Griefer Bait

My little girl seems to attract griefers for some reason. It probably comes down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I can't help but sympathize with her. She doesn't bring this stuff on herself in any way, it just happens.

Last night, after supper, she played SoT for about 30-45 minutes. After logging in and running around the outpost to collect supplies, she noticed another sloop sailing towards the docks. Once in range, the sloop proceeded to shell her boat. Hoping to avoid a confrontation, she scuttled her ship and went up to the tavern to wait for the guy to leave.

Long story short, he didn't leave. In fact, he anchored his sloop next to her mermaid and camped the spot with his eye of reach (ie, sniper rifle). Whenever she'd come out to see if he was gone, or to try and get to her mermaid, he'd shoot at her. Eventually he shot and killed her.

What the hell kind of sociopathic crap is that? It's not enough to sink someone's sloop before they've even left the dock, but you have to make sure you kill them, too?

I don't think my daughter gets too upset over these things. She's come to accept the possibility, but she doesn't enjoy it when it becomes the reality. She eventually respawned at a small island, then (just to see if she could) swam to another island she saw in the distance (killing two sharks on the way). After that, she went back to her ship and sailed to the secret island at N10 to explore.

I played for about an hour, myself. I managed to complete a profitable Merchant Alliance voyage (thank God for gold snakes!). It took me the whole hour, though, because I couldn't find chickens anywhere. I eventually turned in my snakes just to avoid losing them to some random dweeb before canvassing several islands for poultry products. Eventually I found the birds, but it took more time than I would've liked.

Avast!

Weekend Retrospective

I doubt I'll ever go back to my detailed logs, but I do have some anecdotes to share from this past weekend.

I had a couple of fairly positive encounters that didn't end in immediate death for me. In both instances, I'm certain I would've been attacked and killed had I not spoken up prior to the first shots being fired. That said, once the dialogue started in both cases, things were pretty laid back.

In the first instance, I was bringing in a load of chickens and snakes to the Merchant Alliance at one outpost or another. As I was docking, I noticed a couple of mermaids in the water. I'd seen a couple of sloops in the area earlier, so I figured maybe there were some castaways waiting in ambush for anyone foolish enough to drop anchor.

FinessingOnHer, J2D2S2, and Otar311 rocking out.

I'm not sure how correct I was, but after turning in my first snake, three fellows came rushing down the dock towards me with cutlasses at the ready. I told them I was turning in a Merchant Alliance voyage and that I had nothing of value. Though only one of them (Otar311) could talk to me for some weird technical reason, he was laid back and acted as a translator of sorts for the group.

The three had met earlier when one of them had been killed by the other two. While two of them were on the Ferry of the damned, he said, "I guess that means you don't want my help with the raid." Eventually, though, they got together and worked to take out the skeletons and had just returned to turn in their loot before logging out. They marveled at my snakes and we chatted a little bit.

The next encounter had a similar genesis, as I was docking at an outpost to turn in some additional livestock to the Merchant Alliance. I'd seen a galleon near the outpost previously and I waited for it to leave before heading over to complete my voyage. As I was unloading, I heard a child's voice - a boy, probably around 8 years old - saying, "His anchor's down. He's just sitting there. Should I use my sniper on him?" Checking the horizon, I could see the galleon coming back to the outpost.

I could hear other voices, fainter than the boy's, so I immediately began to reply. "Hey, guys. Guys? I'm just trading in chickens and pigs here. I don't have anything worth taking."

DEZiR3 Allstar and TheKoesegPro (obscured).

At this point the boy, DEZiR3 Allstar, leapt from the galleon and swam to my ship. "I'm coming aboard!" he said. "Don't kill me!" As he climbs aboard, he pulls out his blunderbuss and points it at me.

"Don't you kill me," I replied. "I have a Seafarer's Chest in the hold if you guys want it. Everything else is chickens and pigs."

The apparent leader of the crew, TheKoesegPro, told everyone to let me turn in my stuff as DEZiR3 grabbed the aforementioned chest and ran off to sell it. The rest of the crew helped me unload my ship, leaving the animals on the dock near the Merchant Alliance rep.

As they told it, they were prepping to raid a skeleton fort and asked me if I'd like to join them in my sloop. I thanked them for the offer but replied in the negative, letting them know I was focused on Merchant Alliance quests. KoesegPro even sent me a friend request before calling his crew back to their ship.

They started to pull out to sea. I could hear DEZiR3 (still louder on his mic than the rest) asking, "Want me to go back and kill him?"

I spoke up. "You know I can hear you, right?" which was punctuated by laughter from the rest of the crew as if to say, "Oh, that DEZiR3! Such a funny kid!" They went on their merry way and that was that.

My snake collection.

While I was having such positive encounters with other members of the community, my kids were having different experiences. My daughter was ganked for the first time, much to her chagrin. She had nothing of value aboard her sloop, but while she was on the Ferry of the Damned, waiting to respawn, her killer took all of her bananas.

Upon discovering her sudden lack of bananas, she exclaimed, "He stole my bananas! What a douchebag! I mean, what kind of person does that?" She complained long and loud about it, wondering aloud why people have to ruin other peoples' fun. I reminded her that it was just bananas and that she should be grateful.


