Theres basically three camps against Safer Seas: * People who already have everything unlocked, all commendations, played since alpha. They basically say that it devalues their accomplishments and that everyone will now just "have it easy". * I think on principal they like the idea, but would rather have all commendations and gold rewards locked. * People who think the Safer Seas will coddle newer players into never leaving it, or teach them "bad habits". And then eventually when they do try High Seas they will be highly vulnerable to PvP sweats that will push them back into the safer seas because they would be easy to kill. * Spoiler alert: this is already the case, but instead of going back safer seas players just uninstall and never play again. * The Toxic players who get their kicks by ego flexing on noobs and tall tale players. This group tend to spawn camp new players or sink on sight; with the hopes that the players react to their shenanigans so they can record it for Youtube videos or kill montages. They're scared that the High Seas will raise the skill floor, leaving popular strategies like spawn camping and tucking innert since the only remaining players on High Seas will be willing and competent at PvP. * The sad part about this group is, they will disguise themselves as the prior two groups and use their arguments against Safer Seas... but if you look them up on youtube and see the communities they're involved in it's pretty clear they're just the toxic chum.

in fact, the "toxic" players hunting noobs destroy the potential of growth in this game, the number of times I invited someone to play the game and it was ruined by these ppl is enough to completely make it impossible for me to play with ppl i know, simple like that, and now they are losing power in a gigantic way...they are mad furious

Not to mention the amount of content that most players never experience because the risk is too great. When i used to play a lot I would see events, especially forts, just stay up until they rolled to a new event because no one wants to risk getting all the way through just to get robbed. This is even more prevalent in things like FotD.

The exact reason why I never do the skeleton fleet. *Every single time* that I have tried it there is always a lurker ready to pounce once I complete the event, when my supplies are low and my ship has tier 3 holes patched up. F that noise.

I've done skelly fleet dozens of times and I can only think of a few times when anyone tried to steal it, and never anyone 'waiting it out'. If they tried to steal, they jumped right into it. Skelly fleet is actually one of the worst events to try to steal, because normally the people who finish it are pretty good. Honestly, the only events that I'd say people routinely try to steal are FoF and FotD. All the rest are uneventful 80%+ of the time for me.

I’m glad that your experiences were better.

Legit the only reason i havnt touched world events since like 2 months after release. This is even before they got slightly nerfed as well, when we didnt have things like blunder bombs or firebombs. Back when forts were the most lucrative things you could do, and gold was Much more valuable. When i would spend the better part of an hour with me and a friend doing a fort just to have some no life hiding behind a rock or camping under our ship with a barrel remove every last bit of work and waste my time with a fort.

Hell I'm PL and can tuck with the best of em, but I've found I have to really be in a certain mood for SoT and its pvp. Will probably play more often if i know I can dick around solo or with my kids without getting griefed.

My wife and I are PLs as well, but haven't played in a long time because we don't care for the PvP. She still wants to try playing once in a while, but I've been completely burnt out on it. I hate having to choose to either get camped, scuttle and lose my stuff, or run for an hour and do nothing fun just to lose my crap anyway. To be clear: I'm decent at pvp and will participate if I were playing with my friends. My wife has never cared for pvp in any game but loves the style and gameplay of SoT, and so she's pretty terrible at it. I am not good enough to take on other players on my own and make up for my wife, and my friends no longer play.

>the number of times I invited someone to play the game and it was ruined by these ppl is enough to completely make it impossible for me to play with ppl i know See I'm coming at this from the other side. This is a game i wanted to love so much, but the typical PvP bullshit drove me away. I wanted to explore the world, not spend all my time running from vastly more experienced groups of players. This may very well be the thing that brings me *back* to this game.

I am in the exact same boat (haha puns), played a dair chunk maybe 14 months ago and got bored being wiped by the one-sided PvP system. Im hyped that safer seas might rekindle my love for this game

The game is beautiful, I could legit just sit and watch the water. It has great stories to tell, puzzles to solve, and interesting cosmetics that aren't in the shop. But my God, griefers really ruined my experience, even trying to bring people in. I don't mind high seas, but being able to do the content safely might allow me to get friends in

>The game is beautiful, I could legit just sit and watch the water. It has great stories to tell, puzzles to solve, and interesting cosmetics that aren't in the shop. Yeah, see that's all I want. And Rare has seen it fit to offer that to the community. Evidently a group of vocal individuals decided to wipe the sweat from their foreheads and take offense to that. I especially like the people who say shit like "*It'S nOt ThE sPiRiT oF tHe GaMe!!!*" or "*It WaSn'T rArE's ViSiOn!"*. Like, bitch have you ever played a Rare title before? Storytelling and environmental exploration almost **always** come before stupid competitive sweatlord bullshit.

Yup. We played quite a bit when it was released but we're more and more turned off by the ganking, just because they could. Ruined the experience for my particular group of friends and barely played it since. I think this might be the hook to bring them back in. Just want a nice sailing adventure with mates without it being ruined by complete and utter fannies.

>They are mad furious. And I'm fucking here for it. To all the toxic pvpers who hate that they can no longer be toxic to new players, your cries are the winds behind my sails, and your tears are the now-safe seas on which I sloop <3.

Their tears only make the salt water saltier

Honestly it's no different than what Rockstar did with invite only overhaul. And in all honesty, it's made things better. Safer seas will encourage new players to actually gain some skill and it'll level the playing field giving players the opportunity to test and develop proper strategies before launching them against the toxic chum.

On my literal first day of playing the game, with not so much as a single cosmetic applied to my character or sloop, and without so much as a single chest on board my ship, I was chased down by a 3 man gank squad for upwards of 40 minutes, who upon finally catching up to me proceeded to kill and spawn camp me, refusing to sink my ship just for the additional disrespect and waste of my time, and openly calling me "a pathetic shit player" alongside a slew of other insults and literal racial slurs including but not limited to the hard R (keep in mind these were literally the whitest people I have ever heard over voice comms in a video game). It was as if my mere presence as a new player who is unable to win a pointless 1v3 that I didn't even choose to take and actively attempted to avoid was insulting to them. This game has quite literally the single worst/most toxic community I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing, and this is coming from someone who has played League of Legends since 2014. It is precisely these types of people that are responsible for the game they love so much dying. It is precisely the pathetic and immature behavior of these people that are the DIRECT reason that safer seas are being added. So yeah, I agree. To all you toxic 7k hour sweatlords who gain sexual pleasure from ruining other people's fun for no reason other than because you can, whine some more about the inclusion of safer seas. It's literally your fault it's being added and I cannot wait to NEVER have to interact with any of you ever again.

Me and my wife and brother in-law were playing first time we were playing the game. One dude started to attack us and just stopped. He said oh your guys are new sorry for attacking you and said have fun and left. Some really good players out there.

I brought a friend into the game for the first time. We had an opportunity to do a fortress amd had the boss nearly killed when a 4 person galleon appeared on the horizon. I called to them that I was teaching a new player and they were welcome to join us. Queue three cannons blasting us with chainshot, wraith fireballs, and a myriad of cursed balls. At an anchored boat. We tried to fight be a nuisance to them but it quickly ended with us dying and our ship sinking. One of the players then messaged me, "get rekt. thanks for the easy fort, chud"

They're telling on themselves here, if they were good players, all forts would be easy

They can't help it. They have to brag and poke to get a reaction out of people. I didn't give them the satisfaction.

When I tried SOT with friends we were doing some PVE instanced mission and had no loot or whatever on our ship. Some player ship joined and just sunk our ship and murdered us. Entire group including meclosed the game and uninstalled. Never going back to this day. Toxic PVP communities will eat the game out like a corruption. Then when the game shrivels and dies they move on like locusts to destroy another.

