abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.

@subaqueousreach

It’s not very creative when after less than a week nearly everyone has figured out how to do this.

You can not deny that if this mermaid system was not in place that players would have to be substantially more creative in finding ways to avoid their loot being stolen.

If being creative and out-smarting your opponent is the objective, then they really should adjust/remove this mechanic or give an incentive not to use it.

Right now this mechanic is not creative, it is widely used by nearly everyone who has played the game for more than a few hours. That’s not creativity. It’s an OP mechanic that needs balancing (or removal).

@face-0-o my thoughts exactly, we outsmart him an d we are in the wrong and we are exploiting, he just cant accept the fact some people have outsmarted the system, i do sail byes all the time if i see a ship chasing me, sail close enough to outpost that i can jump ship onto it and sell my chest before the other person knows what im doing then its mermaid back to boat for next chest and outpost, if its just the 1 chest then i scuttle the boat after chest hand in then mermaid to new boat :)

have i had alot of abuse shouted at me for doing so if they catch me before i get to mermaid sure lol

How many times do you have to be robbed at the outpost to come up with this? I think if the other option is being robbed at an outpost then let them keep going.

@mysticdragon297 i agree thats not how the mermaids are supposed to be used, but when theres a chance of people camping a port i understand why people use this tactic, i agree sharks should be respawned a little more often and maybe more than just one or two sharks at a time

I think it says a lot about the whole PvP/PvE/servers/safezones if players are actually abusing game mechanics to not risk having to do any of the PvP at all.

I personally just crash my ship against the outpost and try to land it next to the gold hoarders tent. I play (when I play) one voyage at a time because I really hate encountering other ships in this game. I just quit after because I've had enough stress for the day.

@desolate-hollow in reality, no they didn't often attack one another. Typically because pirates didn't have very much, even after a good haul. They were also harder targets to hit because everyone on board was always ready for a fight and were pretty well armed. Not really worth the effort.

Sea of Thieves is pirate fantasy though. Everyone in the sea of plenty is looking for hidden treasure. There's no merchant or navy ships because this part of the sea isn't on any charts or maps. The civilized world has yet to discover it. So when someone sees another ship on the horizon, there's a good chance they probably have some treasure on board. Why not try and take it?

And my stipulation of being a good pirate was about being creative with the available tools. It's a hard life on the sea and a good pirate needs to be smart to survive.

@jakeguy59 so it an OP mechanic just because we can hand in chests without the risk of being sunk or losing our loot?

until the day comes in this game that there is a 50-50 chance that someone that sees me doesnt just want to kill me and sink me for the sake of the luls then im always going to use this tactic

@tre-oni thats pretty much it, we have no right to stop people stealing our chests other than to fight them and maybe win, we are (insert cowerdly swear word here) if we find away to prevent them stealing our chests without a fight

I use the mermaid respawn mechanic myself to turn in loot with my crew. I use it because it’s extremely effective, overly simple, very time efficient, and relatively safe.

And I hate it.

I feel if the idea is to outsmart your opponents and to utilize creativity, then this mechanic needs to be adjusted.

Finding a way to come into port, drop your anchor, protect your ship, and get your loot on shore would require a much deeper level of creativity.

Anyone who plays this game for a few hours figures this out.

This mechanic has taken away the mechanic of having to dock your ship in port.

This mermaid system IMO reduces creativity and limits gameplay variation because it is so effective and efficient.

Again I use this system because I can. I still hate it though.

@cavemancronch said in abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.:

@jakeguy59 so it an OP mechanic just because we can hand in chests without the risk of being sunk or losing our loot?

IMO, yes. A system that rewards a player with little to no risk is OP in any game.

hell my friends and i have used the mermaid in other creative ways, in fights were we have run out of cannonballs and so has the other ship (by the fact they can only ram us and never fire at us) we have sailed right beside a shipwreck and 2-3 of us has jumped out swam to wreck and picked up 10 cannonballs each, get mermaid back then proceed to sink other the ship.

do we feel wrong about doing it. not really the games mechanics allow is to do it.

