enemy is behind you, their is no excuse to not be proactive on sails. Watch the wind and adjust sails accordingly. If you plan on trying some maneuvers know that you can make tighter turns if you raise some sails. Be prepared to drop them immediately once turn is achieved. Use Rocks, shallow areas (if sloop), fog, volcanoes, and even storms if you are desperate. ( @LimbicFanatic for suggestion)

    Resupply in transit - Are you low on supplies? Is this the reason you are running? Time to learn how to resupply while in transit. See those birds flying in the middle of nowhere? This means their is barrels or a sunken ship. Jump ship empty on supplies. Both are a great resource for supplies just mermaid back when the opportunity floats up. Do the same for every island. ( @LimbicFanatic for suggestion)

    Get crazy - Passing by a fort? Shoot over and start using the Islands supply of cannons to pepper the ship. You aren't losing anything, the island is. Shoot yourself to the island cannons, then use those cannons to leap frog back onto their ship. Are you able to get onto their ship? Start taking their supplies too. Eat their banana's, use their own kegs against them. Take their rowboat with their own stuff? Why not, keep giving them reasons not to pursue you. If you set the right course for your ship, or you have teammates, your ship will be fine.

    Their is very few reasons for the PvE crowd to lose loot to aggresive PvP players. A lot will chime in and say "I am not good at fighting." My answer to this is then you should excel at sailing then. If all your gonna do is flee at least do it right.

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  • xCALYPT0x
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain

    @nabberwar Excellent tips that every solo player needs to master to be successful.

  • KattTruewalker
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @nabberwar

    These are some really excellent tips, I'm wondering whether you intended to post here in feedback or might this be better in the Guides section of the forums? I'll happily move it across for you if so and I'd also like to add it to this post -

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/78199/guide-for-new-pirates

  • Nabberwar
    Lord
    Insider

    @katttruewalker
    You do you, I won't be upset either way. Main goal for this was for ranty purposes, with an attempt at positivity. Feels like too many people jump to complaining rather then have some self inflection on what could have been done differently. If you feel the post needs to go elsewhere, go for it.

    Question though, is the link you sent a new post or something built over time?

  • KattTruewalker
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @nabberwar

    It's a new post but it's reflective of something which I created on the forums before release and is now archived, so it contains a bit of everything and hopefully members of the community will add to it, for all those new to the seas.

  • Meurtrisseur

    @Nabberwar I have to disagree on one point : ninja ship coming from nowhere. When playing solo or even duo and being focused on your missions, fighting or simply exploring you totally may not see an incoming ship, especially if you're on an island.

    Major issue from the game being ship make no sound on water for "enemy" crews, which is quite bad design imo considering they should be noisy especially at average and full speed. Once I've been caught offguard by a galantine while checking sails at seller on the deck. Until the ship ended litterally in my face I wasn't aware at all that such a big ship was just charging me full speed.

  • CapnDeath
    Commander
    Insider

    I agree completely and have been both in both situations. My crew is fully aware that should be fail to watch our backs and get caught with our pants down it is our fault for not paying more attention.

  • LimbicFanatic
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    This post offers a lot of good advice. I would like to expand on some of these points from the perspective of someone who regularly plays with an aggressive galleon crew.

    Check your surroundings- anytime my crew spots another ship, we ask ourselves if we're bored enough to engage. If we decide to pvp, we sail straight up to the other ship. I would estimate that 50% of the time, the other ship doesn't even notice us until we open fire. That's on them- if they'd been vigilant and checked the horizon at any point during the 5 minutes it took us to sail over there, they wouldn't have been caught off guard.

    Don't be passive while you're running- if our target notices us approaching and flees, we still stand a good chance of catching them because we're patient. Many ships will start sailing into the wind, but then spend their time staring at us. While you're wasting time shooting at us with your eye of reach, you haven't noticed that the wind shifted, or that you're about to sail off the edge of the map. Be proactive and look for opportunities! Keep the wind's direction in mind and adjust course or sails as needed. Are there rocks or islands in your path? Try to bait your pursuer into running aground, or trick them into sailing around the island while you cut across their path. Are there barrels in the water? Jump off and resupply- you may have to fight sooner or later, and it's better to have plenty of planks and cannonballs for that eventuality. Are you directly in front of your pursuer? Try to board and anchor them! If you manage to drop their anchor: focus on staying alive rather than killing them. You might be surprised how long you can stay alive against 3-4 other players if you're running and jumping erratically. If they ignore you and focus on raising the anchor, use that opportunity to check their crows nest for gunpowder, turn their wheel, or steal their bananas. Your goal is to delay their pursuit for as long as possible.

