Well it's about time.

@themetalman4011 said in Well it's about time.:

Well, it took them this long to "fix" the merchant commendations, but at the very least it has been addressed.
Frankly, they did it in a neat way. I do believe that commendations is something that should come from playing the game naturally, to trickle in over time, to one day play the game and it goes "Congrats! You did it! Well done!". The way the merchant deliveries worked was not like that of course. Not always I know, but I just don't know that many people who in the middle of a session, doing GH, OOS, Athena or Reaper, get a message in a bottle and go: "Stop everything! We need to go to Sanctuary outpost and deliver this!"
Why I recalled playing on the discord and being told "No, I dont care", granted the bottles where more common back then...

This new system is line with another Merchant Game loop, commodities. They are now part of game where you ship cargo to where it is needed, sell as the right place and earn extra money, it works, and more so, it gives more incentive to engage with them other then doing them for completions sake.

Hello ....

This was totally the wrong way by Rare of adressing the issue of the scarcity of encountering the merchant delivery voyages in bottles.
They should have addressed the scarcity a lot earlier, around a month after they realised that removing voyages in barrels (on the outpost mostly) also had impact on these voyages and thus the commendations.

Sure, it was RNG, but that was what made them different from other quests; the RNG wasn't that bad even - plenty of times I found one or more on the starting outpost and then more at the outpost (close by even) the delivery was at. Even if you had finished the commendations, it was a nice way of getting a supply crate to quickly grab supplies before the buying storage crates became a thing.

You say "They should come from playing the game naturally, trickle in over time", they did that in the earlier days, now you just find the outpost's Merchant that has 10 of them, load them up and deliver them at the closest outpost and repeat until your commendation pops up and never look at these commodities again.

I feel similar about making Emmi Flags also count for miles sailed, it is a good thought, as MOST reapers dont do voyages, they hunt other players. So now all our reapers friends can rest easy knowing when they chase that duo sloop with a FOF onboard, they are getting miles for their faction. Very good I say.

Youd didn't need to actually do the voyages; crews could just vote on a voyage and sail around doing World Events, chasing other crews, fish or whatever they wanted (except another voyage obviously).
I don't mind that having an Emissary does count for this - hopefully it encourages people to sail with an Emissary more.

@lem0n-curry said in Well it's about time.:

This was totally the wrong way by Rare of adressing the issue of the scarcity of encountering the merchant delivery voyages in bottles.

Hard disagree. I think it was a creative way of addressing a long-standing issue that also breathed a bit of a spark of new life into another Merchant mechanic that hasn't seen much use since they nerfed the rep you used to get from commodities runs (that used to be the best way to level up the faction).

They should have addressed the scarcity a lot earlier, around a month after they realised that removing voyages in barrels (on the outpost mostly) also had impact on these voyages and thus the commendations.

This, I do wholeheartedly agree with; it should've been addressed almost immediately after the voyage system was overhauled. Many of us even mentioned exactly this issue when it was pointed out that "tattered parchment" voyages were removed in season 11 because it was essentially the only way to get them with any type of frequency.

now you just find the outpost's Merchant that has 10 of them, load them up and deliver them at the closest outpost and repeat until your commendation pops up and never look at these commodities again.

How is this different in any way to the seven already existing commodities that are equally dusty and untouched for anyone that doesn't already have the four commodities commendations? There are dozens of voyages, gameplay mechanics, tall tales, enemies and activities in this game (and even WHOLE damn trading companies) that players who already have all the corresponding commendations for will never ever do again due to their specific playstyles or tastes. There's nothing wrong with that and expecting these four comms (or the new way to unlock them) to be any different is unrealistic.

Non-PvP players will never touch hourglass again after loss-farming or getting carried to their curses. When is the last time you think the average veteran crew that is 99% completed with the game voted up and did, just for fun, a Gold Hoarder treasure vault? Or grabbed a voyage off the voyage board or posted one? Did a siren shine that didn't have a Breath of the Sea voyage attached to it? How about a non-world event Ghost Fleet for the Order? Found a Manifest from a Lost Shipment for the Merchants? Smugger Runs...? When's the last time you went and delivered snakes, chickens or pigs because you enjoyed the activity enough to choose it...?

I mean, I do all these old voyages and activities pretty regularly because my role in my SoT Discord is "old guy who has seen it and done it and rides shotgun to help new players". I don't get anything out of it personally except being able to introduce more new people to a game I've loved for years the same way an old friend once did for me when I didn't know my blunderbuss from a hole in the ground. But not everyone is content to do that and that's okay, too.