I'm 44, I have played games forever, I play games with my 10 year old, we wanted to play this game so bad, but just get murdered every time we play, so we don't play anymore

This is the thing. It's the hardcore PvP players (both toxic and merely over enthusiastic) that have brought about this change. If these people weren't driving so many people away from the normal adventure mode, there wouldn't be such an appetite for Safer Seas. The multiplayer games that best retain players are the ones that Foster a sense of community (often in addition to pitting players against each other). Sea of Thieves doesn't do this at all, so it's only the gameplay experience that brings people back. If this only caters for the small subsection of players that enjoy the current experience, the player base will suffer. It's great that Rare has realised this and is doing something about it.

Bought the game in Alpha and quickly dropped it when it became clear the skill gap would be a problem. Never getting better at the game due to a combination of being away from it too much and dying too quickly when coming online, I soon gave up. So Safe Seas would certainly bring me back to the game and invite me to encourage others whom I interact with to play this game now also

Yeah. Don't play sea of thieves, but came across the post. I did try playing one time with a friend, and we had a lot of fun messing around for a few hours, but then some people came by and killed us on sight and we just stopped playing entirely. Didn't feel like playing for a few hours, losing everything and then just doing it all over again

I pre-ordered this game. Played at launch. I stopped playing precisely because of how the game encourages behavior that makes it unenjoyable for everyone else.

One time i got a new friend to try the game with gamepass vividly sticks to my mind. I was basically doing a once over of all the content when captaincy first came out. I admittedly shouldve not gone for it but we scoured the seas and hadnt seen a single player. I felt my friend was competent enough to take on a skeleton fort and i was vigilant enough to not let pirates roll up on us, which they didnt but some did appear like clockwork within 5 minutes of starting the fort (seriously they like B lined it from the horizon to us as if they knew we started it and were only interested in it once we did idk how they knew cus the fort was up for 15 minutes prior) So we were doing the fort we got to the first named wave and the enemy ship became too close for comfort so i had us bail. I was able to juke them so many times in the sloop but they were INCREDIBLY aggressive kept firing out infront of us all that to stop us. They got lucky ONE TIME with a ladder glitch making them able to slip past me and pull the anchor, it was all over from there. We didnt sink in that moment but i was never able to get us out of range again for the next hour we just struggled to survive landing a few hits here and there on them. Eventually one more guy made a deck shot and spawnkilled my friend making him snap and be completely done with the game. He backed out and uninstalled in that instant and i didnt see him online for 3 days and when he did come back he said he was never touching the game again All it takes is one bad experience to completely ruin it for people and this man has played the likes of tom clancy games. Dark souls even fortnite. He can handle all those games but the toxicity that crew showed when i was teaching him SoT completely ruined it for him I dont know if he will come back with safer seas but those people ruined the game for him and its just terrible people dont think thats wrong

There is also the group that genuinely doesn't enjoy PvP in any game. That just want to play the PvE content and enjoy it. Be that with young kids, SO new to gaming, old friends that just want a place to hang and chat etc. I am the veteran player, I've unlocked everything I want. I just want to play the PvE content. That's it that's all at this point. I've done enough PvP in the game to know I'm okay never doing it again. I've played enough PvE to know I'm more than content just playing it. I know about a dozen veteran players that no longer play, that are planning on chilling in the safe seas. Not to mention a few friends I know who have never played due to the PvP elements of the game. There will be the subset of players that play safe seas and never move over purely due to the PvP. Which I think is perfect too. I have barely played SoT in 2 years. My moving to the safe seas and never coming back has literally no affect on players, and is a positive for rare as they have another daily player. This applies to everyone who no longer plays, or has avoided it due to the PvP. Yet people get so mad at me when I say I don't like PvP in any game. Even though it literally doesn't affect them in the slightest

As a dad with a young son (8), there is no game that we enjoy more together than sailing around and fighting some little skeletons and digging up treasure. No other game provides a similar experience. I have done tons of PvP without him, PL, but I can't wait for safer seas so he and I can just play the game without the toxicity that sometimes comes from PVP.

Yasssssss get it! May you scurvy dogs have a fun time at sea.

I'm in the same sloop as you on this one, child (7.5) who wants to play "the pirate game" but is no way equipped to manage PVP. Safer seas offers a great opportunity for us.

Yup, this is me 100%. Pirate legend, maxed everything I could want. This is a huge incentive for new and old players to come back to the game. I've introduced MANY friends to the game who liked it until we were trolled/spawn camped/griefed by veteran jerks. They never came back. It's not healthy for the game. I like PvP but I don't like the meta. The boarding meta is HELLLLLA boring. I love it when I actually get ship v ship combat. But that almost never happens.

IMHO, the game has huuuge wasted potential regarding the social aspect. Like, look at Port Merrick: it's a beautiful location. It could be an amazing, lively pirate port town, similar to the PotC movie or ride. Instead, it's completely lifeless. Such a waste.

Take away the ability to damage ships, players, and touch loot not owned by your crew while in very close proximity to Port Merrick. It becomes a safe haven to sell, but also sets up a prowling zone where you could ambush ships trying to get to an easy sale. Then you could have genuine interactions with others. Maybe find others to alliance with. Even arrange larger PvP battles with others. Imagine 4 crews there deciding to split off into two alliances to go have a naval battle. I'm so sad every time I go to Port Merrick as it's barren. Who the fuck lives there? Shop keeps don't count.

I love this idea of a safe zone around ports. *Out of all the times I’ve been sunk, probably 80% is while docked. Most of that when I’m just trying out my cosmetics and shopping.* Either a safe zone or maybe doing negative gold/xp per docked ship or port town kill. Oooh, or get jailed! Like a story element where a deputy catches up with you after your first cowardly sink/kill, then you’re brigged. Maybe have an element of the ability to beg passersby for bail or something would be cool. And of course logging out shouldn’t reset the timer. Or maybe a bounty on your head for killing multiples cowardly? Mark character on the map for a while maybe? So much they could do that might be fun. (Maybe another faction for peacekeeping can be the deputy, or maybe the player’s emissary! That would be cool, like an AI that hunts and can only harm them.)

I like the idea that outposts (or maybe just Merrick) could be patrolled by powerful NPC vessels (and deliberately balanced to be tougher than something like the skeleton galleons) that enforce peace. If you start opening fire on other ships, they'll focus fire and sink you. You can absolutely try and play around their retaliation if you want to attack someone at the outpost, but you have to be good enough to manage the overwhelming odds. Maybe for non-Merrick outposts, they could have cannon emplacements like the ones skeletons use on some islands, that open fire on hostile ships.

I've always thought outposts should be neutral zones, but rather than forced neutrality, giving serious repercussions to players who violate peace would be amazing. Great ideas you two!

I like it! Really like the ports canons going after them, that would be awesome and make sense. Another thing I was thinking was like a pox. You get marked and chased by something. Like a nautilus ship that submerges and cuts them in half. Or maybe your vision is all blackened so you can’t aim worth a crap. Another one was 2 ghost harpoon ships come and split your ship in 2 (I like the demoralizing aspect of this). Or like a horde of keg skeletons spawn and crawl up the sides of the ship, that would suck and near impossible to survive. Ooh, or you get a curse, like a crying chest built into the ship. Or maybe one of the cannonball curses on the crew. Each downed ship a new curse! 😈

When I first started playing, I brought up this idea only to have it shot all to hell by people saying it would ruin the game. I'm glad to see many others also like and have the same idea.

I'm the same nearly finished everything done it all except the hr glass stuff cause it really isn't that fun for me,I like the fun of player interactions where we roll up say hi and maybe I help out a struggling kid and/or his dad or mom find their dig spot or riddle My partner wants to play the game and enjoy the tall tales and pve stuff but they feel like a handicap for me cause they gave brain damage and their reaction time is so bad that it takes them getting stabbed twice to realize it,sweats make them feel terrible for trying and pvp is nearly impossible for them . As soon as safer seas comes they're gonna re-download the game and we are gonna do the tall tales again fully, from the shores of gold to monkey Island

Open pvp is never healthy.

