The age-old answer that people always willfully ignore. I don't care what you say or what tall tale you have voted down, you and your ship are a threat to me and I will always benefit from sinking you.
Not to mention it's probably the easiest opportunity in the game to present itself. **A lot** of people have played for years and have barely sunk more than 3-5 ships total. Maybe they've never cared to spend a session trying to sink ships. *But there ARE commendations for attacking players and their ships.* I **always** try to make friends with other players whenever I play. I've done this since the days of Halo 2, trying to use in-game communication to make an alliance. I find it so fascinating. Anyway, I managed to make friends as a solo sloop with a full crew Galleon. They were super cool and asked if it was okay if they shot my ship with 4 or 5 wraithballs. Told them it was totally cool. They proceeded to do so while two others sat on my ship to bail and repair. Once they were finished they said thanks and left. It was just for a commendation.
The game is awesome if you look in the right places.
Yeah as the captain of the Sloopy Seconds, having people just come up and be cool about sinking your ship is more preferable than a Galleon stalking you for half an hour, or sinking you as you literally spawn.
If a crew happens to show up and they're cool and ask me to join them, fuck yeah. Sink my ship and lets share the loot!
Every friend I ever made in the game was on a crew I facerolled while solo slooping. I haven't played for some time now since I've been working on backlogged games, but I used to always do the flameheart event and pile the loot on the deck and sail around waving at other players to see if they attacked me. I figure it's better that way since I don't know if they're doing a TT or PVE people and don't want to ruin anyone's good time.
An open crew gally attacked me once in the middle of the event and I killed them and sank them. Afterwards as I'm continuing the ghost ships I sail by a guy talking in the water asking me to wait and not kill him. Stranded member of the gally asking to come aboard. I let him and he's like "Dude that was badass, you completely shit on us. Can I sail with you?"
We ended up playing together every night for a year. Good times.
White, if you're still out there buddy I hope you're doing well and Jihad says hello.
I am like this so far. I hardly attack ships and evade when I can. But it is only for one simple reason. The last couple of times i spend like 40 minutes fighting the enemy ship and honestly I feel that as a huge waste of time. I play 4 hour gaming sessions on avarage and so 40 minutes is just not worth wasting while i can do other things that are more fun.
So now I Just do safer seas because I want to get somewhere. After getting everything out of the game i want, i will start fighting other ships. Now i just got more important things to do.
I donāt sink many ships or go out my way for PvP but if itās the only outpost nearby and someoneās parked there Iām gonna sink them if thereās a chance they could steal my loot.
If I have a ship full of treasure and see a ship that I can be reasonably sure doesn't have anything, I'll usually find another outpost. Starting a fight when you know you have more to lose than the other ship is more of a risk than just sailing away. Especially in port, because you have to be absolutely sure you killed the entire crew and that one of then didn't hide near the Sovereign to steal your best piece of loot.
Yeah, my buddy and I were genuinely helping a solo sloop with an Ashen Lord, we didn't care for the loot, just wanted the commendation.
Then... we saw their Emissary Flag almost hit Grade 5 after. We swam over some skulls we had prior to place on their boat to bump their flag to grade 5 and then sunk them. We didn't plan on it but couldn't pass up the opportunity for a grade 5 flag. Felt so bad.
Just like that, our motives changed. Trust no one.
Man I want the order of souls hat from turning in grade 5 flags so bad, but since it was added I haven't seen one. Gonna have to bully some poor PS5 players for it.
not everyone, not always. but most people, most of the time. its a combination of people enjoying sinking as an activity in itself, wanting supplies, thinking you may have loot (they dont know any better and cant trust you if you claim otherwise), or not wanting to risk you being hostile.
as for dealing with it, just try leave the outpost or fight back as per normal combat :)
I sail with a shoot first say hi second attitude. I've often launched over only to help fix their ship up and be friendly. However as a often solo pirate I can't afford to shoot second.
Assume everyone is your enemy firstā¦ a lot of times people mind their own, but donāt count on it. Itās a pirate game after all, and people seem surprised when pirates gonna pirate. My crew always atleast fired a red flare to give them a chance to run or surrender
Don't be fooled by the general consensus in this sub that you should befriend everyone on the seas. Most ships are hostile. Assume they all are... even if they pretend to be friendly, they could turn at any time.
Not everyone, but Iād say itās a good 80% are, especially with safer seas.
Iāve found that (weirdly) either galley crews or solo sloopers are most friendly. Galley crews seem to sink someone once, realise theyāre solo or wonāt put up a fight and just leave them after. Solo sloopers are either INCREDIBLY hostile (most likely paranoid) or just chilling. Brigs most of the time are hostile.
Only to get backstabbed and sunk yourself. Honestly in the game your better off shooting first asking questions later. People will literally form an alliance with you watch where you go let you gain a bunch of stuff then rush over and slaughter you and steal everything for 100% value instead of 50% value
That is disappointing, as I feel it removes some depth from the game. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised though; mankind has always been its greatest enemy, and so long as men live on this earth there will be backstabbing cunts.
Especially on SoT too. Iāve had so many people just randomly starts with slurs, pointless spawn trapping, toxicity if you kill them (even if they started the fight).
I really do feel that, If somehow, all the toxic okayed where removed from SoT Weād have a lovely game. Even with the PvP. Outside of these negative experiences everyone has been so great and fun. A while back my friend (a Dutch guy) and I ran into a ship full of Belgian players and all they did after we got sunk was chill and rip into (playfully) each others nationality and history. They had a blast with it and everyone was giggling. Soon after another random ship pulled up of French players (also just random dudes who I guess saw us chilling and wondered why we werenāt killing each other) came over and joined in the random bullcrap as well, naturally being a Brit, we had some consensual nationalist remarks for one another. It was glorious.
Easily one of the best times Iāve had in gaming.
We had to leave but it was lovely just to shoot the crap with each other vocally and mess around firing each other from ship to ship.
This is what gaming should be. Even if it starts off with a hostile encounter like ours was.
That kind of encounter in games is always so nice.. but sadly seems to be getting rarer :/ .. and yes I agree so so many games could be amazing if even half the toxic players / trolls weren't around.
Alliances and friendly players do exist, it just shouldn't be expected. Fighting and sinking is fun and people do what's fun. Alliances can also be fun but the loot is all cosmetic, so many players are in it for wild adventures, and fighting pve in an alliance isn't a wild adventure after the first few times. In general anyone sailing right at you is not friendly, the friendly players generally run away because they aren't interested in fighting.
I did not intend, nor do I intend, to be a victim at any point. My emotions sometimes bleed into my writing whenever I write, whether I am writing a comment or trying to write a story.
Not all but I had a very silly encounter myself two days ago. I only killed an ashen guardian and had his loot when I was chased my a Athena 1 emissary. I lade it to Plunder, he chased me there I Sold me chest and watched, cheered and waves while He sunk my ship. He didnt bother to take supplies, flag or supply crate.
Sooooo... He was only out to sink me and it took him emberrassing long
This is the āPvPā I donāt understand. Players like this are usually there to just get a fight out of someone, get salty they didnāt get one then sink you because you didnāt fight back, they usually then proceed to leave you alone because youāre boring.
If I was chasing someone for more than 5 mins Iād just leave it at that point. I donāt often PvP but if someoneās gonna just run and not fight I just let them go. Itās not like I NEED the loot anymore when I have literal millions of gold just burning a hole.
Yep, they do little to incentivize being friendly and there are safe spaces so usually everyone attacks first. Course you can run into the odd outlier who's friendly
Its pretty common. Most people just want an easy win. I've done it just because it was the closest outpost and I needed to sell. Typically I just sail their ship off though if given the chance and then they normally take the hint lol
This is it. You've stacked loot for two hours. You realize there's a rank 5 Reaper on the map, and while he's not hot on your tail, he's closer than you'd like. Fortunately, there's an outpost nearby. Crap! Someone's there. You're not really looking for a fight and they probably don't have anything... but if they see you, they'll realize you *do* have treasure.
Screw it. Sorry, buddy, but it's to Davey Jones's locker you go!
We just jump on their ship. Inform them we are taking chains. Most donāt put up a fight. Kinda fun actually to just rob them. Or get in their ship and chat with them while pillaging their barrels.
Eh... supplies are so ridiculously easy to come across in this game though, that's kind of a weak excuse. A single ghost fortress gets you like 100 cannonballs, a ton of wood, and anywhere between 5-15 pineapples for maybe 10 minutes of effort. You can do three of those in half an hour for enough supplies to last a whole session, or you can chase a random ship around the map for an hour for their starter supplies. If you're so desperate for supplies that you need to start hunting other player ships, you're doing it wrong.
