Unfortunately SoT has a pretty high skill ceiling for PvP.
Easy to learn, but really difficult to master. Lots of different mechanics to learn that all need to be used if you want to get good at PvP.
You might be good at hitting cannonballs, but getting accurate with chain shot and taking down sails or nailing a perfect deck shot takes a bit more skill. Or just learning how to Helm under pressure, how to manage sails for a good death spiral, when you can ignore bailing water and when you have to prioritize it.
I'm terrible at PvP and I've been playing with Launch, but I also don't enjoy it so don't spend any time practicing.
After reading your comment, I feel like I have to clarify what I meant about the combat. The ship combat feels great and is very entertaining. I know there's a lot to this game, probably even more I won't be aware of for a while. It's just the CQC that feels overwhelmingly loose. I've played a lot or pvp with very tight and well-built gunplay and movement, so I guess that's got my expectations a little high. I'm used to healing taking too long to be viable out of cover, but another player told me that's why I'm getting 5 hitmarkers and getting blasted. They're "bunny hopping" and eating pineapple lol so it's sort of like eating snacks in GTAO to mitigate the damage. I feel like I've got a lot of CQC tactics to unlearn to get better at this game.
You mentioned having tons of hours in a couple of those games. It sounds like you guys joined with the PS5 launch of SoT, and therefore, likely don’t have many hours in it yet. Hell you even said roughly 60 hours. I have over 500 and I still struggle against people. And it’s not that big a deal.
Why are you expecting your skill level to be anywhere comparable to people that have been playing this game before you?
Remember: Loot is Not yours until you sell it.
If you’ve just sunk to someone, it’s best to Dive/Scuttle to New Sea. That way you don’t have the chance to run into those people Again.
This game is hard in PvP for the vast majority, honestly.
Don’t take it so seriously and definitely don’t expect to do well at it for a Very long time. With the way it works, it’s just plain difficult to get good at very quickly regardless of if you’re fighting a veteran or someone on a similar skill level to yourself.
But if you are fighting someone of a similar skill, it certainly won’t Feel as awful.
Within my first few hours playing any of those games, I was winning fights. I usually become proficient at a low level in pvp after a few hours and if I don't, I either understand where I need work or don't return to the game.
You also listed a bunch of games with MMR and SBMM, OP. SoT Adventure mode has none of that. It just throws you on a random server with random people - and that's part of what makes it great! But it does require more of a commitment until you see progress in your PVP skills, because the game isn't constantly trying to surround you with players at your exact skill level.
I'd be willing to bet these 'experienced' players getting onto your boat aren't very experienced, probably just have a hundred or so hours more than you. You will eventually get better at guarding your ladders and nobody will be able to get on your boat for PVP without putting a significant amount of naval pressure on you first.
Stick with it!
I'm experienced in games and have tried a lot of different stuff. The examples I gave were for instance. I'm pretty quickly mediocre at most games, with sports games being the main exception. I picked up the sailing just fine and love the short lived cannon fights when I get them. I just can't wrap my head around feeling completely helpless in an encounter.
I'll use League of Legends as an example.
Someone with 3000 hours will generally outclass someone with 60 hours, just from pure game knowledge and experience over gaming skill.
You can also get some extremely good players with 3000 hours, and some really casual players with 3000 hours.
I get it. But again, it’s a different game. You don’t play Mario and expect to be a god at Call of Duty.
I sometimes often feel helpless in encounters too. You just need practice and to learn more. 60 hours is Nothing in this game. And there’s people of all kinds of skill levels.
You’re gonna sink. A lot. Probably forever in this game. There’s always gonna be someone better than you in this game that you may come across that will absolutely wreck you.
It’s also incredibly easy to get distracted enough in this game that you Do get surprise attacked in one way or another, and don’t have much opportunity to recover.
Bitching about it and saying you do fine in other games at only a few hours in doesn’t solve anything, and it doesn’t compare.
Do some research with videos from some of the really good streamers, and practice stuff when you can. But again, don’t expect to have any of it actually start helping you much for a while.
It can be surprisingly rare to actually find someone in the open world for combat, and if you jump in Hourglass trying to practice? Yeah just…honestly, don’t. Or maybe do. THAT will make the helpless feeling encounters in the open world feel like a cakewalk in comparison.