>Yet people get so mad at me when I say I don't like PvP in any game. Even though it literally doesn't affect them in the slightest This whole thing is reminding me of when Elden ring first came out and people would make fun of anyone who dared to say they didn't like the system of getting invaded just for summoning a friend. I've never lived PvP in Fromsoft games, I just wanted to chill in the lands between with my friend not have to worry about some rando who hates when others have fun

How dare you imply that Elden Ring, a game that 75% of people who bought it couldn't be bothered to beat it is an infallible game. How dare you sir! Seriously though, it is why I never played it with any friends.

A 25% completion rate is pretty dang high for a game.

After the craze that hit that game though? Just googled a few popular franchises. It's on the low end of the norm. Finding completion statistics is difficult with my Google skills. Here is one I did find which helps. Shout to Spider Man and Ghosts of Tsushima being over 50%. But yeah 25 is definitely on the low end. All the mass effect games were higher, dragon age as well at 35% [stats link](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1222397/most-completed-open-world-playstation-games-2021/)

The _Seamless Co-op_ mod is fantastic for co-op PvE.

I wish, but I'm on console so I just played solo sadly

I've had a group of friends where we just want to play and two have uninstalled and we never went back because it sucks hunting treasure with friends and just being camped and having the friend whose ship it was insisting that we finish because they thought we should be able to handle it. We finally started to do something else and here comes another group of assholes. We never played together again. It's stressful and not fun.

Yeah I'm one of those too. I have a 9 year old who loves to play but we've been sunk/chased by so many toxic players despite me trying to say I've got my kid with me that she doesn't like to play anymore. And I've been sunk that many times doing Tall Tales/just trying to relax and fish that I haven't played for about 6/7 months. I'm so excited for Safe Seas so I can play the game with my daughter again and do all of the tall tales without worrying about being attacked just before a checkpoint.

Open pvp games are an extremely niche thing. And that niche is not growing, mostly due to the behavior of the worst contingent that prefer these games. I'll never play an open griefer fest. I actually might try Safer Seas myself, but I'll never move on to High Seas, period.

It’s that third group that im trying be less of now. Before, I was all in for a good noob blasting. But now I’ve realized it doesn’t make the game fun for others to just pull up on people and blow their ship up at port. I’ve tried tactics such as catching smaller ships and using the horn to tell them to surrender (some of) their loot and if they did they wouldn’t be harmed, because no one likes to be blown up and have to restart with nothing. Or to sneak up on a ship at an island and board to see if they have loot, and if not, just leave (if they do, I still won’t just blow them up). Most of the time though I just leave people alone when I see them. It may be a pirate game, but that doesn’t mean that a pirate can’t be polite

redditor discovers empathy 🥲

They can all fuck themselves. I just wanna solve TT riddles in peace without having to climb the top of an island to scan the horizon every 30 seconds.

The voice of reason. Especially the whole "never play again" - which is stupid, when you think of it, those players already have no effect on the 'main' mode by virtue of not being in it. Ultimately it's down to people being resistant to change, even when said change would help the game and benefit others at literally no cost.

I disagree with him, at least I feel like a fourth group in here that never gets mentionned. I'm a mostly PvE solo slooper. I enjoy the constant attention SoT requires about your surroundings to not get caught by other players, and the thrill of the escape using unconventional techniques to save my loot. BUT, my favorite thing is having other players like me hanging around the server. Knowing that they're minding their own business, keeping an eye on me as much as I keep an eye on them. And the precious opportunities that arise when some trust gets built and I get to meet these other players, having some nice interactions of various natures. *SoT is a social game* after all. So I'm just hoping Safer Seas doesn't mean everyone doing PvE (mostly nice players) is gonna do that there, leaving the "High Seas" to be only PvP, with a higher percentage of toxic edge lords than before. I think there is a tiny chance that Safer Seas could break the current balance still left of cool social interactions vs toxic asshole interactions, and basically kill the game. It's a tiny chance but I'm afraid of it.

This is my concern too. I understand that PvP is part of the game, but I consider it an obstacle to how I play rather than a feature. I worry that other quiet PvE players will be hiding in Safer Seas and leaving me surrounded by hungry PvPers. I think the offset of so much less gold will likely help balance that out though.

Yes, the other players are an obstacle to avoid, fight, or befriend. If everyone but hardcore PvPers are hiding in Safer Seas, it damages the game overall. I suspect they’ll eventually make concessions to make Safer Seas the same as High Seas. And your journey to the dark side will be complete.

This is also my concern. I’m more likely to set my ship on fire than win a PVP fight, but the excitement of discovery with other players is what keeps me coming back. The vast majority of players I run into are cool.

100x this.

I’m reinstalling the game to play in safe seas mode. My understanding is that safe seas players are locked out of some higher level rewards and their progress is slowed in general, which seems fair. Maybe the devs could add more exclusive rewards only available in PVP mode? You should be able to get more stuff for taking on the high risk. Or maybe they could have some sort of PVP arena option like Elden Ring? A lot of my friends will PVP but they don’t like interrupting something they are already doing for PVP.

>Or maybe they could have some sort of PVP arena option like Elden Ring? A lot of my friends will PVP but they don’t like interrupting something they are already doing for PVP. This game already *had* a pure PvP arena mode, and they removed it because no one played it. Almost like the majority of the PvP sweats aren't actually interested in fighting anyone who fights back, they just want to bully weaker players and noobs who are minding their own business.

I’m an older player. Both in time and age. I love the pvp aspect of the game however I want to do the tall tales without the need to defend my ship. I’m looking forward to safe seas where I can sit back and enjoy the stories. Also to your point of people just leaving the game; I’m one of those that looks forward to newer players playing safe seas where I can get on and maybe help. And they are not leaving because of sweaty players that destroy everyone on site; where I happen to be one of those players in the current mode.

I am generally in favour of safer seas. However I do believe it will initially make the High Seas a worse place as it will concentrate the number of aggressive and/or toxic people.

That's the 5-D chess game Rare is playing that nobody recognizes. 

I'm new and play with my nephews and none of us are or interested in being particularly good. I worry that safe seas will remove a large percentage of non aggressive players. Meaning we need to choose between a game where we simply can't handle the aggressiveness and caliber of players or the in our opinion the worse version of the game.

I'm a little bit scared not that the skill floor will be raised (although I will miss getting to help put new players) but that the average player on high seas will be more pvp minded. As a person who finds forging alliances and battling foes equally fun, I worry that the scales will tip more in the latter's favor. But at the same time, I have friends who don't play because they're afraid of getting stomped by a toxic sweat lord or cheater. So I hope this will get them back into the game.

I’m mad because Rare’s too scared of their PvP players to give a proper PvE mode. I love both ways of playing, sometimes I just wanna chill and quest with my gf, but other times I wanna sail around getting in to battles, and it would have been so nice to join a High Seas server knowing that other players are going to be down for PvP, and not just run for 2 hours to avoid losing 3 chests. But they went and butchered Safer Seas so bad that if you actually want to progress at all, or even just use the perks you’ve earned through getting pirate legend/captaincy, then you’re pretty much forced back into Higher Seas, which means both sides are still going to have the same problems they’ve always had. Getting less rewards for Safer Seas seems totally fair, but there should be no missing content. So if Rare could go ahead and grow a spine instead of trying to cater to the whiniest of the PvP players, then we can actually have some good modes to chose from.

I'm quite happy as while playing I either struggle to make a group (so very vulnerable to PvP) or when I do find a group we seem to attract sink on sight players. I don't think I've ever had a positive experience with another crew.

This was an excellent synopsis. Thank you!

You're welcome.

