Skull of Siren Song - Save the Competitive Voyage

I'm also realizing that the slow-down mechanics would need to be altered such that if you have both the chest AND the key onboard, that is what triggers the slowdown mechanic instead of the unlock being the trigger. Otherwise, players could grab both and full-speed to an outpost before unlocking it so that they don't get the slow-down effect.

@sweetsandman said:

By-and-large, the SoSS has been a failure when you look at what it was intended to be.

Here's my suggestion to give the competitive voyage ever-lasting life on the seas.

Briggsy Turn-in = 50k gold and SoSS skull turn-in commendation progression, but no Guild/OOS rep.

Outpost/Reapers Turn-in = 15k gold (plus Emissary Bonus) and Guild/OOS rep, but no SoSS skull turn-in commendation progression.

Simple. This would give all players a reason to compete over the skull and may encourage more Emissary play.

What exactly was the voyage intended to be?

I'm asking because I missed the hype train leading up to its release. Then after it came out everyone and their mom praised it for the PvP it brought in. "Better than Arena," some said.

But when I tried it, it seemed like just another thing to do. Just another voyage. Just another MacGuffin to trigger player interaction. Which, like with other "things to do" in this game, the chance of interaction is limited by the hand you draw. If your server is quiet and full of players who keep to themselves, you're not gonna get any interaction regardless of how spicy you make the rewards.

Adding turn-in options for Emissary rep/gold in place of SoSS commendations would certainly bring in some interest, again, provided that those players are on your server.

I think another way to increase activity would be to tie it to HG somehow. Maybe massive HG bonuses for passive/defending players when they turn in the Skull (after beating a crew, ofc). Players who turn it in after diving would get relatively less HG rep.

@theblackbellamy said in Skull of Siren Song - Save the Competitive Voyage:

What exactly was the voyage intended to be?

I'm asking because I missed the hype train leading up to its release. Then after it came out everyone and their mom praised it for the PvP it brought in. "Better than Arena," some said.

The intent was for it to be a competitive voyage. I'd say 90% of these skulls that I've turned in have gone uncontested.

Moreover, nowadays, I always accept the voyage and am happy to compete over it if someone else is doing it...but I've seen it go untouched for hours...entire sessions where nobody touches it.

The intent was good competition...but...it's failed massively.

That 10% of mine that were contested, it absolutely did hark back to Arena and was a blast...but that was more early on when it was released...these days, nobody touches these things.

I think another way to increase activity would be to tie it to HG somehow. Maybe massive HG bonuses for passive/defending players when they turn in the Skull (after beating a crew, ofc). Players who turn it in after diving would get relatively less HG rep.

That would be another great way to resuscitate the SoSS. Using these as the "defender" portion of HG would be huge. There's some finer details that would need to be worked out...like making it so that you can't do the entire voyage and right before you turn it in, then vote up HG and basically avoid the risk of defending...again, finer details, though. I like the idea of incorporating it into HG.

The only way to save the SoSS voyage is to give the skull reputation ONLY if you fly an emissary flag for any faction (Guild) included. The reason? Because you're already risking losing your emmi flag by getting into the fight, ergo, you should be rewarded with some reputation if you succeed getting the skull turned in. THIS will give long term usage for the voyage, cause let's face it, nobody cares about 50k gold, but they do care about reputation gain.

I think the SoSS could have a sort of "catch-all" reward system in place by doing the following:

• Awarding a significant amount of Doubloons (including current the gold award)
• Having a doubloon shop open to purchase PvP supplies (chainshots, cursed balls).
• Having a doubloon shop open to purchase enhanced PvE quests like the Skull of Destiny, athena quests that reward higher rep / two chests of legends.
• Having a doubloon shop open to purchase immediate emissary grade.

These are fairly unique and desirable sandbox options for many types of players.

@foambreaker said in Skull of Siren Song - Save the Competitive Voyage:

The mission is fine.

Will people with millions in gold keep doing it, no.

Will new players do it, yes.

If zero competition and virtually no engagement by the community after one month is your idea of "fine", I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the Quest Board is doing as a content staple.

@khenny-g said in Skull of Siren Song - Save the Competitive Voyage:

I still think the best way to make this voyage more desirable / competitive is to allow the turn in to advance progression in Servants or Guardians as long as you have opted into HG before your crew touches any of the components. This would allow people who generally don't like PvP to have an alternate path to getting the curse and make it more likely that better crews opt in. It should still be grindy (like winning your 1st HG fight) so it takes a long time to achieve in this manner.

I love the idea of turning the SoSS into an HG Defender's means of progressing Servants/Guardians. Virtually nobody uses the defending mechanic anyways...so...2 birds with one stone!

Def needs something. I am either uncontested or I’m that guy that goes to the turn in island and will TDM you for it on the island, it’s a punishment to naval you to get the skull.

@super87ghost said in Skull of Siren Song - Save the Competitive Voyage:

Doesn't this just tell us something about where the fast majority of the playerbase is, if they are not willing to do a PvP voyage?

Not willing *anymore

Activity and competition was hot and fun for the first week...but I know I got mine done the first week after release...since then, it's been crickets.

It was poorly implemented. In a season where the highlight feature is another tremendous grind (Guilds), they introduced a competitive and high value voyage that doesn't count towards that tremendous grind. Once I realized they don't count towards guild progression, my mind was set on getting the commendations done, moving on, and then maybe doing them passively once in a while. I suspect the majority of the veteran community did the same.

One of the silliest decisions they've made with what could have been a really cool evergreen piece of content.

Depends on how you implement this. If you only get HG allegiance if you get invaded, it might not help much, since if you don't get invaded in time you just unable to do anything and have to wait and wait with handing in that skull. If you get allegiance either way, so either if you get invaded or if you just hand in the skull without getting invaded, i can see how it could be a bit more attractive to do. However i wouldn't think it will be a huge increase, since hourglass is already very impopular too.

There would be some fine details needed to iron out to integrate it with HG, but those things could be worked out.

I still think integrating it into Guild and Trading Company progression would be the better (and more well received) way to create ongoing interest by the community.

WOO HOO!

Better late than never I suppose!

Mike Chapman on Twitter / X

@tesiccl said in Skull of Siren Song - Save the Competitive Voyage:

The only way to save the SoSS voyage is to give the skull reputation ONLY if you fly an emissary flag for any faction (Guild) included. The reason? Because you're already risking losing your emmi flag by getting into the fight, ergo, you should be rewarded with some reputation if you succeed getting the skull turned in. THIS will give long term usage for the voyage, cause let's face it, nobody cares about 50k gold, but they do care about reputation gain.

I think that's a sentiment a lot of us share. Hoping Rare can let us earn rep for guilds and emissaries when flying flags for them while doing SoSS. That would really increase the value of the skull too.