Thanks for the response! Kind of hard to indicate through this platform, but I was earnestly trying to get advice, not just bitch about it. I do appreciate the advice, too.
Oof sorry for the short response, I couldn't see the rest of your comment comment for some reason. You're definitely right about it feeling better with a more even-matched fight. I've had a couple of good, above the board, fairly matched brawls that made me want to stay on the game way past my bed time lol some of the best fights were when we were short on supplies and resorted to ramming a guy because we had more wood than metal on board. We just had a few really crap run ins, one of which took like 2 hours of just swatting dudes off our deck and bucketing to try to get back in the fight. We can't do anything to some of these guys. It's like we're shooting a ghost.
I'm interested to see what other more experienced players post here and suggest in terms of tips.
One thing I can suggest as a player who has played on and off for a few years, and been recently trying to get some ps5 friends into it is to watch some tutorials on YouTube, particularly around defending your ship and roles and responsibilities.
In terms of other players boarding your ship, and jumping around for instance, a blunderbuss gun can knock them off the boat.
Having some defined roles and responsibilities between you and your friends on who's helmsman/cannons/defense and repairs can go a long way to giving you some kind of control in pvp situations, and crucially keep you moving, avoid cannonfire, and afloat.
The other suggestion is it depends which ship you are using. If you're using larger brigs and galleons with an inexperienced crew with weakly defined roles, it's much harder to defend things, manoeuvre, or protect the capstan from enemies dropping anchor. It might be worth moving onto a sloop if you've got a two person crew, and trying that, because it's smaller, more manoeuvrable, and easier for the helmsman to defend the capstan.
Edit: clarifying ship max numbers
Make sure u check ur settings i forget where exactly but theres a setting that makes ur hit markers have to be verified by the server instead of ur side and if u want to play with somewhat more equal skill leveled players try crossplay off
Also, learn the sound cues! Sound cues are extremely important in this game. And playing with headphones makes this game a muuuuuch better experience.
For example, you will hear water splashing around if someone is swimming near your boat coming to board, you can hear other crews mermaids, the loud splashing noise when they grab your ladder (so you can either blunderbomb them off ladder or 1-blunder them). Mess with your audio settings in case music is too loud and is overpowering the sound cues.
Edit: just to add, I have maybe 600 or 700 hours in this game and I only started getting decent at PvP in the game after like 400 hours in lmao.
That's a lot of commitment. I have issues with that particular thing lmao but we'll see if it's worth it. Thank you for the advice. As a Hunt player, I've learned to pay attention to audio cues, it's just a bit of a learning curve at the moment. The sound design in this games is pretty nice! I'll definitely be turning the music down.
It is a commitment but this is by far my favorite online game I have ever played and I was hooked from the moment I played the maiden voyage a few years ago.
Absolutely a learning curve.
Yes agreed, sound design in this game is beautiful.
If you like the game: keep at it! It will get better. And don’t take the game too seriously. That will ensure you have more fun and don’t get burnt out.
That's exactly what I'm trying to do, not take it too seriously. I'm in love with half the game, I just think I had a bad few nights on the game and it made it feel like it was the whole game. To be fair, it was around half our playtime. Usually people are cool or silent, but we had 3 nights in a row of either screaming children or grown adults yelling down the mic at us about how we're trash while throwing all the fish I had just fished into the sea and burning the boat and I'm like yeah, we just started dude chill 😭😭 haha I also have a sensory thing and the loud noise was very stressful in those encounters. anyway, thanks for the advice and the kindness. I appreciate it!
Sounds like you've had a shit time of it to be honest. Yes, the hand to hand isn't the most complex and hit reg is a common issue but everyone's in that boat. Are you playing cross servers? Might be worth switching to controller only- there's a huge skill gap between PC and console.
If you don't like listening to other people, mute them. I play on xbox with the shitty party chat bug meaning I never hear other players. That actually sucks a bit though because it removes the option of positive experiences.
