@jakeguy59 woah salt dog, I meant no offense, we’ve all lost treasure out there. By your reckoning if these literal rules determine what you can or can’t do in the game, then is it really abuse or just another use of the mechanics that you haven’t thought of yet.
To placate to your initial post though, we could just take out the mermaid mechanic all together. If we do that just to stop players from respawning on there ship after selling treasure, where does that leave us on all the other times we need mermaids? I’ll take it a step further, if we did this, took away mermaids, our taxi drivers of the sea, should we then take away the ferryman, after all he does send us right back to the ship in a really immersion breaking way right after we die. I’d be 100% cool with taking away the ability to use mermaids to spawn on your ship if the ferryman sent all dead pirates to a special resurrection alter at an outpost or something. That way no1 can respawn directly to their ships upon death or otherwise and would have to rely completely on their teammates for help in these situations
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 really is a non issue. If you are docked on the outpost, you can just kill them when they try to turn in, take their stuff and wham bam, thank you ma'am!
If you are chasing them in their boat, they are obviously undermanned now that part of their crew jumped off the ship meaning when they double back, it will be easy to catch them. Further more, if you see them doing that, why wouldn't you just anticipate them doubling back or set up on the outpost?
It's not like they can transport the stuff with the mermaid. They gotta swim that s**t to land while you can just cannon yourself onto the docks and greet them with Mr.Flinklock and the Blunderbus twins.
My biggest issue with mermaids right now is that when someone has loot and uses the mermaid, their loot just up and disappears like it gets deleted. They don't drop it. THAT is a problem.
This "Oh this guy is using this mechanic in a way I dislike..." is such silly [Mod Edited]. Why don't we let the dev's focus on bugs and actual problems with their game instead of crying that "They game they sold me isn't the game I want it to be even though their presentation of it was entirely accurate"
@jakeguy59 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 think, IMO, a number of members to this post are missing the point of this thread. It is not about how the fight went down or how a player was bested by another. This is about exploiting a game mechanic that I am very confident no one intended.
The issue is that the respawn mechanic with the mermaids allows for unrealistic and cheesy gameplay that breaks immersion. Was this really intended to be used this way? If so...
My crew was doing the same thing last night. Except we weren’t in combat. We were just lazy and exploiting the game. We had loot that we wanted to turn in but we didn’t feel like stopping to turn it in. So we just sailed past an outpost and had someone jump overboard with the loot. They swam to shore and turned it in. We all got the $$ and we all got the reputation. Our crew member then was able to just miraculously spawn back onto our ship. The ship never slowed.
Nobody bested us, we didn’t out maneuver anyone, we didn’t outwit anyone. We were just lazy and exploited the system. Way too easily.
Do you really think this is a gameplay mechanic that was intended to be used this way?
Other than grabbing crates for the merchant quests, what’s a good reason to stop at an outpost? I can’t think of one.
This is admittedly exactly what I do when I sail solo, sometimes there ain't enough time to dock in proper otherwise the stinking galleon chasing me will get the loot.
I don't think it was intended at all, I remember my reaction when I first did it, it was verbally "#### Me!"
Until it changes I rekon I'll continue to use this method.
@jakeguy59 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.:
The issue is that the respawn mechanic with the mermaids allows for unrealistic and cheesy gameplay that breaks immersion. Was this really intended to be used this way? If so...
unrealistic things in a fantasy pirate game that has mermaids, glowing skulls, a kraken and people with gold that has been melted onto their body, as well as people being able to come back from the dead every time they get killed . . . this isn't quite the game for realistic things.
p.s. dont forget living from being shot out from a cannon.@timidobserver 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.:
@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.:
@timidobserver 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.:
@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.:
@timidobserver 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.:
@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.:
@timidobserver 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.:
@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.:
@timidobserver
and the actual topic?both of our crews worked hard. we completed some of the waves too.
@mysticdragon297 My response relates to the topic. I am fine with players having an option to avoid being robbed at the outpost by the lazy people. Jumping people off the ship with that much treasure at different outposts is risky and time consuming.
my point is that it is not risky at all. not as much as actually docking a ship and turning in the entire reward.
