The New Monster.. now THATS how you do sea monsters Rare..

  • Uber Knight72
    Marauder
    Founder

    If you guys have challenging, exciting experiences like that hiding up your sleeves then what was stopping you from doing the same with the Kraken? I entered that fight expecting another passive shooting gallery just like with the Kraken, then came out having died 3 times, lost 2 ally sloops, and almost losing our galleon along with the other galleon who was sailing with us and had an absolute BLAST.

    Old Karen needs a serious makeover now that there is actually a monster out in the seas worth being afraid of. After that experience there is no way I can enjoy another Kraken encounter with the Megalodon swimming about.

  • Login To Reply
    14
    Posts
    17.6k
    Views
  • Biter Wylie
    Seafarer

    Freaking awesome 😎

  • StubbierBell598

    Idk... i was hoping what we got was a smaller version of something to come. I expected more..

  • WilliamHerschel
    Castaway
    Insider
    Founder

    @uber-knight72

    Can you elaborate? How is Meg any different from the Kraken. She is a bullet sponge, and she basically has a loop of scripted behavior that she sticks too. Your first encounter with her may have been challenging, but do you think it will continue to be challenging/interesting on the 2nd or 3rd run?

    Just trying to get a better sense of what your thoughts are on this fight. I'm genuinely curious.

  • Kashaarafall

    @williamherschel After just watching the entire 13 minute video someone posted of the attack on youtube a second ago, I can full heartingly agree to this "Scripted attack pattern." you speak of. The shark if you can call it that, personally I think it is a leviathan, but eh. Circles the ship like a shark would, but unlike a shark, it stays on the surface. This is done most likely with the intention on keeping the players informed on where to shoot, but it basically becomes a shooting gallery with an attack like every 30-45 seconds or so and when a giant shark bites your ship, I'd expect more than 3 small holes, just sayin. RARE doesn't make things complicated, but they didn't deliver with this sea boss imo.

  • BraxKedren
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    Isn't every boss fight in every game a scripted attack? It's not like they all change mechanics during raids or dungeon runs.

  • Kashaarafall

    @braxkedren When this particular boss only does circles and does a lunging attack that is probably the slowest approach since Lost Planet 2's worm attack on the train? Then I'd say there is room for criticism. They could of made it swipe with its tail to cause waves, you know, utilize that amazing water everyone speaks about, causing shots to miss. They could of made it ram from beneath the boat and s***k everyone who doesnt know where it is. What did they do instead? ()^ Now imagine that circle(Oval) is your ship and the ^ is the megalodon. Now make swirly motions and sometimes poke inwards, there you have the AI for this fight.

  • BraxKedren
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @kashaarafall said in The New Monster.. now THATS how you do sea monsters Rare..:

    @braxkedren When this particular boss only does circles and does a lunging attack that is probably the slowest approach since Lost Planet 2's worm attack on the train? Then I'd say there is room for criticism. They could of made it swipe with its tail to cause waves, you know, utilize that amazing water everyone speaks about, causing shots to miss. They could of made it ram from beneath the boat and s***k everyone who doesnt know where it is. What did they do instead? ()^ Now imagine that circle(Oval) is your ship and the ^ is the megalodon. Now make swirly motions and sometimes poke inwards, there you have the AI for this fight.

    I imagine that if some of those things were possible they would have been implemented. I'm just stating that OP is calling this boss fight a scripted event when, in fact, all boss fights in all games are. Lacking in script might have been a better terminology. Or possibly lacking in phases for difficulty. Maybe you shoot it to make it submerge to start phase 2 that makes you have to jump in water to fight below waves...

  • Monkeychow01
    Captain
    Insider

    Wish I had been streaming, because when Meg came full force at the ship, jumped at it, and I came face first with her mouth and died, it was spectacular.....I was not expecting that.

  • Kashaarafall

    @braxkedren After seeing what the UE4 engine can do on multiple games/levels, then I'd say it is indeed possible, but wasn't done because it requires more manpower and thus more money to do it. A different phase would go a long way for both this and kraken, but when you encounter a sea monster, you're not suppose to feel as if it is a slog to get through. You're suppose to feel terrified that your ship is going to sink to this beast.

  • WilliamHerschel
    Castaway
    Insider
    Founder

    @braxkedren

    In the most literal sense, scripted probably isn't the best word choice. It's a game, everything behaves as a result of these algorithms. However, when I use the word scripted, I'm trying to be a little more loose with it. I guess what I mean is predictable.

    Good AI has multiple branching paths based on how the player interacts with the AI threat, and how the AI threat interacts with it's surrounding environment. When AI has a lot of branching paths, it becomes much less predictable. Which creates the illusion that the AI is making intelligent choices (not unlike a human player would).

    The problem with SoT is that the AI simply lacks complexity in how it behaves with the rest of the sandbox. I truly believe that SoT is supposed to be a sandbox, but the AI does not contribute to the emergent gameplay that all good sandbox games should have. Instead AI threats in this game are static threats that feel easily exploitable. The only really emergent gameplay that comes out of interacting with AI in SoT is the chance that a human player may roll up on you while you are occupied with one of these threats.

  • GareeeT
    Marauder

    I figure the first few times will be a thrill... and then it will become commonplace until we have an unpleasant encounter.... when we have a ship load full of chests to defend, and something to actually loose if we don't win.

    Then it'll be a thrill to have to win or really loose something of value.

    It might be nice though if you've already gotten the content unlocked to be able to turn in a special skull or something to the merchant for a hefty bounty. Maybe they'll add that after the event is done?

  • Uber Knight72
    Marauder
    Founder

    It's much better than the Kraken, thats what I meant by it. The fact I DIED 3 times, lost an ally ship and came close to losing our a couple times is a significant improvement for the first encounter. How many of you can say the same about your first kraken encounter?

    It's going to be scripted, it's going to be predictable. But what it isn't is a passive shooting Gallery. Yes, it's still a shooting gallery, but an active and potentially lethal shooting gallery where you can get flung off the ship and/or chomped in half, and losing your boat (twice..). It's not super complex, but it's exactly what I was expecting a giant shark to be. A circling bullet sponge that resorts to ship ramming with it's jaws to do damage that can eat a solo crew for breakfest.

    After the experience I just had and the carnage ive just seen i would legitimately be terrified if i ran into this bro wiht only one galleon/sloop with a full cargo hold 5 clicks from the nearest outpost without a full hull of resources. You can't even run from it since it can just follow you and nip your ***

    There is definitely room for criticism, but that wasn't what I made this post about. My point is that it's much better than the kraken, and for that I thank Rare for actually cranking up the difficulty and making an engaging battle.

  • Johnny Vain
    Marauder

    Its scarier when your ship has loot and your crews game keeps crashing....meg must have a game crash mechanic...to make you panic to get back in haha

Login To Reply
14
Posts
17.6k
Views
1 out of 14