Next they gonna fix:
GH vault maps. Only 1 island will have all pages and each vault will be gold.

OoS phantom ships will be one round and sink with 1 cannon shot.

MA shipment voyage and remove the key from being found, but have it on the sunken ship.

Just saying.
They keep nerfing and “fixing” because players don’t wanna play there game anymore. Finish everything and quit.
What after all this? Reapers can’t see emissaries anymore because players hate being hunted.

Fixes are fine but they seem to do them wrong and make them faster to complete. Making those who did finish them, feel silly for all the time out in to it. Makes one not finish anything new knowing they just nerf the requirements.

@themetalman4011 said

Like when you had to steal a Banished Skull, as a skeleton, with the Reaper's Emissary flag. They have since then removed the 'steal' requirement from that commendation but, I am sure you know what I mean.

Ummmmm this commedation has NEVER been changed. The requirements are still "steal" a banished skull..... if you finished the commedation then your commedation no longer states "steal" but a person still doing it still has to steal it from another crew and turn it in while running reaper emissary and your skelly curse.

@lem0n-curry said in Well it's about time.:

Hello ....

This was totally the wrong way by Rare of adressing the issue of the scarcity of encountering the merchant delivery voyages in bottles.
They should have addressed the scarcity a lot earlier, around a month after they realised that removing voyages in barrels (on the outpost mostly) also had impact on these voyages and thus the commendations.

Sure, it was RNG, but that was what made them different from other quests; the RNG wasn't that bad even - plenty of times I found one or more on the starting outpost and then more at the outpost (close by even) the delivery was at. Even if you had finished the commendations, it was a nice way of getting a supply crate to quickly grab supplies before the buying storage crates became a thing.

I am mostly, addressing the changes to make it a quest in a bottle where, I believe you have a 1%(?) change to get the merchant quest you wanted? Which was annoying, and very tedious.
They should have addressed it much sooner I agree, but we again have the issue where a crew might have limited time to complete quests and perhaps you are the only person on the crew who wants to complete the delivery? Certainly have been the case with some commendations in the past...

You say "They should come from playing the game naturally, trickle in over time", they did that in the earlier days, now you just find the outpost's Merchant that has 10 of them, load them up and deliver them at the closest outpost and repeat until your commendation pops up and never look at these commodities again.

I can see where you are coming from with this, as some stuff are in surplus, but not always?
I logged in and found that gunpowder was not in surplus anywhere (repair materials were tho), so if I want my last 18 gunpowder, I either gotta wait a week, or sail around like like 4 times to get my commendation (which I have worked on for three years) done.
The difference is that now, the choice is in my hands, how I spend my time to do this commendation. I think that is good.

Youd didn't need to actually do the voyages; crews could just vote on a voyage and sail around doing World Events, chasing other crews, fish or whatever they wanted (except another voyage obviously).

This is true, a lot of crews I play with does this, but like you said, if you sink someone with a voted quest and no loot, you get Zilch, but if they have a flag and you sink them... they have a flag!
Kinda makes sense in hindsight, that you get miles for sailing the quest's loot back to the outpost.
The real question is what happens when you have one flag and one quest from different factions... double miles?

@thegrimpreacher said in Well it's about time.:

@lem0n-curry said in Well it's about time.:

They should have addressed the scarcity a lot earlier, around a month after they realised that removing voyages in barrels (on the outpost mostly) also had impact on these voyages and thus the commendations.

This, I do wholeheartedly agree with; it should've been addressed almost immediately after the voyage system was overhauled. Many of us even mentioned exactly this issue when it was pointed out that "tattered parchment" voyages were removed in season 11 because it was essentially the only way to get them with any type of frequency.

Strong agree here. This took way too long.

@elmo6842 said in Well it's about time.:

@themetalman4011 said

Like when you had to steal a Banished Skull, as a skeleton, with the Reaper's Emissary flag. They have since then removed the 'steal' requirement from that commendation but, I am sure you know what I mean.

Ummmmm this commedation has NEVER been changed. The requirements are still "steal" a banished skull..... if you finished the commedation then your commedation no longer states "steal" but a person still doing it still has to steal it from another crew and turn it in while running reaper emissary and your skelly curse.

Huh... I did not realize that. Thanks for the info.

@themetalman4011 said in Well it's about time.:

@lem0n-curry said in Well it's about time.:

Hello ....

This was totally the wrong way by Rare of adressing the issue of the scarcity of encountering the merchant delivery voyages in bottles.
They should have addressed the scarcity a lot earlier, around a month after they realised that removing voyages in barrels (on the outpost mostly) also had impact on these voyages and thus the commendations.