My point is that you guys had two opportunities to win or at least get away with some of the loot. You could've defeated them rather than forfeiting. You could've timed your arrival to get some loot before they loaded it. Those events tend to drop a lot of loot and it takes multiple trips to get it all. I don't see why the game needs to give you a third opportunity.
Moving with a chest is slow. A shark could catch the jumper or if you guys were close enough you could've used the lunge dive or fire someone out of a cannon to close the distance on the carriers.
defeating them was pointless. they re-spawned every time. like i said, we kept sinking each other ships and completed a few waves. tried to communicate, but they were in a party.
we played it smart. let them take the reward and waited patiently just in case they had something planned. there was a lot of supplies on the island + gunpowder barrels, so we thought it was too risky. it was our decision to make, the wrong decision, but only because they abused a game mechanic.
your last few points are easier said than done. please note that when i say that they sailed nearly past the outposts, i really do mean that they were close; as in, not even a few seconds of swimming distance. they turned in the chest and their was no time to actually kill them at full health before they made it and turned in the loot.
IMO, being able to jump off of a ship and turn in a chest is not the issue. It's one of the few ways to get anything done when playing sloop against persistent galleons. The issue is the respawning mechanic. You shouldn't have had to forfeit in order to avoid fighting an unending battle of attrition. There is already no safe zone at the Outpost. I don't see a need for them to make turning in chests more difficult.
but what you should do is outplay your pursuer. shake them off, sail against the wind with a sloop, lead them to shallow water, fight them. not result to abusing the mechanic.
For me, the out playing happens out at the objective and in transit from and to the outpost. In your situation, the outplaying happened at the fort. You failed twice, or in other words, got outplayed twice.
Being technical, you got outplayed a third time because they sailed well enough to keep you far enough away from them that you couldn't catch the slow moving chest carriers. Being fired from a cannon that is aimed properly can carry a pirate quite a distance. If you were anywhere near them you should've been able to do an anchor turn to line your cannon up with the island and fire someone ahead of their chest runners.
They beat the event, loaded the treasure, sailed it to the outposts. You didn't stop them from doing any of those things. I don't see a need for the devs to alter the game to increase your chances of taking the loot from them while they are standing at the vendor.
Sensible talk. 😁
@jakeguy59 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 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.
If you think a ship is using this tactic then why not spare someone to camp the tent?
This is what metas are.
This is the current under-chase meta strategy.
This game will evolve as our journey continues.
I am not saying I agree or disagree with this strategy...but in my opinion it is a good strategy that I use when being relentlessly chased while sailing solo. If it is a SLOOP or GALLEON it doesn't matter, if they can't outsail you to gain and board you and they are literally just following you nonstop grab a chest and jump as you pass an outpost and ghost-ride the boat until you mermaid back.
It is using the current mechanics of the game. Rare may change it...but until then it is a fair move. Honestly what else is someone supposed to do if someone is sweating so hard that they are willing to follow you for 3 hours. Just keep running away or fight. Some people are choosing the 3rd option. Slowly turning their loot in on each pass.
@mysticdragon297 It seems more efficient to do a good job piloting your Crew's ship into harbor and then anchoring it close to the dock so you and your Nate's can offload all your treasure as quick as possible. If you jump from a moving ship you can only carry one piece of treasure and it takes longer. A well coordinated, enterprising crew will get things done quicker.
@anubis0311 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 woah salt dog, I meant no offense, we’ve all lost treasure out there. By your reckoning if these literal rules determine what you can or can’t do in the game, then is it really abuse or just another use of the mechanics that you haven’t thought of yet.
To placate to your initial post though, we could just take out the mermaid mechanic all together. If we do that just to stop players from respawning on there ship after selling treasure, where does that leave us on all the other times we need mermaids? I’ll take it a step further, if we did this, took away mermaids, our taxi drivers of the sea, should we then take away the ferryman, after all he does send us right back to the ship in a really immersion breaking way right after we die. I’d be 100% cool with taking away the ability to use mermaids to spawn on your ship if the ferryman sent all dead pirates to a special resurrection alter at an outpost or something. That way no1 can respawn directly to their ships upon death or otherwise and would have to rely completely on their teammates for help in these situationsYo I'm down for that. One mistake and you'll need to be picked up until the boat sinks and you can requisition a new one from the dock merchant. This would also curb the arguments about spawn killing.
