How To Best Deal With Stowaways
 

So you're sailing, minding your own business, plundering, when suddenly a "Obnoxious Noob is coming to visit you" message pops up. Half the time this is someone you don't even know. And a lower level, so to speak. They either 1. Try and take over the wheel when you're not on it, or 2. shoot at everything. Or both. Well obviously this is quite irritating if you're already surrounded by Navy, but only have one target, cause they start to all come at you. Not to mention the waste of cannons. Those cost money, ye know!

So what are your tactics to dealing with these freeloaders? I don't like the fact they get half me plunder upon docking for just standing there.

I just had one guy, a level 27 nonetheless (for shame..) come aboard and start shooting everything. So I docked near Devils Anvil where there are no navy, and chilled there for a good 5 minutes before he got bored and went away.

If its a lower level I like to head to any wild island that has a large fleet of navy in front of it. Then leave them there. I know they cant teleport yet, so they have to take their little boat out. *cackles evily*

SO yeah, any tips? :laughks2:

HJead to Cuba and start to board the Colossous....that usually scares them off :)

Me. Make a b-line for juggy, have all crew abandon ship, then when Juggy is going to hit, teleport off. He is left alone and to Davy Jones he goes.

Loot Hard!

I've had a few problems with stowaways, but those people were all low level free players who just shot everything that moved (in a galleon, trying NOT to get killed by like 6 phantoms). They are annoying, but there are good stowaways. Some people, (like me) will get on your ship and ask you if it's ok that they're on, and usually when I ask this they are perfectly fine with it. I get xp/gold, and they get another crew member so they can get xp/gold faster.

But if I got another stupid stowaway, I would probably just head towards a phantom/ man-o-war/(insert warship name here) and tele off just as I was about to sink. The poor saps...

Marooning on a wild island doesn't really work. They can bring up the map and return to their current bind point. Marooning on Padres would be better, but they can still go to a friend if they have one.

I just head for the nearest island and port away.

YOU FAIL. There is no excuse for blindly jumping on a stranger's ship without permission.

How does it happen that people not on my friend list find a way on my ship? I had cannons taken away from my friends by 5 people that none of us even knew!

They click you from another ship, or while on land, getting ready to board, then just "go to".

Loot Hard!

They sail up next to you and click on you, then hit go-to.

Or they click on you when you're on the beach, and then wait until you board your ship, and then hit go-to.

Thanks for the answer! There should be a way that the captain can send stowaways to jail!

All D needs to do is to add an option to "Allow" or "Deny" when someone tries to teleport to you. The problem would be solved (with the "man overboard" glitch as an exception).

Loot Hard!

Gosh, ship jumping, It really kills the repetitive nature of the game for me sometime.
Sail out somewhere in a busy ocean and see how many ships I can jump from and to. I usually get bored of that after not too long though.

I have to add though, nothing worse than getting someone on your ship that shoots at everything, tries to take the wheel. (Well, maybe something worse, getting an unexpected internet connection lost when docking and having a stack of royals is!)

I usually dock if i don't know them, get whoever it is to remove them from their friends, and then take off again. Or if i'm feeling nasty I just move them near something big and bail ship.

An answer to the stowaway problem
 

After reporting two of these stowaways, I recieved a reply from Disney.
In the next game update, unwanted stowaways won't be allowed anymore.
This should solve our problem.

I so hope so!!!

That Would Be Awesome!

Exploiting this Bug in the game is inappropraite when it directly affects other pirates, their gameplay - heck even my money - period. That's why I just report them and doc. I used to do the sinking bit - but after 20 in one day it was getting too expensive to keep repairing the ship. After that day I wrote Disney and told them 'if you can't fix it - I'll be reporting them' and they said 'that we find that acceptable as it is considerd Rude or Bad Behavoir'...

So come on board - just don't expect a friendly welcome. :degen:

That is good news! How long until the next update?

"it is considerd Rude or Bad Behavoir"

That officially kills the notion that "We are pirates so were supposed to be bad".

I always found Tormenta a fun place to take stowaways to, they follow inside the cave not knowing what to expect usually.

Hile - Guns'n'Roses sings it best...

"you can take anything you want - just don't take it from me..."

So, I don't mind most bugs... why? Cause you are NOT hurting me... :) I don't do the 'Skelly' bug - others do - fine by me. Someone knows about a hidden wall - I don't - oh well. These things do not affect me directly....

The second you board my ship - take it over - shoot unwanted targets - and cause me to sink - NOW you are... 'bye bye Stowaway...' - so yes, because this directly affects MY gameplay - I do report it.

Tormenta! :) I did that once... too funny! Problem is it's my time wasted - so I just go right for the 'ban and boot' now :)

Well - after several threads encouraging others to report this issue - it looks like it will finally be resolved :) This then will be some thread found on a search engine years later and you can think 'wow - that was a long time ago' :)

Give the low level stowaways a break!
 

Come on....give the low level stowaways a break!

A LOT of them don't know they are not suppose to do this.
Remember when you first started.

When they do board talk to them & ask them what they are doing on your ship.
Recruit them & tell them what or what not to shoot.

