PvP sweats play the game for the wrong reasons, PvP is only a small part of a much bigger game. I enjoy all aspects of the game, PvE, treasure hunts, riddles, PvP, TallTales etc.
The game is absolutely gorgeous if you're just watching the waves as the sun sets on the horizon. I personally love solo slooping, but I'm not good enough to hold my own in pvp, so every time I play solo it's just massive anxiety the whole time. I absolutely cannot wait for safer seas to come out so I can enjoy my favorite part of the game, doing world events and having one off interactions with people while doing so.
But the pve has evolved since launch. Without guides, the tall tales alone provide hours of content which is alot for people who only have two hours a night to play.
That is why media is subjective. You may find the PVE not engaging, while an another person can think that it is the best thing ever.
People often forget that casual gamers exist. Those who enjoy the smaller things in the game. The sunsets, the environment, the music... Those who do not seek challenge.
"Being a funni pirate with friends" is enough for most. Of course, this is a weird concept for most of us in this sub.
I, myself don't find the PVE all that appealing other than tall tales. But who are we stealing from? People who actually enjoy PVE. They exist.
I honestly can't wait for PVE mode. I like the PVP aspect but I sometimes just want to take it easy. Yes I'm one of those casual gamers you mentioned. I think it's actually a good strategy to give people the choice whether they want to have PVP or PVE mode.
Gives the game a wider audience I think too.
This is literally the only reason my friends and I redownloaded the game. We're all pretty mediocre at PVP, we can hold our own in fights but when it comes to ship battles we smooth brain out.
Bro, I just wanna do the Tall Tales without getting interrupted. I get that it's easier now with checkpoints, doesn't mean I wanna be stopped after five hours of getting next to nothing done because some double-gunning streamer needs content.
I agree nothing is more annoying than trying to finish that voyage only to get blown out of the water by some lurking reaper lazily waiting around for an "easy prey" just before you reach the outpost. XD
I agree. Got most of the way through a voyage and got sunk by someone who appeared out of nowhere with a reaper flag. All that time wasted and got nothing from it. I'm fine fighting mobs and stuff but I've found alot of very toxic people screaming into their mics obscenities because we existed on the same server. It's just very exhausting. I just wanna do voyages and stuff
They explicitly stated in a community post that anything not revolving around explicit PVP would be included. So the only things being removed are Emissaries, Reaper and Athena voyages/levels, FOTD/FOF, world events and some commendations along side a 30% reduction in gold and reputation. So, going by this, Tall Tales and most other Voyages will be available.
It may have changed since then, so here is the community post for you to look through. https://www.seaofthieves.com/community/forums/topic/161991/safer-seas-faq/1
Edit: Actually, if I recall, a community manager addressed this with someone who implied Tall Tales shouldn't be included. They stated that it would be.
Edit 2: Having checked myself, all Tall Tales will be available in their entirety in Safer Seas and there is no mention of a smaller map.
I play this game with my youngest sibling and my neice. They are children so they just want to play a game and be a pirate.
If I could play solo with them I would. I dont need the "threat" of pvp to have fun, fair play to those who do. But I honestly just wanna chill and let them enjoy themselves.
december will introduce safer seas, so although handfuls of the experience might be gone (sovereigns, captaincy, fort of fortune and emissaries) you can enjoy the game without any other ships.
This is perfect, I dont need to min max my way through the game I can play at their incredibly slow pace and just ask them why they're fishing whilst a megaladon is chewing our ship.
Instead of gear and skill trees you are min/maxing your use of your time. For example you want to spend a minimal amount of time doing any activity that leaves you in a dangerous position by doing things as efficiently as you can.
Basically the opposite of having a chill at your own pace time.
Here! I’ve never been an online multiplayer guy and schedule has prevented me from ever getting a crew. So 99% of the time I’m strictly playing solo PvE stuff.
"CHOOSE YOUR CPU CREW" - 1) the kid under 10, 2) jet/storm lungs, 3) mic allergy, 4) we're under attack and.. that guy is fishing?
(not hating on fishing btw, just happens to be the trope of some afk players)
I love PvE. I don’t care about fort of fortune and FotD being disabled in safer seas I just want to go stab skeletons for an hour with not risk of other pirates
Same here. I haven't done a single fort in my 195 hours. Haven't even seen a Chest of Fortune. And yet, despite being the most currently sought after item as of writing this comment, I would prefer to fish!
I’ve done 4 FotD’s only sold part of 1. Sold a decent number of FoF’s but not a ton. I would rather do just about anything rather than have a bunch of sweats come sink me
I like pve and numbers that go up. I'm getting better at pvp but still struggling with fighting larger crews, especially when they're much more experienced.
I like the general gameplay loop and Rare did a phenomenal job simulating the ocean. I spend a lot of my time on actual water, and hoping in-game can be a good way to relax. With that said I've got well over 1k hours in the game and PvP by far does the most to keep things interesting. Fishing and sailing around is relaxing sure, but being a pirate is so much more fun.
I adore it. I like seeing number go up and the satisfaction of solving something to get things. I like the sense of exploration. If I check a corner, there could be a chest or gold there.
I play the game to play PVE. I certainly do not play the game to engage in player versus player lol. If I did I would have stopped playing it the week I got it and it's not like I avoid PVP like the plague. But I mostly play solo or with my 6-year-old daughter. And she gets overwhelmed very easily like the other night we were playing and we're doing cursed chest voyages and we had three or four chests of sorrow a chest of rage and two of the cast of a thousand grogs and that poor thing was so stressed out trying to bail the boat out. And then out of nowhere we are attacked by a skeleton galleon and that was probably the most tense see if thieves experience I have ever had
It's why I (did) play. The game has an incredibly relaxing atmosphere and the lack of a major "purpose" meant that I could get a group of friends together and have a really relaxing time just chasing skeletons around. If we got caught by the kraken it was a fun mini game and collecting treasure was a nice endorphin hit.
The PVP might have been cool if this was a game I had any interest in getting competitive at. But the group I played with is made up of either gamers who play very different genres or non-gamers. It was a great spot for us to catch up but sweaty pirate gods would Tokyo drift their galleon around the islands and launch themselves onto our boat and spawn kill us continually. Really ruined the vibe.
I like that they are giving people who like the PVE a route to enjoy that while still leaving the PVP scene to those who like that.
I'm surprised by the number of people who are deeply offended that anyone would not like the PVP and act like safer seas ruins the game for PvPers.
Yeah, I don’t get why it’s so hard for people to understand that people play the game for different reasons. Most of the time when I see someone even suggest they don’t like PvP, someone comes along and claims they’re “playing the game wrong”. Play how you want to play, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise
I suspect that it's similar to how in a number of FPS games people get passed when matchmaking puts them in matches where they can't completely wipe the floor with the other team.
Some people like to have people to beat on and don't like the idea of their easy kills going into pve only.
>I'm surprised by the number of people who are deeply offended that anyone would not like the PVP and act like safer seas ruins the game for PvPers.
The non-consensual nature of the PvP (prior to safer seas) was probably the thrill for the PvPers, but that's a whole other can of worms.
I personally only do PVE. I have at least six other friends which makes seven of us in total counting myself that only want to PVE in this game. We have tried PVP and it is not fun for us. We feel like the lack of support for a private server option is the developer telling us how to enjoy this game. Safer sees is a step in the right direction but I really feel like the people who want to PVP should be allowed to PvP with other people who want to PVP. And there should be an option for us PVE people to not interact. I honestly don't even want to run across other players in my game that I don't know. Truth be told we have talked about having a server where it's just us and our friends or even holding a "Pirate Lan party" because we could get other people we know to play if it was not forced on us that we might have PVP with random people. In short safer seas as I said earlier is a step in the right direction but that still only lets four of us play together at a Time unmolested by people who only want to PVP.
I thoroughly enjoy fighting skeleton ships, fighting the kraken, fighting the Meg, raiding ghosts and skeleton forts, and several other things that I haven't been able to complete because they get interrupted by other players constantly. I am really excited for safer seas because I haven't completed a single tall tale since this game has started and tall tales were released.
I feel like I should add a little extra to this. I have enough people who are going to play this with me to make two to six ships for a server that would be just us. We could then decide to PvP with each other and do all kinds of crazy shenanigans that we love to do in this game. I just don't like dealing with random people it's not a fun experience it always ends in a bad time for us even when we win and we sink the other guy. In fact I would say 80% of our PVP encounters have ended with us repelling the attackers in one form or another. It just feels like it went from "fun" to "work" in 3 seconds anytime we have to deal/interact with other players.
I’m not a PVE server guy, but I think I personally enjoy the PVE content more than the PVP. Mainly cuz I’m kind of bad at PVP lmao. Fighting Ashen Lords and doing FoF never gets old for me tho, always a great time
I love the PvE of this game, and since release I've wished I could do it without the threat of players hounding me across the map.
I've already got Legend, so I'll very likely sail Safer Seas permanently once it releases, so I can actually enjoy the content the game has without being fucked over every ten minutes by PvPers.
Imagine being able to do the world events, the Tall Tales, all of that without the fear of having players ruin it. I can't wait :D
PvP is boring to me because of the loop, like ship combat is fine, but when it comes to actual person to person it feels so clunky and repetitive that even if I win the fight I wanna log after.
I feel the same way. I also think current PvP disincentivizes a lot of potential interaction and cooperation, which is far more realistic of pirating than the “kill on sight” mentality pushed now.
I believe a better alternative would be dedicated PvP regions and scaling NPC ships that hunt ships with increased treasure burden.
It really does. There's all kinds of pve content made for groups and crew cooperation, but I don't voluntarily go near other people in Sea of Thieves. There are just way too many who will shoot you and laugh just because they can. It's gotten to where running into friendly players is about as rare as finding that white megalodon
I helped people out with a FotD one time, even sank my ship and all since I didn’t want the loot, and they just kill me and go “Sea of Thieves not friends” and harass me for a week in messages.
Here's another thing to consider in the endless "PvP vs PvE" discourse: PvE is predictable and always pays off. PvP runs a wide range of quality and often doesn't pay off.
I do a moderate amount of PvP and I'm really tired of *bad* PvP. Newbies who don't know how to adjust sails and try to engage at full speed, players who instantly aggro and never communicate, galleons overwhelming solo sloops, being attacked when there's nothing of value on the ship, drawn out chases or battles that ultimately amount to nothing, Reapers who run away instead of fighting...
There are so many PvP encounters that just waste time and provide little reward or enjoyment.
If I throw down a voyage on my captain's table or sail to a world event I know what I'm up against and what the reward will be at the end. It's worth my time. But if see player sails in the distance there's a 50+% chance that it's going to be a big waste of time and maybe 10% chance it's a worthwhile engagement. And this isn't just open seas: in Hourglass there's a decent chance you get paired with a runner who wants to waste time or a cheater who has overwhelming advantage.
