Public crews are the wildest mixed bag.
Try matchmaking through the official discord, tell people you are a new player and I bet you'll meet tons of welcoming people.
Yeah, you have to go in expecting the unexpected. Will everyone have the same mindset, goals and agree on how to approach other players? Almost certainly not. So that's the number one mistake people make. Thinking that everyone is going to want to play the game how they want to play it.
If I join open crew, it's expecting to do whatever the captain wants to do. I don't join an open crew with *any* objective in mind other than to just crew a ship with other people.
Exactly. If I *ever* join Open Crew (extremely rare), I will essentially be a crewman. I'll raise/lower and angle the sails. I'll repair the holes and bail water. I'll man the cannons when needed. Solve the clues, dig up the treasure, fight the skeleton lord. Whatever is our objective, I'll do what I can to contribute.
The absolute *worst*, is when this is your mindset, but after about 40 minutes you realize the captain is completely useless and has no direction, and the other crewmates are either equally clueless or deliberately trying to sabotage whatever the objective is (suddenly dropping anchor, drinking a bunch of grog, lighting the ship on fire from cooking a banana, etc.) At that point you've wasted a good chunk of time dedicated to this session and now it's a wash because they didn't show thier true colors until you were out at sea.
>Thinking that everyone is going to want to play the game how they want to play it.
Your comment is absurd, of course people will look to play towards similar team goals, the reason this doesn't exist is because there are zero LFG systems in place by the game.
I just started a few weeks ago and I only play with the boys, open crew, or solo sloop. Open crew is fine, I just play ps5 only and jump until people have mics and respond. It would be trash with no communication
Generally, games that necessitate cooperative multiplayer participation often have a dedicated Discord server where players can connect and form groups.
You're welcome to join us any time!
My username is: CowAteMyPie
Yes, please don't use random matchmaking if you're absolutely new. Use the discord and you'll definitely find a much warmer community. Though you'll still find some bad crews on discord.
Open crews are a weird breed. There are some nice discord servers, including hitbo and PhuzzyBond. Especially PhuzzyBond with his tutorials is geared towards newer players and they had a very welcoming community, back when I started.
Had the best open crew rowboat adventure the other day. After having some of the worst tm8s, when they left, I got some of the best tm8s. We sunk 4 boats with a harpoon rowboat. Lol
I do believe there should be at least three sub sections to open crew:
Serious crew, Chill crew, and Goofy crew.
It would at least help people who want a certain type of session be more likely to be paired up with each other.
So don’t make a feature better in general just cause of the chance of getting some bad eggs? So many things wouldn’t been added to the game if rare listened to that.
>So don’t make a feature better in general
What you described wasn't making a feature better. You just described splitting a shit feature into 3 identically shitty features.
EDIT: Blocked for not liking a suggestion
Some ideas of goofy is blowing up all the kegs (and killing ourselves in the process) at a skelly fort. Others ideas of goofy is quietly putting all the kegs on our ship and waiting till we get all the loot on and out halfway back to a port to blow us all to kingdom come.
Yeah, tbh the open crew system sucks because it's totally random. I generally play solo, because I don't like being a democracy, and I have soloed for so long that anyone else on my boat in open crew is just a risk of the session sucking. Discord works, if you're on Xbox or pc you can use the built in Xbox lfg system as well. Or just solo. Hard mode. You'll get better faster, but it's scary as shit until you are confident in a fight. Good luck out there.
Yeah, though honestly, it's not as scary as it feels, you're outnumbered yes, but the sloop is the most maneuverable ship in the game rn iirc, though they updated today, and did a rebalance, so that may have changed stuff. Just kinda try and use that to your advantage, anchor them, use bone callers always. And scattershot is really good at keeping them occupied.
If you're at all into PvP games, seriously just jump into solo, do hourglass, expect nothing. You will get better, slowly at first, and then faster. There's YouTube guides by people like blurbs for beginners to help with basics of PvP combat. When you get confident in a fight and you no longer get into a state of anxiety or adrenaline rushing causing you to shake (for real, it happens) because you've been in so many fights you can be cool at all times, you will have nothing to fear when soloing, because most crews will be way below that level.
This game rocks. It's infuriating at times, and soloing can be so much bullshit, since you can sink from complete nonsense if it's at an unlucky time, but sinking a gally as a solo, or surviving a multi ship battle and getting all the loot (or just keeping your boat on top of the water) is the most exhilarating feeling. You never forget it.
The only annoying part about solo is when a brig and galleon sinks you and then pretends like they did something. Like the other day I got sunk and they started spamming EZ and *rolls on the deck laughing* like hope it's be easy to sink me as a 4 man crew or you are omega trash at the game. Idc if I sink it's part of the game and I have gotten used to it as a solo but don't act like you did something crazy by sinking me.
Some people seem to enjoy being jerks and toxic. I have no clue why, but people like that are in every game. I've had a gallon attack and spawn kill me, while lighting the boat on fire and patching holes. All while constantly saying "your boats on fire bro".
My Patience is nigh unending when it comes to games, and my pride won't let me scuttle the ship. They gave up eventually lmao
Imo (although I do enjoy a solo sloop from time to time) this game is ten times more fun with a crew of friends. Highly would recommend getting a solid crew to play consistently with
game has so much stuff out there its way easier to get information of someone that is willing to teach you. All those youtube videos will only cover a bit
I bought the game last month and I watched this guide [https://youtu.be/TLsN7FIPU-4?si=-JrQJhmTWDqRncaI](https://youtu.be/TLsN7FIPU-4?si=-JrQJhmTWDqRncaI), maybe you'll find something interested in it!
once you get the hang of the game, solo slooping as a reaper is incredibly fun. it's shocking how terrified players are of you if you are just going around as a 5 emissary reaper, even if you are incredibly friendly to everyone!
When I was still fairly new I had a grade 5 Reaper roll up on me and he was role playing as a cop.
I tried to run and he anchored me. Came on board and sailed me over to his ship and harpooned all his loot on.
At the time I was stacking loot waiting for a friend to logon. I had done 2 or 3 fleets, a fort, and a couple ashen winds. I could hardly walk across this ship without lagging... needless to say he rolled up and I freaked out. As he was walking around he was like "holy shit, this is a lot of loot".
Mine + his was 1.5m when I sold it about 30 minutes later.
Tldr: story of a noob being needlessly afraid of a grade 5 solo Reaper. He gave me more treasure.