    Have fun- Sea of Thieves is a game! Don't look at pursuit as something bad about to happen- look at as as a chance to test your sailing ability. I get a thrill whenever I'm being chased, because I see it as an opportunity to do something cool. I have recorded my best moments when fighting or fleeing from other players.

    Anyways, I hope readers will be able to use my and @Nabberwar 's points to approach Sea of Thieves with a new perspective.

  • KattTruewalker
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @limbicfanatic

    Those are also some good tips, great to see from the other perspective too :)

  • Nabberwar
    Lord
    Insider

    @meurtrisseur

    I have to disagree on one point : ninja ship coming from nowhere. When playing solo or even duo and being focused on your missions, fighting or simply exploring you totally may not see an incoming ship, especially if you're on an island.

    You can disagree all you want, that's fine. However, at the end of the day if you get sidetracked and develop blinders to all the ships surrounding you, that's on you still. No cave system takes 5 minutes to navigate and no island prevents players from using their telescopes on land. Hell, if you are a duo, that's even less of an excuse. One stays on the ship, while the other searches. That goes for any ship, if you have the extra manpower, have someone keep tabs while on the ship.

  • Nabberwar
    Lord
    Insider

    @limbicfanatic
    Some good points I will cite you and and some into the main post.

  • Red0Demon0
    Commander
    Insider

    Good points but their are some flaws with what you said, mostly with the fact that you didn't take into account the brigantine's relationship into the mix. FOr example, yes, the sloop can run away from the galleon but the same can not be said for the brig. The sloops speed and brigs speed are almost identical when going against the wind, with the only probable difference is the sloop has faster maneuvering. However, with the wind, the brig is actually faster than the sloop. From close distances, the sloop may be able to make a quick turn away from a brig but that brig will just quickly catch up again because at farther distances any ship can realign positioning for a change in a target ship's change in direction. Furthermore, against wind, both ships will loose no distance against each other, and with the wind the brig will catch up to the sloop.

  • TimboAGoGo
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    And here are a few reasons why it is NOT always your fault.....

    1. Skelly ship spawns into the chase and hits you repeatedly with anchor balls or similar.
    2. Skelly ship spawns with Meg into the chase and both attack.
    3. Kraken spawns on you and your enemy attacks at the same time but from safety outside of the ink.

    All of the above have happened to me while being chased solo sloop by other ships of varying sizes but sadly my ship only survived one of these.

  • Salvasian AU
    Insider

    Amen, extraordinarily well said!

  • Salvasian AU
    Insider

    @meurtrisseur No you are at fault in all of the situations you listed. Islands are round (not a circle) that you can sail around. If you do not know whether there is anyone around them or potentially nearby but hidden by land and you do not spend the time to sail around and make sure you are safe, then you are taking a risk and it is entirely your fault if you get caught. It is that pure and simple.

    Ships also do not need to make sound any more than they do, if they did make sound then by the time you should be able to hear it then it is too late already.

    Just to be clear, there is no island where you cannot circle and then intermittently check the surroundings on such that you cannot identify approaching ships in sufficient time to escape. If you think that there is, then you are not checking your surrounding enough while on islands and are probably too focused on your mission.

