Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow

@capsteels I agree that the Greymarrow gun waves were really frustrating.

They were manageable though. I think the level of challenge needs to be high, because there's only 1 FoTD and 6 ships on each server. It needs to be a chore for a single ship because this incentivises bringing another crew along. The longer the fight takes the more chance of PvP ships coming to disrupt.

So it's a risk reward thing - a few extra pairs of hands will make it much easier and faster, but there's a risk of betrayal and they'll want a cut.

If you don't ally up, you'll have to fight them, and the longer you spend fighting the more people you are likely to have to fight.

If it could be done easily by one crew it would end up just like a regular fort. They need those frustrating gun waves to make it worth considering alliances.

@boxcar-squidy That's the thing the mega kegs = guaranteed sinking. You have 4 here. On sloop (not sure for brig and galleon) it will sink you even if it is in the crow's nest, how can you ally with anybody, while there is an option to 1 shot your ship as you are loading it or by them being a bit sneaky?

The encounter must be balanced for single ship fights, this is Sea of Thieves, not Sea of Friends or am I mistaking it.

If you feel you can trust other crews, yeah go ahead and do it so it is quicker and maybe allow you to do two forts instead of one but this one is straight boredom, I'm watching streamer now trying to solo Graymarrow 50+ minutes in...

It is just not fun, it is not even challenging, he will eventually die that is a guarantee it is about the encounter being tediously dull.
For a 15+ min encounter I would want to see more than

1. Spawn skeletons
2. Knock back
3. Shoot pistol

More mechanics like:

1. Making him enraged chasing somebody to hit really hard even through block, so that person has to kite him or bucket him with water in the face
2. Enchant his sword with a particular flame so you need to hold that same flame or a different one in order to damage or survive him
3. Make him port on the towers places scoping with a sniper, so you have to get to him before he shoots you down
4. He becomes invulnerable if you don't kill a particular skeleton that was spawned randomly and then do something...
5. Or as you hack him he drops a X marks the spot map that you need to dig his dirty laundry from the Fort to increase the damage he takes
   Like ... mechanics... Not 3 skill spam, that by the time you deal with the adds he spawns more... as he literally just cycles through them.

Like 15 minutes of spawning skeletons/knockback and pistols is just not fun... If they want you to spend X time there might as well make a timer, giving other boats a chance to come to you..

@boxcar-squidy
Lenght of the fight is not a problem imo. It's just boring.
Maybe it's my years of MMO raiding, but I expect more than 2 mechanics from a 15min+ fight.
Difficulty should not be accomplished by overtuned simple mechanics. There should be more depth.
People will still have to get to the island and fight you for it, but at least you won't be bored while they arrive.
/my pov/

@capsteels some of those suggestions would be great. I'm all for difficulty that is more interesting than trying to figure out how to make progress against 12 aimbotting invincible skeletons.

There is 4 mega kegs in there. You know what that equals? Mutually assured destruction. There's 4 chances for anyone on that fort to nuke anyone else there's boat. But given the number of people just hanging around the fort looking to steal it, if you both end up sinking at the fort neither ship will get the loot.

It actually makes more sense not to betray, unless you can be 100% sure you'll win, which you can't on a fort with 4x mega kegs.

For a solo sloop this isn't viable for like 90% of SoT players I'd say. But nobody's forcing you to solo sloop. You need to decide whether you are so anti-social that you'd prefer not to experience the fort, or if would you like to try the fort more than you generally dislike other people?

It's a simple choice - play together or grind the new fort for an eternity trying to get good at soloing it.

@greengrimz I tend to agree.

Although, there's a massive amount of tension in an alliance at this fort. It makes the boss fight a bit easier.

What happens afterwards is hardly relaxing. Dividing up the loot, keeping an eye on the mega kegs. It's exciting for me, just as exciting as an actual fight. That tension, how on edge everyone is, the fact that the whole thing is one wrong word away from a fight breaking out. I love that feeling.