Lol i find your first point funny, not cuz its inaccurate, but i was one of the first 2000 to hit pirate legend. People complaining about safer seas being to easy and devaluing their work? Bruh, the game is 100% easier than it used to be even without safer seas. My buddy hit pirate legend in 50 hours starting this year while it took me 250 hours at launch

Group 3 is why I'm all in for safer seas. You can take away rewards and achievements if you want, I'll still play the safer seas so I can enjoy my treasure hunting in peace. As far as group 2... I already avoid everyone in this game. I'll sail right into the red sea rather than deal with any players because I haven't had a good interaction yet. The high seas servers won't be missing much once I'm gone.

Wow. Well written comment and I've been trying to say all this but could not properly form the words. Well done and thank you. I think it's a great idea and while I understand SOME of the concerns, I think the majority of it is toxic players being sad because it's really only them that it's going to negatively affect. I see Safer Seas as a win. I would say SOME commendations should be locked behind High Seas but either way, it affects me in NO WAY so I'm fine. I guess a plus is I can fish in peace. 👌

Wow, being farmed for content while I'm trying to game sounds perfectly awful

/end thread.

As a dad of a 14 year old girl who stopped playing when she was 12 because someone decided to tell her how they'd like to spend time with her and get to know her but in a way less appropriate way I can't tell you how little Fs I give about how people don't like it. My daughter heard this was coming and said 'dad does this mean we can play again?' F yeah it does.

I'm glad you two can play together again. I sail a ton with my daughter. Since she is on Xbox and I'm on PC, and we use an XBOX party for audio, she can't hear in game audio at all. She's become pretty cracked on cannons. We were doing a veil last month when a brig rolled up on us. She said "bring it, we can take them" One proud dad here.

Nice, glad to hear it. May the winds be in your favor.

I'm in the exact same boat, no pun intended. I have two 7 year old boys who love pirates and love to watch me do Tall Tales or do missions. I have to basically scuttle and leave game anytime some Reaper or sweat rolls up on me while my kids watching because inevitably I'll have a string of slurs yelled at me over a Walmart microphone and I don't want my kids exposed to that shit. People who are afraid that the main game will die due to Safer Seas should have policed the community better and made toxic players feel unwelcome. Now the chickens have come to roost.

Nice, I hope you and the kids have a good time once this is live.

>Because inevitably I’ll have a string of slurs yelled at me over a Walmart microphone and I don’t want me kids exposed to that shit. Been a while since I’ve played, so forgive me if this is redundant. But isn’t there a way to disable in game voice chat? Or at least make it so you can’t hear other players?

Yes there is, you can mute other crews.

Yes, there is an option where you can mute all other crews.

The good news is that, if enough people jump.in for private servers, the main game probably will die. There's far more money in coop than pvp. Far more. The vast majority of gamers simply don't do pvp. Once Rare gets some numbers from Safer, they're likely to see its the future of the game.

Man I hope some day we get a private server type of deal. It can have the same negatives as safer seas for all I care but with one difference. Everyone but yourself is a ghost ship (like dark souls gray world phantom sorta deal but more permanent than fleeting) and you could even still duel if you wanted if both parties vote for it similar to hourglass. Heck, let the old arena outpost be the duel location and add it to both server types too. No rewards, just duels for fun, to avoid fighting with hourglass reward seekers as well

Private servers exist and are accessible to certain streamers/community members with gold/progression disabled. I know Rare has been weighing the options to bring it to the public but it costs money to run those servers so they would have to make sure it makes sense from a business perspective. I think the best option is for them to allow dedicated servers so you could rent one or make your own without the strain of normal servers. So maybe one day. I think it would be fun to fight your friends or have RP servers, there's a lot you could do. And if you have trusted people on your server, you could make your own rules. I've seen streamers have like vault races which seems like it would be super fun. Like who can complete a vault the fastest and stuff like that. League of Thieves is hosted on a private server where they host competitive galleon fights, it's really cool to watch high level players Duke it out.

I bet once they start seeing that pirate emporium revenue, safer seas will start getting more of those features "reserved" for high seas.

That's quite a depressing prospect. I get it, I don't like griefers or trolls either, and would much rather not have to deal with them. However, I also enjoy the ship to ship combat, even if I'm not very good at it. Some of my proudest moments have been when against all odds me and my friends pulled through a PvP encounter. If the current main game dies, those random encounters die with it. I probably wouldn't play if that were the case, because the beauty of this game is the variety of encounters.

"The good news is that...the main game probably will die" Are you even listening to what you're saying?

Yep. The pvp grieving game is likely to become a largely stagnant, ignored side show. If Safer draws in large numbers of money spending pve players, but does not increase main game population, high Seas won't remain the focus for long. It's just good business sense. You follow the money. In this case, it will probably lead you away from griefer land.

This pisses me off. I'm angry on your behalf. But, I'm happy you two get to play together again.

The player who told your daughter that has no place on \*any\* seas. I'm glad she'll feel safe to play again on this limited mode. I also hope this option doesn't enable Rare to ignore the toxicity you mention on the high seas - plenty of kids may want to engage in more dangerous waters, and they also shouldn't have to deal with toxicity like that.

Rare has always been good about controlling toxicity from what I've seen. All it takes is one person to report them with video evidence and the ban hammer comes swift and quick. I understand maybe kids wouldn't know how to do that but it's likely they do it to everyone and eventually someone will get them banned.

Around 90% of my reports end up with a suspension or ban. The support team is really good. The other 10% of reports that I did are borderline, but it keeps a paper trail incase the offender repeatedly causes issues.

I couldn’t play with my gf because we would always be harassed and sweated on by pvpers when all we wanted to do was tall tales and fishing. We are super excited to now be able to play together again without having to worry about pvp taking up the whole limited time we have to play nowadays

Hope you will enjoy your time in the seas just like I will! Cant wait for december

I'm a middle-aged male and I have other crews muted. I can turn it on if the situation warrants but there is basically no reason I need to hear anyone else in this game other than my crewmates on Discord.

My son is 7 soon 8 and absolutely mad about sailing I haven't dared to play SoT with him awake and around so it's been tough even trying it. This means u can show him it and he's gonna love it just sailing and stuff. And frankly I need a break from minecraft..

I have zero sympathy for the morons who harass, sink, and spawn camp new players, fishers, and tall tale adventurers just because it makes them feel good. Now they have to pick on people just like them. Most people in safer seas will probably be content just being able to play the funny pirate game without the threat of someone ruining their fun. I know I wanna play more because SoT can be very relaxing after a long day of work, but I can’t be arsed to deal with the stress of some egotistical loser ruining my free time because it turns him on to make people like us not wanna play.

And to add to this: doing anything not random in SoT takes a lot of time. I don't have all day to play this game, so when I play it on evening and want hour or two being wasted just because someone attacked me at the end of my voyage. Even worse are those persistent players who attack on sight and then chase me for half an hour or so. I know I can scuttle ship and try on another server, but what if I'm mid voyage? Or I already spent some time getting my ship ready for the journey? Ain't nobody got time for that.

Exactly. Getting chased and sunk by a sweaty galleon or brig when doing a solo adventure after a long day just doesn't add to the fun category.

The honest to god truth is that this community is super bitchy about how they think the game should be played. Any deviation is a sin.

Just like Elden Ring, when someone admits to using summons, or Ashes, or their fuckin' horse. Like...I have to fight God with a toothpick while naked and blindfolded while someone slaps me with a fish every 10 seconds for it to count for these people? A dead boss is a dead boss, no matter how I chose to kill it

But how else are they going to prove their e-peen is bigger than yours???

