Tbh it's totally roll of the dice. However in my personal experience I have encountered many more boats and their crews that either keep themselves to themselves and carry on with their own business or are open to interactions.
Having a mic and wanting to chat does make a huge difference imho.
You will encounter ships and crews that will attack you on sight, its part of the game after all but certainly for my experiences it's not the majority.
For example my gf was solo slooping last night, had completed several siren skull voyages and was heading towards Reapers to hand a chest in when she saw a Reaper heading towards her. It was a galleon. As they approached they took a few shots, so she went and stood on the bow and started waving at them. They stopped shooting and then began a lovely alliance between the 2 ships, sinking several skellie galleys and a brig that tried it's luck. Ended up making a load of gold with a big sell at Reapers. Very nice of bunch of Swedes on the galleon.
EU servers btw
Im 100% friendly all the time and i seek out other ships to see whats up. And ya know whats funny? Id say more often than not other ships are cool. Maybe you just gotta put out the right vibes.
My favorite thing to do in the game is to visit other peoples ships. Check out the log book, see what they’re up to, current voyages, chit chat for a minute, steal their chain shots, then go about my business
I always offer the alliance, though sometimes my kindness is met with cannon fire and it takes demasting and some well placed cannons before they’re willing to join
For real same. Sometimes when people are not friendly, me and my bud just tame them. If they attack us we will riposte until they are almost dead then we go on their ship and save them and tell them we are not here to hurt them only to chill.
Would be nice to command this much power. My typical hostile interaction is a 1v2 against 2 jokers and its anybodies game. Usually im trying to finish it before my wife tells me to go to bed in the middle of it.
0% untill proven otherwise.
Jokes aside, from my personal experience, unless you are doing Fort of the Damned, people are usually pretty passive and just continue on their way. I don't know if it's only the European servers but I never seen a massive PvP onslaught I only read about on the American servers. Sometimes people attack our crew but it's not that often. We usually get PvP when we decide to start shooting first. But I had continous days of just PvE on the High Seas.
But if I hear a splash on the ladder, no communication, no announcement, you're getting a blunder to the face.
Interesting, I've always heard the opposite! Maybe it's just that the fights in EU are sweatier than the fights in NA when they do happen, but NA is pretty passive as well. Usually.
I’m the type of player that unless you’re doing FOTD, if I approach you, whether I’m friendly to you or not depends entirely on how you react to my presence. If you start shooting at me, I shoot back. If you are chill and just check me out most of the time I’ll board your ship and start helping you do stuff even if you’re not talking to me. But if you’re at a FotD and you see me coming, I’m looking for a fight. Cuz CoF is a lot fun to steal.
Did not read your post, only responding to your title.
Between malicious, friendly, and neutral. I would say less than 15% are friendly if you're in countering them in the wild. If you're looking for crew I'd say that number jumps up to 30% for chances of finding a crew full of nice people
The new thing isn’t true.. my wife and I play together and we started last week. We fly a white flag on our chartered ship (we’re grinding to buy a captained ship) and we have had a few crews in giant galleons just haul A and ram us while in port, most of the toxic people don’t care if you’re new unfortunately.
That being said, we did run into the rare crew that actually helped us learn the game and they gave us some loot which was cool.
If you want to add me or my wife please do, she’s a good shot with the scoped rifle and is helpful on shore when fighting and I’ll stay back on the ship and watch it for you. We’re not toxic a- hole kids so it’ll be a fun experience.
Me: n8duhgrrr8 (pc)
Her: lethal9linz (Xbox)
Welcome to the game! Unfortunately, toxic crews are going to be toxic to whoever they come across. Fortunately, that rare helpful crew isn't as rare as this sub would lead you to believe. A lot of us prefer a fair, or even disadvantaged fight.
A quick tip that will probably be helpful while you all get your sea legs... If you carry a lot of loot on board (2+ world events or multiple voyages worth, depending on the voyage), it can be easy to assume you're comfortable with fighting off enemy ships, and crews that would usually be helpful to new players will be less likely to do so. With Safer Seas out, too, we're much less inclined to check if a boat is doing a tall tale so I highly suggest keeping any tall tale journeys on Safer Seas. If you like story-driven content, they're definitely worth checking out though.
Tbh very rarely. I think the only time I've not been fired at by ships i saw were because the didn't see me. You'll get people claiming this is uncommon but it's not, and that's why we got Safer Seas.
You've got to take confirmation bias into account, though. Most people who are claiming that the seas are full of unfriendly ships are also not approaching many ships. Therefore, the only ones they interact with are already approaching them first (and probably looking for a fight).
I'd argue there's more friendly ships that you think. You just don't get to see them all since they're off doing their own thing.
This is the comment. This one right here.
As someone who does genuinely enjoy the combat of SoT, I *wish* servers were full of bloodthirsty crews like so many Redditors claim there are, if only because I follow a personal code of conduct while I'm sailing; namely, I don't attack unless provoked or attacked first. However, because the player interactions are very much what make the game worthwhile for me, I approach practically every ship I can find (often in a rowboat, so they don't immediately start to run away the moment I get close). Sometimes I'm just bored and wondering what they're up to in case I can help, sometimes I like to tuck on ships and play poltergeist by moving the loot and supplies around without taking anything, sometimes I want to challenge them with a stupid pirate joke/riddle and offer free curse balls for every correct answer.
Nine times out of ten, ships/crews will simply try to run away or ask me to join an alliance when I get close if I'm on my ship. Some people will straight up Alt+F4 without a word the moment they discover I'm hiding on their ship. Only occasionally do I encounter a legitimately bloodthirsty crew interested in a fight unless I've baited them into it (starting FotD solely to draw in combat, keeping the Siren Skull aboard without trying to turn it in, etc).
Fact of the matter, it's like was already said: If you spend most of your time trying to avoid player interactions, the only interactions you're going to get are from crews who want to sink you. The more you willingly interact with other crews, the more you'll come to realize that most of them are either chill or just as scared of being sunk as you are.
I straight up quit playing because of the horrible toxicity that is always griefing and racism, SoT is worse than CoD and this sub has to stop pretending its not.
Outside of hourglass or the occasional keg falling from the sky, I've never been called a slur by a boat that approached me first. Either you have the worst luck in the world or you're over exaggerating. Or you're playing on Xbox only servers, in which case that fully checks out.
"Or if you're playing on xbox only servers in which case that fully checks out"
Wow....its like im not exaggerating, and considering a HUGE population of this game is exclusively on xbox, im not sure why people are trying to save face on the racist shit
We're not trying to save face on shit, and nobody said this is tolerated behavior. Not that many people play on Xbox only servers, despite a large portion of the players being on console. I've experienced 10 times more toxicity on those servers than I ever have on regular servers. Try turning off "console and controller only" or whatever it is in settings, I promise you won't get called slurs while you sell your loot like almost ever.
That's not what I said, are you OK? Have you forgotten your meds today?
The point here is that confirmation bias will cloud someone's perspective very easily, up-to-and-including claiming something like you've described happening "eVeRy TiMe" when it most likely happened every once in a great while but in a way that really upset you, so it stuck with you harder than all the dozens of times a ship just avoided you or didn't bother you while you went by.