It's been a long long time since anyone I met thought a fort was worth sharing, but there are stories of alliances, betrayals and victories at this fort today. To me that sounds like it has worked.

You might not want to ally at a fort, but that doesn't mean that the rest of the ships on your server won't come to an arrangement without you.

I feel like there are a lot of interesting stories which will happen at that fort, and we haven't even scratched the surface yet.

@boxcar-squidy But that's the thing, you think Alliances are a "must" part of the game, when they aren't. To me alliances are a feature to help out newbies that don't deserve to die yet, not a way to go through content.

@capsteels I never said they're a must.

I completed FoTD in a Galleon last night actively KoSing any crew that even looked like they were thinking about coming close.

I inferred that they're a thing that Rare is obviously trying to make viable and that FoTD is clearly a part of that. Source - alliances are specifically mentioned on the official FoTD page on this here website.

Don't take alliances then, you're free to play the game whatever way you want. I promise you though, if your crew ever meets mine at this fort, you'll be begging us for an alliance, if you don't end up doing the scuttle-shuffle to another server first. People know me and my crews and what we're all capable of.

I'd still ally up for this from time to time. It's not about a lack of experience, it's about having done everything in this gane so many times that I choose to change things up from time to time just to keep it interesting.

@boxcar-squidy That was funny. I must apologize but English is not my native language and I don't have the word "begging" in my vocabulary. Is this like "singing"? Because I don't know this song your ship will be "sinking" about.

Puns intended.

@greengrimz Hey I'm just responding to your buddy there telling me that alliances are only for inexperienced people.

I see you even felt he needed your help to fight his battles on the forum. So forgive me for not taking you two jokers seriously.

You see, I don't mind saying I'll fight you, I don't mind saying I'll win either. I'm condident enough in my abilities. I'm not hiding behind anything, this is my in-game name. I've sailed with many of the people here, they know who I am and they know whether I'm full of it or not. I wouldn't embarass myself in front of people who I may some day meet in game by pretending to be anything that I'm not.

But you don't have to take my word for it: I'm calling you out, find me, face me, we'll see what's what on the sea. Win or lose I'm not a coward about it, I'm not here looking for any of my buddies to leap to my rescue on the forum or anywhere else, unlike some...

@boxcar-squidy yes, alliances are for inexperienced people.
My point is that there is content that needs to be refined so it is fun and challenging and the balance should be around a single crew. Now it is not fun or challenging, it is just tedious and boring and of course you will eventually kill it.

You are the one shifting the focus to "You will beg" for alliance. Then go on about me needing help, for what? Known or unknown, doesn't really matter because this is not the point of the discussion. I even found myself sinking a top streamer (I didn't even knew it at the time), that had a couple of forts / fleets + other events loot, basically more than half of it sunk as we couldn't keep up, it was just that much.

I do hope we match up. You can easily find my ship right off the bat, it has the reaper flag 100% of the time, lights on so you can see me better and reaper chests when possible, playing almost every day after 20:00 UTC. The biggest ship you will see me on is a Brig, which is relatively rare.

I don't need to be known, I just need victims.. I mean to say pirates, yes, yes fellow rival pirates, not the running type...

PS> I don't come to forums to measure success, if I take 5 minutes of my time to write down a topic, it is because I feel the need to do it and I rarely do, now we are just wasting time.

Regards,

@realstyli said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

I think the Irish Traveller style bareknuckle fight call-out might have gone over their heads, but it was all in good fun. I laughed while writing it, so it served its purpose for me. The odd thing is they're still going on about it, so I must have touched a nerve.

@Captain-Steel-X @Greengrimz Listen fellas, if you want to test yourselves against me just keep playing the game. I've been playing since before launch, if you play for long enough you'll be surprised who you'll run into. It's a small world and an even smaller sea. Keep a list of names and sooner or later you'll start crossing them off. Congratulations, you two just made the list.

Sounds like @Captain-Steel-X is European, so chances are good we'll cross paths.

This is awesome, my pirate has been looking for a nemesis since my last one quit playing.