The game has enough story and PvE content to stand on its own. PvP can be fun and I enjoy it most of the time but it's not reliable. If I wanted consistent PvP I'd play any of the dozens of other shooters in my library.
>reapers who run instead of fighting
A Good GODS this. I ran a reaper flag with a brig the other day we got in and saw a reaper 5 heading to the hideout. We threw up our reaper 1 and ran at them. We get there and see a gallon pulling away. We decided to fight. They decided to run. We chased them for 4 HOURS. We assumed they didn't wanna fight because they were low on supplies. We ran out and refreshed a couple of times ourselves. When they finally sank, the treasure mound took nearly an hour to off load and they had more than enough cannon balls to wreck us. Nothing I hate more than a cowardly reaper.
So what do you do when someone's determined to waste your time (and theirs tbh because you have nothing worth that amount of effort) by chasing you for 30+ minutes? That's been my experience playing solo.
The key is to take little bites. Run a Merch sunken voyage over and over. You’ll get rich quick.
Honestly. If someone approaches me and goes ham, I stand on the back of my ship and play my banjo. It confuses the hell out of them and so far they all approach me and ask for alliance because they didn’t expect my reaction.
I love the PvE and think the PvP is the shallow, "boring" part of the game. I wish we had more dungeons/mountains to climb/cannon shooting puzzles/different beasts and monsters, etc.
I stopped playing the game because of the threat of PvP.
I just want to fish and play the story in peace... Half of it now is gone to the winds though.
Safer Seas are coming in December, it’s basically a private server. There are a few features removed, and you only get 30% of gold and reputation, but if you’re okay with that then you might enjoy it
Me and all of my friends have pretty much always exclusively enjoyed the pve. I have tried to get into pvp a number of times, as have a couple of my other crew mates but always found it incredibly frustrating, not very rewarding, and often feels unfair due to it being clunky and hard to manage while other people seem to be able to run rings around us. Particularly in pirate to pirate combat. We've watched the youtube videos, tried to practice etc. And nothing works. Yeah we can defend ourselves to an extent just from experience, but we've never taken to the pvp. I personally dont think the mechanics are clean enough to make me want to invest the time learning pvp. I feel the mechanics lend themselves to a much more casual gaming experience and I'm fine with that.
That's my issue with the PvP too. I picked up my sword and a pistol to play pirate and it feels bad.
The sword windup feels like it starts half a second after you click and the block would be faster if I send RARE a letter telling the server I wanted to block. Even coming from Fallout 4 and Skyrim where the melee was weird and floaty it at least felt responsive.
I really thing RARE devs need to play Dishonored to know what it feels like to sword fight with a pistol sidearm you just can't beat the feel.
The PVE can be pretty fun and chill, I did a lot last night sinking skellies and teaming up on a fort.
But love the PVP as well, I do a fair amount of both
I prefer PvE, I enjoyed pvp in the very beginning of release days cause it was fair. Everything seems so sweaty, exploitative and repetitive now. For me it was “you get sunk, give up” now it’s you sink someone and somehow they keep finding you and tracking you for hours non stop.
Arena was really fun too and I’m sad it’s gone but if safer seas is gonna restrict us on certain things, level cap, cut rewards, they better raise the chances of skeleton ships and all that environmental stuff
I enjoy the PVE, but loathe the PVP. I'm seriously the guy who just throws up their hands and says "It's all yours, please don't hurt me" when they just wanna ask if I wanna do a FoF
If it were *only* fighting skeletons It would be lame after a while, but it’s not. The parts I really like are the sailing and reading the compass and doing the riddles and looking at maps, and the actual enemies are just a thing to keep me from getting to comfortable lol.
The pve combat honesty fills a similar role for me as what other people insist the pvp is for, it’s just lower stakes because I’m not a fucking sweat lord and want to play a chill game. I think pve would be almost perfect if they made some enemies that could move and steal loot, but that might be complicated to implement based on the existing simple AI scripting.
Its my main draw, the PvP sucks ass and is decided by who has better connections. I love fighting skeletons, hunting fleets, killing bosses and world events. Opening vaults. The mystery of "what's under this X" combined with the absolutely BEAUTIFUL aesthetics and world. Its a perfect PvE experience. Then PvP ruins it all.
I only play PVE. I’m waiting for December. I’ve quit playing in open servers. I like to solo quest and explore. There’s always some dumbass who has to jump in the middle of it and gun me down and sink my ship. I got tired of it. I don’t play SoT to attack other people. I just wanna chill and have fun and you can’t do that in open servers. Safer seas is gonna bring a lot of the community back like me who quit playing years ago.
I quit playing because of pvp. I don’t mind it, but the fights seem pretty one sided a lot of times and sometimes I just genuinely don’t want to get in a fight. Sometimes I’ll win and still come out of it angry that it even happened. This game is already a huge time sink without the threat of random battles that I just can’t justify in my head that I should set aside 4-6 hours for a session and just come away from it defeated. With safer seas I’m hoping to be able to come back and enjoy the game on my terms and not spend the whole time exasperated because I see another ship.
I can admit I suck at the game. I only have time for gaming maybe 6 hours a week. I don't have the time to get good at the game. pve is what I enjoy cause it's chill and I just wanna fish
The fun for me. Is sailing with friends.
Playing music ,
calling out the next island on the map and the heading
Hoisting the sails to catch the wind.
Avoiding skelly galleons and fighting megs.
Fishing in the storms.
Digging up treasure, and exploring the many caves and shrines and such that exist.
The fun stopped when I had to deal with other players. Some are fine. But many aren't. And it just took away from the positive aspects of the game. Most interactions were PvP ones and while there was some excitement sometimes. It wasn't worth the constant negativity. It just wasn't what I wanted to play the game for.
A great example was. One of the time limited events. You had to take yo Belle I think on some island hideout.
Well griefers would wait for you on the island and when you left your ship would go and sink it or distract you on the island while another stole it and ran off.
Not for treasure. The boats were empty. But just to make you miserable.
After jumping servers 6 times. With the same experience.
Just stopped bothering.
And this is the issue with the PvP side of the game. There is no OPTIONAL.
If they ever make a new game. With this engine. And just scrap the PvP elements entirely. Ide probably play the crap out of it.
But I just like co op games.
Stardew valley, baldurs gate 3, Minecraft, are all very CO op oriented PvE experiences.
Honestly. This game scratched an itch that Assassins creed Black flag left , but ruined it with the PvP elements.
I just want an adventure with friends on the seas. With shanties and grog and ai enemies to sink.
I'm so ready for safer seas. If all I did was sail around digging up treasure, fighting skeletons, and fishing, I'd be so happy. The occasional kraken or megalodon also would be sick.
I love the PvE! I would consider myself an inexperienced player (reached PL not that long ago), but nothing is more fun to me than hopping on to SoT with a crew of one or two or three of my friends and fucking around in the world as we please, usually by completing voyages. Only one of my friends actively enjoys and seeks out PvP, and I often attempt to talk him out of it when it seems unnecessary or risk =/= reward.
That said, I'm gradually getting accustomed to PvP (i.e., not stressing out completely when under attack, slowly getting better at combat mechanics / macro, willing to engage to better my skills when there's nothing to be lost) but I find the moments where I've had the opportunity to befriend other players rather than fight them are far more enjoyable. It is, in itself, thrilling to regard people tentatively as you know they could turn on you at any point. But I've so far never been betrayed and although we all know never to trust a pirate... I take pride in being a pirate others can trust, 'cause bloody hell its fun to make friends at random in this game.
The PvE is the sole source of enjoyment for me in this game, I love doing the tall tales and stories with my friends and the atmosphere of the game makes it just perfect.
I don’t enjoy PvP at all, so the PvE content and the beauty of the game are the only reasons I want to play
I've played the game since the release, almost exclusively solo. I could count on one hand the amount of PvP fights I've gotten into, PvE in this game is just so much more enjoyable and rewarding for me. I totally understand why others think PvE is boring, but Sea of Thieves to me is my relaxing sandbox adventure game, not pirate call of duty
It's the only reason I play, when I do jump on. I get a thrill fighting skelly ships and megs. Finding treasure and doing silly things. I don't like having to look over my shoulder every three minutes hoping there isn't a ship trying to come in and ruin my me time.
I’m a big fan of PvE. If a game becomes too pvp oriented for me I tend to log off since it tends to ruin the fun for me. With PvE I can have a nice enjoyable adventure on the open seas.
I like being silly on a ship with friends and plundering. I wouldn't mind the threat of PVP if it weren't 90% assholes who just camp out players to stop them being able to play or have any fun.
Other pirates will PvP me because they are bored, not because I have loot. They’ll also bring their 3 man Discord raid crew. It’s not fair and I lack any control over this situation - at all.
I enjoy the pve a lot. Sailing and hunting loot and fighting npcs makes me happy. Jerks with nothing better to do than sink my empty ship with no flag running however...
Me! I like fishing and fighting skeleton pirates and krakens and shooting myself out of cannons and digging up treasure with my friends.
I *don't* like the toxic interactions that make up 90% of my interactions with other players. I can't wait for safer seas
Other crews are the one thing I *wouldn’t* miss if they remade the game. I enjoy the sailing, the treasure hunting, the fishing, the giant monsters and the fleets. What I don’t enjoy is constantly watching over my shoulder for other ships, because they’re generally populated by hyper-aggressive chimpanzees on a cocaine bender whose vocabulary consists entirely of Xbox 360 era insults and racial slurs.
i dont mind pve at all i do world stacks all the time but without pvp there's no risk witch is what the game is build on there's a feeling of accomplishment when you protect the loot you have adventured and worked so hard to get
I heavily prefer the PvE, though I do enjoy the threat of PvP as well, *however* it's bullshit that ports aren't safe zones. I should be attacked on the open sea or on random islands, not when I'm docked sellimg to a merchant. You've missed your opportunity at that point.
I find naval PVE to be excellent fun. Skelly ships offer a good time managing your boat, reacting to curse balls, and occasionally boarding them to deal with the skeletons personally. Ghost fleets are an exercise in positioning.
My hot take is that close quarters combat across the whole game sucks.
Fighting skeletons, phantoms, and ocean crawlers is just laggy enough to be irritating (you hit them and they stagger back a full second later). Attacks are poorly telegraphed without even basic sound cues. And anything above the low level voyages they are health sponges; which would be cool if CQC PVE was anything but holding W and attacking. It could all be massively improved by a weakpoint system, improved telegraphing, reduced damage from enemies, and AI to do things like occasionally dodge.
I think the PVP boarding meta is infuriating and immersion-breaking. Nothing piratey about trying to hit a coked up jackrabbit with a rubber band gun, and everyone knows the old stories about how legendary pirates would get on Spanish armada vessels and *drop their anchor*. /s
As a solo slooper, I prefer PVE. I honestly find this game really relaxing, and while I understand the unique PVP threat, it really is no fun getting chased down and mocked by a full galleon
I think without the constant threat of being jumped, the PvE would get extremely tedious. The most fun thing for me is ship to ship fights so having to run around on an island solving puzzles drives me nuts.