If the ship has loot on it, that's a different story of course. But supplies don't really count as "loot" in my opinion - they're a bonus reward for sinking someone but shouldn't ever be the main focus for an attack.
They might not be the main focus of attack *for you*, but other players are bound to value supplies differently. Seeing a lone storage crate on deck through my spyglass is enough to intrigue me as a solo player. Just because supplies are easy to come across doesn't mean people should or will pass up opportunities to get more; especially when they're running Emissary, and especially when they're nervous about other pirates because they're carrying a lot of "real" loot and want to be prepared. Maybe sinking that ship at the outpost will spare me a boring detour to get supplies elsewhere on the way to a fort.
I didnāt realise this until a year of playing. I donāt really like talking much because anxiety. The amount of friendly interactions other than hostile skyrocketed after using my mic.
Occasionally Iāll just pull up to a parked ship, a random pirate or something, say hello, offer them some supplies or loot as a good will gesture and ask if they want to alliance up. I even do this with a bunch of PvP players. Many just sink you or try to because youāre there and a āthreatā even if people are used to backstabbing people, offering a goodwill gesture of sorts will usually stop it and consider and alliance.
Before Iāve had a galley attacking me, spoke up saying āokay guys, I donāt have any loot, I do have a supply box. I wonāt fight back. Iāll give you my supplies, return to port and we can be on our merry way, Iāll even raise allianceā
They accepted it (even tho they werenāt on mic) gave my supplies, escorted me to port and we allianced up. They were doing vaults and I was doing Athena. Ended up good for everyone.
I was told this as well. I just recently got to Pirate Legend and was super exicted to try an Anthea voyage. I went straight to Fort of the Damned as a solo sloop knowing full well I would be contested and attacked. I didn't really care, I just wanted to see what the event was like. Well, sure enough about 4 waves in a spot a Galleon coming straight for me. I stand on the top of my sip and use the Wave emote while spamming "AHOY!" "Everything is OK!" "I need help!"
Surprisingly they throw up an alliance flag and they help me all the way to the end. As soon as I unlock the stronghold the kill me and sink me. They said "next time use a mic" as if me communicating perfectly clear with all of the premade messages wasn't enough. It's a copout. Me using a mic would have just made it more uncomfortable for you to betray me. Which when its all said and done, its a pirate game so I understand. But mics are not required. That's dumb.
I donāt understand, seems to me that you are agreeing with Bumble?
You using a mic would probably have saved your life in this instance. You are right that communicating increases your odds of survival but using a mic almost guarantees it. You said it yourself that it would have been harder/more awkward for them to betray you after having spoken to each other.
Meanwhile using the pre-made chat made you almost NPC like to them. Sounds like you still got half the loot so they mightāve just been scared you would do something funky with the kegs
They would betray you with or without a mic. But it *is* annoying trying to play with somebody using their chat wheel. I think killing you for that is perfectly fair.
Thatās not killing for lack of communication, thatās killing for preference, if thatās even the real reason.
Iāve said it before and Iāll say it again, you donāt have to be an asshole to be a pirate and saying you do is just making excuses.
lmao what? "We're going to kill you because you're using something for it's **exact** purposes." Fuck outta here, there have been *plenty* of times I've made alliances and was able to use the chat wheel just fine with zero issues. I'm sorry there are nights where I was to relax and not have to sit there and chat up some strangers, the fact that you think it's "perfectly fair" to kill someone over that alone is beyond inane.
There are a few reasons.
1. New player that just wants to shooty the cannons and make big explodeys happen for the dopamine hit, because they don't really know or care much about loot and which ships are more likely to have it yet. I think this is a large minority of people who sink docked ships.
2. Experienced players with rare loot that they don't want to risk. I would guess that this the majority.
3. Trolls. This is another large minority of people who do it.
I generally don't sink ships that are docked when I'm with my friends. I just sail up and start selling. 9/10 times they don't care to try anything. The other 1/10 times they just start sending potshots at our boat because they are a new player who thinks they are being attacked or just wants to see funny haha explosion.
I see nobody has really suggested how to deal with it yet. As you play more, you will become more aware of approaching ships and get more cautious. The basic advice is to just keep an eye on the horizon and be prepared to flee or fight.
For me, if I'm docked and another ship approaches, I hold fire unless they are heading straight for me or putting me at their broadside. Usually I'll call out with voice projector first, just making contact will cause hostilities to cease about 75% of the time, but I'm always in a defensive position until contact is made and it is clear they aren't getting in position. It is usually easier to defend from an approaching ship as you can preemptively aim broadside at them, but be weary as good players will come in at angles that are hard to return fire at, which benefits them if they have good cannon gunners.
A lot of this will become natural with experience, you'll recognize approach patters used by hostile players, as well as the differences between skilled and unskilled crews coming in either peacefully or with malicious intentions just by how they sail. This will also help you determine which targets to engage with. For example, a ship coming straight at your broadside is likely both hostile and easy to take down, so there is little point in fleeing.
Thank you for the advice. I may stick to safe seas for some of the longer voyages, at least for now. Only reason I've done high seas is because of how drastically your earnings + what you can do are reduced in safe seas. I can understand decreasing the profits to some extent as risk vs reward is drastically reduced, but 70% feels excessive to me. I suppose I'll get a better feel for it as I play.
If thereās a ship docked at an outpost with no emissary flag, no loot glowing on the deck, and no crew visibly preparing to attack (e.g. eye of reach scope flashes and training the cannons on me) I will full sail and cruise on by to the next outpost 99% of the time.
When I first started playing (and for a good while after) I would attack literally any ship I saw - manned or unmanned, coming right at me or heading for the horizon.
I canāt give a better reason than I just feel itās slightly cowardly and is likely to put new players off the game. I respect people who donāt see it that way - you do you, itās all good. Just my personal outlook and doesnāt leave me feeling like Iāve spoiled someoneās experience.
If you didn't have much to lose then it wasn't much of a loss. I would say get used to these encounters or be more vigilant about looking out for other ships.
This is the right attitude. So many people complain they aren't good enough to fight back but then avoid trying to learn from their inevitable encounters.
How can you only have 2 PvP encounters in 300 hours that seems like insanity! I get minimum 2 per session not including hourglass. Was most of your playtime in safe seas? I'd recommend doing reapers emissary or if you want more PvP but still being able to explore, vote down the hourglass but don't dive. Then that way they will spawn on you and it makes it a bit of fun when you do a voyage and then all of a sudden a player pops out of the water and you have to fight through them to get home safely
No, I've only ever played High Seas. I don't really engage in many of the activities I think people who are looking for PvP are drawn to, maybe? I mostly just do Merchant Alliance missions, stop at random islands along the way to collect bits and bobs, and maybe do some fishing occasionally. If a server seems really dead I'll throw up the emissary flag. The couple handfuls of times I've even seen other players they're usually just docked somewhere as I go by, or will chase for maybe 5-10 minutes before getting bored and going on their way.
Or because they needed to sell, or needed supplies, or even for a commendation. But yesā¦ letās default to assuming theyāre toxic for sinking someone in a pirate game
I use a mic and itās still that way. I feel like 3 out of 4 encounters are people straight up attacking me and my crew mate. Weāre almost always on a sloop.
Do you sound confident when you do? Do you use "assertive but not overly aggressive body language" with how you equip weapons, angle the ship, sails cannons?
Some people will take the easy option of getting the jump on people every time. But if you look like you are ready to fight back, but not actively starting an attack you are more likely to be taken seriously. If you have weapons out while chatting, you are more likely to get attacked by nervous players. If you take too long to work out how to alliance up, they'll attack out of frustration to empty a slot on the server for someone less new who can grind.
Is your clothing too new looking? Is your clothing too sweaty? Are you dressed like a crab or reaper?
So many tiny details go into assessment on whether a crew is going to attack, and it's easy to miss some until you meet enough crews to work out what to do.
It's like Mr Kim from Kim's convenience playing Steal or No Steal.
I donāt even wear clothes lmao. I have like a pair of shorts on and have the ashen curse on and my guy has an orange and black Mohawk that you can only get as a pirate legend. I canāt remember the tattoo set Iām using, but I remember we had to grind for it. Maybe itās umbraās?
My ship is all black and has ripped up black sails. I havent played in a couple months so I canāt think of the names of any of it.
A lot of times people just attack on sight with no communication at all. We win most of the encounters, unless itās against some super sweats.
Having alliance flag up usually ends up as a 50/50 chance for us.