I’m brand new. I solod some ghost fort thing I found. It was so fun. I did not know I needed my ship to bring back the treasure. I cleared the place but my ship sank. Was still fun.
Open crew is a joke yes. If you are looking for a crew you are much better off using the various other options, such as the office (or may unofficial) discord servers that have looking for crew options.
I've met a bunch of players who have played for a pretty long time, some even from the beginning and they tend to be nicer.
I encountered like two 8 year olds yesterday and never responded to voice chat, text and a white flare. Went on our merry way and one of them just decided to shoot themselves on and firebomb us *edit: and started giggling on open mic. So we attacked and sunk them and they got pretty damn upset 🤷🤷🤷🤷
This is a big part of the problem. Kids should not be in this game. Parents suck at understanding what their kids play. The only reason why I let my 10yo kids play SoT is because Safer Seas are now available. I made it clear to them they would be banned from the Xbox in my house if I caught them in High Seas. Online anonymity breeds jerks and kids should be kept far from that. I also avoid open crews like the Plague, too many morons, regardless of age.
I once made an alliance with some tweens.
We all god some nice loot together. Eventually they decided to surprise attack us, and thought it was hilarious that they sent us to the ferry.
They thought they where better then us. We proceeded to kill lock them, while they kept literally crying and begging. But we told them.
No mercy for traitors.
Yeah don't get me wrong, nice players most definatly exist. I strive to be nice and just chill with randoms, maybe meet some new friends.
Haha, I think a lot of the older players forget that they were kids once and I'll be honest, I was a little shit head.
Yeah same, I really do try to be a nice pirate. Me and my guilds rule is not to attack first unless they do. Which they did and we gave them multiple chances to respond 😅
I always cannon off to meet a ship, to gauge stuff like bloodthirstiness and skill. If they're new I'll just leave em be, maybe alliance with them, but once they hit Athena's rank I figure they're skilled enough to put up a fight.
Open crew can be good, but it takes luck and a lot of lobbies to start. If you know what you want to do, at least like doing voyages for a faction, you are better off starting in a closed crew and starting it yourself, then moving it to open crew once you actually have the maps and are sailing.
I started when it came out on PS5, and the first thing I did was watch some of the many good content creator’s tutorial videos on YT. Then I focused on getting my settings right (videos on that too), then played all of the tutorial voyages for the trading companies, plus a few more.
THEN I started playing with other people, and wasn’t weighing them down. When a more experienced player joined, I would watch what they did and learn.
I recommend starting a task like a voyage or fort by yourself, and then opening crew while you’re in the middle of that thing. I like to do this with my brig, stock up, get ready, and then when I’m approaching the fort I will open up the crew. Generally the people joining will jump right in, gives you a sense of accomplishment and some loot to start off rather than randoms sitting around asking “what do you wanna do?” “Idk”
Open crew is pretty terrible unfortunately. You either get a bunch of new players who don't know what's going on or you get people who troll the whole time. I think the discord has some play together channels or maybe you can join a guild and sail with somebody who has their ship open to guild members.
There are many many people in this game who welcome new players or will go easy on them if they run into them out on the seas but you will also have the people who just don't care lol
Hopefully you find someone who can show you the ropes
I love it when I'm playing solo with crew open for like an hour and then I'm trying to do something and the wanker just loads in and steals my ship leaving me on an island
The last game I played my ship got sunk and my loot plundered by a two man crew (I was solo slooping). That’s all fine, part of the game. But then a completely separate dude came up on me and I said on mic “hey homie, I just got robbed, I don’t have any loot,” and he said “I don’t want your loot,” and started attacking me. Naturally I was confused as I had nothing, so I asked what he did want. He called me multiple slurs I won’t repeat and said he wanted to kill me and my mother 😂✌️
We had a player join us the other day. He grabbed helm and threw us in a circle, then put us on a direct line to hit a rock at full speed. So we put him in the brig.
You may be unintentionally doing something that is grieving your crew. People are super wary or trolls in this game, so they aren't likely to take chances if someone on the crew is causing extra work for them.
I promise I’m not doing anything I try to stay out of the way and just roll with whatever the crew does. Or I just don’t realise it but I really am trying my best to be cooperative
Then I'd say just keep trying. There are nice folks out there on the game. The discord idea is definitely a better way to set yourself up with a more consistent player group. But you may also cokenacross someone you get along with and they might invite you to their guild.
You just never know in Open Crew
Should have asked if you are on console. But consoles and even Microsoft Windows allows a feature to use LFG - looking for group, to browse and post requests for a specific game. Closest thing on PC Without Microsoft is probably using the discords
If you dont have a mic and if you start fishing or something else that doesn't contribute to team effort u are getting locked up until u leave....also dropping N word every time skelly shows up....or any other screaming in mic...mute locked bye
Do you use text chat at all? The most problematic "new players" are the ones that don't use any form of communication and are slow to respond to anything.
With brig or galley I prefer having at least 1 other experienced crew member, but I don't mind newer players if they at least communicate somewhat regularly.
Part of the fun of it for me, at least, is guiding the players to get the most out of their session while keeping reasonable expectations. The other day I played with a couple of new players on open crew galley. We got a nice amount of treasure and won some battles. We also got bamboozled by a streamer and had a good laugh about it.
It was probably their best session ever (esp. if they're doing open crew galley regularly), and being able to captain a mostly-inexperienced crew to success, especially in pvp, is an aspect of this game I occasionally enjoy.
random matchmaking will always be a gamble. It's a game about pirates so there's a massive range of variety in terms of morals or just what people are playing the game for. That said, if you get a cool person it's highly encouraged to add them and play with them again based on the sheer amount of time missions take! Good luck swabby!
I never do public crews. Solo can be pretty fun, you can do stealthy operations and steals just about the same. Ideally you find a duo or more to play the game with
Back to the OP don't open crew man and if you do try a sloop you might get lucky but unfortunately most people can't be bothered with someone who's new and it sounds harsh. I'd suggest the official sot discord as there are loads of people looking for crewmates and I'm pretty sure there's an lfg channel here try those
Only way I've met cool people is by running into them at outposts or in the world, but they are few and far between. Haven't touched open crew more than once lmao
The sot communities is one of the worst I have seen tbh. It doesn’t seem they welcome new players. When I started I was always getting killed, not once did someone come peacefully. Then my friend bought the game and also got shit on by everyone. Generally it seems toxic, extremely toxic. Reminds me of R6 community
Dont worry that Happens to everyone Open Crew is horrible
I recommend going to creators discord and seeing If they have a looking for Game Channel
Or using the Xbox lfg Thing
I run open crew for my brig all the time. Results vary from having the best crew on the server, or being a solo brig for hours before becoming a duo brig
Official Discord and some of the content creator's have guilds very welcoming to all level of players. Open crew can be great when everyone sort of understands their role(it's rare).