What's going to suck is if the pirates looting your ship leave it afloat with all your team members dead and on the outpost. Hope you're up for a nice long swim.
@mysticdragon297
Abusing mermaids has been a problem from the beginning. Drive-by drop-offs, or endlessly diving overboard to try climbing onto pursuing ships, or collecting passing resources without stopping, etc. These things break the spirit of the game.If you see a collection of barrels drifting by in barrels, or an island with resources on it, you should have to decide if it's worth stopping for. If you have a ship loaded with treasure that you're trying to cash in, you should have to tactically outsmart your pursuers in realistic ways. I remember devs talking early on of players potentially deciding to ditch lower value loot overboard in an attempt to distract pursuers buying them an escape. This isn't necessary when you can infinitely outrun other ships and gradually offload everything with drive-bys. A crew member falling overboard into shark infested waters should be a big deal, or a daring tactic against opponents. It's the most casual inconsequential thing though, because respawning or catching a mermaid costs nothing.
A number of ideas have been brought up for how this should be balanced, but there are always players who reject making the game an actual challenge.
- Mermaids should only surface after being summoned by an instrument or something, not just appear automatically. That way they don't expose people trying to make sneak attacks.
- Using a mermaid should leave behind all your consumables, eliminating the ability to farm resources without stopping for them.
- Using the mermaids service should cost a reasonably priced gold fee, to discourage carelessly diving overboard as a boarding tactic.
- Dying should cause you to drop all your consumables (bananas/planks/cannonballs, etc)
These changes would make players weigh the risk vs reward of tactics like diving overboard in a chase or combat, and it adds consequences that reinstate the spirit of the game.
This isn't abusing a game mechanic. That is a legit strategy that we've used to stop galleons from looting our hard earned treasure at outposts. Git Gud.
Also, as a 3 man crew we got a skeleton key amidst 3 other galleons trying to do the fort. I had the key on the boat, jumped off on an island with it sneakily, the galleons chased our ship for a long time then we scuttled. I waited, my crew came picked me back up, 10 minutes later we looted fort NO opposition.
Again, git gud.
The more and more people reply with constructive (and unconstructive) criticism, the more and more I am falling into the camp that there shouldn’t be mermaid respawning or respawning back on your ship after death.
I am not against people using the tools they are given and I don’t blame a single user for working with what they have. But is this mechanic the best for gameplay?
It’s a pirate game and I can’t even steal a ship! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pirate movie, tv show, read a book, or played a game where ships weren’t stolen.
Yes, I know I can board a ship and begin sailing it, but then the crew will just endlessly try to spawn back on the ship every 30 seconds and I have to sit there and spawn camp them. Or they’ll eventually wisen up and just scuttle the ship.
How great would it be if you could steal a ship and sell it at an outpost? Or use it as part of your ‘fleet’. You’d have to divide your crew to handle both ships and while having two ships would obviously provide some advantages, they would each be undermanned as a disadvantage and that would maybe balance things out? (Honestly not sure if that would be OP or not). But for a game that is supposed to be about open free for all gameplay and customization, I find it very odd that you can’t do one of the most piratey things out there!
I am starting to get off topic though, my point was that because of the respawn system you can’t steal a ship and that hurts gameplay IMO.
Does anyone else have suggestions on how to balance it?
Mermaids take you near your ship, but on water. Not near enough to get on it on the go, so the ship should stop or at least slow down to minimum for the crew to get on.
Easy to script (I make games for a living too), you can use it to get back to your ship whenever you want, but you can't use it for cashing your loot and back.
Still, you could just raise the sail without dropping anchor and sell the chests, so when you take the mermaid your ship will be almost stopped already.
Everybody happy?
Can't say I use the tactic much as a solo player, as it's too time consuming when compared to stopping and unloading everything.
That's not to say I have not thought of it / realised it's possible. And i'd def use it if needed, just haven't come across the right circumstances to justify it yet.
I'd agree it seems like an unintentional use of the mechanic. However the majority of solutions I see suggested would only cause issues elsewhere.
The mermaid isn't just used for smart / alternative strats. It's also the only respawn mechanic we have!
Consider the lone single player, who's just on his way back to his ship having dug it up on the far side of an island to find his ship has been sunk by a random passer-by, just because it was there.
