Emissary flags

I can get behind reattaching if you recover it but with a price.

Since you lost the fight but you must pay for it to be reattached and lose half the grade lvl you had. (Min 2)
And 20,000 gold fee

This topic again...

Emissaries are a risk/reward system where one will probably want to participate in riskier activities in order to make the most profit possible. Fail to undergo the challenge and you're dealing with the base table scrap values you've always dealt with since you started the game and since the game launched.

Yeah uh, there's very little reason for this needing to be changed because you're risking more value the longer you sail around with a very valuable flag on the back of your boat. The goal is not sinking, and after the amount of times you have sunken in this game, the emissary system is a consistent test in how good you are at not sinking to anything. That includes PvE that tries to sink you, careless sailing action, and the most important of all, pirate hunters coming for your valuable haul.

Sometimes it's hard to wonder if we're playing the same, difficult, unforgiving, hardcore game. Seeing the arguments in this topic also relate to allegiance xp from a loss is making me think people believe it is acceptable to have active "try again, no punishment" mechanics to anything that would soften/speed up the game's purposely designed slow grinds. This "softening the blow" mindset is just not the way for a game that's been this hardcore for so long.

@soloswabbie said in Emissary flags:

This game is not hardcore at all.

Difficult grinds, voyages that actively put you to the furthest reaches of the map in an attempt to get you caught by another crew, several risk/reward mechanics that are pretty understandable as you're not meant to either end up on the Ferry of the Damned, or have your ship sink primarily. Not to mention PvP can be very difficult because of how well another pirate and their crew can fight back, or the clearly lopsided battles that would take a complete miracle to win.

There is so much rng in this game.

This is true. This game operates in the name of chaos, and it serves to benefit no one voluntarily. This unadultered chaos is why many suggest one should not take their sessions seriously and "whatever happens, happens".

Hit reg, cannon reg, high waves making it impossible to hit an enemy ship, the difference in waves between sailing NW and literally any other direction, PvE, asymmetric crew size, etc.

Hard-to-consistently-fix in-game bugs (damage registration issues), intentional mechanics that serve to be a weakness of the ship type (high waves, NW sailing, asymmetric crew sizes), and pretty much any legitimate challenge this game dares to throw at you via PvE, emergent player encounters, all make this game fairly frustrating to play with the wrong mindset while sailing.

The only thing hardcore about SoT is that the developers force solo players on servers with full crews which is just plain dumb, unfair and hardcore

...Don't be solo? Solo is a very common crew size in this game, but this game currently appears to prefer larger crews as this leaves room for social interactions between crewmates, and other crews. Everything is obviously going to be lopsided if you're solo, that's a cold hard fact. It does make overcoming lopsided challenges a little more victorious and a legendary story to tell others should one have the mindset for it.

@monkeyboy4551 no, risk vs reward

@soloswabbie said in Emissary flags:

If you fight the crew who sunk you and has your flag, sink them and reacquire it that’s literally risk where’s the reward? The 1 gold?

The reward is that you showed those pirate hunters what for (likely making them leave the session you're in), and an opportunity to reach a high grade on your new emissary again by doing another voyage. A broken emissary flag is considered a symbol of shame across the Sea of Thieves in a pirate that the Servant of the Flame thrives on. You cannot just reattach the flag as if you haven't broken a simple promise with the trading company you raised the flag for.

@hiradc My biggest issue is that selling your detached flag is only worth 1 to 5 gold. If the flag is all the person had left, whose going to come back and fight over 5 gold? If you can reattach your own flag to be the same grade you last were, it makes it worth it to return and fight for the flag, just like many players would fight over their lost loot. There needs to be a reward for the recovery of that flag. As it is, many crews just leave their flag to sink because it's not worth going out of the way to turn the flag in to Reaper's Hideout.

@monkeyboy4551 yes because essentially you have 'failed' that faction. If you could sell it for the exact same price as lowering then there is no risk in the first place.
I know being sunk isn't nice but it's the risk of losing things that makes it exciting, when all you can spend gold on is cosmetic then the true value of loot is what you place on it and fear of losing makes it worth more.

Outside of hourglass I don't think it's that common to regain your flag back anyway, and I've known some petty people (fair play lol) swim their flag away and hide it etc

If you want, then the value in regaining your flag is denying the others from selling it.

@hiradc I'm not talking about being able to just take your flag and sell it. I'm talking about creating an incentive to actually recover your flag. If it's worth 1 to 5 gold, there's no incentive to do anything other than be petty to deny other players from getting it which I would consider poor sportsmanlike conduct. However, if you can reattach the flag to your ship, then it's worth going back to fight over your emissary flag that you worked so hard to level up. The reason people don't go back to fight over their flag is because they know that spending the time to get one random piece of loot is way more profitable than recovering their own flag. If you can reattach the flag at the value that you last had it even if the bar between levels is now zeroed is way more profitable than what we currently have and encourages players to fight for the recovery of that flag.

@monkeyboy4551 what makes you think rare want to encourage you to go back and fight same people after you sink? In new mode they've specifically designed it so you get merged out to give fights a once and finished mentality. I think the people who want revenge or loot will go back regardless, it's right that if you sink you're getting less value for anything sold, you're not just protecting the loot you're protecting your flag too.