This has to be why. I have played both Xbox only and PC with cross play. I could play without much interruption on the Xbox. PC is non stop action for my wife and I.
I'm in controller-lobby only but cross-play turned on and I swear every time there always a ships 😂 Last two days was two friendly thou with mix of non-fliendly. And it was a very fun battle.
Calmer? I was on a brig the other day trying to teach a brand new player how "yarrrrrrg". We had 3 reapers on us within 15 minutes. We clearly aren't playing the same game.
Your one evening doesn't define the overall vibe of each server type. Controller only is calmer, that doesn't been chaos doesn't happen. It's just calmer.
My theory is any intelligent streaming is going to stream on PC due to the tools available to them. Therefore the ones looking for content are primarily on PC.
Nearly every session I play on Xbox only is calm. I don't seek other players and others don't seem to seek me.
So I must have divine luck.
I'm also frequently everywhere but the roar.
I have a theory that there is some sort of SBMM. When my buddies server hop the enemies are not even challenging. I queue and I have to fight a lobby filled with people who haven't touched grass in 5 years.
Maybe I play a couple weeks every season and don't touch the game otherwise. Perhaps similar to Fornite they throw you in with newer players for the first couple matches back
Ya idk. New players are also frequently left alone. I like hunting emissaries but if I board and see noob cosmetics and a low level mission on the table.... I take the curse balls and good food then leave.
Oh I run guild emissary the entire time I play. My ship is a mismatched rainbow vessel. Not that you can tell until you're close, but yeah most don't bother getting close enough to find out.
> I have a theory that there is some sort of SBMM.
There was a content creator - not one of the huge SoT ones, I can't for the life of me remember who though - that tried the game on a fresh new account and seemed to get matched with similar-houred newbies. I wouldn't even know how to find the video again, but there does seem to be a little bit of evidence for this.
You shoudl expect to get chased down for hours as a fresh spawn by double gunning wizards that drop from the heavens fishing pole in hand screaming racial slurs on every single server.
or
You never meet a single soul despite rocking all your weenie hut jr emporium cosmetics while banging out a 10 stack FOTD.
The game is also cyclical so in the beginning of the season there is a lot of hub bub and all the old salts come back to pillage and reave. There has been some theorizing that new players get put into new player servers to protect them when they first start. Saw a youtube that gave some credence to that claim but its not proven.
vote up a reapers emissary and start stacking some FOTD you should usually find some people.
I think the noob lobbies is true. I’m new to the game and usually do okay but then I joined up with some people from the discord and everyone we ran into was crazy sweaty one pumping me bunny hopping calling me bad :(
And here's me - just installed the game today. 90% of people I saw shot me, sunk my ship, cannonballed me, stole my loot, and kept on killing me until I had to leave because I can barely find my way around the menus, let alone put up any kind of fight back. I did see like 2 guys who didn't shoot me though. 1 showed me where to go to sell a chest while I was running round like a headless chicken at all the wrong vendors trying to sell it quick before I got shot again.
I feel like it's going to take forever to get the 250k for a ship at this rate.
Using the reapers flag(glowing red skull) by chance?(not the emissary) if so, that makes you visible to everyone on the map, could be why you're seeing so much action. Or you're just getting spicy servers lol you'll enjoy them way more once you get the hang of things!
This is a great way to be even more frustrated. Too many trolls you’ll waste a lot of effort. You’re much better off soloing, using the LFG posts on Xbox, or finding a discord dedicated to that sort of thing
Its a mixed bag. Some days it feels like I'm hunted by the entire server relentlessly.
Other days like today, I don't meet anyone. Even the grade five reaper who surfaced one island away immediately turned around and went the opposite direction of me and another ship abandoned an outpost as I came over the horizon (thanks for the two chests you left behind!) Sea of Thieves is like a box of chocolates.
It depends on your server capacity, and the players within it. Some players may be doing tall tales avoiding conflict/other people, or you may find a server with a 3 ship alliance that will never stop chasing you just for your chain shot/supplies. It's hit and miss and never the same because of those revolving aspects. You can always scuttle/dive to new server until your find one with active world events. If you want action go do the big boy forts. If you're aimlessly sailing around digging up chests, and doing menial tasks then it's less likely you run into other ships. If you're that desperate for enemy interaction run the reaper flag/emissary. Eventually someone will come for your head, and you'll probably wish you had peace and quiet again lol.
