How to Communicate in Sea of Thieves
A common complaint I’ve seen nowadays about Sea of Thieves is that “everyone just attacks you on sight”. While this is often true with Reapers (that’s literally their style of gameplay), often, when you look into things and read deeper into people’s posts, you realise that there was no effort to communicate on either side. And there are plenty of things you can do to provoke an attack, even if you don’t realise it.
In today’s article, I want to discuss how to communicate with other players, and to make some suggestions as to how to not invite everyone to attack you. Sure, a lot of players are aggressive, but that’s only because we can sometimes make ourselves look and sound aggressive.
Ship Positioning
How you approach a ship speaks a LOT about your intentions. If you immediately charge a ship without communicating in any way, you’re asking to be attacked. Approaching via the front or the broadside (on both ships) is generally the safest option. That way, you are both more open with your intentions. Don’t come too close either, stay at mid cannon range unless you know the other ship. However, even if you are friendly, don’t approach with cannons completely pointed upward. People might see you as an easy target.
Where you are going is also important. A freshly spawned ship at an outpost will be friendlier and more open to communication compared to one parked at Sovereigns, and a ship parked near Reapers, an active world event, a vault or a smuggler hideout is probably busy and might confuse an approaching ship for an attacker. If they are parked at a small island, then they are much more likely to be open to an alliance, as long as you communicate that as you approach.
However, if you want to be friendly (or at least not aggressive), you need to state that, clearly. People do not know if you are friendly just by looking, and most will assume you are hostile.
Flares and Fireworks
Every ship starts off a session with two red flares and two white flares. These are used for two things: lighting up Shades on skeleton ships, and communicating with other players. While it’s not universally agreed upon by everyone, firing a white flare upwards suggests non-aggression and firing a red flare means aggression. However, the white flare doesn’t mean the other ship won’t attack you, it just means they are passing by and don’t want a fight right now. If you threaten someone who fires a white flare, they will fight back. On the other hand, a red flare can mean both “we are coming to kill you right now” and “get out of our personal space or we open fire”. Either way, a red flare means danger, and you should prepare to fight. Red often means danger, after all.
When it comes to fireworks though, while firing them on arrival can suggest friendliness from the start, people can also see you on cannon and think you’re going to open fire. Different fireworks can mean different things too – after all, my crew will fire the common star fireworks for friendly reasons, but the chicken firework is saved for people who run or people who shit-talk.
The best time to use fireworks is to say farewell, as you are leaving. That way, we all know it’s in a friendly manner. You can also use them to celebrate, that’s also fine.
Boarding
Simply put, boarding without warning is an instant sign of aggression. In fact, most people don’t want an allied player on their ship. If you REALLY want to board someone’s ship in a friendly manner, you need to announce that you are doing so in advance, before you fire yourself over. Once you’re on board, if you want to keep things friendly, try not to mess around with the allied ship’s treasure or anything, and let them know if you’re going to the crow’s nest.
Really, the best way to communicate is to stay on your own ship, grab a megaphone and shout at other ships. Talking to people face to face is best done when on land, when no one’s on a ship. People trust you more when their ship is at less risk.
Cosmetics Speak Louder Than Words
How you look also affects how people see you and communicate with you. For example, a swabbie in the default sailor hat is less obviously threatening than someone wearing an admiral coat, but at the same time, a reaper pyjama pirate looks more threatening than a shirtless tattoo guy, but the latter is guaranteed to be more dangerous. Clothing stereotypes do come and go, but there are recurring ones, and you need to be aware of them. Sure, running around with no shoes, no top and the Legend Curse looks cool, but you also clearly look like someone looking for trouble.
The same goes for ship cosmetics. It’s pretty easy to guess that a ship called Arkay’s Fang, decked out in Reaper cosmetics, is going to be aggressive, even if they are doing Hunters’ Call stuff, the cosmetics communicate that to you straight away.
Should you judge a book by its cover? Not always. But how you look sends many signals. People will be wary and less willing to talk to people and a ship decked out in the ghost set or the dark adventurer set over Merchants Alliance or Hunters’ Call cosmetics.
