New Cargo Runs feel terrible to me

@vaughnsilver Agreed with everything you said here

100% agree. The poor Merchant Alliance got all their voyages nerfed HARD into the ground. At least add another 1-2 tiers of each voyage variety with 6-8 more crates, 2-4 more animals/barrels and a more challenging & lucrative option for Lost Shipments.

These are painfully easy for those of us who enjoy the challenge of timely deliveries.

...and maybe make cannonball, wood and fruit crate voyages either a selectable option for the first time, or increase their spawn rate in 'message in a bottle' voyages since they no longer spawn as tattered parchments in outpost barrels...?

@vaughnsilver have they changed the emissary 5 voyage? I would only ever do cargo runs from that so that's how I grind those numbers

I think the executive voyages aren't bad, but I presume not everyone has access to them for some reason?

@mrat13

Pretty sure everyone that has a maxed out rep level at 75 when this update dropped has access to them?

All my voyages except the ghost fleet Athena raid were unlocked for me as soon as I logged in yesterday.

@thegrimpreacher But maybe some aren't 75 in Merchant, because let's be honest, it's an acquired taste.

@mrat13

It's entirely possible, of course.

The increase from 50 to 75 for the main three companies happened April of 2020, so if anyone's been playing with any degree of regularity for longer than a few months I would imagine they've been maxed out for a while, but hey! We've got new players joining all the time.

@mrat13 said in New Cargo Runs feel terrible to me:

I think the executive voyages aren't bad, but I presume not everyone has access to them for some reason?

What are executive voyages? I’m at L50 with MA.

The new voyages have been a total letdown. I went from enjoying lost shipments and cargo runs immensely to them feeling trivial and lacking in substance. If there’s something better at 75 it might be a reason to grind through 25 levels.

I’m feeling like I should just take a break from the game though as I’m not having fun anymore with the new season. Hopefully Rare plans to add back voyages with more engagement.

@necronikolai13 said in New Cargo Runs feel terrible to me:

Yinz are nuts, animal voyages are better than ever. You don't need 8 animals when you just dive. With crates on the island and the animals you need guaranteed to spawn on that island, it's way faster than it used to be. My only complaint is that it seems like they removed gunpowder kegs from the list of things requested

Yeah, so 'faster' and more convenient doesn't always equal fun. All animals guaranteed to be on the island, crates already on the island. No Skeletons spawning on the island. Like geez guys... why don't you just have me sail around the island 3 times and then put the gold directly into my inventory. It feels like a kid doing pointless busywork before I can have my candy.

Every other company is balanced well and their voyages actually feel rewarding. Merchant Alliance on the other hand... Yeah.

The entire point of cargo voyages was to deal with so many cargo pieces at once. That was the fun of it. 2 pieces are boring to carry AND not satisfying or rewarding when you finally deliver them.

@grisch1801 In regards to the Executive cargo runs, you get twice as much cargo, and some of said cargo is more valuable. I'm not going to pretend it's mind blowing, but with the dive mechanic, they are super easy to farm, even in the roar.

As for the animal quests, both the old and new version could be called boring, but they are in character with Merchants. You are a delivery driver for them, and it's meant to be relaxing, the type of thing you listen to a podcast while doing. It's not meant to be action packed.

That's where raids are meant to come in, although those do need looking at.

The thing is, you can technically stack them if you find them emergently in bottles (I had 3 at one time yesterday), so the change feels a bit unnecessary.

Having the voyage page "disappear" when you picked up cargo also helped keep track of whether you actually picked everything up. I keep having to double check whether I have all the cargo now.

It also makes it more of an annoyance if they get lost or stolen.

The change was probably made to prevent them being used to easily hop servers as picking them up would negate the diving cooldown, but I think Rare should have considered a better solution to that - such as making a short minimum mandatory cooldown (especially considering some players have already found an activity that bypasses the cooldown entirely).

@d3adst1ck said in New Cargo Runs feel terrible to me:

@realstyli said in New Cargo Runs feel terrible to me:

The change was probably made to prevent them being used to easily hop servers as picking them up would negate the diving cooldown, but I think Rare should have considered a better solution to that - such as making a short minimum mandatory cooldown (especially considering some players have already found an activity that bypasses the cooldown entirely).

If they can't allow them to stack, that's fine IMO. If that's the case, they need to give us more than 4 at a time.

Yep, makes them very grindy. I expected a lot more from those voyages, especially as the emergent ones I found were for 6 or 8 crates and had zero of the old stock.

The new cargo items also don't appear to count towards any of the cargo commendations, so when you get 4 and only of them are the old ones you're only advancing towards those commendations one delivery per run.

That really seems like a big oversight, yeah.

@hattsenberg said in New Cargo Runs feel terrible to me:

Agreed with everything you said. It feels super unrewarding. Like, hell, I've said in these forums myself that some sort of thing to help carry crates would be a good addition, for us cargo runners. It was the thing I liked doing solo the most, just filling my ship with crates and going, even if it was annyoing to grab them from the weapon or cloth vendors. But I didn't care, it felt nice to feel like an actual merchant, delivering goods on a timetable and "keeping the seas flowing".

