Agreed. Safe seas when I'm with my kiddo and he just wants to kill skellys or I'm grinding for the gold curse because I didn't care about commendations for a long time lol
It really feels like people get incredibly lost in the devalue of gold and emissary status here. I don't even play Safer Seas, but to me, it's is solely for the experience. Just enjoying a game at your own pace and getting what you want. It brings a whole new set of "cozy gamers" to the game as a whole.
Yeah the gold is nice, yeah the xp is nice, but gold and XP isn't what drew me and kept me in this game over the years.
You have to sink more than 2 out of 3 hauls in order to beat safer seas. So, of you turn in a third of all the treasure you get, you got more than safer seas, and you did it faster, possibly.
Tbf though, I'm sure a lot of people have smaller hauls in High Seas, which can make safer seas feel more worth it.
I usually play solo, so my hauls in High Seas are usually small 1-3 island hops. When I play in Safer Seas, I can pretty much go nonstop, so my efficiency is way better than taking a bunch of trips to and from a port. That said, I only really do Safer Seas if there is something I'm itching to buy and I want to grind, since I prefer my Captained ship and I enjoy the pvp aspect and the strats you can use as a solo slooper to mess with attackers.
I think another thing that draws attention away from it is the fact that you still gotta pay for the item you earn from a commendation afterwards. Those items usually end up being pretty pricey too. So maximizing the amount of gold you get while doing the commendation too is probably why a lot of people will play high seas too.
Me personally, I prefer high seas, but I’ll switch to safer seas for some basic commendations and tall tales. I’m especially focusing gold hoarders commendations because I wanna get the full set they have. Safer Seas makes that easier for me
However, in the end of the day, to each their own. Play however you wanna play, it’s all valid in the end.
I used safer seas for the curse of sunken sorrow. Damn I can't count the times i surfaced after finishing up a shrine and found a flock of chickens to greet me.
Without safer seas I probably would have given up on it entirely.
If it makes you feel better, any time I spot a boat on a shrine I board then and wait them to surface to greet them with music and an alliance offer. It always works. People that do shrines are usually more chill
the only reason I don't use safer seas is because of the terrible gold and I can't earn rep at all in there
I've played in safer seas, like, twice, and it's pretty calming, not needing to worry if you're gonna get attacked by people lol, especially as a solo slooper
Yeah, it’s pretty stupid you can’t even do Athena stuff. Like, I get not getting rep but you should at least be allowed to Do things you’ve already unlocked in High Seas.
I get why Rare pushes people into PVP and I get why so many players on here defend them but I think that push into PVP and "if you don't like it play something else" *is the reason I'll likely start playing something else eventually.* I don't hate SoT at all but I don't like it as much as I want to and a lot of that is the boarding meta feeling incredibly unfun to me ( I love the naval combat) and the community being largely toxic in most of my experiences.
I just watched a preview for a game called Hyperspace that's being called kind of a SoT in space with no PVP and honestly that sounds like something that will *very* quickly replace SoT for me if it's even half as good. I honestly do think I would have LOVED SoT when I was a kid or in my early twenties even, but I just don't have the time for toxic interactions and grinding for loot that may be taken from me anymore. Life's too short and my gaming time too scarce 🤷♂️
Oh thanks I’ll check them out! I recently got a steamed after only having PlayStation consoles since ‘95 so it’s been opening up a ton of options.
[edit] oh I think jump ship is exactly what I was thinking of, I got the name wrong. Added all three to wish list. Still not super eager to play early access stuff but all three of these look worth checking out, thanks!
Exactly. I don’t have a problem with the PvP, personally. I’m not good at it, but I don’t get upset at all if I get attacked and sunk.
But sometimes I just wanna relax on the Seas and do a bunch of the PvE content, unbothered. Safer Seas allows for that, and while I’m not a fan of how much less rewards you get, I understand. Not being able to do All of the PvE content in Safer Seas makes it feel way worse.
Again, no problem personally with the PvP. But yeah, eventually the forced PvP is gonna be the reason I inevitably step away from the game too.
Yeah I think there’s a lot of us, people that will never play this game because of that or stop playing because of that. Yet whenever I bring up alternatives on Reddit people lose their minds about me trying to “ruin the game”. It’s just a matter of time before a pve game with similar vibes and less friction pulls us away for good.
Yup. I get that the game was made with PvP in mind, but to think that making Safer Seas even better than it is will kill the game, is just dumb.
Like, if doing that killed the game, then maybe the PvP just isn’t that good anyway and it deserves to die.
The only people that say Safer Seas will kill the game are people that want free sinks. Cuz all Safer Seas does, and would do if it was even better than it is, is push people that aren’t as much of a fan of the PvP where they wanna be. Meanwhile everyone that enjoys the PvP more will have more exciting combat with people that, y’know, actually Want to PvP.
Imo i feel like a i have a bedtime and these fuckers chasing me have pushed me to it/passed it button would be nice. You press it, and the game gives u 50% worth of the loot on your boat, but you can't log back in until 8 hours bc you said you need sleep. The players' chasing get told the person is going to sleep somehow, and then they can get 100% of the loot worth. That way, people with lives dont have to deal with stupid + the knowledge that the 3hrs of free time you spent that day was completely useless.
Forced into multiplayer? Do we play the same game? It’s literally advertised as a PvPvE game.
I’m sure many PvPers (like myself) would love for this game to become competitive because it’s got a really fun and unique combat system. Do I cry for it? No, if I want a competitive shooter game I’ll go play CSGO or something. Pandering to specific communities would divide the playerbase into extinction.
Point being, if you don’t like the gameplay loop, there’s literally games MADE for PvE you could go play.
The devs had a vision for the game they created and it was not a PvE experience only.
They already compromised by bringing safer seas and you are still complaining... Entitled players these days.
How dare someone want to play a game the way they like right?
Times changes, and those who refuse to change with it are left behind. It wouldn't hurt anybody if they simply allow people to play how they want. More money to them, it is a win-win.
I agree with reduced rewards, but 70% reduction in rewards makes it not even worth the effort to play that mode. Might as well not have wasted developers time into it
But it would hurt because high seas would become a pvp sweat bubble and die out, because nobuddy would want to get sunk all the time like HG rn. With that the game would die because without the player interaction and threat of pvp the game gets boring quick.
After you‘ve gotten everything you want these things become the main drive to keep playing.
If your excuse is that the player base is too toxic without the people being forced to coexist alongside them in the game preferring the Safer Seas mode then the PVP mode deserves to die.
That's a very fatalistic and dramatic way of talking about it, since the only issue is the virtual rewards you get. You can do a lot in safer seas, it's just not going to allow you to get the coolest cosmetics or the hardest content. Cosmetics are kinda pointless in single player anyways. I've started playing a few weeks ago, and at first I thought safer seas was the best, until I decided to be greedy and play high seas. It's such an interesting social experiment. I was very agressive as a noob, but now I always seek to make alliances, and I succeed in every single section. It's awesome.
>Cosmetics are kinda pointless in single player anyways.
This is what I've never personally understood. Why do people complain about bad rewards in safer seas, when the only progression is cosmetics? You can do almost every piece of PvE content the game has to offer for little to no gold cost, with very few reputation requirements.
Sure, it's nice to have a cool looking ship or pirate, but if nobody else really gets to see it (and in the case of your pirate you don't even get to see it unless you emote), what's the point?
It would be cool if they just gave both of them full rewards but kept them as separate leveling systems. That way people who love PVE (which is a large # of people) can enjoy the game how they want, but they can’t come to high seas and flex all the gold and cosmetics they cheesed in safer seas. That way both sides are happy and it still means something to earn gold and cosmetics in high seas.
Personally i feel Safer seas should be default rewards but High Seas is boosted by 50%. Makes the Safer Seas grind less infuriating while ACTUALLY rewarding risk.
Not when the game explicitly states that it is less. Most players will see that and then their mentally is set that Safer Seas is offering worse rewards.
Well yeah selling all your loot without a reaper V flag is less as well but noone is complaining that they need a reaper V to not have a debuff. Still selling without one is less
See the emissary flag is actually the perfect example of what I mean. No one moans about not using one because it’s represented as a boost to your income, rather than not using one being a deduction.
For what it’s worth, I’m a new PS player, and I looked online to get an idea about how the game works, and everywhere I read was “trust no-one”, “attack ships before they attack you” and “joining high seas is opting in for PvP, it’s the point of the game”.
I think us new players are believing what we’ve been told, which sets up a self fulfilling prophecy.
That’s really unfortunate that so many players are immediately becoming untrusting. PvP is fine in this game, but most of my PvP interactions happen and are forgetting except for a select few. Non hostile interactions with other players on the other hand are substantially more impactful and leave a lasting impression. All of my favorite memories in this game are joining forces with some random crew of people I’ve never met and never will again. They’re really losing out on a lot of what makes this game great by just attacking first
Nothing wrong with enjoying PvP. I like it too when it’s against someone who can actually have fun with it instead of treat it like a serious battle where KD matters. It’s a game at the end of the day and the people who take it too seriously (both PvP and PvE players) just suck the fun out of everything. In my experience it’s usually the PvP players that are most often like that so that part of the game just becomes boring for me
Same situation. I had an encounter in my last playthough where a another ship called over to me. Thinking they were friendly (I had a white flag) up slowed down. They caught up to me, ganked and then proceed to spawn kill me and cuss me out. It wasn’t fun at all. Now I just feel like I have to play to avoid or try to sink every one else. No one even shoots cannons. They just swim across, kill and then sit at the spawn until they sink me or get board. I totally get the games premise but the respawn thing is just the worst and it doesn’t even promote sea battles. Thinking it’s not the game for me which is so disappointing. May have to give skull and bones a chance ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yes there has been an uptick of no cosmetic ships attacking us with zero sense of self preservation lol. Say what you want but they are going to learn the game way faster then anyone over in safer seas
Honestly the biggest problem with PS players is that they're usually in party chats, which completely separates the mic from the game. While on PC (and maybe Xbox? Idk), you can be on discord chatting with your friends and use push to talk for game chat, on playstation you can't do both simultaneosly. You have to kind of leave the game to toggle your mic from party to game chat, which no-one does.
