Fort of the Damned and server hoppers

I don't see why you all can't use the server hoppers to your own end.

1. Start the fort
2. Tuck to hide
3. Wait for the inevitable server hoppers to come a hopping (since they come everytime it is started, you shouldn't have long to wait)
4. Wait for them to complete the fort (depending on their skill, this one might take longer than waiting for them to arrive)
5. This next part works differently if they are in an alliance (if so you can get away with pretending to be in said alliance) - (if not, got loud and go hard, bomb the boat and kill them as they come back to repair, kill all after boat goes down)

Now everything is yours, feel free to vary as the situation requires. I'll be waiting at Galleons Grave for my 10%

@chonky-lemon said in Fort of the Damned and server hoppers:

Server jumpers are straight up ruining the FotD.

Every single time I start the FotD I encounter a brig or gally filled with server hoppers who werent in the server before I started the event.

Why should I waste my time collecting all flames and a ritual skull to activate the fort when people can just server jump to find a server where its active and steal the fort with a larger crew and less time?

Honestly I dont know how Rare didnt realize that would happen. Theres no benefits on starting the fort at all. You will probably save more time by just server jumping than activating the fort in a legit way.

My suggestions are:

• Give a cooldown timer when you join and leave a server. Lets say when you join a server a timer of 15minutes starts. When you leave the server within 15mins you will get a cooldown of the remaining time from the 15mins. This would hopefully also kill all the PvE server fleets.
• Lock the server once the FotD is active. Nobody can join. Everybody on the server can still attack the fort but nobody will be able to join until the fort is finished.
• Change the commendation for "Clear the fort 50 times of all enemies" to "Start or clear the fort 50 times of all enemies". That way people would have an incentive to actually start the fort rather than just server jump.

Right now the FotD is a mess. Theres no real point in activating it if youre not in a PvE server or on a galleon. If youre playing alone (not in an alliance) it would be easier/best to just server jump until you find an active one.

Thats bad game design.

I think you have a fair point.

The effort/time it takes to start FoTD isn't worth it unless you're in an alliance because with server hopping crews you will be attacked. These are facts.

It's fun for a PvP crew, who only starts the event because they want to fight, not so much fun for the crew that actually wants to get the event done withoit fighting other players for 3+ hours.

Some of the lights will become easier to get, which might make it less of a hassle to start, but not by enough to off-set how easy it is to just server hop.

I think a 15 minute cool down to server hopping is a good idea and worth exploring. I don't think locking people out of joining a server with an active fort would work, I think people would abuse that to get uncontested forts. Maybe if the cool down didn't work that could be explored though.

I'd investigate the cool down first, then go from there.

Lowering the commendation might not be necessary, if the other solutions worked, but should be considered if those solutions turn out to not be viable.

@goedecke-michel no I love a good fight and I've been enjoying the FoTD.

You said it yourself though: "this is an event only for crews that want to fight for 3+ hours"

How many crews is that? What percentage of the player base? If I had to guess it's less than 5% who run in crews like that.

Therefore, the rest of people either don't do the event or only do it in an alliance.

A 15 minute cool down won't prevent people coming to fight you. It just gives you enough time between waves of server hoppers to either sell or restock your ship so that you can fight them off. As it stands the ship at the fort always loses eventually because between respawns and new hoppers there's no let up and you run out of resources to fight back with.

This event should be tuned so that it is possible for everyone, but still worth fighting over. Currently it needs a few tweaks. It's worth fighting over, but it's practically impossible for anyone except for a full Galleon to get through the event and actually get away with the loot if they face any serious opposition, which they will, because of the loot and the giant cloud which gives you away.

I've definitely stolen more forts than I've started. I'd wager the same is true of most experienced players. Talk to a less experienced player and it's the other way around, they start lots of forts but never get to finish them.

There needs to be a balance. Less experienced people shouldn't feel so demoralised by their experiences at FoTD that they never bother starting the event in the first place.

The fact that you're saying "this event is only for the 5% of players with a well-oiled Galleon crew who are willing to PvP non-stop for 3+ hours" kind of highlights exactly the issue the OP is raising here.

I don't see this as a problem that needs to be fixed. This game tends to have a trend of difficulty and reward, the more difficult the task is, the higher the reward. The only way to elevate that difficulty in a game with mediocre AI is to throw in PvP. When it comes down to it, attacking already active forts is just smart playing. This is no different than many other games with open sandbox elements. One could hypothetically ambush a Rust crew at their own base after they completed a monument. I could also attack a person just completing an Athena Voyage and rob them of everything. That is perfectly acceptable and no different here. A suggestion like this just comes off as entitlement, the attitude that since I started it, I deserve it. That isn't how this game works

The minute you remove the PvP element from this task, is the minute the loot becomes over inflated. The task certainly doesn't fit the reward. I get it, people don't like the fact that people can just swoop in and reap rewards with less effort, but that isn't a problem that needs to be fixed in this game. That is the nature of this game, if you want the loot you need to fight for it.

