Greetings, those who've come to read this post.
As many of you know, given how there's one or more posts on this specific forum every week, there's several Merchant Alliance commendations that have become difficult to obtain, to the point of simply not being remotely enjoyable. The posts many people make on here are regarding the commendations for delivering wood crates, fruit crates, cannonball crates, and kegs. I will list those below here as well, but I'd like to expand on several other commendations that have become more tedious than anything ever since the voyage system was overhauled.
Before the voyage system was overhauled, and we still had to purchase voyages, the Merchant Alliance voyages had you collecting and delivering larger amounts of loot. A voyage to deliver animals would regularly have you collecting 8 of them. A voyage to deliver cargo would also regularly have 6-8 items. With the current voyage system, the high-level 'Executive' version of those same voyages have you delivering a maximum of four animals or four pieces of cargo. For context, see the commendations below:
Merchant of the Dawn Caller - Deliver 200 Chickens on schedule.
Merchant of the Wild Hog - Deliver 200 Pigs on schedule.
Merchant of the Serpent's Scale - Deliver 200 Snakes on schedule.
Merchant of Grand Fauna - Deliver 200 Golden Animals on schedule.
Disregarding the golden animals, that's 600 animals you need to deliver. If you get lucky, and don't get ANY animals you don't need and none of them die during the trip, that's 150 voyages. Consider yourself fortunate if you get this in less than 200 voyages.
Merchant of the Silken Trade - Deliver 200 Crates of Luxurious Cloth on time and in perfect condition.
Merchant of the Flora Trade - Deliver 200 Crates of Plants on time and in perfect condition.
Merchant Rum Runner - Deliver 200 Crates of Rum on time and in perfect condition.
Merchant of Forsaken Silk - Deliver 200 Crates of Luxurious Devil's Cloth on time and in perfect condition
Merchant of Forsaken Flora - Deliver 200 Crates of Devil's Plants on time and in perfect condition
Merchant of Forsaken Rum - Deliver 200 Crates of Devil's Rum on time and in perfect condition
That's a total of 1200 crates. If you are extremely lucky, and don't get any requests for items you no longer need and everything you deliver is in perfect condition, that's 300 voyages.
Then there's the previously mentioned, and often posted about commendations regarding the wood crate, fruit crate, cannonball crate, and gunpowder keg deliveries. You used to be able to get these requests from bottles on beaches and in the water, journals on islands, and quest items in barrels. The latter were removed some time ago, making these specific voyages exceedingly rare. On top of that, the gunpowder keg deliveries require 100 kegs, instead of the 50 that the crates require. This used to be alright, as a gunpowder keg could be part of an animal delivery voyage. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case.
Given that they are now much more rare to find, and each quest you pick up can only ever be a single crate or keg, the commendations below have also reached the point of "either grind for it, or give up hope of getting it".
Merchant Forager - Deliver 50 Fruit Crates on schedule.
Merchant Shipwright - Deliver 50 Wood Crates on schedule.
Cast Iron Merchant - Deliver 50 Cannonball Crates on schedule.
Black Powder Merchant - Deliver 100 Gunpowder Kegs on schedule.
That's 250 journals you must read, or bottles you must pick up. Keep in mind, bottles and journals can also give OoS bounties, GH dig sites, GH riddles, Merchant cargo deliveries, or just a little story.
In my opinion, and I do realize all of the above is just my opinion, this is far too much of a grind. Please consider increasing the amount of cargo or animals in their respective 'Executive' voyages. Playing as a Merchant galleon, transporting 4 chickens, just feels sad.