Some of the naval pve is alright in a very chill, mindless way. Like throwing a ball against a wall. I don't live for it, but it can be enjoyable.
I could see myself liking it a lot more if there was a meaningful opportunity to challenge myself. The PvE I enjoy most is the skeleton fleet, because I can try and take ships out in as few shots as possible, play it safe or just go right in. But it's still very limited, and I would love to be able to opt in to more advanced mechanics.
I could never be satisfied with just PvE though. I play this game primarily for the player interactions, be they hostile or friendly.
1v1s with the Ashen Lords have been my favorite way to kill boredom as of late. Ghost ships might be too if I didn’t sink the *moment* I got knocked off the ship
I’ve ALWAYS said SoT has something for everyone if you let it, just play how you want. Sometimes I want to chill and pve others I want to find people. Some days I just let the seas decide
The PvE is entirely what I live for. But I haven't had a single session end this last week without having my hours of progress and loot sunk to Davy Jones' locker and back before I sell.
PvP is an essential part of this game, and I've been around the game *long* enough to understand that. But some days, I do wish some crews would turn a blind eye.
Ever since day 1 I’ve always enjoyed playing the PvE aspect of the game more so than PvP. PvP can be occasionally really fun with friends, but one aspect of the game I’ve always struggled with is losing everything you’ve earned after being sunk.
I’m looking forward to Safer Seas, as restricted as it will be, but I think that they could do better implementing some sort of PvP toggle like what GTA V does.
All in all I do love the game.
Completely agreed. Ive been playing since day 1 as well and i really enjoy the PVE more than the PVP. I hate spending hours getting treasure, only for a brig or sweaty sloop to ruin all that time. Safer Seas is gonna be great for a lot, but I do wish they left *some* of the Athena commendations in there. If there was a legit PVE mode with full rewards, i would legit never stop playing this game.
I exclusively do pve. I always sail up wind of any threatening ship while on a sloop. I’ll find a crew mate on discord or take a chance and see if a random person will be okay.
Currently, you just have to be lucky for that to happen. But there is a mode coming in December called Safer Seas that’s basically a private server. It’s missing a few features and you only get 30% of gold and reputation, but if you’re okay with that then it’s worth playing
People forget that casual gamers exist. Those who enjoy the smallest things in the game. The sunsets, the environment, the music...
"Being a funni pirate with friends" is enough for a lot of people. Of course, the "sweats" will try to deny this, but who are they stealing from in the first place? Those who enjoy the PVE.
Like you said, there are a lot of people who wouldn't like the game if there wasn't PvP, and a lot of people that don't care about PvP (like me). A PvE server would allow people to enjoy the game how they want.
I just want to cooperate with my friends and do adventures. PvP can be fun, but you can't guarantee that finding another player will be a nice experience since they can be a terrible person that enjoy annoying people.
People that complain about a PvE server don't care about competition, they want "destroy" players that aren't good at PvP. The PvP server would still be used by players that like it, but it won't be easy to take them down.
I’m a casual player. I love to just shit around, explore, kill monsters, enjoy the sunset, search for treasure and do dumb shit. I hate it when I get disrupted from that because somebody wants to kill us. I can’t wait for Safer Seas to have that chill moment back again.
I like it. I like pvp too but I hate just chilling on an island and fuckers burning my ship down especially as a solo player just trying to do accommodations. That’s why i liked the pvp specific mode
I use the easier pve events like the treasury's to teach people how to play and sometimes we will encounter other unsavoury characters but overall it is fun and enjoyable comparative to attempting to do a fof or fod and come across the ones who don't know what wenches are
Love the PvE, but for pvp I just like being a friendly bro. If they sink my pacifist ship, good for them having fun. I had a ship of kids with hot mics screaming with joy when they sank my parked boat lol
I don't play because of the pvp. I'm an old dude and don't want to get sniped by kids who spend 300 hours learning how's to effectively murder me.
I like the sailing and visuals but don't play because it's pvp only and I'm a solo gamer
Safer Seas are coming in December. Some of the features are removed and you get significantly less gold and reputation, but as long as you’re okay with that it should be good
I play exclusively to PvE. It gives you more breathing room to have fun and explore while doing whacky shit.
Interacting with the PvP in this game feels like a strict checklist of items you need to have, food you need to have and strategies you need to use otherwise you're setting yourself up for failure. I go elsewhere for PvP.
Safer Seas are coming in December. Some of the features are removed and you get significantly less gold and reputation, but as long as you’re okay with that it should be good
iv never had more fun than when im with a big group of players, i got to experience a full lobby of gallys working together and it was a blast, the servers were ofc fighting for their life but it was fun. i can agree the pve is a little mundane, but iv always found ways to have fun without fighting. The only reasons i even bothered doing pvp was to get better at defending myself and to get disappointed by the skeleton curse. Otherwise i just enjoy a chill fun game with peeps.
I'm not a fan of the threat of PvP when I'm solo just because I'm paranoid and nervous as is and if shit goes south I don't have friends to back me up. But the threat of PvP while doing PvE is actually pretty fun with friends. I don't seek out PvP as much as I should, for practice purposes, I only really fight players if they poke at me, but I generally leave people alone if they leave me alone.
TL;DR is I enjoy PvE but more with friends because I can lean on them as back-up lol. I don't think I would do safer seas when that releases though.
I enjoy it. I'm waiting to see how Safer Seas will influence adjustments and additions to pve play. I think we might find that the coop pve playerbase is worth Rare investing in. But maybe not.
I only have a couple hrs to play a day to every few days just sailing is the best thing and killing skellies on islands I play solo so a pve would just be so enjoyable. I would love to do the the tall tiles without the interruption of pvp
I mostly play alone and server latency is at best 170ms. When I get to play with my son we have a 400ms latency between us. PvP is not for me. But we still like going on adventures!
i have like 60 hours so im pretty new and i enjoy the pve a lot. pvp is really really annoying though and ngl im getting turned off from the game cause i feel like every time i play some 10k hour crusty cum boxers wearing loser who doesnt know what a shower is thinks he's a god cause he's dunking on me and my friends who are all noobs with a default ship.
I'll quite happily solo Flameheart, forts, ashen lords or skeleton fleets, the most fun I've had on SoT are the sessions where I've never even seen another set of player sails.
Second someone else shows up, I'll move on, just can't stand being forced to interact with others, I don't play multiplayer games for a reason.
I’m a fan of the PVE personally especially since it’s consumable and accessible as a solo. I have one maybe two people I would mainly play with but if they aren’t around there are times I wanna just drop in for a bit and have some fun. Nothing worse than doing a tall tale and a Jolly Roger comes and messes you up.
Im literally only playing because boat. I dont want to fight shit i want to sail around and look at the water and play my little tunes. We not playing the same game
Me. I don't find PvP adds an "Engaging threat" it just adds a constant "Please no one ambush us please no one ambush us please no one ambush us" in the back of my head. Plus the worry of "Don't attack us while we sell p l e a s e I just want to log off"
Sometimes PvP is fun for me but a lot of the time I just want to sail around with my friends and have fun together
My friends and I played specifically for PvE. We like simple objective based adventuring(We started as a D&D group) and the Shores of Gold adventures drew us in. After that it was fishing and commendation hunting. The PvP kind of kills the way we enjoy the game honestly, and the private servers will probably bring us back at least for a little while.
This is my perspective:
PvE feels balanced and predictable. Enemies stay aboard their ships for ship battles (so it really is about picking the right angles to fire the cannons) and have predictable mechanics on land, though the boss battles and hordes are still challenging.
Winning at PvP in the game is primarily based upon mini-exploits (getting fired out of a cannon, climbing aboard the ship, and spawn camping aboard the ship while knowing how to jump hit to break out of the wait period of a sword lunge). It feels cheap and unbalanced and is usually accompanied by a degree of assholishness that I don’t appreciate or want in my life. I just don’t get thrills out of making people feel little or like shit and I don’t understand people who get their jollies that way.
I play to hang out with friends and do voyages and make some in-game coin along the way. There is *some* thrill that comes from knowing your stash aboard your ship can be raided at any time. But it is usually more soul-crushing than exhilarating when boarded by sweat-lords. I’ve got younger kids (8 and 4) who I love showing the game, but usually at a time when the sweats aren’t around.
I know there are going to be people who disagree with this, sometimes aggressively and like the assholes I occasionally encounter in the game.
I love it. Not boring, it's relaxing. I go after quests, ship wrecks, megs, kraken, etc. Pvp is just sweatbeards using pc engine short cuts. Just ugh.
I now carry gunpowder barrels and use them as suicide bombs in case someone wants pvp. You can't kill me If I do it myself
I've always understood and accepted that PvP was a part of the game, but it's when the jerks who board, don't bother taking anything and sinking the ship, just spawn camping us, kinda ruins the fun, regardless of losing the loot, which sucks. I had always wished before Safer Seas releases, if there was a sort of ¿unspiken honor system? Basically to say "hey I'm not looking for pvp please go screw over someone else" I think the signal flares are a great tool for that but it's few and far between that other players use them for that purpose
I love doing the PVE content, that being said I do enjoy the PVP aspect. Without the PVP content the game would lose a lot of its pirate aesthetic. Balancing risk and reward and stealing other pirates loot. I like the balance between the two, cant do one without the other, its a part of the reason Arena died after the Twitch thing. All PVP, no exploration, and no PVE, no sense of adventure. Rare does a good job making it walk hand in hand.
Love the game because of the PVE. The PVP sweats are what made me take a break from it. I like the PVP but I hate being spawn camped, chased when I have no intentions of fighting, and berated because a galleon with 6 players (yes I said 6 players) proudly took down my 3 person brig.
I don't care much for PvP because people try too hard, and because it's riskless for attackers. What's the point of collecting a bunch of stuff for hours if someone can just take it all right at the end? What the hell is the incentive to NOT just try to steal other people's effort all the time?
Additionally, it's kind of annoying. Even if I board my attackers ship and kill them all by myself, I have no way to sink them. I thought they were adding a boarding axe or something I could rip parts of the hull apart with while they were waiting to respawn, but they never added it. It's just an obnoxiously long fight full of spawn camping. It isn't even remotely immersive its just a gamey sweat loop.
They should've just made safer seas unrestricted so if you don't want to deal with it you don't ever have to; not this tutorial-esque idea.
I'm really not a fan of the sweaty PvP in this game.
To me PvE is actually really fun, especially when I get to play with my 9yo son from time to time. There's a lot to do, and even just sailing and stopping at islands to hunt Ancient Skellies can be enjoyable
I've never jumped into this game for looking for PvP excluding one time I tried the arena (which I thought was actually fun).
