I decided I would take on the solo Skeleton Thrones today, so I set out to conquer them all in one session! I finished all the solo thrones and decided that I would try for one of the Multi-Crew ones, just to see if I would get lucky... and boy, did I get lucky.
I decided to go for the throne located in the place I would most likely encounter players to help me. When I got there I saw a lone sloop by the island and thought 'great, this is it!', I got close to the ship, flashing my lantern to initiate friendly contact...
and it opened fire on me.
"F*@!I&G HELL!" I said as I quickly turned the ship around. The sloop landed three quick shots to my hull... they knew how to play. As I swing my ship round the island I manage to spot the throne up high on the cliff... I decide to lower the anchor...
My ship rapidly fills with water, but I realise, if I can make the shot to the throne and signal my intent... they may come around and help, at least for this one time, it was worth a shot.
'Forget the ship!' I thought to myself, I got down on deck and positioned the canon, climbed in... and I made the shot. I landed just shy of the cliff edge.
I ran up to the throne, got my lantern out and flashed it like crazy to signal to this player what I was doing. I could see my ship slowly lowering itself underwater. This was my only chance. I was turning off this bloomin' Xbox if this was going to be a violent end to my open attempt at co-operation...
To my surprise it was a PC Player, they asked me in that chat 'are you doing thrones?', 'Aye' I said back as I continued to flash the lantern.
'Sorry' they typed back.
They'd apologised for sinking my ship, weird... They then began to position their ship parallel to where I was on the island. They blasted themselves up to the throne and sat on it with me! Rejoice! Mission accomplished (for now).
The player's name was NOddie (to save time I'll just call him 'N'). N proceeded to ask me in the chat if I needed to do the other thrones, as best I could I tried to use Xbox chat to communicate with this person, saying 'Aye' over and over again.
N invited me onto his ship and said we would do them all together! Jackpot! Over the next 30-40m I am taken on a tour-de-thrones with N, we sail to each one, he fills me in on how difficult they are and what we have to do each time on the journey. I respond with varying amounts of 'Aye's and 'Ahoy's, followed by some rounds of shanties and spontaneous dancing.
We conquer all the multi-crew thrones and celebrate with a grog drink in the bows of the ship at the end of it all! Deblooms galore!
However, I couldn't help but think this all seemed a little odd, he knew where they all where and what to expect. It seemed weird... It was then that I stopped and noticed his player title. 'Master of Thrones'...
He'd done them all already. He'd taken me round to all the thrones out of his own generosity. I don't think he got any rewards whatsoever for doing them all again! I was quite taken a back by this realisation, never before have I ever experienced anything like that in gaming, ever. N then said he had to go to tend to his family, we said a final farewell and a 'see you on the seas!' over Xbox Messenger to end our time together. Wow.
NOddie, you are a true Pirate Legend, representing the finest of players in not just this community, but gaming. I hope the Devs (@Rare-Employee, @Founder, @Global-Moderators) see this post and give you a shout out or some appreciation, it's players like you that make this game work, and such a pleasurable experience for players like me.
To the people at Rare/The SoT Team, you have made a game where this stuff can happen. Just a huge congratulations from myself for doing that. It really works. Even though I'm not much of a commited gamer myself, I just felt the need to visit the forums (for the first time) to tell you about this experience.
To the SoT player reading this post, be nice to your fellow pirates out there! Some great stuff can happen if you give it some patience! (But don't let me steer you away from that great ship combat, that's pretty fun with you all too, avast!).
A Grog is raised to you all!
See you on the Seas!
The Official LJ.
