Season 17 made the game worse

The season has a ton of bad things, but if we begin to sell all that stuff to outposts and reapers people will get 5 distinctions in every company in no time. Smugglers for lore reasons can't cooperate with Sovereign (since Sovereigns are GMU undercover and smuggler arrived in the Sea of Thieves fleeing by them). They don't have an emissary, but the "smuggling" activity is pretty lucrative and helps a lot with the guild grind. They surely need some more cosmetic rewards and original voyages, but I don't think selling to reapers and outpost works. People are complaining about doing always the same stuff and now they want to do the same exact thing as every other trading company (grind billions of levels, emissary, long commendations).... hell, no!

No incentive to smuggle.

Role play and story building. I’m a black keg smuggler now. I collect just those and travel from one side of map to the other. With 12 of them….why? Because I wanna see something explode XD

phantoms are just very, very annoying. Not exiting, annoying

Good. We need npc annoying us. Not just players. Besides. You shoot and miss, I sword dash and kill them. They are far easy to deal with than skeletons. Idk why players struggle. There aim is horrible and only real trouble is the one phantom that decides to sword dash

Smuggler's loot is everywhere! It's on every island, in every skelly ship, many player ships. You can't avoid it

They do this every season are we all. New?
They boost the new season content so players will have time to enjoy it. After awhile they will nerf it and become once again, another random item to find.
Then you complain why you are having issues finishing commendations cause you can’t find them. It be ok kids, just enjoy the few weeks of content.

floods the world with trash

One man trash. :)

let us sell smugglers loot at outposts and reaper hideout for less (even 1 gold is good)

You must be doing something wrong if you’re going to outposts with tons of smuggler items. 6 locations, 3 are easy to use. If you don’t care about the gold…dumb them as you said. Leave them at outposts. I’ll pick up your trash
(I find piles of loot at Smugglers bay because the delivery site was Plunder valley XD) kids don’t wanna sail.

I’m sorry. But if smugglers content is such a chore. Don’t do it. It’s just gold
Only reason to do it? Sake of of. Role play.

We don’t need rep for everything. That was a big problem with this game. Spoiled pirates.
We just need random content to find and explore the map.

All they would need to do is add the old cosmetic market and make smugglers have their own currency to buy stuff with. I don't care if its grindy if I have a chance to get the bone crusher set, or any other cool partial set finished. S17 had potential. After I finish the commendations I have no reason to ever interact with smugglers content aside from the BPB.

@burnbacon I agree with everything u said. It's unfortunate it's rare people roleplay

I am surprised we cant sell the loot to reapers, that means if you steal someone's loot you have to do their quest which feels silly. I am frequently finding the skull of siren song at outposts where people are abandoning them.

I agree with pretty much everything you have stated above.

The merchants Voyages are notoriously some of the least favorite voyages out of all players in this game so to dedicate an entire season to a faction that does reskinned merchant voyages is wild to me. Adding a big glorious keg doesn't save the situation whatsoever. We could have had any other theme for the season and still had that keg.

People like you and me who play this game a lot (I'm only 2 years in and I have 3,000 hours) don't really care about the gold. We care about the grind of commendations and reputation. The entirety of this game is about being able to say "I accomplished this thing. Look at my titles and accolades. You could have this thing but you don't because you haven't grinded for this thing."

The numbers for these comms is so low it is laughable. It's almost as if they knew that their players would not really enjoy doing these voyages, so they made the totals for each loot type the smallest number I have ever seen for any commendation page. For people like me who are going for completionism in the game that gave me like something to do for two days. Now I will just be chasing down the last couple of pieces of smuggler loot that I need and then I will never really be picking it up again unless it is a keg and I am using it against another ship.

It would be one thing if there were a ton of new stuff to purchase with all of this gold they expect us to want to earn doing Smugglers Runs (that we can already earn doing much more enjoyable things). We didn't even get a pricey shipset to work towards this season like we have all of the past seasons recently, just a bunch of trinkets that I doubt I will be actively using since I main a sloop and there's only so much storage space in there.

Once the commendations are done for smugglers I'm done with smugglers. There's no incentive. There's no measure of how much you have smuggled. We wouldn't even need a flag or for it to be an actual trading company but there should have been some kind of prestige or leveling of some sort to display somehow our smuggling antics. If there was some kind of leaderboard or way to display on your ship how many runs you've actually completed I could see people actually trying to like outdo one another on this but no one really cares!

I am a part of a group of small streamers and content creators. So far the last few days I have been sick with COVID and I have just been popping in and out of my friend's streams asking them their opinions on this new season. The vast majority of them haven't even touched the voyage whatsoever. They might pick up some stuff here and there but all they care about are the kegs and they are not trying to go out there and do smugglers runs. The vast majority of them don't do commendations at all anyways, so to expect them to do something that's so similar to the merchant voyages that no one likes to do is surprising.