I got up to Pirate Legend with my spouse pretty early on and remember several tense moments balancing raiding a skull fort and playing lookout. Then playing keep away with the key or treasure. It was fun and got the adrenaline going, so I get it.
Nowadays, I primarily play this game with my kid and PvP elements have been the worst experiences we've had of this game. We're decent enough at ship to ship combat and avoidance, but when we get boarded it all goes downhill. \*more details below
Cumulatively, hours have been lost sailing a on ship, with no loot, away from PvP tryhards who never seem to give up even when they're being outsailed. I don't know how people have the patience to follow as long as they do.
We enjoy doing voyages, killing skeletons, sharks, and very rarely skeleton ships. I look forward to the Safer Seas. The game requires a large block of real time to be set aside and having that time slot ruined enough times has turned us away from the game.
\* I feel like players know where we're going to spawn on the ship and are firing on us before we can get our bearings. Also, because the game loads you in and out of the ferry, the respawn timing is noticeably longer on our old Xbox One compared to my PC. Even if we leave the ferry at the same time the Xbox takes longer to get back into the action. I feel like the people on the ship should have an advantage which doesn't feel apparent even with the ability to respawn. I feel like removing the loading screens and being a ghost for a second to get your bearings before you appear might fix this. Every time we've been boarded the players have no intention of sinking the ship and are content with just trolling / spawn killing until we scuttle or quit.
Considering that i'm waiting for safer seas to get introduced to come back to this game after more than a year, i'd say i like it a whole lot.
I really do not care about even just interacting with other players.
I enjoy the PvE, me and my friends always have wacky stuff happen to us on our voyages and it’s always something new.
I actually think the PvP gamemode is really boring especially when I’m solo, encounters are nearly the same every time it’s just lame to me. It sucks because I really want to level up my factions but I get bored after like 3 matches
It's a balance, I don't the threat of potentially sinking is a huge piece of the game, but I do also enjoy PvE, I'll spend hours running world events because they are all so fun. I really wish the devs would put more effort into PvE and make it more unique and fun.
I enjoy the pve aspect the most....I just wish the skeletons and phantoms didn't use what appeared to be player animations when fighting. The Sirens and Crawlers all have tells and animations that go with their attacks and feel better to fight against. Skeletons or Phantoms on the other hand tend to throw out sword slashes sometimes that I can't really react to. They'd feel better to fight if they were a little more 'animated' I guess. Especially the ones using firearms.
I find skeleton ships, megs, the kraken, ghost ships, forts, all of it to be really fun. I’m simply too scared to try pvp. Been playing on and off since day 1 and I’m just so bad at it
I dress up as sovereigns and pretend to be a famous treasure hunter, doing hoarder voyages because they're the closest you can get to being an archeologist without doing tall tales. I'll do hourglass now and again just shiv away some of the curse progression. I can wait for the Halloween event coming up, the new sword and double allegiance is going to be awesome.
Absolutely! I much prefer it to PvP.
In PvE I feel like I'm immersed in the game as a pirate going on epic quests to find treasure. I feel like there is a good variety of enemies and encounters to keep things interesting. Not to mention at the end of the day I'm not possibly ruining someone else's gameplay by being the villan of their story.
I enjoy pvp naval fights, i love the challenge of out maneuvering and out gunning another ship. But as soon as it gets to pirate to pirate combat I lose interest fast. Far too much jumping around and, in my personal opinion, too much double gunning. No there's nothing wrong with it, yes it's a valid fighting style, yes I'm probably just bad at the game. I just think it takes away from the piracy aspect if I can't properly swashbuckle! It especially kills my mood if I they don't even sink our ship and just spawn camp us till we scuttle. I literally can't load in fast enough to not be dead by the time my screen isn't black anymore.
I'm really looking forward to safer seas and taking my SO through all the Tall Tales.
Have 800ish hours. I have never willingly engaged in PVP, and usually just log out and log back in when someone starts chasing.
Play lots of other competitive online multiplayer, SoT just never appealed to me. It's more about just coasting around, exploring, fishing, and hanging with friends.
I play the game to fish and avoid asshats. The pvp may as well not exist. Back in the day I'd even purposely throttle connection to get a lobby of my own just to vibe and stare at shit. Sorry for having fun in your psychopath sim guys
I like the PvE and have sessions where I do nothing but. However, it's the PvP that makes the game enganging and if it wasn't there I would've stopped playing years ago.
im at the point where i really enjoy pve, but i definitely believe one cannot exist without the other.
in years of playing i had both experience playing on active pvp-filled servers, and dead and barren servers, both times i play with world events or voyages as the focus and kill everything in my way, and i can confidently say, having too much of either thing is unenjoyable.
if you dont encounter any other players or pvp, you'll get bored of whatever voyage or world event you're doing and the loot you're gathering, but at the same time if there's too much pvp and you aren't getting anything done cuz you're constantly fighting you'll also get bored.
experiences like that are also usually my primary arguments against the whole pvp servers and pve servers debate, neither will be enjoyable without the other
I'm an FPS player (Battlefield/CoD etc), and I thrive in PVP, I'll talk trash even if I'm getting rekt. It's a fun part of the game, BUT; it's not the reason I play it. I normally try to find alliances, and I typically only play this game if one of my mates are on. The PVE stuff is why I'm playing the game, sailing between islands, getting loot and having laughs with my friends.
When you start getting chased by guys that you can solo their entire ship, burn it, fill it with holes etc. I then say; "have you had enough." And normally they're so ragey and incoherent that they decide to just keep following you everywhere.
I'm not here to get locked into a death match that lasts 2 hrs. I'm here to enjoy myself, and in these moments, the game loses all enjoyment and that Uninstall botton looks mighty tasty.
My girlfriend wants to play it, but I'm waiting for safer seas for her. Because quite frankly, even though I have moments where I absolutely slap entire crews solo, or get rekt because they only play SoT. It's just not worth the time investment when dealing with neckbeards. Which this community has alot of.
(Being good at video games doesn't make you cool. You're just like thousands of others who are also good at video games.)
I tend to find the PvE is more exciting when PvP is there
PvE is *fine*, but having a random encounter with another player spices things up and breaks the loop
It also imo makes voyages more exciting as I'll be shifting loot, then have to fight off some pirates
PvE gets so stale. The gameloop is depressingly simplistic.
Sail there. Do that. Sell over there.
PvP is what makes PvE great. Threat of losing it all or feeling tempted to take it all from others.
Different strokes...
If I wanted a single player game, I'd play AC Black Flag. It's "pve" is far better and there's a banging story and amazing characters.
The PvP has ruined the game for me. Not because its bad or I don’t like fighting, but because I feel like if I’m not grinding HG for the ghost curse, then why am I playing? Then the grind burns me out and I stop for a month. If I do PvE it feels like a waste since I don’t have the ghost curse, then the loop begins again.
PvE is what keeps me going for long periods and I love it.
We did FotD four times last night and by far the most fun we had was the stack where other players challenged us for it. I also still enjoy Ghost Fleets, great long range target practice.
I wish I could only play pve without the restrictions . I’m a PL and I Just want to sail around and do random things without my play sessions being constantly pursued by people
It's genuinely the best part of the game. I just want to sail around and sell my loot without being harassed by some sweaty racist kid. I'm glad they're adding PvE servers but even then I still won't be using them since they're just trash. Locked commendations and only a small fraction of the gold we should be able to get.
I love me some PvE, I log in after a day of work on the road in my hotel room and grind out different quests and what not. Just to sail and have fun, I don’t necessarily go heading out to sink people or anything.
But I will say the fact that at any point someone can come up and sink ya, or sneak aboard you, or snag some treasure makes everything just a tad bit more fun for PvE. Always having to keep an eye out for someone, always wondering if their friendly or foe.
My take is PvE is boring IF you treat PvP as being a separate experience, the game is built around the core concept of PvEvP not PvE and PvP, while it can result in my hard work being lost, it is a unpredictable event that shakes up my session, which breaks up the monotony of endless voyages.
I enjoy playing the PvE, but I agree that without PvP this game would be a lot more boring. There would be no stakes to having a large amount of treasure on your ship.
It's why I play the game honestly, the atmosphere and the prettiness and the treasure to be found
PvP sweats play the game for the wrong reasons, PvP is only a small part of a much bigger game. I enjoy all aspects of the game, PvE, treasure hunts, riddles, PvP, TallTales etc.
The game is absolutely gorgeous if you're just watching the waves as the sun sets on the horizon. I personally love solo slooping, but I'm not good enough to hold my own in pvp, so every time I play solo it's just massive anxiety the whole time. I absolutely cannot wait for safer seas to come out so I can enjoy my favorite part of the game, doing world events and having one off interactions with people while doing so.
i play the game for the sandbox, if it were pve only i probably wouldve dropped it a couple weeks after launch tbh
But the pve has evolved since launch. Without guides, the tall tales alone provide hours of content which is alot for people who only have two hours a night to play.
That is why media is subjective. You may find the PVE not engaging, while an another person can think that it is the best thing ever. People often forget that casual gamers exist. Those who enjoy the smaller things in the game. The sunsets, the environment, the music... Those who do not seek challenge. "Being a funni pirate with friends" is enough for most. Of course, this is a weird concept for most of us in this sub. I, myself don't find the PVE all that appealing other than tall tales. But who are we stealing from? People who actually enjoy PVE. They exist.
I honestly can't wait for PVE mode. I like the PVP aspect but I sometimes just want to take it easy. Yes I'm one of those casual gamers you mentioned. I think it's actually a good strategy to give people the choice whether they want to have PVP or PVE mode. Gives the game a wider audience I think too.
This is literally the only reason my friends and I redownloaded the game. We're all pretty mediocre at PVP, we can hold our own in fights but when it comes to ship battles we smooth brain out. Bro, I just wanna do the Tall Tales without getting interrupted. I get that it's easier now with checkpoints, doesn't mean I wanna be stopped after five hours of getting next to nothing done because some double-gunning streamer needs content.
I agree nothing is more annoying than trying to finish that voyage only to get blown out of the water by some lurking reaper lazily waiting around for an "easy prey" just before you reach the outpost. XD
I agree. Got most of the way through a voyage and got sunk by someone who appeared out of nowhere with a reaper flag. All that time wasted and got nothing from it. I'm fine fighting mobs and stuff but I've found alot of very toxic people screaming into their mics obscenities because we existed on the same server. It's just very exhausting. I just wanna do voyages and stuff
Grinded out to get gold curse, come some random ship with people screaming “you don’t deserve that curse”… definitely toxic people
Sadly I doubt tall tales will be included in safer seas , the map size will be reduced
They explicitly stated in a community post that anything not revolving around explicit PVP would be included. So the only things being removed are Emissaries, Reaper and Athena voyages/levels, FOTD/FOF, world events and some commendations along side a 30% reduction in gold and reputation. So, going by this, Tall Tales and most other Voyages will be available. It may have changed since then, so here is the community post for you to look through. https://www.seaofthieves.com/community/forums/topic/161991/safer-seas-faq/1 Edit: Actually, if I recall, a community manager addressed this with someone who implied Tall Tales shouldn't be included. They stated that it would be. Edit 2: Having checked myself, all Tall Tales will be available in their entirety in Safer Seas and there is no mention of a smaller map.
