I am very pleasantly surprised at how fun and rewarding playing solo is. I dont do 4 player team stuff, i hate randoms and between work and the kids never have time to sit down with my friends that will play all day. The smaller sloop is easy to manage on your own, but still requires just enough running around to enjoy the compelxity of the sailing. I've just been digging for treasure for the past 8 hours and can't wait to play more. Just wanted to put this out there for any other loners that are concerned. I got into a few battles, won the first, lost a couple, but it hasn't been bad at all.

I did a couple hours of solo sailing last night at launch and did two treasure quests. When you say you got into "a few battles," are you taking against skeletons or other ships? I took down two or three skeleton mobs, but the idea of taking on another ship solo scares the piss out of me - especially one of the galleons.

Planning on trying solo myself. Only just realised a few hours ago that I can make use of Game Pass without an Xbox One and just get it for free for a few weeks on PC. Can’t join the servers at the moment though, seem to be down for new players. Will try again tomorrow.

Nice to hear it’s worth while playing solo!

Been playing solo a couple of hours. Some things are clearly kind of painful by myself because they're meant for a group. Running back to pick up multiple chicken coups and then delivering them individually. That said, I love the sailing and honestly find just moving around that space pretty rewarding on its own. Haven't had the misfortune of coming across any aggressive players so far, so I don't know how that'd go down.

Well, trying to outrun a galleon on my own was a neat moment. Less neat was losing an hour of boring ass fetch quest progress because there is literally no defense when you're that outgunned. Jesus that moment soured me on this game.

@asmo917: I had a couple two-man crewed sloops come at me, managed to sink one which was not easy, but super fun using the anchor and prepositioning the wheel to get that perfect angle. i may have, upon being killed, swam up to the aggressors ship after respawning and raise his anchor, setting the ship into some rocks. It felt great.

So, you guys think I might enjoy this if I'm largely a solo player? What's in it that will attract a solo player? I'm assuming there's no real story there? That leaves gameplay and how fun it is to interact with the world as well as simply exploring and how interesting the settings are. I've also read the other thread that said the music is good, so I'm listening to the soundtrack by Robin Beanland (also known to do many of the past Rare game soundtracks). Also, how is it on the base Xbox One, which is where I'd play it? I'm just curious what the pull is for a solo player. How 'Rare' is it? Does it feel like a Rare game?

@ntm: its a Rare-ass aesthetic for sure, plus the soundtrack. Ultimately the game boils down to taking a contract from one of three (i think) factions, then setting sail to complete the task, then returning to a major port to turn it in. I just find the core gameplay to be so satisfying that its enough for me. Try it out on the game-pass if you still have the trial (or just do a 10 dollar month, its definitely worth 10 bucks)

@gtb08: Yeah, I'm watching what the game is really about. Seems like it's not for me, plus I'm not sure how you can really solo a ship since it looks like such a cooperative experience. It seems like a much better game to be played with friends/siblings online. It doesn't look like a game that could maintain my interest for long since it seems repetitive.

I feel the same way, seems to be pretty engaging running around your own little vessel but a few hours in I'm yet to see any other players.

When I joined someones vessel in the match making thing it was a pretty crappy time. they were pulled up farming some skeletons and was pretty angry I didn't have a mic setup, when I tried to do anything he just raged at me even after telling him Im pretty new.

I can see this being more fun with some like minded mates though just wanting to mess around and not farm crap.

I've been having a blast playing solo, though this is definitely a 'make your own fun' type of game so I can see how a lot of people might fall off it very quickly if they don't come across anything interesting.

I've been lucky enough to have had a good few encounters in my first few hours of the game.

I was hunting treasure chests when another ship arrived and promptly fired on mine while it was docked. I ran to my ship, grabbed a chest I had previously found and hid it behind some rocks. I figured I might as well try to take them on so I board back on to my boat. Little did I know that one of the other players was swimming over to me, so while I was sniping the other guy on his boat I was shot from behind and quickly died. One respawn later and I sail over to the island, pick up my treasure I had hidden and sail back to an outpost.

Another moment was after I had hit some rocks. Again, I had a chest I wanted to turn in, but my ship was sinking fast and it was too late to patch it up. The outpost was fairly close so I decided to grab the chest and swim for it. Along the treacherous journey a mermaid kept offering to take me to my ship, but I'd lose my well earned treasure. Heck no! I thought. I had almost made it to shore before the sharks attacked...

