The Burning Blade Event is Boring.

  • Lord Spark 0
    Castaway

    We sailed around for 2 hrs with minimal combat vs other ships. We didn't feel like we had to try hard defending the ship because of how easy everything is (and were not double-gunning sweats).

    The rituals are fun on the first try and then it gets repetitive and boring. Id rather do skeleton forts over and over. Getting the ship from the start of the event wasn't a challenge at all.

    You can't do voyages or world events. So we didn't even get any loot. (Obviously ships attacking you won't have anything to risk).

    I think this event is just half-baked like the rest of them. The initial appeal of the ship is nice (would rather have more ship types to choose from than sloop/brig/galley). But if the goal is to use Flamehearts ship, then being a captain of your own nullifies that whole idea.

    We're going to see a lot of posts about balance and definitely there are things Id change about it.

    Ideas to improve the event:

    • Ships sunk by the Burning Blade are like HG - you get kicked off the server.

    • Add-on to the above point, make raiding a thing for BB (both crewed and uncrewed events - and ships coming into a server are not spawned directly on it but nearby to give a BB crew a chance to respond).

    • Have a Reaper only voyage table (using the same style quests that the companies have) - let the Burning Blade have a PvE option outside the camps for the inbetween travels.

    • Add loot to the camps (especially in those extra rooms). Then modify the statue (like a treasury) to move the loot from the bottom to the surface to grab.

    • Add World Events back in (in-case the ship wants to get more loot using the ship - opens up raiding ships to merge into the server).

    • If another ship is nearby (like the HG) remove the BB crew's ability to sell their ship (its annoying when Reapers run from battles - I dont think Flameheart likes that behaviour)

    Just overall a disappointing experience.

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  • Thamb0
    Master
    Insider

    I just had my crew fighting against a galleon, brig, sloop, meg, and skelly galleon, all at the same time.. It was insanely intense and after fighting for a good hour we decided to fight our way to Reaper's to turn it in, while in the middle of a storm. I haven't had that much fun in SoT in years!

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    I have zero interest in this season's content/commendations (as far as the big ship goes). I'm mostly gonna do my own thing like I did with hourglass and that's all good, it's just not for me.

    I think it adds solid opportunity to the environment for some. Gives people even more peaceful opportunity if they avoid it for a few months and do other stuff.

    Might not be for me or for you (for different reasons) but I think it'll work alright for some. Which is really all a season can do, offer some fun opportunity for some.

    They put a LOT of work into this season imo and it shows. I disagree with the half-baked opinion.

    I've been on a server with a ship for a long time that is up to 8 now and I've seen them fight multiple reaper ships so they are probably having fun.

  • Lord Spark 0
    Castaway

    @thamb0

    Turn in what? Lol I bet you barely had any loot. The only thing is how much rituals are on the ship.

    This is a better version of the Siren Skull event. And like it, its going to fade into nothing really.

  • BurnBacon
    Vanguard
    Insider

    We sailed around for 2 hrs with minimal combat vs other ships.

    But you didnt say "No combat" and the Event just started, Its not the Weekend yet. You expect it to boom?
    There other stuff that was also released that is frankly better than the new world event. (It pretty much the Flameheart Head all over again)

    The rituals are fun on the first try and then it gets repetitive and boring

    The shrines, Forts, FotD, Voyages are fun at first try..but get boring as well. But we still do them :)

    You can't do voyages or world events. So we didn't even get any loot.

    You can still do Messages in Bottles. Shrines, Treasuries...

    We're going to see a lot of posts about balance and definitely there are things Id change about it.

    Im already seeing them, plus how two galleon crews are boarding them xD

    Ships sunk by the Burning Blade are like HG - you get kicked off the server

    So that poor solo guy who is not even fighting the BB...get sunk because he left his ship and instantly teleports to a new server because...

    Just overall a disappointing experience.

    Wait until the Weekend.

  • LordQulex
    Captain

    Do you consider 1300H EST / 1000H PST "peak hours?"

    Tray again at 2100H EST / 1700H PST and see how easy it is.