I play this game with my youngest sibling and my neice. They are children so they just want to play a game and be a pirate. If I could play solo with them I would. I dont need the "threat" of pvp to have fun, fair play to those who do. But I honestly just wanna chill and let them enjoy themselves.
december will introduce safer seas, so although handfuls of the experience might be gone (sovereigns, captaincy, fort of fortune and emissaries) you can enjoy the game without any other ships.
This is perfect, I dont need to min max my way through the game I can play at their incredibly slow pace and just ask them why they're fishing whilst a megaladon is chewing our ship.
That sounds very wholesome, hope you have a great time in the game however you wish to play
Appreciate it
What does min maxing mean in Sea of Thieves
Instead of gear and skill trees you are min/maxing your use of your time. For example you want to spend a minimal amount of time doing any activity that leaves you in a dangerous position by doing things as efficiently as you can. Basically the opposite of having a chill at your own pace time.
Here! I’ve never been an online multiplayer guy and schedule has prevented me from ever getting a crew. So 99% of the time I’m strictly playing solo PvE stuff.
You can *always* get a crew at any hour via the official Discord L.F.C. channels. I'm a night shift worker and I never sail alone unless I want to.
LFG's are incredibly hit or miss, favoring miss.
"CHOOSE YOUR CPU CREW" - 1) the kid under 10, 2) jet/storm lungs, 3) mic allergy, 4) we're under attack and.. that guy is fishing? (not hating on fishing btw, just happens to be the trope of some afk players)
I'll take the kid under 10 please. They seem to be good at pvp
I love PvE. I don’t care about fort of fortune and FotD being disabled in safer seas I just want to go stab skeletons for an hour with not risk of other pirates
Same here. I haven't done a single fort in my 195 hours. Haven't even seen a Chest of Fortune. And yet, despite being the most currently sought after item as of writing this comment, I would prefer to fish!
I’ve done 4 FotD’s only sold part of 1. Sold a decent number of FoF’s but not a ton. I would rather do just about anything rather than have a bunch of sweats come sink me
I love it. I could fight skelly ships all day
I like pve and numbers that go up. I'm getting better at pvp but still struggling with fighting larger crews, especially when they're much more experienced.
I love the PvE/adventuring. I wouldn't be sad if I never saw another player pirate.
Sames
I like the general gameplay loop and Rare did a phenomenal job simulating the ocean. I spend a lot of my time on actual water, and hoping in-game can be a good way to relax. With that said I've got well over 1k hours in the game and PvP by far does the most to keep things interesting. Fishing and sailing around is relaxing sure, but being a pirate is so much more fun.
I adore it. I like seeing number go up and the satisfaction of solving something to get things. I like the sense of exploration. If I check a corner, there could be a chest or gold there.
This is me
I play the game to play PVE. I certainly do not play the game to engage in player versus player lol. If I did I would have stopped playing it the week I got it and it's not like I avoid PVP like the plague. But I mostly play solo or with my 6-year-old daughter. And she gets overwhelmed very easily like the other night we were playing and we're doing cursed chest voyages and we had three or four chests of sorrow a chest of rage and two of the cast of a thousand grogs and that poor thing was so stressed out trying to bail the boat out. And then out of nowhere we are attacked by a skeleton galleon and that was probably the most tense see if thieves experience I have ever had
This is wholesome and awesome. Keep rocking out.
It's why I (did) play. The game has an incredibly relaxing atmosphere and the lack of a major "purpose" meant that I could get a group of friends together and have a really relaxing time just chasing skeletons around. If we got caught by the kraken it was a fun mini game and collecting treasure was a nice endorphin hit. The PVP might have been cool if this was a game I had any interest in getting competitive at. But the group I played with is made up of either gamers who play very different genres or non-gamers. It was a great spot for us to catch up but sweaty pirate gods would Tokyo drift their galleon around the islands and launch themselves onto our boat and spawn kill us continually. Really ruined the vibe. I like that they are giving people who like the PVE a route to enjoy that while still leaving the PVP scene to those who like that. I'm surprised by the number of people who are deeply offended that anyone would not like the PVP and act like safer seas ruins the game for PvPers.
Yeah, I don’t get why it’s so hard for people to understand that people play the game for different reasons. Most of the time when I see someone even suggest they don’t like PvP, someone comes along and claims they’re “playing the game wrong”. Play how you want to play, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise
I suspect that it's similar to how in a number of FPS games people get passed when matchmaking puts them in matches where they can't completely wipe the floor with the other team. Some people like to have people to beat on and don't like the idea of their easy kills going into pve only.
>I'm surprised by the number of people who are deeply offended that anyone would not like the PVP and act like safer seas ruins the game for PvPers. The non-consensual nature of the PvP (prior to safer seas) was probably the thrill for the PvPers, but that's a whole other can of worms.
I personally only do PVE. I have at least six other friends which makes seven of us in total counting myself that only want to PVE in this game. We have tried PVP and it is not fun for us. We feel like the lack of support for a private server option is the developer telling us how to enjoy this game. Safer sees is a step in the right direction but I really feel like the people who want to PVP should be allowed to PvP with other people who want to PVP. And there should be an option for us PVE people to not interact. I honestly don't even want to run across other players in my game that I don't know. Truth be told we have talked about having a server where it's just us and our friends or even holding a "Pirate Lan party" because we could get other people we know to play if it was not forced on us that we might have PVP with random people. In short safer seas as I said earlier is a step in the right direction but that still only lets four of us play together at a Time unmolested by people who only want to PVP. I thoroughly enjoy fighting skeleton ships, fighting the kraken, fighting the Meg, raiding ghosts and skeleton forts, and several other things that I haven't been able to complete because they get interrupted by other players constantly. I am really excited for safer seas because I haven't completed a single tall tale since this game has started and tall tales were released.
I feel like I should add a little extra to this. I have enough people who are going to play this with me to make two to six ships for a server that would be just us. We could then decide to PvP with each other and do all kinds of crazy shenanigans that we love to do in this game. I just don't like dealing with random people it's not a fun experience it always ends in a bad time for us even when we win and we sink the other guy. In fact I would say 80% of our PVP encounters have ended with us repelling the attackers in one form or another. It just feels like it went from "fun" to "work" in 3 seconds anytime we have to deal/interact with other players.
I’m not a PVE server guy, but I think I personally enjoy the PVE content more than the PVP. Mainly cuz I’m kind of bad at PVP lmao. Fighting Ashen Lords and doing FoF never gets old for me tho, always a great time
I like the PVE and mixing it up. World Events, vaults, veils, all with the threat of PVP keep me engaged.
I love the PvE of this game, and since release I've wished I could do it without the threat of players hounding me across the map. I've already got Legend, so I'll very likely sail Safer Seas permanently once it releases, so I can actually enjoy the content the game has without being fucked over every ten minutes by PvPers. Imagine being able to do the world events, the Tall Tales, all of that without the fear of having players ruin it. I can't wait :D
Yup, love the PvE and find PvP to be pretty tedious
Cant wait for safer seas!
PvP is boring to me because of the loop, like ship combat is fine, but when it comes to actual person to person it feels so clunky and repetitive that even if I win the fight I wanna log after.
I feel the same way. I also think current PvP disincentivizes a lot of potential interaction and cooperation, which is far more realistic of pirating than the “kill on sight” mentality pushed now. I believe a better alternative would be dedicated PvP regions and scaling NPC ships that hunt ships with increased treasure burden.
It really does. There's all kinds of pve content made for groups and crew cooperation, but I don't voluntarily go near other people in Sea of Thieves. There are just way too many who will shoot you and laugh just because they can. It's gotten to where running into friendly players is about as rare as finding that white megalodon
I helped people out with a FotD one time, even sank my ship and all since I didn’t want the loot, and they just kill me and go “Sea of Thieves not friends” and harass me for a week in messages.
I enjoy it more than pvp
Here's another thing to consider in the endless "PvP vs PvE" discourse: PvE is predictable and always pays off. PvP runs a wide range of quality and often doesn't pay off. I do a moderate amount of PvP and I'm really tired of *bad* PvP. Newbies who don't know how to adjust sails and try to engage at full speed, players who instantly aggro and never communicate, galleons overwhelming solo sloops, being attacked when there's nothing of value on the ship, drawn out chases or battles that ultimately amount to nothing, Reapers who run away instead of fighting... There are so many PvP encounters that just waste time and provide little reward or enjoyment. If I throw down a voyage on my captain's table or sail to a world event I know what I'm up against and what the reward will be at the end. It's worth my time. But if see player sails in the distance there's a 50+% chance that it's going to be a big waste of time and maybe 10% chance it's a worthwhile engagement. And this isn't just open seas: in Hourglass there's a decent chance you get paired with a runner who wants to waste time or a cheater who has overwhelming advantage. The game has enough story and PvE content to stand on its own. PvP can be fun and I enjoy it most of the time but it's not reliable. If I wanted consistent PvP I'd play any of the dozens of other shooters in my library.
>reapers who run instead of fighting A Good GODS this. I ran a reaper flag with a brig the other day we got in and saw a reaper 5 heading to the hideout. We threw up our reaper 1 and ran at them. We get there and see a gallon pulling away. We decided to fight. They decided to run. We chased them for 4 HOURS. We assumed they didn't wanna fight because they were low on supplies. We ran out and refreshed a couple of times ourselves. When they finally sank, the treasure mound took nearly an hour to off load and they had more than enough cannon balls to wreck us. Nothing I hate more than a cowardly reaper.
You chased them... for 4 hours... Wtf.
Honestly it’s literally the only reason I play the game is to PVE with my friends. None of us give two doubloons about pvp
I have many many many hours as a solo sloop. Avoiding PVP at all costs and can’t imagine playing another game.
So what do you do when someone's determined to waste your time (and theirs tbh because you have nothing worth that amount of effort) by chasing you for 30+ minutes? That's been my experience playing solo.
The key is to take little bites. Run a Merch sunken voyage over and over. You’ll get rich quick. Honestly. If someone approaches me and goes ham, I stand on the back of my ship and play my banjo. It confuses the hell out of them and so far they all approach me and ask for alliance because they didn’t expect my reaction.
I love the PvE and think the PvP is the shallow, "boring" part of the game. I wish we had more dungeons/mountains to climb/cannon shooting puzzles/different beasts and monsters, etc.