And I don't know if it's bugged or not but the only marked voyage that you can get from the Captain's table right now is from Crescent to Smugglers and it's very odd that you cannot get any other destinations for that one type of voyage on any other island. We can't pull sail to voyages on demand For whatever island is closest so everybody has just been setting up kegs on the arch at Smuggler's Bay waiting for the inevitable ship to pull into the bay to dump some kegs on their heads lol. While this can be funny, it would be nice to see some variation on that voyage and to not only get the other islands in bottles. The loot type should have changed whether it was an emergent run or a voyage run but they're just seems to be a lot broken with this season or things that were not thought about.

One of those raids should have bookended the season at the beginning and then another at the end to give us something active to do in between the commendations for the Smugglers which are super short. Could have had the heist for act one, a cool down for act 2 giving people time to complete their voyages, and then the skeleton for a raid for act 3 so that way it actually gave us some action and reasons aside from kegging each other to interact with other ships in a new way.

@hiradc I agree with this too, there is absolutely no incentive for Reapers to go after people smuggling lol. Reapers is already super tedious to sell at so why would a Reaper want to go to another tedious place to run more loot?

Conclusion
Smugglers loot gives nothing and is everywhere, which floods the world with trash.

Given your years of playing you must Shirley know that new season additions get spammed and then will be dialled back to be more balanced.
I think the items when dialled back will be an OK addition to the World.

I appreciate the increased availability of boarding defence items like the Horn and Obsidian skull - though a reduction to maybe just available in shipwrecks(and not caches) would be preferable.

Keg rowboats and the Nuclear kegs have been fun - big ships can now feel as vulnerable as a solo sloop doing a stationary event.

Smuggling is only incentivized by your desire for the rewards that result - be that gold, role play or we shall see if Rare adds other cosmetics/rewards in the future.
Smuggling items should not be able to sold at outposts. If you don't want to sell it at Smuggling points - don't collect it.

I wonder if the items cannot be sold at Reapers as a result of the relatively high value of some of the items themselves. Certainly emissary multipliers should not apply.

If they cannot be sold at outposts for Guild emissary progress(with multiplier)then only fair they cannot be used for Reaper progress.

@poetniknowit The comms feel like they meant for all of them to be grade 1 of 5, but forgot and decided to pretend that was what they meant to do all along.

From what I've heard, they are changing the "golden route" for the smugglers route runs once every 3 months, once a season. You will not get to see all of them until like season 22.

@hegemon3 said in Season 17 made the game worse:

They have done it with supplies with all the fireworks, scattershots, traps, bait - we have to work hard to sort the trash, now we've got trash loot to sort.

Agreed that there's now a bit of fluff in the game that no one cares about, but at least this old game is still getting some work.
I happen to like fireworks & scatter shots, even though the use case is niche. And I like to eat bait just before I board someone, in the odd chance I vomit at just the right time.

@poetniknowit said in Season 17 made the game worse:

The numbers for these comms is so low it is laughable. It's almost as if they knew that their players would not really enjoy doing these voyages, so they made the totals for each loot type the smallest number I have ever seen for any commendation page.

Yay!!! Grinding 500 reps for comm's is awful!

@poetniknowit

Reapers don't know what a ship has on board when they pursue and I am sure a significant majority just want the fight and sink.
Countless times Reapers have sailed past an incomplete world event I was doing to pursue my empty ship.

Reapers is already super tedious to sell at so why would a Reaper want to go to another tedious place to run more loot?

Not really an argument as there is no degradation in the selling process.
Arguably Crescent Isle and definitely Old Faithful are EASIER places to sell at than Reapers Hideout.

@hegemon3 I definitely agree with you (I also got off SoT and play rust now) The only thing that I actually enjoyed was the sea fort heists, and it was bc there was like 5 boats at royal crown and that was only because of insiders. I feel like what a lot of the older players want is something that will draw the server together to fight, like the fof used to

If they would reward doubloons instead of the gold, id be more than happy and take it. As there are no stable way of getting those.
What we do with humble\generous gifts if we're not reapers? They just sit on your ship until you quit in case you took em. Although with diving fort spam its hard to find an organic skelly fort that would contain them as rewards.

Utter trash season. Well said about the flood of loot that is a pain to turn in, worth nothing as gold is very much worthless after your first month, and just EVERYWHERE

@coopers-rum

If they would reward doubloons instead of the gold, id be more than happy and take it. As there are no stable way of getting those.