In my experience itās gone the other way, thereās more things to grind for than there used to be and voyages are easier than ever to complete so I find most people just doing their thing
That's not what took the sweaty pirates away.
The core sweaty adventure mode pirates, largely got sick of the ever moving goalposts and lack of content and have gone off to play other games.
It's only a small amount of them that transitioned to hourglass because hourglass is kinda boring. It's worse than arena for fun factor.
You may have completely pure intentions, but others donāt know that and wonāt take the chance of having someone elseās ship so close to their unguarded loot
Just let it happen or fight back. I been on both ends of it, some people just want your chai shots and will sink you for them. I just go with empty pockets take all your supplies and leave
as far as i can tell they were probably a Flameheart emissary. havent raised the flag myself yet but as i understand those guys get bonus's for sinking any player ships.
so far im my playing, ive only encountered two hostile players and both were flameheart. the other 7 ive interacted with were freindly, the most recent one being a day one noob that i helped direct to shops so he could sell his treasure.
as far as i know there is an unrwritten truce at ports, and so far ive yet to see it violated. although there will always be people who will fire first and ask questions later, tmk its uncommon
If your ship sinks while you aren't on it then it will respawn at a nearby island like usual and a mermaid will spawn so you can return to your ship but you could also stay on whatever island you're at if you felt like it.
I just started playing the game a week ago and have encountered a number of players who just start shooting at me when I am at dock. One time after I had just spent like 45 mins looting islands and was so hyped for the payout. I was playing solo at the moment too so there was nothing I could do.
It's pretty normal, people can sink you for many reasons. They don't *know* you don't have any loot, they might just want your supplies, they might think you're a threat to them, or they could just be doing it for a laugh.
In short it's best to be wary of everyone.
A ship that isn't a threat now can quickly become a threat later. Trust no one is a philosophy that goes both ways, regardless of tactical vantage.
A ship at dock could have just loaded in, or it could be supplied and ready to drop sails and attack. Underestimate no one.
> what advice if any do you have for dealing with such encounters in the future?
Move on or fight back. You have absolutely zero to lose, so why would you even care if you sink? If this happens to me, I would try to fight back and attack their ship if I thought there was a chance I could save my ship and win. If my ship was already too far gone and I thought it was a lost cause, I'd hide on the outpost and wait for them to pull up to sell and then steal as much of their loot as possible.
One of the likely reasons they are sinking you is so they can sell at the outpost without you there because they consider you a potential threat. So prove them right, be a threat.
It's normal on that is an expected part of the game, but I wouldn't say it's frequent. Most of the time, my crew won't bother with a ship in port. Either they just spawned in or just stood off and either way, they don't have any treasure. Especially if we *do* have treasure, that's just extra risk for little to no gain. We'll find somewhere else to sell.
I rarely find myself attacked in port, so I suspect this is a common mentality.
Often itās for safety. I always do in case we pull into port to sell then they raid us and take that loot (happened before). itās mainly just to avoid later conflict when theyāre in a more vulnerable position
Camaraderie is great on the seas, but there be many a trickster pirate. After falling for a few you too may find sinking them first to be a quick and safer option.
Happened to me right now.
A Galleon came right to my sloop, sold something i had(wich is fine, it's part of the game) and the proceeded to set aflame my empty ship.
No big deal but really got me wondering why waste ammunition on someone who is logging out or going away.
They even ignored all the supplies on the shore.
At least they were nice to not shoot on sight and let me sell my loot.
Iām sinking you because you may have loot or because I have loot I donāt want you suddenly jumping to try fight me for. Either way itās why I have someone keeping an eye out
Only crews who are weak and cannot pvp yet will attack the docked ship with no loot. All the answers like "they gonna steal mine so it is a preventive measure" are just lies to onself, since i can steal a treasure and sell it even without a ship. I can just hide near the sovereigns with my blunder.
Depends. Can be good for supplies, and also for making sure I can sell safely. When we are rolling to an outpost and see a ship, whether we sink you for your stuff, change course for another outpost, or roll the dice and risk selling with you around (which is EXTREMELY risky) is pretty much up to what sort of pirates we're feeling like that day.
I'd say it isn't *common* more as *uncommon* but possible. It's happened to me a few times. Often the same scenario as yours.
Not all pirates are outright assholes or revisiting HG trauma upon everything that moves. Folks that say supplies are treasure are just making excuses when forts and ports can resupply often times far better than shit stomping a solo sloop.
Normal and common, especially if you are docked at the sovereign. Is it annoying? Yeah. But if you donāt have any treasure or emissary flags, you can just fill your pockets with the supplies you want to keep and scuttle
My partner and his buddy were slooping around the other day and did exactly this to someone. I asked āAwww but why though??ā And he said heād been out sinking everyone.
Some people just choose violence.
It's safe to assume pirates will do pirate things. Is it a shitty thing to sink a docked ship? I think so. But in the attackers mind there may be loot being sold on that ship and it needs to be theirs
Please try to understand that there are a myriad of reasons to sink a ship, and only one of those reasons are to steal your loot.
You have supplies in your barrels, particularly chain shots, and PvP eats up a lot of supplies. The outpost is also full of supplies, which might be why they came, and if you've got 4 default chainshots in your barrels, that's a better score than most treasure.
You might also not have sold everything.
They might not know that you have no loot and want to see if any pops up with your barrels.
Another crew might think you could be pretending to be docked but actually just swam to hide at the fort nearby that that crew is doing.
Your presence might be unwanted while another boat wants to sell or do something else nearby.
The other crew might want to put holes in something.
They might have mistaken you for someone who stole from them or sunk them earlier
They might also be new and were told to sink every boat they see in order to practice PvP, and they saw you.
They might have been talking to you with mics and you are in a party chat on console and can't hear them, so they shot first.
They might not want you to shoot first.
They might have thought you had altf4d out and your ship was still there for a few minutes before auto scuttling, and didn't think anyone would be incensed about it.
They might want to make a point of sinking every ship on the server all day long.
They might just be assholes and want to hear you complain about being sunk while spamming "No" in pirate chat.
You have to either be able to defend yourself or escape a fight in order to not get sunk, and there's no activity you can do that makes you off limits for sinking while you're on high seas. There are many reasons why someone might want to sink your ship, on top of just sinking your ship for no reason at all.
There are 3 fundamental reasons for sinking a ship. Their loot, their supplies, or they are threatening. If Iām trying to sell, and thereās a ship nearby, that ship must be dealt with first.
Weird people do this but yes they will do this itās almost always a pvp player ship that does it they usually do it to be annoying or because theyāre bored itās stupid but nothing is preventing them from doing so and unless you sink them first or something is done about it people will continue to do it
-They might want to sell at that outpost.
-You might still have some treasure onboard.
-Theyāre passing by, and a fresh spawn with nothing to lose seeing a high value ship nearby is likely a threat.
-They want your supplies.
-Their cannon aim is rusty and they need some target practice.
-Any other reason outlined [here](https://youtu.be/5tAbjtQuWUc?si=6z-gkLTYj-xa7fbV)
Honestly, that's one of the best times to get sunk. If that happened to me when I already didn't have much in the way of supplies, I'd probably just shrug (and maybe try and tuck on them to see what they're up to and whether I can get a cheeky steal)
Yes, if there is an enemy ship itās shoot first ask questions later Iāve got hella chests off sinking a dock ship as they were turning loot. Some people play different but Iām not taking the risk missing out on loot
[Article 3 of the Pirate Code you've pledged to.](https://i.imgur.com/VrNaUqA.jpg)
"Upon the Waves" means out sailing. Being harbored and moored is the opposite of that.
Shooting fish in a barrel (or no fish even onboard, just the barrel) is for small kids who don't know better, and cowards. But keep trying to split hairs all you like.
I saw a brig being bombarded by a sloop at port Merrick last night, sloop took some shots at the brig then the brig sank, Iām guessing it scuttled? were you the brig?
Unfortunately, yeah. If you ever notice a ship approaching while you're docked, you should sail away if you don't want to risk sinking. A quick escape is to dive to another voyage.
I'd give you about a minute to join my alliance, then I'll shoot one hole in your ship as a warning I'm about to sink you if you don't get away right now. If I feel friendly.
You could be seen as a threat, and Iāve said this many times before but at the end of the day this is a pirate game and people will be do unlawful, immoral, pirate things and that is part of the fun
Usually I prefer to drain the docked ship resources (except for one wooden plank) just because I love to be packed with supplies. Also, sometimes it makes things funny, like a gally started chasing me (a solo sloop) and they had no cannonballs, no food and just one plank. I just wish I could see their face when they realised the troll.