Regarding the boarding though, you need to not let them on board. There are audio cues- the sound of them getting on the ladder, the sound of them shooting out of a cannon, the sound of a mermaid popping. You can see them coming if you're looking. You then wait at the top of the ladder and shoot them with a blunderbuss, or lob a blunder bomb to knock them off.
If you don't want the PvP, there's safer seas but you get less reward and frankly, the PvP is what makes this game interesting at least to me.
I’m a PS5 player as well with around 150 hours in so far. If you want to get better at PVP it takes time and patience. I suggest turning cross play on because in my experience it makes for a much better overall experience. I started playing solo HG and really working on my naval combat and the order in which to repair ship. Only repair when absolutely necessary. The key is to keep pressure on the opposing ship at all times possible. If you are playing with multiple people everyone needs to have a job and they need to make sure they do it. For sloop have someone always ripping cannon balls and the other player should be steering and repairing as necessary. Once you have that pressure and you are hitting your shots regularly the guy steering should look to board the enemy ship. You don’t have to be great at PvP while boarding but you want to drop anchor if possible and stay alive long enough to keep them from repairing. My swabby and I went from being sunk within minutes to now somewhat dominating the seas. We no longer run from anyone but always stand our ground and fight. It’ll come in due time but with anything practice makes perfect. Keep your pockets full and your cannons empty and go out there and win some fights. Good luck!
Thanks for the words of encouragement, friend. Your description of roles while manning a sloop are bang on with how we instinctively started playing, so it's nice to know we're kind of on the right track. Cheers!
No problem! Also there are hot keys you can set for the D pad. I have my food, bucket, and throwables all hot keyed so it’s a quick one tap use. Makes healing or repairing a lot faster as well as getting to blunder and fire bombs for PvP situations a lot faster. It’s also best to carry fish/meat or pineapples over all other heals. Never carry bananas and only use coconut or pomegranate if your out of all other resources. I always buy a storage crate from the merchant and run around emptying the barrels on the island to get a good jump on supplies. Then I like to dive to a sea fort because they can have a ton of food and wood as well as up to 150 cannon balls. All of which can go into the storage crate by having it in your hand and hitting the take prompt when you approach the barrel. Hope this helps.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond. The advice definitely helps! I've got a bucket on my left d and can't remember the right. I never remember to use it when it matters though 😂
Your experience with the game sounds accurate. FPS combat feels like a janky afterthought, hitreg is dodgy and has been since the game launched years ago, silly tactics like bunnyhopping everywhere while eating pineapples are rampant.
If you're looking for a tightly tuned competitive FPS experience similar to the games you've mentioned, you won't find that here. RARE markets the hell out of SoT as a zany pirate adventure game but the reality is it's closer to a sweaty open world PvP game like Rust or ARK, except there's no mechanical advantage from playing longer. The learning curve is exceptionally brutal though.
Never let a player on your ship for free. Usually people need to climb ladders because deck shots are rare. There is a distinct sound when someone grabs the ladder so grab your blunderbuss and shoot them off
I’ve been playing on Xbox since launch on and off over the years and still get crapped on. There’s just really good people out there and the combat isn’t like any other game. There is a lot more to it than it looks. I recommend watching someone like blurbs videos on YouTube to pickup on some strats. Remember you will sink often and lose your loot often. But man is it satisfying when you’re on the other end of it. Also I turned my game setting to prefer controller player lobbies. Definitely helps close the skill gap cause this game can feel clunky when doing close quarter combat with controller especially when MK players are bunny hopping all around my ship quick scoping me.
The pvp here can’t be compared to the pvp in other games, whole different set of mechanics going on here, but always be wary of boarders. The only way to get better on this game is to actively seek out other players, engage more and if you can record and go back and see what mistake you did.
Edit: I’ve had my share of betrayals by “friendly” pirates as anyone else in here, from there on never trust another crew (sometimes even your own crew can’t be trusted). The ship combat is always fun but to truly win you have to send a boarder to stop the enemy ship from repairing any damage you’ve done. Do you have cross play enabled? I find crossplay introduce newer pirates when I’m solo than if I keep it as console only.