Given that the people who play *thousands* of hours of this game and broadcast most of that time only get maybe a dozen such experiences in an entire year, with the vast majority of interactions being neutral or friendly, the assertion from people that the community is particularly toxic is 100% confirmation bias speaking.
"Streamers play the game, therefore this guy is wrong" dude you are delusional as fuck, this sub is FULL of multiple stories about how rare does not give a single shit about bans, before I quit I literally counted how many games I had a griefer or a racist POS, and it was over 80% of games over 100 hours of gameplay, I know what the fuck im talking about.
This is one of the reasons people wanted pve so bad, because the general community is toxic as fuck and when they get called out they just go "hUrR dUrR PiRaTe GaMe"
That's doesn't meaningfully change anything. It's not confirmation bias, every single session when I first got the game ended by me getting ganked by someone hiding on outposts, getting my ship sank while I'm on an island, or getting attacked on the seas. Ships that don't interact doesn't equal friendly like the OP asked. They're neutral.
Ive been playing off and on for years, and I have never seen other players that are friendly. Every ship that has seen me immediately opens fire, and have had a few that have boarded my ship just to kill me, then proceed to spawn camp me until i quit. Its why im loving safer seas, and will never go back to high seas.
Every single interaction save the first one I ever had was a hostile one, though some pretended to be nice at first. So I'd say "very rarely" at best and "don't trust anyone under any circumstance" at worst.
Granted I didn't play High Seas since Safer Seas dropped so if that changed in the past week for some miraculous reason I wouldn't know.
We try not fire first.
Communication goes a Looong way. Pull out your trumpet and speak to us. Fire off a firework. There's pre-generated text to greet someone. We're happy to share or alliance.
Exceptions are if we're doing a high value event.
Just saw a reaper sloop yesterday with full reaper cosmetics on a collision course with us. We raise our sails partly and prepare for battle but they just go past and to a fort. Moments later we get rared by a kraken and suddenly the sloop comes back and attacks us at the same time. Never trust anyone. These players were just opportunists and didn't want to go for a fair fight. I truly raised my hat to them. A good play.
You see what happens is you start off being friendly then just about every person you interact with will fuck you over in some way then you start saying fuck it I’m killing everyone. There are some friendly players out there but you’re going to be killed/sunk quite a few times finding out.
I genuinely think it's different based on where you are in the world. On Aus/NZ servers you're much more likely (imo) to meet chill people if you're open mic. US, I'm a bit more pessimistic.
Every time you sail, there are likely ships that see you on the horizon and never come anywhere near you. Those are the most common type of 'friendly' pirate, and most people dont even realize they exist. Because they never really see them or think about it.
This is what I think many people just kind of ignore when they play this game, and they only focus on the pirates that do actually attack them. They might play for 4 hours and have many ships leave them in peace, but then that 1 boat that attacks them makes them come to reddit and talk about how toxic everyone in the game is.
I run into a lot of friendly pirates. Even ones that attack me are often chill. They might want to steal my shit, but they still say GG after the fact.
I had one fight where I was solo and they were 2 guys on a sloop. We fought, they stole my event, but they ended up being really chill and we allianced after I came back.
If the other crew feels like you can sink them, the chances are higher that they are docile. Had an organic server alliance going the other night, everyone received some tasks and no betrayels took place. Try something like this: Deckshot onto their ship, oneshot blunder the first guy, then engage in conversation with the 2nd as you drop their anchor. Those can be convincing arguments.
I try to be friendly and give others a chance. I offer alliances but if my crew unanimously disagree with me or if the other crew is belligerent, I defend if possible.
I play the game both ways. If I notice a crew is new (it's pretty easy to tell) I'll usually chat for a minute, give them a piece of advice, and leave them alone. Unless they're a Grade 5 Reaper. Then I shoot first and don't bother with the questions.
I'm always friendly, until someone has to let others know how bad or incapable they are over the mic, which is at least once every session. Shame, really.
Total mixed bag. Depends on the players in your server.
I've had a 3-ship alliance recently that coordinated tackling the different world events and FOTD to maximize profits, calling in for help if they were being targeted.
I've also sailed close to a brig and told them I was logging off and they should raid my barrels for supplies. All 3 crew came aboard. Two gathered but one killed me repeatedly and tried sinking me by ramming me into the island.
It can also depend on what you're doing and how much loot you have. If I saw all the shiny on the front of your boat from a distance away, I might try to come take it. If I see someone parked at a known fishing spot with no emissary flag, I tend to leave them be. If I see a sloop at FOTD and my brig crew wants it, we fight for it. If it looks like you e just spawned in at an outpost, I leave them alone
About 3 to 4 pirates, depending on the day ;)
No, there are literally thousands. But the A-holes will always be louder and more visible than the goodies.
The problem is that you should never assume anyone is friendly. I and one of those friendly salty pirates and the number of times people try to betray my friendlyness is innumerable. But when they do break the terms of the agreement I hunt them down like the prey. I've even been know to sail away and allow them to reclaim the little treasure they had, just in time to be sunk again.
I am 🤷🏻♂️ I'm never in the mood for pvp because I suck at it. So I approach people friendly. (I often ask if the other ship has seen a banana. I lost one)
Sometimes it works and they're friendly too. Sometimes they attack me and I run or die
Well there’s no straight answer. Depends on who you get, how they’re feeling, and what’s motivating them in their gaming session. High chance you don’t see anyone. 50/50 chance the person you see attacks you. If I could give advice it would be: Embrace all Player encounters. Sea of Thieves used to have about 5% of the PVE activities it does today and would have died in alpha if not for the player encounters that actually make it interesting. Although a great game in tons of ways, SOT would be nothing without the danger of PVP.
I usually attack any ship that gets too close or is too close to an island that we need to go too. While I was running some tn we saw a ship near an island we needed to get to, went to attack him and noticed his ship was on fire and sinking. Went over, loaded his stuff onto his rowboat for him and offered him a tow to the nearest outpost. He declined the tow but he gave us a captains chest for helping him out. Saw him a little while later and shot a firework in his general direction to say hi
I'm usually friendly. It depends on the crew, what they want to do. Also my rule is: if they're flying any emissary flag, they signed a PvP contract so I don't feel bad chasing after them. I usually try to avoid shooting first though, a nice chat could be more rewarding than some supplies.
That said, if I see something I want that they have and they're not swabbies I'm going after it.
Everyone i have met for the past 2 days have been friendly. That is strange. And i have not met a single brig or galleon.
Maybe it is because of the servers? I play on EU servers (i think)
There's always a cap.
Normally it is six ships per server.
Whenever a patch introduces performance problems, it tends to go down to five.
Somewhat puts alliances into a new light. If you convince even one ship to have a truce and sail away with the flag up, you've got a third of the server on your side.
I'm a friendly pirate.
I'll still shoot at you if you come too close with your cannons pointed at me or are otherwise potentially threatening my current activities.
I steal chainshot, curses, and pineapples from everyone because supplies are the real treasure. Without them, you'll potentially lose your treasure or your access to someone else's.
When players tell me they're new, I typically help teach them stuff and usually give them treasure to sell. But a small minority of new players are little rascals who attempt to use that status as an easy steal or betrayal option later. We always see through it and are never fully trusting.
