@parrotlord6426 said in The Emissary system needs an overhaul:
@nex-stargaze Wait a second. You are implying a ton of things here, things never anybody mentioned.
- Who says people would not care anymore about sinking just because they can maybe reattach it? First of all, if you lost it, you need to get it back. The only thing "reattaching" does is give players an incentive to continue, to try again - instead of them just being frustrated and rage quitting. Has 0 to do with being aware of your surrounding or picking your battles.
99% of the time people dont lose flag to random encounters´, but other players. And even if they do lose them ro random encounters - the random encounters are not avoidable. They just happen. Risk remains the same. Repeat: Risk remains the same. It just gives players incentive and opportunity to continue, instead of just frustration.
This argument of "it would make everything easier" does not hold.
If they get upset after a single sink, that's on them, not the game. If they don't want to sink and be frustrated, they should avoid activities that increase their chances of sinking. When you sink, you respawn somewhere, and either try what you're doing again, or leave you session and start a new one if you're sinking to enemy players vastly better than you. You can remove yourself from bad situations, and you can damn well prevent it.
Watch horizons for enemy boats, know when you should start turning in your haul, even if you haven't hit Grade 5 on your emissary flag yet. Pay attention to the waters ahead so you don't sail into Skeleton Fleets, or sail into the paths of roaming Skalleons. Rush to a nearby island/shallow water area to suade off Megalodon encounters, and the Kraken fight is very manageable on a very skilled crew. You can avoid active Fort towers/active volcanoes by being aware of your surroundings. You have no excuse to sink to something you "didn't have control over", you cut your losses and know when you're taking too much risk, that's what wise, and skilled players have been adjusted to for years, and it can very well apply to anyone else new that can participate.
- Possible exploits with carrying your flag: You are intentionally skipping over every solution to contest exploits. I myself alrd posted like 4 to combar possible ones. But, repeat myself: The fear of exploit is no argument that prohibits QoL changes - most things can be exploited of people are creative enough, and also changes would simply need to be implemented properly.
Eg. to challenge the exploit you just said: Just deny people the flag if they logg off in a fight/while other ships nearby/while not on outpost. The tracker for this is alrdy in the game. Easy. Give a warning label that you lose your flag, like you get a warning label right now when captain logs of. Maybe even reserve that feature for captained ships. Easy.
This argument does not hold either, not in the slightest.
This is a scenario that doesn't need to exist in the first place. You shouldn't be keeping your flag between sessions, that's now how the Emissary system was designed. It's essentially an endurance course of getting more rep and gold for more risk, committing to your time in a server is the goal of the emissary. You stay in the server longer by going as long as possible by not sinking, which is reasonably normal for all types of players, usually you leave once you sink or finish your goals for the session. This is normal gameplay, and the emissary system only enhances that by forced commitement and incentive to loot stack.
- "terms of the raised emissary" - old argument in the forum, also, does not hold. In your pirate Career you sink countless times. You lose your emissary flag countless times. Do the emissaries care? No. Not in the slightest. They happily give you a new flag whenever you ask for it. They dont care.
An old, common misconception of the emissary system during launch was the idea of being charged for raising emissary every time, so not sinking in your session would appear to be a much more daunting task, when it was a misunderstanding to having the free ability to raise the flag over and over again in any session you want, just for one 20k gold purchase and reaching Reputation 15 in one of the main 3 trading companies during your pirate's career.
That misconception would be a pretty funny counter-suggestion to combat these types of responses, as the Trading Companies very much do care about your flag. They will not be reattaching it, they will recommend you to do this all over again, and regain the value you lost for the large risk you took keeping it all on board. They won't take your broken flag as it is a sign of weakness in the trading companies, something the Reaper's Bones seek a profit in. This is accessible as even they mention that you're taking a big risk to represent their trading company, and it's not meant to be easy.
This argument can even be used to further bolster my line: If you fight for an emissary so much, as to even take the risk of fighting a lost flag back successfully, then surely this should honor your name and the risks you are willing to take for your emissary enough. Even if you just want to make it artificially inconvenient for people, then give a penality for a reattached flag, like, max 100% gold increease instead of 150%.
There is no need for this in the slightest, no one wants a detached flag other than the Reaper's Bones (or Athena's Fortune representatives if the flag in question is a Reaper's Bones Emissary flag). Just leave your flag in the sunken remains of your foes so it can be left off to sink on its own, since I'm sure your foes probably might not have cared enough to sell it to the Reaper's Hideout.
- Last point: No, you cannot earn same amount of gold in same amount of time without emissary. I dont think i need to adress this further, its logical for anyone.
Risk/Reward is why you can't make the same amount of gold compared to an emissary. High risk, high reward. You go without an emissary? Low risk, low reward.
Wanna know how you can make more gold? By being a better pirate, being aware of your surroundings, not sinking, I don't care if this looks like a "git gud" statement. If you don't want to play the game by it's intended mechanics and conditions, regardless of how casual the game itself may seem, you're going to get ridiculed by players that know and understand how the game is meant to be played, and overcome the challenges the game throws at them.
I repeat again: If implemented properly it would not take any risk away. Thats not the point. The point is to simply improve the fun for people. To not punish them for not being able to sink in multiple hours in a single session. To make it more convenient to play the game.
THATS the goal.
It being implemented properly implies that this wouldn't destroy the devs' vision of this content and their continued support. If you think you're gonna sink in your session, don't raise an emissary flag. Still want to raise an emissary? Better not sink. You want those rewards, you gotta earn them, the more difficult and probably inconvenient way. The game has accessible means for you to make gold, not the gold YOU want, but just making gold in general, if it's gonna take you a long time to make enough gold to purchase the entire Silent Barnacle set, then you either accept it will take long, or improve your ways of making gold, while understanding the risks you take when you undergo those activities.
Why do people always act lke SoT is a soulslike when it comes to QoL changes. Imho these two changes should have been there from the get-go of emissary, and not still being discussed years later. Just really only QoL, no change on the system itself.
"QoL changes", this suggestion rings more of "I don't like the conditions in which I may need to play because I refuse to mildly adapt to it, so I want to change it to suit my playstyle because it's what would make ME more happy when playing this game, and allow me to not stress on improving myself to fit the conditions the original design of the challenge set upon me." Not realizing this removes a lot of the rewarding aspects and feats of going a long time without sinking in a single session. It might be seen as easy by many experienced players, but it's still a good achievement to a single player to be able to reach Grade 5 after a long voyage and sell a large haul of loot, that's what the emissary system was designed to award and if you don't like it, don't raise it.