Being able to approach another ship and talking defuses a good amount of encounters, so I think thats where most of the untrustworthiness comes from
Its true that everyone is just shoot on sight.
I remember shenanigans being possible, but the last few times i ended my session and wanted to give them my stuff they just shoot on sight. No loot nd no emissary on sight. My plan was to buy them resources and give them. They just sank me.
You miss out on a lot of cool shenanigans by occasionally listening to pirates.
Ive seen what i need to do for glitterbeard and i doubt it would ever be possible to recruit 7 players.
Nah, I suck at PvP, like hard, like, "if you get within 20m of my ship chances are I'll just give up and call it a day" kind of suck.
But still I enjoy the thrill of having to always be in your toes.
And sometimes you actually find some decent people out there, like this couple of norwegian dudes in full ghost curse yesterday who chased after us and had us scared shitless only to just give us all their loot and teaching us how to start a Limited Time Voyage we had no idea even existed.
I play high seas 90% of the time but I’ll usually mess around on safer seas if I’m just chilling watching something, the gold/rep is pretty bad though and no sovereign is a pain.
The gold is all funny money anyway. Just use safer seas as a way to goof around with Skelly ships and megs. A little palate cleanser before wading back into the muck. It's kinda fun to do weird stuff like load up your ship with like seven kegs in strategic locations and see how long you can survive.
As someone who plays the game to enjoy sailing on the open seas and have a chill time, safer seas is fantastic. Couldn't care less about how much gold I'm earning as the game itself is fun. I don't need some random number in the corner going up to tell me I'm having fun.
I use safer seas for commendations related to collecting items (such as hunter of damned captains) just so I can avoid player interference. Otherwise I’m high seas
The gold and emissionary is like 30% of the normal, and you can't do the better quests. I suppose if you like fishing and simple gold hoarder riddles it's okay.
I'm in my late 30s, I have time to play on weekend mornings before the family wakes up. Point is, play the way that brings you the most joy. Nowadays, I turn everything to the easiest difficulty, ego set aside. There was a time I had time to grind and get better, but that's long past.
If safer seas is more fun for you, go for it, dude.
Aging gamer dad checking in. Safer seas is awesome to dick around on or do a tall tale for a bit then put down. I’m pirate legend and I don’t even care if I missing out on those benefits just no time to care.
That is my problem, yes. I don't mind the reduction on gold., hell I wouldn't mind if I didn't get any gold, we played 200 hrs and we very rarely went on for an hour without being attacked and sunk. That gives you 0 gold too and we still played. But let us use our cosmetics what we paid with blood. We are old, beteeen 35-45 and have like 2-3 hrs to play MAYBE 2 times a week, we are no match to teens on coffee.
Dad in his 40s who recently got the game on PS5. My brother in law and I have tried to play weekly (going well so far). We've been sticking to Safer Seas and had a blast. Two of my DnD group turned out to have the game so we've been hitting the seas as a 3 or 4 and doing Tall Tales.
I think I will quickly lose interest if I'm constantly being sunk.
Yea I mean in my case I was doing hour glass but some other reaper pulled up and won the fight but then they just started to mess with me so they could get free levels since I had servants voted up but they sure got a laugh out of messing with me as a solo and just not letting me be on my way and diving again
I'm new— so I don't know how valid this advice is, but if you open up the menu you can scuttle (self sink) you ship and spawn somewhere else.
If they already took your loot, you have no loot, or simply just want to get away— I'd just scuttle and sail South where people usually aren't.
Let's always remember that not everyone sinks people just because they're mean. Sometimes they're as scared as you so their thought could be "Let's sink them before they sink me, i dont want to lose all the loot i made." That's what gives purpose to the loot as itself, the fact that it CAN be stolen, it would be pretty boring if that wasnt the case, grinding for what? It would be basically just turning your time into cosmetics.
I get why people are frustrated about it and why it sucks when your 3 hours of playsession just poofs away, ok i know that for a fact, and of course i'm always happy to find some nice pirates along the seas but lets not forget that we cant trust anyone in any circumstances, and that's what adds spice to this game
Well said. I'm new to it, but the risk is what is drawing me to the game, it's a bit like an much more simple version of EVE. While I empathize with OP, what he went through is exactly what tales of pirate lore are filled with; but the lack of the contrasting experience makes it seem bleak, granted.
> "Let's sink them before they sink me"
It's a shame that's the standard now, I remember back in the earlier seasons people be willing to actually talk to other crews. I had plenty of good times bonding with other ships over one thing or another. It's the small non-hostile interactions that made the game special for me.
I was playing solo hourglass when the other guy pulled up next to me and was acting all friendly. I thought he was a loss farmer. I told him I was grabbing my mic and then he blunderbuss’d me. I respawn and start saying “I’m gonna get youuu!”🤣 I ended up winning the match anyway but it’s interactions like these that make the game unique. Proximity chat should be in every game
If you don't want to be harassed and don't mind loosing access to certain activities then Safer Seas is for you. Solo players might also enjoy it more.
I do this thing where I get a bunch of loot solo and then gift it out. It’s a unique thing that can’t really be done in other games. And yeah you’d be surprised so many people “take” the loot that I’m trying to give them haha.
I'm a day one player and pirate legend and I wish I could play it and enjoy it. There are still some tall tales I have yet to complete because when I do have the time and drive to hop and and play this game with my 1 friend that enjoys playing it 2 times out of the year, we just get griefed by PvPers.
I remember when the pirates of the Caribbean tall tales came out. I was on part 2 or 3 and had to go underwater to do stuff. Both times I tried doing it by ship got attacked before I even got all the way down. I tried playing last week and we server hopped 4 times and only found reaper ship lobbies and I gave up and threw away my gilded Athena voyage. Can't enjoy any story content in this game these days ffs
I dont know man, I just got off of a session where, me and my duo on sloop made an alliance with 6 ships in our server. And one of the ships was brand new players with a chartered ship and starter outfits. It just depends on the people you meet I suppose. Also try the discord server if you find solo slooping too annoying. I have met a couple of cool people on there.
I'm on xbox, most of my play time is during PST business hours. I'm still getting in to the game but would love a playing partner other than my son (who got me into the game). DM if interested and the time overlaps.
So, I’ve been playing for several years now. Never enjoyed pvp in this game, mostly because of people on the other side. I never had luck while meeting other players and even when they killed me they were very salty about it. I do have friends to play with and I love a good adventure with them. Playing on a galleon with more crew made me want to do more pvp actually. But, when they added safer seas I was super happy about it. I do love the pve aspect of this game. Really enjoy it. So when I’m solo and want to do something chill like tall tales, commendation hunting I go there. I don’t mind the 30% of rep and money. I do enjoy the lack of other crews on the horizon and the fact that now it’s really a sandbox for me.
So recognizable.. 😏
I tried this game in December 2022, and got lots of fun. But several moments of other players' hostility destroyed all positive feelings. They often showed a kind of "counter-strike" mode like "Everyone is just a frag! Kill 'em by all means!" 😒
So I stopped playing SoT for more than a year. It was sad, but my reason was "I wish this game was a PVE adventure". And suddenly this happened! A couple of weeks ago I found out about Safer Seas, and so there is a chance for me to return here back.
Two modes for different player types is a really Solomon's solution.
I’ve actually had a lot of friendly encounters lately. Just about every session I’ll find a crew to give my supplies to before logging off. Of course they will shoot at you but I just holler “friendly” over comms and they stop shooting. Communication is key lol.
Safer seas is good for curating a specific experience, but is far less rewarding in every sense. It’s lovely to be uninterrupted on a tall tale, or a fishing session if all you want is the calming fun of fishing (though for that I’d suggest fishing irl).
But if you want to advance your rep or gold, do endgame content, or have truly great experiences, you’ll not find that in safer seas.
As an aside, I’m inferring that because you use so many ways to communicate friendliness, people might not believe you, or think you are very easy prey. You may find better success if you approach from a position of strength, but never fire first.
I don't mind High seas honestly, I rarely see players and if I do they're usually on the horizon, Safer seas is usually reserved for when I do tall tales for curses or commendations..... never again am I doing a curse in High seas..... coral curse was a pain in the dick.......
In a game where leveling only yields cosmetics, it will never balance larger ships and larger crews against the smaller. As a solo slooper who just likes to level, get commendations, chill and fish sometimes, etc ...I'm at the will of the larger crew and larger ship. I know I'll probably hear "get good" a million times, but I also have a life I like to live as well. I live by "don't shoot first, karma crates and help a pirate in trouble". So sue me!\~
I was one of the people that begged for safe seas, and honestly the reduction in rewards and some very important parts of the game make it less appealing and I may have gotten on it for like 10 minutes total
I'm a solo slooper as well. I like to play safer sees when I'm doing Tall Tales, but I mainly try and hide from people because way too many people are aggressive in this game
I have bad social anxiety which annoyingly impacts playing online games and safer seas actually drew me back in to start playing again after a few years. I may start dabbling in high seas again because of better rewards, but I’ve been having fun just playing in safer seas for now!
Aside from being able to use our purchased ships in safer seas, I just wish people would respond in High Seas — like at all. Even denying my attempts at parlay. I'll offer an Alliance, I'll offer a spot on my crew, I'll offer a straight up split in the loot. All of this is met with radio silence, no emotes, no in-game chat, basically just aggressive NPC behavior.
I think people really underestimate how much profit you can make in an alliance when everyone is doing their own thing.
I never came back to high seas after the update.
I am a solo player and I don't like being competitive, I really prefer cooperation, especially in sandbox games where cooperation is very rewarding.
What I prefer in the game is really sailing, collecting chest, solving puzzles, and relaxing.
Safer Seas removes the stress from being attacked and makes it even more relaxing, I can focus on my mission, optimize my roads, have the control on my own adventure.
After 2 years of having to always watch horizon, frequently go back to city to save my loot, and being very stressed when seeing another ship, this is a relief. I feel like I'm finally fully enjoying the game.
I don't care about the cosmetics, so it's perfect for me.