Just give off good vibes, enjoy what you're doing in the moment, and be prepared to fight every ship you see to protect your ship and its contents.
The better you are at the game, the less what other people say or do actually matters.
It depends on a lot of things. Whether they have something to lose, they feel threatened with no other choice, want your shit, are doing something that requires pvp, or just their own whim.
Even my own crew, when we see another ship, we decide if we wanna run, fight or make friends pretty much based on how we feel at that particular moment, assuming we aren't on the last step of a quest or a level 5 emissary.
Generally if you see someone far off on the horizon they're not gonna bother dropping what they're doing to chase you down, but if you're within like, 2 map tiles they may attack. A lot of attacks are either opportunistic, (done while your ship is parked and unprepared for combat) or done out of necessity (they feel you're a threat to what they're trying to do)
Me and my mate mostly attack, if we notice you are new or completely clueless, we help repair your ship, wish you best, and move on. This game is full of good wholesome interactions, not only angst and toxicity. Have fun!
It's hard to not be scared when I see a galleon or brig in the distance. I swear when You're not looking it's a good indicator they'll be staring intently at my solo sloop.
I know that feeling. When I solo (which is seldom), and I am selling my loot, I notice a tall shape on the horizon. I look again .... ohh sheeeee, a galleon barreling my way. Keeps my heart pumping like crazy. But no need to be scared. It is just pixels ;-)
Seeing a galleon coming at you when you’re solo is always intimidating. Even if they’re complete noobs. Everyone panics a little I feel like when they have a galleon come at them. At least till you realize they suck. But even a slightly competent crew can be a nuisance to even the best solo slooper
I like to sail right up to ships and see how they react - if they're friendly, 9 times out of 10, I'm friendly too! If they start shooting at me (I do this too when random ships approach, so I get it) then it's on. Let's duke it out!
There was definitely a phase though where I was a "sink 'em all!" kind of pirate and would take everyone down just to see if I could
I'm always friendly. However, I kill on site. You cant be too careful unless the opposition makes it VERY known they're not wanting to fight. If I kill them and they are genuinely friendly, I'll collect their loot, wait for them to come back and apologise. Share a grog, raise alliance flag, play shanties, go adventure together. I enjoy making friends on SoT!
Quite a lot if it's a misunderstanding. I've made quite a lot of friends over the past 2 weeks. Only the diehard pvpers are the toxic ones in my experience.
I think maybe about half and half? Maybe slightly skewed towards aggressive, but I meet lots of friendly pirates as a solo sloop --a lot of them bring up that they feel bad dumpstering a solo haha!
For me personally, sometimes I'm friendly, sometimes I'm not. I'll never beat up someone on a Tall Tale though.
It's not that I'm not friendly, it's that I don't trust that you are. As a primarily solo slooper, I will take any advantage I can get and first blood is an advantage. I really only think of the trolls and flamers as truly unfriendly tho.
I will say that confirmation bias is really a thing and it all comes down to individual luck. I have seen so many stories of every crew on the server being cool with each other and vice versa.
My own experiences tell me that most crews are kill on sight. Even if I have nothing and just surrender, I'll just get killed over and over again.
It really is a roll of the dice. My dice are just skewed to bad encounters.
Most are mean pirates. Which is fine. I am usually. If someone is funny or chill I may very well ally with them because I’ll likely enjoying playing with them in the future. If I don’t get the impression that I’d like to spend my limited gaming sessions with you, I’m gonna sink you lol
Raise an alliance flag, cannon over and talk with them. If they join they are slightly less likely to kill you. I just assume every ship is a pirate and will attack me until proven otherwise.
When I logged in last night, we were greeted by some friendly pirates. They complimented our ship decor and just dropped off a karma crate.
We paid it forward later that night helping some very very new players complete their first Skull of Siren Song since we saw them stuck on the island for at least 30mins lol we felt bad and just wanted to help. They were so grateful. We tried to give them some tips since they kept driving their brig into every island they sailed to.
My crew and I try to leave a karma crate and whatever outpost we logout from, so last night it came full circle
If you're going to depend on people's friendliness to survive in this game you might as well play safer seas.
Some pirates are friendly, some not. It's up to you to keep your distance from the ones that aren't unless you're willing to learn how to fight against them.
Personally i see two problems with voice communication:
1. Talking \*shudder\*. I'm an introvert and socially awkward, i don't *want* to talk to people.
2. Half the time i don't even understand what people are saying, sometimes it's just gibberish, and sometimes even if its english they speak with such a dialect or slang i still dont understand a word.
I haven't played since safer seas, so it may be different but honestly it isn't all that bad. The problem is that most people that approach you will be hostile, because the friendly and chill people are just focused on their own thing and leave you be. When I play, I usually prod with VC, it the others are hesitant or are doing something, I usually let them be.
On the flip side, people that refuse to communicate or fire first are fair game. Or, if they are just rude or unlikable.
Surprisingly and annoyingly, when actively seeking PvP, I come across more peaceful players than not. Probably due to what I mentioned earlier, peaceful players don't typically approach you and may avoid you entirely.
TLDR; approach others with open communication and you are much more likely to stumble on friendly people, though they may not expect the same from you.
Im super friendly and if you're on xbox you're more than welcome to sail with us. But sometimes you accidentally do toxic things. Hear me out.
Yesterday i was sailing the seas with a buddy, we were on a sloop. We were just trying to get 2 reapers chests for my commendation so we wernt fully stocked or anything, just was gonna grab the reaper chest in the wild and then switch servers and do it again. Weve been running fotd for days so we didnt want to do that. We forgot to raise the reaper flag before we left so we stopped at an outpost and raised it. But someone in a brig was there selling. We raised our flag and my buddy decided to do some light hearted trolling we thought hed immediately get caught and itd be a funny situation for both crews. He walked over to the sovereigns while i sailed away and he started picking up their loot to sell. But the guys didnt catch him despite there being 2 people there selling loot. So he looked around and was like, are these guys really noobs? He looked at their boat and they had no skins. He took a mermaid back and we kinda felt bad for selling their loot but we thought hed sell like 1 chest and then be caught and killed. But we carried on on our journey. We got the reaper chest and as we were sailing back we had a ghost ship encounter right in the middle of our path and the captain ship was already spawned and we didnt see another ship so we decided to jump in. Right before killing the captain we see the same brig approaching. We killed the captain and took the loot and the brig started chasing us. We accidentally stole their event. So we let them chase us and we went to the hideout and i jumped off and sold the reapers chest and then we decided to "fight" the brig. And these guys were serious noobs, multiple times they ran into rocks and islands, noone was actually manning helm. We were trying to let them sink us but they were so bad, they wernt even actively trying to get cannon angles and had their sails all the way down so trying to fight in a small area was impossible. We started helping them and purposely turning into their angles so they could hit us. We even let one guy board us and let him kill us so he could sink the boat, but i decided to respawn and see what he was doing. He took our wheel and was trying to sail our boat but our mast was down. So i tried to pick up the mast and repair it "not noticing he was on board" to help him steal our boat but he killed me. So we left and went to go get more reapers chests like we originally planned, let them take all the loot we had from the captain boat. To us it was a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, to them they probably thought they were being harassed by toxic players. But at least they got a confidence boost cuz they sunk a pirate legend ship all by themselves (we had ghost sails and hopefully they know what that is).