Sure, it was RNG, but that was what made them different from other quests; the RNG wasn't that bad even - plenty of times I found one or more on the starting outpost and then more at the outpost (close by even) the delivery was at. Even if you had finished the commendations, it was a nice way of getting a supply crate to quickly grab supplies before the buying storage crates became a thing.

I am mostly, addressing the changes to make it a quest in a bottle where, I believe you have a 1%(?) change to get the merchant quest you wanted? Which was annoying, and very tedious.
They should have addressed it much sooner I agree, but we again have the issue where a crew might have limited time to complete quests and perhaps you are the only person on the crew who wants to complete the delivery? Certainly have been the case with some commendations in the past...

I agree, after they changed the voyage system, removing the parchments and adding several voyages to the bottles it became a very tedious affair to get them - that should have been addressed.

Limited time to do these voyages ? As soon as you'd be able to pick them up more frequently they are the easiest voyages to be done: the delivery outpost was mostly one nearby and a place where you'd go when turning in loot anyway and 9-out-of-10 times the outpost had ample supplies to fill the crate if you hadn't enough supplies in your barrels (and with the opportunity to buy crates you could get the delivery crate, buy one and fill it with that content if you're really short on time and/or supplies).

So from (the last few years badly) RNG, a (most of the time generous) time limit, a specific outpost to deliver and some finding the 50 planks, balls or (bad) fruit in barrels, it went to: vote merchant alliance, get 10 crates and deliver them to a random outpost.
With keg delivery they even removed the danger of transporting the kegs, though if you were smart you picked up the kegs from the closest fort when there are no other ships around...
Nothing what made the original voyage different from others is left when going for the commendation.

You bring up being the only person in a crew to want to do these, now they'll have to vote merchant ... as long as the delivery Outpost is not out of the way I doubt many people had an issue with you turning in a thousand+ worth of Merchant gold and rep - just don't put the good fruit in there 😉.

You say "They should come from playing the game naturally, trickle in over time", they did that in the earlier days, now you just find the outpost's Merchant that has 10 of them, load them up and deliver them at the closest outpost and repeat until your commendation pops up and never look at these commodities again.

I can see where you are coming from with this, as some stuff are in surplus, but not always?
I logged in and found that gunpowder was not in surplus anywhere (repair materials were tho), so if I want my last 18 gunpowder, I either gotta wait a week, or sail around like like 4 times to get my commendation (which I have worked on for three years) done.
The difference is that now, the choice is in my hands, how I spend my time to do this commendation. I think that is good.

It's in your hands ... for the two times 15 minutes next week it takes to vote merchant buy the commodities, harpoon them on board and sail to the next outpost.
After that it's just a checkmark and I doubt any sense of accomplishment but a disapointment that you've spend time before looking for those voyages (which, again, should have been addressed way, way earlier by Rare).

Don't get me wrong, if you were able with the bad RNG to deliver 32 kegs, you should have been able to finish the commendation much sooner (blaming Rare, not your persistancy !).

Youd didn't need to actually do the voyages; crews could just vote on a voyage and sail around doing World Events, chasing other crews, fish or whatever they wanted (except another voyage obviously).

This is true, a lot of crews I play with does this, but like you said, if you sink someone with a voted quest and no loot, you get Zilch, but if they have a flag and you sink them... they have a flag!
Kinda makes sense in hindsight, that you get miles for sailing the quest's loot back to the outpost.
The real question is what happens when you have one flag and one quest from different factions... double miles?

When I tested it in Insiders, yes it's double miles... I doubt they changed that.

@thegrimpreacher said in Well it's about time.:

@lem0n-curry said in Well it's about time.:

This was totally the wrong way by Rare of adressing the issue of the scarcity of encountering the merchant delivery voyages in bottles.

Hard disagree. I think it was a creative way of addressing a long-standing issue that also breathed a bit of a spark of new life into another Merchant mechanic that hasn't seen much use since they nerfed the rep you used to get from commodities runs (that used to be the best way to level up the faction).

That spark will be gone as soon as people have completed the commendations; now they've spend time adding three commodities, adjusting the system so three commodities are rotated out each week (guess they took a pointer from the stock in the Emporium ...)

It will be quicker to finish than the changed Burning Blade commendation though.

Commodities IMHO suffer mostly from clicking 45 times to buy all of them from one merchant (and then not even getting them all).

They should have addressed the scarcity a lot earlier, around a month after they realised that removing voyages in barrels (on the outpost mostly) also had impact on these voyages and thus the commendations.