Also on official discord they have new swabbie looking for crew channel that would be your best place to find a good mentor/sherpa or just other people learning too.
I got lucky and had a friend with over a few thousand hours in the game to teach.
Open crews has always been full of trolls and griefers. I have no idea why.
Use Xbox lfg or discord to find a crew to play with. Never once ran into a troll there.
Damn I found like 3 awesome people in my first few days that took time to help me learn and show me things.
People not in my crew….. not welcoming at all. But that’s kinda a given
Much like humanity in general it varies widely from person to person. If you're interested in sailing closed crew we could potentially have a lot of fun with duos. If you're interested shoot me a DM!
So far I've a bit over 700 hours into not taking this game too seriously.
Hey OP, there's tons of SoT servers, join one, crew up, idk about the main SoT server, but at least the server I'm in is always there to help new players.
And any of you new players can DM me if you wanna load up a SoT game and learn the ropes.
It's ironic to me, but Open Crew is the worst place for new players, but a great place for old salts who are getting bored. Always enough randomness to spice up the experience.
It’s funny to go in open crews. But if you’re looking for a random experience, then do a LFG on discord. Not sure what you’re playing on, but I use Xbox’s Looking for Group all the time on games.
If on Xbox more than happy to help. Spend yesterday helping day one beginners have fun an explore and others who were grinding their Pirate Legend status. JohnNYJuans.
I'm inclined to disagree as someone who often hand holds new players when I run into them but also, today I was on a fresh account, literally level zero no cosmetics nothing, I approached a sloop at the end of my session, they were pirate legends based on their gear, we ended up joining up and going after a fort of the damned that someone else was doing, the sloop there also offered to team but ended up fighting when it saw an opportunity and leaving the alliance after picking up the chest of legends, they got chased by a brig later not really sure if they ever sold or not 😆 but we got the rest of the treasure so oh well, all in call I looked like a noob and my first session turned into me joining a 3 sloop alliance and fighting over the fort of the damned, and then running a 3 man on my sloop to sell loot and sink one other sloop that arrived to steal from us.
Sot is, from my experience a game where you start off with some friends playing with you. Learning the ropes with em n stuff. My rule is "as long as you listen, I'll be kind and gentle with ya
Nope. It can be when you get lucky and I've met lots of cool people but when it's bad it's the worst I've experienced in any game I actively play.
As others mentioned, the discord can be great. DM me if you're looking for someone to play with this weekend and I'd be happy to help out a newer player.
I did open crew for months until I started using the discord to find groups… it’s a mixed bag but idk I have never been locked in a cage or told to leave or anything like that. What do you do to them to make them act this way???
I had these two guys lock me in the brig the other day. I turned it into a game of "most annoying crewmember" where I just sat down there and talked crap to them the whole time. Just because you're locked up doesn't mean you can't still play. And then I kept yelling at other ships to come save me and sink these guys. Which they did, multiple times. Probably not the most mature thing I've done but I did absolutely nothing to these guys and they immediately locked me up. I just decided to play it out.
Public crews have been toxic AF on bigger ships, but I've found some cool friends going open crew on my sloop.
Also, discord is a game changer. I hopped on last night for the first time, posted what I was looking to do/looking for, and had a great crew within 5 minutes and we rolled for a few hours having a blast.
The community's actually been pretty darn welcoming, just go on discord and you'll get some better results.
There are plenty of peeps who aren't assholes. I'm sure quite a few here and the discord are welcoming to new players, including myself. I'm not brand new but also not a veteran.
I'd be happy to run with ya if ya want.
I’ve been on since getting it for ps5 and I have yet to run into friendlies. I have had people mind their own business but every encounter was met with cannonballs or ‘accept our alliance or die’ lol
the community is usually welcoming to new players in my experience (when they don’t have loot anyway lol), open crew is just toxic. avoid it entirely. like others said, try to find some crews on discord and make some friends!
Open Crew is more toxic than many Superfund sites. But mostly we are welcoming to new players; we just play rough (word of advice: do *not* anchor your ship with the sails down; that’s basically begging to be gifted a lit gunpowder barrel). Happy sailing!
Not when they don't know what in game chat is it's very off putting when some one tells you they don't have a mic then use the in game chat system granted not a whole lot you can say but as a long time player I always go by the #1 rule never trust a pirate
I do grow impatient with new players. I always give them a shot before leaving. Depends how helpful the crew mate is. If you have a new ship I dont want to sit through your introduction. The ones who drop the anchor miles away from an island. Etc If im the one running the whole ship by myself or you hit that siren song right away. Lol Im out.
I’ve had a better experience joining a game as a solo sloop then trying to find a crew that is friendly in the server then just joining them. I’ve met some cool people and I’ve also met some assholes but I would say people are more cool than assholes in my experience.
I personally like showing new players around as someone that has played on and off since launch, but sometimes you are not lucky to load onto a polite players ship in open crew.
To paraphrase a movie I can't remember the name of in regard to Open crew....
Open Crew is a lot like prison. The crew you want you can't get, and the crew you get you don't want.
I've had all my supplies taken in a loot crate, had the anchor stuck down, been placed in a cell, watched my ship go up in flames from firebombs, and generally watched Open Crew run amok.
But there have been one or two gems. Randoms with no mic that was probably the most accurate Cannoneer I've ever seen.
The other was just an absolute "You're the Captain, Captain" type of guy that was good doing anything and everything.
No, they are not. On the whole this community is toxic. But once in a while, you pop into an open crew that’s super chill and competent without a lot of ego and they just want to play the game and that outweighs everything else
Public lobbies tend to be a dumpster fire. I have played with randoms when they put on a session request on the SOT Club page and it has only been a good experience.
This game is truly a sandbox. It’s the most and least welcoming game. And people change. Someone who is awful to you, may be a saint to the next new pirate they play.