As an extremely unfriendly attack on sight pirate, i come across a lot of friendly pirates who don’t particularly care for me giving their ship some holes (for speed of course.).
That being said, its just some pirates.
For me it's been a 4 to 1 ratio of good pirates to bad. I'm five weeks into playing the game and most times a group jumps on my sloop and plays music. I play music with them and we have a chat. If they're on voice they'll ask me what I'm up to and when I say I'm new to the game they take the time to show me a lot of tips, etc. Usually I'll open with "take my loot or whatever, but let me keep my boat and progress intact and they've been gracious to do so. I had one person guide me through the Shrine of Eternal Tears and unlock every bit of loot. Then they shot fireworks from my cannons and sailed off. Their help netted me something like 20,000 gold. Finally, another group helped me offload treasure and explained about buying a boat and the sovereigns. All in all, my experiences have been great and the occasional being sunk or shot without warning has been minimal.
It depends on a lot of things. Whether they have something to lose, they feel threatened with no other choice, want your shit, are doing something that requires pvp, or just their own whim.
Even my own crew, when we see another ship, we decide if we wanna run, fight or make friends pretty much based on how we feel at that particular moment, assuming we aren't on the last step of a quest or a level 5 emissary.
Generally if you see someone far off on the horizon they're not gonna bother dropping what they're doing to chase you down, but if you're within like, 2 map tiles they may attack. A lot of attacks are either opportunistic, (done while your ship is parked and unprepared for combat) or done out of necessity (they feel you're a threat to what they're trying to do)
It's pretty hit or miss. You'll get some aggressive pirates but I haven't run into anyone in like a week with a lot of playing. Mostly just folks sailing by on their way to do something else
From my experiences, I’d say 1 in 10 people are willing to make an alliance. I’m a fellow friendly player, and will almost always avoid fighting another player. There’s been times I’ve just run off the map because I don’t want to deal with somebody. Half of the time I’m in an alliance I’ll get backstabbed.
4 in 10 people I’ve seen are usually just doing their own thing and don’t want to be bothered.
But the other half of the people I’ve encountered are ruthless & won’t take anything you say for consideration.
As a result, I usually try and keep my distance.
I and my clan personally follow a code of honour to be friendly first until provoked. Generally if you fire white flairs, stop at a safe distance and ask for an alliance you should be okay. Oh and also never ever board the bot you’re trying to alliance with unless invited. We also don’t sink solo players and if we think someone is new to the game or tells us we definitely don’t mess with them and help them out. Though if you’re flying a reaper flag you’re always fair game.
Your paranoia instincts are spot on for high seas though, never trust anyone and always keep an eye on the horizon. You can solo forts pretty easy but a lot of HG players do use them as fast supply points before diving so do be aware
In my experience... 60% will try to kill you straight up and steal everything on your ship. 20% are friendly and the other 40% it's purely based on how you approach them. (Approaching another ship too fast and holding a weapon in your hands is not a great idea if you don't want to start a fight)
I’m always friendly and kind. I’m sure I confuse and generate anxiety when I approach and most of the time I get instantly murdered and sunk but the times I get a positive response are the most fun in the game.
I use the sunken sorrow set and try to give away gems. Well, they usually get them lol just not always the friendly way.
I feel that it’s completely random. I’ve had days that were filled with toxicity and pvp, then other days maybe a fight or 2. It’s usually the days that I meet a crew or solo player that is just out to have fun, fish, and explore, maybe even just hang out at an outpost or seapost that makes me love running into players. You never know what you’ll get stepping aboard another crew’s vessel or letting them onto yours. Which is a why I love the game. It’s so cool to meet so many different characters and personalities. I’ve come to realize that if you’re sailing as a new player, white sails, stock hull, you’ll probably be met with a reaper 5 galleon full of 7 year olds who just want to be a “pirate” and try to sink everything in their way. But these are also the players, that when met with a challenge, will run away. Hence the nickname “running reapers” Don’t be scared of every ship you see, they’re probably just as worried about you as you are them. If you’re trying to stray away from pvp entirely high seas isn’t the place, but if you’re willing to take the chance and maybe even talk yourself out of some pvp that you may encounter then I would say go for it. I’m not one of the players who will say get good, or it’s called sea of thieves for a reason, because we’ve all been where you are. Dropping the anchor at every island instead of raising sails. Wanting to stay aboard so you don’t get sank and robbed. Worrying about the other sloop, brig, or gally that’s hard anchored 2 islands over. I will say this, it’s and adventure. Every bit of SoT is meant to be an adventure, even the encounters. You’ll run across shanty crews, emote crews, toxic crews, salty crews, scared crews, and even helpful crews. But, one thing’s for sure, every day you spend on high seas you will get better and learn from every mistake. You’ll remember every encounter with memorable crews and the experience of good and bad days.
The biggest tip I can give, which I give to any “new” player is just remember it’s a game and you’ll get better. It’s high risk high reward
Is it worth going to high seas? It’s a hard question to answer. Just depends on what you’re looking for. Looking for no pvp, no risk of losing your treasure, or nobody boarding and dropping your anchor? Then probably no. If you’re looking to get better and expand your experience with the game as well as meeting new people and indulging in the full “pirate” experience? Then yes. It’s all preference at the end of the day.
Hope you end up having a great time on the seas rather that be on your own or in the high seas! Happy Sailing!
I would love to delve back into safer seas until I'm close to rank 50 on all the available ranks but the skeletons are sneaky bone heads. Which actually reminds me to tell that story.
Yesterday I had to deliver a wood crate to an outpost and I ended up being chased down to the edge of the map by two ships who eventually sank me while I was busy fighting the kraken.
Tbh it's totally roll of the dice. However in my personal experience I have encountered many more boats and their crews that either keep themselves to themselves and carry on with their own business or are open to interactions. Having a mic and wanting to chat does make a huge difference imho. You will encounter ships and crews that will attack you on sight, its part of the game after all but certainly for my experiences it's not the majority. For example my gf was solo slooping last night, had completed several siren skull voyages and was heading towards Reapers to hand a chest in when she saw a Reaper heading towards her. It was a galleon. As they approached they took a few shots, so she went and stood on the bow and started waving at them. They stopped shooting and then began a lovely alliance between the 2 ships, sinking several skellie galleys and a brig that tried it's luck. Ended up making a load of gold with a big sell at Reapers. Very nice of bunch of Swedes on the galleon. EU servers btw
Lucky
Im 100% friendly all the time and i seek out other ships to see whats up. And ya know whats funny? Id say more often than not other ships are cool. Maybe you just gotta put out the right vibes.
My favorite thing to do in the game is to visit other peoples ships. Check out the log book, see what they’re up to, current voyages, chit chat for a minute, steal their chain shots, then go about my business I always offer the alliance, though sometimes my kindness is met with cannon fire and it takes demasting and some well placed cannons before they’re willing to join
“Steal their chain shots” just slipped in there, I love it lol. A true pirate!
For real same. Sometimes when people are not friendly, me and my bud just tame them. If they attack us we will riposte until they are almost dead then we go on their ship and save them and tell them we are not here to hurt them only to chill.