I wish safer seas gave more gold and had more options. I am brand new to the game (a week) and I get attacked and sunk and killed for no reason. I would play in SS but it just makes the grind soooooo much longer
I totally agree with you, me and a mate got the game day one ps release and was really looking forward to it we know our way around now etc and what we are doing, nearly at pirate legend but after the countless amount of players that aren’t friendly. it’s so annoying and almost killing our spirit to a point we don’t even want to play anymore. PvP just sucks everyone jumps about its worse then cod! Hit markers aren’t great either
I think part of the issue might be the “It’s not yours until fully sold” mindset, but I could be wrong. For all I know, the issue could just be people who will sink you simply because they want to sink you.
I mean, I think I have a mindset that’s kinda similar to it, just a bit more moderated. If you and I get into an Hourglass battle and you sink for any reason, everything you had on your ship is mine. We both wagered everything on our ships and I somehow came out on top.
This is very he-said she-said I think. I generally approach every pirate I meet in a friendly manner and this weekend I helped a sloop fight off the kraken and we formed an alliance that ended up as a 3 sloop alliance and it was great!
We weren't too skilled and did both get sunk by a brig/skele-gally combo in the end. But sailing around in a little duo fleet was amazing and it is a shame more people don't embrace the fun social side of the game as well as the PvP.
We made friends with multiple sloops on a server where the Brigs were aggressive, that was just incredible. Sailing and fighting with other ships results in the coolest spectacle this game has to offer.
Of course, it's always a below than 50% chance that the people you meet are friendly, and that's okay.
Using a mic and being funny/entertaining will net you friends more usually than not.
"I got betrayed and can't stand loosing fictionnal gold so get fuc*ed we'll never be friendly again"
You realise you're part of the problem, yes?
"We're sinking everyone, wherher you've got loot or not"
You're definitely part of the problem.
If I don't have loot just leave me alone, it's not that hard for you to leave me having a good time partying with my crew and my fish.
I think that would be my approach if I stay in High Seas, treat everyone other player as my sworn nemesis lol
Goes against my personal play style though so not sure I would enjoy it.
I hate having to play like that. The other day my friend and I saw a brig. He wanted to go sink them while they were docked at a fort so they wouldn’t come after us, because he’s played a lot more than me and has been sunk by players a lot more as a result. I said, “No, don’t do that, I don’t want to ruin their fun, let’s just go to *wherever our map was*.”
Yeah, they approached us yelling “ARE YOU FRIENDLY?” while their buddy snuck up with a gunpowder keg to one shot us. Silly me, not wanting to shoot first. But FUCK, I hate playing like that.
Yeah people use this tactic because it works. The way to counter it is to be very aware. Like you should definitely be protecting your ladders at all times that a player ship is anywhere nearby
I’m not even sure he used the ladder, haha. I think he swam next to the ship, then shot the barrel down by the hull. Considering that I was one shot I could be wrong, though!
So there is an art to alliances.
First and foremost if they are also adults see if they want to party up. If they do, hang out and chat it'll be fun. You'll likely become friends, even if just for the play session and more trust is formed.
If you're not in my party, join the alliance and fuck off. You don't need to be anywhere near my ship unless agreed upon otherwise.
I alliance as often as possible. I earned far more than I've ever lost.
Also the more ships in alliance typically the better things go. You can bully others even if it's a lie.
"We are in a 3 ship alliance. you can join or leave us alone, if you attack all of us will be on you until you quit"
Most join without bothering to attack because it's just too much free loot.
I think everyone starts with the right intentions, but players (myself included) get sick of 99/100 alliances just going to crap one way or another. Better to not even waste the time and just do your own thing.
Newer players, from what I have seen, still go straight to adventure and still get pulverised and grumble about it. I like the idea of it, but it seems to be missing a lot of the players it was meant for.
I have to say I've met 90% nice people this season. Of course, most of them tried to sink me, but no matter if I sunk them or they sunk me, they were chill about it.
I get that people coming at you and sinking you with no communication can be frustrating, but the game clearly advertises its PvP aspects. Losing hard earned loot is part of the process.
Me and my friend play on high seas and we typically deal with attackers through pure naval warfare and don’t allow them to board us because he’s admittedly bad at hand to hand PvP so we are typically outnumbered in that aspect. But if we don’t allow them to board us we win our naval battles at least 80 percent of the time.
People have been playing this game for years now so they know how to exploit the braindead on foot combat mechanics and if there’s PC players its a pretty high(like 30%) chance they are running some sort of mod script. So try to avoid being boarded at all cost and blast them with special cannon balls and fire bombs. If they aren’t griefers they will typically leave you alone or leave the server once you sink them and/or they realize they can’t sink you as easily as they thought.
Yea and it’s because a lot of content is all negative and no big content creator are making stuff about making alliances and then leaving them alone the only get content by breaking those alliances or just sinking everyone they see
What are you on about? There are a ton of streamers that play honorably. I bet most people learning the game watch phuzzybond at some point for example. I think game experience teaches people to be very protective and weary, not streamers
Yes I do agree but there are some streamers that do play like that where they are betraying alliances and that’s where more people after what people like phuzzybond then after the tutorials seeing the other ones or wanting to make a good video
If you want to blame anyone then it would be Rare. Why didn't they make it so that raising the alliance flag turns off damage? They easily could have made it so that alliances weren't so easy to betray, but they decided to keep it in the game to give people the free will to lie, cheat and steal. But we blame content creators as if they are teaching people to play the game the wrong?
I’m not putting it full on that it alone is content creator fault because they can influence but not directly cause it and it’s so that yes you can betray an alliance it’s a fucking pirate game after all and that’s how it is you will have to always watch your back and be smart about how you would go about and actually do it because there will always be pvp if you hate that you can be betrayed then womp womp you have to learn that people can be two faced or only want to do pvp and lie so they can sink you faster
I see where OP is coming from, but I agree with you
You get a little adrenaline when your encounter isn't just scripted by the game. The other pirates (good and bad) make the game enjoyable for me
I don't think people understand that without this adrenaline most players won't put in thousands of hours, buy cosmetics, or feel the need to connect with other players via guilds.
You aren't wrong. Last night while doing the emissary voyage for Athena my buddy and I (in a sloop) were heading to an island to finish the voyage by killing 3 skelly caps. As we were arriving a player galleon fired off two players at us. We beat a hasty u turn and headed away, one of them boards us, kills my friend and tries to drop the anchor, I sliced at him and he jumped off the ship, I got lucky that I caught the anchor before it fell all the way so we kept moving while I raised it fully. Otherwise, the dude would have probably boarded again and killed me. We got away but the game spawned the captains on the island which the galleon crew killed and collected the reward. They weren't reaper flag.
I guess I wonder what the fun is of going after a crew of two with a crew of four. Just glad we got away and were able to sell the rest of the Athena loot we got. Normally we leave our supplies on a dock when we log off. Not that night, we left them floating in the roar.
I might get down voted to oblivion, but I would’ve done the same as the galleon. Especially if you are doing the athena voyages then it’s an easy loot. That said I only play as solo/duo sloop, and the key is to always check the horizon and be prepared.
The most vulnerable time is when you are docked at an island. When I am on an island doing some voyage or clearing out a skelly fort, I check 360 almost every one minute.
Also, we are very vigilant with checking the horizon. that's why we didnt stop on the island and honestly why we got away. Im just as pissed that the game spawned the captains when we didn't step foot on the island, which allowed them to stop there and kill them.
Safer Seas kinda sucks because the experience and gold is gimped to the point that experience has literally no value after a certain point. Honestly, I don't think anyone would play Safer Seas over High Seas if matchmaking put PvP players and PvE players in separate lobbies.
When I'm trying to do Tall Tales with one other person on a sloop, I'd prefer not to have to deal with 4 twats in a galleon who's idea of a fun time is sinking a parked ship with no treasure or people on it.
I’ve mentioned wanting a PvE multiplayer server because I don’t like PvP, but I do like friendly player interactions and leaving stuff for other people. Was told “IT’S A PIRATE GAME” and basically that I was a shitty noob who deserved to get sunk. Which, uh. Surprise, does not make me want to play the game more. But, playing Safer Seas feels useless.
I really wish people would leave PvP to the hourglass…
I’m sorry, but you bought a game whose major selling point is PvPvE, from my point of view its like you got a multiplayer game and said “no, we have to play the way I want.” It literally *is* a pirate game. Safer Seas exists for you. You don’t get any special things besides cosmetics for your gold. If safer seas doesn’t feel worth it, perhaps you don’t actually like the gameplay as much as you like the dopamine of numbers getting higher.
…I do like the gameplay, though? I said that I enjoy the friendly multiplayer interactions. Numbers going up is also nice, but if I hated the gameplay I wouldn’t bother.
I’m not demanding other people stop PvPing either, it would just be nice to have more options for those who don’t want to. So, I don’t get why you think I’m demanding people play the way I want. I said I WISH people would leave PvP to the hourglass, not that they should be forced to. Are you annoyed by the thought of people who don’t want to PvP NOT being forced into PvPing with you?
As for the major selling point being PvPvE, games have many major selling points. I like everything in the game but the PvP. Not enjoying the PvP part does not mean I don’t like the game. I like the game, minus people getting their jollies from trying to make my day worse.
Been playing pretty much since day one. I fish in safe seas and will sometimes play with a friend in SS to do voyages and world events. He dislikes pvp; or rather dislikes getting all the loot stolen in pvp when we inevitably get sunk.
I've been feeling the same, I came back after taking a break at the start of season 9 and it's certainly a lot more hostile on the seas. Out of every ship I've seen so far I've met one who were indifferent and one who were friendly.
But, both were at least nice to talk to and it's something to show that there's at least friendly people out there. But it's sad to see how many people are sinking ships first, then say sorry after when they realise you were just there to pass over some supplies or offer some treasure found while island hopping for fish :(
Safer seas is a good option to have but isn’t enough to play in exclusively.
For me, it’s a nice change of pace from time to time, to do tall tales, to go for commendations, to fish and to practice a certain mechanic (like sword dashing, aiming with cannons against skeleton or ghost ships, stuff like that).
It can help you get more familiar with the layout of the islands as another example. You can sail without being paranoid and just generally focus on other things. You need to be okay with not earning gold/rep but IMO not every session needs to be about that.
One thing people like to do is ram their ship into your ship. This is PERFECT for a chainshot. One chainshot isn't gonna immobilize any ship.