Run the Guild flag (or Reaper if you fancy selling there) and smash every Skelly Fleet. You get a multiplier with your flag.
Would be nice if they did deeds of Smugglers Loot for doubloon pay outs though.

@pc-monkfish

Thats not enough.
Smugglers gold doesnt make any sense. Doubloons would.

This season just leaves me with really nothing thats enough for me to boot it up. Its not bad, but what i have seen, it feels like rare had a very basic idea, but couldnt think any way to execute it without copying what already exists in the game, and rather than sit on the idea until it was ready, they just went with it as is for an entire season.

I already struggle to deal with merchants cargo just because it is the least fun thing this game has to offer imo, and the entire season just says to do that. Im good for now.

Based on all the comments, I feel like the issue isn’t with the fact that they have to go to specific islands to sell the loot, I’m guessing the issue is with the fact that players who attack other players who are running smugglers voyages will have no choice but to complete the mission in order to get gold rather than just sell it at an outpost or reapers hideout. It almost seems like an incentive for dedicated PvE players to just solely run smuggler missions since there’s no rep to be earned, only the one thing that the dedicated PVP players have an abundance of.

@loneshadow29 said in Season 17 made the game worse:

Based on all the comments, I feel like the issue isn’t with the fact that they have to go to specific islands to sell the loot, I’m guessing the issue is with the fact that players who attack other players who are running smugglers voyages will have no choice but to complete the mission in order to get gold rather than just sell it at an outpost or reapers hideout. It almost seems like an incentive for dedicated PvE players to just solely run smuggler missions since there’s no rep to be earned, only the one thing that the dedicated PVP players have an abundance of.

I think you're missing the point of PvP. If you're trying to sink ships for loot, it's rare to sink a ship with a lot of treasure. PvP for rep, isn't efficient. When we DO sink you, if we want to bother with the treasure, we have no problem selling to a Smuggler. I've lost count of how many ships we've sunk and not bothered taking the treasure. Or, if we collect treasure and want to dive, we'll leave it and go, or give it to a new player.

Personally, my friends and I have been maxed out with reapers forever now, and the 400+ million gold in my pocket doesn't need to be padded anymore. You don't understand-- it's about the thrill of the hunt. It's the excitement of the ambush. It's the fun of swimming/rowing to another ship to see what we can get away with, or discover there. A 30-min tuck isn't efficient for gold and rep either, but it's fun eating all the heads off their fish, rearranging their treasure, draining supplies, messing with their map, seeing what they collect (only for us to give it to a noob). We couldn't be bothered with gold or rep.

If we wanted to be efficient for gold and rep, we'd strictly PvE.

@europa4033 a couple of problems with your argument. First off, you're admitting that you and your friends essentially just want to troll other players because you enjoy it, confirming comments I've made in the past that you argued. You're confirming that you and other players like you are essentially attacking players because you can, wasting that players time and losing time and effort spent gathering the treasure. Secondly, since the treasure is tied to the faction associated with it, unless you've maxed out every faction, you're still earning reputation from the items you steal. So, instead of actually playing the voyages, you're attacking players, saving yourself time by wasting others. Once again, you're confirming a point that I tried to make in previous posts about PvP focused players that you and several other players tried to argue. Finally, if you're so bored with the game, why not go play something else or maybe do dedicated HG since you'll be playing against similarly skilled players? But, we both know the reason why which also confirms another comment you tried to argue. It's not about battling similarly skilled players, it's simply getting enjoyment from punching down.

But, far be it from me to argue with someone "playing the game as intended", considering it's an adventure game first, not a competitive multiplayer game like Fortnite or CoD.

@loneshadow29 said in Season 17 made the game worse:

@europa4033 a couple of problems with your argument. First off, you're admitting that you and your friends essentially just want to troll other players because you enjoy it, confirming comments I've made in the past that you argued. You're confirming that you and other players like you are essentially attacking players because you can, wasting that players time and losing time and effort spent gathering the treasure. Secondly, since the treasure is tied to the faction associated with it, unless you've maxed out every faction, you're still earning reputation from the items you steal. So, instead of actually playing the voyages, you're attacking players, saving yourself time by wasting others. Once again, you're confirming a point that I tried to make in previous posts about PvP focused players that you and several other players tried to argue. Finally, if you're so bored with the game, why not go play something else or maybe do dedicated HG since you'll be playing against similarly skilled players? But, we both know the reason why which also confirms another comment you tried to argue. It's not about battling similarly skilled players, it's simply getting enjoyment from punching down.

But, far be it from me to argue with someone "playing the game as intended", considering it's an adventure game first, not a competitive multiplayer game like Fortnite or CoD.