At the end of the day, the FOTD isn't a PvE event. Their needs to be no boundaries or securities to ensure someone's own personal success. Thieving is in the nature of this title, you are trying to fix what isn't broken.

@chonky-lemon There are a whole load of players who would disagree with you. You might not find it fun but plenty who play SoT do. Including myself. I don't do it all the time but I do indulge in it, and a lot of the time it pays off.

@xultanis-dragon said in Fort of the Damned and server hoppers:

@chonky-lemon

It took a FULL YEAR after cursed crews for the PvP community to get ONE thing.

Back to forts though. A full year for us to get a contested event. An event where the whole server will roll to and fight for the samething.

I will say, for server hopping, I am not a fan of it, but I understand it. And you are completely right comparing original forts to FotD. However, I disagree with the statement that Rare has not done much to encourage PvP. Almost every event that has come out has in some form or another encouraged PvP. Look at the reaper chest itself. While it died out rather quickly after it first appeared on the seen, it was clearly meant as an attempt by Rare to encourage PvP, and boy did it ever. Some of the best ship to ship combat I have ever had was during that event.

There has not been a single event I can think of since before the anniversary update that was done to encourage cooperation between crews.

Even the "PvE" Events like bone dust or relics... in a way encouraged PvP because everyone knew where you needed to go to start the voyages. Heck, even the Christmas gilded voyages encouraged PvP and campers. So to say this is the first even for PvP is not accurate. Though I will agree, it is the first one that seems to have a single focal point that will stay with the game for the foreseeable future. And it is very reminiscent of the original forts.

@chonky-lemon

@nabberwar

Ok. Cool. This thread isnt about PvP. Did you try reading?

Server hopping is directly linked to PvP, its the original PvP tool for this game. Have you tried not getting salty after your loot was taken from you? Just a game mate, time to relax, live and let live.

Their is no problem that needs fixing here. Stealing is in the nature of the game, can't fault people trying to become really efficent at it.

@chonky-lemon It depends, the thrill of outwitting an enemy to walk away with all their loot, or even to just pretend to be part of the alliance, so that everything you sell goes to you, but no one notices.

Whats not to love?

@chonky-lemon said in Fort of the Damned and server hoppers:

@badassfro

"Tucking" isnt fun. I play videogames because of fun, sleep emoting for hours for loot isnt fun.

Also from what your saying, what ever you have been doing up till now hasn't been fun for you either.

@chonky-lemon It's funny you saying it's "bad game design" when to be honest you have no idea whether it's working as intended.

None of us do, only Rare. So it might seem like "bad game design" to you, but it maybe just as designed and intended.

@badassfro said in Fort of the Damned and server hoppers:

@chonky-lemon It depends, the thrill of outwitting an enemy to walk away with all their loot, or even to just pretend to be part of the alliance, so that everything you sell goes to you, but no one notices.

Whats not to love?

If anything designed to reduce (reduce, not eliminate, that's important here) server hopping were to result in there being no PvP at the fort then I would be against it.

As I see it @chonky-Lemon suggestion for a 15 min cool down is balanced. Anyone on the server can still attack you. Anyone who joins the server can still attack you.

The only thing is, the number of people joining your server looking for forts will be reduced, because they're stuck on each server they join for 15 minutes. If they get lucky and join your active FoTD server, you're still a target. It doesn't stop hopping, just slows them down.

Plus it gives people reasons to start the fort up themselves. Hop three times and still no FoTD - that's 45 minutes, how many lights would you have gathered in that time?

I think it's worth exploring. Server hopping has been implicated in causing more problems than just FoTD salt.

@boxcar-squidy I agree when put across in such a clear and concise way how can you not agree.

To be honest I'm with you that 15mins would be quite balanced, and I would like to say that I haven't ever server hopped, for the old or the new forts.

I think half the issue here is if you argue against the OP you are instantly a Server Hopper, and are met with such vitriol it makes it hard to even listen to his good points

I think the best way to accomplish this is with a time delay on joining a new server before you can see reapers chests and any sky signals. I would only make reapers flags so they do not show on the map during that 15 minute cool down timer. But if a reaper ship comes into site, you should still be able to see the glow of their flag so you know they are hostile.

I would rather see something like this implemented than I would a freeze at current server as OP suggested. The only thing I worry about is, with the skelly fleets now able to appear almost anywhere on the map, this could end up causing issues if you are trying to avoid them.

@chonky-lemon As you were making suggestions, so was I mate. I wasn't trying to attack you. Was simply stating something that I believe is a solid suggestion to combat server hopping. Nothing more, nothing less.

@nofears-fun I also believe that having a delay on clouds and marks upon entering a server could help.

Would it 100% prevent it? Probably not, since people could start heading to the fort either way in case it is active, but it still would be a gamble and a waste of time for the hoppers if there is nobody doing it.

Is it possible to change which crew can see what? That's another question though, since the clouds are basically entities that are either there or not and by default visible to everyone.