  • Thamb0
    Master
    Insider

    @lord-spark-0 We turned in the literal Chest of Fortune, treasure that was on the ship when we took it over, treasure from our Galleon before the world event spawned, and loot from sinking the Skelly Galleon and the brig who had a ton of loot. We had zero down time and in fact when we were chasing the world event, the Galleon and brig were right alongside us trying to take out the Burning Blade, whilst we all fought each other. We didn't even do any rituals, and we still had plenty of loot to turn in.

    I think other World Events should be active once the Burning Blade has been pledged to, but I also think the World Event is quite fun right now and loaded with action. Keep trying, experiences will vary, but I'm sure you'll have a popping server with lots of loot and action soon.

  • Da German420
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    Anyone know if these ritualballs raising athena emissary? and when i do the camps with the burning blade i have to sell to reapers for commendations?

  • Th3 Tater
    Marauder

    @da-german420

    Turning in the balls as a non burning blade crew is only 20k and Guild Emissary ledger. None of my factions moved.

    I like the constellation gimmick, but the side coffers are a joke. Gold piles. Little ones that are only worth a couple hundred gold.

    Disappointed this season. I don't like most of the Plunder Pass items either.

  • Da German420
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    @th3-tater ty

  • CallMeBackdrafT
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    @lord-spark-0 you can always do seaforts, shrines and treasuries as the burning blade.

    In the end how hard its going to be will always depend if there are players willing to take you on.

  • Rotten Rocko
    Marauder
    Founder

    I had a pretty good time on it and we got caught after 5 rituals by a pretty sweaty gallon crew and brig crew, everything up until then was pretty easy to defend against but the 7 v 4 was pretty intense, eventually we had to try get to reapers to sell

  • MrEstiercol
    Captain
    Insider

    @da-german420

    You can, but doing an ashen lord voyage is faster and gives you a lot more Emissary Value.

    The Burning Blade idea is great, but as a solo player, the new forts takes too much time away from the ship, is not worth the risk

  • XZODEAK
    Champion
    Insider

    It depends on your server I guess, we sunk a good 15 ships 3 with LVL 1000+ hg players, even came up against Synn and his crew.

  • Da German420
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    @mrestiercol they r short but also easily long enough to get sunk, btw how i sail this big ship solo? do skellies helping me with the sails?.

  • Frogfish12
    Lord
    Insider

    @Lord-Spark-0

    The key issue with this season is something pretty sad to realise. Day 1 is as fun as it'll ever be. Its never gonna be as fought over as when it is when its brand new. Even Gold and Glory or a focused Live Event will struggle to make it as attractive as it is right now. And for whatever stupid reason they elected to put the Chest of Fortune on the Burning Blade as soon as it releases? The Chest of Fortunes entire design is to give attention to lesser touched World Events so that more than just the brand new/most profitable thing is being done at a given time. But they then go ahead and put it in the new content which if designed well shouldn't need any help sustaining interaction during its introductory Season. Which means that when Season 14 comes around, The Burning Blade loses 20k from its already incredibly laughable base value, it loses its commendation value for selling the Chest of Fortune, it loses its PvP Incentive of having the Chest of Fortune, another World Event gets the Chest of Fortune, and the New Season adds new content, all of which take focus away from the Burning Blade. Like they could not have done a more insane thing than putting Chest of Fortune into this thing immediately, they're practically asking for it to die after 1 Season. It would have made so much more Sense to put Chest of Fortune into the Burning Blade during Season 14 or 15 when new content will take attention away from the Burning Blade, as the Chest of Fortune would then do all of the previously mentioned things but in reverse, and instead be positive.