In other news, I discovered an island at N10 that doesn't appear on the map. It was small and I didn't find anything interesting there. Maybe I should have looked harder, I don't know. I'll go back and check it out again later, just to be sure.

The latest patch dropped yesterday. I'm ambivalent about it, though I like the thought of new cosmetic items. I'm not real keen on having the items distributed between different outposts, but I can understand what Rare is going for. I still think stuff is either far too expensive, or that gold rewards are far too low. That's just the way it is, I guess.

Avast!

Merchant Alliance Quiet Time

Outside of one or two distant sloops (it might have been the same one twice; I never go close enough to find out who these people are), this was a fairly uneventful session. It was also fairly profitable.

I'm beginning to prefer Merchant Alliance voyages, primarily because they tend to pay fairly well at the higher levels. That, and requests for gold animals are incredibly lucrative when I can get them. By voyage's end, I got a bunch of gold and increased my reputation with the Merchant Alliance.

Here's my captain's log with all the boring details.

Sanctuary Outpost spawn-in.

Starting/Ending Rep - GH 23/23, OS 20/20, MA 20/21
Starting/Ending Gold: 35,596/41,609
Gold Earned: 6,013g

Snakes and Pigs: A Merchant Trader Voyage

"An amiable order from the prominent Mr. Abel"

This Abel fellow wants 2 black scaled snakes, 1 pink & black spotted pig, and 2 black coated pigs. Must deliver the critters to the Golden Sands Outpost by 11am on the 29th.Current date is the 23rd, so I see no trouble with this plan.

Travel to Lone Cove and search for animals. Find two black-coated pigs (671g & 542g), a black and pink spotted pig, and two black scaled snakes (894g & 898g). Also found a gunpowder barrel (187g).

In case you didn't know, snakes are a-holes. They spray you (or anything else around them, including pigs and chickens) with venom. This not only does damage, but it makes you nearly blind for a short period of time.

The risks inherent in shirling can be rather painful.

I'm sure everyone knows this, but catching snakes requires a bit of work. When you find the snake you want, you need to get one of your musical instruments and play music for it until it hunkers down. Then you can grab your basket and scoop it up. But wait, there's more! As you carry the occupied snake basket, the little jerk wakes up. If you don't drop the basket and play another ditty, the snake sprays venom into your face. Even if you drop the basket, there's still a chance you'll get the venom treatment.

Incidentally, this reminds me of an old Kids in the Hall sketch about the sport of shirling. Suffice it to say, it involves a pissed off snake atop a barrel and a bunch of idiots chained together around it. Something tells me that with a little work, we could probably shirl in Sea of Thieves.

Sorry for the digression. Shall we continue?

So I get back to my boat with the last pig, and as I'm standing there taking notes for this very blog, two skeletons with pistols spawn on the nearby beach, see me, and gun me down. Thanks to the damage taken from my reptilian pals' venom, the bone twins gun me down in a single volley.
I respawn after a few moments and weigh anchor, but that's not the last time those damn snakes inconvenience me. No, sir.

I notice too late that the snake I've placed in the hold has been magically spraying venom up through the forward deck at the pink and black spotted pig. At least, that's the only way I can reconcile the pig's death since I'd been feeding it regularly. To prevent further poisoned porcine casualties, I move the black pigs back away from the forward deck.

I spot a sloop anchored near Lonely Isle and there appears to be a storm brewing, so I decide to head to Golden Sands Outpost and deliver the animals. While sailing, I see a shipwreck off Cannon Cove. I drop anchor nearby and check the previously mentioned sloop. It's sailing away, so I decide to dive on the wreck of the Bloody Death. In the process, I recover a Hateful Bounty skull (678g), a Marauders Chest (283g), and a Crate of rare tea (367g).

After plundering the wreck, I go to Golden Sands to deliver my remaining animals and sell the loot I found. Afterward, I decide to find another pink and black spotted pig. I head south to the Lagoon of Whispers, but find no pigs.

There is, however, a shipwreck nearby. Turns out to be the wreck of the Hangman's Hate. I'm fairly certain I've encountered this same wreck at some point in the past. I always figured the names were generated in some kind of procedural fashion -- and they may be -- but I expected there to me more variety.

Meet the new pig. Same as the old pig.

So I dive and find a Foul Bounty Skull (168g), a message in a bottle (first time finding one of these in a wreck), a crate of fine sugar (131g), a Castaways Chest (96), and a Disgraced Bounty Skull (311g).

Still need that pink and black spotted pig, so I decided to check Mermaid's Hideaway for bacon. While there, I find a new pink and black pig (448g) and return with it to Golden Sands. While there I sell my loot and buy a new Merchant Alliance voyage from Mavis for 80g.

Incidentally, the message in a bottle contained a map of Crescent Isle with one X marked on it. It's close, so I head over there and find a Seafarers Chest (234g) and a gunpowder barrel (185g). I consider exploring the rest of the island in more detail, but I spot a sloop to the northeast. I don't want to deal with someone else, so I weigh anchor, go back to Golden Sands, and sell the chest.

Avast!