Let's discuss the FOTD key.

  • Dag 13eRniT
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    Should the FOTD key 🔑 show on the ships map?

    My Input:
    The FOTD is by far one of the biggest pvpve challenges that has been released into the game. It is the only challenge that tells everyone on the server that a Fort has come under attack by players. Now the powers that be have decided that not only will you have to contend with multiple enemies while doing the FOTD but you'll also have to contend with the entire server until you either open the fort, create a server wide alliance and share the fort, drop the key 🔑 so far out in the red sea that everyone loses interest or get chased by multiple ships until the loot in the fort literally despawns!

    By showing the key 🔑 on everyone's map RARE has taken away one of the great aspects of the game......... The Cloak & Dagger aspect of being pirates! If a crew sinks 3 enemy ships and decides to take the key and run South then East in the Shallow Red Sea to the Roar in order to avoid being spotted then they should be allowed to do so. If they can make it to the outpost undetected and change their ships appearance that's even better! Let the Cat & Mouse begin!

    Things to think about:

    1. Maybe show the key 🔑 only on the ships map that possesses it.
      (This allows other ships to infiltrate and investigate key location) .
    2. Never despawn the loot. Let it stack! This way another ship can force the issue with the ship that holds the key by starting a new FOTD! This method would create some legendary tuck & steal moments (Like 2 Athena's being plucked from the vault while the majority of another crew has died fighting the fort).
    3. If the key 🔑 gets dropped in the Red Sea it respawns on an island on everyone's map until it is found. Maybe spawn 3 keys but only one is real (the other two are decoys).
      (I'm not sold on number 3 yet).

    That's my take! Everyone have a great weekend!

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  • BadassFro
    Captain
    Insider

    Wait what? the key now shows on the map?

  • Boxcar Squidy
    Captain
    Insider

    I think it's fine. 9/10 times it'll be used right away. So it'll only be on the map briefly and make no difference, because if you got the key, then everyone saw the giant bloody skullcloud.

    Eventually though, someone is gonna snag that key and use it for an Ultimate Tower defence over at the Sea Dogs place or sail it up to the shores of gold to set up a treasure hunt, or hide it in the trap caves on Devils Ridge.

    To be honest. I want to see that Tower Defense/shores of gold/Devil's Ridge FoTD key trap.

    I'm fine with FoTD being something you need to fight over. It's a more chaotic fight once the doors are open and the kegs are in play. So I'm ok with the key being on the map but mainly because of the ways this can be used to create new stories in interesting ways with a little bit of imagination.

    Nobody is going out of their way for a Reapers chest anymore, a FoTD key though...

  • Dag 13eRniT
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    @boxcar-squidy You made some good points but how realistic is setting up a trap with 2 ships bearing down on you? It seems to me there would be some time constraints, no?
    The FOTD is becoming an adventure mode version of Arena now instead of the open world adventure mode it was intended to be.
    Give us back our choice of how we want to play it! If the quadrant is "too hot" then let us have the option of playing a cat&mouse style.
    By putting the key location on everyone's map it limits one of the most used methods in piracy...... Hiding!

  • Dag 13eRniT
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    @badassfro Yes! If someone runs with the key then check your ship map!

  • BadassFro
    Captain
    Insider

    @dag-13ernit the ammount of times I've used that trick
    to sail away, driveby an island ditch the key while leaving the ship to sail on, wait a while then scuttle

    to then go back and collect the key

  • xIx ZeNo xIx
    Master
    Insider

    @dag-13ernit I agree with this in many ways, but I think it also makes a fair playing ground for everyone as well. Its basically treated as constant struggle to keep control of the fort, fort key, loot and selling it all. It bcuz the FOTD is supposed to be a special event triggered by players rather than servers, it wouldnt be any special if the servers were just making it as active as a regular fort, let alone not give away the key position.

    I purely believe that it is intended to be this way to make the constant struggle "tug o' war" type of feeling towards players so they can feel accomplished by out smarting or outlasting other crews for this fort's loot.

  • Clumsy George
    Champion
    Insider
    Founder

    They should have left this like it was in the beginning...i was never fan of things being shown on the map anyway...If there was some form of messaging system between ships , pigeon or parrot to stay in the Pirate atmosphere , then i wouldn't mind things as the Reaper's Flag , Reaper's Chest or the showing of the Fortress Key...

    But the showing on the map feels a bit "unnatural " to me, i'm sorry...To be completely , i don't mind the Reaper's Chest smoke ,because if you only look at that , you still don't know how far you have to sail to get it...

  • William Flint
    Commander
    Insider

    @dag-13ernit I am all for some pvp, but the fort shows when someone is doing it and spawns a reapers chest. No need to show where the key is too.

  • Dag 13eRniT
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    @xix-zeno-xix It seems to me that outsmarting your opponent has all but been removed from the equation.

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    I prefer having it be visible, as it further separates it from normal forts, increases the difficulty if you run with the key, and it doesn't really make that big of a difference, because, as was already said, most would immediately use it.

  • DailyAlpha
    Marauder
    Insider

    Drive by, grab the shroudbreaker, sail into the shroud, wait for people to get tired of waiting or sink trying to get to you, then go get the loot.

  • Nabberwar
    Lord
    Insider

    Should the FOTD key 🔑 show on the ships map?

    Yes, its nice to finally have an objective that is almost guaranteed to be contested. What to have an option to hide a key? Go to the regular forts, let the PvP crowd have their thing.

  • Dag 13eRniT
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    @galactic-geek The opinion of "most players opening it" is subjective at best. We have people getting shroud breakers, wanting to set traps etc....

  • Dag 13eRniT
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    @dailyalpha We've had enemy crews use this method and they eventually dump the key out of reach beyond the borders of the red Sea.😐

  • Dag 13eRniT
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    @nabberwar As said before I also think the cloud itself and the Reapers chest at the fort provides more than enough enticement for pvp at the FOTD. I am starting to believe that eventually we're going to see more and more ships lean towards alliances as the frustration of long drawn out 2-3 hour battles and chases becomes redundant to the player base thereby nullifying most of the pvp.
    The problem I see is that even if you win the Fort and defend it by sinking every enemy you're still targeted and your having options ripped away from you that would otherwise be there.

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