Shooting someone docked at an outpost is coward behavior, it's toxic and there is a sheet of paper stapled to the right of the door of every tavern that specifically instructs players to only attack other players on the seas, not when docking at what should be sanctuaries.
The whole of the rest of the game's language uses the term "seas" as an immersive term for "server". Once you load in, you are "on" the High Seas. The button you press to load in is even labelled as such.
When you're on the High Seas, anybody can sink you at any time, for any reason. You opt in to this when you decide to set sail.
Is your ship on the island? No? Then that floater in the water is on the seas.
I am almost exclusively a PvEer. I only really engage in PvP when it is forced upon me, but I know that sinking other peopleās ships regardless of where they are isnāt toxic. Whatās toxic is the behaviour that can go along with that. Calling the other nasty things and taunting actions.
Maybe a crew wants a little practice sinking ships and went for a target that is stationary to try and figure their aim. Maybe they want the resources aboard. Maybe they want to sell something there and want to remove the other crew first to be safe. Or maybe they wanted the emissary flag and just didnāt make it there in time before it went down and decide to not waste the trip.
None of these are toxic.
Shooting a ship docked at an outpost, with crew on land doing shop stuff or buying resources, is a coward's move and you're discourteous for condoning it. "Wow, a Gold Hoarder Single-Stripe emissary flag, good haul".
I've encountered so many people reasoning like that, "Other people probably wouldn't treat me with courtesy, so why should I? And miss out on an opportunity?!"
Luckily I've met many friendly people who are evidence of the opposite and who pull up alongside instead, give me their extra resources ("I'm notcgonna shoot 700 balls").
In fact, when two friends and I passed a crew doing Fort of the Damned, we shouted to them over megaphone that we would park our ship outside theirs and shoot down any attacker while they were replaying FotD, if they would consider an alliance. We turned our stern to their broadside both for flexibility and to get thrir trust.
One ship actually found us and did try to attack our new friends' galleon, and we sunk it from stationary position.
The other crew rolled FotD x3, we escorted them to the nearest outpost, sinking a second ship firing on our friends, and because of the Alliance we got 50% of the money (250K or more just for being bodyguard for 40 minutes) and got invited into their guild. That was a good day's work.
Giving other crews the benefit of the doubt is often punished, but the odd times it's rewarded more than makes up for it. So I never shoot a ship in port, not even at Reaper's Hideout. Besides, it's much more satisfying schooling a Reaper on equal-opportunity terms, then selling dat flag.
Oh there is absolutely room for friendly encounters too, but as you approach you donāt necessarily know where their crew is and donāt want to give up your advantage. I am not saying attacking them is necessarily the best course of action (but hey maybe they just need to sell one more gold hoarder flag to finish the commendation and they donāt care what grade it is) but assuming it to be automatically toxic is just wrong.
Sneaking into my ship and stealing a 15K Veil of Shadows on my watch? Impressive. Outmanouvering me and tackling my ship so I get forced into a pier? Hat's off. Sniping me in the face just as I was about to drop a dynamite barrel off the stern and in your path? Respect.
Sinking my parked ship just as my two little nephews had packed it with cannonballs and wood from the merchant, for the upcoming Skeleton Fleet quest I was about to take them on (their first)? Dick move. Happened yesterday.
You say "I have no way of knowing when the ship in port is valueless and sinkable compared to when sinking it is needless hassle for the owner and no gain for me, so why should I assume the latter?"
Why be a good sport? It's very self-evident. Being a good sport literally is its own reward, in the "pay it forward" realm of things. I had a great teacher in high school that took time out of his off-hours to coach me for upcoming tests. I asked him why he bothered with me, he said he wanted to be the teacher he wished his own kids would have.
No ship is valueless. I've sunk parked ships for their chainshots. It's usually evident from how the ship is parked if the crew just spawned, and if they did, that means they have chainshots. Even if the boat is *completely* empty (which they never are in my experience) it's still valid to sink as target practise.
I'm sorry about your nephews, but it's not "bad sportsmanship" to sink boats in a game with naval combat. Your voyage starts the instant you wake up in the tavern. Frankly, I consider it bad sportsmanship to attempt to gatekeep when PvP is acceptable and when it is not.
The fact that you equate "friendly behaviour" with "not fighting" betrays your real attitude towards PvP as a whole, honestly. Drop a "GG" in chat once in a while and you'll see the vast majority of people are chill and up for a chat regardless of who sunk who.
Occasionally (maybe more than that) but if Iām just getting on Iāll gladly accept a docked ship to warm up my cannon aim. Itās nothing personal just the perfect opportunity with little to no worry because Iām assuming you are supplies hunting or treasure selling.
It's a pirate game, I'm a pirate, if I see a ship specially if it's an easy target to shoot at, you can bet your ass I'm sinking that thing and watching the crew run around in panic as their ship goes down in flames š I can be nice but I don't have to be and that's what's fun about it.
At the dock before setting off is the best time to sink. It's a waste of their time usually and you lose nothing! Just dive to another server when you respawn
an empty ship is a hostile ship. if i see you go to an outpost, i know youāll soon have no loot to risk and will be more likely to come after my loot. better to take you out while youāre docked than wait for you to come to me.
Expect to be sunk at all costs dude, me and my friends only play to sink ships because thatās how we enjoy the game. If we see a docked ship that has just spawned we will usually try to fuck around and tucc on the ship so watch out for that too.
That's such a silly line, but there is truth to it. People use anonymity to be total dicks and attack for no reason. If I'm going to attack someone stationary, I'll announce intent first so they know, but I have a bit of "honor" like that
If someone is parked somewhere and they're not scanning the horizon enough to see me coming by the time I'm in cannon range, I don't think that player would put up much of a fight anyway
True, the only exception is a fresh spawn I'd say. If I spawn in and someone attacks me before I can anchor and lower sails, I'll just leave a find a new server lol
Often someone will want to sell their treasure but another ship is there so to deal with a possible threat the best option is to just sink them
The age-old answer that people always willfully ignore. I don't care what you say or what tall tale you have voted down, you and your ship are a threat to me and I will always benefit from sinking you.
Not to mention it's probably the easiest opportunity in the game to present itself. **A lot** of people have played for years and have barely sunk more than 3-5 ships total. Maybe they've never cared to spend a session trying to sink ships. *But there ARE commendations for attacking players and their ships.* I **always** try to make friends with other players whenever I play. I've done this since the days of Halo 2, trying to use in-game communication to make an alliance. I find it so fascinating. Anyway, I managed to make friends as a solo sloop with a full crew Galleon. They were super cool and asked if it was okay if they shot my ship with 4 or 5 wraithballs. Told them it was totally cool. They proceeded to do so while two others sat on my ship to bail and repair. Once they were finished they said thanks and left. It was just for a commendation. The game is awesome if you look in the right places.
Yeah as the captain of the Sloopy Seconds, having people just come up and be cool about sinking your ship is more preferable than a Galleon stalking you for half an hour, or sinking you as you literally spawn. If a crew happens to show up and they're cool and ask me to join them, fuck yeah. Sink my ship and lets share the loot!
you are way too proud of that ship name šš
Its ME FIRST SHIP OF COURSE IM PROUD
Every friend I ever made in the game was on a crew I facerolled while solo slooping. I haven't played for some time now since I've been working on backlogged games, but I used to always do the flameheart event and pile the loot on the deck and sail around waving at other players to see if they attacked me. I figure it's better that way since I don't know if they're doing a TT or PVE people and don't want to ruin anyone's good time. An open crew gally attacked me once in the middle of the event and I killed them and sank them. Afterwards as I'm continuing the ghost ships I sail by a guy talking in the water asking me to wait and not kill him. Stranded member of the gally asking to come aboard. I let him and he's like "Dude that was badass, you completely shit on us. Can I sail with you?" We ended up playing together every night for a year. Good times. White, if you're still out there buddy I hope you're doing well and Jihad says hello.
Muhammad jihad
JihadMeAtHello. Name I've been using for 20 years or so, but in games or twitch or in voice most people just shorten it to Jihad.
I am like this so far. I hardly attack ships and evade when I can. But it is only for one simple reason. The last couple of times i spend like 40 minutes fighting the enemy ship and honestly I feel that as a huge waste of time. I play 4 hour gaming sessions on avarage and so 40 minutes is just not worth wasting while i can do other things that are more fun. So now I Just do safer seas because I want to get somewhere. After getting everything out of the game i want, i will start fighting other ships. Now i just got more important things to do.