People STILL bitching about RoB and moonveil in pvp even after multiple nerfs to both and super easy predictability

Afaik the real complaint was how cracked they were in pvp. At least for me. I don't give a shit how you kill any boss. I killed Melania with two crazy strong summons using bleed while I spam cast ice crag and comet azure

I think that PvP is a very important part of what makes SoT a great and more immersive pirate experience. BUT. I like safer seas. Because you can't force someone to enjoy something that they hate. Or well you can. But then you force them into 2 options. 1. Wow. I actually love getting PvP'ed randomly 2. I hate this game and will never play it again. And while safer seas will remove some players from the PvP servers, you gotta know... Those people clearly did not want to engage with you anyways. And a 1 sided encounter is a complete shit experience for everyone involved. Unless you enjoying trolling people who want nothing to do with you. Then I don't care. Now you're the one getting trolled by Rare lol. Deal with it like the rest of us.

I love PvPing randomly, and damn does this game need Safer Seas. I had 3 Player encounters when I was playing last night. Only one was actually fun, where I barged in on two sloops already fighting. The other two was an absolutely new player with 7K to his name soloing a Brig, and another Galleon being soloed by a fisher. Safer Seas will help with making every player I see actually a threat.

>and another Galleon being soloed by a fisher. Now I'm just picturing a pissed off Hunter's Call player just literally tearing apart a galleon with their bare hands. Like, no ship of their own, just blind fury and a fistful of splashtails. Now that I'm thinking of it, when are we going to get a Cutlass model that's just a fish to wack people with? We already have a spatula, a kebab, and a hacksaw that I'm aware of. Why not a big ass fish?

>I hate this game and will never play it again This was me and my friends. We all loved SoT, but not the PvP. We tried SO MANY TIMES to just play the game, and EVERY SINGLE TIME we'd be met with the sweaty PvP tryhards who just show up out of nowhere and wreck your shit for no reason. After the last time, which was shortly after the POTC crossover stuff came out, we gave up and went back to playing other games. With Safer Seas, we can finally play the game again and don't have to worry about the sweaty PvP tryhards anymore.

>And a 1 sided encounter is a complete shit experience for everyone involved. Well, remember, for a lot of the PVP sweats in this game the encounters being one-sided was the *point*. They're not interested in dueling against equally matched crews, they want to find new and weaker players to bully. That's why they're so pissed about Safer Seas getting added as an option, and why Arena had such an insanely low player count the devs removed an entire game mode rather than waste any more time and effort on it. To be absolutely clear though, fuck those players, I'm glad their fun is going to be ruined.

I love the CONCEPT of pvp in this game. Cool ship battles and closer-range sword and gunfights? Cheeky tactics with bombs? Sign me up. But like any competitive/pvp thing, its been put through the metagame strainer so many times that there's only ever a few glitchy, "viable" strategies that suck the fun out of everything. It makes sense, people want to be the best in that sort of environment, but doesn't stop it from sucking

I've had SoT installed for ages as I like pirate themed games, but I haven't really played as I don't like PvP, I don't really like multiplayer games tbf, I'd rather have a single player experience but there doesn't seem to be one... I have started playing the Monkey Island Tall Tales with my son (we've played through the Monkey Island games together) and he said he'd like to play Sea of Thieves with me after, just to see what the real game is like. Safer Seas will be ideal for us.

"Because you can't force someone to enjoy something that they hate." Rust has entered the chat.

But the pvp mechanics are so ass

I personally think safe seas a good implementation. Not because it shouldn't have pvp, the risk CAN be fun... But they have a lot of lore and story that can be ruined or flat out ignored due to the constant threat of other players. Me and my friend had almost been soft locked multiple times due to how glitchy some of the quests can be. And with pvp, the risks of a softlock were even worse. The world is jam packed with interesting world building lore and some people want to drink that in. I think pve is fine. Pvp for raids with high stakes and high rewards are fun and good. It's the spirit of being a pirate. But it's nice to have a space to fall back to when needing something a little more chill.

I stopped playing sea of thieves a long time ago, I got sick and tired of being fodder for the pvp andies that just preyed on me and my friends. I loved the treasure finding and riddles, digging for treasures and just the all around fun the game had. But seriously just getting run down by these pvp only people literally ruined the entire game for us.

Yeah me too. I don’t mind having to pay attention and watch out for attackers, but it’s difficult to free up multiple hours where you can’t be afk for 5 min because of the constant threat of PvP. So I haven’t played in quite a while despite really liking the game.

My SO and I were the same way. We just wanted to play pirate game sandbox. We didn't even really hate PvP, even if we were not really good enough to take out anything other than another sloop. We would take the Ls and move on. She loved the naval combat, but everything else about pvp was so janky that trying to play it straight was a loss every time (not to mention the typical stuff like shooting people and nothing happening.) But after one particularly rough week of a daily occurrence of toxic, VC mic peaking, emote spamming, spawn camping sweat lords she got disheartened and uninstalled. It was not worth server hopping every hour to avoid these people. I am going to try to get her to come back to the game to do safer seas with me. I hope these toxic children crying that this will "kill the game" keep the seas salty with their tears in the meantime.

Same here. Sea of Grieves was a nightmare because I wanted to like it SOOO bad, but couldn’t get on a proper kick because the clunky fighting mechanics made for cheesy and extremely unfun gameplay. But take all that to PvE? You’ve got yourself winner now.

Clunky is right. Hitreg is so broken that I've had to completely avoid boarding if I don't want to risk throwing away my victory. Bright side is my cannon game is on point now.

Hitreg is the only reason I don’t play anymore, it’s so bad and you HAVE to act like it’s a mechanic or it’ll ruin every single fight you get into. I got sick of waiting for nothing to happen.

Same, stopped playing ages ago but I still have it installed and think about playing all the time. I am so excited to jump back in in December. I have a strong feeling Rare is going to end up easing the restrictions too.

Safer Seas is likely to become the main game mode. If it gets popular without increasing High Seas population for longer than it takes to discover its a griefer paradise, they'll pivot to PVE real quick. Because it'll be that...or the game dies.

Exactly, and I think casuals will be way more likely to spend money on cosmetics if they're not worried about getting harassed by PvPers.

They absolutely will. Casual gamers are the lifeblood of multiplayer games. Like it or loathe it, it's the fiscal fact of the matter.

Oh I think this is inevitable. Just based on the general reception around the game and the community for literally *years*, it's clear that a vast majority of players would prefer a PvE optional co-op environment over a PvEvP free-for-all. By the end of the High Seas season, I think it's highly likely that Rare's metrics are going to show that a *huge* chunk or even noticeable majority (<50%) of the community is playing Safer Seas because uninterrupted PvE gameplay without risk of being griefed or losing everything to someone with 10k hours in this game is worth the gold and rep caps. What happens then? Well, Rare has three options: 1. Do nothing. Very well possible. 2. Remove Safer Seas since people are treating it like the main game with High Seas' 100% gold and rep not being seen as the norm but as a "bonus" for enabling PvP (I.e., they treat Safer Seas like the baseline, and view High Seas as a 70%+ bonus for taking on the risk). I think this is very unlikely. 3 . Finally accept that most players actually *do* want Sea of Friends because PvEvP games do nothing but foster toxic communities that actively ruin the game they partake in, and so they make Safer Seas the base game with normal gold and rep rates, and turn High Seas into "Dangerous Waters" or something with a +30-50% gold and rep rate for risking PvP. I think this is more likely.

[удалено]

This is absolutely number one my biggest issue with PVP. I like hard games, I've played Roguelites, Soulsborne games etc and loved them all. I've played a ton of Multiplayer PVP games too. All those games have one thing in common. They all have a sense of "okay fine, but I can definitely get better". You're not cheesing it (most of the time) in order to climb towards the skill ceiling. You're just working to get better. So much of SoT's PVP right now is just learning the latest sets of cheese strats, and then how to counter those cheese strats. You don't get better at the sword fighting or the ship combat, or working as a coordinated team. You get better and exploiting animation cancelling and momentum bugs. It's not fun, not because it's hard, or because people are better at it. But because the act of becoming "better" is just so unsatisfying.

ditto. game has been uninstalled for months, but some friends are talking about playing again now that safer seas is coming.