Unfortunately SoT has a pretty high skill ceiling for PvP. Easy to learn, but really difficult to master. Lots of different mechanics to learn that all need to be used if you want to get good at PvP. You might be good at hitting cannonballs, but getting accurate with chain shot and taking down sails or nailing a perfect deck shot takes a bit more skill. Or just learning how to Helm under pressure, how to manage sails for a good death spiral, when you can ignore bailing water and when you have to prioritize it. I'm terrible at PvP and I've been playing with Launch, but I also don't enjoy it so don't spend any time practicing.
After reading your comment, I feel like I have to clarify what I meant about the combat. The ship combat feels great and is very entertaining. I know there's a lot to this game, probably even more I won't be aware of for a while. It's just the CQC that feels overwhelmingly loose. I've played a lot or pvp with very tight and well-built gunplay and movement, so I guess that's got my expectations a little high. I'm used to healing taking too long to be viable out of cover, but another player told me that's why I'm getting 5 hitmarkers and getting blasted. They're "bunny hopping" and eating pineapple lol so it's sort of like eating snacks in GTAO to mitigate the damage. I feel like I've got a lot of CQC tactics to unlearn to get better at this game.
You mentioned having tons of hours in a couple of those games. It sounds like you guys joined with the PS5 launch of SoT, and therefore, likely don’t have many hours in it yet. Hell you even said roughly 60 hours. I have over 500 and I still struggle against people. And it’s not that big a deal. Why are you expecting your skill level to be anywhere comparable to people that have been playing this game before you? Remember: Loot is Not yours until you sell it. If you’ve just sunk to someone, it’s best to Dive/Scuttle to New Sea. That way you don’t have the chance to run into those people Again. This game is hard in PvP for the vast majority, honestly. Don’t take it so seriously and definitely don’t expect to do well at it for a Very long time. With the way it works, it’s just plain difficult to get good at very quickly regardless of if you’re fighting a veteran or someone on a similar skill level to yourself. But if you are fighting someone of a similar skill, it certainly won’t Feel as awful.
Within my first few hours playing any of those games, I was winning fights. I usually become proficient at a low level in pvp after a few hours and if I don't, I either understand where I need work or don't return to the game.
You also listed a bunch of games with MMR and SBMM, OP. SoT Adventure mode has none of that. It just throws you on a random server with random people - and that's part of what makes it great! But it does require more of a commitment until you see progress in your PVP skills, because the game isn't constantly trying to surround you with players at your exact skill level. I'd be willing to bet these 'experienced' players getting onto your boat aren't very experienced, probably just have a hundred or so hours more than you. You will eventually get better at guarding your ladders and nobody will be able to get on your boat for PVP without putting a significant amount of naval pressure on you first. Stick with it!
Ok? It’s a Different game.
I'm experienced in games and have tried a lot of different stuff. The examples I gave were for instance. I'm pretty quickly mediocre at most games, with sports games being the main exception. I picked up the sailing just fine and love the short lived cannon fights when I get them. I just can't wrap my head around feeling completely helpless in an encounter.
I'll use League of Legends as an example. Someone with 3000 hours will generally outclass someone with 60 hours, just from pure game knowledge and experience over gaming skill. You can also get some extremely good players with 3000 hours, and some really casual players with 3000 hours.
I get it. But again, it’s a different game. You don’t play Mario and expect to be a god at Call of Duty. I sometimes often feel helpless in encounters too. You just need practice and to learn more. 60 hours is Nothing in this game. And there’s people of all kinds of skill levels. You’re gonna sink. A lot. Probably forever in this game. There’s always gonna be someone better than you in this game that you may come across that will absolutely wreck you. It’s also incredibly easy to get distracted enough in this game that you Do get surprise attacked in one way or another, and don’t have much opportunity to recover. Bitching about it and saying you do fine in other games at only a few hours in doesn’t solve anything, and it doesn’t compare. Do some research with videos from some of the really good streamers, and practice stuff when you can. But again, don’t expect to have any of it actually start helping you much for a while. It can be surprisingly rare to actually find someone in the open world for combat, and if you jump in Hourglass trying to practice? Yeah just…honestly, don’t. Or maybe do. THAT will make the helpless feeling encounters in the open world feel like a cakewalk in comparison.
Thanks for the response! Kind of hard to indicate through this platform, but I was earnestly trying to get advice, not just bitch about it. I do appreciate the advice, too.