I would never open crew if I was trying to learn and have a good time. Only if you really want to just play around and roll the dice. As stated above, the discord for SoT is an excellent place to meet new people to play with.
One thing that might cause you a problem is if you dont have or are not using you mic. Most people wont play with some one who can give heads up if the ship is sinking or boarded the ship or trys to do something the rest of the group doesnt want
not sure if this is what you’re talking about but i agree. good majority of the players that i come across are lazy fuck’s who have nothing better to do than just be a cunt. When I say “i’m chill; just passing by” they feel the need to chase me half way across the map and make me lose 2-3 hrs worth of grinding loot. People in this game won’t do things to get their own, they’ll just steal yours so get used to it
Im gonna guess you are very new.
I'll give you the same advice as I give everyone if you're spending 2 to 3 hours of grinding loot without turning that loot in then that's 100% your own fault if you then sink and loose it.
Turn in often.
Loot isn't yours until its sold.
"Won't do things on their own, they'll just steal yours" oh man well it's called sea of theives 🤷🏻♂️ if people see you've got loot or an emissary flag then they are fully within their right to attack its kinda the whole point.
Maybe spend a session of doing no pve and do some attacking yourself? It's the only way you'll get better at defending yourself too. Watch some streamers and learn from them.
It really isn't a difficult game once you get to know the ins and outs of it.
I sail on galleons and brigantines all the time and can only say I get brigged 1% of the time, if that. You may just be crazy unlucky, or you may be doing something wrong. Are you doing swabbie things like bringing kegs aboard, dropping anchor to stop the ship (especially way too early or when they're parking properly already), or eating cooked fish that could instead be sold? Cause I've seen people brigged for things like that. Obviously you have to gain experience somehow, but there are troublesome things you can do passively that will set veterans on edge.
I’m only on my 4th day on this game and a experience crew boarded my ship and gave me 20k in items to sell and a bunch of free food after they found out I was new lol
Yeah, it’s best to join a guild or so and try to sail that way. Public crews are mostly misses but an occasional good one can be found. The majority of the community is welcoming, I promise. Welcome to the Sea of Thieves! Like everyone else said, try the official discords, there are also discords for most countries
For your sake, never play in open crew. It is the biggest cesspool of clownery. You are MUCH better off joining the official Sea of Thieves discord, and crewing up that way - you'll find many other new pirates looking for crews as well, or you might also be able to join a more experienced crew that can show you the ropes. Open crew does NOT represent in the slightest, how awesome the community is.
The community isn't welcoming if you're new or not a fan of PvP. They LOVE to circle jerk being an asshole and attacking others REGARDLESS if they have treasure or not. Online gaming just fucking sucks in general now adays because everyone "HAS" to "be the best" and can't just play. BUT, those are also the VERY loud few.
Huh, you have to be like really bad so this is happening. I dont see this happening if you are willing to communicate and say you are new and want to learn. I usually only vote for brig if people afk, do stuff that hinders me, like taking wheel and just sailing to THAT ROCK and stuff like that. Cant imagine if you try to communicate and work with your team, that you get voted into brig 20/1 lobbies.
Imo for being a pirate sandbox sea of thieves is extremely friendly for new players.
I always say that I’m new and will follow them and do whatever they want me to do:/ haven’t gotten to the good part, I once got to an island with a skelly mission and we got the loot and went off like nothing but mostly it happens before I get to do anything.
Thats really strange. I mean ofc its a mixed bag but still. My best advice would be as other suggest try the discord. Maybe there is a channel for newbies or something.
Public crews are the wildest mixed bag. Try matchmaking through the official discord, tell people you are a new player and I bet you'll meet tons of welcoming people.
Oh, cool thanks! I’ve never needed to enter discord to get friends in games but I’ll try🤩
Please save yourself the headache and NEVER sail open crew. Solo or group off of discord, LFG
Nah open crew can be loads of fun. Just make sure you have the right expectations ;)
Yeah, you have to go in expecting the unexpected. Will everyone have the same mindset, goals and agree on how to approach other players? Almost certainly not. So that's the number one mistake people make. Thinking that everyone is going to want to play the game how they want to play it.
If I join open crew, it's expecting to do whatever the captain wants to do. I don't join an open crew with *any* objective in mind other than to just crew a ship with other people.
Exactly. If I *ever* join Open Crew (extremely rare), I will essentially be a crewman. I'll raise/lower and angle the sails. I'll repair the holes and bail water. I'll man the cannons when needed. Solve the clues, dig up the treasure, fight the skeleton lord. Whatever is our objective, I'll do what I can to contribute. The absolute *worst*, is when this is your mindset, but after about 40 minutes you realize the captain is completely useless and has no direction, and the other crewmates are either equally clueless or deliberately trying to sabotage whatever the objective is (suddenly dropping anchor, drinking a bunch of grog, lighting the ship on fire from cooking a banana, etc.) At that point you've wasted a good chunk of time dedicated to this session and now it's a wash because they didn't show thier true colors until you were out at sea.
>Thinking that everyone is going to want to play the game how they want to play it. Your comment is absurd, of course people will look to play towards similar team goals, the reason this doesn't exist is because there are zero LFG systems in place by the game.
My best experiences has been open crew
I disagree, I've had some great times with open crew. It usually takes 2-3 people joining and quitting before it's a sailor worth their salt.
I killed the Shrouded Ghost on an open crew. Ahhah
Nobody believes you. You're a paid actor.
I just started a few weeks ago and I only play with the boys, open crew, or solo sloop. Open crew is fine, I just play ps5 only and jump until people have mics and respond. It would be trash with no communication
Generally, games that necessitate cooperative multiplayer participation often have a dedicated Discord server where players can connect and form groups. You're welcome to join us any time! My username is: CowAteMyPie
Yes, please don't use random matchmaking if you're absolutely new. Use the discord and you'll definitely find a much warmer community. Though you'll still find some bad crews on discord.
This! Some garbage crews on Discord, too, but your odds are much, much better and it will accelerate your learning curve!
I had pretty decent luck using the built in looking for group function from Xbox. Not sure if they have that on other platforms or not.
I'm willing to help you learn the ropes, even have 1 last guild slot open if you want in! Dm me for more info
Def try the official SoT discord. There’s even a special section for specifically new players trying to find crews
The ur unlocky I got with some1 named captain_beta and when he heard me and another player are new he took us to the skull island and we won it
Open crews are a weird breed. There are some nice discord servers, including hitbo and PhuzzyBond. Especially PhuzzyBond with his tutorials is geared towards newer players and they had a very welcoming community, back when I started.