I run ps5, crossplay off and controllers preferable.
I'm rarely attacked, but when I am, you'd better believe I've got my 6year old on the cannons and we are sinking with 50k loot.
How dare you haha. 90% of the time I'm playing I just want to be left alone and it almost never happens.
As others mentioned, playing on PS5 only with controllers preferred makes this more likely and makes you less likely to run into sweaty pirates with thousands of PVP hours and such, but it's never a guarantee. If you're looking for that and crossplay is off, turn it on and it's just a matter of time.
I’m on Xbox and have open crossplay, we considered doing controllers only but decided to wait until we felt we were getting messed up too much. And now here we are
Oh man you’re so lucky, I regularly got wrecked by day 1 players with cross play on. Occasionally some people like that were friendly but seriously one or two out of ten at best.
I've had runs like you where nothing has happened. Then we did a raid, Treasure vault, and maps all in go once, then was ready to set sail to an outpost only to be attacked by a skeleton ship, won, chased by a Meg, then a kraken (the one and only time we've even seen one), and then finally taken out by a real ship. It was nuts. It's truly a mixed bag of WTF sometimes, and honestly, it's what I like about the game. I can play Fornite, Fallout 76, Stardew Valley, and other games all day long and actually get bored, but this one keeps me on my toes because the servers aren't always the same.
Your time will come, it is really dependant on where you are sailing and what times. I have gone for 3 or 4 sessions with no real conflict and then had 3 or 4 sessions in a row where it has just been carnage. Just remember safer seas is only %13.3 the amount of gold excluding other adjustments for perks like sovereigns if you run an emissary grade 5 flag on high seas.
So if you do get a bad run stick it out on high seas 👍
We get attacked if we are doing tall tales but if we dont do them no one is chasing us. The best part is that we are telling them most of the time that we are doing a tall tale and dont have loot but get chased anyway xD
What region are you located in and which platform have you been playing on? If you PC then it is because of mid-season prolly. Plus summer. I guess more console players prefers to play vs controllers only. But maybe is just empty servers in your region. EU and US are totally full, no empty servers unless you play 6 hours in a row then it merge. 🤔
I’m in the us on Xbox with open crossplay, we were gonna do controller only but decided to see how badly we’d get fucked up if not and so far haven’t needed to change it.
It really varies. Even in the last couple of weeks I’ve had servers where I’ve stacked >200k solo undisturbed flying emissary, then other servers on a brig where we got attacked like 5 minutes from starting outpost and ran away to gather more supplies, before sailing into a 4 ship battle at FoF.
Sounds like you’ve had a long run of good or bad luck, depending what you want from the game. If you just want to grind for Pirate Legend, you’ve been very lucky but if you’re wanting to PvP and improve at the game, pretty unlucky!
That’s the average experience tbh
Unless your actively server hop to find a hot server you’re at the whim of RNG and, in my personal experience, you can have hefty time invested sessions with absolutely zero interaction
I’m not gonna lie, 65-80% of my encounter with other players is because I’m actively spending time looking for them and not the other way around.
Honestly is mind blowing, I’m EU and would play fairly consistently for solid sessions. Majority go unnoticed, just smashing vaults and chilling at world events hoping someone sails in and nothing. 2000+ hours if it even matters and it’s been that way for a long time, server capacity helped *finding* people but that’s it.
THAT BEING SAID, the occasions you are jumped being ready for it is a blast and when you do find people, which isn’t that hard really just takes your time, it can be a genuine giggle.
Managed to do glitterbeard with two random crews recently mind you, held together at that tree for 20 minutes just standing talking. Games a masterpiece, just is what it is.
I started up the game for the first time in months yesterday. Just wanted to see the new weapons and mechanics. Had spent a few minutes looking at one of the vendors and heard cannons. Sure enough... brig rolled up and is firing on me anchored in port. I just scuttled to a new server so I could finish shopping new looks. Welcome back I guess?
I get attacked pretty often usually at ports. I had heard the PS5 only servers were less aggressive, so I gave it a go yesterday. My ship was attacked within 3 minutes of spawning while I was still gathering supplies for it. Next game in the crossplay server we were doing really well, went to port died to a meg who hit the exact spot we had powder kegs at. We managed to get all our loot back went to port started to sell our stuff, boom players sunk our ship and killed us. I get attacked at ports like every time I play while I'm off my ship, its killing the game for me a little.