Now the executive voyages, which I presume are the highest we'll get, give only 4 crates. Like, 4?? How is that in any way acceptable? Did they think people wanted less stuff? What is this?? I used to get 8 crates per quest, and worst! Before, I could get all the 8 crates, and move on to another 8 crates and then work on delivering. Now I am forced to deliver those 4 feeble crates before I can get 4 more, so my ship will never be a ship full of goodies if this doesn't change. What?? How is this an upgrade, Rare?

The one thing I liked doing on my own, which is me most of the time, is now legitimately ruined, not even being exxagerated. Like, yeah, it was "hard" having to grab 8 crates and then deliver 8 crates, but I still did it anyway, because I liked it and it felt nice to sell all of that. 4? It's still annoying to grab 4 crates and it DOESN'T feel rewarding at all when you sell them, even IF it gives the "same amount of gold". Did you think I was doing it for the gold?? I only do merchant quests and you actually think I care about the GOLD? I CARE ABOUT MERCHANDISE.

Exactly. I don’t play this game to be efficient. Efficiency is my day job. Merchant Alliance was my favorite faction as it seemed like there was a lot of variety and it fitted well with the fantasy.

I’d be fine if they kept the super efficient/streamlined stuff for people who want that. But for the rest of us who enjoy just playing the game and hauling huge amounts of cargo, searching for animals or wrecks in a sandbox, can we please have the option back?

You can say I can choose not to use diving, but the voyages themselves are fundamentally changed and there is no option to play the game the way we enjoyed it anymore.

You can collect the cargo and then cancel the voyage before delivery. Then you can place a new voyage and collect more.
Obviously you won't earn the voyage completion credit that you would actually earn from cargo now, but this essentially changes things back to how they worked before s11. You just have to cancel the voyage manually after collecting the cargo instead of it disappearing on its own.

I think it might be easy to vote on an ashen athena voyage while docked at morrow's peak, collect the cargo avaliable at the outpost if any is, and then cancel the voyage and vote on a new one. Repeat this until you have enough cargo, and then deliver it all.

@testakleze I'll have to try this, it may work out similar but unfortunately you'd only get:
4 Cargo at a time at a far destination
OR
2 Cargo at a time at a near destination

Compared to 8 Cargo at any destination.

The new Cargo value is so insignificant that it can't make up for the 4 missing Cargo.

It's nice to hear we have some way of getting Cargo Stacking back but it will never be the same as the old 28k per Cargo Run or the old 400k ~ 600k an hour strat.

But I can see why they changed it, if it stayed the same any swabbie with a ship full or plants could get to rep 500 in a few sessions.

I only ran 4 voyages.
Roaring traders to fetchers rest
Fetchers rest to ruby's fall
Brian's bizarre to morrow's peak
Ruby's fall to morrow's peak

I was happy to see that the cargo wasn't going to crooks hollow or somewhere else halfway across the world. I hated that change when it happened. I used to run DR cargo when the destinations were either in the DR or right along the boarder. Devil's ridge, ancient spire, krakens fall, three paces east, and galleon's grave. Once deliveries from the DR went beyond those islands, it ruined cargo for me.

It felt good getting 8 pieces in the past. Getting 4 does feel less rewarding even with 2 of those being more expensive variants. I was only getting about 500 more gold base price for the new cargo over the DR cargo. Just under 2k. So if I had a grade 5 merchant, it would get me around 1250 more gold for each one compared to the DR cargo. We definitely get less gold with these 4 than the old 8.

I might try out stacking cargo from morrows peak using ashen athena voyages sometime, but I'd probably have to be pretty bored.

@realstyli said in New Cargo Runs feel terrible to me:

The thing is, you can technically stack them if you find them emergently in bottles (I had 3 at one time yesterday), so the change feels a bit unnecessary.

Having the voyage page "disappear" when you picked up cargo also helped keep track of whether you actually picked everything up. I keep having to double check whether I have all the cargo now.

It now says which one you're picking up at the NPC; e.g. 5/6. Easier than having to check your map radial :).

It also makes it more of an annoyance if they get lost or stolen.

The change was probably made to prevent them being used to easily hop servers as picking them up would negate the diving cooldown, but I think Rare should have considered a better solution to that - such as making a short minimum mandatory cooldown (especially considering some players have already found an activity that bypasses the cooldown entirely).

Now at least they could count as completed for milestones and commendations.

It also makes it that when part of an Athena voyage, you have to do them to be able to get to the 2nd stage. Hopefully it gives some Athena rep, but soem players might find it annoying to have to do them instead of just dropping them.

@lem0n-curry said in New Cargo Runs feel terrible to me:

Now at least they [ cargo runs ]could count as completed for milestones and commendations.

They're not counting towards milestones 😒.

Would this be a bug report or feature request 🤔?