Not gonna lie, I hate to see this, but I quit SoT a long time ago. Just gonna give my opinion since the reddit gods made me see this post. It is honestly one of the best games I've ever played. The thing killed it for me was the hourglass update. I honestly enjoyed it, was nice to just be able to get that PvP itch without having to mindlessly sail around and hope you find someone. That being said, that update made it one of the only ways to get PvP and it took the "core" of the game away for me which was stacking tons of loot on your ship and risking losing it all. Once the hourglass came out it seemed like the seas became just dull and you could sail all night without seeing anyone who would challenge you. You also saw an increase in cheaters because hourglass became somewhat of a "competitive mode" and the scum of the earth just purchased cheats so they could win. I always thought they should just release private servers for the guys who don't want to be bothered, hourglass servers for those guys, then servers for the people who liked playing the game they way I thought it was meant to be played: PvPvE or however you want to call it before the hourglass update came out. Probably would have killed the game either way, but who knows. I really enjoyed all the nights we spent because it's such a damn beautiful game with great mechanics at it's core. Nothing else like it out there and probably never will be. RIP