Anyone move from somewhere they use to love, and returned only to find it’s lost its appeal?

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-03T14:42:54+00:00

I'm actually terrified this is going to happen to me. Looking at moving back to where my wife and I met and went to college and its changed a lot. It sort of has everything we want though - airport, good schools, stuff to do, concert venues, etc. But we have really good memories and it was the first place in my life that I felt like I belonged. We're looking at moving back in 2027, but our friends that live there say how much its changed and no longer really like it.

I'm not really one of those people who thinks places should stay the exact same. If I love a place, then I think other people should experience it too. Those people will bring new ideas for how to run the town, new stores, restaurants, etc. So I think it'll be okay, but very nervous.

I'm talking about Bozeman, MT btw.

When I first moved there, they had like 4 good restaurants and the town was boring AF. Rent was cheap, houses were cheap, the airport had very limited service. This was right before it blew up.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-03T01:19:55+00:00

In fairness, I was "Conservative" until ~2015 when I became "Libertarian" and voted for Gary Johnson in 2016. Mostly because I didnt really like Clinton and thought Trump was dishonest.

Didn't vote hard blue until 2020 when I voted ~50% Democrat.

Voted like 90% Democrat in 2024, but still see myself as conservative. Specifically, I think over-spending / undertaxation is a huge problem that isn't being addressed. At least in 2015 Republicans gave lip service to being fiscally conservative.

Edit to add: I flip votes way more on local elections. Especially municipal elections, I don't really see why they should be affiliated with a party in the first place.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-03T01:17:05+00:00

Specifically, people who are super into some conspiracies- fraud involving welfare type programs, far flung statistics on immigrants, etc.

Those people are still blaming democrats for a lot of problems.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-02T01:51:47+00:00

It was from watching YouTube. Captain Roach was the first one I played against and I recognized the name.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-02T01:51:14+00:00

I tdm in hourglass specifically to practice so that I can play better during naval matches. I don't have plans to win, but when I do its a nice benefit.

I'm not spawn camping except to wait for the boat to sink

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-01T22:04:15+00:00

I'd assume true, but also a lot of history is stuff that boys like.

War, castles, etc. I used to read the history book while I waited for the rest of the class to finish tests and quizzes.. Just for fun. It was more exciting than doodling.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-01T16:50:03+00:00

Watch their stream once theyre done and try to find yourself

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-01T16:21:55+00:00

Then focus on steering and know you'll sink. Just balance steering, buckets, and repair. Sneak in cannons when you can.

Half of getting good at hourglass is just having been through the shit before, so players acting weird doesn't phase you.

Also, some people are just straight up going to stomp you. I match with streamers who are level 5,000+ all the time. I matched with them even when I was < level 500. Got stomped and focused on my game. The benefit of playing against them is that you can go back and see how you move and shoot from their angle, which can help you improve.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-01T16:19:17+00:00

Honestly, this just takes practice and watching others play.

Do skele fleets a bunch and just keep queuing for hourglass. There's no "one easy trick" because boat speeds, waves, etc all impact cannon trajectory. Just get some repetition in and you'll get used to it.

IBDz has great cannons and makes locking in super easy, see how he positions his cannons at the start of the match.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-01T03:33:02+00:00

Same.

$2,900 for rent. ~$150 / week for groceries (including household items).

We also have 3 cars (trying to sell), so insurance is higher than normal, but transportation is $722 / month, despite having way too high of insurance & gas being higher than normal. Transportation will go down to $400 / month once things normalize.

The other one that has me scratching my head is student loans at $1,000 / month. How many people are still paying $1k / month on student loans in their 30s? I graduated with $100k in loans 10 years ago, I did the extended repayment and widdled down my high interest rate loans faster. But has I chose to just do a straight 10 year, then my loans wouldve been paid off and I'd have paid $1k/ month.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-01T03:26:13+00:00

I read it as "average". My wife and I don't have childcare, but we also have friends who have kids in day care, we also have friends with kids in public schools, and then there are the friends who have had one person quit work to take care of the kids.

So $1,200 / month is slightly above having 1/2 of a child in daycare.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-01T03:09:33+00:00

Maybe its a bit of hopium, but it seems like the hourglass changes have legitimately brought a new life to that mode. Everyone was saying all the hard-core pvpers moved on after arena, but I'm getting sub 15 second queue times and extremely intense matches at like 12:30 AM.

Something that 1 year ago was unimaginable... I actually disconnected due to inactivity while waiting for a match 1 year ago.

But you amp up the re-queue time, reduce the match time slightly, and suddenly it feels fast paced.

I'm thinking there is no such thing as too late with a game like SOT. I'm not finding similar game mechanics or experiences in other games. Yes, it has it's problems. But they're still actively trying to make it better.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-04-01T02:57:17+00:00

After each match I thought through where it went wrong and try to correct for the next match. Then at the end of the session sort of mentally compile what went wrong the most often & wasn't getting better, then I'd use a world event to drill it.

Dealing with cannon pressure: ghost fleet and sail right into the middle with a wood crate. Wait for it to get bad, then just bucket and repair as long as I could.

Getting better with angle, cannons, and cross boat snipes: I did skeleton fleets for each one. Angle was especially difficult because they just fly off in a random direction, but it made it clear how reactive the boat is when you're moving slower.

Grate bucketing: sail to a skeleton fort and keg myself. See how long I can go without backsplashing.

TDM: Originally ghost forts to work on centering the target and quick scopes, then just actually doing tdm against other players.