A fun one was sneaking on-board someone else's ship while they were on land. They had no treasure so I processed to eat all of their bananas. I heard them return to their boat. I casually appeared from below, told them we were out of bananas and jumped into the ocean...

This game is a goooooood game.

Just played a couple of hours solo, it was fun and managing the smaller ship isn't too bad alone. Didn't see any other ships aside from what looked like a little skirmish going on over the horizon. But then that suited me, I'm still finding my sea legs.

I have played solo most of the game and am enjoying it. I wish there was a little more content but I know it will come.

If you go on Reddit or the games forums it’s a bloodbath. It’s nice to come here and see some positive talk about a pretty good game!

I've done the solo thing and I like it, getting quite good a parking the ship next to an island using the brake turn technique. Haven't been grief'ed yet but I try to keep a close eye out for other ships, one run I had 7 or 8 items to turn in and I could see the nearest outpost had a galleon sitting on it so I had to sail much farther away to make sure I could sell my stuff without concern. I can understand the criticism for the game and I've had a few times where I've sold items only to not get any gold for them so there are things to work out still but I'll keep jumping in for a voyage or two when time allows.

I've had a lot of fun playing with friends and playing solo. It's not a game for everyone, but I'm wayyy into it.

I haven't been pushed off a game right from the start like from this game in a good long while.

I also have no interest in multiplayer, but I figured I should at least look at the water tech, right? Installed the game on Game Pass, started it up. Got welcomed by a cheap intro and a dev team message which felt like a thing one would put in a beta or an early access software, telling me to go to forums, but ok. Character "creation" weirdness followed. Then possibly the longest loading time I have seen on One X, and that's from an SSD - some of that might have been server connection, the game just launched so yeah, I guess that's ok too. Then I woke up and right as my character was lifting his head, I noticed insane screen-tearing. Whoof. Quick basic controls tutorial, UI feels unfinished in a weird way. Walked to the NPC, but the dialog is all text, no voice over? Whoof again. All of these things are pretty minor but all together it felt like a huge mess. Walked outside, it was night, so no looking at the water yet, I guessed. Found a ship, set sail. Came up to an wrecked ship, trying to stop I grazed it a bit. Two skeletons spawned, the fighting is super clunky too! Hopped back to the ship (found nothing of interest on the small land mass with the ship, other then the skeletons), decided to set the ship for a slow drift while checking if the grazing did any damage. Before I could do anything, the ship sailed.

I am probably missing a lot of stuff, but I just turned the game off at that point, it felt it actively tried to push me away at every step. And I really wanted to like the game too, I expected some kind of story/journey or anything. Later I listened to the bombcast and seems like it's very barebones, maybe suited better for groups and that would be fine, but man, feels like unfinished shell of a game.

@otterchaos: I genuinely really enjoyed the experience of trying to outrun and maneuver a galleon in my little sloop. There was a moment were I lead them towards an island and was able to cut hard right around the island forcing them to break off or rip up their undercarriage on the rocks. The trouble is, if you're an even semi-coordinated crew, you're basically invincible to somebody playing on their own. They just brute forced their way through the rough, repaired while maintaining pursuit, and eventually caught me when it was just open sea. Once I was on their broadside it was just done. Absolutely nothing to do at that point other than die over and over until your boat is sank or they get bored of killing you.

The action was fun, but the outcomes is absolutely miserable for the person who loses. You lose time, progress, and are at the whim of the dominating crew.

I'd take a PVE server, even though there's practically no E to V.

@hatking: I am right there with you when it comes to solo, and the outposts are basically a death warrant when you dock. If you spend more than 30 seconds there, you are almost certainly going to get gunned down before you can get away. Died seven times last night to that exact scenario.

@sgtsphynx: Stories like that and watching people get griefed on streams makes me real fucking glad I'm on the 14 day trial.

The real frustrating thing for me is that there is something to this. The very basic fundamental of sailing a ship around the world is fun. It's everything else that bums me out. The quests, the progression loop, the PVP, the stability, the on-boarding, and the UI all feel like the game is still in development.

I've only played an hour or so, but I did enjoy my attempt with the Sloop. First go around I didnt realize the giant swells would sink my boat and I sunk about 100 yards out of port. I laughed, it was ridiculous.

