8 hours I've played today on the same server the event you need for the current deeds and rewards has spawned once, it's a poorly disguised time sink to try and keep people logged into your game because it's hemorrhaging players.
I've played since beta and this is the worst it's been imho and I'm seriously considering if I put any more of my time or money into the game.
Do better.
Month 2 of S17 is a reskinned SoSS that is more tedious, takes less time, and works less often. I logged in yesterday for a few hours to try to get the quest done and the first 3 times I tried to do it it bugged in one of multiple ways. The first time, it showed up on my map but didn't let me sell it, and the quest never appeared on my mast. The second time, it spawned at the same time as the Briggsy note and I wasn't able to accept or reject either note. The third time it failed, I accepted it, and it said to go to Royal Crest, not to go to a Smuggler with the key. No key icon showed on the map and it did not say anyone else had claimed the key. I went to 4 different smugglers and none had the key, so I dived to hourglass to change server. The 4th time I tried it, I got it to work, the first key I put in opened the only door I needed to open to get the only painting worth having from it (175k vs 2k for each other painting) and left. Took it to a smuggler, and after 3 hours, I finally spent the 20 minutes to re-finish S17 because the game finally let me.
The only use for S17 for me is to get older comms done that I missed. S17 has at least made a good few of them easier, but you don't have to interact with the seasons content to do that stuff.
Nothing about this season feels like smuggling to me. Nothing we're doing even comes close to the very definition of the word.
Who are we "smuggling" these paintings, kegs, and bottles from exactly? The playerbase aren't the police, and if they are, shouldn't there be a place/NPC we turn in the contraband to, having thwarted a smuggling attempt? If kegs are so important to the Smugglers, why are they handing them out to deliver along a route everyone can see in the first place? Nothing about this makes sense.
Flameheart wants to keep this time-limited prized painting for some reason (new lore that will probably never be explained and forgotten about), so if I sink someone doing the heist, shouldn't I turn it in to him instead? I've done quite a lot so far helping him out, giving him ritual knowledge via the BB, killing boars, and then opening seals the Ancients tried protecting with Reaper Voyages. If Flameheart is trying to prevent the "client" (see previous comment pertaining to new lore) from obtaining it, how can I help? Oh wait...
Where and when does actual smuggling come into play with treasure that's seen on the map that everyone on the server gets notified about? I swear it's like playing a game of hide and seek, but there's no seeker, which makes hiding, and the main objective, pointless.
For me the event spawns every 2 hours or so.
Why didn't you dive if you are specifically hunting the heist and it didn't pop?
Calling an event that can be completed in 20 minutes a time sink is a choice.
Not had any issues. Fun redesign of the Sea Forts.
80% of the time it has involved multiple ships.
I think they massively misjudged it by making it only require one completion...
I am happy they just stuck to one completion. Can't push the FOMO too far when the combat can't be balanced given ship sizes.
2 guild levels and the supps will get me joining in thereafter and it is not a long time to complete.
Not even.. It's a one off siren skull voyage AND they still have the siren skull voyage on the mast which no one does any more... smugglers giving out siren skulls like candy anyway so do you even need that old voyage? While it was a neat little addition like many things the siren skull was just there for streamer content and died off within a month. and now we have to actually cancel that voyage to even get this smugglers one to spawn on the mast. Insanity. Sad to see season18 is more smugglers stuff when IMO this is one of the worst additions so far. Re-hashed cargo voyages (and 99% of players hate cargo) now the fort which is just a more annoying siren skull. Where the siren skull would slow your ship down this just spawns annoying PvE on your ship when you're trying to go hand it in.
The increased spawn rate of skeleton ships, the worthless loot on board because it's too inconvenient to go turn in. The PvE spawn rate on the islands because of the addition of smugglers and not wanting us to just easily be able to pick up and deliver the cargo. The weird idea that half their development team is dedicated to making custom servers and safer fleets as an attempt to make some more money... The lack of foresight to realize only a handful of twitch streamers will pay this monthly fee and most of them only once or twice, a PvE minded player like myself wont pay for a server we can't progress on.
The idea of finally addressing the clunkiness they added to combat by adding weapon draw delay to deal with quick swap cheap deaths... The solution has been obvious from the start lower all damage, increase ammo count to compensate making double taps impossible and giving us back the really fluid fun year 1 combat.
Not sure what's going on over at Rare but some of these design choices are baffling. SoT always has been and seemingly always will be a game that had much potential and the Developers didn't know how to tap into it. They look at the data and draw the wrong conclusions time after time.
It's crazy to me no ones come along to make a PvE sailing/exploration game like this since obviously the interest is there with this game having what over 40 million people who have tried it out at this point ant 39.5 million have quit most within a single month. The 2 biggest asks from year 1. Arena and PvE servers. They gave us arena and like everything else only updated it once and never added new rewards after that.... Surprise everyone abandoned it because like safer seas... nothing to progress there. And safer seas just a gold farm because Rare seems to think players hold any value to gold. A player in their first 2 weeks might care about gold. After that no one is looking for a safe gold farm just an efficient one. Safer seas isn't efficient or fun. Seems like it would be an easy cash grab to make a PvE only SoT clone. There's over 20 single player pirate themed games out there. So this argument that a pirate game needs PvP so you can get pirated is nonsense. Just none of those other games have captured the sailing and exploration aspect that Rare has managed to. Definitely one of the most conflicting games I've ever played since my player mentality is the extreme opposite of who Rare wants playing their game. But I love the art, the world...