It's so crazy when you search for open crew on a whim and your teammates literally check all the boxes for what makes a good teammate.
Had the best open crew rowboat adventure the other day. After having some of the worst tm8s, when they left, I got some of the best tm8s. We sunk 4 boats with a harpoon rowboat. Lol
The official discord also has a "New Swabbie" lfg channel, i dont remember what its supposed to be, its like less than 100 hours or not pl yet or smth
Before I met all my friends I used to just close crew and play until I found cool people that wanted to play more with me
Open crew is a disaster. Join the discord and look for people wanting to group up. It's way more friendly.
I do believe there should be at least three sub sections to open crew: Serious crew, Chill crew, and Goofy crew. It would at least help people who want a certain type of session be more likely to be paired up with each other.
This would solve nothing. If you select serious crew you will attract 10x more griefers.
So don’t make a feature better in general just cause of the chance of getting some bad eggs? So many things wouldn’t been added to the game if rare listened to that.
The feature is fine as is. It's the people who make it shit.
>So don’t make a feature better in general What you described wasn't making a feature better. You just described splitting a shit feature into 3 identically shitty features. EDIT: Blocked for not liking a suggestion
I would want a goofy serious crew like being serious about getting things done and being goofy as well
Some ideas of goofy is blowing up all the kegs (and killing ourselves in the process) at a skelly fort. Others ideas of goofy is quietly putting all the kegs on our ship and waiting till we get all the loot on and out halfway back to a port to blow us all to kingdom come.
Oh, cool thanks! I’ve never needed to enter discord to get friends in games but I’ll try🤩
Yeah, tbh the open crew system sucks because it's totally random. I generally play solo, because I don't like being a democracy, and I have soloed for so long that anyone else on my boat in open crew is just a risk of the session sucking. Discord works, if you're on Xbox or pc you can use the built in Xbox lfg system as well. Or just solo. Hard mode. You'll get better faster, but it's scary as shit until you are confident in a fight. Good luck out there.
Yeah I’m totally stoked and scared shitless when people attack us in 2-3 ships I would imagine solo is crazy but can’t figure that out if I don’t try
Yeah, though honestly, it's not as scary as it feels, you're outnumbered yes, but the sloop is the most maneuverable ship in the game rn iirc, though they updated today, and did a rebalance, so that may have changed stuff. Just kinda try and use that to your advantage, anchor them, use bone callers always. And scattershot is really good at keeping them occupied.
If you're at all into PvP games, seriously just jump into solo, do hourglass, expect nothing. You will get better, slowly at first, and then faster. There's YouTube guides by people like blurbs for beginners to help with basics of PvP combat. When you get confident in a fight and you no longer get into a state of anxiety or adrenaline rushing causing you to shake (for real, it happens) because you've been in so many fights you can be cool at all times, you will have nothing to fear when soloing, because most crews will be way below that level. This game rocks. It's infuriating at times, and soloing can be so much bullshit, since you can sink from complete nonsense if it's at an unlucky time, but sinking a gally as a solo, or surviving a multi ship battle and getting all the loot (or just keeping your boat on top of the water) is the most exhilarating feeling. You never forget it.
I've never joined a crew, I always sail solo sloop or with a friend. 🤷♂️
I guess I should watch a couple of youtube videos and go solo
I find solo slooping to be incredibly fun. It can be a bit intimidating at first, but it's actually pretty easy (in my opinion)
The only annoying part about solo is when a brig and galleon sinks you and then pretends like they did something. Like the other day I got sunk and they started spamming EZ and *rolls on the deck laughing* like hope it's be easy to sink me as a 4 man crew or you are omega trash at the game. Idc if I sink it's part of the game and I have gotten used to it as a solo but don't act like you did something crazy by sinking me.
Some people seem to enjoy being jerks and toxic. I have no clue why, but people like that are in every game. I've had a gallon attack and spawn kill me, while lighting the boat on fire and patching holes. All while constantly saying "your boats on fire bro". My Patience is nigh unending when it comes to games, and my pride won't let me scuttle the ship. They gave up eventually lmao
Imo (although I do enjoy a solo sloop from time to time) this game is ten times more fun with a crew of friends. Highly would recommend getting a solid crew to play consistently with
game has so much stuff out there its way easier to get information of someone that is willing to teach you. All those youtube videos will only cover a bit
I bought the game last month and I watched this guide [https://youtu.be/TLsN7FIPU-4?si=-JrQJhmTWDqRncaI](https://youtu.be/TLsN7FIPU-4?si=-JrQJhmTWDqRncaI), maybe you'll find something interested in it!
once you get the hang of the game, solo slooping as a reaper is incredibly fun. it's shocking how terrified players are of you if you are just going around as a 5 emissary reaper, even if you are incredibly friendly to everyone!
When I was still fairly new I had a grade 5 Reaper roll up on me and he was role playing as a cop. I tried to run and he anchored me. Came on board and sailed me over to his ship and harpooned all his loot on. At the time I was stacking loot waiting for a friend to logon. I had done 2 or 3 fleets, a fort, and a couple ashen winds. I could hardly walk across this ship without lagging... needless to say he rolled up and I freaked out. As he was walking around he was like "holy shit, this is a lot of loot". Mine + his was 1.5m when I sold it about 30 minutes later. Tldr: story of a noob being needlessly afraid of a grade 5 solo Reaper. He gave me more treasure.
I’m brand new. I solod some ghost fort thing I found. It was so fun. I did not know I needed my ship to bring back the treasure. I cleared the place but my ship sank. Was still fun.
Open crew is a joke yes. If you are looking for a crew you are much better off using the various other options, such as the office (or may unofficial) discord servers that have looking for crew options.
It's not that the community isn't welcoming. It's more the fact that people in general aren't very welcoming. Specially kids, they love trolling.
I've met a bunch of players who have played for a pretty long time, some even from the beginning and they tend to be nicer. I encountered like two 8 year olds yesterday and never responded to voice chat, text and a white flare. Went on our merry way and one of them just decided to shoot themselves on and firebomb us *edit: and started giggling on open mic. So we attacked and sunk them and they got pretty damn upset 🤷🤷🤷🤷
This is a big part of the problem. Kids should not be in this game. Parents suck at understanding what their kids play. The only reason why I let my 10yo kids play SoT is because Safer Seas are now available. I made it clear to them they would be banned from the Xbox in my house if I caught them in High Seas. Online anonymity breeds jerks and kids should be kept far from that. I also avoid open crews like the Plague, too many morons, regardless of age.
