The Legend of the Veil is Incredible Great Job Rare!

  • Nitroxien
    Captain
    Insider

    I as we all do on the forums like to criticize Rare a lot, but I feel it only fair to offer positive feedback as well for Rare to know what we appreciate and enjoy!

    Before I go through all the greats I want to stick to forum tradition and give the three negatives. First this voyage entirely invalidates FoF and all previous athena voyages. It really was not worth doing Athena before this voyage and players who did got nothing to show for their work, this voyage really really lets you fly through the early levels is made apparent by the rather large leap in xp required comparing 19 to 20 and 20-21. Wish Rare either made the new voyage more in line or rewarded players who made the grind in the past.

    Second can still be fixed being server merges... Server merges and the new voyage do not go well together often causing a buggy mess that at times can ruin/cancel your voyage.

    Finally minor flaw the final battle on a gally drains supplies disproportionately compared to brigs and sloops did on all and definitely felt this. Gally just uses more sups and does not feel fair we get the same sups for doing it on a gally than a sloop or bring, should add storage crates to the final drop for gallys and drop 3 storage crates on each fort instead of 2 when a gally is doing the voyage.

    Alright and now the positives:

    The replayability of this voyage with different modules and how short overall the voyage is leads to incredible gameplay! I did the voyage 10 times yesterday and enjoyed it each time! Overall a lot of fun, extremely short and sweet compared to thieves have and regular athena voyages, and far more exciting! Overall had a great time playing the experience the voyages with my crew we were always excited for the final battle stellar experience there and the other modules are super short so are overall extremely enjoyable! Felt though we were getting disproportionately more shipwrecks, so may need to tweak the frequency of event there but still a great time!

    The PVP from this new voyage is also amazing! The massive vortex in the sky is an absolute blast and a great way to find other players! Had an amazing time also PVPing and countering other ships doing these new voyages! I love this high risk high reward style voyage especially considering how short it is does not feel nearly as bad if you do sink! Overall 10/10 on the massive vortexes appearing as a way to encourage PVP. I love it and has lead to some great fights! Best part is if they run you can just finish the voyage for them and take the Athena that way so you gotta stay and defend your voyage! Amazing experience made PVP exciting again especially that running is no longer an option on the table.

    Commendation locked cosmetics with longevity! These new commendations really give something for the more hardcore players to strive for with a lot of them taking a good amount of time to complete and with there being cosmetics locked behind them! This is by far my favorite part of this voyage! More of this please! Rather long commendation locked cosmetics is what keeps me excited to keep playing the game at times and makes sure I always I have something to do when I don't feel like just grinding gold/fooling around. Absolutely amazing job here Rare am going to do this voyage for a while to come!

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  • GrumpyW01f
    Legend
    Insider

    @nitroxien
    I can second the thing with supplies on galleon. When I was in a galleon yesterday, we were constantly bombarded with cannonballs for the surrounding emplacements, which required us to have 1 person fixing the whole time. When we started fighting the central fort, we needed 2 fixing at all times, because the bombardment got really bad. In my previous plays in the sloop, we weren't hit more than twice at each side emplacement, and I can't remember for the central forts, but it wasn't bad at all. But... the galleon fight was very fun!

    Rather long commendation locked cosmetics is what keeps me excited to keep playing the game at times and makes sure I always I have something to do when I don't feel like just grinding gold/fooling around.

    Yeah. Grind-heavy cosmetics give something to strive for for a long time and are great to wear once received. And only a few times have we got extremely grindy cosmetics. OG Ghost, Gold Curse, anything from Arena, Legendary capstan & cannons, and Dark Adventurers. Those are the kinds of things that I will always use often.

  • Liljimothy2306
    Seafarer

    @grumpyw01f The fort isn't bad, and there's a strat where you can't get hit if you circle really close. The ghost ships aimbot are ridiculous though especially since there are like 8 of them. I got hit like 6 times straight for 6 holes on a sloop halfsail it was whack.

  • GrumpyW01f
    Legend
    Insider

    @liljimothy2306
    I don't need advice. The fort is plenty easy as a sloop. In a galleon, I got constantly bombarded by ghost ships, so no circle around the fort is going to help.
    Reread my post:

    I can second the thing with supplies on galleon. When I was in a galleon yesterday, we were constantly bombarded with cannonballs for the surrounding emplacements, which required us to have 1 person fixing the whole time. When we started fighting the central fort, we needed 2 fixing at all times, because the bombardment got really bad. In my previous plays in the sloop, we weren't hit more than twice at each side emplacement, and I can't remember for the central forts, but it wasn't bad at all. But... the galleon fight was very fun!

    The OP and I were talking about how much supplies it takes for a galleon to finish the fort.

  • Liljimothy2306
    Seafarer

    @grumpyw01f wasn't really trying to give you advice was more agreeing with you that the ghost ships aimbot is ridic

  • Magus104
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    Amazing voyage..... garbage loot at the end. The RNG its going to take to 100% the commendations. And yea I dont like the forced server merging. Especially now that they merge you for simply being far away from other crews. They are trying to force player encounters because that is their vision for the game. If youre a solo player trying to be smart off on the edges of the map far from others.... Thats a bad experience for those trying to hunt you so lets merge you.