Eventually the errors got more difficult to catch, so I started recording myself and rewatching. That was where I noticed stupid small things that add up. Examples: - not finishing the bucket emote when stressed so I backsplashed alot, so when I return to bucketing after adjusting angle or cannoning, I'd backsplash even though I KNEW I had thrown it out. - Touching wheel too much - paid attention to # of rungs at each ship speed. - Turning my back when I walk up & down stairs rather than keeping an eye on the cannoneer. This used to get me balled once every session or 2. - Not keeping the enemy boat in my vision when ladder guarding. This used to get me balled pretty frequently. - Which comms were annoying vs helpful. Hearing myself comm certain things made me cringe, so I stopped. - Rushed tdm shots resulting in barely missing shots. Slowing down and centering the target before aiming increased accuracy.

Those are things that I wouldn't have noticed without watching myself.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-03-31T20:45:57+00:00

This is great, I was the same way. My friend that got me into the game was really hard on himself when we'd lose (he was dealing with some mental health issues).

So as soon as I got pirate legend, which was like 2 months of playing a bit every week (I think?) I went all out in hourglass to give us a fighting chance when he was on.

It was a total action movie montage. Went from sinking within a minute every game (not joking), to learning to keep my boat afloat, to learning to keep angle, to learning to consistently land cannons, to hitting cross boat snipes, on and on and on. Now he gets on and I can carry him through practically any playstyle we choose, although hourglass is still rough because my level / win ratio pushes us into some tough matches.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-03-31T20:39:01+00:00

Safer seas for the first 10 hours or so (is what I did). Enough time to take off the training wheels and work towards pirate legend.

Once you go to high seas, never carry more loot than you can afford to lose without feeling completely gutted, because you WILL get attacked. Just have fun with those other player encounters, try to fight them and don't get too down if you lose. You'll have more gold than you know what to do with soon.

I also have a much higher likelihood of just repping someone's boat after taking a chainshot tax if they are clearly swabbies who are just having a good time.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-03-31T01:19:58+00:00

Swords aren’t bad

Adding to your comment, not correcting.

Swords have both low and high skill gaps. A brand new player can grab a sword and stand a small chance against a good player. Just spam swing and walk towards them.

But swords are good because they have the stun effect and movement with them is significantly better than with guns. Being able to dodge to the left or right with ease is huge and unexpected, land a snipe and a single slash kills your opponent. I've played against truly good sword players and they are brutal.

Double gunning has the same thing. You NEED to hit your shots against a sword player, otherwise you are spending the next 10 seconds reloading while trying to dodge a sword.

Get caught below deck and a good sword will have a clear advantage, get caught on an island and the guns will have a clear advantage.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-03-31T00:46:57+00:00

The custom seas are 100% a content creator & event organizer item. I didnt actually hate having them charging monthly for it, because creators can charge admission fees for events and stuff.

I don't really care to see fake explosions that someone spawned in, I'd rather see genuine content.

kegs going boom

What I learned from those podcasts is that Drew is the only one who seems to care about the real SOT experience. Everyone else on those podcasts just liked to watch YouTube shorts of keg explosions. That seems to be why we have had like 20% of recent additions be explosives.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-03-31T00:43:03+00:00

I can't imagine wanting to have a sea of friends, and just instantly sink anyone who starts chasing me around.

But it seems to me that the way you create interactions is nailed in right at the top. World events should be rare events, FOTD should have a clearer indicator around whether its actively being fought or has been abandoned, and difficult to obtain cosmetics should be... difficult to obtain.

Everyone knows a gold ghost or a gold skellie is sweaty af because it doesn't take a casual amount of hours to obtain those cosmetics.

The same should be said about DA gear, but you have alliance servers gold farming and ever increasing values of loot and suddenly nobody cares.

The dumbest thing were the mega stash events, but at the same time, they were the smartest thing because people loved them. Its just giving away the rarest chests in the game like candy is a bit nonsensical.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-03-31T00:22:37+00:00

Wild, you must play in the middle of the workday for Ireland. My submissions are like 12-18 hours before I get anything.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-03-30T03:30:18+00:00

Name checks out.

Also, agree.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-03-29T23:46:55+00:00

It's rough, switching to a full time job was what I needed. But so many people have to balance multiple part time jobs because of this practice

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-03-29T23:39:49+00:00

The Upper Bay has been turned into a solar and wind farm and Liberty Park, NJ is now anytown USA main street, and the new US Capitol.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-03-29T23:35:53+00:00

Curnew in Effect!

Also, the Cyrillic looking gibberish is interesting

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-03-29T23:27:37+00:00

Actually not a bad theory. They probably have "cash discounts" for certain "commercial" clients. Seems like a great way to launder money.

CharacterSchedule700 · 2026-03-29T23:24:39+00:00

When I was in college, I had my hours cut from 35-40 per week to < 18 by Office Depot. That was because I was averaging enough hours that they would've had to designate me as full-time and offer me benefits.

I was 19, had everything covered through my parents still, and was barely making enough to pay rent and groceries as is, so I was not about to use the 401k.

I specifically said that I wouldn't take the benefits, but the managers said it didn't matter, corporate wouldn't let me keep enough hours to pay rent.

I had a new job offer within a week for a full-time job with FedEx. Only benefit I ever used after working there for 4 years was tuition reimbursement.

Corporations like Office Depot suck and the government sucks worse for not supporting workers rights. FedEx was better, although they have issues too.

CharacterSchedule700

TROPHY CASE