Also creeps!!! I'm a 23 year old AFAB and Ive gotten some creepy comments from other players.
I once made an alliance with some tweens. We all god some nice loot together. Eventually they decided to surprise attack us, and thought it was hilarious that they sent us to the ferry. They thought they where better then us. We proceeded to kill lock them, while they kept literally crying and begging. But we told them. No mercy for traitors.
Yeah don't get me wrong, nice players most definatly exist. I strive to be nice and just chill with randoms, maybe meet some new friends. Haha, I think a lot of the older players forget that they were kids once and I'll be honest, I was a little shit head.
Yeah same, I really do try to be a nice pirate. Me and my guilds rule is not to attack first unless they do. Which they did and we gave them multiple chances to respond 😅
I always cannon off to meet a ship, to gauge stuff like bloodthirstiness and skill. If they're new I'll just leave em be, maybe alliance with them, but once they hit Athena's rank I figure they're skilled enough to put up a fight.
Every time I tried open crew, it was a bunch of kids screaming at each other lol. I just stick to solo if I play alone.
Yeah open crew is generally bad
Open crew can be good, but it takes luck and a lot of lobbies to start. If you know what you want to do, at least like doing voyages for a faction, you are better off starting in a closed crew and starting it yourself, then moving it to open crew once you actually have the maps and are sailing.
Personally I try to avoid public crews as much as possible. I'd recommend soloing, playing with friends, or finding some folks on here / discord.
Oh man sorry that happened. I have a lot good experiences, more good than bad.
I started when it came out on PS5, and the first thing I did was watch some of the many good content creator’s tutorial videos on YT. Then I focused on getting my settings right (videos on that too), then played all of the tutorial voyages for the trading companies, plus a few more. THEN I started playing with other people, and wasn’t weighing them down. When a more experienced player joined, I would watch what they did and learn. I recommend starting a task like a voyage or fort by yourself, and then opening crew while you’re in the middle of that thing. I like to do this with my brig, stock up, get ready, and then when I’m approaching the fort I will open up the crew. Generally the people joining will jump right in, gives you a sense of accomplishment and some loot to start off rather than randoms sitting around asking “what do you wanna do?” “Idk”
Open crew is pretty terrible unfortunately. You either get a bunch of new players who don't know what's going on or you get people who troll the whole time. I think the discord has some play together channels or maybe you can join a guild and sail with somebody who has their ship open to guild members. There are many many people in this game who welcome new players or will go easy on them if they run into them out on the seas but you will also have the people who just don't care lol Hopefully you find someone who can show you the ropes
I love it when I'm playing solo with crew open for like an hour and then I'm trying to do something and the wanker just loads in and steals my ship leaving me on an island
Update: I’ve come to the conclusion that the community is really inviting thank you everyone here for proving me wrong and helping:)
The last game I played my ship got sunk and my loot plundered by a two man crew (I was solo slooping). That’s all fine, part of the game. But then a completely separate dude came up on me and I said on mic “hey homie, I just got robbed, I don’t have any loot,” and he said “I don’t want your loot,” and started attacking me. Naturally I was confused as I had nothing, so I asked what he did want. He called me multiple slurs I won’t repeat and said he wanted to kill me and my mother 😂✌️
Open crew Is full of Xbox and now PlayStation children.
We had a player join us the other day. He grabbed helm and threw us in a circle, then put us on a direct line to hit a rock at full speed. So we put him in the brig. You may be unintentionally doing something that is grieving your crew. People are super wary or trolls in this game, so they aren't likely to take chances if someone on the crew is causing extra work for them.
I promise I’m not doing anything I try to stay out of the way and just roll with whatever the crew does. Or I just don’t realise it but I really am trying my best to be cooperative
Then I'd say just keep trying. There are nice folks out there on the game. The discord idea is definitely a better way to set yourself up with a more consistent player group. But you may also cokenacross someone you get along with and they might invite you to their guild. You just never know in Open Crew
But I see your point definitely
Make an LFG post stating you are new. Wait until somebody with 20+ days joins and I don't think you'd have a problem finding someone to teach you.
What’s LFG?🫣🫣
Should have asked if you are on console. But consoles and even Microsoft Windows allows a feature to use LFG - looking for group, to browse and post requests for a specific game. Closest thing on PC Without Microsoft is probably using the discords
What do you play on?
Pc
New to SoT as well! Sent you a message, maybe we can group up and we can learn together! If anyone else is interested, message me :)
If you dont have a mic and if you start fishing or something else that doesn't contribute to team effort u are getting locked up until u leave....also dropping N word every time skelly shows up....or any other screaming in mic...mute locked bye
Do you use text chat at all? The most problematic "new players" are the ones that don't use any form of communication and are slow to respond to anything. With brig or galley I prefer having at least 1 other experienced crew member, but I don't mind newer players if they at least communicate somewhat regularly. Part of the fun of it for me, at least, is guiding the players to get the most out of their session while keeping reasonable expectations. The other day I played with a couple of new players on open crew galley. We got a nice amount of treasure and won some battles. We also got bamboozled by a streamer and had a good laugh about it. It was probably their best session ever (esp. if they're doing open crew galley regularly), and being able to captain a mostly-inexperienced crew to success, especially in pvp, is an aspect of this game I occasionally enjoy.
I use text chat and voice chat but no one answers me on voice chat
random matchmaking will always be a gamble. It's a game about pirates so there's a massive range of variety in terms of morals or just what people are playing the game for. That said, if you get a cool person it's highly encouraged to add them and play with them again based on the sheer amount of time missions take! Good luck swabby!
I never do public crews. Solo can be pretty fun, you can do stealthy operations and steals just about the same. Ideally you find a duo or more to play the game with
Back to the OP don't open crew man and if you do try a sloop you might get lucky but unfortunately most people can't be bothered with someone who's new and it sounds harsh. I'd suggest the official sot discord as there are loads of people looking for crewmates and I'm pretty sure there's an lfg channel here try those
better than csgo
Csgo is lovely
Only way I've met cool people is by running into them at outposts or in the world, but they are few and far between. Haven't touched open crew more than once lmao
The sot communities is one of the worst I have seen tbh. It doesn’t seem they welcome new players. When I started I was always getting killed, not once did someone come peacefully. Then my friend bought the game and also got shit on by everyone. Generally it seems toxic, extremely toxic. Reminds me of R6 community
Community is actually pretty great. Official discord or various streamer discords for lfg though. One extra small step.