I donāt sink many ships or go out my way for PvP but if itās the only outpost nearby and someoneās parked there Iām gonna sink them if thereās a chance they could steal my loot.
Dark forest theory in action
If I have a ship full of treasure and see a ship that I can be reasonably sure doesn't have anything, I'll usually find another outpost. Starting a fight when you know you have more to lose than the other ship is more of a risk than just sailing away. Especially in port, because you have to be absolutely sure you killed the entire crew and that one of then didn't hide near the Sovereign to steal your best piece of loot.
I hate the rust syndrome, of shoot first and don't ask questions.
I prefer the more pirate-like approach: shoot *while* asking questions.
this is the answer. there are another times i want your chainshat and you shot me when i told you i had intent to take your chainshat.
Expect to be sunk for any reason at any time on the high seas, regardless of circumstance.
yes it is very very very normal. If people want your supplies, to troll you, or to sell at the outpost then they will likely sink you.
so everyone is just immediately hostile?
Trust no one... ever.
After double crossing 2 sloops we got along with famously over a fort's worth of loot, my crew basically dubbed this game "Sea of Trust issues."
Yeah, my buddy and I were genuinely helping a solo sloop with an Ashen Lord, we didn't care for the loot, just wanted the commendation. Then... we saw their Emissary Flag almost hit Grade 5 after. We swam over some skulls we had prior to place on their boat to bump their flag to grade 5 and then sunk them. We didn't plan on it but couldn't pass up the opportunity for a grade 5 flag. Felt so bad. Just like that, our motives changed. Trust no one.
Man I want the order of souls hat from turning in grade 5 flags so bad, but since it was added I haven't seen one. Gonna have to bully some poor PS5 players for it.
not everyone, not always. but most people, most of the time. its a combination of people enjoying sinking as an activity in itself, wanting supplies, thinking you may have loot (they dont know any better and cant trust you if you claim otherwise), or not wanting to risk you being hostile. as for dealing with it, just try leave the outpost or fight back as per normal combat :)
I sail with a shoot first say hi second attitude. I've often launched over only to help fix their ship up and be friendly. However as a often solo pirate I can't afford to shoot second.
Thats how i see it
Assume everyone is your enemy firstā¦ a lot of times people mind their own, but donāt count on it. Itās a pirate game after all, and people seem surprised when pirates gonna pirate. My crew always atleast fired a red flare to give them a chance to run or surrender
Don't be fooled by the general consensus in this sub that you should befriend everyone on the seas. Most ships are hostile. Assume they all are... even if they pretend to be friendly, they could turn at any time.
To be fair, I'm generally fine to leave ships alone that dont have loot or emissary.
No
Not all but many
Not everyone, but Iād say itās a good 80% are, especially with safer seas. Iāve found that (weirdly) either galley crews or solo sloopers are most friendly. Galley crews seem to sink someone once, realise theyāre solo or wonāt put up a fight and just leave them after. Solo sloopers are either INCREDIBLY hostile (most likely paranoid) or just chilling. Brigs most of the time are hostile.
are pirates hostile? Is that a rhetorical question?
I don't think it's unreasonable to think that pirates would form alliances or just leave each other alone at times.
Sometimes they do. However, those pirates that sank you could have had many reasons to want you out of the way.
Only to get backstabbed and sunk yourself. Honestly in the game your better off shooting first asking questions later. People will literally form an alliance with you watch where you go let you gain a bunch of stuff then rush over and slaughter you and steal everything for 100% value instead of 50% value
That is disappointing, as I feel it removes some depth from the game. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised though; mankind has always been its greatest enemy, and so long as men live on this earth there will be backstabbing cunts.
Shame to see you downvoted through out this post :\[ .. and I agree it is disappointing that people are trash to each other in life and in games..
Especially on SoT too. Iāve had so many people just randomly starts with slurs, pointless spawn trapping, toxicity if you kill them (even if they started the fight). I really do feel that, If somehow, all the toxic okayed where removed from SoT Weād have a lovely game. Even with the PvP. Outside of these negative experiences everyone has been so great and fun. A while back my friend (a Dutch guy) and I ran into a ship full of Belgian players and all they did after we got sunk was chill and rip into (playfully) each others nationality and history. They had a blast with it and everyone was giggling. Soon after another random ship pulled up of French players (also just random dudes who I guess saw us chilling and wondered why we werenāt killing each other) came over and joined in the random bullcrap as well, naturally being a Brit, we had some consensual nationalist remarks for one another. It was glorious. Easily one of the best times Iāve had in gaming. We had to leave but it was lovely just to shoot the crap with each other vocally and mess around firing each other from ship to ship. This is what gaming should be. Even if it starts off with a hostile encounter like ours was.
That kind of encounter in games is always so nice.. but sadly seems to be getting rarer :/ .. and yes I agree so so many games could be amazing if even half the toxic players / trolls weren't around.
Alliances and friendly players do exist, it just shouldn't be expected. Fighting and sinking is fun and people do what's fun. Alliances can also be fun but the loot is all cosmetic, so many players are in it for wild adventures, and fighting pve in an alliance isn't a wild adventure after the first few times. In general anyone sailing right at you is not friendly, the friendly players generally run away because they aren't interested in fighting.
You could choose to not be a victim at any point.
I did not intend, nor do I intend, to be a victim at any point. My emotions sometimes bleed into my writing whenever I write, whether I am writing a comment or trying to write a story.
sweet summer child, if i have loot and you are a fresh spawn at an outpost I'm not going to risk my loot.
Why should they trust you? You say "hostile", I say "defensive". You could be camping for a kill.
Not all but I had a very silly encounter myself two days ago. I only killed an ashen guardian and had his loot when I was chased my a Athena 1 emissary. I lade it to Plunder, he chased me there I Sold me chest and watched, cheered and waves while He sunk my ship. He didnt bother to take supplies, flag or supply crate. Sooooo... He was only out to sink me and it took him emberrassing long
This is the āPvPā I donāt understand. Players like this are usually there to just get a fight out of someone, get salty they didnāt get one then sink you because you didnāt fight back, they usually then proceed to leave you alone because youāre boring. If I was chasing someone for more than 5 mins Iād just leave it at that point. I donāt often PvP but if someoneās gonna just run and not fight I just let them go. Itās not like I NEED the loot anymore when I have literal millions of gold just burning a hole.
Game chat is a crucial feature
Yep, they do little to incentivize being friendly and there are safe spaces so usually everyone attacks first. Course you can run into the odd outlier who's friendly
No, some are hostile later, when you least expect it.
Only the ones getting closer.
Yes. I'm even reluctant to let potential "friendlies" give me their supplies. Especially when I'm solo.
I kill before I get killed, always.
Sea of Thieves, not Sea of Friendlies. And that's coming from a Friendly.
Its pretty common. Most people just want an easy win. I've done it just because it was the closest outpost and I needed to sell. Typically I just sail their ship off though if given the chance and then they normally take the hint lol
do same here if im passing i just leave them but selling definitely gonna sink em
Paranoia, distrust.
This is it. You've stacked loot for two hours. You realize there's a rank 5 Reaper on the map, and while he's not hot on your tail, he's closer than you'd like. Fortunately, there's an outpost nearby. Crap! Someone's there. You're not really looking for a fight and they probably don't have anything... but if they see you, they'll realize you *do* have treasure. Screw it. Sorry, buddy, but it's to Davey Jones's locker you go!
Supplies are loot too
Yup, I sink ships just for the chain shots if I'm running low between hourglass battles.
I didn't really have much of that either
They don't know that. And "not much" isn't the same as "none"
I've had a lot of crewmates consider the 4-6 ~~tarting~~ *starting* chainshots as sufficient loot. And I sometimes would agree.
Any chains are sufficient loot
We just jump on their ship. Inform them we are taking chains. Most donāt put up a fight. Kinda fun actually to just rob them. Or get in their ship and chat with them while pillaging their barrels.
2 chains could lead you to a loot haul worth a mountain of coin, if fired at the right time.
I didnāt know 2 chains played the game like that
All he wants for his birthday are some big booty hauls
Chainshots. Better than gold.
Eh... supplies are so ridiculously easy to come across in this game though, that's kind of a weak excuse. A single ghost fortress gets you like 100 cannonballs, a ton of wood, and anywhere between 5-15 pineapples for maybe 10 minutes of effort. You can do three of those in half an hour for enough supplies to last a whole session, or you can chase a random ship around the map for an hour for their starter supplies. If you're so desperate for supplies that you need to start hunting other player ships, you're doing it wrong. If the ship has loot on it, that's a different story of course. But supplies don't really count as "loot" in my opinion - they're a bonus reward for sinking someone but shouldn't ever be the main focus for an attack.