Keep an eye on the horizon, and don't say I didn't give you fair warning when I marked you for death.

@boxcar-squidy Just make sure you let me know it's the "Nemesis name checking off guy", as I will forget.

@captain-steel-x said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@boxcar-squidy Just make sure you let me know it's the "Nemesis name checking off guy", as I will forget.

Nah, you manage your own death list. I'm not your secretary.

Also, I only hope you'll be my nemesis, we've yet to establish whether or not I'll even need to break a sweat. A nemesis is, above all, an equal as well as a rival.

@boxcar-squidy said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@captain-steel-x said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@boxcar-squidy Just make sure you let me know it's the "Nemesis name checking off guy", as I will forget.

Nah, you manage your own death list. I'm not your secretary.

Also, I only hope you'll be my nemesis, we've yet to establish whether or not I'll even need to break a sweat. A nemesis is, above all, an equal as well as a rival.

Based on that guys replies and yours, I’d put my money on him cleaning your clock.

It’s always the ones that feel the need to showboat who can’t live up to the hype.

@iceman-ajl Has that been your experience of Irish people? That we're all talk? That when we say we'll beat you we're just wind bagging?

We're having a bit of banter. Now I never shy away from a challenge. And if I say you're getting a tune up you'd better bring some oil. That's how my culture is. Fighting talk and call-outs are an ancient tradition where I'm from, look up some of the youtube videos of people calling each other out for fights and maybe you'll gain a better understanding of the sort of banter we've been trading here for lols.

And it is for lols. @Captain-Steel-X and @Greengrimz are good guys, there's no real animosity here, just bants.

Speaking of which, back to the banter -

If I'm showboating, how come he's the one giving it all that about "sinking streamers?" All I said was I'd kick him around, he's the one painting himself as the scourge of twitch.

So I'm callin youse out, I'll batter you, like I battered your father. Like my son battered your son. I'll battered ye so bad your own mother won't recognises ye. I'll batter the teeth out of your face and your eyes out of their sockets. So c'mon and face me etc. etc.

@boxcar-squidy said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@iceman-ajl Has that been your experience of Irish people? That we're all talk? That when we say we'll beat you we're just wind bagging?

We're having a bit of banter. Now I never shy away from a challenge. And if I say you're getting a tune up you'd better bring some oil. That's how my culture is. Fighting talk and call-outs are an ancient tradition where I'm from, look up some of the youtube videos of people calling each other out for fights and maybe you'll gain a better understanding of the sort of banter we've been trading here for lols.

And it is for lols. @Captain-Steel-X and @Greengrimz are good guys, there's no real animosity here, just bants.

Speaking of which, back to the banter -

If I'm showboating, how come he's the one giving it all that about "sinking streamers?" All I said was I'd kick him around, he's the one painting himself as the scourge of twitch.

So I'm callin youse out, I'll batter you, like I battered your father. Like my son battered your son. I'll battered ye so bad your own mother won't recognises ye. I'll batter the teeth out of your face and your eyes out of their sockets. So c'mon and face me etc. etc.

Case in point: immediate accusation that this is some ‘anti-Irish’ thing. (Weird cause I’d be hating half my family if that was the case, that and I have absolutely no idea what your nationality is, nor do I care.) and some physical threats.

It’s showboating, on a suggestion thread. It reeks of being desperate for attention that your response to someone disagreeing with your assessment that Alliances are necessary is to claim superiority.

That is why I’m sure that the other guy would beat you in a fight, and why I really find your threat more funny than intimidating.

(Also no I don’t see Alliances as particularly useful for the event, too much liability of betrayal. In fact the best way to beat an alliance already at a fort is to instigate infighting via swimmers, which is easy to pull off)

@iceman-ajl jasus buddy, I never said it was an anti-Irish thing. I asked if that was your experience of the Irish, that we issue empty challenges.

What side is the other half of your family that you didn't inherit a sense of humour.