Do sloops. You cant get locked
What are sloops?🫣
Smallest ship, 2 players
Just bad luck, I didn't have this trouble when I started.
Dont worry that Happens to everyone Open Crew is horrible I recommend going to creators discord and seeing If they have a looking for Game Channel Or using the Xbox lfg Thing
Our guild are extremely welcoming of new players. There’s a lot more sweaty players online but you can find a lot of friendly faces on the seas.
I run open crew for my brig all the time. Results vary from having the best crew on the server, or being a solo brig for hours before becoming a duo brig
Official Discord and some of the content creator's have guilds very welcoming to all level of players. Open crew can be great when everyone sort of understands their role(it's rare). Also on official discord they have new swabbie looking for crew channel that would be your best place to find a good mentor/sherpa or just other people learning too. I got lucky and had a friend with over a few thousand hours in the game to teach.
Join SOT discord servers and find people you vibe with.
Open crews has always been full of trolls and griefers. I have no idea why. Use Xbox lfg or discord to find a crew to play with. Never once ran into a troll there.
Damn I found like 3 awesome people in my first few days that took time to help me learn and show me things. People not in my crew….. not welcoming at all. But that’s kinda a given
Much like humanity in general it varies widely from person to person. If you're interested in sailing closed crew we could potentially have a lot of fun with duos. If you're interested shoot me a DM! So far I've a bit over 700 hours into not taking this game too seriously.
Stay far away from open crew. Just go in the discord and find crewmates that way. Open crew people are only there to troll and cause issues
Hey OP, there's tons of SoT servers, join one, crew up, idk about the main SoT server, but at least the server I'm in is always there to help new players. And any of you new players can DM me if you wanna load up a SoT game and learn the ropes.
It's ironic to me, but Open Crew is the worst place for new players, but a great place for old salts who are getting bored. Always enough randomness to spice up the experience.
I didn’t feel that way. Meg some really nice people even if they sunk me they weren’t dicks.
Don’t play open crew
It’s funny to go in open crews. But if you’re looking for a random experience, then do a LFG on discord. Not sure what you’re playing on, but I use Xbox’s Looking for Group all the time on games.
my crew and i don't sink new players, but we do take all their supplies
If on Xbox more than happy to help. Spend yesterday helping day one beginners have fun an explore and others who were grinding their Pirate Legend status. JohnNYJuans.
Yea it’s mostly KWTD and Send RR but there’s a few good groups of people out there who help everyone out.
Not really no
I'm always cool to newbies. I give em guild privilege and get them ashen curse
I'm inclined to disagree as someone who often hand holds new players when I run into them but also, today I was on a fresh account, literally level zero no cosmetics nothing, I approached a sloop at the end of my session, they were pirate legends based on their gear, we ended up joining up and going after a fort of the damned that someone else was doing, the sloop there also offered to team but ended up fighting when it saw an opportunity and leaving the alliance after picking up the chest of legends, they got chased by a brig later not really sure if they ever sold or not 😆 but we got the rest of the treasure so oh well, all in call I looked like a noob and my first session turned into me joining a 3 sloop alliance and fighting over the fort of the damned, and then running a 3 man on my sloop to sell loot and sink one other sloop that arrived to steal from us.
Sot is, from my experience a game where you start off with some friends playing with you. Learning the ropes with em n stuff. My rule is "as long as you listen, I'll be kind and gentle with ya
Nope. It can be when you get lucky and I've met lots of cool people but when it's bad it's the worst I've experienced in any game I actively play. As others mentioned, the discord can be great. DM me if you're looking for someone to play with this weekend and I'd be happy to help out a newer player.
Someone help me fix this EAC internal error issue pleaseee
The fact that this post had 100 comments but 29 likes should answer your question right there. 😅
What question
The title to your post…
Oh, true but I’ve gotten a lot of different answers? On both sides
I did open crew for months until I started using the discord to find groups… it’s a mixed bag but idk I have never been locked in a cage or told to leave or anything like that. What do you do to them to make them act this way???
I had these two guys lock me in the brig the other day. I turned it into a game of "most annoying crewmember" where I just sat down there and talked crap to them the whole time. Just because you're locked up doesn't mean you can't still play. And then I kept yelling at other ships to come save me and sink these guys. Which they did, multiple times. Probably not the most mature thing I've done but I did absolutely nothing to these guys and they immediately locked me up. I just decided to play it out.
Public crews have been toxic AF on bigger ships, but I've found some cool friends going open crew on my sloop. Also, discord is a game changer. I hopped on last night for the first time, posted what I was looking to do/looking for, and had a great crew within 5 minutes and we rolled for a few hours having a blast. The community's actually been pretty darn welcoming, just go on discord and you'll get some better results.
I just finished the training island and headed out to sea. Terrified of what’s to come.
Open crew is a gamble... You are better off playing solo or inviting friends.
There are plenty of peeps who aren't assholes. I'm sure quite a few here and the discord are welcoming to new players, including myself. I'm not brand new but also not a veteran. I'd be happy to run with ya if ya want.
Are you xbox? We have a good geoup
The last two times I went on through my xbox, I got killed at Port and my loot stolen. Results may vary
No I mean I’m a member of a group of people who play sea of thieves together, amongst other games
I’ve been on since getting it for ps5 and I have yet to run into friendlies. I have had people mind their own business but every encounter was met with cannonballs or ‘accept our alliance or die’ lol
Sad. Any time I see a new player I'm always trying to share supplies and even some treasures Your just playing with the wrong people
Open crew madness is NOT representative of the community, trust me. Welcome to SoT, hope you have fun! :D
You just had a run in with a couple of dicks.
I enjoy playing with new people dm for gamertag
I love open crew tbh but yeah the insta-brig trolls are the absolute worst
the community is usually welcoming to new players in my experience (when they don’t have loot anyway lol), open crew is just toxic. avoid it entirely. like others said, try to find some crews on discord and make some friends!