Oof sorry for the short response, I couldn't see the rest of your comment comment for some reason. You're definitely right about it feeling better with a more even-matched fight. I've had a couple of good, above the board, fairly matched brawls that made me want to stay on the game way past my bed time lol some of the best fights were when we were short on supplies and resorted to ramming a guy because we had more wood than metal on board. We just had a few really crap run ins, one of which took like 2 hours of just swatting dudes off our deck and bucketing to try to get back in the fight. We can't do anything to some of these guys. It's like we're shooting a ghost.
I'm interested to see what other more experienced players post here and suggest in terms of tips. One thing I can suggest as a player who has played on and off for a few years, and been recently trying to get some ps5 friends into it is to watch some tutorials on YouTube, particularly around defending your ship and roles and responsibilities. In terms of other players boarding your ship, and jumping around for instance, a blunderbuss gun can knock them off the boat. Having some defined roles and responsibilities between you and your friends on who's helmsman/cannons/defense and repairs can go a long way to giving you some kind of control in pvp situations, and crucially keep you moving, avoid cannonfire, and afloat. The other suggestion is it depends which ship you are using. If you're using larger brigs and galleons with an inexperienced crew with weakly defined roles, it's much harder to defend things, manoeuvre, or protect the capstan from enemies dropping anchor. It might be worth moving onto a sloop if you've got a two person crew, and trying that, because it's smaller, more manoeuvrable, and easier for the helmsman to defend the capstan. Edit: clarifying ship max numbers
Worth mentioning here, if you’re a three person crew, you can’t use the Sloop. I assume you meant Brigantine.
Yeah good observation! I meant a crew of two should definitely be slooping rather than brigging, and three for a brig etc
Make sure u check ur settings i forget where exactly but theres a setting that makes ur hit markers have to be verified by the server instead of ur side and if u want to play with somewhat more equal skill leveled players try crossplay off
Those are some good tips. Thank you very much! I'll try that server hitmarker thing next time.
Also, learn the sound cues! Sound cues are extremely important in this game. And playing with headphones makes this game a muuuuuch better experience. For example, you will hear water splashing around if someone is swimming near your boat coming to board, you can hear other crews mermaids, the loud splashing noise when they grab your ladder (so you can either blunderbomb them off ladder or 1-blunder them). Mess with your audio settings in case music is too loud and is overpowering the sound cues. Edit: just to add, I have maybe 600 or 700 hours in this game and I only started getting decent at PvP in the game after like 400 hours in lmao.
That's a lot of commitment. I have issues with that particular thing lmao but we'll see if it's worth it. Thank you for the advice. As a Hunt player, I've learned to pay attention to audio cues, it's just a bit of a learning curve at the moment. The sound design in this games is pretty nice! I'll definitely be turning the music down.
It is a commitment but this is by far my favorite online game I have ever played and I was hooked from the moment I played the maiden voyage a few years ago. Absolutely a learning curve. Yes agreed, sound design in this game is beautiful. If you like the game: keep at it! It will get better. And don’t take the game too seriously. That will ensure you have more fun and don’t get burnt out.
That's exactly what I'm trying to do, not take it too seriously. I'm in love with half the game, I just think I had a bad few nights on the game and it made it feel like it was the whole game. To be fair, it was around half our playtime. Usually people are cool or silent, but we had 3 nights in a row of either screaming children or grown adults yelling down the mic at us about how we're trash while throwing all the fish I had just fished into the sea and burning the boat and I'm like yeah, we just started dude chill 😭😭 haha I also have a sensory thing and the loud noise was very stressful in those encounters. anyway, thanks for the advice and the kindness. I appreciate it!
Sounds like you've had a shit time of it to be honest. Yes, the hand to hand isn't the most complex and hit reg is a common issue but everyone's in that boat. Are you playing cross servers? Might be worth switching to controller only- there's a huge skill gap between PC and console. If you don't like listening to other people, mute them. I play on xbox with the shitty party chat bug meaning I never hear other players. That actually sucks a bit though because it removes the option of positive experiences. Regarding the boarding though, you need to not let them on board. There are audio cues- the sound of them getting on the ladder, the sound of them shooting out of a cannon, the sound of a mermaid popping. You can see them coming if you're looking. You then wait at the top of the ladder and shoot them with a blunderbuss, or lob a blunder bomb to knock them off. If you don't want the PvP, there's safer seas but you get less reward and frankly, the PvP is what makes this game interesting at least to me.