    Like the OP's experience, I yesterday (Day 1) Took over the Burning Blade and proceeded to stack 10 Rituals for a commendation. We had practically no fights and the only people that came over were brand new swabbies who were just attracted to it like a moth to a bright light. Those fights took less than 5 minutes each or in most cases we didn't even fight them we just sent one over to kill them and drive their ship into something to create holes. The Gameplay Loop on the Burning Blade was sailing for 5-10 minutes, then a 1 minute puzzle (I timed myself and it took 1 minute 9 seconds to complete on my own with no-one helping, 3 minutes 36 when fighting Skeletons as well while not on the Burning Blade), then another 5-10 minutes of sailing, repeat 10 times over. It took probably over 2 hours to complete 10 all for a 650k payday. You can make around that much from just diving to Skeleton Forts as an Emissary, You'd make way more FoTD Stacking, probably around the same from World Event Stacking, or doing any of the voyage exploits ie Vestige of Power. The Burning Blade is such a boring gameplay loop with presumably a much higher risk than other forms of content (especially now during early days). After we did that 10 streak we would skip lobbies with AI Burning Blade and only go for Player ones, unless the AI was far away in which case we'd sail over hoping someone takes it over before we get there so we can fight a player on it. 1 Day in and my entire crew have had enough of sailing on that boat.

    The fact that it counts as a world event even while player crewed means you cant even use it to do world events or anything, which also means players diving to world events cant spawn into your server, so the amount of players getting pulled in is pretty small. You cant vote a voyage to do those, which also means you cant do voyages for Skull of Destiny or do fleets for Ritual Skulls so the only way to do FoTD is to find random Ritual Skulls from Ashen Guardians or to pre-stack Skulls before taking the ship over. But then you're left in a lose-lose situation, if you let the Burning Blade do Voyages, World Events and FoTD then less Burning Blades are going to interact with Skeleton Camps, which therefore means all commendations revolving around fighting Burning Blades with x Ritual Streak or handing in the Sword of X Streak value would be much rarer to come by. It cant use diving to merge reaper 5 in order to hunt emissaries so its just stuck with whoever raises on their server, which happens to be very few as who would raise emissary with that thing on the server. And again anyone wanting to raise emissary to do world events cant on that server so they just hop away. It almost feels like the Burning Blade is forced into isolation with no players merging in, no players staying in the server, no world events to do, and as you are on the World Event you cant even merge out into another server.

  • MrEstiercol
    Captain
    Insider

    @da-german420

    They repair but I don´t know if sails management is up to you .

  • Lord Spark 0
    Castaway

    @burnbacon said in The Burning Blade Event is Boring.:

    First off (and I really shouldnt) but I'm replying to you specifically because for years all you do is these low-energy and effort 'line-by-line' posts.

    But you didnt say "No combat" and the Event just started, Its not the Weekend yet. You expect it to boom?
    There other stuff that was also released that is frankly better than the new world event. (It pretty much the Flameheart Head all over again)

    Every update like this (FOF - Siren Skull - FOTD), when they came out there was always combat. Because the updates for this game are few and far between people get starved and obviously go for the new thing. So, 'some combat' isn't really a 'thing' considering that the overall event is boring and it will die faster like the other ones (so again - Rare's half-baked effort leads to huge spikes and quick die offs on entertainment - overall bad long-term value for the longevity of the game).

    The shrines, Forts, FotD, Voyages are fun at first try..but get boring as well. But we still do them :)

    Of course. And the data always shows that theres spikes in activity on updates and quickly the activity goes back down to 10-15k people on Steam playing (when ATH was beyond 60k). So 'we' is people that have been here for years that still do them. However the point of the feedback here and critique is more of the same, Rare is not thinking about long-term best additions to the game.

    And BTW - Shrines are boring and are barely played. And I barely see anyone do shrines or treasuries since they came out.. FoTD people do because its easy to stack loot. Thats why people do them.

    Im already seeing them, plus how two galleon crews are boarding them xD

    So, again thats a fault in the system. Whats stopping those crews from interfering with fair Hourglass battles? One ship could just bait HG ships into it and a double crew on this thing would wreck the unsuspecting crew.

    So that poor solo guy who is not even fighting the BB...get sunk because he left his ship and instantly teleports to a new server because...