1- I've never argued nor denied the things I like to do, mischief I like to cause, just like any other player can, does, will, and has. PvP has many aspects to it, as it's not black and white.

2- One hundred percent correct. I, and many others, attack players because we can. Like I've said a hundred times now, just as you don't owe anyone a fight, no one owes you a pass. If that player's time ends up being wasted, hopefully they've learned an important lesson to whatever they did wrong. There's an infinite amount of treasure in the game. They can always get treasure again in the future. It's not my (or the attacker's) fault if they weren't prepared. They wasted their own time.

3- I'm already distinction 5 with every faction, and have gold curses from HG. Am I not allowed to play the game as I wish that's fun for me? I mean, anyone can pvp in the game lol, if you feel that it's tedious getting treasure for whatever faction you're earning rep for, you too can go out and pvp yourself if you wish?

4- Who said I was bored with the game? On the contrary, I love this game because every day is different and new situations present themselves to me/us. I'm already done with HG lol, what more do you want ME to do? This isn't Sea of Hourglass, where each and everyday all I do is pvp for more pointless gold and levels I no longer need. That gets boring and repetitive for me. Is it okay with you if I play the game as I enjoy it? You also forget, that other players can punch back if they wish? In many cases, they have more crewmembers and cannons than I do, but that doesn't matter to me.

5- Lastly, you don't get to tell others how to play the game. You play however you want, and I (and others) will surely do the same.

No idea why you can't, for some reason, defend yourself, when you have the same weapons, cannons, etc. as I do. I keep asking why you can't at the very least practice, and instead you berate me and tell me how I'm apparantly playing the game wrong, trolling others, stealing treasure/supplies, punching down, etc. Why can't I and others do this? Better yet, why can't you defend yourself? We wouldn't be able to if you knew how to defend yourself afterall LOL. What is it that's holding you back, that you feel others shouldn't do because you can't?

The addition of the big boom kegs have added to the sandbox an unexpected thing for me… kegs are fun again! I always laugh getting to blow up a ship now knowing it’s gonna be devastating. Feeling the rush of risk when I carry them on board. I truly feel like this season brought unexpected fun when it should have been another grindy season. They stripped that away and gave us some toys to play in our sandbox and that to me is what makes this season good so far!

@smuntface I get that the Smugglers aren't supposed to be a trading company but we could have had some sort of ledger or something to give people actual incentive to do it past the 10 voyages we were expected to complete, and the 15 max pieces of loot that everyone had to turn in.

We didn't need something with another 500 levels but we needed SOMETHING to work towards.

@potatosord well I think that them changing the route seasonally is a little silly. Usually when we have voyages of this type you can pull a "sail to" and it'll bring you to the island that is closest that accommodates that voyage. Crescent Island is great and all but nobody wants to go run loot for funsies up the hill at Smugglers over and over and over it's just boring. It's just weird that the bottles have the gold loot and you can find them everywhere but we only needed five pieces to finish those and then when it comes to the voyage it's only literally that one set of islands.

And unless we get a ton more grades to work towards I can't see anyone doing any of these voyages past like the first week of the season.

@poetniknowit Just wait until one of the routes goes to Plunder Valley. As long as they can never set the route as Plunder to Smugglers. Honestly the comms this season feel like they were all grade 1 of a set of comms.

@poetniknowit said in Season 17 made the game worse:

@smuntface I get that the Smugglers aren't supposed to be a trading company .....
We didn't need something with another 500 levels but we needed SOMETHING to work towards.

Fair enough - we're all different. I feel the game already has enough long term grinds, or at least used to before you could just straight up dive to everything, and find Athena Chests like they grow on trees.
I'd venture if you balance solo players congregating in a required part of map for all players, with a likely focused attention of aggressive crews, then a lot of rep's might be punishing for people without patience or TDM skills.

So it’s been about 3 weeks
Has season 17 still made the game worse? I don’t think so, I never had so much fun with the kegs alone and smuggler stuff gives me fun ideas at roleplaying and such.

Collecting 30 black kegs and waiting for a player to shoot me…(often they get in close) and watch them also sink from the surprise, or reaper hideout becomes a waste land XD

@burnbacon

Aye, if I see a big ship at a FoF first thing I am doing is looking for a Black Keg for my keg rowie.
These kegs are the equaliser, a Kequaliser , if you will.

Big ships can taste the fear that small ships have felt when parked up at events.

Selling at smugglers is another chance for player encounters.

AND you can adorn your deck with a happy pig picture.

PvE needs to be dialled back - skelly ships spawning when fighting the BB/in the fleet is excessive, especially when they are floating nuclear bombs.

Apparent community outrage at the content of Season 17 is laughably hyperbolic.