    I like the old system of only merging you when the server becomes empty and they are trying to close it down due to lag. Also only merging you when you drop anchor was nice, but it allowed people to cheat to get single player sea of thieves as the server was locked from new boats joining and it was waiting to merge you off once you dropped anchor.

    In the very least I think they need server merger exclusion zones. Like if youre at an event whatever it might be merging is off. Merging typically used to happen at outposts as thats when people would anchor. Now theres only 2 ways to avoid a merger, be in an alliance because it wont merge 2 ships, or have a 2nd pc and setup a new pirate with family share and have your 2nd character sit idle on land since it only merges when the full crew is on board. The fact that we have to come up with work arounds to Rares silly automated systems has been a huge issue since launch. Like people having anti AFK macros all started from the game not having closed crew at launch and friends losing their spots on their ships because they had to use the bathroom

  • KommodoreYenser
    Lord
    Insider

    Trash loot for a server-wide beacon that you are doing that voyage. Needs buffing to 2 athenas, maybe even 3 or an athena and 2 athena kegs similar to FoF.

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    Exactly what Athena needed.

    Pumps out grade 5's, session realistic time requirement, more gold, going to create far more emissary quests and produce much more loot for servers.

    An improvement in literally all areas of athena.

    This new voyage and the grind commendations are going to contribute significantly to getting these servers interesting again consistently

  • SweetSandMan
    Legend
    Insider

    My only gripe with the LoTV voyage has nothing to do with the LoTV voyage.

    My gripe is that it has made the other Athena voyages pretty much worthless because the time vs reward is rubbish by comparison to the LoTV.

    For me, LoTV is the most fun voyage in the game and it's not even close. They did an awesome job.

  • TheBlackBellamy
    Champion
    Insider

    @kommodoreyenser said:

    Trash loot for a server-wide beacon that you are doing that voyage. Needs buffing...

    I did one, and got to g5. Then did another while simultaneously working on the emissary quest. After turning in whatever I had, I gained almost half a level (20 to 21). Took just a few hours. Imo thats not bad.

    For the players interested in a solid PvPvE experience with a decent payout, this voyage provides that. If you're worried about advertising your location, we have lower risk alternatives.

    And no thanks, no more loot buffs. I feel like at this rate I'm going to get to 30 much quicker than I got to 10.

  • Nitroxien
    Captain
    Insider

    @kommodoreyenser are we playing the same voyage here... this voyages makes all other athena voyages/content obsolete including FoFs as it is so much more efficient...

  • KommodoreYenser
    Lord
    Insider

    @theblackbellamy said in The Legend of the Veil is Incredible Great Job Rare!:

    @kommodoreyenser said:

    Trash loot for a server-wide beacon that you are doing that voyage. Needs buffing...

    I did one, and got to g5. Then did another while simultaneously working on the emissary quest. After turning in whatever I had, I gained almost half a level (20 to 21). Took just a few hours. Imo thats not bad.

    Not everyone is as efficient as you or someone else might be even more so than you. Not every player is perfectly fine in a solo sloop fighting off the brigs and galleons that can beat you to the tornado most times over a single athena chest and some trinkets. Also, not really making that statement for myself personally in every scenario, but for the wider player base I regularly see out there.

    For the players interested in a solid PvPvE experience with a decent payout, this voyage provides that. If you're worried about advertising your location, we have lower risk alternatives.

    This new voyage was supposed to be a replacement for the original legendary voyages as stated by the devs. It is more like combining a world event (final step) and tall tale (the rest) Even thieves haven runs are way lower risk by comparison and just as fast to hit grade 5.

    And no thanks, no more loot buffs. I feel like at this rate I'm going to get to 30 much quicker than I got to 10.

    Your personal opinion. Most players (by far) only play for a maximum of 1-2 hours and rarely play that time more than 1-2 sessions per week. Rare should never consider balancing on the 1% (hardcore grinders/streamers doing 3-8 hour sessions several times a week, alliance servers, etc.) They should balance of the majority player base on progression, the center of the bell curve.

    Also, you probably will hit 20-30 faster than you hit 10 mostly due to things like all the new athena loot, emissary bonus, and emissary quests never being a thing back then just like myself. Tough to compare a completely different point in time and scenario when discussing what normal progression should be. Personally, I believe it should be based on one veil voyage, one athena emissary voyage maybe twice per week and see how many weeks it would take of that to get 20-30 and adjust to the dev's desired goal. Not "oh we have ~2k players that managed to hit A30 in the matter of a week" especially if they have played 4-5 solid 8 hour sessions chaining stuff.

  • KommodoreYenser
    Lord
    Insider

    @nitroxien said in The Legend of the Veil is Incredible Great Job Rare!:

    @kommodoreyenser are we playing the same voyage here... this voyages makes all other athena voyages/content obsolete including FoFs as it is so much more efficient...