If they are high level, then they should know better!
If they don't listen, then leave them on a wild island!

If they keep doing it, make them your friend and then click the ignore option under friends. They won't be able to tp to you again!

Nice! Its about time, too.

1. When I first started, I stuck to my ship and my quests.

2. One problem.. they ignore you.

OK... I have another way to deal with the stoweaways for the time being, until the fix is implemented:

If you see someone board your ship, tell the person that they can automatically join the nearest crew by pressing Shift+F2. *Poof* they go away! :D

It's worked a couple times now and it is too funny to see them actually do it.

Loot Hard!

Does shift+f2 disconnect you from the game? If so, LOL!

Sorry, I should have clarified. Yes, Shift+F2 is quick logout.

LOL that's a great idea. Plus, it's better than telling someone to hit Alt+F4 on the internet because hardly anyone knows Shift+F2. :dancetl6:

OMG I need to start using this!!! Thanks Monk!

First off, they don't get half of your plunder. Everyone gets the same amount as if they would have been alone. It isn't divided. Also, if you're surrounded by navy, chances are they will attack you anyways. Other than that, yeah, freeloaders stink. However, the best way to get rid of them is to board a high level navy ship. :D

Well, I look at it this way. One day, some dude boarded my ship and started shooting everything. I told him not to shoot other players and he finally got it. So since he felt it okay to board anytime he feels like it (about 6 times now), I use his ship when I feel like it, like say he's on it and I don't want to loose MY ship taking out the ships I need. I'm pretty good with a cannon, so he gets a good gunner and I loose no gold. Plus, if he's about to die, I can teleport off.

This shouldn't be much of a problem now, as in order to TP to someone on a ship, you MUST be there friend. They need to amend this though, and include OR IN YOUR GUILD. If they aren't the ship owners friend or guildmate, can't join, I had to friend a lot of guild members yesterday . . .

Also they need to make the guild members window sort online / offline as the friends window does, instead of only being set when you log in.

You can manually resort it by closing and opening it and it will put the online members above the offline.

I have hit the F key, bringing the window up and down. Mine does not resort. Only when I logout - back in, will it sort the online players to the top. Unless there is a way to close the window and reopen it, aside from hitting the F key or opening it via top treasure chest icon to click on.

Agreed on both points! We use Crew Chat for Master / Officer talks and can't be crewing everyone all the time... and I never have Guild Members on my friends list (ever since the Guild List was fixed - I went on a Clean Up spreee LOL)

All it needs is the addition of the Guild List to TP, and your set. That way - guild can still TP to you, your close Friend Allies can TP to you, and Crew can be used for both TP or other uses.

And the Guild Window Sort... bah. Having to refresh it every ten minutes is painful :)

They fixed this with the latest update (4-30-08)

I read the release notes, and it says "Fixed the bug that was allowing strangers to board your ship. Only the captain's friends and crewmates are now able to board".

How are you refreshing it? I hit F to hide / bring up friends / crew / guild window . . . . but doing that to hide it / bring it back up doesn't sort out my guildies that are online . . . . I've done it by hitting F as well as going through treasure chest. Is there another way to get it to update in game manually? Also, since guildies should be able to TP to you on your ship, you should also get an indicator on guild bar if they are on a ship or not. Just copy the friends UI for the guild list, and shorten guild titles down. I know who my GM is. I know who officers are. I don't know who's on a ship, and they can't come to me cause I don't have them on 2 out of my 3 lists!

Go to your guild list, click guild options and then click show members. It refreshes the guild list. I hate to say this in open though but I think the update last night made the "TP to a player on a ship" thing back to how it was before. I had a guildee TP to me when not in crew. I didnt mind, and was glad they did just threw me off!!

Friends can TP to you also, if it was a guildie and a friend, then that would explain it.

Thanks for the help on refreshing my guild list, that's kinda lame though, they need it to auto update.

Yeah thanks for the info on updating the guild list. I hated having to scroll through trying to find someone I knew was online.

Sorry I was out ill the past day and didn't get back to see the post on how to refresh the list - glad Angel got ya covered on it :D - and yea, its lame - but its better than looking through the list LOL :)

Something to think about when you're booting or ditching someone that appears on your ship (or does anything else you don't love during game play): there are lots of kids on this game and they don't necessarily have an adult's grasp of what is or is not appropriate. I know of kids as young as 5 being on the game. Just keep that in mind when you're playing hardball with someone. It's not right to ask them their age, but try to observe whether they are acting like young kids before you nuke them.

My 2 cents.

Well, I always check the whisper function for the + sign. If it comes up then I know they're a child. If not, they most likely arent and should know better!!!

I didn't know the + sign indicated a minor, good to know.

I'm so glad they did something about this! I've had no pesky stowaways for a while.

I was going around the other day and got on someone else's ship. Without being in their crew, their friend, or in their guild, I walked around on their ship, I couldn't man a cannon or the wheel.