    I'm going to say what you've been saying to solo sloopers for YEARS on this thing.. "weLl iTs a PvEvP gaMe aNd iTs ThEIR fAuLT fOr NoT cHeCkInG tHe HOrIzON"

    Wait until the Weekend.

    The weekend is here and player activity went to 20k and back down to 10-15k. It was the same activity as when I made the post on update (and I was playing on EU at the time so it was peak hours when the update was out). Your little wait until the Weekend had no effect on the experience. Because the experience is boring. Ships cannot dive to this event.

    Its like the old days. You get mean enough as a Reaper 5 ship, sail around the whole map, clear it, and if the server gods merge you then great, if not then youre stuck alone on a server (which is exactly what happened to me and my crew an hr ago).

    Overall its a half-baked event. They have serious oversights [ability to vote down the ship with other ships in the area - can bury loot without generating a map - can cheese the rituals by countdowns to turn 1 ritual into 3-4 (size of people voting)]

  • Lord Spark 0
    Castaway

    @thamb0 said in The Burning Blade Event is Boring.:

    @lord-spark-0 We turned in the literal Chest of Fortune, treasure that was on the ship when we took it over, treasure from our Galleon before the world event spawned, and loot from sinking the Skelly Galleon and the brig who had a ton of loot. We had zero down time and in fact when we were chasing the world event, the Galleon and brig were right alongside us trying to take out the Burning Blade, whilst we all fought each other. We didn't even do any rituals, and we still had plenty of loot to turn in.

    I think other World Events should be active once the Burning Blade has been pledged to, but I also think the World Event is quite fun right now and loaded with action. Keep trying, experiences will vary, but I'm sure you'll have a popping server with lots of loot and action soon.

    Oh wow. A FoF chest? Yeah Ive turned in plenty of those mate. Ive been chased and stole many when FoF forts came out. This event isn't really for a FoF chest though. Nice to have but wouldn't be missed without.

    And of course you're going to get action. Try that now with a Siren Skull, you won't now because people don't care. And someday soon you're going to find the same experience with this (and even worse). Why? Because world events are disabled (so ships raiding events wont ever get to you). If you have skill you can easily clear a server with this thing (thus you're playing by yourself - unless the gods merge you). You can't dive with it.

    Its boring. The people and action chasing you, you can get constant PvP with HG if you wanted. Thats not a 'thing' dude. Rare's gotta do better.

  • Lord Spark 0
    Castaway

    @th3-tater said in The Burning Blade Event is Boring.:

    @da-german420

    Turning in the balls as a non burning blade crew is only 20k and Guild Emissary ledger. None of my factions moved.

    I like the constellation gimmick, but the side coffers are a joke. Gold piles. Little ones that are only worth a couple hundred gold.

    Disappointed this season. I don't like most of the Plunder Pass items either.

    I agree.

    Actually its obvious and a huge missed opportunity and oversight by Rare. No loot in the camps to grab (they can use that statue like a Treasury to spawn loot to the surface) but opted not to put loot down there..

    My crew and I clear a ritual in 5 minutes. Its too easy. And unfun. Id rather do skeleton forts.

  • Lord Spark 0
    Castaway

    @lordqulex said in The Burning Blade Event is Boring.:

    Do you consider 1300H EST / 1000H PST "peak hours?"

    Tray again at 2100H EST / 1700H PST and see how easy it is.

    It was peak hours when I made the post (I played in an EU server).

    And I played today on peak hours (US and EU). Same thing as when I made the post.

    Im not disagreeing that there is zero fun. But if its server dependent you must look at the event itself and find that its really boring. You need a crazy amount of players trying to take you down. I get it.

    Take that out of the equation and its unfun.

    For me, the best update they ever did was Cursed Crews with skeleton ship battles all over the map (not always in the center like it is today). That was a lot of fun. And still we don't have a skeleton brig version. Or other variants. Its still the same old. And as boring as it is, at least thats still a more interesting legacy content addition they have. Roaming ships was a good idea. We were supposed to get a new faction with roaming ships in/out of the whole map but that never happened sadly.