I also never said alliances are necessary. I said quite clearly that it's obvious that Rare want to make them more viable. I even provided a source. Furthermore, if you'd actually read my posts you'd see that I agreed with many of @Captain-Steel-X 's suggestions.

Where we diverged is over the alliances thing and him wanting the fort nerfed to make it easier for a single crew.

It got a little silly after that, but that silliness was bumping his thread. If I wanted to shut down this thread I'd ignore it until it disappeared (normally takes about 24 hours on here)

Why so serious fella? Having a bad day? Must be hard work having a rod so far up inside you all the time. My sympathies.

@boxcar-squidy said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@iceman-ajl jasus buddy, I never said it was an anti-Irish thing. I asked if that was your experience of the Irish, that we issue empty challenges.

What side is the other half of your family that you didn't inherit a sense of humour.

I also never said alliances are necessary. I said quite clearly that it's obvious that Rare want to make them more viable. I even provided a source. Furthermore, if you'd actually read my posts you'd see that I agreed with many of @Captain-Steel-X 's suggestions.

Where we diverged is over the alliances thing and him wanting the fort nerfed to make it easier for a single crew.

It got a little silly after that, but that silliness was bumping his thread. If I wanted to shut down this thread I'd ignore it until it disappeared (normally takes about 24 hours on here)

Why so serious fella? Having a bad day? Must be hard work having a rod so far up inside you all the time. My sympathies.

Wait you thought I was being serious? Besides the breaking up Alliance bit, which I do standby is a good tactic, I’m not taking this seriously at all.

I do however like popping egos of bragging players. They get really defensive and make the boldest, and funniest, claims.

Cheer up though, at least you didn’t threaten me with a mob-style hit, so you didn’t take it over-the-top in your reply to ‘that other guy would win’.

(That one happened in a different game entirely but over the same subject of player piracy)

@captain-steel-x hmmmm. Alliances are for inexperienced people? I am PLA10. I sail with the attitude of letting things develop around me and then react. If someone comes in guns blaring, or if I can see that they are the type of person that would betray us. Then we do our best to sink them. Do we success all the time, no. Unlike others I don't keep track of wins/losses or sunken ship ours to theirs ratios. I play to have fun. Last night, my first mate and I did all the lights and got a skull for the fort on our sloop. Shortly after starting the fort, right after the second wave, a galleon comes along. So we go back to the sloop and hang out to see what they want. We did put up the alliance flag. While we are willing to fight, we know that most likely we can't take on a galleon. Especially if they are capable pirates. They sail in and join alliances with us and even invite us to their chat. So we go about working together to finish the fort.

Because we joined an alliance, you are saying we are inexperienced? I have almost every commendation there is. And when I have my normal full crew on, we hold our own in combat. Yet you say we are inexperienced.

Well, back to my story. Shortly after we formed our new alliance, two of the galleons crew had to take off. Almost immediately after that, another galleon approaches. This time, they try to play the we are friends routine while clearly trying to line up their cannons. So we all calmly waited to let them have the first shot. And sure enough, they let loose with cannon fire and boarders. We dispatched them rather quickly. My first mate and I ended up joining the ally galleon to make the fort easier (attacking skelly's with the accidental hits on each other got annoying, and they had room so why not).

In the end, we made some new friends, had fun, and still got some PvP. I like the uneasiness of alliances, and as I have said on other forum posts, it seems that the most fun I have had in game are when I am part of larger groups. Either in fleets, or when making new friends thanks to alliances.

So, in the end, my point is, alliances are NOT for inexperienced. They are just another way to enjoy the game.

@letslipthedogs said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@greengrimz said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@boxcar-squidy said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

...I promise you though, if your crew ever meets mine at this fort, you'll be begging us for an alliance, if you don't end up doing the scuttle-shuffle to another server first...

Brother, I don't know who you are, and I don't know who you think you are, but I sure as hell know that bringing your ePeen out without knowing jack about the guy you're talking to, is a sheer sign of an illusion. The illusion that you are a good player.