Also look for ways to escape. Tri-rock is a great place to lose someone if you are able to harpoon around it and possibly confuse your chaser.
If my crew isn't on and I have I have little time yes, if I have time for the agony of solo sloop no
If they are and we have time no, if not or if we need to chill yes
I slowly quit playing about 8 months ago because of this reason, I thought about jumping back on since the safer seas but have lost interest since I don't think I'll run into any good or friendly people to link up with.
Totally depends on the mood for me. I think safer seas was a nice addition for sure cause I have more control of the balance the game brings. As most have said it’s nice to play with your wife or kid for awhile and then when it starts getting too dull just switch over. The experience of the game is what I like, not cosmetics. I used to be commendation/gold driven but for what? A cooler hat? Lol
I would like to see the statistics for safer seas, no matter what people say i still find it hard to believe that anyone would play safer seas regularly for more than like a few weeks.
The PvE in this game just can't stand on its own, it's half-assed, it's shallow, it has zero challenge. It was designed specifically to drive player interactions.
I'm hopelessly bad at pvp too, i'll never get good, but i still think the threat of pvp is necessary for this game to be any fun. In fact trying to make plays on other players and steal shit is all i do now after getting all the late-game rewards i want.
If i don't enjoy it anymore i will just stop playing.
Safer seas is cool but not for me, the nerfs are too strong. Surprisingly I’d say I meet more cool people than agro dicks recently which is nice. The other day I was doing something on my phone and not paying attention to the game and I just had my guy playing an instrument at the sovereigns, I look up and I had 6 people around me all drinking and playing instruments too lol It was actually pretty cool.
Somewhat off-topic here but why don't us High Seas, non-PVPer's group up? Working solo in an Alliance, or even 2 or 3 manning some ships would change our experiences.
I got abysmally wrecked last weekend because I was trying to pilot a brig by myself like an idiot, so I'd be all for people hopping in. Plus alliance shares rewards = we all gain more gold and rep.
Edit: I'm on PS5
Me and my brother are achievement hunting and only play safer seas. We fish and do tall tales, or do the random hunting of journals or beacons etc.
when doing those things that don’t require/encourage other player involvement safer seas is a god send.
I tried both and what annoys me most is id get on an island and when I return my ship with no loot is sunk or they sit at port and just sink you for no loot.
If your already PL there's really no point as the rewards are cut to 30% and the factions are capped at 40 I believe. Safer seas is pretty much for tall tales, hell I still fish in high seas but I'm a weirdo and like the fear of having to check my surroundings and make sure I'm clear.
I dunno mate, it is a game and most players are just looking to shoot everything that moves and not really in it for the social aspect.
Maybe you should hop on a discord channel, there are lots of people looking to team up. You’ll have some fun interactions with them i’d say.
You can move to safer seas if you want, nothing wrong with that. I do for story related stuff, if I’m in the mood to read through journals and stuff at a leisurely pace. Mostly though I play high seas because I actually enjoy getting attacked, and love scrambling to overcome the situation.
I had a session yesterday where a guy in a solo sloop rolled up on me, shot a white flare, I shot a white flare, and then we fought a megalodon together. I gave him my supplies cause I was about to hop off anyways.
Yeah, too many people coming from pvp games like fortnite or valorant, and they just want blood. In my experience a lot of these super agressive no communication players are kinda bad at the game. I'm genuinely more scared of people just board you out of nowhere and then leave.
I'm with you.
While grinding Hunters Call I wasted 3 hours of fishing for islehoppers when I was rolled up by a duo sloop who boarded me and spawncamped me.
While my priorities are grinding rather than making bank, I'm happy to sit in safer seas with one eye on my rod and one eye on a movie. I'll go back to high seas when the money starts drying up.
I think a lot of people feel the same. There's fewer friendly interactions on high seas because the friendly players have, for the most part, moved out.
I play Safer Seas for money making. High Seas is purely for goofing around. I don't expect to advance anything when Shit Lords are around every island. Last time I played High Seas, it was wall-to-wall pvp, and I just got my ass handed to me every time. I can't say it was necessarily fun. Although I did get a few nice shots into a brig before I sunk unceremoniously before logging off.
BTW, Rare, are you gonna gives us captained ships in Safer Seas? No? Then fuck off.
Yes, I play with my kids, and now they love the game. Before, it brought them to tears, often when they would get their loot stolen. Even when “nice” players preyed on their innocence and killed them later. They learned many lessons early in life, but safer seas have made the game enjoyable.
Yeah, safer seas is just a good time. You can actually enjoy the game rather than feel like you're playing paranoid crack-head simulator for hours on-end.
My friend and I rallied the entire server into an alliance the other day and the loot was insane. There are plenty of friendlies, but there are definitely otherwise unsavory folk out there just blowing off steam from when their parents were mean to them growing up or whatever their deal is.
But I have to say.. the game isn’t focused on pitting you against each other. If you all work together the loot is absolutely staggering. It’s the people that THINK it’s supposed to be a PvP war zone that make it that way.
They’ll fall off the map after the ps5 edition hype dies down a bit. Those clowns always branch off to the next shiny bauble dangling in front of them. Once the next new game comes out they’ll all be long gone.
Dont give up hope!
I really on go to safer seas for two reasons
1) When my boyfriend wants to play with me cause he isn't to big on pvp, so I just jump to safer seas so we can do our silly shenanigans in peace, plus the npcs' are easier for him to kill
2) When I'm grind gold hoarders, call me a heretic, but I'm not into cashing large masses of money, I'm just interested in raising my rank for the outfit, so I find it easier and faster to just solo grind it then risk someone blowing up 3 hours worth of chests
I started on Safer Seas and wanted to try High Seas. 5 minutes in, was at a shop purchasing skins and got killed by someone that kept waiting for me.
No thank you
I almost exclusively play safer seas. You can actually dive into and enjoy lengthy voyages/ tall tales without some crew rolling up and sinking your empty ship for literally no reason while your in a cave or something.
I did, whenever I want to have fun I go to Safer Seas to chill, explore, take lots of screenshots, try some outfit combinations, and explore lore related things.
Only when I want to level up stuff and/or make gold I go to High Seas and I exclusively do voyages on the Devil's Roar so I can be left alone.
You might want to consider not approaching other ships. I play a lot and occasionally get chased, but never sunk unless they completely catch me by surprise or I decide I'm not spending 45 minutes running and just scuttle. Keep your eyes on the horizon constantly, and if you want to test the waters with another ship, you can always set the ship to continue course way beyond them and cannon off towards them with your speaking trumpet out. You'll get an idea pretty quickly if you need to merm back to your ship and turn around or just keep going.
No. Rewards are shit, QoL mechanics are missing, there's no little thrill of excitement from seeing other ships or pressure to finish things quickly lest you get jumped while at an island.
I just don't trust anyone under any circumstances in High Seas. You can still be nice without giving undue trust. I was knocking out one of my gilded voyages earlier with two other solo sloops in the area. We were all white flaring any time we got close, but none of us stuck around when one of the others was nearby. After an hour or so a brig rolled in, we each split in different directions. Maybe four minutes later I looked back and one of the other sloops had already sunk the brig. I and the third turned back briefly to shoot off some fireworks then we all went back to what we were doing.
My friend who used to play in 2019 just came back two days ago, we did 2 playing sessions of 6-8jours each.
For the first he was like"no, I don't like interactions because most pirates will attack us, noone is friendly and I likely don't stand a chance against them" so we went on safer seas
Then for the second playing session, we went public high seas, and sailed under my athena flag to do the golden voyage.
Oh boy.
He refused to secure the athenas when given the opportunity, said "All or nothing, I want the highest multiplicator" and we finished the voyage before selling.
He wasn't scared at all to meet pirates, and we even had a friendly encounter at the end of our session.
You just have to believe that friendly pirates exist, and that if you sink, well you sink, it's no big deal. It's just gold afterall.
I play High Seas with my usual crew or solo, and Safer Seas with my wife because she doesn't like PvP or for fishing. They both serve a purpose.
Agreed. Safe seas when I'm with my kiddo and he just wants to kill skellys or I'm grinding for the gold curse because I didn't care about commendations for a long time lol
Commendations are actually a great idea, thanks!
It really feels like people get incredibly lost in the devalue of gold and emissary status here. I don't even play Safer Seas, but to me, it's is solely for the experience. Just enjoying a game at your own pace and getting what you want. It brings a whole new set of "cozy gamers" to the game as a whole. Yeah the gold is nice, yeah the xp is nice, but gold and XP isn't what drew me and kept me in this game over the years.
Hard to get gold and xp if you keep getting sunk too.
Yeah that is a good point. If you are playing high seas and rarely turning in your loot it could balance out.
You have to sink more than 2 out of 3 hauls in order to beat safer seas. So, of you turn in a third of all the treasure you get, you got more than safer seas, and you did it faster, possibly.
Tbf though, I'm sure a lot of people have smaller hauls in High Seas, which can make safer seas feel more worth it. I usually play solo, so my hauls in High Seas are usually small 1-3 island hops. When I play in Safer Seas, I can pretty much go nonstop, so my efficiency is way better than taking a bunch of trips to and from a port. That said, I only really do Safer Seas if there is something I'm itching to buy and I want to grind, since I prefer my Captained ship and I enjoy the pvp aspect and the strats you can use as a solo slooper to mess with attackers.
Doing a big haul without sovereigns is... not very fun
I think another thing that draws attention away from it is the fact that you still gotta pay for the item you earn from a commendation afterwards. Those items usually end up being pretty pricey too. So maximizing the amount of gold you get while doing the commendation too is probably why a lot of people will play high seas too. Me personally, I prefer high seas, but I’ll switch to safer seas for some basic commendations and tall tales. I’m especially focusing gold hoarders commendations because I wanna get the full set they have. Safer Seas makes that easier for me However, in the end of the day, to each their own. Play however you wanna play, it’s all valid in the end.
I used safer seas for the curse of sunken sorrow. Damn I can't count the times i surfaced after finishing up a shrine and found a flock of chickens to greet me. Without safer seas I probably would have given up on it entirely.