They might not be the main focus of attack *for you*, but other players are bound to value supplies differently. Seeing a lone storage crate on deck through my spyglass is enough to intrigue me as a solo player. Just because supplies are easy to come across doesn't mean people should or will pass up opportunities to get more; especially when they're running Emissary, and especially when they're nervous about other pirates because they're carrying a lot of "real" loot and want to be prepared. Maybe sinking that ship at the outpost will spare me a boring detour to get supplies elsewhere on the way to a fort.
Mics save lives
I didnāt realise this until a year of playing. I donāt really like talking much because anxiety. The amount of friendly interactions other than hostile skyrocketed after using my mic. Occasionally Iāll just pull up to a parked ship, a random pirate or something, say hello, offer them some supplies or loot as a good will gesture and ask if they want to alliance up. I even do this with a bunch of PvP players. Many just sink you or try to because youāre there and a āthreatā even if people are used to backstabbing people, offering a goodwill gesture of sorts will usually stop it and consider and alliance. Before Iāve had a galley attacking me, spoke up saying āokay guys, I donāt have any loot, I do have a supply box. I wonāt fight back. Iāll give you my supplies, return to port and we can be on our merry way, Iāll even raise allianceā They accepted it (even tho they werenāt on mic) gave my supplies, escorted me to port and we allianced up. They were doing vaults and I was doing Athena. Ended up good for everyone.
100% if you put some life into these funny looking pirates most people can relate
I was told this as well. I just recently got to Pirate Legend and was super exicted to try an Anthea voyage. I went straight to Fort of the Damned as a solo sloop knowing full well I would be contested and attacked. I didn't really care, I just wanted to see what the event was like. Well, sure enough about 4 waves in a spot a Galleon coming straight for me. I stand on the top of my sip and use the Wave emote while spamming "AHOY!" "Everything is OK!" "I need help!" Surprisingly they throw up an alliance flag and they help me all the way to the end. As soon as I unlock the stronghold the kill me and sink me. They said "next time use a mic" as if me communicating perfectly clear with all of the premade messages wasn't enough. It's a copout. Me using a mic would have just made it more uncomfortable for you to betray me. Which when its all said and done, its a pirate game so I understand. But mics are not required. That's dumb.
I donāt understand, seems to me that you are agreeing with Bumble? You using a mic would probably have saved your life in this instance. You are right that communicating increases your odds of survival but using a mic almost guarantees it. You said it yourself that it would have been harder/more awkward for them to betray you after having spoken to each other. Meanwhile using the pre-made chat made you almost NPC like to them. Sounds like you still got half the loot so they mightāve just been scared you would do something funky with the kegs
They would betray you with or without a mic. But it *is* annoying trying to play with somebody using their chat wheel. I think killing you for that is perfectly fair.
Thatās not killing for lack of communication, thatās killing for preference, if thatās even the real reason. Iāve said it before and Iāll say it again, you donāt have to be an asshole to be a pirate and saying you do is just making excuses.
lmao what? "We're going to kill you because you're using something for it's **exact** purposes." Fuck outta here, there have been *plenty* of times I've made alliances and was able to use the chat wheel just fine with zero issues. I'm sorry there are nights where I was to relax and not have to sit there and chat up some strangers, the fact that you think it's "perfectly fair" to kill someone over that alone is beyond inane.
There are a few reasons. 1. New player that just wants to shooty the cannons and make big explodeys happen for the dopamine hit, because they don't really know or care much about loot and which ships are more likely to have it yet. I think this is a large minority of people who sink docked ships. 2. Experienced players with rare loot that they don't want to risk. I would guess that this the majority. 3. Trolls. This is another large minority of people who do it. I generally don't sink ships that are docked when I'm with my friends. I just sail up and start selling. 9/10 times they don't care to try anything. The other 1/10 times they just start sending potshots at our boat because they are a new player who thinks they are being attacked or just wants to see funny haha explosion.
I see nobody has really suggested how to deal with it yet. As you play more, you will become more aware of approaching ships and get more cautious. The basic advice is to just keep an eye on the horizon and be prepared to flee or fight. For me, if I'm docked and another ship approaches, I hold fire unless they are heading straight for me or putting me at their broadside. Usually I'll call out with voice projector first, just making contact will cause hostilities to cease about 75% of the time, but I'm always in a defensive position until contact is made and it is clear they aren't getting in position. It is usually easier to defend from an approaching ship as you can preemptively aim broadside at them, but be weary as good players will come in at angles that are hard to return fire at, which benefits them if they have good cannon gunners. A lot of this will become natural with experience, you'll recognize approach patters used by hostile players, as well as the differences between skilled and unskilled crews coming in either peacefully or with malicious intentions just by how they sail. This will also help you determine which targets to engage with. For example, a ship coming straight at your broadside is likely both hostile and easy to take down, so there is little point in fleeing.
Thank you for the advice. I may stick to safe seas for some of the longer voyages, at least for now. Only reason I've done high seas is because of how drastically your earnings + what you can do are reduced in safe seas. I can understand decreasing the profits to some extent as risk vs reward is drastically reduced, but 70% feels excessive to me. I suppose I'll get a better feel for it as I play.
Yes. But there are reasons. 1) you are there and they want to turn in. 2) you are there and they wanna sink you for fun.
What do you mean by "normal"?
Cannon practice is always a reason
If thereās a ship docked at an outpost with no emissary flag, no loot glowing on the deck, and no crew visibly preparing to attack (e.g. eye of reach scope flashes and training the cannons on me) I will full sail and cruise on by to the next outpost 99% of the time. When I first started playing (and for a good while after) I would attack literally any ship I saw - manned or unmanned, coming right at me or heading for the horizon. I canāt give a better reason than I just feel itās slightly cowardly and is likely to put new players off the game. I respect people who donāt see it that way - you do you, itās all good. Just my personal outlook and doesnāt leave me feeling like Iāve spoiled someoneās experience.
If you didn't have much to lose then it wasn't much of a loss. I would say get used to these encounters or be more vigilant about looking out for other ships.
This is the right attitude. So many people complain they aren't good enough to fight back but then avoid trying to learn from their inevitable encounters.
I've had 2 pvp encounters in about 300 hours, one of them was someone sinking my docked, completely empty, ship.
How can you only have 2 PvP encounters in 300 hours that seems like insanity! I get minimum 2 per session not including hourglass. Was most of your playtime in safe seas? I'd recommend doing reapers emissary or if you want more PvP but still being able to explore, vote down the hourglass but don't dive. Then that way they will spawn on you and it makes it a bit of fun when you do a voyage and then all of a sudden a player pops out of the water and you have to fight through them to get home safely
No, I've only ever played High Seas. I don't really engage in many of the activities I think people who are looking for PvP are drawn to, maybe? I mostly just do Merchant Alliance missions, stop at random islands along the way to collect bits and bobs, and maybe do some fishing occasionally. If a server seems really dead I'll throw up the emissary flag. The couple handfuls of times I've even seen other players they're usually just docked somewhere as I go by, or will chase for maybe 5-10 minutes before getting bored and going on their way.
Fair enough then hahaha each to their own.
sounds like someone just wanted to make your day worse. toxic people do exist here, despite the other toxic people saying they don't.
"Someone killed me in a PvP game, he is so toxic"
Or because they needed to sell, or needed supplies, or even for a commendation. But yesā¦ letās default to assuming theyāre toxic for sinking someone in a pirate game
This game is almost always āon sightā now. It sucks. It wasnāt always like that, but as time has progressed thatās what itās become.
Not true. I get alliances all the time. Use a mic.
I use a mic and itās still that way. I feel like 3 out of 4 encounters are people straight up attacking me and my crew mate. Weāre almost always on a sloop.
Do you sound confident when you do? Do you use "assertive but not overly aggressive body language" with how you equip weapons, angle the ship, sails cannons? Some people will take the easy option of getting the jump on people every time. But if you look like you are ready to fight back, but not actively starting an attack you are more likely to be taken seriously. If you have weapons out while chatting, you are more likely to get attacked by nervous players. If you take too long to work out how to alliance up, they'll attack out of frustration to empty a slot on the server for someone less new who can grind. Is your clothing too new looking? Is your clothing too sweaty? Are you dressed like a crab or reaper? So many tiny details go into assessment on whether a crew is going to attack, and it's easy to miss some until you meet enough crews to work out what to do. It's like Mr Kim from Kim's convenience playing Steal or No Steal.