Try doing some fort of fortunes or fort of the damned and youll have a fight in no time. Heck i rarely even manage to complete a skeleton lord raid before somone shows up.
Physical location, server type, boat type, playing hours, and playstyle all factor into that. And, to some degree, emissary flags, reaper's mark flags, and other cosmetics.
Are you frequently doing world events (especially Fort of Fortune)? I would imagine you'd run into some players if you were doing those regularly, except maybe Ashen Winds raids if you're fast.
There's a theory that newer players get put in servers together until a certain amount of playtime then they start being put in "regular" lobbies. I've tested this with an alt account once and couldn't find a single decent fight which more or less confirmed my suspicion. I've seen videos about it but can't remember who from.
If this is a real thing kept hidden by the devs it's possible you're in a server with noobs who don't want any action.
You will either find hella chill peeps at few and far between or be inundated with a plethora of PvP peeps out for your loot.
It depends largely on what time of day you play and pure luck a lot of the time
Are you playing PS5 or controller only? People used to swear controller/"Xbox" lobbies were calmer.
Yeah. Years ago I would be attacked a lot. Last night I played with my buddies and nobody attacked us.
This has to be why. I have played both Xbox only and PC with cross play. I could play without much interruption on the Xbox. PC is non stop action for my wife and I.
I'm in controller-lobby only but cross-play turned on and I swear every time there always a ships 😂 Last two days was two friendly thou with mix of non-fliendly. And it was a very fun battle.
Calmer? I was on a brig the other day trying to teach a brand new player how "yarrrrrrg". We had 3 reapers on us within 15 minutes. We clearly aren't playing the same game.
Your one evening doesn't define the overall vibe of each server type. Controller only is calmer, that doesn't been chaos doesn't happen. It's just calmer. My theory is any intelligent streaming is going to stream on PC due to the tools available to them. Therefore the ones looking for content are primarily on PC.
This is every session. I have thousands of hours and I can say for certain your wrong. Also, nearly every other comment disagrees.
Nearly every session I play on Xbox only is calm. I don't seek other players and others don't seem to seek me. So I must have divine luck. I'm also frequently everywhere but the roar.
I have a theory that there is some sort of SBMM. When my buddies server hop the enemies are not even challenging. I queue and I have to fight a lobby filled with people who haven't touched grass in 5 years.
Maybe I play a couple weeks every season and don't touch the game otherwise. Perhaps similar to Fornite they throw you in with newer players for the first couple matches back
Ya idk. New players are also frequently left alone. I like hunting emissaries but if I board and see noob cosmetics and a low level mission on the table.... I take the curse balls and good food then leave.
Oh I run guild emissary the entire time I play. My ship is a mismatched rainbow vessel. Not that you can tell until you're close, but yeah most don't bother getting close enough to find out.
> I have a theory that there is some sort of SBMM. There was a content creator - not one of the huge SoT ones, I can't for the life of me remember who though - that tried the game on a fresh new account and seemed to get matched with similar-houred newbies. I wouldn't even know how to find the video again, but there does seem to be a little bit of evidence for this.
I watched it too. I believe I linked it on this subreddit
No we’re on Xbox and have it set to crossplay
Huh! I got nothing other that it's the end of the Season, then.
Yea I’m sure it’s just a coincidence of sorts I’m sure it’ll pick up
You shoudl expect to get chased down for hours as a fresh spawn by double gunning wizards that drop from the heavens fishing pole in hand screaming racial slurs on every single server. or You never meet a single soul despite rocking all your weenie hut jr emporium cosmetics while banging out a 10 stack FOTD. The game is also cyclical so in the beginning of the season there is a lot of hub bub and all the old salts come back to pillage and reave. There has been some theorizing that new players get put into new player servers to protect them when they first start. Saw a youtube that gave some credence to that claim but its not proven. vote up a reapers emissary and start stacking some FOTD you should usually find some people.
I think the noob lobbies is true. I’m new to the game and usually do okay but then I joined up with some people from the discord and everyone we ran into was crazy sweaty one pumping me bunny hopping calling me bad :(
idk about that i keep finding lot of newbie in my lobbies and me and my friend have been playing since back when seasons dropped basically
This would make sense I’m playing open crossplay on Xbox so I figured it would have been a lot worse
You’re an anomaly
ANOMALY?? !!