    Guaranteed you get more Athena rep from a single FoF than you do from a single veil voyage. That one has you sit at a single location for a bit but it is very minimal if you have 6-8 tridents. That is also a world event vs what is supposed to be a voyage.

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    @kommodoreyenser

    We are going to see a lot more athena loot floating around for a decent chunk of time into the future.

    This opens opportunities for organic steals for players that otherwise wouldn't even see athena loot in the wild.

    People will figure out the voyage, they will work out the struggles and they will have access to far many more important organic experiences. This helps players build themselves up and find more action within the organic experience and not reliant on hopping and cheesing.

    This is serving everyone but most importantly it's serving a chunk of the base in the middle that have largely been neglected when it comes to athena.

    A lot more mid range players are gonna win and enjoy themselves like they have at other points of the game's history and it's going to bring more people into the grind and help retention issues.

    It's gonna be a good time.

  • NEON iC0N
    Vanguard
    Insider

    The quest is very fun, my sole complaint is that there are only cosmetic rewards for the Grade V commendations (though tbf this applies to most comms qq)

    I've always liked when commendations would unlock cosmetics at multiple Grades, such as Hunter of Cursed Captains incrementally unlocking the Nightfall Hunter cosmetics...
    With most comms, Grades I thru IV feel completely empty.

    Some rewards at the lower grades would be nice, there should be more cosmetics for such an amazing voyage.

  • a10dr4651
    Commander
    Insider

    Really enjoyed this voyage myself. It not only improves Athena gameplay, it also improves Reapers. Lots more Athena ships on the sea's with higher level flags.

    More content like this in the future please Rare.

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    Yesterday, I tried this voyage for the 1st time ever with an open galleon crew after taking on the great white myth - and it was utterly fantastic! So much so, we replayed the voyage at least 5x, and with Emmisary grade 5. We were in an alliance with another galleon, who happily took the brunt of any offensive moves against us, and that sank multiple times as a result. We successfully sank at least 3 brigs and 2 sloops during our 6+ hour session (including a grade 5 Reaper that GG'd us) and made frequent stops at the outposts and hideout to turn all of the loot in. I even earned the Pirate Lord's peg leg and the Dark Adventurer ship's flag, using the over 2 million gold I earned - the most ever as a personal best for a single session! I even finished the Season by making it to renown 100, and getting to the 4th ledger level, though both were with decidedly much less fanfare. As a crew, we even completed the bonus Emmisary voyages throughout our session whenever the opportunity arose.

    My only gripe is that every time we did the voyage, it was always the same - light statues, explore ship graveyard, and then tackle the Seanado. I never got to see any of the other subvariations.

    Still, what was there was quite good. I enjoyed the sheer number of combatants on the islands for the 1st portion; it truly felt like a pitched battle with the amount of bodies on display hacking at each other. The ship graveyard was fun to explore and I legitimately got turned upside down trying to find my way around (still lament the absence of sloops and brigs though). It all made me wonder what secrets I might have missed, as well as what could have possibly sunk such a formidable-looking fleet. The Seanado was just incredibly intense, and I found it very harrowing trying to dodge cannonballs as they reigned down upon our deck. Supplies took a serious hit, as others have said, but we resupplied frequently at every outpost, sea fort, enemy pirate sink, and storage crate of the damned we could find along the way. I was also pleasantly surprised to see so many kinds of new Athena loot - so cool looking!

    Eventually, we got overzealous and took on a Fort of Fortune, which proved to be our undoing, because a solo sloop approached while we were loading our loot and destroyed us all, and our ship, with a single shot to a stronghold gunpowder barrel. It was unfortunate, but I found it rather hilarious that it ended so quickly despite all of our amazing efforts, and with such a bang too! I suppose all good things must eventually come to an...

    END. 😅

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    I'm doing something with 20-30 that I haven't done in a long time, taking my time.

    I did my first shipwreck focused one in the roar. Zero idea about how any of it worked because I avoided hints and strategies.

    It wasn't exactly like being new as I went into it with years and thousands of hours of piratical experience, but it's been a LONG time since I didn't know what I was doing and it was great.

    Took me quite a long time to navigate the shipwrecks and find the very odd and vague spot I ended up with for the dig clue.

    I finish the quest and fight off a couple of sloops waiting for me and am able to sell.

    I've commented on how I think the voyage in its current form is great for the environment but now that I'm bringing in more of those experiences to form an opinion on the voyage design itself I think it's enjoyable, well designed, and truly an improvement.

    I really enjoy swimming around the shipwrecks. It's for explorers what fishing in this game is to fishers.

    There is a real immersion and mystery to it. Turning over this, opening that, piecing it all together. The shrines also brought that but shipwrecks have a more realistic and relatable feel to them.

    The people involved in the design consistently deliver. The content is often warm and filled with signs of passion for a quality outcome.

    I think those involved should feel good about what they did. I enjoy it.

    P.S. I love the new loot especially the meg doll thing.

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