@mysticdragon297 said in abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.:

(edited because comments used ad hominem)

players are going from outpost to outpost without stopping, drop a few men off, turn in their reward, travel back to their boat via mermaid, repeat. deny it or not, this is not how mermaids are meant to be used.

i feel as if sharks should spawn more often near outposts or directly make some changes to how players use mermaid re-spawn.

I'd say we need a seashell to manually call the mackerel / siren instead and use it only while floating in the water, after our ship has sunk. Scuttling should be a ferry locked feature to prevent its abuse and instead of mere scuttling, we should be able to have a window of opportunity to save some of our on-board loot with the ship; griefer trap. This would also serve some PvP players who actually value loot for any loot that ends up overboard, in their hands, would be theirs for the taking.

@katttruewalker said in abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.:

@mythicalfable said in abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.:

I'd say we need a seashell to manually call the mackerel / siren

Yikes... I'm not sure I'd want to be callin' them a mackeral........might end up respawning on top of a desolate rock somewhere.....

Hahaha! Sirens are they, yes? Okay then. Sirens they are then. Please don't curse me! xD

@cavemancronch said in abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.:

hell my friends and i have used the mermaid in other creative ways, in fights were we have run out of cannonballs and so has the other ship (by the fact they can only ram us and never fire at us) we have sailed right beside a shipwreck and 2-3 of us has jumped out swam to wreck and picked up 10 cannonballs each, get mermaid back then proceed to sink other the ship.

do we feel wrong about doing it. not really the games mechanics allow is to do it.

Our crew also will repeatedly shoot ourselves out of the cannons at enemy ships in an attempt to board their ship.

I love that you can do this because it’s exciting and fun.

But, there’s also no risk to doing it. If we miss we just swim to the mermaid and we’re back in the fight within 15-30 seconds.

Downside to launching yourself out of a cannon and ending up shipless in the ocean? Other than at most a 30 second delay, none. While we use the mechanic because we can, I still think its cheesy.

This is exactly why this game will fail ! devs can not trust people to do the right or honorable thing! no matter what the devs will change, people are going to find a new way to either make most of you mad again or outright find an exploit and use it!
said it before and i will again, we gamers "most of us at least" are not ready for an all out open pvp game with virtual no written down rules!! we can't do it! "again most of us can't".

@noxsamus Split the servers. Wouldn't get rid of it out right, but would take care of a good bit I'd say.

@mysticdragon297 sagte in abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.:

@timidobserver
and the actual topic?

both of our crews worked hard. we completed some of the waves too. so no, you are not understanding correctly. this is not about me.

Omg so your squad are one of these that get sunk 5 times during a raid and keep coming back lol

@noxsamus said in abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.:

This is exactly why this game will fail ! devs can not trust people to do the right or honorable thing! no matter what the devs will change, people are going to find a new way to either make most of you mad again or outright find an exploit and use it!

Not necessarily so. There are things devs can do. Of course new exploits and bugs may rise, but that happens. We need to look at each aspect and as deeply as we can to find out which deal works and how.

I feel there should always be a risk vs reward concept to balance out mechanics.

Rewards? Right now we can use the mermaid respawn to safely and efficiently turn in loot. We can use it to board ships in PvP. We can use it to restock our ships while sailing from island to island or during combat.

Risks? None.

@spartan-lad said in abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.:

I don’t necessarily see an issue with this. You’re team needs a sound stray when in the thick of it. Sure you might be able to turn in your loot, but you risk losing more with less deckhands on board

How do you risk losing more? Your crew members will be back on the boat in about 30 seconds. Definitely in less time than it would take for another crew to interdict your ship and board it. There’s really no risk to this strategy.

i dont even see this as an exploit, this is clever use of game mechanics at best, exploit would be finding glitch that wont allow you to die,

i have had nasty messages sent to me for leading ships chasing me to an island with cannon towers and the skeletons on the cannons sinking the other ship(works maybe 20% of the time lol), everytime i get messages for me doing that its always the same nice exploit, or your'e exploiting the game. no im using mechanics of the game.

whats next are we going to see posts of people complaining that we shouldnt be able to steal cannonballs from other players ships? which is another thing i like to do during battles if we get close enough, kill some of them run down grab any cannonballs they have left then jump of the ship to catch a mermaid back or jump back to own ship if close enough,

@cavemancronch said in abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.:

i dont even see this as an exploit, this is clever use of game mechanics at best, exploit would be finding glitch that wont allow you to die,

i have had nasty messages sent to me for leading ships chasing me to an island with cannon towers and the skeletons on the cannons sinking the other ship(works maybe 20% of the time lol), everytime i get messages for me doing that its always the same nice exploit, or your'e exploiting the game.