I know i'd definitely feel a bit sour having to pay the mermaid to re spawn in this situation should that solution offered be implemented, because I can only be in one place at a time. And even if I saw the ship attacking - there just wouldn't be any means of getting back and stopping the inevitable by that point.
Another suggestion was to only be able to use the mermaid if the ships anchored. - How would that work for me? I'm on land and the ship is now gone!
So difficult to find a workable solution to this without causing further issues.
@soulless-rager 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.:
@mysticdragon297
Abusing mermaids has been a problem from the beginning. Drive-by drop-offs, or endlessly diving overboard to try climbing onto pursuing ships, or collecting passing resources without stopping, etc. These things break the spirit of the game.If you see a collection of barrels drifting by in barrels, or an island with resources on it, you should have to decide if it's worth stopping for. If you have a ship loaded with treasure that you're trying to cash in, you should have to tactically outsmart your pursuers in realistic ways. I remember devs talking early on of players potentially deciding to ditch lower value loot overboard in an attempt to distract pursuers buying them an escape. This isn't necessary when you can infinitely outrun other ships and gradually offload everything with drive-bys. A crew member falling overboard into shark infested waters should be a big deal, or a daring tactic against opponents. It's the most casual inconsequential thing though, because respawning or catching a mermaid costs nothing.
A number of ideas have been brought up for how this should be balanced, but there are always players who reject making the game an actual challenge.
- Mermaids should only surface after being summoned by an instrument or something, not just appear automatically. That way they don't expose people trying to make sneak attacks.
- Using a mermaid should leave behind all your consumables, eliminating the ability to farm resources without stopping for them.
- Using the mermaids service should cost a reasonably priced gold fee, to discourage carelessly diving overboard as a boarding tactic.
- Dying should cause you to drop all your consumables (bananas/planks/cannonballs, etc)
These changes would make players weigh the risk vs reward of tactics like diving overboard in a chase or combat, and it adds consequences that reinstate the spirit of the game.
It's a casual game for cosmetics. You are worried about people abusing a mechanic that you can abuse yourself. You're also stating that people should potentially lose their resources when using a mermaid even though they lose nothing when they die? Doesn't make much sense.
It's also stupid to have to forfeit your resources because you fell overboard after a careless step, and the crew doesn't wanna stop to pick you up.
Nah, I'm not feeling it. Too many variables, too many bugs, and you're worried about someone getting an extra 5 planks, and 10 cannon balls on the fly... which would take roughly a minute or more to collect from floating barrels then find the mermaid and swim to it once it triggers, then respawn through the 15+ second white screen all while running the risk of getting eaten by sharks and having to wait through an even longer scenario on the ferry. There's risk involved. If it pays off, good for that crew, but they are down a man for at least a minute or two while he collects from barrels or tries, but likely fails, to board your ship.
Again, we constantly spin tires on subjects that are not actually broken, but people want to blame their defeats and shortcomings on, so they aren't "legitimately bested". Pride is the true enemy in this game.
@face-0-o Well silly billy, that's what rowboats will be for...(hope rare sees this response.) Maybe institute a timer on the boat where after the players are off-board for let's five minutes, the boat just starts sinking. This would actually be kinda cool, giving players who may be facing 2-1 boat odds, the ability to commandeer an enemy ship and turn the tide of battle for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile the dead pirates are at the nearest outpost, freshly resurrected from an order of souls alter, playing cards, dueling, fisticuff(ing), and fishing while waiting on the shipwright to build them a new boat (3-5 minute endeavor)
@anubis0311 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.:
@face-0-o Well silly billy, that's what rowboats will be for...(hope rare sees this response.) Maybe institute a timer on the boat where after the players are off-board for let's five minutes, the boat just starts sinking. This would actually be kinda cool, giving players who may be facing 2-1 boat odds, the ability to commandeer an enemy ship and turn the tide of battle for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile the dead pirates are at the nearest outpost, freshly resurrected from an order of souls alter, playing cards, dueling, fisticuff(ing), and fishing while waiting on the shipwright to build them a new boat (3-5 minute endeavor)
Yeah we're not getting rowboats dude. No official word, just rumor and speculation.
@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.
Just like how people think outpost camping is a legit tactic(r******d) this is a perfectly legitimate tactic as well.