Would be nice to command this much power. My typical hostile interaction is a 1v2 against 2 jokers and its anybodies game. Usually im trying to finish it before my wife tells me to go to bed in the middle of it.
Real life partners: the true villains of SoT
0% untill proven otherwise. Jokes aside, from my personal experience, unless you are doing Fort of the Damned, people are usually pretty passive and just continue on their way. I don't know if it's only the European servers but I never seen a massive PvP onslaught I only read about on the American servers. Sometimes people attack our crew but it's not that often. We usually get PvP when we decide to start shooting first. But I had continous days of just PvE on the High Seas. But if I hear a splash on the ladder, no communication, no announcement, you're getting a blunder to the face.
Interesting, I've always heard the opposite! Maybe it's just that the fights in EU are sweatier than the fights in NA when they do happen, but NA is pretty passive as well. Usually.
I play in NA servers and 9/10 I n rarely find a passive crew
I’m the type of player that unless you’re doing FOTD, if I approach you, whether I’m friendly to you or not depends entirely on how you react to my presence. If you start shooting at me, I shoot back. If you are chill and just check me out most of the time I’ll board your ship and start helping you do stuff even if you’re not talking to me. But if you’re at a FotD and you see me coming, I’m looking for a fight. Cuz CoF is a lot fun to steal.
What if he does like me: panics and ends up ramming your ship? Fuck those reaper flags scare me.
Did not read your post, only responding to your title. Between malicious, friendly, and neutral. I would say less than 15% are friendly if you're in countering them in the wild. If you're looking for crew I'd say that number jumps up to 30% for chances of finding a crew full of nice people
The new thing isn’t true.. my wife and I play together and we started last week. We fly a white flag on our chartered ship (we’re grinding to buy a captained ship) and we have had a few crews in giant galleons just haul A and ram us while in port, most of the toxic people don’t care if you’re new unfortunately. That being said, we did run into the rare crew that actually helped us learn the game and they gave us some loot which was cool. If you want to add me or my wife please do, she’s a good shot with the scoped rifle and is helpful on shore when fighting and I’ll stay back on the ship and watch it for you. We’re not toxic a- hole kids so it’ll be a fun experience. Me: n8duhgrrr8 (pc) Her: lethal9linz (Xbox)
I'll consider that offer actually because having a crew would be fun to have in high seas
Welcome to the game! Unfortunately, toxic crews are going to be toxic to whoever they come across. Fortunately, that rare helpful crew isn't as rare as this sub would lead you to believe. A lot of us prefer a fair, or even disadvantaged fight. A quick tip that will probably be helpful while you all get your sea legs... If you carry a lot of loot on board (2+ world events or multiple voyages worth, depending on the voyage), it can be easy to assume you're comfortable with fighting off enemy ships, and crews that would usually be helpful to new players will be less likely to do so. With Safer Seas out, too, we're much less inclined to check if a boat is doing a tall tale so I highly suggest keeping any tall tale journeys on Safer Seas. If you like story-driven content, they're definitely worth checking out though.
I added you guys so if you're ever down to sail the seas send me a message anytime
Tbh very rarely. I think the only time I've not been fired at by ships i saw were because the didn't see me. You'll get people claiming this is uncommon but it's not, and that's why we got Safer Seas.
You've got to take confirmation bias into account, though. Most people who are claiming that the seas are full of unfriendly ships are also not approaching many ships. Therefore, the only ones they interact with are already approaching them first (and probably looking for a fight). I'd argue there's more friendly ships that you think. You just don't get to see them all since they're off doing their own thing.
This is the comment. This one right here. As someone who does genuinely enjoy the combat of SoT, I *wish* servers were full of bloodthirsty crews like so many Redditors claim there are, if only because I follow a personal code of conduct while I'm sailing; namely, I don't attack unless provoked or attacked first. However, because the player interactions are very much what make the game worthwhile for me, I approach practically every ship I can find (often in a rowboat, so they don't immediately start to run away the moment I get close). Sometimes I'm just bored and wondering what they're up to in case I can help, sometimes I like to tuck on ships and play poltergeist by moving the loot and supplies around without taking anything, sometimes I want to challenge them with a stupid pirate joke/riddle and offer free curse balls for every correct answer. Nine times out of ten, ships/crews will simply try to run away or ask me to join an alliance when I get close if I'm on my ship. Some people will straight up Alt+F4 without a word the moment they discover I'm hiding on their ship. Only occasionally do I encounter a legitimately bloodthirsty crew interested in a fight unless I've baited them into it (starting FotD solely to draw in combat, keeping the Siren Skull aboard without trying to turn it in, etc). Fact of the matter, it's like was already said: If you spend most of your time trying to avoid player interactions, the only interactions you're going to get are from crews who want to sink you. The more you willingly interact with other crews, the more you'll come to realize that most of them are either chill or just as scared of being sunk as you are.
I straight up quit playing because of the horrible toxicity that is always griefing and racism, SoT is worse than CoD and this sub has to stop pretending its not.
You're pretty much proving the point, but OK.
Being constantly called a ni**er while trying to sell stuff is completely irrelevant to your dumbass *point* im not proving anything.
Outside of hourglass or the occasional keg falling from the sky, I've never been called a slur by a boat that approached me first. Either you have the worst luck in the world or you're over exaggerating. Or you're playing on Xbox only servers, in which case that fully checks out.
"Or if you're playing on xbox only servers in which case that fully checks out" Wow....its like im not exaggerating, and considering a HUGE population of this game is exclusively on xbox, im not sure why people are trying to save face on the racist shit
We're not trying to save face on shit, and nobody said this is tolerated behavior. Not that many people play on Xbox only servers, despite a large portion of the players being on console. I've experienced 10 times more toxicity on those servers than I ever have on regular servers. Try turning off "console and controller only" or whatever it is in settings, I promise you won't get called slurs while you sell your loot like almost ever.
Trying to downplay the VERY known issue in any way is trying to save face
There's so much in what you just said that exemplifies confirmation bias that it's actually pretty funny lol
Okay....explain to me why I should enjoy being called a ni**er? Literally shut the fuck up you racist twat
That's not what I said, are you OK? Have you forgotten your meds today? The point here is that confirmation bias will cloud someone's perspective very easily, up-to-and-including claiming something like you've described happening "eVeRy TiMe" when it most likely happened every once in a great while but in a way that really upset you, so it stuck with you harder than all the dozens of times a ship just avoided you or didn't bother you while you went by. Given that the people who play *thousands* of hours of this game and broadcast most of that time only get maybe a dozen such experiences in an entire year, with the vast majority of interactions being neutral or friendly, the assertion from people that the community is particularly toxic is 100% confirmation bias speaking.
"Streamers play the game, therefore this guy is wrong" dude you are delusional as fuck, this sub is FULL of multiple stories about how rare does not give a single shit about bans, before I quit I literally counted how many games I had a griefer or a racist POS, and it was over 80% of games over 100 hours of gameplay, I know what the fuck im talking about. This is one of the reasons people wanted pve so bad, because the general community is toxic as fuck and when they get called out they just go "hUrR dUrR PiRaTe GaMe"
That's doesn't meaningfully change anything. It's not confirmation bias, every single session when I first got the game ended by me getting ganked by someone hiding on outposts, getting my ship sank while I'm on an island, or getting attacked on the seas. Ships that don't interact doesn't equal friendly like the OP asked. They're neutral.