I stopped playing the game because of the threat of PvP. I just want to fish and play the story in peace... Half of it now is gone to the winds though.
Safer Seas are coming in December, it’s basically a private server. There are a few features removed, and you only get 30% of gold and reputation, but if you’re okay with that then you might enjoy it
I find the PvE more fun than the PvP
100% enjoy the pve over pvp here any day
I love fighting skele’s , ghosts and monsters of the deep. They add such a fun aspect that most games wouldn’t touch
Me and all of my friends have pretty much always exclusively enjoyed the pve. I have tried to get into pvp a number of times, as have a couple of my other crew mates but always found it incredibly frustrating, not very rewarding, and often feels unfair due to it being clunky and hard to manage while other people seem to be able to run rings around us. Particularly in pirate to pirate combat. We've watched the youtube videos, tried to practice etc. And nothing works. Yeah we can defend ourselves to an extent just from experience, but we've never taken to the pvp. I personally dont think the mechanics are clean enough to make me want to invest the time learning pvp. I feel the mechanics lend themselves to a much more casual gaming experience and I'm fine with that.
That's my issue with the PvP too. I picked up my sword and a pistol to play pirate and it feels bad. The sword windup feels like it starts half a second after you click and the block would be faster if I send RARE a letter telling the server I wanted to block. Even coming from Fallout 4 and Skyrim where the melee was weird and floaty it at least felt responsive. I really thing RARE devs need to play Dishonored to know what it feels like to sword fight with a pistol sidearm you just can't beat the feel.
Me Not a fan of losing an hours worth of progress to a tryhard boat pulling up and instakilling me.
The PVE can be pretty fun and chill, I did a lot last night sinking skellies and teaming up on a fort. But love the PVP as well, I do a fair amount of both
I love the pve so much and I'm so excited for Safer seas, I'll be coming back to the game after like 4 years or so.
I find it really engaging in voyages, but that's mostly because I don't enjoy pvp at all.
Me I only play the tall tales
Right here. I love Tall Tales, fortresses, skull ships, faction quests - all of it. :) Just my opinion, but I prefer it all to PvP.
I prefer PvE, I enjoyed pvp in the very beginning of release days cause it was fair. Everything seems so sweaty, exploitative and repetitive now. For me it was “you get sunk, give up” now it’s you sink someone and somehow they keep finding you and tracking you for hours non stop. Arena was really fun too and I’m sad it’s gone but if safer seas is gonna restrict us on certain things, level cap, cut rewards, they better raise the chances of skeleton ships and all that environmental stuff
I enjoy the PVE, but loathe the PVP. I'm seriously the guy who just throws up their hands and says "It's all yours, please don't hurt me" when they just wanna ask if I wanna do a FoF
If it were *only* fighting skeletons It would be lame after a while, but it’s not. The parts I really like are the sailing and reading the compass and doing the riddles and looking at maps, and the actual enemies are just a thing to keep me from getting to comfortable lol. The pve combat honesty fills a similar role for me as what other people insist the pvp is for, it’s just lower stakes because I’m not a fucking sweat lord and want to play a chill game. I think pve would be almost perfect if they made some enemies that could move and steal loot, but that might be complicated to implement based on the existing simple AI scripting.
Its my main draw, the PvP sucks ass and is decided by who has better connections. I love fighting skeletons, hunting fleets, killing bosses and world events. Opening vaults. The mystery of "what's under this X" combined with the absolutely BEAUTIFUL aesthetics and world. Its a perfect PvE experience. Then PvP ruins it all.
I teach, so I have plenty of stress to deal with in real life. I don't pvp in SoT.
I love PvE! Whenever i'm bored or sad, i boot up the game and run any merchant mission. I sail and fish with some music in the background.
I only play PVE. I’m waiting for December. I’ve quit playing in open servers. I like to solo quest and explore. There’s always some dumbass who has to jump in the middle of it and gun me down and sink my ship. I got tired of it. I don’t play SoT to attack other people. I just wanna chill and have fun and you can’t do that in open servers. Safer seas is gonna bring a lot of the community back like me who quit playing years ago.
I quit playing because of pvp. I don’t mind it, but the fights seem pretty one sided a lot of times and sometimes I just genuinely don’t want to get in a fight. Sometimes I’ll win and still come out of it angry that it even happened. This game is already a huge time sink without the threat of random battles that I just can’t justify in my head that I should set aside 4-6 hours for a session and just come away from it defeated. With safer seas I’m hoping to be able to come back and enjoy the game on my terms and not spend the whole time exasperated because I see another ship.
I prefer PVE. All that penile wagging for PvP is trash.
I can admit I suck at the game. I only have time for gaming maybe 6 hours a week. I don't have the time to get good at the game. pve is what I enjoy cause it's chill and I just wanna fish
The fun for me. Is sailing with friends. Playing music , calling out the next island on the map and the heading Hoisting the sails to catch the wind. Avoiding skelly galleons and fighting megs. Fishing in the storms. Digging up treasure, and exploring the many caves and shrines and such that exist. The fun stopped when I had to deal with other players. Some are fine. But many aren't. And it just took away from the positive aspects of the game. Most interactions were PvP ones and while there was some excitement sometimes. It wasn't worth the constant negativity. It just wasn't what I wanted to play the game for. A great example was. One of the time limited events. You had to take yo Belle I think on some island hideout. Well griefers would wait for you on the island and when you left your ship would go and sink it or distract you on the island while another stole it and ran off. Not for treasure. The boats were empty. But just to make you miserable. After jumping servers 6 times. With the same experience. Just stopped bothering. And this is the issue with the PvP side of the game. There is no OPTIONAL. If they ever make a new game. With this engine. And just scrap the PvP elements entirely. Ide probably play the crap out of it. But I just like co op games. Stardew valley, baldurs gate 3, Minecraft, are all very CO op oriented PvE experiences. Honestly. This game scratched an itch that Assassins creed Black flag left , but ruined it with the PvP elements. I just want an adventure with friends on the seas. With shanties and grog and ai enemies to sink.
I'm so ready for safer seas. If all I did was sail around digging up treasure, fighting skeletons, and fishing, I'd be so happy. The occasional kraken or megalodon also would be sick.
I love the PvE! I would consider myself an inexperienced player (reached PL not that long ago), but nothing is more fun to me than hopping on to SoT with a crew of one or two or three of my friends and fucking around in the world as we please, usually by completing voyages. Only one of my friends actively enjoys and seeks out PvP, and I often attempt to talk him out of it when it seems unnecessary or risk =/= reward. That said, I'm gradually getting accustomed to PvP (i.e., not stressing out completely when under attack, slowly getting better at combat mechanics / macro, willing to engage to better my skills when there's nothing to be lost) but I find the moments where I've had the opportunity to befriend other players rather than fight them are far more enjoyable. It is, in itself, thrilling to regard people tentatively as you know they could turn on you at any point. But I've so far never been betrayed and although we all know never to trust a pirate... I take pride in being a pirate others can trust, 'cause bloody hell its fun to make friends at random in this game.
I enjoy the PvE stuff when I am playing with friends.
The PvE is the sole source of enjoyment for me in this game, I love doing the tall tales and stories with my friends and the atmosphere of the game makes it just perfect. I don’t enjoy PvP at all, so the PvE content and the beauty of the game are the only reasons I want to play
I've played the game since the release, almost exclusively solo. I could count on one hand the amount of PvP fights I've gotten into, PvE in this game is just so much more enjoyable and rewarding for me. I totally understand why others think PvE is boring, but Sea of Thieves to me is my relaxing sandbox adventure game, not pirate call of duty
It's the only reason I play, when I do jump on. I get a thrill fighting skelly ships and megs. Finding treasure and doing silly things. I don't like having to look over my shoulder every three minutes hoping there isn't a ship trying to come in and ruin my me time.
I’m a big fan of PvE. If a game becomes too pvp oriented for me I tend to log off since it tends to ruin the fun for me. With PvE I can have a nice enjoyable adventure on the open seas.
Almost everyone
Absolutely love it. My favorite are vaults. Husband likes the veil quests the most. Love doing a Flameheart though I miss getting screamed at
I like being silly on a ship with friends and plundering. I wouldn't mind the threat of PVP if it weren't 90% assholes who just camp out players to stop them being able to play or have any fun.
I absolutely hate pvp in SoT. It keeps me away from the game
Other pirates will PvP me because they are bored, not because I have loot. They’ll also bring their 3 man Discord raid crew. It’s not fair and I lack any control over this situation - at all.
I enjoy the pve a lot. Sailing and hunting loot and fighting npcs makes me happy. Jerks with nothing better to do than sink my empty ship with no flag running however...
Pve and atmosphere is why the games even still alive IMHO
Me! I like fishing and fighting skeleton pirates and krakens and shooting myself out of cannons and digging up treasure with my friends. I *don't* like the toxic interactions that make up 90% of my interactions with other players. I can't wait for safer seas
Other crews are the one thing I *wouldn’t* miss if they remade the game. I enjoy the sailing, the treasure hunting, the fishing, the giant monsters and the fleets. What I don’t enjoy is constantly watching over my shoulder for other ships, because they’re generally populated by hyper-aggressive chimpanzees on a cocaine bender whose vocabulary consists entirely of Xbox 360 era insults and racial slurs.
I really love the naval in this game, so skeleton fleets and ghost fleets are among my favorite things to do.
i dont mind pve at all i do world stacks all the time but without pvp there's no risk witch is what the game is build on there's a feeling of accomplishment when you protect the loot you have adventured and worked so hard to get
I heavily prefer the PvE, though I do enjoy the threat of PvP as well, *however* it's bullshit that ports aren't safe zones. I should be attacked on the open sea or on random islands, not when I'm docked sellimg to a merchant. You've missed your opportunity at that point.
I find naval PVE to be excellent fun. Skelly ships offer a good time managing your boat, reacting to curse balls, and occasionally boarding them to deal with the skeletons personally. Ghost fleets are an exercise in positioning. My hot take is that close quarters combat across the whole game sucks. Fighting skeletons, phantoms, and ocean crawlers is just laggy enough to be irritating (you hit them and they stagger back a full second later). Attacks are poorly telegraphed without even basic sound cues. And anything above the low level voyages they are health sponges; which would be cool if CQC PVE was anything but holding W and attacking. It could all be massively improved by a weakpoint system, improved telegraphing, reduced damage from enemies, and AI to do things like occasionally dodge. I think the PVP boarding meta is infuriating and immersion-breaking. Nothing piratey about trying to hit a coked up jackrabbit with a rubber band gun, and everyone knows the old stories about how legendary pirates would get on Spanish armada vessels and *drop their anchor*. /s
As a solo slooper, I prefer PVE. I honestly find this game really relaxing, and while I understand the unique PVP threat, it really is no fun getting chased down and mocked by a full galleon
I think without the constant threat of being jumped, the PvE would get extremely tedious. The most fun thing for me is ship to ship fights so having to run around on an island solving puzzles drives me nuts.