  • LordQulex
    Captain

    @lord-spark-0 said in The Burning Blade Event is Boring.:

    Im not disagreeing that there is zero fun. But if its server dependent you must look at the event itself and find that its really boring. You need a crazy amount of players trying to take you down. I get it.

    I feel there's a happy medium. I feel the same way about FotD and FoF: to little player interference and it's repetitive and boring. Too much player interference and it's painfully slow and frustrating. (Especially if the same crew just keeps coming back and getting sunk, preventing any real progress.)

    I haven't found a BB yet, but I imagine doing temples over and over is boring, and not being able to do any to progress your value is equally aggravating. I can't imagine the joy in using it against players, but I find PvP repetitive and boring so I'd want a break in the action after a bit.

  • Lord Spark 0
    Castaway

    @lordqulex said in The Burning Blade Event is Boring.:

    @lord-spark-0 said in The Burning Blade Event is Boring.:

    Im not disagreeing that there is zero fun. But if its server dependent you must look at the event itself and find that its really boring. You need a crazy amount of players trying to take you down. I get it.

    I feel there's a happy medium. I feel the same way about FotD and FoF: to little player interference and it's repetitive and boring. Too much player interference and it's painfully slow and frustrating. (Especially if the same crew just keeps coming back and getting sunk, preventing any real progress.)

    I haven't found a BB yet, but I imagine doing temples over and over is boring, and not being able to do any to progress your value is equally aggravating. I can't imagine the joy in using it against players, but I find PvP repetitive and boring so I'd want a break in the action after a bit.

    100% I agree with your statements. There are mediums. But the issue is Rare needs to support finding those balances or the event will fail like the other ones into boring repetitive tasking rather than engaging fun-filled content that's more consistent.

  • Thamb0
    Master
    Insider

    @lord-spark-0 not really sure what to tell you, considering you've been rude in every response.. Your whole point was that the event was boring. My point was simply that the first time, and now every time since that I have come across the new event, I have had a blast. If you don't find it fun, that's on you. I've turned in 70+ CoFs, and I still enjoy having them on the BB.. Not sure why you are being so rude when I was simply answering your rude question to begin with?
    I also am confused on why you are complaining about easily clearing servers and finding no action, thus making it boring, yet your first idea is to make it so ships sunk by the BB are kicked off the server... How does that make any sense?

  • Lord Spark 0
    Castaway

    @thamb0 said in The Burning Blade Event is Boring.:

    @lord-spark-0 not really sure what to tell you, considering you've been rude in every response.. Your whole point was that the event was boring. My point was simply that the first time, and now every time since that I have come across the new event, I have had a blast. If you don't find it fun, that's on you. I've turned in 70+ CoFs, and I still enjoy having them on the BB.. Not sure why you are being so rude when I was simply answering your rude question to begin with?
    I also am confused on why you are complaining about easily clearing servers and finding no action, thus making it boring, yet your first idea is to make it so ships sunk by the BB are kicked off the server... How does that make any sense?

    So critiquing the event (and the data will prove this in the future for sure on retainment on the playerbase) is apparently rude lol

  • Th3 Tater
    Marauder

    @da-german420

    Oh hey, I need to correct myself.
    The rum and all lol.
    When turning in the Orb of Secrets: So you do get faction points for GH, OoS, Merch and Reaper. But not for Athena or HC.

    Apologies I misunderstood 😂

  • Soulstinger2k20
    Master
    Insider

    Once folks have their new skeleyon curse cosmetic commendations done and the bulk of the playerbase decides to start sinking player-owned BBs I think the action surrounding it may pick up

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    The exploiting is wild and is disheartening (as usual) but everything I've seen suggests the event itself is creating fun scenarios for non-solos.

    I still play a lot and it has been very active
    Streamers are finding plenty of action
    A lot more consistent so far than siren song

    It'll slow down as all content does but everything I've seen looks like it's one of the more consistently active pvp focused pieces of content

    Really don't like the exploiting and how extreme it is but outside of that I think it's been quite successful so far.

    I would be surprised if they are having a participation issue right now. Highly doubt it.