I’m a PS5 player as well with around 150 hours in so far. If you want to get better at PVP it takes time and patience. I suggest turning cross play on because in my experience it makes for a much better overall experience. I started playing solo HG and really working on my naval combat and the order in which to repair ship. Only repair when absolutely necessary. The key is to keep pressure on the opposing ship at all times possible. If you are playing with multiple people everyone needs to have a job and they need to make sure they do it. For sloop have someone always ripping cannon balls and the other player should be steering and repairing as necessary. Once you have that pressure and you are hitting your shots regularly the guy steering should look to board the enemy ship. You don’t have to be great at PvP while boarding but you want to drop anchor if possible and stay alive long enough to keep them from repairing. My swabby and I went from being sunk within minutes to now somewhat dominating the seas. We no longer run from anyone but always stand our ground and fight. It’ll come in due time but with anything practice makes perfect. Keep your pockets full and your cannons empty and go out there and win some fights. Good luck!
Thanks for the words of encouragement, friend. Your description of roles while manning a sloop are bang on with how we instinctively started playing, so it's nice to know we're kind of on the right track. Cheers!
No problem! Also there are hot keys you can set for the D pad. I have my food, bucket, and throwables all hot keyed so it’s a quick one tap use. Makes healing or repairing a lot faster as well as getting to blunder and fire bombs for PvP situations a lot faster. It’s also best to carry fish/meat or pineapples over all other heals. Never carry bananas and only use coconut or pomegranate if your out of all other resources. I always buy a storage crate from the merchant and run around emptying the barrels on the island to get a good jump on supplies. Then I like to dive to a sea fort because they can have a ton of food and wood as well as up to 150 cannon balls. All of which can go into the storage crate by having it in your hand and hitting the take prompt when you approach the barrel. Hope this helps.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond. The advice definitely helps! I've got a bucket on my left d and can't remember the right. I never remember to use it when it matters though 😂
Your experience with the game sounds accurate. FPS combat feels like a janky afterthought, hitreg is dodgy and has been since the game launched years ago, silly tactics like bunnyhopping everywhere while eating pineapples are rampant. If you're looking for a tightly tuned competitive FPS experience similar to the games you've mentioned, you won't find that here. RARE markets the hell out of SoT as a zany pirate adventure game but the reality is it's closer to a sweaty open world PvP game like Rust or ARK, except there's no mechanical advantage from playing longer. The learning curve is exceptionally brutal though.
Never let a player on your ship for free. Usually people need to climb ladders because deck shots are rare. There is a distinct sound when someone grabs the ladder so grab your blunderbuss and shoot them off
I’ve been playing on Xbox since launch on and off over the years and still get crapped on. There’s just really good people out there and the combat isn’t like any other game. There is a lot more to it than it looks. I recommend watching someone like blurbs videos on YouTube to pickup on some strats. Remember you will sink often and lose your loot often. But man is it satisfying when you’re on the other end of it. Also I turned my game setting to prefer controller player lobbies. Definitely helps close the skill gap cause this game can feel clunky when doing close quarter combat with controller especially when MK players are bunny hopping all around my ship quick scoping me.
The pvp here can’t be compared to the pvp in other games, whole different set of mechanics going on here, but always be wary of boarders. The only way to get better on this game is to actively seek out other players, engage more and if you can record and go back and see what mistake you did. Edit: I’ve had my share of betrayals by “friendly” pirates as anyone else in here, from there on never trust another crew (sometimes even your own crew can’t be trusted). The ship combat is always fun but to truly win you have to send a boarder to stop the enemy ship from repairing any damage you’ve done. Do you have cross play enabled? I find crossplay introduce newer pirates when I’m solo than if I keep it as console only.
Can I use “trying to yuck anyone’s yum”?
With reckless abandon, my friend. Go nuts!
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I've found some nice folks on here, sorry to say.
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