I truthfully don't remember the last time me and my crew were outplayed and sank due to that. To give you a rough example, our sink:sunken ratio is greater than 20:1. And don't get me wrong, I'm not measuring my ePeen to yours. I just want to point out some moral: that despite this ratio, even I don't dare to speak that big. At the very least, it's quite childish...

So until we meet each other in the seas, the only thing I will be begging you for, is not to bring out such overstatements.

That's a good ratio and my crews are good also, but we got jacked by three ships. We held our own for awhile but we finally sank. Everyone sinks in SOT just got to back in there and get revenge!

A good trick for beating a three ship alliance is to send a swimmer or two over, then attack their ship on the captain wave (or after completion, up to personal preference really). If they are open mic a simple shout of ‘betrayal’ to go along with some ship-to-ship cannonfire can work wonders at breaking up an alliance. Everyone’s so high strung about being betrayed at this fort that you can turn a potential 3v1 ship battle into a 1v1 when only one ship is left standing, and then you bring out your ship.

Seen this happen already once, your swimmers don’t even need to participate in the infighting once the alliance members get started shooting either.

(For obvious reasons, this doesn’t work on a premade alliance that knows each other too well)

@iceman-ajl said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@letslipthedogs said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@greengrimz said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@boxcar-squidy said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

...I promise you though, if your crew ever meets mine at this fort, you'll be begging us for an alliance, if you don't end up doing the scuttle-shuffle to another server first...

Brother, I don't know who you are, and I don't know who you think you are, but I sure as hell know that bringing your ePeen out without knowing jack about the guy you're talking to, is a sheer sign of an illusion. The illusion that you are a good player.

I truthfully don't remember the last time me and my crew were outplayed and sank due to that. To give you a rough example, our sink:sunken ratio is greater than 20:1. And don't get me wrong, I'm not measuring my ePeen to yours. I just want to point out some moral: that despite this ratio, even I don't dare to speak that big. At the very least, it's quite childish...

So until we meet each other in the seas, the only thing I will be begging you for, is not to bring out such overstatements.

That's a good ratio and my crews are good also, but we got jacked by three ships. We held our own for awhile but we finally sank. Everyone sinks in SOT just got to back in there and get revenge!

A good trick for beating a three ship alliance is to send a swimmer or two over, then attack their ship on the captain wave (or after completion, up to personal preference really). If they are open mic a simple shout of ‘betrayal’ to go along with some ship-to-ship cannonfire can work wonders at breaking up an alliance. Everyone’s so high strung about being betrayed at this fort that you can turn a potential 3v1 ship battle into a 1v1 when only one ship is left standing, and then you bring out your ship.

Seen this happen already once, your swimmers don’t even need to participate in the infighting once the alliance members get started shooting either.

(For obvious reasons, this doesn’t work on a premade alliance that knows each other too well)

Mate, best thing to do is lure him to the dock and cannon him off, we were on a galleon, easily took some 50 cannonballs but was much easier that way, can't see how you'd do it with melee and guns only, like you say, the damned shadows are too annoying - just cheat and cannon him!

Good luck!

@capitano-motu said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@iceman-ajl said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@letslipthedogs said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@greengrimz said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@boxcar-squidy said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

...I promise you though, if your crew ever meets mine at this fort, you'll be begging us for an alliance, if you don't end up doing the scuttle-shuffle to another server first...

Brother, I don't know who you are, and I don't know who you think you are, but I sure as hell know that bringing your ePeen out without knowing jack about the guy you're talking to, is a sheer sign of an illusion. The illusion that you are a good player.

I truthfully don't remember the last time me and my crew were outplayed and sank due to that. To give you a rough example, our sink:sunken ratio is greater than 20:1. And don't get me wrong, I'm not measuring my ePeen to yours. I just want to point out some moral: that despite this ratio, even I don't dare to speak that big. At the very least, it's quite childish...

So until we meet each other in the seas, the only thing I will be begging you for, is not to bring out such overstatements.

That's a good ratio and my crews are good also, but we got jacked by three ships. We held our own for awhile but we finally sank. Everyone sinks in SOT just got to back in there and get revenge!