Playing alone you won't know the peaceful sensation of cuddling with your pirate bro like I just did.

Yesterday I played for few hours solo, and really enjoyed it. I successfully completed a number of missions, and traded some loot and skulls. I saw a number of other ships, on one occasion I avoided them as I had lots of loot on board. Another time I took them on and won, another time I tried to avoid them but they caught me and i lost my loot. Weighing up whether to risk the encounter or not adds some tension. Missions seem to scale depending on the size of your crew, and seems they are all doable so far.

Today I played a few hours as part of a crew, and while interactions can and do often create great moments, humour, not to mention just having some company, having to accommodate and consider the crew can sometimes be a drag. It's nice to be able to, go, explore at your own pace, and know that when it all goes wrong it's your own fault, and when you achieve something, you yourself did it.

Just to add, having read some of the frustrations above, of being stuck in a loop getting spawn killed, at some point just scuttle your ship. You'll respawn elsewhere with a new ship. Not ideal as you lose your loot, but if your stuck in that loop you might as well.

As for outposts being dangerous. Just look through you telescope as early as you can, if you see a ship and don't want to risk it, sail away, you'll have the headstart. Go do another mission, or go to another outpost, or just go explore, and come back later.

getting spawn camped on your own boat is not fun at all. i waited in death until my boat sank.

I do think the Merchant guild jobs need adjustment. You can't really start one in the middle of a voyage as you will need to grab crates to hold the chickens or pigs, they are timed so you do need to pay attention to time passing, trying to capture a black pig at night when you can't hold a lantern due to holding a cage is difficult to say the least, you have to drop off the items before the voyage is complete unlike the other two where you finish after digging up the treasure of whatever, you have to hope the island you are checking out has the animal you want and if it does then you need to hope it has the right color combo as well (I had one island where I couldn't find a black/pink pig and had to leave). Oh and nobody told me I needed to feed the pigs to keep them alive, I finally found an island with the black/pink pig only to find that my gold striped one had died!

The other thing I wish was possible is just to sail around looking for stuff to find. I've found a few items but mostly when I'm doing a quest on an island, I decided I wanted to follow the wind and hope to find a sunken ship to check out but never did find one so I just spent lots of time sailing to no real purpose. Maybe I'm missing things that could be done but that just brings the point that there really isn't much instruction on what to do in the game IMO. I know there is good loot in the Skelly forts but playing solo really means that won't be possible anytime soon.

I just had a great experience playing solo and running into another friendly solo player:

I chased him down in the middle of the sea, he dropped anchor then I dropped anchor right beside him after doing a full circle around his boat.

I waved at him and jumped onto his boat. I started playing some music to show my friendly intentions. He quickly joined in the music playing. We did some jumping and playing music. I did a little dance while he played music. I helped him patch some holes in his boat and clear some water out of his hull.

Then we got out our tankards and got drunk together, followed by some drunken music playing and dancing.

After that it was time to go. I ran the bell, waved him goodbye, and jumped back onto my own ship.

I raised anchor, set the sails, and got onto the bow to ring my bell and wave him goodbye. He rang his bell as a sign of farewell.

I loved that.

After a few more hours it's definitely a becoming such a mixed bag for me. Had a great moment where a galleon pursued me and my cargo and sailed straight towards an atoll at full speed, turned at the last minute and watched as the team piloted ship ran aground. One of the best moments I've had in a game for a while. But then I got over ambitious, did three voyages before taking them in - frustratingly the people that scuppered me didn't board my ship or rob me, just sunk it while I watched from the shore. If there was just a tiny bit of protection to make it feel that the risk reward is not entirely balanced by numpties on the internet.

So far I have been playing solo and duo and have found that solo, although fun, is limited in regards to combat. It's super difficult to keep speed up, position for shots and repair the ship when you get hit. I understand it's a team based game and in those situations it really shines. But solo is a nice experience until you get into any real combat. It would be nice to maybe get an ai team mate just to focus on one single mechanic, such as keeping sail turned toward the wind, to free you up to be more aggressive!

Tried some solo sailing again last night, had a miserable time.

Took a skulls quest, sailed out for one of the two islands I was supposed to go to. Ran into a galleon who spotted me and started firing on me. I tried to out run them in the general direction of the second island I needed toi visit, which was nearby - they chased and kept firing. Took 3-4 shots that I was able to repair, but I thought "This is dumnb, I have nothing" so I jumped off, scuttled the ship, and drowned. Respawned quite a ways away, headed back in the direction I needed to go...repeat.