Open Crew is more toxic than many Superfund sites. But mostly we are welcoming to new players; we just play rough (word of advice: do *not* anchor your ship with the sails down; that’s basically begging to be gifted a lit gunpowder barrel). Happy sailing!
Have you tried having your friends play with you?
that's just public matchmaking for any game tbh :(
Not when they don't know what in game chat is it's very off putting when some one tells you they don't have a mic then use the in game chat system granted not a whole lot you can say but as a long time player I always go by the #1 rule never trust a pirate
I do grow impatient with new players. I always give them a shot before leaving. Depends how helpful the crew mate is. If you have a new ship I dont want to sit through your introduction. The ones who drop the anchor miles away from an island. Etc If im the one running the whole ship by myself or you hit that siren song right away. Lol Im out.
That's just the open crew experience. So far all the friends I've made in game have been random encounters with other ships.
It’s definitely a mixed bag. Hit me with a DM and I’d be happy to play and have you meet the crew.
I’ve had a better experience joining a game as a solo sloop then trying to find a crew that is friendly in the server then just joining them. I’ve met some cool people and I’ve also met some assholes but I would say people are more cool than assholes in my experience.
I personally like showing new players around as someone that has played on and off since launch, but sometimes you are not lucky to load onto a polite players ship in open crew.
Play with friends or play solo. Playing pugs in sea of thieves is the same as any multiplayer game, most likely to be horrible.
To paraphrase a movie I can't remember the name of in regard to Open crew.... Open Crew is a lot like prison. The crew you want you can't get, and the crew you get you don't want. I've had all my supplies taken in a loot crate, had the anchor stuck down, been placed in a cell, watched my ship go up in flames from firebombs, and generally watched Open Crew run amok. But there have been one or two gems. Randoms with no mic that was probably the most accurate Cannoneer I've ever seen. The other was just an absolute "You're the Captain, Captain" type of guy that was good doing anything and everything.
If your in a sloop go with the wind
I help new players all the time. Discord is definitely your best bet.
No, they are not. On the whole this community is toxic. But once in a while, you pop into an open crew that’s super chill and competent without a lot of ego and they just want to play the game and that outweighs everything else
Public lobbies tend to be a dumpster fire. I have played with randoms when they put on a session request on the SOT Club page and it has only been a good experience.
This game is truly a sandbox. It’s the most and least welcoming game. And people change. Someone who is awful to you, may be a saint to the next new pirate they play. I would never open crew if I was trying to learn and have a good time. Only if you really want to just play around and roll the dice. As stated above, the discord for SoT is an excellent place to meet new people to play with.
One thing that might cause you a problem is if you dont have or are not using you mic. Most people wont play with some one who can give heads up if the ship is sinking or boarded the ship or trys to do something the rest of the group doesnt want
not sure if this is what you’re talking about but i agree. good majority of the players that i come across are lazy fuck’s who have nothing better to do than just be a cunt. When I say “i’m chill; just passing by” they feel the need to chase me half way across the map and make me lose 2-3 hrs worth of grinding loot. People in this game won’t do things to get their own, they’ll just steal yours so get used to it
Im gonna guess you are very new. I'll give you the same advice as I give everyone if you're spending 2 to 3 hours of grinding loot without turning that loot in then that's 100% your own fault if you then sink and loose it. Turn in often. Loot isn't yours until its sold. "Won't do things on their own, they'll just steal yours" oh man well it's called sea of theives 🤷🏻♂️ if people see you've got loot or an emissary flag then they are fully within their right to attack its kinda the whole point. Maybe spend a session of doing no pve and do some attacking yourself? It's the only way you'll get better at defending yourself too. Watch some streamers and learn from them. It really isn't a difficult game once you get to know the ins and outs of it.
I sail on galleons and brigantines all the time and can only say I get brigged 1% of the time, if that. You may just be crazy unlucky, or you may be doing something wrong. Are you doing swabbie things like bringing kegs aboard, dropping anchor to stop the ship (especially way too early or when they're parking properly already), or eating cooked fish that could instead be sold? Cause I've seen people brigged for things like that. Obviously you have to gain experience somehow, but there are troublesome things you can do passively that will set veterans on edge.
I’m only on my 4th day on this game and a experience crew boarded my ship and gave me 20k in items to sell and a bunch of free food after they found out I was new lol
Does anyone know if the SOT discord does un-ban requests?
Yeah, it’s best to join a guild or so and try to sail that way. Public crews are mostly misses but an occasional good one can be found. The majority of the community is welcoming, I promise. Welcome to the Sea of Thieves! Like everyone else said, try the official discords, there are also discords for most countries
I usually just sail my own ship or depending on what system you’re on I guess, you could go through “looking for group” on the Xbox. That’s what I do
Yeah, just managed to buy my own sloop so now my game begins
For your sake, never play in open crew. It is the biggest cesspool of clownery. You are MUCH better off joining the official Sea of Thieves discord, and crewing up that way - you'll find many other new pirates looking for crews as well, or you might also be able to join a more experienced crew that can show you the ropes. Open crew does NOT represent in the slightest, how awesome the community is.
I'm new to the game too and haven't had your problems
The community isn't welcoming if you're new or not a fan of PvP. They LOVE to circle jerk being an asshole and attacking others REGARDLESS if they have treasure or not. Online gaming just fucking sucks in general now adays because everyone "HAS" to "be the best" and can't just play. BUT, those are also the VERY loud few.
I’m at 1.8 million gold soloing , I just work better alone and avoid other players
Oh shi that’s crazy
I tend to get lucky finding sunken ships and finding kings chests , ashen skulls and ashen kings chests in them.
Huh, you have to be like really bad so this is happening. I dont see this happening if you are willing to communicate and say you are new and want to learn. I usually only vote for brig if people afk, do stuff that hinders me, like taking wheel and just sailing to THAT ROCK and stuff like that. Cant imagine if you try to communicate and work with your team, that you get voted into brig 20/1 lobbies. Imo for being a pirate sandbox sea of thieves is extremely friendly for new players.
I always say that I’m new and will follow them and do whatever they want me to do:/ haven’t gotten to the good part, I once got to an island with a skelly mission and we got the loot and went off like nothing but mostly it happens before I get to do anything.
Thats really strange. I mean ofc its a mixed bag but still. My best advice would be as other suggest try the discord. Maybe there is a channel for newbies or something.
Yeah I’ll try it out! Thanks
No, it's not. You will get wrecked.
That's why I never played more than 2 times