Months ago, before closed crews, I joined into a galleon. I spawn standing on liar's backbone with a fresh ship. I invite my friend in and we start wondering where our third crew member is. Eventually the guy that was already in the game turns his mic on and tells a story about how he was fighting over a fort with a friend. His friend stashed the key and disconnected. He says he is on an island near the fort watching this other ship that was contesting them at the fort. My friend and I sail across the world to keelhaul and the three of us start searching for this key, not knowing exactly where it was hiding. The vault was still closed and treasure still visible through the floor so we know the other ship didn't take the treasure. Eventually the man that dropped joined back in and couldn't find the key where he had left it. One of them I believe found some info somewhere online that since he was the last one to touch the key, it disappeared when he dropped from the server.
So we forget about it and start running voyages. After a few hours a new fort appears. This one at Sharkfin camp. We ignore it for awhile only to have it disappear just as we decide to go after it. No big deal, back to voyages.
Hours later a third fort pops. We head down to crows nest fortress and fight off two other crews before escaping with the key. As the fort becomes just a shadow on the horizon with two ships parked next to it waiting for us to come back, I start to wonder if the treasure we left behind hours and hours ago is still waiting for someone to open the door. I already knew you could use a key on any door so it was just a matter of if the loot had despawned.
We sail back to keelhaul and sure enough, I can see the treasure looking up at me through the floor. So we pop open the vault and take off with loot we had already accepted we would never receive.
My first question after all that was, how long did those other two ships wait for us to come back to crows nest fortress? Just a mild curiosity but I ended up having more questions on just how forts work and I've yet to really figure it out.
We know those are currently and have always been the only three forts that become active. If we never opened keelhaul and left the treasure, would it have been skipped the next time it's supposed to become active? Forcing it to stay locked until either unlocked with a new key or when the server shuts down?
If you left the treasure in 2 forts, would it force the third fort to become active next time?
If not, could you have a fort with treasure still left in the vault become active again, spawning another set of loot along with the already existing set? Would it all disappear and be replaced by a new set?
Did the key really disappear just because he touched it last and dropped?
I've wondered these things but have never had the chance to test it out and it's made me more curious about just how forts, keys, and treasure are handled.