This, I do wholeheartedly agree with; it should've been addressed almost immediately after the voyage system was overhauled. Many of us even mentioned exactly this issue when it was pointed out that "tattered parchment" voyages were removed in season 11 because it was essentially the only way to get them with any type of frequency.

The topics on this in the forum mostly requesting to add a voteable voyage for the crates and kegs had several ways to address this: the voyage as reward for reaching Emissary grade 5 (instead of the nerfed delivery you get now); as they added the chance of multiple voyages per bottle, just add a chance to have one more but one of the crates/kegs ones to name just two.
I argued against the voteable voyage, but even that was a better solution than what they concocted with the commodities.

now you just find the outpost's Merchant that has 10 of them, load them up and deliver them at the closest outpost and repeat until your commendation pops up and never look at these commodities again.

How is this different in any way to the seven already existing commodities that are equally dusty and untouched for anyone that doesn't already have the four commodities commendations?

Above examples would, I think, taken less time to develop and kept some of the original properties of the difficulty and originality of the voyages/commendations.

There are dozens of voyages, gameplay mechanics, tall tales, enemies and activities in this game (and even WHOLE damn trading companies) that players who already have all the corresponding commendations for will never ever do again due to their specific playstyles or tastes. There's nothing wrong with that and expecting these four comms (or the new way to unlock them) to be any different is unrealistic.

What doesn't help for people who do like(d) them and did them is them becoming more of the same and getting rid of the unexpectedness. I prefered the old voyages where you'd get multiple islands with a different array of loot. Decide which one to do (skipping Old Faithful obviously), set a relative efficiently course - which would go awry as soon as you saw another ship close to a target island &c.
Now, shall we dig up tow or three chests on a near island ...

TBH, we only use them for the diving now or if we need a bit of rep to get to a higher Emissary grade and are close to the end of a session.

Non-PvP players will never touch hourglass again after loss-farming or getting carried to their curses. When is the last time you think the average veteran crew that is 99% completed with the game voted up and did, just for fun, a Gold Hoarder treasure vault? Or grabbed a voyage off the voyage board or posted one? Did a siren shine that didn't have a Breath of the Sea voyage attached to it? How about a non-world event Ghost Fleet for the Order? Found a Manifest from a Lost Shipment for the Merchants? Smugger Runs...? When's the last time you went and delivered snakes, chickens or pigs because you enjoyed the activity enough to choose it...?

I used to do the animal voyages when I set sail solo ... pick up the crates, find out which islands to visit preferably close to the target Outpost so you didn't have to feed the pigs too many times.
Now, you're only get animals from one island and you're certain of the colours (and I don't think the pigs have a need for a banana anymore on the way to the outpost) - they took the fun out of them.
Sure, I can pick up the cages and try to find the animals on other islands ...

I get why they did it: people want to play shorter sessions and still accomplish things and they want to have a certain equivalent reward for time spend, but IMHO there was no need to take out the old stuff.

I mean, I do all these old voyages and activities pretty regularly because my role in my SoT Discord is "old guy who has seen it and done it and rides shotgun to help new players". I don't get anything out of it personally except being able to introduce more new people to a game I've loved for years the same way an old friend once did for me when I didn't know my blunderbuss from a hole in the ground. But not everyone is content to do that and that's okay, too.

/me applauds

Not sure if its working correctly.

I triggered a commendation Cast Iron Merchant - cannonballs - from selling a crate I just picked up from island flotsam rather than picking up the new commodity crate from the merchant.

@tristan8674 said in Well it's about time.:

Hello :) I have a comment.

The thing is people ask for RARE to fix and nerf things because it's "too difficult" or "too easy", while it's just their skill level. Also, when they do fix it, the same people complain.

This is what I was just telling a friend the other day. One of the complaints that I've read is that there's a large gap in experience between new/causals and veterans. When they make the game easier, it's only making that separation wider. For example, when the Burning Blade came out, my friends and I grinded those comms for a solid two weeks. Every single time we had to fight off ships to Captain it, and then fight multiple ships working together to try and sink us (we never sunk!), and they'd come back again ("3 sinks and they leave" didn't exist then). Ships would stalk us, waiting for that 3rd ritual, and keep attacking until our 8th. Personally it was chaotic PvP fun for us, we gained a ton of awesome experience, and a few friends learned how to complete those camps fast. Then you had to make sure you got to level 500 in hourglass to get the obsidian curse.

