We had our first fight in PvP today.

[Salty Del 117]

TL; DR - We had a relatively mild PvP experience and survived without a scratch. Not everybody can play PvP, even if they want to. Don’t shaft PvE players solely to benefit PvP players. Read on at your own discretion,

 

It was relatively unremarkable, but it reinforced to me that while I was mildly interested, PvP is not for me.

We ended up in a golden age ruins, forgetting it was a golden age ruins in our quest for buried treasure. We risked a sunken ship spawn to see what the drops there were like compared to the rest of the ocean (spoiler alert, no difference in loot at all). My first mate stripped and used the diving suit to go down and retrieve the booty. Despite being between two fleets of the damned, they never actually came close until we were leaving.

As we sailed off in our brig, I noticed a schooner threading its way through the same fleets we had just avoided. It came to an almost parallel path to us, and was slowly catching up. As we got closer to the border, I saw that it’s rear was loaded with cannons, which made me watch him more closely, just in case.

Not wanting to risk being caught unawares, I turned sharply with the wind, turning our course from the west to due north. When they started to turn, I knew they were going to try and sink us with their rear wall of cannons.

Not being experienced at all in PvP ship combat, I did the only strategy I could think of to keep them from shooting us;  I started tacking with the wind so that they had to keep changing directions to follow us. I had our four rear medium cannons start firing, hitting them several times, and it seemed like they were going to back off, until they started coming about again. The problem for us was that, unknown to him we had just taken down four of the galleons of the damned, as well as a few schooners. We had 26 cannonballs left to fight them off at the start, and we were now down to 10.

So I sailed for the border, and after crossing turned due south, as we were near the southern border as well. As were were comin*up to the southern border, I saw them enter, and then shortly after start turning towards us. My first mate was telling me that she thought they were giving up, but I didn’t agree and decided to try and lose them in a quick series of border crossings.

We ended up going east, and then north, back into the golden age ruins. We sailed north for a short ways, and then turned west to follow our original course, with the schooner no longer in sight. We made it home safely, docked, and then started makin our plans for when the servers go live, based on our experiences.

I know, hardly a riveting story of daring and heroic battles. It cemented in me that while we absolutely love playing the game, PvP is not for us. When he started turning to chase us down, at first I wasn’t too bad, but shortly after it really triggered my anxiety. So much so that my hand holding my mouse was shaking uncontrollably. My first mate had already complained a couple of times about me risking our ship, to which I emended her that this was all temporary at best; I wasn’t worried about losing the ship or anything on it at all. We hadn’t even been fired on through the whole encounter.

And I guess this is the real reason I’m posting this. I know that as soon as the PvE servers are back online, we’ll be on and back to adventuring on the high seas, and loving every adventure. When they took down the EU PvP servers to setup the PvP test server, at least the NA PvE servers were still up for those that wanted to play. But, then they took down the NA PvE servers to set them up for Monday for testing, leaving PvE players with nowhere to go except to try their luck in PvP for the weekend. They left the EU and NA PvP servers up, and then added a third PvP test server, all at the cost of the PvE players.

I’m sure that I’m not the only person that can have a negative psychological impact from PvP, and I would describe mine as mild at its worst, but I can see that others may have worse reactions, Possibly bad enough to give up on the game entirely.

I would just ask that the developers not completely shaft the PvE players so obviously. Some of us PvE players are actually interested in the idea of PvP, but for varied reasons may not be able to actually partake in PvP combat.

The reality is that I, and others like me, are unable to get any enjoyment out of actual PvP combat. Not necessarily because we suck, or that we don’t want to risk losing our precious ship, but because we may have a strong psychological and/or physiological reaction to an interpersonal, combative situation. Or perhaps have a physical condition that limits the ability to be competitive in PvP combat, but PvE is doable.

No, nobody forced us to play on the PvP servers. We could have waited until Wednesday for the PvE servers to be up, when we’re working long days and would not have the time or ability to try out the changes so that we know how things will (possibly) work when the update goes live. We knew what we were getting into, I just had no idea that I’d have that reaction.

Holy crap. That turned out much longer than I thought it was going to be. If you’re still reading this, congratulations! Meet me on the NA PvE servers when the patch is live and I’ll give you a present. Maybe some thing small, maybe something big. But probably something small.

[wcjoker 4]

You gave PVP a shot and didn't enjoy it as much as PVE, I understand 100%, I did the same thing but I didn't last as long as you, as soon as I saw another player(s) I remembered why I didn't enjoy PVP. Maybe I'll see you around in PVE, good luck

 

WCJoker

[Vorxius 249]

I remember our first PvP encounter we had supplies, a schooner of rare supplies.  We didn't have weight for weapons, and tbh, didn't entertain the need for it.

So, we were just sailing in a diagonal with the wind and from the side saw a boat coming at us, again had the whole rack mount on the back, the pseudo meta.  They had one or two cannons on the front as well.  As they closed in, they fired the front, I was sailing and was able to turn so as to make the ship as thin a target as possible.  They missed, and kept firing, it was easy to avoid from that distance.  As they approached, they got the odd hit in, but my friend was capable with the repair hammer.  The island we needed was off to the side by this point, and as we turned, they caught up, and the next thing I remember was them turning hard pointing their ass at us, I saw this and turned stern to them.  They must have fired about 35 or 40 cannons...  most missed, a few hit, but it was obvious they were just out to blow us up.  Finally, as they turned in again I lined up wind again, and headed for the map edge, as they caught up I crossed the threshold, after the loading screen they appeared, I crossed the threshold again, and they must have followed... and so it went..  crossing the server line for about 5 mins..  All they did was hail abuse lol as they couldn't actually line up any shot before we had 'vanished'.  I told them we were unarmed, their response? You're going to die then..  I said you're going to get very bored with loading screens.  I got abuse, and mocking... but eventually they gave up..  

Loading screen PvP...   I knew then that PvP servers weren't for us.  Joined PvE, and never looked back.  Still thoroughly enjoy Atlas to this day.

[8ball 62]

Our company has been playing the PTR.  We've enjoyed it so far, except some jerks building boxes around the crew vendors. 

We've been in some fights, sank a brig, had our bank destroyed, rebuilt and reclaimed the island. 

But, we'll definitely go back to PVE.

The game seems to be much better graphics wise and server playability overall.  Still the meshing problem, tames falling through ship decks, etc 

I enjoy PVP but for now, don't  want to be forced to dedicate the time to the game.

[Dangergirl Forever 1]

I just have no interest whatsoever in killing people. I would rather help someone. Also , I know myself enough to know that if I ever did PvP on any game I would be a total effing jerk.  If someone kills me or takes my stuff I would devote ALL my time to making that someones life miserable (LOL) That's why I don't do PvP