Stop forcing us to do mercenary voyages.

@zanorax you domt have to get all the cosmetics, nothing makes you do so. If you dont like the merc voyages dont do them...

Ahoy @zanorax!

Sorry to hear that you aren't enjoying the Reaper's Runs. I can understand that you could feel forced to do the Mercenary voyages if you really want the sails, but if you don't enjoy it I don't think you should do them. Like you said, Sea of Thieves is meant to be played the way you want. Not wanting to do Mercenary voyages is perfectly alright.

The Reaper's Runs aren't that different from other voyages if the goal is to unlock something at the end, like a title or cosmetics. If you really like the Hoarder of Treasured Tears title, you are - in a way - forced to get your hands on a lot of Chests of Sorrow to make it. There's no other way to do it. Same with Mercenary voyages. If you want those black sails, you need to hoist the Reaper's Mark and get in there.

I personally enjoy the Reaper's Runs because they are PvP voyages. My most intense battles recently have been fought during Mercenary voyages.

One last note regarding Arena and what you refer to as forced PvP. My take on this is that Mercenary voyages are a form of placeholder for the Arena, or a miniature version of the Arena if you will. It's a taste of what is to come. Lastly, I'm confident that Rare is cooking up new Bilge Rat Adventures for us after Arena is released.

Cheers!

The Mercenary voyages are horrible when are we going to get regular bilge rat adventures back?

@zanorax
After April 30
Merc quest to keep us busy before it :)

Just wish they werent stacking gold hoarders rep.

Be good if the merc voyages split the rep accross the factions in some way.

@gianni001 they probably will we just need to wait a bit till next event comes who knows it might be different

I agree that there definitely needs to be a new bilge rat event, the concept of mercenary voyages is hardly more different than the standard gold hoarders voyages, just better chests. (which I don't need anyway).

When i heard the name "bilge rats" I imagined wow a new method of playing this game, could it be it is a sort of thief faction? where you actually have to steal not just chase around for 1000 buried chests
but to my surprise it was the same thing except your final reward is dubloons

Personally i liked it when we had to do the thrones which had nothing to do with digging
and the first Megalodon mission where crews actually had to work together to summon it, one time doing that Meg mission i saw all 6 ships sailing together side by side (this is extremely rare) after defeating it and then celebrating at the island we had to return for our reward which was NOT gold.

@eva1977 I still regret not playing during the hungering deep or getting the bone crusher outfit...

@zanorax

1: I thought the point of the bilge rats was to give us something different to do? Mercenaries just give us more voyages. we're doing exactly the same as we have always been doing except now we pay precious and limited dubloons for them.

Everyone of them gives a reward of doubloons the first time completing them, so they are at least worth doing once.

The dubloon cost/profit is horrible if you are a solo player and the cost of the voyages plus the cosmetics for solo players ends up being more than they earned doing it. which is bad when you won't give us any bilge rat adventures soon we will waste time doing the mercenaries and not be able to afford the cosmetics anyway and the cosmetics are the ONLY reason most people would bother doing them.

Then don't do them solo? No one but you is forcing yourself to solo a ship. Plenty of resources out there you refuse to take advantage of to find willing crew members.

Bilge rats were updated to give dubloons outside of their initial two weeks of release so we wouldn't feel forced to do them and can just do them when we feel like it and we could buy the cosmetics when they appeared if we had the dubloons. Now we are once again force to do a "PVP" voyage FIVE TIMES going to the same three islands just to get access to the time limited cosmetics. So we are FORCED to do the voyages within the two weeks. If there are going to be mercenary voyages don't lock limited time cosmetics behined them.

No one is forcing you to do anything, since the beginning all the other events have been mostly PvE. Why is such a problem that the PvP crowd gets some event scraps thrown at them? I didn't want to do the Devil's Roar Event cosmetics, because it didn't sound fun. Guess who doesn't have the Devils Roar skins?