Sorry your outpost camping isn’t going good for you. Maybe try actually fighting someone 😂😂😂
I love doing this to campers. Makes my day when they get nothing after god knows how long being lazy and just sitting there waiting for someone
@face-0-o 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.:
@anubis0311 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.:
@face-0-o Well silly billy, that's what rowboats will be for...(hope rare sees this response.) Maybe institute a timer on the boat where after the players are off-board for let's five minutes, the boat just starts sinking. This would actually be kinda cool, giving players who may be facing 2-1 boat odds, the ability to commandeer an enemy ship and turn the tide of battle for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile the dead pirates are at the nearest outpost, freshly resurrected from an order of souls alter, playing cards, dueling, fisticuff(ing), and fishing while waiting on the shipwright to build them a new boat (3-5 minute endeavor)
Yeah we're not getting rowboats dude. No official word, just rumor and speculation.
Yeah I haven’t seen anything official either, but there is a jetty on the icon/tile for the game and there’s one on the loading screen (with pirates crewing it). Seems silly to put something like that on your loading screen and not have it end up in game.
@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.:
@timidobserver 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.:
@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.:
@timidobserver
and the actual topic?both of our crews worked hard. we completed some of the waves too.
@mysticdragon297 My response relates to the topic. I am fine with players having an option to avoid being robbed at the outpost by the lazy people. Jumping people off the ship with that much treasure at different outposts is risky and time consuming.
my point is that it is not risky at all. not as much as actually docking a ship and turning in the entire reward. plus it is clearly taking advantage of game mechanics that are clearly not supposed to be used in such ways.
Yep, just like outpost camping. And yeah you will need to prove it is not an intended use before you throw around “facts” like that 👍
I wanted to take a minute to thank the vast majority of contributors to this thread for keeping this mostly civil. Obviously this is a hot topic that most of us will probably have to simply agree to disagree. But with that being said it’s good to see the vast majority of us providing constructive feedback/criticism and not having this melt down into immature comments and personal attacks.
@anubis0311 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.:
@face-0-o Well silly billy, that's what rowboats will be for...(hope rare sees this response.) Maybe institute a timer on the boat where after the players are off-board for let's five minutes, the boat just starts sinking. This would actually be kinda cool, giving players who may be facing 2-1 boat odds, the ability to commandeer an enemy ship and turn the tide of battle for a couple of minutes. Meanwhile the dead pirates are at the nearest outpost, freshly resurrected from an order of souls alter, playing cards, dueling, fisticuff(ing), and fishing while waiting on the shipwright to build them a new boat (3-5 minute endeavor)
I really do not like the idea of a boat sinking after X amount of time because the crew is not on board.
What I do really like is the idea that it should take time for the shipwright to build your crew a new ship after it was sunk.
Here's my take on it. In this game you have a lot of people who like to troll, which means they'll keep attacking the same player over and over, and it's a pain. Now I'll attack a the same player at least once, and at the most twice, and leave them alone. Now I've run into the problem where they just keep coming, and when your sailing alone, it's very nice to be able to jump ship, turn in the loot, and then do it again, when you have a relentless troll on your tail. When your sailing alone it's rather difficult to deal with such trolls, so no I don't think they should patch this mermaid spawn, you just need a better strategy, I do however think they should do something ( if they can ) about scuttling a ship, because if you end up taking a ship from another player, and that player scuttles it, right away, that I think is...... I don't wanna use unfair, but I can't think of another word for it. You as a player stole that ship fair, and square, there for you should be able to sail off with it. now in terms of scuttling it when your being chased, I have no problem with, but I'm also not against the idea of some penalty when you scuttle a ship that is barely damaged.
I tend to agree with the op on this one... sure you can do all those things that are suggested solutions, but Is having to use mancannons and mermaid abuse really satisfying gameplay for anyone??? Not me lol. Sure it’s effective, and I get the whole “why would I use a less effective method if there is a better option” argument. Which means to avoid this type of tactic rare needs to rework mermaids and possibly docking ships to gain a bonus on turn in.
I get both sides but isn’t this forum for feedback and ideas to improve on the game, while the explanation of options is sometimes all that’s needed, in this case a change would be welcome imo.. a mermaid timer or an item with a timer to call your mermaid or something, allowing this to happen but less frequently and consistently in a chase situation.