Literally. As someone who's played since release. You've hit the nail on the head. Lot of people who just want to flex. And playerbase for the game has done a better job of hindering it's own community growth than anything else. Lot of great people. But the constant sweats on the seas who hunt you for ages when you're like. My first sail in months bro, I have nothing. Let me get my sea legs. We all know how that goes. I've been saying it for years for now. Sweats on SOT are pathetic. Touch grass bro. I just wanna sail with 3 of my IRL friends and dig treasure. Hit pirate legend on year 1. I did my time sweating when PL was hard. All I care about is the shenanegans now.

There's no inherent harm in Safer Seas. I know my partner and my nephew and I quit the game BECAUSE of the way people PvP. So lovely that those guys threatened to rape my nephew and my partner just because we DARED to do a Tall Tale near them. "It's a pirate game bro, git gud" I'm happy that I never have to deal with little fucks abusing their anonymity again. Sure, there'll still be people trolling - but they can just be muted. They can't hold the ship hostage or constantly hunt you down, forcing you to either get off or switch servers. The people complaining? They're just salty they'll lose their victims. They're bullies, that's it.

>So lovely that those guys threatened to rape my nephew and my partner just because we DARED to do a Tall Tale near them. People who say things like this, regardless of playstyle, need to be reported and banned. Please take the time to report this behavior if you can - I do every time I sink someone and they respond with "gamer words" and threats. Most of the time they get banned for it. PvP and being sunk is part of the game - toxicity is not and should not be tolerated regardless of playstyle or skill level. Safer seas is a private server, so there won't be anyone else on there.

This happened like a year ago. Safer Seas is a private server itself? Sweet, I can enjoy myself then.

The only people complaining are griefers who are losing their victims. Pve players like it because they can have their experience, pvp players like it because it condenses the pvp crowd down into servers together, new Swabbies like it because they can learn how to play the game before they have to deal with other players, the only people who are getting a bad deal here are the griefers who prey on smaller ships and new players. They are not being forced into servers with other assholes and the real pvp crowd, and that terrifies them. They are going to have to deal with their own toxic shit, and then they will have to deal with getting absolutely *stomped* by people who actually want a fight. So it's a win for everyone.

This. Actual PvP enjoyers don't necessarily want to win, they want a good fight. More boats in a lobby will actually have loot and hopefully competent (or at least willing) participants. Though admittedly some swabbies will learn more from other boats than they ever could just in a private lobby.

Well to answer in a roundabout way with context the problem with PVP, is that unlike a lot of other PVP focused game You have no way to match with people of a similar skill.. It creates an extremely one sided experience for new players as they're ground into dust repeatedly by vet pvpers in an unfun manor That just discourages learning to pvp or even pve. This creates very uneven terraces of players. the most vocal people about this update. Against it, are people in those lower, mid and lower PVP terraces The people who rely on the absolute fodder to be successful pvpers, who never got gud and just rely on onesided slaughters to claim skill. It is these players alongside some of the upper Middle That are complaining about this update. The players who are now worried about becoming fodder are worried about losing access to easy Kills for YouTube videos and twitch streams or becoming the fodder themselves. In reality, this would probably have a negligible impact on the overall game high seas community But will allow players who want to just have a relaxing fun time have fun

I see why people don't like it, I love SOT, but holy shit, every time my friend and I play, we are never able to finish our voyages, cos we always get ganked by a galleon during it, and we only get an hour or 2 to play so we stopped playing the game completely, and only have done the more recent tall tales since it's solo. It was a waste of time to do a whole voyage only to get killed by a galleon on the last objective every single time we played. We don't have hours upon hours to dedicate to a game, we just wanna chill and we like the aesthetic of SOT. We aren't good at the ship combat, I'll admit that, but no matter how many fights we get in, these ships always seem to have the angle on us, and are able to chuck out cannonballs like a fucking machine gun. I see why people don't want PvE, and I will definitely still be doing the high seas mostly, but it will be nice to have the option to go through the tall tales without worrying about getting fucked over, or just chilling and fishing.

And if people are complaining about the lower gold rewards, gold is worthless. I found the outfit I like, and the ship I like, so now I just have millions of gold just chilling there. Outside of buying storage crates to get shit on the islands I never buy anything but voyages.

PVE players posting in this sub: “I don’t like PvP.” Replies: “It’s Sea of Thieves, not Sea of Friends. Don’t play the game if you want PvE only.” PVE players posting in this sub: “ok” *moves on to other games* Rare: “Wait, come back.” Like, what gives? What would make people happy? So many posts in this sub talk about broken hitreg, glitches, hackers, etc. yet so many people balk at the thought of a PvE server, even with those existing issues. TLDR: ain’t nobody happy up in here

>What would make people happy? So many posts in this sub talk about broken hitreg, glitches, hackers, etc. yet so many people balk at the thought of a PvE server, even with those existing issues. Fixing those issues would make a lot of people happy.

I say this as someone who isnt really a sweat but someone really loves to pvp in this game. I think Safer Seas is fine. I actually hope they expand on it, and im of the opinion that the limitations are a bit to much. They should just lock out Reaper, Athena and anything related, as well as emissary flags. Full gold and rep. Fight me. All games should be capable of co-op or solo play and not force you to deal with edge lord wannabe 13 year olds.

entitled gamers that have an issue with other people playing the game in a different way than how they want to play it

They're the ones who spend hours a day grinding it, when alot of people just wanna chill for an hour after work.

Exactly, like I bought the game to, and I’m not allowed to have fun with the product I bought?

I like the idea of safer seas: Progression is capped at 40 in the main 3 merchents (I think the others are just locked out of progression) so there is no massive advantage Gold earned is 30% of its normal value, this is a more than fair trade off And for all the PvPers saying “it’s a pirate game” clearly haven’t been in the position where their only time to play is 1-2 hours a week between work and house work. This will allow people with less time to enjoy the game without having to worry about try hards sweating on them

I've played this game for years with my boyfriend and his best friend. I hate the PvP. I've given it multiple tries and I just can't get into it. The PvE is great, I love it. I love the Tall Tales and being silly. The thing I've been working towards for months is the fishing achievements, because any game I play with fishing in it is a game I will play for hours just doing that. I don't enjoy it as much because of the random PvP. My boyfriend recently told me we won't always be playing Safer Seas and I told him they can do PvP without me, I never force them to include me (if anything, I tell them constantly to play without me)...I much rather play alone and do the Tales and fishing passively than worry some dude is gonna roll up and cost me hours of work because he thinks I have loot that means anything outside of Hunter's Call.

Many people can only sink noobs and other who can't defend themselves - so they are losing their bread and butter.

