Oh, things have been...interesting.
I don’t know where to start, but I’ll start here. Sea of Thieves got a lot more popular recently, or the servers were condensing something fierce, because one of the times we popped on to do some adventuring, we found no less than three, maybe four active Player ships in the immediate area. Which of course, is detrimental to our play.
This is in addition to increased Megalodon attacks, and a surprising number of Skeleton Ships to boot.
We managed to avoid most of the player ships, and only had to fight a few of the Skele-ships, but at some point, when we were going to unload a pile of loot, we noticed a Galleon was headed right for the docks. There’s no way we’re gonna mess with a Galleon, so we abandoned our approach and started to head for another port. We couldn’t just log off, with this pile of lucre in our hold. No way.
I just look at his avatar and say “These are kids who probably grief each other in Minecraft, and threaten SWAT strikes on each other in Overwatch and other shooters. There’s no way in fuck they intend to ‘join us’. What they want is to sink us, and possibly raid the loot we have. Not necessarily in that order. “
He tries again, while I take evasive maneuvers, dodging around islands one way, before accelerating in another direction the other. Try to throw them off course and make them lose interest.
They keep following.
We can’t dock anywhere because they are about two minutes behind us. So we keep skipping outposts, heading deeper and deeper into the Wilds, and eventually the Devil’s Roar area.
We get a good break at one point; after leading them on a merry chase through the volcanic islands (passing uncomfortably close to some big boomers chucking rocks), we lead them back into the Ancient Isles. We almost have enough of a lead to ditch some stuff.
And then the Kraken arrives. Normally this is a scary thing, but me and my friend are quite good at surviving the beast. A Sloop is easier to maintain under pressure than a Brig or a Galleon. So, time for a quick plan; I aim the hull as best I can for clean water (Kraken water being sticky, poisonous and black), which happens to be off to one side.
Those over-eager kids thought they could gank us easy and steal our shit. But less than a minute later, they’re fighting just to stay afloat, since I guided them right between two or three tentacles.
A Sloop is easier to maintain under pressure than a Brig or Galleon. Those kids were trying to fight it off, but for every second they spent shooting, it wasn’t spent patching hull or using the bilge bucket. In other words, they risked sinking, just because they wanted us.
We fought free of the Kraken, and ran for a storm. We normally avoid storms, but this one was special; it had a fog bank it was running into. Between the two, it’d be suicide to chase us. We finally lost them, hiding in the fog on the edge of a storm.
Finally ended up dumping our stuff, but not before killing a Megalodon that had been tracking us for 20 more minutes.
That was all earlier in the week.
Tonight, we had our clashes with skeleton ships, got a bunch of loot, watched some morons wedge their Brig right between some rocks and get it sunk because they don’t know how to dock or they thought they were being clever.
Right near the end, we were in the volcanic islands, ready to dump our prizes. Problem is, there was a Brig on the other side of the island. So, because we were carrying a Chest of Sorrows (fuck that thing), we did a drive-by and my friend leaped off to cash the chest in while I went for open water and got away before the Brig could mobilize.
Only it didn’t.
My friend went aboard, and looked around. Not to loot, but to get an idea of who owned this ship. He called in public chat on the island to see if anyone was around. No answer. Searched the ship and island top to bottom; no other players. Just a brig in port with no crew.
And a shit ton of ammo.
At a quick glance, he related to me that there was over 300+ cannon balls, over 50 special balls of different types, and hundreds of planks. Not to mention about a dozen or more gunpowder kegs.
So... being that the ship was abandoned, was clearly ready for war, and we couldn’t steal it without the crew spawning in on us.. he took the ship into the bay, transferred all the gunpowder to the main deck, and waited for me.
I got our little sloop close enough for a quick rescue. He set the charges and dived overboard.
Oh the explosion was SPECTACULAR. I wish I’d screenshot it. Fireball on deck, and fire shooting out of every window on the mid-deck. We had to have blown every possible hole in that ship in one shot.
At the last moment, as my friend was leaping off, though...someone spawned in.
They tried to follow him to our ship, as they survived the catastrophic death of their ship.
We booked it, ran, and made it to port, where a miscommunication left our ship foundering on the rocks while my friend ran ashore to look for the crew of that ship so he could return stuff. (he’s too nice).
Well... an eye for an eye. While he was on shore and I was trying to patch the holes I had inadvertently ground into the deck (seriously, you rely on someone to reduce sail, and they don’t tell you they jumped overboard 30 seconds ago...), and suddenly there’s some rapid explosions on our main deck that end up killing me.
I know our ship is sinking and let my friend know. While I wait to spawn in, he tells me there’s some guy there, and he apparently sunk our boat in rapid fashion (a later realization is that he used OUR gunpowder kegs against us in one shot).
I spawn in near my friend and see him finish off the guy, before climbing into the badly smashed dinghy we’d had at the back. After a bit more dying (sharks) and respawning, I ask him if we lost everything or if that guy stole anything.
We lost nothing. the guy had tried to use our Dinghy to save all the stuff we had on our ship when it sunk. He’d loaded it up...and then we took our stuff back from him. We lost nothing but our ship.
Fair’s fair I suppose. If he was the owner of that other ship, we blew it up. So he blew up our ship. And we kept our stuff cuz we killed him and he didn’t spawn anywhere near us.
My friend feels bad for what we did. I don’t. Because I know that guy would have done the same thing if he’d found our boat unattended. Which he did, actually. It’s how this game is played, and it’s why I avoid other players at all costs.
Just can’t trust people. ;)