I agree that leading ships into danger is definitely not an exploit.

I think the discussion around exploiting/utilizing the mermaids is significantly different though.

I also do not blame any player for using a system that is 100% reward and 0% risk. Honestly, you’re a bit of a fool for not doing it. My crew uses it all the time. Most crews do.

Just because we can use it and are heavily incentivized to use it, does not mean that the system is well balanced for gameplay.

The danger is that it is going to ironically limit gameplay once everyone is doing it. The game becomes more one-dimensional and less varied if everyone begins using the same tactics because there’s no reason not to.

@spartan-lad exactly there is a risk, especially if you are in a galleon being chased by another one, leaving just one person on board is very risky even for 30 seconds especially if you need the sails turned lol

@spartan-lad said in abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.:

@jakeguy59 you obviously have not sailed against my crew ;)

It really depends on the situation. My crew sails about 15 chests deep. So for us we will occasionally risk a drop and dash of our high value. However there is risk to losing the whole lot which is typically worth more than a couple Captain Chests.

We have sunk an enemy ship attempting to run this tactic before and got several skulls and chests. Sure they got 1 captain chest but we came out with much more

If you limit your loot to only 4 items then you have eliminated all risk.

Carrying 15 items of loot on board is going to be very risky in all situations.

But at worst you might lose 3-4 lootable items before your crew is back on board.

@jakeguy59 until there comes a time where its not sink every ship we see then its always going to be used, i have been chased and boarded and got alot of abuse because i had no chest on board and wasted theyre time.

@desolate-hollow said in abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.:

@noxsamus Split the servers. Wouldn't get rid of it out right, but would take care of a good bit I'd say.

It would also bring new fundamental issues into both sides; mostly to PvE. Pure PvP players value no loot so progression doesn't happen for them just like now so no change there. PvE gets stripped from most abilities to engage looters and ship robbers so most PvE players begin to complain even more while different type of griefing also grows in them.

Basically what would happen in the end is that the PvE side would work for a time until everyone settles it and goes back to PvP side which essentially is still the same game we have now, but isn't just fully utilised beyond PvP so much without PvE players.

@cavemancronch said in abusing re-spawns to turn in loot effortlessly via mermaid. pass by an outpost, jump off without dropping anchor, turn in, return to ship via mermaid, repeat.:

@jakeguy59 until there comes a time where its not sink every ship we see then its always going to be used, i have been chased and boarded and got alot of abuse because i had no chest on board and wasted theyre time.

I’m not saying the tactic should be removed (actually I wouldn’t mind seeing mermaids removed from the game, but I dont realistically see that happening so I won’t go there).

But I would like to see some sort of risk to using mermaids to respawn on your boat if this is going to be a core mechanic to the game.

Maybe a mermaid can’t spawn you back on your boat until it drops anchor? This would at least create a time penalty for using it and possibly put your ship in danger. This would incorporate an element of risk.

After all how is the mermaid supposed to catchup to the ship and spawn you onboard? Instaneous teleportation? In a game that’s supposed to be about being a pirate? Maybe a sci-fi futuristic game with aliens or something I could buy into it. 17th century tech with no lore ever talking about mermaids being able to teleport people? Plenty of lore about mermaids saving people (and harming them) but not with teleportation. That’s why I’d be cooler with it if you couldn’t respawn unless the boat is stopped.

Does everyone else think this is well balanced?

Does anyone else have suggestions on how to balance it?

@mythicalfable That's the only problem I see as well. Though sailing to another outpost if someone is docked or camping is no problem... especially since I don't have to worry about anyone sinking me on my way to the next outpost.