The reaper's run voyages are not PVP voyages. more often than not it's just an alliance of galleons and brigs camping the final island not even taking the treasure of those they sink their sole purpose is to ruin other peoples voyage and try get them to quit wasting their dubloons. I personally don't care about my treasure I just want the cosmetics so I just jump ship as I sail passed and dig the treasures while the campers chase my ship then I respawn. It's more encouraging toxic play than it is PVP

These people have existed in some form of another for nearly every event out there. At some point Merrick was being camped, the thrones guarded, and the skeleton ships patrolled. This isn't unique to Merc Voyages, so your argument doesn't really hold here.

The game is supposed to be about doing what we want if we want pvp we will do pvp but not everyone wants it yet it's forced on them with the reaper's run if they want the cosmetics

And not everyone wants to do PvE content, but here we are. This game is more then just you, other people play this game that see other features as more fun. Nearly every other event has catered to the PvE crowd. Is it only ok if Rare caters to your enjoyment and no one else?

why bother adding an arena mode if we already have forced pvp in the base game?

You purchased a game with open world PvP, you forced yourself, no one else did.

@nabberwar A lot of people here say a lot but at t he same time say nothing, can't imagine RARE taking this stance reason why the game is constantly modified to see what works best.

Agree with everything you said 100%. Would also like to add that I did way extra of the commendations at the beginning when they first started the bilge rat adventures to stock up on doubloons in case there ever was an adventure I didn't want to do but still wanted to purchase the cosmetics. Somewhere along the way they made the change so you had to do the event to even unlock the option to buy the cosmetics, thus forcing the playerbase to do the adventure if they wanted the cosmetics. Not giving us the choices in how we play the game and funneling us to the thing you want us to do is not a great model for a sandbox game. If the next adventure is a mercenary voyage (you know its gonna be), it will probably be the first one I don't complete as the feeling of being told how to play is out-weighing the want for the cosmetic items.

@dirty469
imagine the concept of 'earning' something. People these days expect everything to be easy and given to them. The cosmetics are earned. you are given the dubloons to buy them when you earn the right to buy them. IE do the pvp orientated missions and earn the right to hoist a REAPERS run sail.

@freaktmonline lol "earning". Yea it really feels fulfilling pinging 24 chests on islands surrounded by players all trying desperately to swim to your circling ship while their crewmates miss cannon shots just to get some sails.

@racmop "don't lose nothing". Now that I see you are an intellectual I shall try to explain what you lose so the rest of us can understand with you. The sails... you lose the sails. Wow way easier than I thought.

@zanorax I was with you until 5 and 6. It's not forced... Unlike with the ACTUALLY forced co-op from things like skeleton thrones, you don't have to PvP.

If the next adventure could have something to do with chickens instead of chest... I still need to deliver 200+ critters. I know, I know..... ugggg :)

@racmop It's very clear you have no idea what you are talking about. Cosmetics, in a game which the only reward is cosmetics, absolutely mean something. There is a reason the older stuff and unobtainable sets get lots of attention, not to mention the codes that go for hundreds of dollars on ebay. You might not think they hold value to you, but you are completely wrong on them not having value.... "bro".

@dirty469 said in Stop forcing us to do mercenary voyages.:

@freaktmonline lol "earning". Yea it really feels fulfilling pinging 24 chests on islands surrounded by players all trying desperately to swim to your circling ship while their crewmates miss cannon shots just to get some sails.

@racmop "don't lose nothing". Now that I see you are an intellectual I shall try to explain what you lose so the rest of us can understand with you. The sails... you lose the sails. Wow way easier than I thought.

@racmop It's very clear you have no idea what you are talking about. Cosmetics, in a game which the only reward is cosmetics, absolutely mean something. There is a reason the older stuff and unobtainable sets get lots of attention, not to mention the codes that go for hundreds of dollars on ebay. You might not think they hold value to you, but you are completely wrong on them not having value.... "bro".

Sorry, I obviously am not as much of an intellectual as your are, so forgive my confusion, are they just "some sails" or are they valuable?

If they are valuable, should you not feel fulfilled to obtain them after finishing a voyage despite the challenge of other players?