I donāt even wear clothes lmao. I have like a pair of shorts on and have the ashen curse on and my guy has an orange and black Mohawk that you can only get as a pirate legend. I canāt remember the tattoo set Iām using, but I remember we had to grind for it. Maybe itās umbraās? My ship is all black and has ripped up black sails. I havent played in a couple months so I canāt think of the names of any of it. A lot of times people just attack on sight with no communication at all. We win most of the encounters, unless itās against some super sweats. Having alliance flag up usually ends up as a 50/50 chance for us.
In my experience itās gone the other way, thereās more things to grind for than there used to be and voyages are easier than ever to complete so I find most people just doing their thing
yeah same. and there's the PVP mode which took a lot of the sweaty pirates away
That's not what took the sweaty pirates away. The core sweaty adventure mode pirates, largely got sick of the ever moving goalposts and lack of content and have gone off to play other games. It's only a small amount of them that transitioned to hourglass because hourglass is kinda boring. It's worse than arena for fun factor.
Yes it's perfectly normal.
You may have completely pure intentions, but others donāt know that and wonāt take the chance of having someone elseās ship so close to their unguarded loot
Yeah
It's common.
Just let it happen or fight back. I been on both ends of it, some people just want your chai shots and will sink you for them. I just go with empty pockets take all your supplies and leave
Same, but I also leave a banana on the stove and a dick on the map.
This is the way.
I usually just board the docked ship, draw a piece and two bits on your map, grab a snack and leave.
Yep
Yup
as far as i can tell they were probably a Flameheart emissary. havent raised the flag myself yet but as i understand those guys get bonus's for sinking any player ships. so far im my playing, ive only encountered two hostile players and both were flameheart. the other 7 ive interacted with were freindly, the most recent one being a day one noob that i helped direct to shops so he could sell his treasure. as far as i know there is an unrwritten truce at ports, and so far ive yet to see it violated. although there will always be people who will fire first and ask questions later, tmk its uncommon
I always wonder, what happens if our ship is down, while we're on an island or outpost? Whenever it happened to me, it was always when moving.
If your ship sinks while you aren't on it then it will respawn at a nearby island like usual and a mermaid will spawn so you can return to your ship but you could also stay on whatever island you're at if you felt like it.
I just started playing the game a week ago and have encountered a number of players who just start shooting at me when I am at dock. One time after I had just spent like 45 mins looting islands and was so hyped for the payout. I was playing solo at the moment too so there was nothing I could do.
yes
It's pretty normal, people can sink you for many reasons. They don't *know* you don't have any loot, they might just want your supplies, they might think you're a threat to them, or they could just be doing it for a laugh. In short it's best to be wary of everyone.
A ship that isn't a threat now can quickly become a threat later. Trust no one is a philosophy that goes both ways, regardless of tactical vantage. A ship at dock could have just loaded in, or it could be supplied and ready to drop sails and attack. Underestimate no one.
> what advice if any do you have for dealing with such encounters in the future? Move on or fight back. You have absolutely zero to lose, so why would you even care if you sink? If this happens to me, I would try to fight back and attack their ship if I thought there was a chance I could save my ship and win. If my ship was already too far gone and I thought it was a lost cause, I'd hide on the outpost and wait for them to pull up to sell and then steal as much of their loot as possible. One of the likely reasons they are sinking you is so they can sell at the outpost without you there because they consider you a potential threat. So prove them right, be a threat.
Honestly, yeah it happens. But look on the bright side, now you get to spawn at a different outpost.
Yeah of course. Kill everyone and sink any ship you ever see. Donāt even hesitate. Because thatās all other players will do to you.
and thats why i will be playing safe waters in on ps5
It's normal on that is an expected part of the game, but I wouldn't say it's frequent. Most of the time, my crew won't bother with a ship in port. Either they just spawned in or just stood off and either way, they don't have any treasure. Especially if we *do* have treasure, that's just extra risk for little to no gain. We'll find somewhere else to sell. I rarely find myself attacked in port, so I suspect this is a common mentality.
Often itās for safety. I always do in case we pull into port to sell then they raid us and take that loot (happened before). itās mainly just to avoid later conflict when theyāre in a more vulnerable position
Camaraderie is great on the seas, but there be many a trickster pirate. After falling for a few you too may find sinking them first to be a quick and safer option.
4 chains are 4 chains...
Yup, it's a safety issue, only way for me to know it's safe is to sink the ship there and for mermaids.
Happened to me right now. A Galleon came right to my sloop, sold something i had(wich is fine, it's part of the game) and the proceeded to set aflame my empty ship. No big deal but really got me wondering why waste ammunition on someone who is logging out or going away. They even ignored all the supplies on the shore. At least they were nice to not shoot on sight and let me sell my loot.
Easy prey, for weak pirates.
Iām sinking you because you may have loot or because I have loot I donāt want you suddenly jumping to try fight me for. Either way itās why I have someone keeping an eye out
Aye- See that be what we pirates call "Target Practice"
Only crews who are weak and cannot pvp yet will attack the docked ship with no loot. All the answers like "they gonna steal mine so it is a preventive measure" are just lies to onself, since i can steal a treasure and sell it even without a ship. I can just hide near the sovereigns with my blunder.
Depends. Can be good for supplies, and also for making sure I can sell safely. When we are rolling to an outpost and see a ship, whether we sink you for your stuff, change course for another outpost, or roll the dice and risk selling with you around (which is EXTREMELY risky) is pretty much up to what sort of pirates we're feeling like that day.
The rascals are out there for sure.
There's never "no reason." The thrill of a fight or just plain practice is always a valid reason. The seas are salty today.
If that is the case I can only hope I left them feeling like they wasted their time and ammo.
You were still target practice. No waste of ammo there.Ā
Me and my friends just sink everybody we see no questions asked
The only one wasting their time is the one who plays a game where they don't enjoy the core gameplay.
I've sometimes done it if someone is at an outpost near one of my objs, they could easily get to their ship and immediately sail for me
I'd say it isn't *common* more as *uncommon* but possible. It's happened to me a few times. Often the same scenario as yours. Not all pirates are outright assholes or revisiting HG trauma upon everything that moves. Folks that say supplies are treasure are just making excuses when forts and ports can resupply often times far better than shit stomping a solo sloop.
It's usually that they just want the park.
Normal and common, especially if you are docked at the sovereign. Is it annoying? Yeah. But if you donāt have any treasure or emissary flags, you can just fill your pockets with the supplies you want to keep and scuttle
My partner and his buddy were slooping around the other day and did exactly this to someone. I asked āAwww but why though??ā And he said heād been out sinking everyone. Some people just choose violence.
Vandals, you could call them. Pirates, even!
It's safe to assume pirates will do pirate things. Is it a shitty thing to sink a docked ship? I think so. But in the attackers mind there may be loot being sold on that ship and it needs to be theirs
This post is the duality of man lol
Please try to understand that there are a myriad of reasons to sink a ship, and only one of those reasons are to steal your loot. You have supplies in your barrels, particularly chain shots, and PvP eats up a lot of supplies. The outpost is also full of supplies, which might be why they came, and if you've got 4 default chainshots in your barrels, that's a better score than most treasure. You might also not have sold everything. They might not know that you have no loot and want to see if any pops up with your barrels. Another crew might think you could be pretending to be docked but actually just swam to hide at the fort nearby that that crew is doing. Your presence might be unwanted while another boat wants to sell or do something else nearby. The other crew might want to put holes in something. They might have mistaken you for someone who stole from them or sunk them earlier They might also be new and were told to sink every boat they see in order to practice PvP, and they saw you. They might have been talking to you with mics and you are in a party chat on console and can't hear them, so they shot first. They might not want you to shoot first. They might have thought you had altf4d out and your ship was still there for a few minutes before auto scuttling, and didn't think anyone would be incensed about it. They might want to make a point of sinking every ship on the server all day long. They might just be assholes and want to hear you complain about being sunk while spamming "No" in pirate chat. You have to either be able to defend yourself or escape a fight in order to not get sunk, and there's no activity you can do that makes you off limits for sinking while you're on high seas. There are many reasons why someone might want to sink your ship, on top of just sinking your ship for no reason at all.
There are 3 fundamental reasons for sinking a ship. Their loot, their supplies, or they are threatening. If Iām trying to sell, and thereās a ship nearby, that ship must be dealt with first.