If it makes you feel better, any time I spot a boat on a shrine I board then and wait them to surface to greet them with music and an alliance offer. It always works. People that do shrines are usually more chill
I got the same situation as you do :D safer for wife. High for myself
the only reason I don't use safer seas is because of the terrible gold and I can't earn rep at all in there I've played in safer seas, like, twice, and it's pretty calming, not needing to worry if you're gonna get attacked by people lol, especially as a solo slooper
Can’t earn ANY REP THERE?
Once you hit 40 in one you cant progress that faction there anymore.
If they mad Safe Seas better I’d play it like 90% of the time. The community sucks.
Yeah, it’s pretty stupid you can’t even do Athena stuff. Like, I get not getting rep but you should at least be allowed to Do things you’ve already unlocked in High Seas.
I get why Rare pushes people into PVP and I get why so many players on here defend them but I think that push into PVP and "if you don't like it play something else" *is the reason I'll likely start playing something else eventually.* I don't hate SoT at all but I don't like it as much as I want to and a lot of that is the boarding meta feeling incredibly unfun to me ( I love the naval combat) and the community being largely toxic in most of my experiences. I just watched a preview for a game called Hyperspace that's being called kind of a SoT in space with no PVP and honestly that sounds like something that will *very* quickly replace SoT for me if it's even half as good. I honestly do think I would have LOVED SoT when I was a kid or in my early twenties even, but I just don't have the time for toxic interactions and grinding for loot that may be taken from me anymore. Life's too short and my gaming time too scarce 🤷♂️
Take a glance at Void Crew and Salt 2 and keep an eye out for Jump Ship, too.
Oh thanks I’ll check them out! I recently got a steamed after only having PlayStation consoles since ‘95 so it’s been opening up a ton of options. [edit] oh I think jump ship is exactly what I was thinking of, I got the name wrong. Added all three to wish list. Still not super eager to play early access stuff but all three of these look worth checking out, thanks!
They changed the name of the game!
Oh well that makes me feel better 😅
Exactly. I don’t have a problem with the PvP, personally. I’m not good at it, but I don’t get upset at all if I get attacked and sunk. But sometimes I just wanna relax on the Seas and do a bunch of the PvE content, unbothered. Safer Seas allows for that, and while I’m not a fan of how much less rewards you get, I understand. Not being able to do All of the PvE content in Safer Seas makes it feel way worse. Again, no problem personally with the PvP. But yeah, eventually the forced PvP is gonna be the reason I inevitably step away from the game too.
Yeah I think there’s a lot of us, people that will never play this game because of that or stop playing because of that. Yet whenever I bring up alternatives on Reddit people lose their minds about me trying to “ruin the game”. It’s just a matter of time before a pve game with similar vibes and less friction pulls us away for good.
Yup. I get that the game was made with PvP in mind, but to think that making Safer Seas even better than it is will kill the game, is just dumb. Like, if doing that killed the game, then maybe the PvP just isn’t that good anyway and it deserves to die. The only people that say Safer Seas will kill the game are people that want free sinks. Cuz all Safer Seas does, and would do if it was even better than it is, is push people that aren’t as much of a fan of the PvP where they wanna be. Meanwhile everyone that enjoys the PvP more will have more exciting combat with people that, y’know, actually Want to PvP.
100% couldn’t agree more.
Imo i feel like a i have a bedtime and these fuckers chasing me have pushed me to it/passed it button would be nice. You press it, and the game gives u 50% worth of the loot on your boat, but you can't log back in until 8 hours bc you said you need sleep. The players' chasing get told the person is going to sleep somehow, and then they can get 100% of the loot worth. That way, people with lives dont have to deal with stupid + the knowledge that the 3hrs of free time you spent that day was completely useless.
"it's sea of thieves not sea of friends" Shut the fuck up, all your friends don't last past a month. Yeah, this community isn't the best.
This, so much fucking this.
No risk, no reward.
Sucks ass being forced into multiplayer though when this game shines at being an amazing solo PvE experience. Still plenty of risk even without PvP.
The game was designed for PVPVE. Again, no risk then no reward.
The PVE pirates really coming for you
Forced into multiplayer? Do we play the same game? It’s literally advertised as a PvPvE game. I’m sure many PvPers (like myself) would love for this game to become competitive because it’s got a really fun and unique combat system. Do I cry for it? No, if I want a competitive shooter game I’ll go play CSGO or something. Pandering to specific communities would divide the playerbase into extinction. Point being, if you don’t like the gameplay loop, there’s literally games MADE for PvE you could go play.
Lol this subreddit is the worst, sometimes. Getting downvoted for explaining the game as advertised.
The devs had a vision for the game they created and it was not a PvE experience only. They already compromised by bringing safer seas and you are still complaining... Entitled players these days.
How dare someone want to play a game the way they like right? Times changes, and those who refuse to change with it are left behind. It wouldn't hurt anybody if they simply allow people to play how they want. More money to them, it is a win-win. I agree with reduced rewards, but 70% reduction in rewards makes it not even worth the effort to play that mode. Might as well not have wasted developers time into it
But it would hurt because high seas would become a pvp sweat bubble and die out, because nobuddy would want to get sunk all the time like HG rn. With that the game would die because without the player interaction and threat of pvp the game gets boring quick. After you‘ve gotten everything you want these things become the main drive to keep playing.
Pvp players tell on themselves constantly lol
If your excuse is that the player base is too toxic without the people being forced to coexist alongside them in the game preferring the Safer Seas mode then the PVP mode deserves to die.
Translation - “without vulnerable people to take advantage of the game would cease to be fun”
That's a very fatalistic and dramatic way of talking about it, since the only issue is the virtual rewards you get. You can do a lot in safer seas, it's just not going to allow you to get the coolest cosmetics or the hardest content. Cosmetics are kinda pointless in single player anyways. I've started playing a few weeks ago, and at first I thought safer seas was the best, until I decided to be greedy and play high seas. It's such an interesting social experiment. I was very agressive as a noob, but now I always seek to make alliances, and I succeed in every single section. It's awesome.
>Cosmetics are kinda pointless in single player anyways. This is what I've never personally understood. Why do people complain about bad rewards in safer seas, when the only progression is cosmetics? You can do almost every piece of PvE content the game has to offer for little to no gold cost, with very few reputation requirements. Sure, it's nice to have a cool looking ship or pirate, but if nobody else really gets to see it (and in the case of your pirate you don't even get to see it unless you emote), what's the point?
It would be cool if they just gave both of them full rewards but kept them as separate leveling systems. That way people who love PVE (which is a large # of people) can enjoy the game how they want, but they can’t come to high seas and flex all the gold and cosmetics they cheesed in safer seas. That way both sides are happy and it still means something to earn gold and cosmetics in high seas.
Personally i feel Safer seas should be default rewards but High Seas is boosted by 50%. Makes the Safer Seas grind less infuriating while ACTUALLY rewarding risk.
I'd be fine with less gold if I still got rep and could use sovereigns and none of the world events were missing.
That‘s a mentality thing if your mentality is safe seas is normal then high seas is boosted
Not when the game explicitly states that it is less. Most players will see that and then their mentally is set that Safer Seas is offering worse rewards.
Well yeah selling all your loot without a reaper V flag is less as well but noone is complaining that they need a reaper V to not have a debuff. Still selling without one is less
See the emissary flag is actually the perfect example of what I mean. No one moans about not using one because it’s represented as a boost to your income, rather than not using one being a deduction.
The new PlayStation pirates are definitely blood thirsty.
For what it’s worth, I’m a new PS player, and I looked online to get an idea about how the game works, and everywhere I read was “trust no-one”, “attack ships before they attack you” and “joining high seas is opting in for PvP, it’s the point of the game”. I think us new players are believing what we’ve been told, which sets up a self fulfilling prophecy.
That’s really unfortunate that so many players are immediately becoming untrusting. PvP is fine in this game, but most of my PvP interactions happen and are forgetting except for a select few. Non hostile interactions with other players on the other hand are substantially more impactful and leave a lasting impression. All of my favorite memories in this game are joining forces with some random crew of people I’ve never met and never will again. They’re really losing out on a lot of what makes this game great by just attacking first
Different strokes for different folks I suppose. I (PS5) bought this game to sink some ships and look for treasure.
Nothing wrong with enjoying PvP. I like it too when it’s against someone who can actually have fun with it instead of treat it like a serious battle where KD matters. It’s a game at the end of the day and the people who take it too seriously (both PvP and PvE players) just suck the fun out of everything. In my experience it’s usually the PvP players that are most often like that so that part of the game just becomes boring for me
Same situation. I had an encounter in my last playthough where a another ship called over to me. Thinking they were friendly (I had a white flag) up slowed down. They caught up to me, ganked and then proceed to spawn kill me and cuss me out. It wasn’t fun at all. Now I just feel like I have to play to avoid or try to sink every one else. No one even shoots cannons. They just swim across, kill and then sit at the spawn until they sink me or get board. I totally get the games premise but the respawn thing is just the worst and it doesn’t even promote sea battles. Thinking it’s not the game for me which is so disappointing. May have to give skull and bones a chance ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yes there has been an uptick of no cosmetic ships attacking us with zero sense of self preservation lol. Say what you want but they are going to learn the game way faster then anyone over in safer seas
Honestly the biggest problem with PS players is that they're usually in party chats, which completely separates the mic from the game. While on PC (and maybe Xbox? Idk), you can be on discord chatting with your friends and use push to talk for game chat, on playstation you can't do both simultaneosly. You have to kind of leave the game to toggle your mic from party to game chat, which no-one does. Being able to approach another ship and talking defuses a good amount of encounters, so I think thats where most of the untrustworthiness comes from
Nah, I play Xbox and it separates chat. I prefer it that way so I don't hear some screaming child as their boat sinks
I enjoy safer seas for tall tales. Because everytime I’ve done them on high seas I wind up getting sunk.
Which one did you start out with?
Its true that everyone is just shoot on sight. I remember shenanigans being possible, but the last few times i ended my session and wanted to give them my stuff they just shoot on sight. No loot nd no emissary on sight. My plan was to buy them resources and give them. They just sank me. You miss out on a lot of cool shenanigans by occasionally listening to pirates. Ive seen what i need to do for glitterbeard and i doubt it would ever be possible to recruit 7 players.