Nobody is forced to do anything. People can be encouraged, enticed, or motivated to do something with the promise of a reward, but nobody is twisting your arm for you to do those voyages.

If you want the shiny thing, do the voyage. If it's too much of a bother, don't. Don't whine if you don't get the thing because you don't want to do the thing.

@bloodybil White Knight to the rescue! This is a feedback forum, I came here to give the feedback that I do not like the current content, I don't like that its the only bilge rat adventure we will have for 2 months, I dislike that I am being told if I want theses sails I have to test their Arena for them in the open world. I also dislike being told I should just not do the event if I don't like it, even if I like the cosmetics by people who don't have a clue of what they speak. Please move along.

Surely the Shipwreck Reaper sails are no different than a lot of the cosmetics in the game, excluding the fact that they are time-limited. If I want the Legendary wheel, capstan and cannons, I'm going to have to finish a lot of Athena's Fortune voyages and sink a lot of skeleton ships. In that regard, acquisition of the the black sails follow the same paradigm we've had for a long time in Sea of Thieves, starting with The Hungering Deep during the summer last year.

Some cosmetics should be harder to earn than others. I consider that a big part of the fun.

Thanks for reading!

You are not forced to do them. They are though highly repetitive, mindless recycled year old content that lacks creativity while it cheapens and devalues the overall game and the truly intended experience the game was supposed to have.

No one is forcing you...

@zanorax said in Stop forcing us to do mercenary voyages.:

The Mercenary voyages are horrible when are we going to get regular bilge rat adventures back? I've got a list of reasons why they are terrible especially the reapers run.

I like them, if you don't, don't do them? Pretty simple matey

1: I thought the point of the bilge rats was to give us something different to do? Mercenaries just give us more voyages. we're doing exactly the same as we have always been doing except now we pay precious and limited dubloons for them.

2: The dubloon cost/profit is horrible if you are a solo player and the cost of the voyages plus the cosmetics for solo players ends up being more than they earned doing it. which is bad when you won't give us any bilge rat adventures soon we will waste time doing the mercenaries and not be able to afford the cosmetics anyway and the cosmetics are the ONLY reason most people would bother doing them.

I have more doubloons than I did when I started going them

4: The reaper's run voyages are not PVP voyages. more often than not it's just an alliance of galleons and brigs camping the final island not even taking the treasure of those they sink their sole purpose is to ruin other peoples voyage and try get them to quit wasting their dubloons. I personally don't care about my treasure I just want the cosmetics so I just jump ship as I sail passed and dig the treasures while the campers chase my ship then I respawn. It's more encouraging toxic play than it is PVP

I have done the voyage about 20 times between the 2, I hardly been PVPed, and I want people to attack me, sounds like I need to hop on your ship. Did another for a friend yesterday, took us 40 min, that's with chest collecting.
Maybe you're just unlucky.

5: The game is supposed to be about doing what we want if we want pvp we will do pvp but not everyone wants it yet it's forced on them with the reaper's run if they want the cosmetics

PVP happens with or without the reapers run matey. It's a PVPVE game, you're playing a pirate game. If you don't like getting attacked I would chose a different game.

6: why bother adding an arena mode if we already have forced pvp in the base game?

You're not forced to do PVP in this game, there are countless stories of serverwide alliances, I have even heard of them doing the reapers run. Since you despise PVP so much you should be happy to see a lot of blood thirsty pirates will be out doing arena leaving you alone to stand around playing shanty's on a sunset beach.

While I don’t agree that the mercenary voyage are “horrible.” I do agree that paying the 5 dabloons as a solo player can dampen the experience

@zanorax Agreed!

@dirty469 said in Stop forcing us to do mercenary voyages.:

@bloodybil White Knight to the rescue! This is a feedback forum, I came here to give the feedback that I do not like the current content, I don't like that its the only bilge rat adventure we will have for 2 months, I dislike that I am being told if I want theses sails I have to test their Arena for them in the open world. I also dislike being told I should just not do the event if I don't like it, even if I like the cosmetics by people who don't have a clue of what they speak. Please move along.