    I've seen a lot of people having fun so far.

  • Awoken Genius
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    I don't like it at all and since it released I've wanted to play the game even less. More stuff that can be stolen from me when I'm solo or commendations that I'll never be able to get.

  • Frixsik
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @lord-spark-0 said in The Burning Blade Event is Boring.:

    We sailed around for 2 hrs with minimal combat vs other ships. We didn't feel like we had to try hard defending the ship because of how easy everything is (and were not double-gunning sweats).

    The rituals are fun on the first try and then it gets repetitive and boring. Id rather do skeleton forts over and over. Getting the ship from the start of the event wasn't a challenge at all.

    You can't do voyages or world events. So we didn't even get any loot. (Obviously ships attacking you won't have anything to risk).

    I think this event is just half-baked like the rest of them. The initial appeal of the ship is nice (would rather have more ship types to choose from than sloop/brig/galley). But if the goal is to use Flamehearts ship, then being a captain of your own nullifies that whole idea.

    We're going to see a lot of posts about balance and definitely there are things Id change about it.

    Ideas to improve the event:

    • Ships sunk by the Burning Blade are like HG - you get kicked off the server.

    • Add-on to the above point, make raiding a thing for BB (both crewed and uncrewed events - and ships coming into a server are not spawned directly on it but nearby to give a BB crew a chance to respond).

    • Have a Reaper only voyage table (using the same style quests that the companies have) - let the Burning Blade have a PvE option outside the camps for the inbetween travels.

    • Add loot to the camps (especially in those extra rooms). Then modify the statue (like a treasury) to move the loot from the bottom to the surface to grab.

    • Add World Events back in (in-case the ship wants to get more loot using the ship - opens up raiding ships to merge into the server).

    • If another ship is nearby (like the HG) remove the BB crew's ability to sell their ship (its annoying when Reapers run from battles - I dont think Flameheart likes that behaviour)

    Just overall a disappointing experience.

    Agreed. Sailing from camp to camp gets pretty dull. Aside from the helmsman, the rest of the crew is bored because the ship moves so slowly. That’s fine to an extent, but there’s barely anything for the crew to do during long trips across the map.

  • HiradC
    Lord
    Insider

    You've left it a bit late to get into it. Most players (who want them) have the relevant commendations so won't contest unless they just want the fight.

  • CaptDirtyOar
    Ship Mate

    @th3-tater said in The Burning Blade Event is Boring.:

    Turning in the balls as a non burning blade crew is only 20k and Guild Emissary ledger. None of my factions moved.

    These are worth 50k now as Emissary lvl 5. We hand them in all the time.

    Quick for gold imo and easy.

    We only do the main vault, never bother with the side gold loot piles in the small vaults...

  • HonorAmongUs
    Castaway

    The biggest problems with the BB and any other contrived PvP are foundational issues:

    Intermixing crews of all skill levels

    Intermixing solo players with full crews

    Both of these are horrible for player retention and are the reason why the majority of the player base ends up fearing and disliking PvP.

    The next issue is just how bad and useless the obsidian skeletons are at deck fighting. Just like regular skeletons they are easily kited and do very little damage which is exacerbated by abundant pineapples.

    What’s the point of taking over a massive ManOWar if your skeleton crew mates are bad at defending the ship?

    The final issue is the 8 ritual streak “Playing the Part” commendation, it’s absolutely ridiculous. I think it should be lowered to 4+ streaks. The only problem is there already is a commendation for 4 ritual streaks called “Feeding the Fire” so perhaps lower that one down to 2+ rituals.

    Overall the Burning Blade is fun but it depends on two factors.

    Are there people on the server who are willing to contest the crew who has taken over the BB?

    This question plays into why you don’t want to force people who hate PvP on to the high seas because they will just ignore the BB.

    Are the crews on the server of a similar skill level so PvP balance isn’t completely one sided?

    If a crew takes over the BB and ends up being sunk by highly skilled players every time they go for a 4 or an 8 streak they are eventually just going to stop trying because it’s a big time investment.

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