Quit.

The combat is so fucked up unbalanced that people either avoid all player interaction at all costs or attack you just to get kicks out of ruining your time. Last night I played and it was almost comical how much distance me and other sailors gave each other while clearly doing quests around the same islands.

I think something as simple as a white flag/black flag mechanic would solve a lot of the PVP problems. Make it a decision you have to make at an Outpost, either to sail with a white flag (friendly) or black flag (aggressive). White flag boats can't attack white flag boats. Black flags can attack anybody, but also anybody can attack them. This would let players read intentions from a distance so they don't have to avoid a quest just because a random sloop may or may not be waiting to ruin your day.

They also need to make Outposts a sort of safe zone where players can't attack or pick up treasure from other boats. There is a huge fucking incentive to just finding an Outpost and waiting for people to bring their treasure to you. Doing this would actually make the game feel more like a pirate game because heists would actually happen at sea instead of some sort of shitty deathmatch on an island themed map.

This. As a chewing gum game on solo, this would make my life much more enjoyable. Maybe even have some Outposts have PvP but make the payouts higher for the risk/reward aspect. It would be nice happen upon people that can visually let you know they're not out to sink everything.

I'm in Germany if that makes any difference, but i havent seen hardly any galleons around, maybe one or two, and generally everyone leaves me alone. Im worried now when i get back stateside next week! having said that I havent stopped playing the game yet and still love it. very zen for me.

Please send this suggestion to Rare's SoT forum!!! I will do so too! They are pretty good at listening to good ideas that solve a big problem with little money and I think this mayyy be possible to get through to their team. I think you are right that it would help a lot. Just as importantly it fits the theme perfectly and makes looking through the eyeglass even more important. It's probably the solution they are looking for. Please do it! ^_^

Edit: Ah I see many pirates have already mentioned solutions with flags like this. If you haven't though, I hope you still post about it there because it helps if more people talk about it.

I dont know guys, if I see another players ship I bombard it with cannonballs then murder them promptly, and take any leftover treasure. It happens to me too, doesnt bother me. Maybe im a bad person.

A fair middle-ground might be that crews and ships that fire the first shot are forced to fly a Jolly Roger for the rest of the session. As a captain, it is your responsibility to keep your vessel a safe from those who would do harm and this is VERY achievable if you maintain awareness of the sea around you. This is fairly representative of the historical use of a Jolly Roger - it signals intent to commit piracy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolly_Roger#Use_in_practice

I've lost my treasure-laden solo-sloop to a well coordinated galleon before, and felt this was my own fault for not paying closer attention. Sloops in particular are more maneuverable and can sail faster against the wind, so you can escape a galleon if you know what you're doing and don't let yourself be surprised. There are also generally ample opportunities to lose or delay your pursuers long enough to turn in your treasure.

@rasrimra: I appreciate the sentiment! I popped over to those forums and after seeing three posts of people talking about their problems be met with rabid fans defending even the most questionable of design decisions, I decided to stay away. I'm glad I'm not the only one with this idea, and hopefully the right people make good decisions going forward.

@sgtsphynx: @hatking:

Yeah, I have good runs and bad runs. Sometimes it’s just four dudes in a galleon blowing your ass out of the water, and other times it’s clear seas.

I do like the tension of sneaking goods back to an outpost, or just passing on an outpost, dousing your lights, and moving on because the nearest outpost is too hot.

I think it’d be helpful to have PvE severs, or a jolly roger/white flag mechanic shielding folks from PvP.

To be more pure about it, maybe a system wherein repeated player killers have bounties on their heads for the next x minutes or hours of playtime would work.

I get being jacked for your treasure, but when it’s a 4v1 and you have nothing to be plundered, it’s an annoyance and a waste of time.

Well, I outran a galleon in my little boat all by myself, and that was really satisfying. They chased me into the wind for fifteen minutes or so, as they were beginning to fade into the distance over the horizon another galleon approached from the east and attacked them. That was one of the most satisfying moments I've had in this game.

Sadly the two chests and crate of sugar only amounted to about 400 gold, but at least that was my 400 gold.

@not_so_tiny: This banana thievery story made my day. Thanks!