  • Salvasian AU
    Insider

    @red0demon0 I agree that the brig is definitely harder to shake than a galleon, but they should not be able to catch you (unless you do something dumb). While a brig does turn faster than a gelleon it is still not enough to keep up with the agile sloop. Some of the tricks that I use are to take advantage of the various rock formations around the place, you can duck and weave through them to gain significant ground on the brig, as well as you can use them to hide your sight for a short time and while they are blind turn to gain an advantage. Another trick is to use your anchor for anchor turns, forcing them to either turn slowly (giving you ground) or anchor turn themselves in which case you have the speed advantage as the brig anchor is substantially slower to raise. Also use the brigs advantages against it, for example sail with the wind behind you and you can be assured that the the brig will fully deploy its sails, then let is get close to you and then either anchor turn or raise sails to turn quickly and head back into the wind. The brig will go flying past you, because you have first mover advantage and know what you are doing, the brig will also not know if you are moving to attack, changing direction, having a stroke, etc, so will usually split its crew amongst various stations (if fully manned, one on wheel, one on cannon, and one on sails, but frequently two on cannon or with one trying to board) meaning that its reaction will be even worse. Regardless of what you do, a brig shouldn't be able to get you.

  • Salvasian AU
    Insider

    @timboagogo No they are still your fault for the following reasons:

    1. You have advance warning of a skelly ship spawning, and they do not immediately shoot when they come out of the water. This gives you time to react and you should be able to easily evade the ship, I have never been caught in this situation despite it happens many times.

    2. Megs added into the mix, so what. She might bite you at the back (which gives you additional forward momentum, yay free speed!), you can keep sailing and fix the minimal damage as it should always be on your rear and so can be safely ignored for quite some time. If you do not want to devote such time to fixing the up to 4 holes, then just bail occasionally, after all your shouldn't just be drinking grog and playing music all the time.

    3. Don't drop your anchor or raise your sails with the kraken and you will escape the black ink pretty quickly. You may take a few shots and maybe have a boarder or two, but on the several times this has happened to me I have always escaped alive.

  • SwimPlatypus7
    Marauder

    @meurtrisseur said in The Power of Running and Why its your fault you got Caught.:

    @Nabberwar I have to disagree on one point : ninja ship coming from nowhere. When playing solo or even duo and being focused on your missions, fighting or simply exploring you totally may not see an incoming ship, especially if you're on an island.

    Major issue from the game being ship make no sound on water for "enemy" crews, which is quite bad design imo considering they should be noisy especially at average and full speed. Once I've been caught offguard by a galantine while checking sails at seller on the deck. Until the ship ended litterally in my face I wasn't aware at all that such a big ship was just charging me full speed.

    Check the horizon regularly.

    I have never been caught when playing solo, nor with my regular crew because I play with an extreme bit of paranoia that keeps me alive.

    Part of your job is to stay alive, and order to do that watching out to see if someone is inbound is key to that.

  • MetaGravedom

    teleporting pirate ninjas: if text pops up on the screen and you get caught in a server merge it is VERY likely that someone can instantly pop up right next to you. it's happened to me a few times. its not a big deal because usually i have a very small amount of loot.

    Never anchor: you can anchor if you need to quick stop. i use this a bunch. turn the wheel in the direction you want to spin to, drop anchor, raise sails, raise anchor and fire away. if you need to run you can usually drop sails and get out pretty quick. usually ill drop anchor drift to the side pop them with an anchor ball and a dance ball. by the time they get their ship going its too late I'm already gone.

    PVE only players, ok so you suck at combat. i get it I'm not that great either. if you want to get someone off your back all you need is a few gun powder barrels in your crows nest. grab a barrel run to the back of your ship zig zagging so you don't get sniped, drop it in the water when they are getting closer to you. you will blow so many holes in their ship they will have no choice but to back off. its pretty easy to do and the other ship will lose their mind when they realize the grave mistake they made.

  • Birdhairs

    I think this is all great advice, but the one thing that really stood out to me is having fun with it. Just chill out if you get attacked. Yes you might be attacked and steamrolled, but what is the worst case scenario? You start with a new ship that has standard starting supplies and you may lose some loot. What does loot get you? Cosmetics man, it's not like you're losing the chance at a skill point or losing real world money, just time. It's important to have the perspective that it really is about the journey, not the destination. No matter how cheesy that sounds, it is completely true. I get it, I used to get mad at losing my loot to another crew, but it really doesn't take that long to get back with the exception of some of the high level loot. You'll grow too frustrated with the game if you constantly are afraid of PvP and losing loot/supplies.

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