@jakeguy59 Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are complaining that using mermaids in that fashion breaks the realism of the game, yet doing that is purely by choice. What I've read is that you are purposefully going out of your way to use this tactic, yet complain that it makes it too easy. You could maybe try and not use it? This could help with some of the realism aspect on your part, This game isn't intended to be the most realistic and immersive game, more of a fun semi-casual sandbox for people to enjoy and make their own adventure.
"My crew was doing the same thing last night. Except we weren’t in combat. We were just lazy and exploiting the game. We had loot that we wanted to turn in but we didn’t feel like stopping to turn it in. So we just sailed past an outpost and had someone jump overboard with the loot. They swam to shore and turned it in. We all got the $$ and we all got the reputation. Our crew member then was able to just miraculously spawn back onto our ship. The ship never slowed."
That statement alone goes to show that part of the problem lies within you and your crew because you were lazy. Practice what you preach, otherwise it just becomes a paradox of hypocrisy.
@soulless-rager said in
Abusing mermaids has been a problem from the beginning. Drive-by drop-offs, or endlessly diving overboard to try climbing onto pursuing ships, or collecting passing resources without stopping, etc. These things break the spirit of the game.
If you see a collection of barrels drifting by in barrels, or an island with resources on it, you should have to decide if it's worth stopping for. If you have a ship loaded with treasure that you're trying to cash in, you should have to tactically outsmart your pursuers in realistic ways. I remember devs talking early on of players potentially deciding to ditch lower value loot overboard in an attempt to distract pursuers buying them an escape. This isn't necessary when you can infinitely outrun other ships and gradually offload everything with drive-bys. A crew member falling overboard into shark infested waters should be a big deal, or a daring tactic against opponents. It's the most casual inconsequential thing though, because respawning or catching a mermaid costs nothing.
A number of ideas have been brought up for how this should be balanced, but there are always players who reject making the game an actual challenge.
- Mermaids should only surface after being summoned by an instrument or something, not just appear automatically. That way they don't expose people trying to make sneak attacks.
- Using a mermaid should leave behind all your consumables, eliminating the ability to farm resources without stopping for them.
- Using the mermaids service should cost a reasonably priced gold fee, to discourage carelessly diving overboard as a boarding tactic.
- Dying should cause you to drop all your consumables (bananas/planks/cannonballs, etc)
These changes would make players weigh the risk vs reward of tactics like diving overboard in a chase or combat, and it adds consequences that reinstate the spirit of the game.
I participate in all these mechanics you are complaining about because it is part of the game and current meta. You like to say "spirit of the game" which is something you created. It's actually "part of the game" with zero spirit involved. Efficiency is key.
This is a sailing game with long journeys, you want people to have to raise sails and/or drop anchor at a patch of floating barrels in the water. Adding 5 minutes to my journey. For immersion? Spirit? Realism?
This is a game with respawns. People are going a little too far with the realism and/or abuse posts at times. Some of your points are a little stronger then others of course. But you spent zero time thinking about where you ideas fall short.
An example of you not thinking this through is on display with your SUMMON a MERMAID with an INSTRUMENT suggestion so it doesn't ruin sneak attacks. Of course it sucks when a mermaid ruins your sneak attack on the seas...BUT!!! The reason a mermaid should always spawn and there NEVER be an option to turn it off is so that if you pull up at an outpost and there isn't a ship there and someone is hiding you will know a player is on the island somewhere.
It is easy to say stuff and think it's perfect but it would be broken immediately if you had your way. Especially in crews that have random players involved. 2 strangers on a sloop or a galleon full of solo queue players.
You want to see people punished for trying to board ships ALSO KNOWN AS...have fun.
You also said you should have to tactically outsmart your pursuers in realistic ways. Lol. First off, USING, not ABUSING the mermaid to fly by an outpost and drop off one chest at a time is outsmarting someone. But you said realistic which is another lol. This game isn't realistic. You can shoot players out of cannons kind sir. You chose to ignore this next situation:
You have 5+ items on your ship to turn in. Multiple trips back to your boat to turn them in. Another player or crew is following you, not gaining on you, but following you and they know you have loot and are willing to follow you for hours. It is a sailing game with simple wind mechanics. There is nothing wrong with someone doing a fly-by loot drop. They will never catch me and they likely have nothing to lose while I do. Fighting them would be silly and running for an hour or more trying to out maneuver them so you can buy yourself 2+ minutes at the dock to drop stuff off. That is just silly.