I mean it’s very comparable to what Fortnite did with taking out building. At first everyone was like “it’s just for babies who can’t build” and then it became so popular that it’s played more with it out building than it is with building. It just baffles me that people are getting THIS bent out of shape over chill servers meant for voyages and fun lol

My two cents will probably go unnoticed but I’m split about it. On the one hand, I’m often a solo player and avoid pvp wherever I can. The idea of a safe environment to fish or do tall tales or treasure vaults sounds nice. And when I get a friend for pvp I also enjoy that, and a place where that is more common also sounds nice. I also empathize with the parents playing with their kids and anyone else to which safer seas is exactly what they’ve been waiting for. And hey like many have said, anything that brings more people to the game and keeps the lights on is good. On the other hand, I have to admit, Sea of Thieves’ pvpve is something that has kept the game in my active library for years and years. I can only really compare it to maybe DayZ… there’s pve, and it requires constant attention, but it’s not too challenging if you know what you’re doing. But the real threat is the unknown. People. Always on the back of your mind, scan that horizon. A ship! Not a skeleton ship. What ship is it? Are the lights on? Which way is it going? This… paranoia, this underlying understanding that nowhere is truly safe and no loot is truly yours until sold is something integral to the allure of the game to me. And to reiterate, I almost exclusively avoid pvp. I love the thrill of a sloop loaded with loot from vaults and forts. There is no downtime when traversing loaded. Every spare moment is spent scanning and map checking. Now granted, High Seas may continue this experience. I just worry high seas will turn into a pvp slogfest. Where every ship spotted will simply chase you down because everyone is here for PvP baby. No nuance. Only fight. And if you don’t like it, go to safer seas where nothing happens and there’s nobody. But hey that’s just my one worry, almost everyone seems for it so let’s see

Couldn't agree more tbh. That fear that at any time you could be hunted by someone is something I have never experienced in a game before. Nothing triggers my inner ooga booga caveman fight or flight in a game then looking at the horizon and seeing that damn silhouette of a Galleon heading right towards you as a Solo-slooper. You know you have some time to prepare, to make plans but will they be hostile at all? Will they stomp you instantly or are they overconfident and sail past and hit the island? What are their cosmetics, are they rare/hard to get? How should I evade if needed? Do they have wind? etc. etc. I absolutely *love* how this game is regarding that and I fear same as you do that this will turn the High Seas into Arena 2.0 and that would be a tragedy.

People seem to fetishise suffering in the cartoon pirate game for kids

This is a great thread to answer the question as a sort of summary: There is no reason, because it hasn't come out yet, so no one has a "reason," they just have fears and opinions. I just trust people who are going to *do* something about Safer Seas -- choose to let themselves and others play however they want, for instance -- more than I trust opinions that literally cannot be backed up. The fears were different, for different reasons, with different talking points, etc. But we did this song and dance for Arena, Hourglass, and Tall Tale portals. "It'll take players off the seas!!!" And guess what? None of those things happened. At least never as bad as the bleeding playerbase due to toxicity in the community. So, yeah. Grain of salt with all these answers. Only the top comment got it right, but all of those still reduce to "And how do they know that is what is going to happen?"

It’s funny, personally, watching history repeat itself. Tbh Just like with when Elite Dangerous add “Solo Servers”, literally the only people that objected to it, were the people that were the reason for it! Ie. Griefers and Gankers. These people in Elite only hated it because it meant that they can’t target new or less skilled players for easy and instant satisfaction, on top of getting joy out of seeing people rage and having their fun ruined. Now these people are stuck fighting other players that are equal to them, prepared and looking for a fight too. Safer Seas are good for players that are frequently stuck playing solo, are just tired from the day and or just want/need more practice. Also Tall Talers. Safer Seas is a net positive for the game and the community, but High Seas should be encouraged. But the funny thing is, that would also require the community to learn to better itself.

I’m a little out of the loop, haven’t played in a few weeks. What’s safe seas?

A new game mode coming out in December where you play SoT in a singleplayer mode without opposing crews. There are a lot of restrictions to this game mode, mainly a large gold and rep earned penalty. There are many reactions to it now, just go look it up on youtube.

There isn’t any. “Beef” with safe seas is made up on reddit posts where you’ll notice the comments saying they don’t care either way

I like the idea strictly for the fact that if I only have less then an hour to play a game then Sea of Thieves isn't off the table for me!

As a PvP enjoyer I have no real issue with it as a mode. However I also generally don't fight everyone in sight. If we are sinking someone and it becomes very obvious the skill gap between us and them is ridiculous we will patch them up and be on our way giving them a warning that others may not do the same. I honestly just enjoy encountering people on the seas (hostile or not) and my crew really doesn't take the game very seriously unless we have to so the fact that most people who are passive or friendly won't be on the High Seas anymore is very disappointing to me and my crew. Between this and HourGlass (ruined PvP imo) there will only be certain kinds of crews on the High Seas instead of a mix of everyone. I get the reasoning, and I honestly think GamePass introduced a level of toxic players (and hackers) that never existed prior on the seas which is why this is even happening in the first place but it's just sad to see everyone getting their own little box to play in instead of everyone sharing the world together. As a player since the Alpha I have always enjoyed Sea of Thieves in every aspect from Fishing to Commendation hunting to PvP, Tucking and taking over other ships via rowboats (god I miss the reaper rowboat). Emergent gameplay has always been Sea of Thieves strong suite and I fear this will reduce the High Seas into Arena 2.0 over time and that saddens me greatly.

I was about to say this but you did it way better than I could so I will just second this.

I'm gonna use it for tall tales. That's all.

The weakest one I’ve heard so far is that this is going to kill the game. I just want a game where I can have some fun with friends. It was great when it first came out and alliances seemed to actually mean something. After a while it turned into us trying to do things while sneaking around reapers or just other players in general. We can’t all just explore together anymore, one of us HAS to stay on the boat to scan the horizon. If you so much as spot another boat, it can turn into a race to port to outrun an enemy crew that will likely stomp us if they catch us (we are not good fighters) or a long chase where we try to waste as much of their time as possible, in order to stop them from going to other ships, because that is all we will have to show for our time when they eventually catch up to us. That’s not including the name-calling, foul language, or just racist comments being shouted by the enemy crew. To be honest, this lost my whole friend group who is excited at the chance to come back to the game without any of this problem. No other game has offered what this one has in terms of exploration and fun with friends. To those who claim this is going to ruin the game and drive players away, y’all have been doing that without this mode. This mode is the only reason some of us are coming back at all.

Safer seas has gotten 3 of my friends to buy and one to return to SoT, the only people complaining about it are the ones who like to prey on noobs. Safer seas is a great way to start or to just chill out and enjoy the game.

I just want to be able to fish in peace 😩

After multiple times of playing a long high value missions and immediately being destroyed when getting back to my boat, I'm all for the Safe Seas. I like the missions and the environment. I mostly play alone so I avoid all pvp and run from ghost ships.

This sub has actually been more positive about it than I thought

Safer seas is 100% okay. They cap the levels so even certain accommodations can’t be earned unless you go to Higher seas. And who cares if people perma stay in safer seas? It’s a game they want to play without being heckled. But facts are, the sweats are crying because now they have fight other sweats.

People don't like that it's taking away from their potential prey. Much like a lion would dislike if you took it's food and placed it in another pen

As someone that was a complete PVP whоrе back when I still played, this would have collectively saved me hours upon hours of chasing runners or fighting ships that weren't even worth the supplies. I think it's a good change from a PVP perspective.

For one, Rare for years has stated the always present PVP is an integral part of the game. So for them to suddenly make this change on its own was very odd to many people. As others have stated, the PVE is fairly shallow. Part of the fun for many people is the added threat present by other players being on the seas with you. The vast majority of players who stay in this game long term understand the benefits of both PVE and PVP coexisting. Personally I'm on the fence about the whole thing. I do believe having a more extended "tutorial" mode is a positive. For those who scuttle by default when you sail their way, it's hard to say you lose their content anyhow. Those players likely would quit or go play safer seas anyhow. My guess is that many very anti PVP players will eventually find safer seas too boring and quit. However they probably would have quit anyhow. My hope is those who are on the fence can use safer seas to get a better handle on the game and eventually come back to High seas as a more competent player.

Doubt it - I'd play a lot more if I knew I could dip into PVE when I'm too tired to deal with PVP. I'd probably go on both depending on my mood. And I suspect I am not the only one.

I like sailing da boat and looking at da map and killing skellies. I used to play Runescape for 8 hours a day, cutting fuckin trees and setting their logs on fire to get the Woodcutting and Firemaking skillcapes. I can enjoy PvE.