I’m kinda over it lol we have enough money that idc about my loot really I want some anxiety in my play time
I’ll trade places with you lol
I could for maybe just one session lol
And here's me - just installed the game today. 90% of people I saw shot me, sunk my ship, cannonballed me, stole my loot, and kept on killing me until I had to leave because I can barely find my way around the menus, let alone put up any kind of fight back. I did see like 2 guys who didn't shoot me though. 1 showed me where to go to sell a chest while I was running round like a headless chicken at all the wrong vendors trying to sell it quick before I got shot again. I feel like it's going to take forever to get the 250k for a ship at this rate.
Just add me bro I’ll help you
Using the reapers flag(glowing red skull) by chance?(not the emissary) if so, that makes you visible to everyone on the map, could be why you're seeing so much action. Or you're just getting spicy servers lol you'll enjoy them way more once you get the hang of things!
Start doing open lobby
This is a great way to be even more frustrated. Too many trolls you’ll waste a lot of effort. You’re much better off soloing, using the LFG posts on Xbox, or finding a discord dedicated to that sort of thing
Play the tutorials and use the safer seas for now, and when you know what you are doing go back to the high seas.
Just join with random people and help them complete quests. You’ll be able to learn from them while making a good amount of gold.!
Yea you gotta find a way into my lobbies
Sea forts make it real easy to get that first 250k fwiw, make sure you raise an emissary flag as soon as you can
Its a mixed bag. Some days it feels like I'm hunted by the entire server relentlessly. Other days like today, I don't meet anyone. Even the grade five reaper who surfaced one island away immediately turned around and went the opposite direction of me and another ship abandoned an outpost as I came over the horizon (thanks for the two chests you left behind!) Sea of Thieves is like a box of chocolates.
It depends on your server capacity, and the players within it. Some players may be doing tall tales avoiding conflict/other people, or you may find a server with a 3 ship alliance that will never stop chasing you just for your chain shot/supplies. It's hit and miss and never the same because of those revolving aspects. You can always scuttle/dive to new server until your find one with active world events. If you want action go do the big boy forts. If you're aimlessly sailing around digging up chests, and doing menial tasks then it's less likely you run into other ships. If you're that desperate for enemy interaction run the reaper flag/emissary. Eventually someone will come for your head, and you'll probably wish you had peace and quiet again lol.
I can’t buy the reaper emissary yet but I’m doing mostly voyages and forts, just started doing tall tales
Lemme come steal your loot
I need some anxiety in my life
I get hunted down like I'm Gold Roger
I run ps5, crossplay off and controllers preferable. I'm rarely attacked, but when I am, you'd better believe I've got my 6year old on the cannons and we are sinking with 50k loot.
This made my day 😆
Nice, ha
How dare you haha. 90% of the time I'm playing I just want to be left alone and it almost never happens. As others mentioned, playing on PS5 only with controllers preferred makes this more likely and makes you less likely to run into sweaty pirates with thousands of PVP hours and such, but it's never a guarantee. If you're looking for that and crossplay is off, turn it on and it's just a matter of time.
I’m on Xbox and have open crossplay, we considered doing controllers only but decided to wait until we felt we were getting messed up too much. And now here we are
Oh man you’re so lucky, I regularly got wrecked by day 1 players with cross play on. Occasionally some people like that were friendly but seriously one or two out of ten at best.
Dang, I need some scoundrels in my server lol
Consider yourself very lucky. Sooner or later you will run into some real tyrants.
I've had runs like you where nothing has happened. Then we did a raid, Treasure vault, and maps all in go once, then was ready to set sail to an outpost only to be attacked by a skeleton ship, won, chased by a Meg, then a kraken (the one and only time we've even seen one), and then finally taken out by a real ship. It was nuts. It's truly a mixed bag of WTF sometimes, and honestly, it's what I like about the game. I can play Fornite, Fallout 76, Stardew Valley, and other games all day long and actually get bored, but this one keeps me on my toes because the servers aren't always the same.