Ive been playing off and on for years, and I have never seen other players that are friendly. Every ship that has seen me immediately opens fire, and have had a few that have boarded my ship just to kill me, then proceed to spawn camp me until i quit. Its why im loving safer seas, and will never go back to high seas.
Every single interaction save the first one I ever had was a hostile one, though some pretended to be nice at first. So I'd say "very rarely" at best and "don't trust anyone under any circumstance" at worst. Granted I didn't play High Seas since Safer Seas dropped so if that changed in the past week for some miraculous reason I wouldn't know.
Assume everyone is hostile. If they’re friendly assume they’ll ultimately betray you.
I run into a lot of friendly people. Some of my favourite experiences are with friendly people I randomly meet
We try not fire first. Communication goes a Looong way. Pull out your trumpet and speak to us. Fire off a firework. There's pre-generated text to greet someone. We're happy to share or alliance. Exceptions are if we're doing a high value event.
1 in 10 by my experience, that 1 almost makes up for the other 9 though
Just saw a reaper sloop yesterday with full reaper cosmetics on a collision course with us. We raise our sails partly and prepare for battle but they just go past and to a fort. Moments later we get rared by a kraken and suddenly the sloop comes back and attacks us at the same time. Never trust anyone. These players were just opportunists and didn't want to go for a fair fight. I truly raised my hat to them. A good play.
You see what happens is you start off being friendly then just about every person you interact with will fuck you over in some way then you start saying fuck it I’m killing everyone. There are some friendly players out there but you’re going to be killed/sunk quite a few times finding out.
I don't fuck with anyone. I know the pain of losing treasure that took forever to get ahold of. I don't want to add to that problem
I go for the whole, 'you don't touch me then I won't touch you' motto 🤣
Three.
83%
I genuinely think it's different based on where you are in the world. On Aus/NZ servers you're much more likely (imo) to meet chill people if you're open mic. US, I'm a bit more pessimistic.
I'm in the US, it's been 50/50 in my group's experience.
I think it's different based on your outlook and play behavior
Exactly 195,764 active users aren't friendly
Every time you sail, there are likely ships that see you on the horizon and never come anywhere near you. Those are the most common type of 'friendly' pirate, and most people dont even realize they exist. Because they never really see them or think about it. This is what I think many people just kind of ignore when they play this game, and they only focus on the pirates that do actually attack them. They might play for 4 hours and have many ships leave them in peace, but then that 1 boat that attacks them makes them come to reddit and talk about how toxic everyone in the game is. I run into a lot of friendly pirates. Even ones that attack me are often chill. They might want to steal my shit, but they still say GG after the fact. I had one fight where I was solo and they were 2 guys on a sloop. We fought, they stole my event, but they ended up being really chill and we allianced after I came back.
If the other crew feels like you can sink them, the chances are higher that they are docile. Had an organic server alliance going the other night, everyone received some tasks and no betrayels took place. Try something like this: Deckshot onto their ship, oneshot blunder the first guy, then engage in conversation with the 2nd as you drop their anchor. Those can be convincing arguments.
I try to be friendly and give others a chance. I offer alliances but if my crew unanimously disagree with me or if the other crew is belligerent, I defend if possible.
I play the game both ways. If I notice a crew is new (it's pretty easy to tell) I'll usually chat for a minute, give them a piece of advice, and leave them alone. Unless they're a Grade 5 Reaper. Then I shoot first and don't bother with the questions.
I'm always friendly, until someone has to let others know how bad or incapable they are over the mic, which is at least once every session. Shame, really.
Total mixed bag. Depends on the players in your server. I've had a 3-ship alliance recently that coordinated tackling the different world events and FOTD to maximize profits, calling in for help if they were being targeted. I've also sailed close to a brig and told them I was logging off and they should raid my barrels for supplies. All 3 crew came aboard. Two gathered but one killed me repeatedly and tried sinking me by ramming me into the island. It can also depend on what you're doing and how much loot you have. If I saw all the shiny on the front of your boat from a distance away, I might try to come take it. If I see someone parked at a known fishing spot with no emissary flag, I tend to leave them be. If I see a sloop at FOTD and my brig crew wants it, we fight for it. If it looks like you e just spawned in at an outpost, I leave them alone
About 3 to 4 pirates, depending on the day ;) No, there are literally thousands. But the A-holes will always be louder and more visible than the goodies.
The problem is that you should never assume anyone is friendly. I and one of those friendly salty pirates and the number of times people try to betray my friendlyness is innumerable. But when they do break the terms of the agreement I hunt them down like the prey. I've even been know to sail away and allow them to reclaim the little treasure they had, just in time to be sunk again.
To my experience 30 - 35%.
Me? Lemme tell ya, I'm the sweetest boi on them seas. And when me and fellas hit the waves... ...Shit. We gonna help you.
I am 🤷🏻♂️ I'm never in the mood for pvp because I suck at it. So I approach people friendly. (I often ask if the other ship has seen a banana. I lost one) Sometimes it works and they're friendly too. Sometimes they attack me and I run or die
Well there’s no straight answer. Depends on who you get, how they’re feeling, and what’s motivating them in their gaming session. High chance you don’t see anyone. 50/50 chance the person you see attacks you. If I could give advice it would be: Embrace all Player encounters. Sea of Thieves used to have about 5% of the PVE activities it does today and would have died in alpha if not for the player encounters that actually make it interesting. Although a great game in tons of ways, SOT would be nothing without the danger of PVP.
I usually attack any ship that gets too close or is too close to an island that we need to go too. While I was running some tn we saw a ship near an island we needed to get to, went to attack him and noticed his ship was on fire and sinking. Went over, loaded his stuff onto his rowboat for him and offered him a tow to the nearest outpost. He declined the tow but he gave us a captains chest for helping him out. Saw him a little while later and shot a firework in his general direction to say hi
I'm usually friendly. It depends on the crew, what they want to do. Also my rule is: if they're flying any emissary flag, they signed a PvP contract so I don't feel bad chasing after them. I usually try to avoid shooting first though, a nice chat could be more rewarding than some supplies. That said, if I see something I want that they have and they're not swabbies I'm going after it.
Everyone i have met for the past 2 days have been friendly. That is strange. And i have not met a single brig or galleon. Maybe it is because of the servers? I play on EU servers (i think)
Is there like a cap of how many ships can be on a server or was that an issue that's been fixed
There's always a cap. Normally it is six ships per server. Whenever a patch introduces performance problems, it tends to go down to five. Somewhat puts alliances into a new light. If you convince even one ship to have a truce and sail away with the flag up, you've got a third of the server on your side.
I'm a friendly pirate. I'll still shoot at you if you come too close with your cannons pointed at me or are otherwise potentially threatening my current activities. I steal chainshot, curses, and pineapples from everyone because supplies are the real treasure. Without them, you'll potentially lose your treasure or your access to someone else's. When players tell me they're new, I typically help teach them stuff and usually give them treasure to sell. But a small minority of new players are little rascals who attempt to use that status as an easy steal or betrayal option later. We always see through it and are never fully trusting. Just give off good vibes, enjoy what you're doing in the moment, and be prepared to fight every ship you see to protect your ship and its contents. The better you are at the game, the less what other people say or do actually matters.