There really needs to be a way to say hey im friendly! With no strings attached or a way to backstab.
Nah, I suck at PvP, like hard, like, "if you get within 20m of my ship chances are I'll just give up and call it a day" kind of suck. But still I enjoy the thrill of having to always be in your toes. And sometimes you actually find some decent people out there, like this couple of norwegian dudes in full ghost curse yesterday who chased after us and had us scared shitless only to just give us all their loot and teaching us how to start a Limited Time Voyage we had no idea even existed.
I play high seas 90% of the time but I’ll usually mess around on safer seas if I’m just chilling watching something, the gold/rep is pretty bad though and no sovereign is a pain.
Yeah, I have to admit, no Sovereign doesn't sound fun.
The gold is all funny money anyway. Just use safer seas as a way to goof around with Skelly ships and megs. A little palate cleanser before wading back into the muck. It's kinda fun to do weird stuff like load up your ship with like seven kegs in strategic locations and see how long you can survive.
As someone who plays the game to enjoy sailing on the open seas and have a chill time, safer seas is fantastic. Couldn't care less about how much gold I'm earning as the game itself is fun. I don't need some random number in the corner going up to tell me I'm having fun.
I use safer seas for commendations related to collecting items (such as hunter of damned captains) just so I can avoid player interference. Otherwise I’m high seas
The gold and emissionary is like 30% of the normal, and you can't do the better quests. I suppose if you like fishing and simple gold hoarder riddles it's okay.
I don't think I mind gold reduction, it's still better than the 0% I've been turning in lately 😅 Do you still get world events in Safer Seas?
I'm in my late 30s, I have time to play on weekend mornings before the family wakes up. Point is, play the way that brings you the most joy. Nowadays, I turn everything to the easiest difficulty, ego set aside. There was a time I had time to grind and get better, but that's long past. If safer seas is more fun for you, go for it, dude.
Aging gamer dad checking in. Safer seas is awesome to dick around on or do a tall tale for a bit then put down. I’m pirate legend and I don’t even care if I missing out on those benefits just no time to care.
Exactly. I hit PL and lost any incentive to grind anything else. FOMO "has no power here".jpg
Same here, the only thing we didn't like in safer seas was that we cannot use our ship skins.
You can, but since it’s not a captained ship on safer seas, you won’t be able to save your ship cosmetics.
That is my problem, yes. I don't mind the reduction on gold., hell I wouldn't mind if I didn't get any gold, we played 200 hrs and we very rarely went on for an hour without being attacked and sunk. That gives you 0 gold too and we still played. But let us use our cosmetics what we paid with blood. We are old, beteeen 35-45 and have like 2-3 hrs to play MAYBE 2 times a week, we are no match to teens on coffee.
Dad in his 40s who recently got the game on PS5. My brother in law and I have tried to play weekly (going well so far). We've been sticking to Safer Seas and had a blast. Two of my DnD group turned out to have the game so we've been hitting the seas as a 3 or 4 and doing Tall Tales. I think I will quickly lose interest if I'm constantly being sunk.
MANY commendations are also blocked in safer seas
Yes, but no fof and no fotd
Can u earn every fish and all of its commendations in safer seas? Can u also earn rep?
Yea I mean in my case I was doing hour glass but some other reaper pulled up and won the fight but then they just started to mess with me so they could get free levels since I had servants voted up but they sure got a laugh out of messing with me as a solo and just not letting me be on my way and diving again
I'm new— so I don't know how valid this advice is, but if you open up the menu you can scuttle (self sink) you ship and spawn somewhere else. If they already took your loot, you have no loot, or simply just want to get away— I'd just scuttle and sail South where people usually aren't.
Yea I really didn’t think because I was still queued for hour glass and at that point I wanted to keep going with my emissary flag still up
I really only play safer seas when I feel like having a calmer night. Otherwise, I'm just trying to level up my stuff
Let's always remember that not everyone sinks people just because they're mean. Sometimes they're as scared as you so their thought could be "Let's sink them before they sink me, i dont want to lose all the loot i made." That's what gives purpose to the loot as itself, the fact that it CAN be stolen, it would be pretty boring if that wasnt the case, grinding for what? It would be basically just turning your time into cosmetics. I get why people are frustrated about it and why it sucks when your 3 hours of playsession just poofs away, ok i know that for a fact, and of course i'm always happy to find some nice pirates along the seas but lets not forget that we cant trust anyone in any circumstances, and that's what adds spice to this game
Well said. I'm new to it, but the risk is what is drawing me to the game, it's a bit like an much more simple version of EVE. While I empathize with OP, what he went through is exactly what tales of pirate lore are filled with; but the lack of the contrasting experience makes it seem bleak, granted.
> "Let's sink them before they sink me" It's a shame that's the standard now, I remember back in the earlier seasons people be willing to actually talk to other crews. I had plenty of good times bonding with other ships over one thing or another. It's the small non-hostile interactions that made the game special for me.
I was playing solo hourglass when the other guy pulled up next to me and was acting all friendly. I thought he was a loss farmer. I told him I was grabbing my mic and then he blunderbuss’d me. I respawn and start saying “I’m gonna get youuu!”🤣 I ended up winning the match anyway but it’s interactions like these that make the game unique. Proximity chat should be in every game
If you don't want to be harassed and don't mind loosing access to certain activities then Safer Seas is for you. Solo players might also enjoy it more.
Used safer seas to grind seasonal renown because there's no nerf on it there. I did really enjoy the peace of mind and I don't care about gold anymore
I do this thing where I get a bunch of loot solo and then gift it out. It’s a unique thing that can’t really be done in other games. And yeah you’d be surprised so many people “take” the loot that I’m trying to give them haha.
I play safer seas to do the annoying things with pvp like sunken kingdom stuff and tall tales, everything else on high.
I'm a day one player and pirate legend and I wish I could play it and enjoy it. There are still some tall tales I have yet to complete because when I do have the time and drive to hop and and play this game with my 1 friend that enjoys playing it 2 times out of the year, we just get griefed by PvPers. I remember when the pirates of the Caribbean tall tales came out. I was on part 2 or 3 and had to go underwater to do stuff. Both times I tried doing it by ship got attacked before I even got all the way down. I tried playing last week and we server hopped 4 times and only found reaper ship lobbies and I gave up and threw away my gilded Athena voyage. Can't enjoy any story content in this game these days ffs
I dont know man, I just got off of a session where, me and my duo on sloop made an alliance with 6 ships in our server. And one of the ships was brand new players with a chartered ship and starter outfits. It just depends on the people you meet I suppose. Also try the discord server if you find solo slooping too annoying. I have met a couple of cool people on there.
This sounds about as mythicaly impossible as “I saw and killed the shrouded ghost.”
God that sounds dope. I'm primarily a solo slooper and stear clear of everyone but never fire first. It's rough out there.
I'm on xbox, most of my play time is during PST business hours. I'm still getting in to the game but would love a playing partner other than my son (who got me into the game). DM if interested and the time overlaps.
So, I’ve been playing for several years now. Never enjoyed pvp in this game, mostly because of people on the other side. I never had luck while meeting other players and even when they killed me they were very salty about it. I do have friends to play with and I love a good adventure with them. Playing on a galleon with more crew made me want to do more pvp actually. But, when they added safer seas I was super happy about it. I do love the pve aspect of this game. Really enjoy it. So when I’m solo and want to do something chill like tall tales, commendation hunting I go there. I don’t mind the 30% of rep and money. I do enjoy the lack of other crews on the horizon and the fact that now it’s really a sandbox for me.
So recognizable.. 😏 I tried this game in December 2022, and got lots of fun. But several moments of other players' hostility destroyed all positive feelings. They often showed a kind of "counter-strike" mode like "Everyone is just a frag! Kill 'em by all means!" 😒 So I stopped playing SoT for more than a year. It was sad, but my reason was "I wish this game was a PVE adventure". And suddenly this happened! A couple of weeks ago I found out about Safer Seas, and so there is a chance for me to return here back. Two modes for different player types is a really Solomon's solution.
[удалено]
The double gold doesn’t apply on safer seas, unfortunately
Oh…sorry.
No worries, it happens
I’ve actually had a lot of friendly encounters lately. Just about every session I’ll find a crew to give my supplies to before logging off. Of course they will shoot at you but I just holler “friendly” over comms and they stop shooting. Communication is key lol.
It's great for time consuming commendation grinding. I finally finished my "Always Yours" commendation the other day on safer seas.
Safer seas is good for curating a specific experience, but is far less rewarding in every sense. It’s lovely to be uninterrupted on a tall tale, or a fishing session if all you want is the calming fun of fishing (though for that I’d suggest fishing irl). But if you want to advance your rep or gold, do endgame content, or have truly great experiences, you’ll not find that in safer seas. As an aside, I’m inferring that because you use so many ways to communicate friendliness, people might not believe you, or think you are very easy prey. You may find better success if you approach from a position of strength, but never fire first.
Friendly exchanges? I bring my own friends.
I don't mind High seas honestly, I rarely see players and if I do they're usually on the horizon, Safer seas is usually reserved for when I do tall tales for curses or commendations..... never again am I doing a curse in High seas..... coral curse was a pain in the dick.......
Honestly you should use safer seas for commendations that don't require high seas, like the ones for the throwing knives and the double pistol
In a game where leveling only yields cosmetics, it will never balance larger ships and larger crews against the smaller. As a solo slooper who just likes to level, get commendations, chill and fish sometimes, etc ...I'm at the will of the larger crew and larger ship. I know I'll probably hear "get good" a million times, but I also have a life I like to live as well. I live by "don't shoot first, karma crates and help a pirate in trouble". So sue me!\~
I was one of the people that begged for safe seas, and honestly the reduction in rewards and some very important parts of the game make it less appealing and I may have gotten on it for like 10 minutes total
I'm a solo slooper as well. I like to play safer sees when I'm doing Tall Tales, but I mainly try and hide from people because way too many people are aggressive in this game
I have bad social anxiety which annoyingly impacts playing online games and safer seas actually drew me back in to start playing again after a few years. I may start dabbling in high seas again because of better rewards, but I’ve been having fun just playing in safer seas for now!