A good trick for beating a three ship alliance is to send a swimmer or two over, then attack their ship on the captain wave (or after completion, up to personal preference really). If they are open mic a simple shout of ‘betrayal’ to go along with some ship-to-ship cannonfire can work wonders at breaking up an alliance. Everyone’s so high strung about being betrayed at this fort that you can turn a potential 3v1 ship battle into a 1v1 when only one ship is left standing, and then you bring out your ship.

Seen this happen already once, your swimmers don’t even need to participate in the infighting once the alliance members get started shooting either.

(For obvious reasons, this doesn’t work on a premade alliance that knows each other too well)

Mate, best thing to do is lure him to the dock and cannon him off, we were on a galleon, easily took some 50 cannonballs but was much easier that way, can't see how you'd do it with melee and guns only, like you say, the damned shadows are too annoying - just cheat and cannon him!

Good luck!

I think you replied and quoted the wrong person. I was referring to dealing with players in an alliance you want to deal with, not the actual boss.

@iceman-ajl said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@capitano-motu said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@iceman-ajl said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@letslipthedogs said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@greengrimz said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

@boxcar-squidy said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

...I promise you though, if your crew ever meets mine at this fort, you'll be begging us for an alliance, if you don't end up doing the scuttle-shuffle to another server first...

Brother, I don't know who you are, and I don't know who you think you are, but I sure as hell know that bringing your ePeen out without knowing jack about the guy you're talking to, is a sheer sign of an illusion. The illusion that you are a good player.

I truthfully don't remember the last time me and my crew were outplayed and sank due to that. To give you a rough example, our sink:sunken ratio is greater than 20:1. And don't get me wrong, I'm not measuring my ePeen to yours. I just want to point out some moral: that despite this ratio, even I don't dare to speak that big. At the very least, it's quite childish...

So until we meet each other in the seas, the only thing I will be begging you for, is not to bring out such overstatements.

That's a good ratio and my crews are good also, but we got jacked by three ships. We held our own for awhile but we finally sank. Everyone sinks in SOT just got to back in there and get revenge!

A good trick for beating a three ship alliance is to send a swimmer or two over, then attack their ship on the captain wave (or after completion, up to personal preference really). If they are open mic a simple shout of ‘betrayal’ to go along with some ship-to-ship cannonfire can work wonders at breaking up an alliance. Everyone’s so high strung about being betrayed at this fort that you can turn a potential 3v1 ship battle into a 1v1 when only one ship is left standing, and then you bring out your ship.

Seen this happen already once, your swimmers don’t even need to participate in the infighting once the alliance members get started shooting either.

(For obvious reasons, this doesn’t work on a premade alliance that knows each other too well)

Mate, best thing to do is lure him to the dock and cannon him off, we were on a galleon, easily took some 50 cannonballs but was much easier that way, can't see how you'd do it with melee and guns only, like you say, the damned shadows are too annoying - just cheat and cannon him!

Good luck!

I think you replied and quoted the wrong person. I was referring to dealing with players in an alliance you want to deal with, not the actual boss.

LOL I did, sorry mate, fixing it now.

@captain-steel-x said in Fort of the damned and in particular Graymarrow:

Hello fellow pirates,

I just want to say HOW AWESOME the event is, it was the most eventful and fun evening my crew had in a while. Everything is great, except the Graymarrow part. So here is my review:

1. I'm totally fine with the "attunement" to the Fort in the form of collecting various lights and skulls, which can take an hour or so. I believe this is an incentive for everybody else to try and contest the fort for their crew, unlike the regular forts, where you can just change servers. Making defending the fort / stealing it more rewarding.

2. I LOVE THE MIST surround the fort. Great for stealth missions, it strengthens the theme and the immersion, the feeling of DREAD and that peril awaits at every corner.

