Why do Tall Tales fail?

  • SpiderSeb86
    Rogue

    I just don't get it. Seriously, I don't.

    After months of not playing due to the toxicity in this game, I pick it up again and do a tall tale, "The Legend of the Storyteller".

    Everything goes fine, I eventually find the crown, put it down on my ship and guess what happens?

    Yup. Some rando jumps aboard and starts griefing. I tell him via voice chat and via text chat that I'm on a tall tale and there's literally no loot on board. All I'm sailing on is a captain's ship. Nothing more.

    Nope. No reaction. After a few attempts I eventually scuttle the ship, as the game recommends (!!!). So I land somewhere in the west and make my way back to Kraken's Fall. Not even a third of the way along, I get the notification that the tall Tale has failed.

    2 or 3 hours of work ruined. The griefer is the only one to be rewarded and gets the fewest of points for killing me over and over. I get nothing.

    Why is this possible? Like seriously, why?

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  • CallMeBackdrafT
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    @spiderseb86 it is probably because you lost the tall tale item, some of those are required

    However nowadays there are tall tale checkpoints so you can easily start from the checkpoint and continue

  • Musicmee
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Moderator
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @spiderseb86 Ahoy matey!

    So sorry you have come across this - but this is the nature of the world and the nature of the game. Pirates with unknown intentions... However...

    You should have some Tall Tale checkpoints in your inventory now that you can pick up from... switch seas and then put down the Tall Tale Checkpoint on your captain's table to continue on from the latest checkpoint you have.

  • SpiderSeb86
    Rogue

    @musicmee said in Why do Tall Tales fail?:

    @spiderseb86 Ahoy matey!

    You should have some Tall Tale checkpoints in your inventory now that you can pickup from... switch seas and then put down the Tall Tale Checkpoint on your captain's table to continue on from the latest checkpoint you have.

    Thanks for the info!

    I just don't get the design choice that was made here. It's horrendously punishing to the player trying to have a good time and rewards the ones who want to be d***s.

  • SpiderSeb86
    Rogue

    @callmebackdraft said in Why do Tall Tales fail?:

    @spiderseb86 it is probably because you lost the tall tale item, some of those are required

    However nowadays there are tall tale checkpoints so you can easily start from the checkpoint and continue

    That's the problem. Why don't these tall tale items just wander into my inventory? Or transfer to my new ship when I scuttle?

    Why do I have to go through the long process of getting it again?

    It's 2023. I think we're past that embarrasing stage of game development.

  • Musicmee
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Moderator
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @spiderseb86 Yeah, Sea of Thieves' core design is a Shared World Adventure Game.

    A sandbox where multiple different pirates of different play styles get dropped into a sandbox and the players make the narrative.

    Keeping your eyes on the horizon and not knowing another player's intentions is where the sense of uncertainty, unease and making every play session feel unique comes from.

    You never know if they are going to be friendly or the most rottenest pirates!

    The best advice I can give is... dust yourself and get back in the saddle... Good luck out there pirate!

  • BurnBacon
    Vanguard
    Insider

    2 or 3 hours of work ruined

    Which…tall tale are you doing?

    Tall tale didn’t fail. Your still open world, doing a quest which can be interrupted but not forgotten. Checkpoints

    Like myself. I sometimes disable voice and text chat so I never hear or see some of the toxic words. Could be the same with this kid

  • Reverend Toast
    Lord
    Insider

    @spiderseb86 Did you not get a Tall Tale Checkpoint?
    Once you get the crown you should be able to just start up at that point with the crown already on your ship.

  • SpiderSeb86
    Rogue

    @musicmee said in Why do Tall Tales fail?:

    @spiderseb86 Yeah, Sea of Thieves' core design is a Shared World Adventure Game.

    A sandbox where multiple different pirates of different play styles get dropped into a sandbox and the players make the narrative.

    Keeping your eyes on the horizon and not knowing another player's intentions is where the sense of uncertainty, unease and making every play session feel unique comes from.

    You never know if they are going to be friendly or the most rottenest pirates!

    The best advice I can give is... dust yourself and get back in the saddle... Good luck out there pirate!

    I'm not talking about the core design. I'm talking about the specifics of one design element.

    The Pirates of the Caribbean tales all portal you to maps where only you can experience them. Why not do the same with the tall tales?

    And again: Why make quest items losable and the quests failable? Especially when the game recommends you scuttle the ship after dying several times?

    It just doesn't work and checkpoints seem like a sad afterthought or a case of "dev couldn't be bothered".

  • SpiderSeb86
    Rogue

    @reverend-toast said in Why do Tall Tales fail?:

    @spiderseb86 Did you not get a Tall Tale Checkpoint?
    Once you get the crown you should be able to just start up at that point with the crown already on your ship.

    I got the checkpoint after discovering the crown. But when I scuttled and respawned, there was no crown on the ship and the tale still active.

  • Reverend Toast
    Lord
    Insider

    @spiderseb86 Then cancel the tall tale, and reactivate it with the checkpoint. The Reason the tall tale failed was because you sunk, and weren't able to retrieve the crown before it sank.