Oh you are very well entitled to your opinion and are most welcome to give feedback. However, if you don't like being told what is pretty much common sense, it's not really my problem.

You want a cosmetic but don't like the requirement, that's fair. I personally like the PVP aspect but also agree that the concept is getting repetitive. Nobody is holding a gun to your head though, you have the choice to pass on it or do the event if you want the sails that bad.

It's unfortunate that you don't like the requirement but we can't love every single event, I didn't like having to do alliances to get certain commendations and cosmetics in the past, yet I stepped outside my comfort zone, pinched my nose and got it done, because I wanted the thing.

What is going to be next, will you say you are forced to do arena to get Seadogs cosmetics? You are forced to kill skeleton ships to get the legendary canons?

I don't mind the mercenary voyages the first time. Second time its lost its charm a little bit. I do hope they create something else next to hold us over until Arena however.

Better to have variety in questing after all. :)

@dirty469 You don't have to get the cosmetics though. It is up to your player choice. They need to come out with more voyages and different types I can agree to that instead of just using these Reaper voyages. Getting to be a bit like hitting a dead horse with a dead horse doing those, but you don't have to do them. If you don't like the content, don't do it. Even if whatever cosmetic there is looks cool. There will be others in the game later. I didn't do several of these "events" because I thought the content and what you had to do was really stupid.

And if anything will tell Rare that these things are stupid, it will be when a big swathe of players just decide to not do it, even if the cosmetic item is nice looking, if the way to the item is dumb and not fun. Just don't do it. They will see that a vast majority of people just didn't do it.

@veden-wolfheart said in Stop forcing us to do mercenary voyages.:

I don't mind the mercenary voyages the first time. Second time its lost its charm a little bit. I do hope they create something else next to hold us over until Arena however.

Better to have variety in questing after all. :)

This. I'd prefer to have something new as a bilgerat adventure, but I'd rather the team gets fully commited to the anniversary update, even if it means they have to recycle a bit of content until then.

Please stop with the drama though, don't act like Joe Neate in person is holding your daughter hostage in a basement somewhere until you finish this mercenary voyage.

Don't get me wrong, you entirely have the right to not like this voyage, but nobody is coercing you into doing it.

@zanorax

My philosophy on the Mercenary Voyages is a bit different...

So overall, I have found that there isn't a lot of thought put into them. Which is understandable considering they're throwing all of their labor into the Anniversary Update. I get that. They don't really have time to put into Bilge Rats at the moment. But at the same time, bless their hearts, they just want us to have something to do in the meantime.

Mercenary Voyages in general are not great. If I want a piece of all trading companies I'll go and do an Athena. However, the Reaper's Run of Wanderer's Refuge was actually a really fun time for a couple of days. Then I don't know what happen. It died out I guess and it was just a voyage where you get 20 Captains Chests guaranteed.

I couldn't care less about someone camping the island. Sink them or move on to a different server. Whatever, I'd rather see the action than just going and quietly digging up chests.

They wanted to create the effect of having these high profit voyages out on the seas, with people out working on them and others out hunting the ones working on them. Which is awesome! I like that! And it would've been a great way to pass the time til April 30th, but it just isn't working out that way.

We've been over saturated with high profit voyages for nearly two months. Seeing 20 Captain's Chests has simply lost its effect. Nobody cares to do them once they have the cosmetics.

They've just given us too much of it at one time.

I feel that January or February would've been a great time to capitalize on the momentum from the Shrouded Spoils release. I'm sure they wanted to, but I suppose it just wasn't possible to get all of the Anniversary content out so quickly.

@bloodybil I couldn't have said it any better. At the end of the day, they're working on making the Arena amazing. That's what matters most to me. :)

@veden-wolfheart Not only the arena but from the trailer it seems like a whole lot more is coming our way, let's be patient :)

@BloodyBil @Chronodusk absolutely. It's something new to do and I'm into that for now while they work on this Anniversary update. I've actually enjoyed attempting each of the 5 times in a different way to add some variety.

@bloodybil ;)