The fact that so many players find Sand literally too difficult for various reasons makes me enjoy my success and social interactions in Sand that much more.

That said:

I've fought dupers, teamers, streamers, cheaters you name it. I still think I'm likely near, or well over >50% extraction rate (Sidenote: it'd be cool if they had player career stats). I don't mind the occasional unfair super boss scenario that causes me to lose, it's lead to some pretty wild adventures.

Dupers have occasionally become loot piñatas.

Teamers one time, turned out to be organically brand-new friends. I found this out because I knew the dude who killed me and stole my reactor from having played with him before so I messaged him afterwards on Discord. We ended up all playing together in 4-mans, etc, it was a blast.

For streamers, I got to fight MeepLT in 6-man and he was one of the few players that ever countered me so effectively on the ground that it changed my overall boarding technique in many ways (losing to him taught me stuff). When I watched the VOD, they legit *waited* for us to finish our fight before engaging, and he was super positive about our fight, saying he was happy for the challenge, etc. I was not happy to go KABOOM, but it truly stopped our Multi-Trampler kill streak that we're so used to having in 6-mans. Meep was STACKED.

Thanks to watching Ceremor (winner of the $10,000 Scorched Shell Showdown Sand tournament), I've been using proximity voice chat more, role playing as a pirate as C often does (Push-to-Talk is C, by the way). Although, I would say I'm a few degrees nicer than them. I've even joined crews as a 7th-man by role playing as a pirate for hire in need of a new trampler (sometimes literally moments after they just blew me/or my team's trampler up).

Cheaters? Well... They're the worst of the bunch, often with inflammatory proxy chat ready to go with verbal proof of their depravity. However, I've dealt with this in enough games to laugh off the bad encounters, and focus on the fact that I've otherwise been very lucky loot/progress-wise.

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TLDR; Many of my losses have led to some pretty memorable adventures. I think because I've been lucky enough to find success amidst downright horrendous odds, it makes enjoying this game all the sweeter, especially when I use proxy chat. (Enjoy the Press Kit Art)

The fact that so many players find Sand literally too difficult to play for various reasons makes me enjoy my success and social interactions in Sand that much more.

P.S. - I hope Sand's developers fix what they gotta fix. There's a long list. Meanwhile, enjoy the attached images from the Press Kit Art. If you look closely, you can see a lot of Trampler tech we don't have yet! Hopefully it's images of what they plan to achieve. We'll see if/when they're able to get to it.

Its made of brass, some aluminium (too reduce weight at least a tiny bit) and wood. The base is one of those deco flintlocks our grand dads had on their walls. Added a ton of parts, and copper wire and almost a real tesla coil (not convetion proof). Its super heavy, almost 18 pounds.

Using my turn signal to merge lanes now uncontrollably makes me feel like I'm crabwalking left or right.