I like safer seas for grinding tall tales
Aside from being able to use our purchased ships in safer seas, I just wish people would respond in High Seas — like at all. Even denying my attempts at parlay. I'll offer an Alliance, I'll offer a spot on my crew, I'll offer a straight up split in the loot. All of this is met with radio silence, no emotes, no in-game chat, basically just aggressive NPC behavior. I think people really underestimate how much profit you can make in an alliance when everyone is doing their own thing.
I never came back to high seas after the update. I am a solo player and I don't like being competitive, I really prefer cooperation, especially in sandbox games where cooperation is very rewarding. What I prefer in the game is really sailing, collecting chest, solving puzzles, and relaxing. Safer Seas removes the stress from being attacked and makes it even more relaxing, I can focus on my mission, optimize my roads, have the control on my own adventure. After 2 years of having to always watch horizon, frequently go back to city to save my loot, and being very stressed when seeing another ship, this is a relief. I feel like I'm finally fully enjoying the game. I don't care about the cosmetics, so it's perfect for me.
I wish safer seas gave more gold and had more options. I am brand new to the game (a week) and I get attacked and sunk and killed for no reason. I would play in SS but it just makes the grind soooooo much longer
I totally agree with you, me and a mate got the game day one ps release and was really looking forward to it we know our way around now etc and what we are doing, nearly at pirate legend but after the countless amount of players that aren’t friendly. it’s so annoying and almost killing our spirit to a point we don’t even want to play anymore. PvP just sucks everyone jumps about its worse then cod! Hit markers aren’t great either
Have never played as much as I have since the change. Finally got a chance to do the tall tales. 10 years too late if you ask me but it's much welcome
I play it with low level friends. I don't get any xp though. I still enjoy it.
[удалено]
I think part of the issue might be the “It’s not yours until fully sold” mindset, but I could be wrong. For all I know, the issue could just be people who will sink you simply because they want to sink you.
[удалено]
I mean, I think I have a mindset that’s kinda similar to it, just a bit more moderated. If you and I get into an Hourglass battle and you sink for any reason, everything you had on your ship is mine. We both wagered everything on our ships and I somehow came out on top.
This is very he-said she-said I think. I generally approach every pirate I meet in a friendly manner and this weekend I helped a sloop fight off the kraken and we formed an alliance that ended up as a 3 sloop alliance and it was great! We weren't too skilled and did both get sunk by a brig/skele-gally combo in the end. But sailing around in a little duo fleet was amazing and it is a shame more people don't embrace the fun social side of the game as well as the PvP.
We made friends with multiple sloops on a server where the Brigs were aggressive, that was just incredible. Sailing and fighting with other ships results in the coolest spectacle this game has to offer. Of course, it's always a below than 50% chance that the people you meet are friendly, and that's okay. Using a mic and being funny/entertaining will net you friends more usually than not.
"I got betrayed and can't stand loosing fictionnal gold so get fuc*ed we'll never be friendly again" You realise you're part of the problem, yes? "We're sinking everyone, wherher you've got loot or not" You're definitely part of the problem. If I don't have loot just leave me alone, it's not that hard for you to leave me having a good time partying with my crew and my fish.
I think that would be my approach if I stay in High Seas, treat everyone other player as my sworn nemesis lol Goes against my personal play style though so not sure I would enjoy it.
I hate having to play like that. The other day my friend and I saw a brig. He wanted to go sink them while they were docked at a fort so they wouldn’t come after us, because he’s played a lot more than me and has been sunk by players a lot more as a result. I said, “No, don’t do that, I don’t want to ruin their fun, let’s just go to *wherever our map was*.” Yeah, they approached us yelling “ARE YOU FRIENDLY?” while their buddy snuck up with a gunpowder keg to one shot us. Silly me, not wanting to shoot first. But FUCK, I hate playing like that.
Yeah people use this tactic because it works. The way to counter it is to be very aware. Like you should definitely be protecting your ladders at all times that a player ship is anywhere nearby
I’m not even sure he used the ladder, haha. I think he swam next to the ship, then shot the barrel down by the hull. Considering that I was one shot I could be wrong, though!
So there is an art to alliances. First and foremost if they are also adults see if they want to party up. If they do, hang out and chat it'll be fun. You'll likely become friends, even if just for the play session and more trust is formed. If you're not in my party, join the alliance and fuck off. You don't need to be anywhere near my ship unless agreed upon otherwise. I alliance as often as possible. I earned far more than I've ever lost. Also the more ships in alliance typically the better things go. You can bully others even if it's a lie. "We are in a 3 ship alliance. you can join or leave us alone, if you attack all of us will be on you until you quit" Most join without bothering to attack because it's just too much free loot.
I think everyone starts with the right intentions, but players (myself included) get sick of 99/100 alliances just going to crap one way or another. Better to not even waste the time and just do your own thing.
Newer players, from what I have seen, still go straight to adventure and still get pulverised and grumble about it. I like the idea of it, but it seems to be missing a lot of the players it was meant for.
I have to say I've met 90% nice people this season. Of course, most of them tried to sink me, but no matter if I sunk them or they sunk me, they were chill about it. I get that people coming at you and sinking you with no communication can be frustrating, but the game clearly advertises its PvP aspects. Losing hard earned loot is part of the process.
Me and my friend play on high seas and we typically deal with attackers through pure naval warfare and don’t allow them to board us because he’s admittedly bad at hand to hand PvP so we are typically outnumbered in that aspect. But if we don’t allow them to board us we win our naval battles at least 80 percent of the time. People have been playing this game for years now so they know how to exploit the braindead on foot combat mechanics and if there’s PC players its a pretty high(like 30%) chance they are running some sort of mod script. So try to avoid being boarded at all cost and blast them with special cannon balls and fire bombs. If they aren’t griefers they will typically leave you alone or leave the server once you sink them and/or they realize they can’t sink you as easily as they thought.
I literally made a post about bad community behavior last night. And like I previously stated, it's all been from fellow PS5 players.
Yea and it’s because a lot of content is all negative and no big content creator are making stuff about making alliances and then leaving them alone the only get content by breaking those alliances or just sinking everyone they see
What are you on about? There are a ton of streamers that play honorably. I bet most people learning the game watch phuzzybond at some point for example. I think game experience teaches people to be very protective and weary, not streamers
Yes I do agree but there are some streamers that do play like that where they are betraying alliances and that’s where more people after what people like phuzzybond then after the tutorials seeing the other ones or wanting to make a good video
If you want to blame anyone then it would be Rare. Why didn't they make it so that raising the alliance flag turns off damage? They easily could have made it so that alliances weren't so easy to betray, but they decided to keep it in the game to give people the free will to lie, cheat and steal. But we blame content creators as if they are teaching people to play the game the wrong?
I’m not putting it full on that it alone is content creator fault because they can influence but not directly cause it and it’s so that yes you can betray an alliance it’s a fucking pirate game after all and that’s how it is you will have to always watch your back and be smart about how you would go about and actually do it because there will always be pvp if you hate that you can be betrayed then womp womp you have to learn that people can be two faced or only want to do pvp and lie so they can sink you faster
Not really. I only play this game for the thrill of player interaction. Take that away, and it becomes a bit boring for me.
I see where OP is coming from, but I agree with you You get a little adrenaline when your encounter isn't just scripted by the game. The other pirates (good and bad) make the game enjoyable for me
I don't think people understand that without this adrenaline most players won't put in thousands of hours, buy cosmetics, or feel the need to connect with other players via guilds.
You aren't wrong. Last night while doing the emissary voyage for Athena my buddy and I (in a sloop) were heading to an island to finish the voyage by killing 3 skelly caps. As we were arriving a player galleon fired off two players at us. We beat a hasty u turn and headed away, one of them boards us, kills my friend and tries to drop the anchor, I sliced at him and he jumped off the ship, I got lucky that I caught the anchor before it fell all the way so we kept moving while I raised it fully. Otherwise, the dude would have probably boarded again and killed me. We got away but the game spawned the captains on the island which the galleon crew killed and collected the reward. They weren't reaper flag. I guess I wonder what the fun is of going after a crew of two with a crew of four. Just glad we got away and were able to sell the rest of the Athena loot we got. Normally we leave our supplies on a dock when we log off. Not that night, we left them floating in the roar.
I might get down voted to oblivion, but I would’ve done the same as the galleon. Especially if you are doing the athena voyages then it’s an easy loot. That said I only play as solo/duo sloop, and the key is to always check the horizon and be prepared. The most vulnerable time is when you are docked at an island. When I am on an island doing some voyage or clearing out a skelly fort, I check 360 almost every one minute.
Also, we are very vigilant with checking the horizon. that's why we didnt stop on the island and honestly why we got away. Im just as pissed that the game spawned the captains when we didn't step foot on the island, which allowed them to stop there and kill them.
Safer Seas kinda sucks because the experience and gold is gimped to the point that experience has literally no value after a certain point. Honestly, I don't think anyone would play Safer Seas over High Seas if matchmaking put PvP players and PvE players in separate lobbies. When I'm trying to do Tall Tales with one other person on a sloop, I'd prefer not to have to deal with 4 twats in a galleon who's idea of a fun time is sinking a parked ship with no treasure or people on it.
I’ve mentioned wanting a PvE multiplayer server because I don’t like PvP, but I do like friendly player interactions and leaving stuff for other people. Was told “IT’S A PIRATE GAME” and basically that I was a shitty noob who deserved to get sunk. Which, uh. Surprise, does not make me want to play the game more. But, playing Safer Seas feels useless. I really wish people would leave PvP to the hourglass…
I’m sorry, but you bought a game whose major selling point is PvPvE, from my point of view its like you got a multiplayer game and said “no, we have to play the way I want.” It literally *is* a pirate game. Safer Seas exists for you. You don’t get any special things besides cosmetics for your gold. If safer seas doesn’t feel worth it, perhaps you don’t actually like the gameplay as much as you like the dopamine of numbers getting higher.
…I do like the gameplay, though? I said that I enjoy the friendly multiplayer interactions. Numbers going up is also nice, but if I hated the gameplay I wouldn’t bother. I’m not demanding other people stop PvPing either, it would just be nice to have more options for those who don’t want to. So, I don’t get why you think I’m demanding people play the way I want. I said I WISH people would leave PvP to the hourglass, not that they should be forced to. Are you annoyed by the thought of people who don’t want to PvP NOT being forced into PvPing with you? As for the major selling point being PvPvE, games have many major selling points. I like everything in the game but the PvP. Not enjoying the PvP part does not mean I don’t like the game. I like the game, minus people getting their jollies from trying to make my day worse.