You seem to not want people to keep resources they have on them when mermaiding even though technically they are just being efficient. You just want them to have to waste 5 minutes due to what you deem to be realism. You want people to lose their resources when they die...why exactly? So a fresh spawn of 4 noobs that are strangers queue for a galleon and they all grab 10 cannonballs and 5 bananas and 5 planks and one of them runs off the dock and the ship leaves without him he mermaids back to the ship and they already lost 20 items. Great idea.
Charging people gold to mermaid. Wow. Because they are trying to engage in the type of fun wild PVP RARE designed the game around. You want people to be afraid and cautious and not try fun stuff like launching players in cannons for that perfect deck landing all in the name of fun and sillyness.
@mysticdragon297
Yesterday I played as a single player in a sloop and was trying to dig a chest up not to far from an outpost but I noticed another sloop looming in the distance. So as I fought skeletons while digging I kept an eye on the sloop which never seemed to dock anywhere but constantly kept watch on me so about three times I got on my ship to move and even once aimed my ship a bit in their direction to keep em at bay.Well after like a boring 20 or so minutes I said screw it I will just dig treasure and then return to nearby outpost. However I noticed they recently parked their sloop between me and the outpost. So I cautiously sailed in a small loop to pass them and what do you know, they shot and missed twice.
Now just because they lazily outnumbered and camped me, I in turn left my ship sail past outpost to hop off on other side to sell my treasure which was worked out. Then they got on land to continue camping outside the hut I was in and our gun battle wasn't going anywhere. Guess what happened next, I logged out. They were being lazy, I was being smart !
They want to waste my time, so I will waste theirs.@just-a-showoff 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 Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are complaining that using mermaids in that fashion breaks the realism of the game, yet doing that is purely by choice. What I've read is that you are purposefully going out of your way to use this tactic, yet complain that it makes it too easy. You could maybe try and not use it? This could help with some of the realism aspect on your part, This game isn't intended to be the most realistic and immersive game, more of a fun semi-casual sandbox for people to enjoy and make their own adventure.
"My crew was doing the same thing last night. Except we weren’t in combat. We were just lazy and exploiting the game. We had loot that we wanted to turn in but we didn’t feel like stopping to turn it in. So we just sailed past an outpost and had someone jump overboard with the loot. They swam to shore and turned it in. We all got the $$ and we all got the reputation. Our crew member then was able to just miraculously spawn back onto our ship. The ship never slowed."
That statement alone goes to show that part of the problem lies within you and your crew because you were lazy. Follow what you preach, otherwise it just become a paradox of hypocrisy.
Sure my crew and I could role play it and not take advantage of the strategy if we wanted to.
My point is that we understand the use of the strategy; we use it ourselves. But, that does not mean that I actually like it being there.
I’d be a fool to not use the most effective strategy in a situation.
Again, as I’ve said before, I don’t blame players for using it. What I find hard to believe is that the mermaid spawn system was implemented to be used in this manor. Maybe it was. Won’t know until a developer comments.
I would guess that the mermaid spawn was intended to be used if you got marooned on an island or if your ship sank at sea with you still being alive. It’s a way to get you back into action.
I could easily be wrong (and won’t be proven wrong until a developer comments) that it wasn’t intended to be used for dropping off loot on sail-bys, grabbing resources from barrels at sea without having to stop, or launching to an island to scout/loot it for resources and then spawn directly back on the ship.
Again I could be wrong, but to me it seems like players are taking advantage of the system (not cheating).
@sneakler
I think having mermaids charge you a small fee to bring you back to your ship could be a great idea, along with loosing resources you just gathered. It would make people actually think ( unless their super rich ) twice about jumping ship, just to get stuff, and what not, and maybe handle the out post ship jumping differently for that situation, like that bonus for docking idea another person posted. Like if your no where near an out post they charge you, but if your at an outpost you don't get a major boost in reward for turning things in unless you dock. I think something along those lines would be great.