I was parked right outside Padres, as I had just gotten onto my ship. I was trying to show a guildie how to be a skywalker, and this tard next to me just starts continually blasting my ship. Broadsides, manned cannon, lightning, fireballs. I sent him a tell, asking him to stop, it was disrupting what we were doing. No response, no let up of a barrage of attacks. So I start sky walking, and go over to his ship, and get on board. I ask him again in local to stop. He draws his sword and tries to fight me. I ask if he's a child, I put the + in my window and try to ask if he speaks english, but you can't say english, so I try american, but you can't say that either. I finally say 'can you respond?' and get nothing.

So the bottom line is, try what I might, I was able to get on someone's ship, couldn't man a thing (affect their gameplay), and I doubt had they had plunder and docked it would have split with me, it most likely would have just left me floating in the air when their ship poofed.

So kudos to Disney! Looks like stowaways are a thing of the past.

PS, don't ask me how to sky walk.

Dread? Is it you? You finally found your way to the forums - welcome!

Lib

I had someone do this to me, they added me as a friend and stupidly I accepted thinking it was someone at a lower level who needed help, and on the way to an island I was trying to sink a flag ship and as im shooting grapple hooks, the noob trys to sail my ship away!

I ended up yelling at him, (He couldn't get far since one hook had already landed) and he had to move, I stranded him at a wild island then used the ignore feature. Worked perfectly

I'm wondering if they should offer a "Walk the plank!" option for captains. If someone starts causing you trouble this option would send them packing to their return island. I would only then worry about captains abusing this tool so they can use it and then dock to get all of the plunder for themselves...but I suppose that's sort of pirate-esque and they would start getting a reputation for such behavior. Then again, this game does not support social interactions as much as I would like it to so giving such a captain a bad name may prove difficult.

"Walk the plank!"

The other night we ended up with a stow-away again.... I am sailing with a group of friends(4 of us total). Out on the water a while... kind of far away from anything, as I was randomly chasing ships people needed for quests, when suddenly this pirate pops onto the boat, and is suddenly part of the crew. It was a "Pirate" pirate. Like level 4.

As I didn't add this random person to my crew, I was confused. I immediately checked to make sure I wasn't looking for crew members or something like that (and I wasn't). I kicked him from the crew, and asked him to leave. He didn't leave, but did stop shooting random stuff. Once we finally got back to Kingshead (like 20 mins later) this little pirate teleported away. Poor little guy... He joined the boat AFTER we filled the holds. He got nothing for the 20 mins of waiting for me to dock... heh.

This sounds like a ban-able exploit.

I reported it, but I am not sure how it happened. And of course, the big D hasen't goten back to me about it.

I think you read my mind. I have had to friend almost my entire guild so they can sail with me. I'm mastered on everything and just spend my time on the ship to get gold (for shopping!) & they used to just tp on and off to get the ships or rep they needed. So silly to have to friend your entire guild. You're a guild, of course you're friends. You should be able to work together just like friends.

It will re-sort if you hit "guild options" and then "show members". It's irritating to have to do this, though, and I agree that they should make it sort automatically just like the friend list.

The only way for someone to come on the ship is to either TP to the capt from the capt's friends list or to be in the crew with the Capt in it. I dont like the new way, I wouldve rather had an accept/reject button for TPing since it wouldve cleared up a few other issues too of lower lvls TPing to you in bad situations as well (ie Tormenta).

This was one of my more hated issues. I still never take friends due to the effects this all had. I like it how it is now at least in comparison to how it was.

I covered the ground rules when poeple would port to the ship non stop, with I only steer the ship. This really became the biggest issue, while you shoot sails, and set up a ship for broadsides for higher rep. With someone always taking the wheel during some point of this process, directing the ship straight into trouble.

I was never so nice as you all appeared to be, you broke this rule, and took the wheel, it was the same result everytime. Full sail to the colossuss and board it, and watch your ship become empty to go sailing again. This is harsh, you bet. It sure cleared up the issue for the most part though, with nothing else we could do about it.

As for kids, I have two that play, they know the rules or follow rules they get when on others ships. They don't then they get booted off ships as well. Everyone has their own ships they can take, kids or not.

Only thing else bad to this is the chat system that won't let us chat. Your ship can be sunk by the time you try to tell someone (I have one rule you don't take the wheel and run off with the ship). Having to try to say that 4 -5 times with changing words around because the word wheel is filtered, has been worse than people running off with your ship.

I'm glad they won't let just any guild member tp to your ship. We used to have a guy that was really obnoxious in our guild. He'd tp to my ship, then just stand there and do nothing. Really frustrating when you were solo, then someone in your guild boards your ship, and won't even fire a basic cannon ball. I sank a few times because of his carelessness. Needless to say I removed him from my friend's list. Took care of that problem. He was soon removed from our guild for his misbehavior, but I hate the idea of some dope having access to my ship like that just because someone ELSE invited him to our guild. Not all guild members are good friends.

Maybe they could come up with an option where you could CHOOSE to let guild members tp to you. All you'd have to do is check "Yes, allow guild members to tp to you." in the guild options tab.

No they should have that with anyone except crew of course..

I mean really whats the point of having your friend if youre like in tormenta fighting and the firned just randomly comes up to you for no reason?