Facts:

• Its not against the rules to kill deckhands – its been happening for the last 4-5 years
• Its not against the rules to kill new(ish) donators (usually deckhands/cadets who freshly donate)

But…

Some people within the community have observed how deckhand killing and new-donator killing have been on the rise in the past few months (at least more so than say a year ago). As previously stated, its not against the rules, but its not exactly how a server stays sustainable either…

• Yes we’re a pirate server, pirates don’t traditionally care about who they stabby-stabby, as long as they can stabby-stabby
• That being said, if you join this server, you will die. Everyone does, usually quite a lot
• We have periods with lots of people on (usually before holidays), and periods with low levels of activity (term-time and exam season)

Our server isn’t huge – we rely on as many people as possible to stick around. We don’t want a huge server either, but we need a nice balance – a steady flow of new people joining (hopefully donating) and sticking around, whilst some of our older players feel its time to leave. We currently have quite a high concentration of veteran players (or OP players for the simpleton); those considered to have many resources, with proportionally fewer sailors-deckhands on than ever before.

Going around and killing deckhands doesn’t become an issue until the amount of deckies killed suddenly starts to rise.  I know there are many reasons for going after deckhands/new donators:

• Sometimes people may want to farm some KDR (for which you can be given a warning for)
• Sometimes a solo player wants to farm some heads
• Sometimes you just want to stabby-stabby and pick on someone who doesn’t have much/any gear
• Regarding new donators, sometimes you just want to get their spawn eggs/donator items that they just paid real money for
• But most of the time its a group of people who (unconsciously) start targeting the same deckhand/new donator. You probably aren’t doing it on purpose (I mean, its hard for you to tell if the deckhand you’re killing has just bee killed 2-3 times over the past few days), but still.

Give them a little breathing room – let them set up a bit, gather resources, etc. After all its in your best interest to see them rank up and gather resources – it means they can build up a stockpile of more loot. Yes, in the short-run you’re getting some easy kills and loot, but these players are far more likely to turn their back on the server if they are constantly being attacked when they first join (yeah man-up blah blah, i get it). In the long-run however, you’re more likely to see these deckhands’ friends join the server, get even more resources, etc etc.

Something that Godsy in particular finds annoying is OP players going after new players to get their freshly donated items (such as spawn eggs, beacon, etc) before they have a chance to set up a secure chest. Tough luck if you lose the items, but its still a dick-move, piratey, but still a dick-move.

I’m not going to go and tell you who you should kill, or how you play the game. Its a pirate server afterall. But I’m asking you to be a little more considerate toward some of the newer players.