@bloodybil I agree that it might not prevent it completely, but it sure would curtail it a ton. I have been sailing solo for quite some time now, and probably log into the game at least once a day for the most part. And only once in the past 3 weeks have I logged into a server to see a red eyed black skull cloud in the sky. In fact, I have only seen 3 or maybe four times when the cloud appeared during my entire playing session. I think many are turned off by the length of time it takes to set one up, and then end up in never ending battles while trying to complete it.

@nofears-fun said in Fort of the Damned and server hoppers:

@bloodybil I agree that it might not prevent it completely, but it sure would curtail it a ton. I have been sailing solo for quite some time now, and probably log into the game at least once a day for the most part. And only once in the past 3 weeks have I logged into a server to see a red eyed black skull cloud in the sky. In fact, I have only seen 3 or maybe four times when the cloud appeared during my entire playing session. I think many are turned off by the length of time it takes to set one up, and then end up in never ending battles while trying to complete it.

Absolutely, if it helps to curtail it a bit I don't see why not add this measure. It would encourage people to stick around their servers, and would put less strain on the matchmaking process because of people constantly leaving and joining.

As a non-hopper myself, I can't say I have seen the red cloud often either while logging or even during sessions, but my first reasoning when wanting to do the fort will always be that if the forts needs activating, you are never better served than by yourself.

I don't mind getting the flames, and especially with more crewmates you can be efficient enough to have one row to the Roar, others chasing storms or players for the trickier flames. With fire bombs incoming, visits to the roar will probably not be needed anymore, only white and pink flames being longer to get (or not depending on your luck).

@k1lroyw4sh3r3 said in Fort of the Damned and server hoppers:

Here’s a quick idea to try to combat people server hopping into the FotD. The fog that surrounds the island is mysterious and cursed. Only those in a crew from a ship which has all the flames of fate burning in their lanterns may enter the fog. If a ship enters without all the flames of fate it takes damage like entering the shroud. Any pirate from a crew of a ship that does not have flames of fate begins to choke and get dizzy(drunk effect) and slowly loses health while in the fog.

So a server hopper has to spend the time to collect the flames to try and attack the fort and players present. Or they can wait outside for the ship that attempts to flee. Which those inside the fog should send a scout of before disembarking.

This, all of it yes. I'm fine with PvP but for the love of Davy Jones make the PvE/environment much more unforgiving please

@boxcar-squidy That's the exact reason why I will never, ever go to the FotD ever again. Not even to steal it from other players, it really is a Fort of the Damned in a different way. No thanks. If I wanted PvP all day, I'll go to arena thank you very much

@davidhawk1 said in Fort of the Damned and server hoppers:

@boxcar-squidy That's the exact reason why I will never, ever go to the FotD ever again. Not even to steal it from other players, it really is a Fort of the Damned in a different way. No thanks. If I wanted PvP all day, I'll go to arena thank you very much

And that's fine too, not every event is for everybody. This is a PVP heavy encounter for people that are looking for intensive brawl.

When it comes to "end game" it seems like this is usually the course of events:

• Casual players want stuff to be nerfed.
• Stuff gets nerfed for them.
• More hardcore players ask for more challenging "end game" events for them.
• They finally get it.
• Casuals wants in, but find it too hard, ask for nerfs.
• Rinse and repeat.

Not every single activity in this game will please everybody. Take some and leave some. Can we keep the challenging nature of this event for once? Regular forts are still there for people who don't want intensive PVP or a long preparation time for starting such event.

This is the Devils Roar all over again. Was meant to be an optional zone that you could visit, with higher risk and higher rewards. Now it's been nerfed so much it's the devil's whimper. The day a new new difficult zone makes it in the game, will it suffer the same fate?

Challenging events should remain challenging, and the entry bar shouldn't be lowered, it's people who should adapt to reach it when they are ready.

@bloodybil said in Fort of the Damned and server hoppers:

@davidhawk1 said in Fort of the Damned and server hoppers:

@boxcar-squidy That's the exact reason why I will never, ever go to the FotD ever again. Not even to steal it from other players, it really is a Fort of the Damned in a different way. No thanks. If I wanted PvP all day, I'll go to arena thank you very much

And that's fine too, not every event is for everybody. This is a PVP heavy encounter for people that are looking for intensive brawl.

When it comes to "end game" it seems like this is usually the course of events:

• Casual players want stuff to be nerfed.
• Stuff gets nerfed for them.
• More hardcore players ask for more challenging "end game" events for them.
• They finally get it.
• Casuals wants in, but find it too hard, ask for nerfs.
• Rinse and repeat.

Not every single activity in this game will please everybody. Take some and leave some. Can we keep the challenging nature of this event for once? Regular forts are still there for people who don't want intensive PVP or a long preparation time for starting such event.

This is the Devils Roar all over again. Was meant to be an optional zone that you could visit, with higher risk and higher rewards. Now it's been nerfed so much it's the devil's whimper. The day a new new difficult zone makes it in the game, will it suffer the same fate?

Challenging events should remain challenging, and the entry bar shouldn't be lowered, it's people who should adapt to reach it when they are ready.

This X 1,000