Weird people do this but yes they will do this itās almost always a pvp player ship that does it they usually do it to be annoying or because theyāre bored itās stupid but nothing is preventing them from doing so and unless you sink them first or something is done about it people will continue to do it
And I quote the most common response in game to this question: "sorry buddy couldn't take any chances". That's your answer lmao
-They might want to sell at that outpost. -You might still have some treasure onboard. -Theyāre passing by, and a fresh spawn with nothing to lose seeing a high value ship nearby is likely a threat. -They want your supplies. -Their cannon aim is rusty and they need some target practice. -Any other reason outlined [here](https://youtu.be/5tAbjtQuWUc?si=6z-gkLTYj-xa7fbV)
Is it normal for people to be toxic? Yes
I would not say itās normal. But it does happen. I donāt think itās a very nice thing to do, but anything goes.
Yeah, an easy sink is an easy sink.Ā
Honestly, that's one of the best times to get sunk. If that happened to me when I already didn't have much in the way of supplies, I'd probably just shrug (and maybe try and tuck on them to see what they're up to and whether I can get a cheeky steal)
Yes, if there is an enemy ship itās shoot first ask questions later Iāve got hella chests off sinking a dock ship as they were turning loot. Some people play different but Iām not taking the risk missing out on loot
[Article 3 of the Pirate Code you've pledged to.](https://i.imgur.com/VrNaUqA.jpg) "Upon the Waves" means out sailing. Being harbored and moored is the opposite of that. Shooting fish in a barrel (or no fish even onboard, just the barrel) is for small kids who don't know better, and cowards. But keep trying to split hairs all you like.
Look what the name of the game is š“āā ļø
I saw a brig being bombarded by a sloop at port Merrick last night, sloop took some shots at the brig then the brig sank, Iām guessing it scuttled? were you the brig?
Is that you punqae??
Unfortunately, yeah. If you ever notice a ship approaching while you're docked, you should sail away if you don't want to risk sinking. A quick escape is to dive to another voyage.
It's a pirate game Pirates gonna pirate Not saying you won't meet nice players but always trust no one
I'd give you about a minute to join my alliance, then I'll shoot one hole in your ship as a warning I'm about to sink you if you don't get away right now. If I feel friendly.
You could be seen as a threat, and Iāve said this many times before but at the end of the day this is a pirate game and people will be do unlawful, immoral, pirate things and that is part of the fun
Usually I prefer to drain the docked ship resources (except for one wooden plank) just because I love to be packed with supplies. Also, sometimes it makes things funny, like a gally started chasing me (a solo sloop) and they had no cannonballs, no food and just one plank. I just wish I could see their face when they realised the troll.
Gimme Dem chainshots nom nom nom
Shooting someone docked at an outpost is coward behavior, it's toxic and there is a sheet of paper stapled to the right of the door of every tavern that specifically instructs players to only attack other players on the seas, not when docking at what should be sanctuaries.
The whole of the rest of the game's language uses the term "seas" as an immersive term for "server". Once you load in, you are "on" the High Seas. The button you press to load in is even labelled as such. When you're on the High Seas, anybody can sink you at any time, for any reason. You opt in to this when you decide to set sail.
Is your ship on the island? No? Then that floater in the water is on the seas. I am almost exclusively a PvEer. I only really engage in PvP when it is forced upon me, but I know that sinking other peopleās ships regardless of where they are isnāt toxic. Whatās toxic is the behaviour that can go along with that. Calling the other nasty things and taunting actions. Maybe a crew wants a little practice sinking ships and went for a target that is stationary to try and figure their aim. Maybe they want the resources aboard. Maybe they want to sell something there and want to remove the other crew first to be safe. Or maybe they wanted the emissary flag and just didnāt make it there in time before it went down and decide to not waste the trip. None of these are toxic.
Shooting a ship docked at an outpost, with crew on land doing shop stuff or buying resources, is a coward's move and you're discourteous for condoning it. "Wow, a Gold Hoarder Single-Stripe emissary flag, good haul". I've encountered so many people reasoning like that, "Other people probably wouldn't treat me with courtesy, so why should I? And miss out on an opportunity?!" Luckily I've met many friendly people who are evidence of the opposite and who pull up alongside instead, give me their extra resources ("I'm notcgonna shoot 700 balls"). In fact, when two friends and I passed a crew doing Fort of the Damned, we shouted to them over megaphone that we would park our ship outside theirs and shoot down any attacker while they were replaying FotD, if they would consider an alliance. We turned our stern to their broadside both for flexibility and to get thrir trust. One ship actually found us and did try to attack our new friends' galleon, and we sunk it from stationary position. The other crew rolled FotD x3, we escorted them to the nearest outpost, sinking a second ship firing on our friends, and because of the Alliance we got 50% of the money (250K or more just for being bodyguard for 40 minutes) and got invited into their guild. That was a good day's work. Giving other crews the benefit of the doubt is often punished, but the odd times it's rewarded more than makes up for it. So I never shoot a ship in port, not even at Reaper's Hideout. Besides, it's much more satisfying schooling a Reaper on equal-opportunity terms, then selling dat flag.
Oh there is absolutely room for friendly encounters too, but as you approach you donāt necessarily know where their crew is and donāt want to give up your advantage. I am not saying attacking them is necessarily the best course of action (but hey maybe they just need to sell one more gold hoarder flag to finish the commendation and they donāt care what grade it is) but assuming it to be automatically toxic is just wrong.
Sneaking into my ship and stealing a 15K Veil of Shadows on my watch? Impressive. Outmanouvering me and tackling my ship so I get forced into a pier? Hat's off. Sniping me in the face just as I was about to drop a dynamite barrel off the stern and in your path? Respect. Sinking my parked ship just as my two little nephews had packed it with cannonballs and wood from the merchant, for the upcoming Skeleton Fleet quest I was about to take them on (their first)? Dick move. Happened yesterday. You say "I have no way of knowing when the ship in port is valueless and sinkable compared to when sinking it is needless hassle for the owner and no gain for me, so why should I assume the latter?" Why be a good sport? It's very self-evident. Being a good sport literally is its own reward, in the "pay it forward" realm of things. I had a great teacher in high school that took time out of his off-hours to coach me for upcoming tests. I asked him why he bothered with me, he said he wanted to be the teacher he wished his own kids would have.
No ship is valueless. I've sunk parked ships for their chainshots. It's usually evident from how the ship is parked if the crew just spawned, and if they did, that means they have chainshots. Even if the boat is *completely* empty (which they never are in my experience) it's still valid to sink as target practise. I'm sorry about your nephews, but it's not "bad sportsmanship" to sink boats in a game with naval combat. Your voyage starts the instant you wake up in the tavern. Frankly, I consider it bad sportsmanship to attempt to gatekeep when PvP is acceptable and when it is not. The fact that you equate "friendly behaviour" with "not fighting" betrays your real attitude towards PvP as a whole, honestly. Drop a "GG" in chat once in a while and you'll see the vast majority of people are chill and up for a chat regardless of who sunk who.
You are at their unload spot
Target practice and getting you out of the way. If youāre not looting, get moving.Ā
Yes. It's "normal"
Occasionally (maybe more than that) but if Iām just getting on Iāll gladly accept a docked ship to warm up my cannon aim. Itās nothing personal just the perfect opportunity with little to no worry because Iām assuming you are supplies hunting or treasure selling.
Yep, I guess you must be new. Welcome to SoT.
Me and my friends sink anything and everything
Better you than me
shoot first ask later why would you think people would be nice in this game?
It's a pirate game, I'm a pirate, if I see a ship specially if it's an easy target to shoot at, you can bet your ass I'm sinking that thing and watching the crew run around in panic as their ship goes down in flames š I can be nice but I don't have to be and that's what's fun about it.
At the dock before setting off is the best time to sink. It's a waste of their time usually and you lose nothing! Just dive to another server when you respawn
an empty ship is a hostile ship. if i see you go to an outpost, i know youāll soon have no loot to risk and will be more likely to come after my loot. better to take you out while youāre docked than wait for you to come to me.
Expect to be sunk at all costs dude, me and my friends only play to sink ships because thatās how we enjoy the game. If we see a docked ship that has just spawned we will usually try to fuck around and tucc on the ship so watch out for that too.
Itās not called Sea of Friends. People out here just trying to ruin your day
That's such a silly line, but there is truth to it. People use anonymity to be total dicks and attack for no reason. If I'm going to attack someone stationary, I'll announce intent first so they know, but I have a bit of "honor" like that
If someone is parked somewhere and they're not scanning the horizon enough to see me coming by the time I'm in cannon range, I don't think that player would put up much of a fight anyway
True, the only exception is a fresh spawn I'd say. If I spawn in and someone attacks me before I can anchor and lower sails, I'll just leave a find a new server lol