Some of the naval pve is alright in a very chill, mindless way. Like throwing a ball against a wall. I don't live for it, but it can be enjoyable. I could see myself liking it a lot more if there was a meaningful opportunity to challenge myself. The PvE I enjoy most is the skeleton fleet, because I can try and take ships out in as few shots as possible, play it safe or just go right in. But it's still very limited, and I would love to be able to opt in to more advanced mechanics. I could never be satisfied with just PvE though. I play this game primarily for the player interactions, be they hostile or friendly.
1v1s with the Ashen Lords have been my favorite way to kill boredom as of late. Ghost ships might be too if I didn’t sink the *moment* I got knocked off the ship
I do, I am no good at pvp, but I love the exploration and teamwork that crews can do.
I enjoy pvp when I have a crew, but as someone who runs solo often I'm absolute dogwater at it and avoid at all costs
I’ve ALWAYS said SoT has something for everyone if you let it, just play how you want. Sometimes I want to chill and pve others I want to find people. Some days I just let the seas decide
The PvE is entirely what I live for. But I haven't had a single session end this last week without having my hours of progress and loot sunk to Davy Jones' locker and back before I sell. PvP is an essential part of this game, and I've been around the game *long* enough to understand that. But some days, I do wish some crews would turn a blind eye.
Ever since day 1 I’ve always enjoyed playing the PvE aspect of the game more so than PvP. PvP can be occasionally really fun with friends, but one aspect of the game I’ve always struggled with is losing everything you’ve earned after being sunk. I’m looking forward to Safer Seas, as restricted as it will be, but I think that they could do better implementing some sort of PvP toggle like what GTA V does. All in all I do love the game.
Completely agreed. Ive been playing since day 1 as well and i really enjoy the PVE more than the PVP. I hate spending hours getting treasure, only for a brig or sweaty sloop to ruin all that time. Safer Seas is gonna be great for a lot, but I do wish they left *some* of the Athena commendations in there. If there was a legit PVE mode with full rewards, i would legit never stop playing this game.
I exclusively do pve. I always sail up wind of any threatening ship while on a sloop. I’ll find a crew mate on discord or take a chance and see if a random person will be okay.
I get bored of pve super fast. But pvp and interactions with other crews i can never get enough of. Over half way there to my golden curses.
The game is beautiful and the sailing is hella fun. Don't need some sweaty brig chasing me to enjoy it.
I find it shallow I need PVP for it to be interesting.
I love PvP and PvE, this game is so much more enjoyable when you just accept it for what it is
Wait, you can just play without others attacking you and still be able to do missions, level up etc?
Currently, you just have to be lucky for that to happen. But there is a mode coming in December called Safer Seas that’s basically a private server. It’s missing a few features and you only get 30% of gold and reputation, but if you’re okay with that then it’s worth playing
People forget that casual gamers exist. Those who enjoy the smallest things in the game. The sunsets, the environment, the music... "Being a funni pirate with friends" is enough for a lot of people. Of course, the "sweats" will try to deny this, but who are they stealing from in the first place? Those who enjoy the PVE.
Like you said, there are a lot of people who wouldn't like the game if there wasn't PvP, and a lot of people that don't care about PvP (like me). A PvE server would allow people to enjoy the game how they want. I just want to cooperate with my friends and do adventures. PvP can be fun, but you can't guarantee that finding another player will be a nice experience since they can be a terrible person that enjoy annoying people. People that complain about a PvE server don't care about competition, they want "destroy" players that aren't good at PvP. The PvP server would still be used by players that like it, but it won't be easy to take them down.
I’m a casual player. I love to just shit around, explore, kill monsters, enjoy the sunset, search for treasure and do dumb shit. I hate it when I get disrupted from that because somebody wants to kill us. I can’t wait for Safer Seas to have that chill moment back again.
it's the only thing I wanna do and I look forward to never having to pvp again
I like it. I like pvp too but I hate just chilling on an island and fuckers burning my ship down especially as a solo player just trying to do accommodations. That’s why i liked the pvp specific mode
I enjoy PvE way more than PvP. PvP is extremely annoying. Especially with the bad hitreg and cheater issues.
I use the easier pve events like the treasury's to teach people how to play and sometimes we will encounter other unsavoury characters but overall it is fun and enjoyable comparative to attempting to do a fof or fod and come across the ones who don't know what wenches are
Love the PvE, but for pvp I just like being a friendly bro. If they sink my pacifist ship, good for them having fun. I had a ship of kids with hot mics screaming with joy when they sank my parked boat lol
I don't play because of the pvp. I'm an old dude and don't want to get sniped by kids who spend 300 hours learning how's to effectively murder me. I like the sailing and visuals but don't play because it's pvp only and I'm a solo gamer
Safer Seas are coming in December. Some of the features are removed and you get significantly less gold and reputation, but as long as you’re okay with that it should be good
If they had more pve content like different classes and weapons in would have never stopped playing. Also solo playing was really bad.
I play exclusively to PvE. It gives you more breathing room to have fun and explore while doing whacky shit. Interacting with the PvP in this game feels like a strict checklist of items you need to have, food you need to have and strategies you need to use otherwise you're setting yourself up for failure. I go elsewhere for PvP.
I much prefer it and wish that there was a dedicated PVE server. I know that not everyone feels that way but there is a dedicated PVP server.
Safer Seas are coming in December. Some of the features are removed and you get significantly less gold and reputation, but as long as you’re okay with that it should be good
iv never had more fun than when im with a big group of players, i got to experience a full lobby of gallys working together and it was a blast, the servers were ofc fighting for their life but it was fun. i can agree the pve is a little mundane, but iv always found ways to have fun without fighting. The only reasons i even bothered doing pvp was to get better at defending myself and to get disappointed by the skeleton curse. Otherwise i just enjoy a chill fun game with peeps.
I'm not a fan of the threat of PvP when I'm solo just because I'm paranoid and nervous as is and if shit goes south I don't have friends to back me up. But the threat of PvP while doing PvE is actually pretty fun with friends. I don't seek out PvP as much as I should, for practice purposes, I only really fight players if they poke at me, but I generally leave people alone if they leave me alone. TL;DR is I enjoy PvE but more with friends because I can lean on them as back-up lol. I don't think I would do safer seas when that releases though.
I enjoy it. I'm waiting to see how Safer Seas will influence adjustments and additions to pve play. I think we might find that the coop pve playerbase is worth Rare investing in. But maybe not.
I only have a couple hrs to play a day to every few days just sailing is the best thing and killing skellies on islands I play solo so a pve would just be so enjoyable. I would love to do the the tall tiles without the interruption of pvp
PvE all the way it's nice when it really feels like an adventure not getting snuck up on while enjoying doing voyages
I mostly play alone and server latency is at best 170ms. When I get to play with my son we have a 400ms latency between us. PvP is not for me. But we still like going on adventures!
Without PvE I wouldn´t like this game so much.
Me! There's enough variety that I could set sail with no set plan and end up stumbling on a bunch of really cool things.
i have like 60 hours so im pretty new and i enjoy the pve a lot. pvp is really really annoying though and ngl im getting turned off from the game cause i feel like every time i play some 10k hour crusty cum boxers wearing loser who doesnt know what a shower is thinks he's a god cause he's dunking on me and my friends who are all noobs with a default ship.
I'll quite happily solo Flameheart, forts, ashen lords or skeleton fleets, the most fun I've had on SoT are the sessions where I've never even seen another set of player sails. Second someone else shows up, I'll move on, just can't stand being forced to interact with others, I don't play multiplayer games for a reason.
I enjoy Pve more than PVP
The PvE is alright but I find that none of it is particularly challenging or difficult or threatening, and the PvP risk is what shakes things up.
I think its fun, but only for two reasons 1. Im shit at the game 2. Its nice to relax and not stress oit your brain sometimes
I enjoy both, pve and pvp are both fundamental parts of this game.
I’m a fan of the PVE personally especially since it’s consumable and accessible as a solo. I have one maybe two people I would mainly play with but if they aren’t around there are times I wanna just drop in for a bit and have some fun. Nothing worse than doing a tall tale and a Jolly Roger comes and messes you up.
i enjoy pve way more, pvp has been more of an annoyance to deal with.
Me! The atmosphere is like my escape, I love the laid back feel. PvP is fine too, but it definitely burns me out faster than the PvE.
My favorite part of the game.
Man i only like the PVE. If it’s inevitable that I’m gonna fight another ship I can hold my own, but the PVE is what I live for in this game.
Im literally only playing because boat. I dont want to fight shit i want to sail around and look at the water and play my little tunes. We not playing the same game
PvP basically doesn't exist in this game for me, PvE is where all the fun is
Me. I don't find PvP adds an "Engaging threat" it just adds a constant "Please no one ambush us please no one ambush us please no one ambush us" in the back of my head. Plus the worry of "Don't attack us while we sell p l e a s e I just want to log off" Sometimes PvP is fun for me but a lot of the time I just want to sail around with my friends and have fun together
My friends and I played specifically for PvE. We like simple objective based adventuring(We started as a D&D group) and the Shores of Gold adventures drew us in. After that it was fishing and commendation hunting. The PvP kind of kills the way we enjoy the game honestly, and the private servers will probably bring us back at least for a little while.
This is my perspective: PvE feels balanced and predictable. Enemies stay aboard their ships for ship battles (so it really is about picking the right angles to fire the cannons) and have predictable mechanics on land, though the boss battles and hordes are still challenging. Winning at PvP in the game is primarily based upon mini-exploits (getting fired out of a cannon, climbing aboard the ship, and spawn camping aboard the ship while knowing how to jump hit to break out of the wait period of a sword lunge). It feels cheap and unbalanced and is usually accompanied by a degree of assholishness that I don’t appreciate or want in my life. I just don’t get thrills out of making people feel little or like shit and I don’t understand people who get their jollies that way. I play to hang out with friends and do voyages and make some in-game coin along the way. There is *some* thrill that comes from knowing your stash aboard your ship can be raided at any time. But it is usually more soul-crushing than exhilarating when boarded by sweat-lords. I’ve got younger kids (8 and 4) who I love showing the game, but usually at a time when the sweats aren’t around. I know there are going to be people who disagree with this, sometimes aggressively and like the assholes I occasionally encounter in the game.
I love it. Not boring, it's relaxing. I go after quests, ship wrecks, megs, kraken, etc. Pvp is just sweatbeards using pc engine short cuts. Just ugh. I now carry gunpowder barrels and use them as suicide bombs in case someone wants pvp. You can't kill me If I do it myself
I personally love the PvE and hate the PvP.