3. I'm even fine with lighting the skellies with the respective flame, which can be a real drag at times.

4. Now the cherry on top - Graymarrow, I love the idea of having a hard boss to do at the end of the fort but man, this is ridiculous. The feedback here is so much it requires it's own sub section. here it goes:

   a) Takes forever to kill, literally 15 minutes from spawning to taking the key and during the time all ships were just staying in the distance waiting for us to kill it, 15 minutes of hacking him off.
   b) At the end of the fight we had to take the key and run as all the ships that were waiting started chasing us and we were out of food, literally no food on us and the fort.
   c) Now the reason why the fight is so hard - Skeletons, the damned skeleton... The spawns are pretty random in color, so we constantly need to get lights, FAIR, but they mostly had guns and blundies, which as you know, hit pretty hard, so you constantly have to kite and eat at the same time Graymarrow will spawn a new wave, which is now a different color, so you need to get that as well.

I'm okay with it being HARD this is TOP tier content took us a bit under 3 hours for the entire thing in which:

1. We stole the fort, meaning we didn't do the lights part, as some guys activated it for us and their efforts were rewarded with cannonballs and salt water.
2. We constantly had to fight off other ships in total - 1 Galleon, 2 Brigs and 5 Sloops, not counting people that came and ran away just the ones we sunk. (we were on a Brig)
3. Likely the people before us did a few waves as we did about 6-7 before the event started meaning it will take even more.
4. No ships came at us while doing Graymarrow, which can prolong the fight quite a lot if it happens.

Final thoughts:

1. The event is GREAT, don't shorten anything about it.
2. Greymarrow really made it feel dull, not because of it being complex but ridiculous. The only reason for this being multiple colored gun carrying skeletons.

How to improve, these are different options in my humble opinion:

1. Rework Graymarrow skeleton spawning mechanics to spawn no more than 1 skeleton with blundy/pistol, the one shots are just BS, nothing you can do about it, go in, get 1 shotted by multiple skelies aiming at you...
2. Lower his HP by maybe 10-15-20% IDK, I'm pretty sure you are better in the math than I am.
3. Make it so he only spawns 1 color of skeletons per spawn.

I don't know which of the 3 options is the best, maybe a mix of it but these 15 minutes of hacking something that just doesn't die are ruining the entire adventure IMHO.

PS> I'm not whining or anything, just my 5 cents on the topic.
15 minute fight vs Graymarrow is close to the time it takes my crew to clear a regular Fort and it is not about the money... I know this is not a regular Fort but still, the math doesn't add up. We will keep doing it mainly because it is the best option to lure in victims currently, I mean pirates, yes definitely other pirates, without having to chase an empty ship for 30 minutes.

Regards,
CapSteels

Mate, best thing to do is lure him to the dock and cannon him off, we were on a galleon, easily took some 50 cannonballs but was much easier that way, can't see how you'd do it with melee and guns only, like you say, the damned shadows are too annoying - just cheat and cannon him!

Good luck!

@capitano-motu We figured this out but that beats the entire purpose of the event. It should be a sword/gun/lantern fight, not a ship fight.

PS. Did it land only tonight, tedious...

@nofears-fun yes, I honestly believe alliances are for the weak and this is why:

1. I would only give an alliance to a very newbie crew. There is no point in beating a person that just started the game, might as well give them a warm welcome gift. They will get their fair share of salt and water later on. This is like trowing back the small fish, hoping to catch it when it grows up.
2. Sparing any crew/ship in an area of interest (fort/fleet) is a sign of weakness. If a crew is coming in, they must be ready to fight/contest it. The weaker crews are more keen on getting an alliance done out of fear of losing everything.
3. Giving a crew that played for a while alliance as a sign of mercy is also bad for THEM. With only 6 crews per server these guys are probably not getting the combat experience, which they need to be competitive, next time they grind everything for a fort they will just lose it to experience.

The truth is this is a competitive game, even though in adventure mode it looks casual and chill. If somebody wants your loot or soul, you must be ready to defend it. FOTD is exactly where the competitive nature comes into play, it is not a spoon for everybody's mouth.

Regards,