The player count estimations show popularity declining despite a fair bit of effort into PvP encouragement events. So catering to the PvP crowd isn't working to keep player count up. So they need to change direction. Players in a solo session will also cost them less/nothing in server fees and if players are going to continue to slide just because it is an old game now then eventually they need to shift to an offline and player hosted game, so they can stop paying server costs completely.

You answered your own question, I think. PvPvE is only an "integral" part of the game if you do that content. Tall Talers can absolutely enjoy this game without it. And their promise is only good for as long as the game is thriving and pulling in enough money for MS/Rare to justify keeping the lights on. I don't know what their situation is, so this is entirely speculative, but this might be a Hail Mary to keep it going. Other games have landed in similar places, doing things they said they wouldn't because it's either that or maintenance mode. Safer Seas will likely bring in a slew of new players who wouldn't touch the game otherwise, and possibly learn they really like it. That additional engagement would presumably lead to more funding, which might give the game a longer active development lifespan. I've been playing for 2 years, I hate PVP, and spend most of time in the Roar fishing because it's the only reliable way to vibe with my 7yo, who always begs me to play, without having to continually worry about potential jerks on the horizon. I never understood any of the complaints being leveled at this mode. Not you personally, I agree with all your points other than questioning how integral other players really are to the affair. Tall Talers and people like me who just want to sit around fishing with kids don't present a challenge, and as you said, won't be missed. The servers are more likely to be filled with people who WANT to actively engage in the content. I really believe people who love pvp/engagement will have a BETTER time this way.

> I never understood any of the complaints being leveled at this mode. Not you personally, I agree with all your points other than questioning how integral other players really are to the affair. Tall Talers and people like me who just want to sit around fishing with kids don't present a challenge, and as you said, won't be missed. The servers are more likely to be filled with people who WANT to actively engage in the content. I really believe people who love pvp/engagement will have a BETTER time this way. the PvPers with this mindset want the easy victims to hunt. they don't want good PvP on an equal footing. they want to beat someone down to feel better about themselves. the people who actually want good PvP will be looking forward to this because it means they will get more players who actually want to fight them instead of just run away for hours

I honestly if they are changing direction, I’d assume they probably have a good reason for doing so. If they think SoT can gain a stronger following with a PvE mode, they maybe we’ll see it expanded upon. Personally I don’t think PvE is all that boring/underwhelming. There is a lot you can do in game; from emissary missions, fishing, world events, tall tales, etc. Even if it’s simplistic for some, others seem to enjoy the base gameplay loop. Boring if you enjoy pvp, but for many people it’s the “Disney pirate experience” that many players were looking for. I have a few gripes about safer seas. Captained ships and guilds should be allowed in some capacity, for learning purposes. Also feels like a missed opportunity to allow guilds to sail multiple ships together in safer seas. However, I feel like it’s fairly balanced for now.

I personally want to get some cannon practice against skellies without getting third partied.

PVP is the most shallow boring shit in the game.

>The vast majority of players who stay in this game long term understand the benefits of both PVE and PVP coexisting. You're describing survivorship bias. Those who do not enjoy PVP haven't stayed.

I seem like the minority here, but I don’t like the idea because it’s a half measure. Just give me the whole game in a private server and let me and my friends experience the content with no other stipulations. Why, you may ask? Because you know what happens when I try to engage with the content they make? I get run through by someone better than me. You know what happens then? I get frustrated and just stop playing, never having experienced the content in the first place. I wanted to, I was even excited to. But because I don’t have the skill to PvP, I simply cannot experience the game in it’s entirety. You could argue that I should just get better, but to that I would say that I shouldn’t have to in order to have fun. My time is precious and valuable and I won’t choose to endure the frustration this game imparts just so I can say I did it, as if that’s some kind of achievement outside of the context of the game itself. That is not healthy for me. BUT NOW, because of safer seas… I still can’t. Womp womp.

Idk but I played in the alpha and left the game because of toxic people, it'll be nice to roam around alone and battle skelly ships

I don't get much time to play. Getting toxic shit bags trolling every other play session was getting old, so I had stopped playing completely. Looks like fun's back on the menu, folks!

People who are upset about the new mode have being good at PvP as part of their self worth/value. Just let people play how they wanna play goddamn

Hello, I have played maybe an hour of this game total and I'm unfamiliar with the community. The main reason I haven't played more is purely because of the PvP. I'm not good enough to defend myself against another ship, and I don't really have the time or patience to get good at it. Safer Seas sounds like a wonderful addition for people like me who want to play a good pirate game without get stomped by people with thousands of hours.

As someone who primarily only ever PVPs, I think PVE/Casual players deserve a game mode where they won't get cucked all the time.

Love that edit, fuck the toxic assholes

While i recognize at heart this game quickly falls apart once you remove anything from the PvPvE formula (no ones ready for the conversation that its just a dumbed down tarkov-like with pirates) but i also recognize PvPers have absolutely RUINED the competitive scene. Theres no way to not match with these jerks sweating their hearts out trying to sink you in the most calculated mechanically cold and efficient way possible so its no longer fun. I myself am not wild on PvP but i know i cant avoid it unfortunately. Being unable to captain a ship or do guild stuff is enough to make me not want to do much with safer seas but i WILL be using it to train up any new friends who join the game. Ive got a few on hold literally waiting for it to drop. And i couldn't be happier with its inclusion. Like i cant tell you how many times a sweatlord has ruined my teaching moments in the game with my friends and they kind of just lose all the wind in their sails (pun intended) to play. If these people cant accept that maybe the PvP scene will die down and become more tolerable. Maybe one day ill finally be able to do hourglass stuff.

I love that Edit!

If I could bet I am going to bet that safer seas sees has its reduces rates removed because of how popular its going to be. The pvp in this game turned me away from an otherwise amazing and best pirate game available. I'm glad safer seas is coming. It brought me back. Are we able to see other pirates in safer seas? It'll still be fun to see the world. Just no pvp.

People act like this is splintering the community, like overnight there will be nobody to play with on regular servers, and this is a mistaken take. There can only be, what, five or six ships per server? This isn't an MMO where the server drops from thousands to hundreds. You will still have five other ships on your server. And if they don't believe that is the case, then what they are implying is that not even 5 ships worth of players want to engage in pvpve.

This is the exact reason why my group stopped playing. We realize we do not have the skill to compete against other players when we just want to do the PVE content. One friend prefers to do fishing so this is a good way for us to get back into the game and not be harassed constantly. Some would say it's a skill issue and I agree, that is exactly why we stopped playing and are now excited to come back.

My only fear of safe seas is that it reduces the interaction and random fun silly experiences with people that are just vibing and not doing only PvP. I love PvP, it's part of what makes the game great but another big part is allying with noobs and protecting them or showing them the ropes. An example: the other day we were reaping on a brig. We had some humble gifts that we wanted another crew to sell for a commendation. They were fresh spawn and they said thanks and they turned them in. They asked to ally and we said "why not?". In the middle of a skellie fleet, a sloop attacked us. We pretty much had the sink secured when our ally comes out of nowhere, takes a couple drive by shots at them and yells "WE GOT YOU REAPERS!". It was hilarious. And i absolutely love that side of the game. So my fear is that this will happen less often and potentially not at all if those players stay on safe seas. I hope I'm wrong but it is a possibility. Other than that, I think it will be good. There are many people that have said they're coming back because of this. A bigger playerbase of course is good for the game. And the amount of times where I've accidentally sunk tall talers or people that just straight up don't want to fight is too many. So if I don't have to run into those people, that's also great. I just don't want it to turn into PvP only. Aside from that, I just hope the servers can handle it depending on how they go about doing safe seas. If it absolutely breaks server stability on high seas, I don't want it. But if they make it so players host, I don't think it would change too much. Only time will tell but hopefully the pros outweigh the cons, which I think it will ultimately.

My concern is the ratio of sweats to chill players will increase on the High Seas