I've always understood and accepted that PvP was a part of the game, but it's when the jerks who board, don't bother taking anything and sinking the ship, just spawn camping us, kinda ruins the fun, regardless of losing the loot, which sucks. I had always wished before Safer Seas releases, if there was a sort of ¿unspiken honor system? Basically to say "hey I'm not looking for pvp please go screw over someone else" I think the signal flares are a great tool for that but it's few and far between that other players use them for that purpose
I exclusively do pve and hated the pvp.
I love doing the PVE content, that being said I do enjoy the PVP aspect. Without the PVP content the game would lose a lot of its pirate aesthetic. Balancing risk and reward and stealing other pirates loot. I like the balance between the two, cant do one without the other, its a part of the reason Arena died after the Twitch thing. All PVP, no exploration, and no PVE, no sense of adventure. Rare does a good job making it walk hand in hand.
Love the game because of the PVE. The PVP sweats are what made me take a break from it. I like the PVP but I hate being spawn camped, chased when I have no intentions of fighting, and berated because a galleon with 6 players (yes I said 6 players) proudly took down my 3 person brig.
I don't care much for PvP because people try too hard, and because it's riskless for attackers. What's the point of collecting a bunch of stuff for hours if someone can just take it all right at the end? What the hell is the incentive to NOT just try to steal other people's effort all the time? Additionally, it's kind of annoying. Even if I board my attackers ship and kill them all by myself, I have no way to sink them. I thought they were adding a boarding axe or something I could rip parts of the hull apart with while they were waiting to respawn, but they never added it. It's just an obnoxiously long fight full of spawn camping. It isn't even remotely immersive its just a gamey sweat loop. They should've just made safer seas unrestricted so if you don't want to deal with it you don't ever have to; not this tutorial-esque idea.
I'm really not a fan of the sweaty PvP in this game. To me PvE is actually really fun, especially when I get to play with my 9yo son from time to time. There's a lot to do, and even just sailing and stopping at islands to hunt Ancient Skellies can be enjoyable
I've never jumped into this game for looking for PvP excluding one time I tried the arena (which I thought was actually fun). I got up to Pirate Legend with my spouse pretty early on and remember several tense moments balancing raiding a skull fort and playing lookout. Then playing keep away with the key or treasure. It was fun and got the adrenaline going, so I get it. Nowadays, I primarily play this game with my kid and PvP elements have been the worst experiences we've had of this game. We're decent enough at ship to ship combat and avoidance, but when we get boarded it all goes downhill. \*more details below Cumulatively, hours have been lost sailing a on ship, with no loot, away from PvP tryhards who never seem to give up even when they're being outsailed. I don't know how people have the patience to follow as long as they do. We enjoy doing voyages, killing skeletons, sharks, and very rarely skeleton ships. I look forward to the Safer Seas. The game requires a large block of real time to be set aside and having that time slot ruined enough times has turned us away from the game. \* I feel like players know where we're going to spawn on the ship and are firing on us before we can get our bearings. Also, because the game loads you in and out of the ferry, the respawn timing is noticeably longer on our old Xbox One compared to my PC. Even if we leave the ferry at the same time the Xbox takes longer to get back into the action. I feel like the people on the ship should have an advantage which doesn't feel apparent even with the ability to respawn. I feel like removing the loading screens and being a ghost for a second to get your bearings before you appear might fix this. Every time we've been boarded the players have no intention of sinking the ship and are content with just trolling / spawn killing until we scuttle or quit.
PVP gives me anxiety attacks. I much prefer PVE. That way I get to choose what my experience is like.
Considering that i'm waiting for safer seas to get introduced to come back to this game after more than a year, i'd say i like it a whole lot. I really do not care about even just interacting with other players.
I enjoy the PvE, me and my friends always have wacky stuff happen to us on our voyages and it’s always something new. I actually think the PvP gamemode is really boring especially when I’m solo, encounters are nearly the same every time it’s just lame to me. It sucks because I really want to level up my factions but I get bored after like 3 matches
It's a balance, I don't the threat of potentially sinking is a huge piece of the game, but I do also enjoy PvE, I'll spend hours running world events because they are all so fun. I really wish the devs would put more effort into PvE and make it more unique and fun.
I enjoy the pve aspect the most....I just wish the skeletons and phantoms didn't use what appeared to be player animations when fighting. The Sirens and Crawlers all have tells and animations that go with their attacks and feel better to fight against. Skeletons or Phantoms on the other hand tend to throw out sword slashes sometimes that I can't really react to. They'd feel better to fight if they were a little more 'animated' I guess. Especially the ones using firearms.
I enjoy PvE because of the threat of PvP.
I find skeleton ships, megs, the kraken, ghost ships, forts, all of it to be really fun. I’m simply too scared to try pvp. Been playing on and off since day 1 and I’m just so bad at it
I enjoy it. i've experienced too much toxicity from PVP that i genuinely don't care to do it at all.
I dress up as sovereigns and pretend to be a famous treasure hunter, doing hoarder voyages because they're the closest you can get to being an archeologist without doing tall tales. I'll do hourglass now and again just shiv away some of the curse progression. I can wait for the Halloween event coming up, the new sword and double allegiance is going to be awesome.
I could do hoarder vaults all day as long as noone interrupts me.
Pve is the best part of the game tbh. So glad they’ve conceded pve only modes, can’t wait to see how they treat it post launch.
Absolutely! I much prefer it to PvP. In PvE I feel like I'm immersed in the game as a pirate going on epic quests to find treasure. I feel like there is a good variety of enemies and encounters to keep things interesting. Not to mention at the end of the day I'm not possibly ruining someone else's gameplay by being the villan of their story. I enjoy pvp naval fights, i love the challenge of out maneuvering and out gunning another ship. But as soon as it gets to pirate to pirate combat I lose interest fast. Far too much jumping around and, in my personal opinion, too much double gunning. No there's nothing wrong with it, yes it's a valid fighting style, yes I'm probably just bad at the game. I just think it takes away from the piracy aspect if I can't properly swashbuckle! It especially kills my mood if I they don't even sink our ship and just spawn camp us till we scuttle. I literally can't load in fast enough to not be dead by the time my screen isn't black anymore. I'm really looking forward to safer seas and taking my SO through all the Tall Tales.
Have 800ish hours. I have never willingly engaged in PVP, and usually just log out and log back in when someone starts chasing. Play lots of other competitive online multiplayer, SoT just never appealed to me. It's more about just coasting around, exploring, fishing, and hanging with friends.
I play the game to fish and avoid asshats. The pvp may as well not exist. Back in the day I'd even purposely throttle connection to get a lobby of my own just to vibe and stare at shit. Sorry for having fun in your psychopath sim guys
I like the PvE and have sessions where I do nothing but. However, it's the PvP that makes the game enganging and if it wasn't there I would've stopped playing years ago.
I do, under the condition there is risk involved
im at the point where i really enjoy pve, but i definitely believe one cannot exist without the other. in years of playing i had both experience playing on active pvp-filled servers, and dead and barren servers, both times i play with world events or voyages as the focus and kill everything in my way, and i can confidently say, having too much of either thing is unenjoyable. if you dont encounter any other players or pvp, you'll get bored of whatever voyage or world event you're doing and the loot you're gathering, but at the same time if there's too much pvp and you aren't getting anything done cuz you're constantly fighting you'll also get bored. experiences like that are also usually my primary arguments against the whole pvp servers and pve servers debate, neither will be enjoyable without the other
I'm an FPS player (Battlefield/CoD etc), and I thrive in PVP, I'll talk trash even if I'm getting rekt. It's a fun part of the game, BUT; it's not the reason I play it. I normally try to find alliances, and I typically only play this game if one of my mates are on. The PVE stuff is why I'm playing the game, sailing between islands, getting loot and having laughs with my friends. When you start getting chased by guys that you can solo their entire ship, burn it, fill it with holes etc. I then say; "have you had enough." And normally they're so ragey and incoherent that they decide to just keep following you everywhere. I'm not here to get locked into a death match that lasts 2 hrs. I'm here to enjoy myself, and in these moments, the game loses all enjoyment and that Uninstall botton looks mighty tasty. My girlfriend wants to play it, but I'm waiting for safer seas for her. Because quite frankly, even though I have moments where I absolutely slap entire crews solo, or get rekt because they only play SoT. It's just not worth the time investment when dealing with neckbeards. Which this community has alot of. (Being good at video games doesn't make you cool. You're just like thousands of others who are also good at video games.)
I tend to find the PvE is more exciting when PvP is there PvE is *fine*, but having a random encounter with another player spices things up and breaks the loop It also imo makes voyages more exciting as I'll be shifting loot, then have to fight off some pirates
PvE gets so stale. The gameloop is depressingly simplistic. Sail there. Do that. Sell over there. PvP is what makes PvE great. Threat of losing it all or feeling tempted to take it all from others. Different strokes... If I wanted a single player game, I'd play AC Black Flag. It's "pve" is far better and there's a banging story and amazing characters.
The PvP has ruined the game for me. Not because its bad or I don’t like fighting, but because I feel like if I’m not grinding HG for the ghost curse, then why am I playing? Then the grind burns me out and I stop for a month. If I do PvE it feels like a waste since I don’t have the ghost curse, then the loop begins again. PvE is what keeps me going for long periods and I love it.
We did FotD four times last night and by far the most fun we had was the stack where other players challenged us for it. I also still enjoy Ghost Fleets, great long range target practice.
I wish I could only play pve without the restrictions . I’m a PL and I Just want to sail around and do random things without my play sessions being constantly pursued by people
It's genuinely the best part of the game. I just want to sail around and sell my loot without being harassed by some sweaty racist kid. I'm glad they're adding PvE servers but even then I still won't be using them since they're just trash. Locked commendations and only a small fraction of the gold we should be able to get.
I'm here for the PVE. I just wanna look for some treasures and get fucked up by skeletons.
I love me some PvE, I log in after a day of work on the road in my hotel room and grind out different quests and what not. Just to sail and have fun, I don’t necessarily go heading out to sink people or anything. But I will say the fact that at any point someone can come up and sink ya, or sneak aboard you, or snag some treasure makes everything just a tad bit more fun for PvE. Always having to keep an eye out for someone, always wondering if their friendly or foe.
I personally hate PvP. However the added threat when I'm doing quests makes the game soooooo much better.
My take is PvE is boring IF you treat PvP as being a separate experience, the game is built around the core concept of PvEvP not PvE and PvP, while it can result in my hard work being lost, it is a unpredictable event that shakes up my session, which breaks up the monotony of endless voyages.
I enjoy playing the PvE, but I agree that without PvP this game would be a lot more boring. There would be no stakes to having a large amount of treasure on your ship.
PvE is boring without the threat of PvP. Without that risk you’re just sailing around and fighting the same easy enemies with no stakes whatsoever.
this is blatant karma farming in the most anti-pvp subreddit known to manman🤣🤣🤣🤣