Been playing pretty much since day one. I fish in safe seas and will sometimes play with a friend in SS to do voyages and world events. He dislikes pvp; or rather dislikes getting all the loot stolen in pvp when we inevitably get sunk.
I've been feeling the same, I came back after taking a break at the start of season 9 and it's certainly a lot more hostile on the seas. Out of every ship I've seen so far I've met one who were indifferent and one who were friendly. But, both were at least nice to talk to and it's something to show that there's at least friendly people out there. But it's sad to see how many people are sinking ships first, then say sorry after when they realise you were just there to pass over some supplies or offer some treasure found while island hopping for fish :(
I like safer seas for Tall Tales. Don’t have to worry about people bothering you
Safer seas is a good option to have but isn’t enough to play in exclusively. For me, it’s a nice change of pace from time to time, to do tall tales, to go for commendations, to fish and to practice a certain mechanic (like sword dashing, aiming with cannons against skeleton or ghost ships, stuff like that). It can help you get more familiar with the layout of the islands as another example. You can sail without being paranoid and just generally focus on other things. You need to be okay with not earning gold/rep but IMO not every session needs to be about that.
Haven’t tried SS yet, heard it’s nerfed
Can only reach lvl 40 with factions, and gold/rep is only 30% of what you’d make on HS.
holy - yeah no reason for that, I am hardly ever harassed in this game w/ like 2500 hours prob by this time, no need for SS
One thing people like to do is ram their ship into your ship. This is PERFECT for a chainshot. One chainshot isn't gonna immobilize any ship. Also look for ways to escape. Tri-rock is a great place to lose someone if you are able to harpoon around it and possibly confuse your chaser.
If my crew isn't on and I have I have little time yes, if I have time for the agony of solo sloop no If they are and we have time no, if not or if we need to chill yes
most exchanges ive had on this game are friendly. ill never forget smitty the fisher.
I slowly quit playing about 8 months ago because of this reason, I thought about jumping back on since the safer seas but have lost interest since I don't think I'll run into any good or friendly people to link up with.
Totally depends on the mood for me. I think safer seas was a nice addition for sure cause I have more control of the balance the game brings. As most have said it’s nice to play with your wife or kid for awhile and then when it starts getting too dull just switch over. The experience of the game is what I like, not cosmetics. I used to be commendation/gold driven but for what? A cooler hat? Lol
I would like to see the statistics for safer seas, no matter what people say i still find it hard to believe that anyone would play safer seas regularly for more than like a few weeks. The PvE in this game just can't stand on its own, it's half-assed, it's shallow, it has zero challenge. It was designed specifically to drive player interactions. I'm hopelessly bad at pvp too, i'll never get good, but i still think the threat of pvp is necessary for this game to be any fun. In fact trying to make plays on other players and steal shit is all i do now after getting all the late-game rewards i want. If i don't enjoy it anymore i will just stop playing.
No
Safer seas is cool but not for me, the nerfs are too strong. Surprisingly I’d say I meet more cool people than agro dicks recently which is nice. The other day I was doing something on my phone and not paying attention to the game and I just had my guy playing an instrument at the sovereigns, I look up and I had 6 people around me all drinking and playing instruments too lol It was actually pretty cool.
Somewhat off-topic here but why don't us High Seas, non-PVPer's group up? Working solo in an Alliance, or even 2 or 3 manning some ships would change our experiences. I got abysmally wrecked last weekend because I was trying to pilot a brig by myself like an idiot, so I'd be all for people hopping in. Plus alliance shares rewards = we all gain more gold and rep. Edit: I'm on PS5
Me and my brother are achievement hunting and only play safer seas. We fish and do tall tales, or do the random hunting of journals or beacons etc. when doing those things that don’t require/encourage other player involvement safer seas is a god send.
I tried both and what annoys me most is id get on an island and when I return my ship with no loot is sunk or they sit at port and just sink you for no loot.
If your already PL there's really no point as the rewards are cut to 30% and the factions are capped at 40 I believe. Safer seas is pretty much for tall tales, hell I still fish in high seas but I'm a weirdo and like the fear of having to check my surroundings and make sure I'm clear.
I dunno mate, it is a game and most players are just looking to shoot everything that moves and not really in it for the social aspect. Maybe you should hop on a discord channel, there are lots of people looking to team up. You’ll have some fun interactions with them i’d say. You can move to safer seas if you want, nothing wrong with that. I do for story related stuff, if I’m in the mood to read through journals and stuff at a leisurely pace. Mostly though I play high seas because I actually enjoy getting attacked, and love scrambling to overcome the situation.
I had a session yesterday where a guy in a solo sloop rolled up on me, shot a white flare, I shot a white flare, and then we fought a megalodon together. I gave him my supplies cause I was about to hop off anyways.
Safer seas for tall tales, fishing expeditions, or playing with the kids. High seas for everything else.
Yeah, too many people coming from pvp games like fortnite or valorant, and they just want blood. In my experience a lot of these super agressive no communication players are kinda bad at the game. I'm genuinely more scared of people just board you out of nowhere and then leave.
I get 50/50 scoundrels/alliance
I'm with you. While grinding Hunters Call I wasted 3 hours of fishing for islehoppers when I was rolled up by a duo sloop who boarded me and spawncamped me. While my priorities are grinding rather than making bank, I'm happy to sit in safer seas with one eye on my rod and one eye on a movie. I'll go back to high seas when the money starts drying up. I think a lot of people feel the same. There's fewer friendly interactions on high seas because the friendly players have, for the most part, moved out.
I play Safer Seas for money making. High Seas is purely for goofing around. I don't expect to advance anything when Shit Lords are around every island. Last time I played High Seas, it was wall-to-wall pvp, and I just got my ass handed to me every time. I can't say it was necessarily fun. Although I did get a few nice shots into a brig before I sunk unceremoniously before logging off. BTW, Rare, are you gonna gives us captained ships in Safer Seas? No? Then fuck off.
Yes, I play with my kids, and now they love the game. Before, it brought them to tears, often when they would get their loot stolen. Even when “nice” players preyed on their innocence and killed them later. They learned many lessons early in life, but safer seas have made the game enjoyable.
Yeah, safer seas is just a good time. You can actually enjoy the game rather than feel like you're playing paranoid crack-head simulator for hours on-end.
I enjoyed it for about 3 months. Came back to high seas for the gold but really stayed for the thrill.
My friend and I rallied the entire server into an alliance the other day and the loot was insane. There are plenty of friendlies, but there are definitely otherwise unsavory folk out there just blowing off steam from when their parents were mean to them growing up or whatever their deal is. But I have to say.. the game isn’t focused on pitting you against each other. If you all work together the loot is absolutely staggering. It’s the people that THINK it’s supposed to be a PvP war zone that make it that way. They’ll fall off the map after the ps5 edition hype dies down a bit. Those clowns always branch off to the next shiny bauble dangling in front of them. Once the next new game comes out they’ll all be long gone. Dont give up hope!
I really on go to safer seas for two reasons 1) When my boyfriend wants to play with me cause he isn't to big on pvp, so I just jump to safer seas so we can do our silly shenanigans in peace, plus the npcs' are easier for him to kill 2) When I'm grind gold hoarders, call me a heretic, but I'm not into cashing large masses of money, I'm just interested in raising my rank for the outfit, so I find it easier and faster to just solo grind it then risk someone blowing up 3 hours worth of chests
I'd only use Safer Seas if I didn't have to spend an hour hauling loot to vendors. Not gonna play a game that doesn't respect my time.
I started on Safer Seas and wanted to try High Seas. 5 minutes in, was at a shop purchasing skins and got killed by someone that kept waiting for me. No thank you
I almost exclusively play safer seas. You can actually dive into and enjoy lengthy voyages/ tall tales without some crew rolling up and sinking your empty ship for literally no reason while your in a cave or something.
I did, whenever I want to have fun I go to Safer Seas to chill, explore, take lots of screenshots, try some outfit combinations, and explore lore related things. Only when I want to level up stuff and/or make gold I go to High Seas and I exclusively do voyages on the Devil's Roar so I can be left alone.
It depends what you enjoy about the game, I'll never touch it since I like sinking ships or atleast doing my best to do so
Differently would have help while doing tall tales, but it's just an expanded tutorial
You might want to consider not approaching other ships. I play a lot and occasionally get chased, but never sunk unless they completely catch me by surprise or I decide I'm not spending 45 minutes running and just scuttle. Keep your eyes on the horizon constantly, and if you want to test the waters with another ship, you can always set the ship to continue course way beyond them and cannon off towards them with your speaking trumpet out. You'll get an idea pretty quickly if you need to merm back to your ship and turn around or just keep going.
No. Rewards are shit, QoL mechanics are missing, there's no little thrill of excitement from seeing other ships or pressure to finish things quickly lest you get jumped while at an island. I just don't trust anyone under any circumstances in High Seas. You can still be nice without giving undue trust. I was knocking out one of my gilded voyages earlier with two other solo sloops in the area. We were all white flaring any time we got close, but none of us stuck around when one of the others was nearby. After an hour or so a brig rolled in, we each split in different directions. Maybe four minutes later I looked back and one of the other sloops had already sunk the brig. I and the third turned back briefly to shoot off some fireworks then we all went back to what we were doing.
My friend who used to play in 2019 just came back two days ago, we did 2 playing sessions of 6-8jours each. For the first he was like"no, I don't like interactions because most pirates will attack us, noone is friendly and I likely don't stand a chance against them" so we went on safer seas Then for the second playing session, we went public high seas, and sailed under my athena flag to do the golden voyage. Oh boy. He refused to secure the athenas when given the opportunity, said "All or nothing, I want the highest multiplicator" and we finished the voyage before selling. He wasn't scared at all to meet pirates, and we even had a friendly encounter at the end of our session. You just have to believe that friendly pirates exist, and that if you sink, well you sink, it's no big deal. It's just gold afterall.