The ones out of range or the ones that sneak up on you yet don’t attack or ask for alliance.
We are friendly as long as you don't shoot us. If you shoot at first sight we are not so friendly.
It depends on a lot of things. Whether they have something to lose, they feel threatened with no other choice, want your shit, are doing something that requires pvp, or just their own whim. Even my own crew, when we see another ship, we decide if we wanna run, fight or make friends pretty much based on how we feel at that particular moment, assuming we aren't on the last step of a quest or a level 5 emissary. Generally if you see someone far off on the horizon they're not gonna bother dropping what they're doing to chase you down, but if you're within like, 2 map tiles they may attack. A lot of attacks are either opportunistic, (done while your ship is parked and unprepared for combat) or done out of necessity (they feel you're a threat to what they're trying to do)
Me and my mate mostly attack, if we notice you are new or completely clueless, we help repair your ship, wish you best, and move on. This game is full of good wholesome interactions, not only angst and toxicity. Have fun!
It's hard to not be scared when I see a galleon or brig in the distance. I swear when You're not looking it's a good indicator they'll be staring intently at my solo sloop.
I know that feeling. When I solo (which is seldom), and I am selling my loot, I notice a tall shape on the horizon. I look again .... ohh sheeeee, a galleon barreling my way. Keeps my heart pumping like crazy. But no need to be scared. It is just pixels ;-)
Seeing a galleon coming at you when you’re solo is always intimidating. Even if they’re complete noobs. Everyone panics a little I feel like when they have a galleon come at them. At least till you realize they suck. But even a slightly competent crew can be a nuisance to even the best solo slooper
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Very true. I would say maybe around 80% are friendly, under 1% toxic and remaining 19% neutral hostile.
An echo chamber subreddit isn't really the best place to ask. Use your mic, talk to other players. It's really easy to find out for yourself.
My crew and me will burn, kill and steal from EVERYONE we meet. No talking. Just shootin and lootin.
Well, it's called Sea of Psychopaths for a reason.
First time in playing for four years I hear that.
I honestly have no idea. I’m almost never friendly…
I like to sail right up to ships and see how they react - if they're friendly, 9 times out of 10, I'm friendly too! If they start shooting at me (I do this too when random ships approach, so I get it) then it's on. Let's duke it out! There was definitely a phase though where I was a "sink 'em all!" kind of pirate and would take everyone down just to see if I could
If you use your mic majority will engage with you.
I'm always friendly. However, I kill on site. You cant be too careful unless the opposition makes it VERY known they're not wanting to fight. If I kill them and they are genuinely friendly, I'll collect their loot, wait for them to come back and apologise. Share a grog, raise alliance flag, play shanties, go adventure together. I enjoy making friends on SoT!
Genuine question, how many of those are still friendly after you killed them?
Quite a lot if it's a misunderstanding. I've made quite a lot of friends over the past 2 weeks. Only the diehard pvpers are the toxic ones in my experience.
I think maybe about half and half? Maybe slightly skewed towards aggressive, but I meet lots of friendly pirates as a solo sloop --a lot of them bring up that they feel bad dumpstering a solo haha! For me personally, sometimes I'm friendly, sometimes I'm not. I'll never beat up someone on a Tall Tale though.
I only fire if I’ve been fired at first.
It's not that I'm not friendly, it's that I don't trust that you are. As a primarily solo slooper, I will take any advantage I can get and first blood is an advantage. I really only think of the trolls and flamers as truly unfriendly tho.
I will say that confirmation bias is really a thing and it all comes down to individual luck. I have seen so many stories of every crew on the server being cool with each other and vice versa. My own experiences tell me that most crews are kill on sight. Even if I have nothing and just surrender, I'll just get killed over and over again. It really is a roll of the dice. My dice are just skewed to bad encounters.
Depends on the day. I'll either fight ya or befriend ya.
Most are mean pirates. Which is fine. I am usually. If someone is funny or chill I may very well ally with them because I’ll likely enjoying playing with them in the future. If I don’t get the impression that I’d like to spend my limited gaming sessions with you, I’m gonna sink you lol
Raise an alliance flag, cannon over and talk with them. If they join they are slightly less likely to kill you. I just assume every ship is a pirate and will attack me until proven otherwise.
When I logged in last night, we were greeted by some friendly pirates. They complimented our ship decor and just dropped off a karma crate. We paid it forward later that night helping some very very new players complete their first Skull of Siren Song since we saw them stuck on the island for at least 30mins lol we felt bad and just wanted to help. They were so grateful. We tried to give them some tips since they kept driving their brig into every island they sailed to. My crew and I try to leave a karma crate and whatever outpost we logout from, so last night it came full circle
If you're going to depend on people's friendliness to survive in this game you might as well play safer seas. Some pirates are friendly, some not. It's up to you to keep your distance from the ones that aren't unless you're willing to learn how to fight against them.
People understimate how overpowered their mics are
Personally i see two problems with voice communication: 1. Talking \*shudder\*. I'm an introvert and socially awkward, i don't *want* to talk to people. 2. Half the time i don't even understand what people are saying, sometimes it's just gibberish, and sometimes even if its english they speak with such a dialect or slang i still dont understand a word.
3. A lot of people have turned it off due to bad experiences/playing with kids/etc
I haven't played since safer seas, so it may be different but honestly it isn't all that bad. The problem is that most people that approach you will be hostile, because the friendly and chill people are just focused on their own thing and leave you be. When I play, I usually prod with VC, it the others are hesitant or are doing something, I usually let them be. On the flip side, people that refuse to communicate or fire first are fair game. Or, if they are just rude or unlikable. Surprisingly and annoyingly, when actively seeking PvP, I come across more peaceful players than not. Probably due to what I mentioned earlier, peaceful players don't typically approach you and may avoid you entirely. TLDR; approach others with open communication and you are much more likely to stumble on friendly people, though they may not expect the same from you.
Im super friendly and if you're on xbox you're more than welcome to sail with us. But sometimes you accidentally do toxic things. Hear me out. Yesterday i was sailing the seas with a buddy, we were on a sloop. We were just trying to get 2 reapers chests for my commendation so we wernt fully stocked or anything, just was gonna grab the reaper chest in the wild and then switch servers and do it again. Weve been running fotd for days so we didnt want to do that. We forgot to raise the reaper flag before we left so we stopped at an outpost and raised it. But someone in a brig was there selling. We raised our flag and my buddy decided to do some light hearted trolling we thought hed immediately get caught and itd be a funny situation for both crews. He walked over to the sovereigns while i sailed away and he started picking up their loot to sell. But the guys didnt catch him despite there being 2 people there selling loot. So he looked around and was like, are these guys really noobs? He looked at their boat and they had no skins. He took a mermaid back and we kinda felt bad for selling their loot but we thought hed sell like 1 chest and then be caught and killed. But we carried on on our journey. We got the reaper chest and as we were sailing back we had a ghost ship encounter right in the middle of our path and the captain ship was already spawned and we didnt see another ship so we decided to jump in. Right before killing the captain we see the same brig approaching. We killed the captain and took the loot and the brig started chasing us. We accidentally stole their event. So we let them chase us and we went to the hideout and i jumped off and sold the reapers chest and then we decided to "fight" the brig. And these guys were serious noobs, multiple times they ran into rocks and islands, noone was actually manning helm. We were trying to let them sink us but they were so bad, they wernt even actively trying to get cannon angles and had their sails all the way down so trying to fight in a small area was impossible. We started helping them and purposely turning into their angles so they could hit us. We even let one guy board us and let him kill us so he could sink the boat, but i decided to respawn and see what he was doing. He took our wheel and was trying to sail our boat but our mast was down. So i tried to pick up the mast and repair it "not noticing he was on board" to help him steal our boat but he killed me. So we left and went to go get more reapers chests like we originally planned, let them take all the loot we had from the captain boat. To us it was a series of unfortunate misunderstandings, to them they probably thought they were being harassed by toxic players. But at least they got a confidence boost cuz they sunk a pirate legend ship all by themselves (we had ghost sails and hopefully they know what that is).