    I am going to warn you: Art of the Trickster requires you to cary a Gunpowder Keg, which can be destroyed by multiple things... so be prepared for that.

  • SpiderSeb86
    Rogue

    @reverend-toast said in Why do Tall Tales fail?:

    @spiderseb86 Then cancel the tall tale, and reactivate it with the checkpoint. The Reason the tall tale failed was because you sunk, and weren't able to retrieve the crown before it sank.

    I am going to warn you: Art of the Trickster requires you to cary a Gunpowder Keg, which can be destroyed by multiple things... so be prepared for that.

    Again: The tale shouldn't fail because I lose the crown to some rando griefing me and who gains barely anything from it and because the game actually recommends to scuttle the ship. That's the whole point I'm criticizing. This is bad game design.

  • Red0Demon0
    Commander
    Insider

    The issue with tall tales as I see it, isn't the fact that you can get attacked at any moment, this should be an intended mechanic for anything one does in the game. The issue is the lack of incentive and reward. There is no cost / reward balance to keep it moving along. You spend hours on enchasing riddles that leads to other riddles, to collect pieces of what is basically. key that opens the lock to what is basically the final riddle. But there is no treasure or reward hidden away for beating milestones, and when players attack, chances are they are either new and trigger happy, or out for some resources. Regardless, the lack of treasure, time expenditure, and overall lack of difficulty make it that much more annoying to do

  • Nex Stargaze
    Commander
    Insider

    @spiderseb86 said in Why do Tall Tales fail?:

    I just don't get the design choice that was made here. It's horrendously punishing to the player trying to have a good time and rewards the ones who want to be d***s.

    It doesn't really reward them at all.

    The only item of "in-game value" they recieve is your captain's log, which if you're using a guide or not taking 4 hours to solve puzzles, should be worth 300 gold to the Reaper's Bones.

    Your tall tale item has no value to them too. The only (worthwhile) Tall Tale item to sell (note: not needed for completion progress) is the Gold Hoarder's Skull from Shores of Gold. It's valued at a flat rate of 10k gold to whichever crew turns it in, but you still get gold for tall tale completion and progress.

    The only other reward a crew deciding to spawncamp you during a tall tale will receive is salty tears (should you speak at them) and supplies they probably never needed in the first place.

    Players aren't just romanticized pirates in this game, they can be cruel power-hungry savages with all the mental power to commit to it with practically no punishment (so long as they don't shout offensive language or spawncamp for longer than they should without the goal of sinking the boat).

  • heslashthem
    Legend
    Insider

    No griefing took place here. Change server, continue from the checkpoint, move on. If you need help so you’re not spending 2-3 hours doing a tall tale, check out RareThief for guides.

  • Foambreaker
    Sailor

    Boarding a ship is not griefing, killing you is not griefing. Doing a Tall Tale doesn't make you immune to PvP.

    Freaking out and scuttling your ship is no ones fault but your own.

  • Reverend Toast
    Lord
    Insider

    @spiderseb86 So you shouldn't fail a level of Super Mario bros when you fail to jump on the Koopa Troopa? Splinter Cell should let you still win when you fail to save the president? If you lose the item that is essential to the voyage you will fail. The Developers added a Check Point LITERALLY right after you get the crown to let you finish it if what happened to you happens. Tall Tales weren't part of the original game, they were added, so they need to follow the rules of the game.

  • Nex Stargaze
    Commander
    Insider

    @foambreaker said in Why do Tall Tales fail?:

    Freaking out and scuttling your ship is no ones fault but your own.

    Woah woah, this is where I disagree. It is not a fault of the user to scuttle their own ship (especially to change seas) if the goal is to get away from a bad situation. If you can't break a spawncamp, several forumgoers will tell you to scuttle (and change seas as well) as that is appropriate conduct for what is essentially being softlocked in gameplay by another player.

    Not everyone can break a spawncamp, some situations will dictate that you won't break the spawncamp, and unless you're spiteful enough to sit there and die to the same player(s) over and over again just to report them for spawncamping, you're much better off scuttling and doing something else. In the case of this tall tale where you literally got the last item needed to finish the entire quest, that holds absolutely no value to other players, and you (hopefully) have nothing of worthwhile value on your ship... just start from the newly obtained checkpoint.

  • Foambreaker
    Sailor

    @nex-stargaze Right, but in his case he just needed to save one important bit of loot...

  • Nex Stargaze
    Commander
    Insider

    @foambreaker said in Why do Tall Tales fail?:

    @nex-stargaze Right, but in his case he just needed to save one important bit of loot...

    (Edited into previous post 1 minute after you responded, apologies)

    @nex-stargaze said in Why do Tall Tales fail?:

    In the case of this tall tale where you literally got the last item needed to finish the entire quest, that holds absolutely no value to other players, and you (hopefully) have nothing of worthwhile value on your ship... just start from the newly obtained checkpoint.

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