Your time will come, it is really dependant on where you are sailing and what times. I have gone for 3 or 4 sessions with no real conflict and then had 3 or 4 sessions in a row where it has just been carnage. Just remember safer seas is only %13.3 the amount of gold excluding other adjustments for perks like sovereigns if you run an emissary grade 5 flag on high seas. So if you do get a bad run stick it out on high seas 👍
We get attacked if we are doing tall tales but if we dont do them no one is chasing us. The best part is that we are telling them most of the time that we are doing a tall tale and dont have loot but get chased anyway xD
What region are you located in and which platform have you been playing on? If you PC then it is because of mid-season prolly. Plus summer. I guess more console players prefers to play vs controllers only. But maybe is just empty servers in your region. EU and US are totally full, no empty servers unless you play 6 hours in a row then it merge. 🤔
I’m in the us on Xbox with open crossplay, we were gonna do controller only but decided to see how badly we’d get fucked up if not and so far haven’t needed to change it.
It really varies. Even in the last couple of weeks I’ve had servers where I’ve stacked >200k solo undisturbed flying emissary, then other servers on a brig where we got attacked like 5 minutes from starting outpost and ran away to gather more supplies, before sailing into a 4 ship battle at FoF. Sounds like you’ve had a long run of good or bad luck, depending what you want from the game. If you just want to grind for Pirate Legend, you’ve been very lucky but if you’re wanting to PvP and improve at the game, pretty unlucky!
Turn on "crossplay" in your settings if you're on console. Console lobbies are a lot calmer.
It’s been set to on
Then me and my crew will find you sooner or later
I need some anxiety in my life ha
That’s the average experience tbh Unless your actively server hop to find a hot server you’re at the whim of RNG and, in my personal experience, you can have hefty time invested sessions with absolutely zero interaction I’m not gonna lie, 65-80% of my encounter with other players is because I’m actively spending time looking for them and not the other way around.
You’re the only comment who experiences similar things so far. And I do have open crossplay on and I’m on Xbox
Honestly is mind blowing, I’m EU and would play fairly consistently for solid sessions. Majority go unnoticed, just smashing vaults and chilling at world events hoping someone sails in and nothing. 2000+ hours if it even matters and it’s been that way for a long time, server capacity helped *finding* people but that’s it. THAT BEING SAID, the occasions you are jumped being ready for it is a blast and when you do find people, which isn’t that hard really just takes your time, it can be a genuine giggle. Managed to do glitterbeard with two random crews recently mind you, held together at that tree for 20 minutes just standing talking. Games a masterpiece, just is what it is.
I’m going to keep that in mind in particular, when I find someone “take my time,” thanks
I started up the game for the first time in months yesterday. Just wanted to see the new weapons and mechanics. Had spent a few minutes looking at one of the vendors and heard cannons. Sure enough... brig rolled up and is firing on me anchored in port. I just scuttled to a new server so I could finish shopping new looks. Welcome back I guess?
I get attacked pretty often usually at ports. I had heard the PS5 only servers were less aggressive, so I gave it a go yesterday. My ship was attacked within 3 minutes of spawning while I was still gathering supplies for it. Next game in the crossplay server we were doing really well, went to port died to a meg who hit the exact spot we had powder kegs at. We managed to get all our loot back went to port started to sell our stuff, boom players sunk our ship and killed us. I get attacked at ports like every time I play while I'm off my ship, its killing the game for me a little.
Try doing some fort of fortunes or fort of the damned and youll have a fight in no time. Heck i rarely even manage to complete a skeleton lord raid before somone shows up.
We have done the skeleton lord 2 times, no one in sight. We hit the forts with the phantoms every time we pass one too
Meanwhile I had 2 gallys and a pvp sweat of a sloop terrorizing my crew for over an hour last night lol
Just sounds like favorable winds and waves, this will not always be so. 🏴☠️
You ready? The zombies are coming
Physical location, server type, boat type, playing hours, and playstyle all factor into that. And, to some degree, emissary flags, reaper's mark flags, and other cosmetics. Are you frequently doing world events (especially Fort of Fortune)? I would imagine you'd run into some players if you were doing those regularly, except maybe Ashen Winds raids if you're fast.
There's a theory that newer players get put in servers together until a certain amount of playtime then they start being put in "regular" lobbies. I've tested this with an alt account once and couldn't find a single decent fight which more or less confirmed my suspicion. I've seen videos about it but can't remember who from. If this is a real thing kept hidden by the devs it's possible you're in a server with noobs who don't want any action.
Do the hour glass. Easy pvp exp.
Ohhhh yea, we Have done that and honestly completely forgot and a 3rd ship actually floated in on the fight, so you got me here
You will either find hella chill peeps at few and far between or be inundated with a plethora of PvP peeps out for your loot. It depends largely on what time of day you play and pure luck a lot of the time