I don't know what happened to make them decide to make it easier now, but in doing so, it creates a greater gap with those who had to fight 10 times, compared to now with just one. Now you have players asking for some mechanic that alerts you when another ship is nearby, or to please move the whole game into Safer Seas.

@europa4033 said in Well it's about time.:

I don't know what happened to make them decide to make it easier now, but in doing so, it creates a greater gap with those who had to fight 10 times, compared to now with just one. Now you have players asking for some mechanic that alerts you when another ship is nearby, or to please move the whole game into Safer Seas.

Just a guess but I assume it has to do with the fact that Burning Blades are much more rare now. And if you can't find 4 over the course on a month or two when you want to do them, its harder to justify it 10 times.
I feel changing it to one is a bit overkill, but I dunno how many Burning Blades are around nowadays.

@d3adst1ck said in Well it's about time.:

@pc-monkfish said in Well it's about time.:

Not sure if its working correctly.

I triggered a commendation Cast Iron Merchant - cannonballs - from selling a crate I just picked up from island flotsam rather than picking up the new commodity crate from the merchant.

I'm pretty sure they missed something when they added the crates and changed how they are tracked. Apparently the kegs found all over forts also count, so these comms are even easier to do than planned unless they want random turn ins to count.

Totally something went wrong with the code, classic Rare.

@d3adst1ck said in Well it's about time.:

@pc-monkfish said in Well it's about time.:

Not sure if its working correctly.

I triggered a commendation Cast Iron Merchant - cannonballs - from selling a crate I just picked up from island flotsam rather than picking up the new commodity crate from the merchant.

I'm pretty sure they missed something when they added the crates and changed how they are tracked. Apparently the kegs found all over forts also count, so these comms are even easier to do than planned unless they want random turn ins to count.

Also works with fruit crates. I imagine wood crates will be the same.

I won't go out of my way to collect 'em but will sell any I find.

@themetalman4011 said in Well it's about time.:

@europa4033 said in Well it's about time.:

I don't know what happened to make them decide to make it easier now, but in doing so, it creates a greater gap with those who had to fight 10 times, compared to now with just one. Now you have players asking for some mechanic that alerts you when another ship is nearby, or to please move the whole game into Safer Seas.

Just a guess but I assume it has to do with the fact that Burning Blades are much more rare now. And if you can't find 4 over the course on a month or two when you want to do them, its harder to justify it 10 times.
I feel changing it to one is a bit overkill, but I dunno how many Burning Blades are around nowadays.

All Rare has to do is increase the spawn rate, unless they're keeping it rare to encourage PvP?

@europa4033 said in Well it's about time.:

@themetalman4011 said in Well it's about time.:

@europa4033 said in Well it's about time.:

I don't know what happened to make them decide to make it easier now, but in doing so, it creates a greater gap with those who had to fight 10 times, compared to now with just one. Now you have players asking for some mechanic that alerts you when another ship is nearby, or to please move the whole game into Safer Seas.

Just a guess but I assume it has to do with the fact that Burning Blades are much more rare now. And if you can't find 4 over the course on a month or two when you want to do them, its harder to justify it 10 times.
I feel changing it to one is a bit overkill, but I dunno how many Burning Blades are around nowadays.

All Rare has to do is increase the spawn rate, unless they're keeping it rare to encourage PvP?

But that caused issues with server stability

@themetalman4011 said in Well it's about time.:

@europa4033 said in Well it's about time.:

@themetalman4011 said in Well it's about time.:

@europa4033 said in Well it's about time.:

I don't know what happened to make them decide to make it easier now, but in doing so, it creates a greater gap with those who had to fight 10 times, compared to now with just one. Now you have players asking for some mechanic that alerts you when another ship is nearby, or to please move the whole game into Safer Seas.

Just a guess but I assume it has to do with the fact that Burning Blades are much more rare now. And if you can't find 4 over the course on a month or two when you want to do them, its harder to justify it 10 times.
I feel changing it to one is a bit overkill, but I dunno how many Burning Blades are around nowadays.

All Rare has to do is increase the spawn rate, unless they're keeping it rare to encourage PvP?

But that caused issues with server stability

Everything in this game is causing issues with server stability LOL. Like, I'm surprised they haven't removed the pointless mechanic of trinkets and paintings on your ship that need constant readjusting all the time. Does this have to be a thing in-game? Heck in the past, just looking at Port Merrick made my FPS scream for some reason (haven't tried it recently). Helping a new player with cannon accuracy on Safer Seas, and my ping jumps up to over 500, then up to 1100 out of nowhere, just us on the server with a skull fort. So, not too sure about blaming the BB for server instability.