Outpost Etiquette
There is no etiquette when it comes to outposts. Why? Because they are where you stock up AND where you sell. While sure, it is shitty to be attacked when you are just starting out, but if a ship is full of loot and wants to sell, they may want to clear an outpost before they do so.
If you are a fresh spawn at an outpost and you see someone approaching, you ought to tell them that straight away. Sometimes they’ll understand and leave you alone, but most likely, they’ll want you gone. So your best option is to leave straight away. Sure, you might not have gotten all your resources, but diving to a sea fort will fix that with ease. Diving is also the best way to leave an outpost if someone is approaching.
If you and another ship are approaching the same outpost, things do get trickier and you will probably end up fighting. People want to sell in peace, and a chance to get extra loot before selling. Honestly, there’s enough outposts that you can just go to another one rather than risk a fight. If you are at the Reapers’ Hideout though, literally anything goes, and, frankly, communicating isn’t worth doing. Just kill them. They’ll probably kill you. Doubly so if you’re an emissary. Heck, I’d just stay away from the Hideout in general unless you need to be there.
What to Say or not to say
Remember, this is a pirate game. No one is trustworthy, and what you say is very important. But a bit of roleplay will get you a long way. Lean in to being a pirate. People are way more open to people who are having a bit of fun. The more serious you are, the more folks will fear retaliation.
If you are going to lie though, get your story straight from the start. If you are already considered suspicious by other players, messing up a line will screw you big time. Doubly so if you’re pretending to be a newer player. And make sure your looks fit as well. I’m not going to believe that you’re a new player if you’re using the ghost ship set.
One of the worst things you can do is say that you have no loot. It doesn’t help you. If anything, that makes people suspicious, especially if you’re more than a rank 1 emissary. Most people will assume that you’re lying. But even if you only have fresh supplies, people still consider that loot. At the very least, saying “I have no loot” will make people curious and want to check, in person. More importantly, Reapers will consider an emissary flag as some of the best loot around. Saying “I have no loot” when you have an emissary flag, especially an Athena’s Fortune flag, will not dissuade a Reaper.
USE YOUR MIC
The most important thing in Sea of Thieves when it comes to communication is that you REALLY ought to use your microphone. It travels further than text chat (outside of your own crew) and it is generally much easier to be clear and state your intentions. In fact, voice chat can break communication barriers, since the text-to-speech and speech-to-text options can translate your words. I’ve managed to translate people talking to me in French and German and I’ve also caught people calling me a son of a bitch in Spanish because I killed them.
Voice chat is also FAR faster than text chat. Like, occasionally, accidents happen. You might hit an allied player while fighting someone else. You can more easily go “oh shit, sorry, didn’t mean that!” than if you use text chat. The faster you clear up a problem, the better, and the more likely an alliance can continue on its way.
Also, weirdly, using your microphone makes you more trustworthy. Someone willing to use their voice is just inherently more trustworthy because you can better judge their intent and if they are lying or not. Intent is what makes people think you will betray them or not. Of course, people can hide their intent and lie, but voice chat leaves less to chance.
That being said, it’s not foolproof. I managed to convince some Merchant Alliance guys that I just wanted to help, and I ended up stealing a chest of fortune from them. Admittedly, by then, I had proved I was trustworthy by helping them fend off a Reaper, but still. The British lady charm does a lot of heavy lifting.
Gamer Words
However, all levels of friendliness go out of the window if you decide to use slurs or ‘gamer words’. Most players will choose to attack a player who uses nasty language. Sure, people don’t mind a “for fuck’s sake!” but calling someone a bitch will provoke them and using the worst words will make players attack on sight. You also risk being reported. In fact, if you do see someone using gamer words, record a clip or grab a screenshot and report them to Rare on the SoT website.
People with hostile ship names are also attack-on-sight. Especially if they reference Nazis. In fact, my crew will drop what we are doing to sink Nazis, and I recommend you do the same.
Alright, this article went on longer than expected, but hopefully it gives you a better idea of how to talk to people and not get immediately shot at.