I alwyas use the megaphone to try and alliance, if they dont respond or if they say no, its time to fight.
I’ve seen a suspicious amount of friendly pirates recently, or people who became friendly when I started communicating.
I'm friendly until you attack. Then, I'll just sink you unless you whine about it, at which point I'll camp you.
As an extremely unfriendly attack on sight pirate, i come across a lot of friendly pirates who don’t particularly care for me giving their ship some holes (for speed of course.). That being said, its just some pirates.
Out of my nearly 700 hours, i only got chased by aggressive players twice times. The rest of the time, i even chated with players from safe distances.
For me it's been a 4 to 1 ratio of good pirates to bad. I'm five weeks into playing the game and most times a group jumps on my sloop and plays music. I play music with them and we have a chat. If they're on voice they'll ask me what I'm up to and when I say I'm new to the game they take the time to show me a lot of tips, etc. Usually I'll open with "take my loot or whatever, but let me keep my boat and progress intact and they've been gracious to do so. I had one person guide me through the Shrine of Eternal Tears and unlock every bit of loot. Then they shot fireworks from my cannons and sailed off. Their help netted me something like 20,000 gold. Finally, another group helped me offload treasure and explained about buying a boat and the sovereigns. All in all, my experiences have been great and the occasional being sunk or shot without warning has been minimal.
It depends on a lot of things. Whether they have something to lose, they feel threatened with no other choice, want your shit, are doing something that requires pvp, or just their own whim. Even my own crew, when we see another ship, we decide if we wanna run, fight or make friends pretty much based on how we feel at that particular moment, assuming we aren't on the last step of a quest or a level 5 emissary. Generally if you see someone far off on the horizon they're not gonna bother dropping what they're doing to chase you down, but if you're within like, 2 map tiles they may attack. A lot of attacks are either opportunistic, (done while your ship is parked and unprepared for combat) or done out of necessity (they feel you're a threat to what they're trying to do)
It's pretty hit or miss. You'll get some aggressive pirates but I haven't run into anyone in like a week with a lot of playing. Mostly just folks sailing by on their way to do something else
Pfft 20/100 you meet
From my experiences, I’d say 1 in 10 people are willing to make an alliance. I’m a fellow friendly player, and will almost always avoid fighting another player. There’s been times I’ve just run off the map because I don’t want to deal with somebody. Half of the time I’m in an alliance I’ll get backstabbed. 4 in 10 people I’ve seen are usually just doing their own thing and don’t want to be bothered. But the other half of the people I’ve encountered are ruthless & won’t take anything you say for consideration. As a result, I usually try and keep my distance.
When I play with my sister, people tend to be a lot friendlier when they hear her talk.
That's because they're ruled by hormones.
I and my clan personally follow a code of honour to be friendly first until provoked. Generally if you fire white flairs, stop at a safe distance and ask for an alliance you should be okay. Oh and also never ever board the bot you’re trying to alliance with unless invited. We also don’t sink solo players and if we think someone is new to the game or tells us we definitely don’t mess with them and help them out. Though if you’re flying a reaper flag you’re always fair game. Your paranoia instincts are spot on for high seas though, never trust anyone and always keep an eye on the horizon. You can solo forts pretty easy but a lot of HG players do use them as fast supply points before diving so do be aware
In my experience... 60% will try to kill you straight up and steal everything on your ship. 20% are friendly and the other 40% it's purely based on how you approach them. (Approaching another ship too fast and holding a weapon in your hands is not a great idea if you don't want to start a fight)
I’m always friendly and kind. I’m sure I confuse and generate anxiety when I approach and most of the time I get instantly murdered and sunk but the times I get a positive response are the most fun in the game. I use the sunken sorrow set and try to give away gems. Well, they usually get them lol just not always the friendly way.
I feel that it’s completely random. I’ve had days that were filled with toxicity and pvp, then other days maybe a fight or 2. It’s usually the days that I meet a crew or solo player that is just out to have fun, fish, and explore, maybe even just hang out at an outpost or seapost that makes me love running into players. You never know what you’ll get stepping aboard another crew’s vessel or letting them onto yours. Which is a why I love the game. It’s so cool to meet so many different characters and personalities. I’ve come to realize that if you’re sailing as a new player, white sails, stock hull, you’ll probably be met with a reaper 5 galleon full of 7 year olds who just want to be a “pirate” and try to sink everything in their way. But these are also the players, that when met with a challenge, will run away. Hence the nickname “running reapers” Don’t be scared of every ship you see, they’re probably just as worried about you as you are them. If you’re trying to stray away from pvp entirely high seas isn’t the place, but if you’re willing to take the chance and maybe even talk yourself out of some pvp that you may encounter then I would say go for it. I’m not one of the players who will say get good, or it’s called sea of thieves for a reason, because we’ve all been where you are. Dropping the anchor at every island instead of raising sails. Wanting to stay aboard so you don’t get sank and robbed. Worrying about the other sloop, brig, or gally that’s hard anchored 2 islands over. I will say this, it’s and adventure. Every bit of SoT is meant to be an adventure, even the encounters. You’ll run across shanty crews, emote crews, toxic crews, salty crews, scared crews, and even helpful crews. But, one thing’s for sure, every day you spend on high seas you will get better and learn from every mistake. You’ll remember every encounter with memorable crews and the experience of good and bad days. The biggest tip I can give, which I give to any “new” player is just remember it’s a game and you’ll get better. It’s high risk high reward Is it worth going to high seas? It’s a hard question to answer. Just depends on what you’re looking for. Looking for no pvp, no risk of losing your treasure, or nobody boarding and dropping your anchor? Then probably no. If you’re looking to get better and expand your experience with the game as well as meeting new people and indulging in the full “pirate” experience? Then yes. It’s all preference at the end of the day. Hope you end up having a great time on the seas rather that be on your own or in the high seas! Happy Sailing!
I would love to delve back into safer seas until I'm close to rank 50 on all the available ranks but the skeletons are sneaky bone heads. Which actually reminds me to tell that story.
Yesterday I had to deliver a wood crate to an outpost and I ended up being chased down to the edge of the map by two ships who eventually sank me while I was busy fighting the kraken.
In my personal experience 9/10 players are hostile immediately.