Maybe I am alone here but I do not think I have ever completed one merchant quest on my own. Did quite a few with buddies for the old athenas. Never liked it. I purposely only bought merchant levels because I dread doing it (I swallow my pride, i am one of those players). Then... Cargo runs came out. This was great for one reason... it replaced real merchants for the athenas and you do not even have to deliver anything to get credit! Needless to say, cargo runs themselves might be worse than catching chickens! So, the point... what can possibly be done to make the merchant faction better? It is long overdue!
Will merchant ever be good?
@acebead40319154 I like merchant, it force to do something different and think a bit before doing things.
But in my opinion, merchant need a complet overhaul : where you buy things at low cost at an outpost or seapost and go to an other seapost or outpost to sell it at high price.
With maybe each place to have a smugling cargo with high value but REAL danger.
And lonely skeleton ship should be replace by navy doing some run between outpost to stop smuggler.It's not a perfect exemple, but with something like that people will really do merchant and not be a postman.
@acebead40319154 selling supplies maybe... ?
Merchant is dieing (people don't do it anymore, just use the fort loot to level up) and will die definitely with the arena if Rare don't do nothing about it.
We know new players won't need to grind merchant anymore to reach legend.@acebead40319154 said in Will merchant ever be good?:
@lethality1 well there is one! How could they make it better for someone that likes it then?
Oh how much time do you have?! :)
One thing would be optional deliveries based on distance from it's origination point - the further out you deliver something, the more it's worth!
Another might be cooperative cargo... something bigger than a crate, call it "bin" that has to be carried by 2 players, 1 walking backwards and the other navigating? (Seems to fit the SoT vibe!)
I could go on and on! :)
@nunoazuldimeter At level 50 Merchant, the voyages you can get are to deliver a total of 2 chickens. You really can't progress much if the amount of items doesn't scale with promotion. I know the Cargo Runs are scaled, but I personally find collecting chickens much better than hoping the crate of rum doesn't accidentally break.
I never did mind completing merchant missions. Before the roar, picking merchant missions with high numbers of gold animals was the fastest way to generate gold. Where else could you consistently generate 25K+ gold an hour? I would spend days before new content releases running merchant missions so that I would have the gold saved up for new cosmetics. This probably explains why I have so much more merchant cargo than skull or chests turned in... I have been called a "chicken farmer" on more than one occasion by people I sail(ed) with. I can understand why some dislike them though.
@acebead40319154 - I mainly do merchant voyages as I find them relaxing and more profitable than the others. If you have good knowledge of the world you can complete them pretty quick and earn a lot of gold quickly.
Yes there's things that can be tweeked, added, etc ... but the same can be said for the other trading companies. I do OoS the least as it's just sail here, fight skeletons, sail there, fight slightly harder skeletons ... rinse & repeat.
There's been loads of great ideas from the community around all the TC's and with Rare constantly evolving the game I'm sure we'll see some of these ideas down the track.
I love catching a boat full animals and then start voyages to deliver them to all outpost its relaxing and exciting not getting in a fight with cargo.
The cargo runs i find annoying because they run on time so i cant hoard a lot of cargo making it inefficiënt say a lot of sailing for little profit and too much pve encounters..
I would like to buy cargo on sale at one outpost and deliver on demand to another. Risk vs reward on how much i invest and how much cargo i carry but the risk of losing all. For pirates you get a cargo worth stealing. Crates of tea and sugar etc. Then you have real merchants for real pirates.
@acebead40319154 I've always been a fan of MA. They were the first faction I hit 50 with because I found it quite relaxing to do when sailing alone. Once you learn which islands spawn which animal it all becomes quite an easy/chilled grind, for the most part at least.
I know they're the least popular, but it's each to their own I guess!
Here's what they need to do with existing game mechanics:
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make a cargo run that involves spending a lot on 1 voyage for a massive payout of like 1 precious fragile cargo
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make a rare chicken, pig, or snake that gives 10k gold when you do it for a voyage
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make a mini skull fort voyage that rewards random crates of tea, spices, etc.
I too hated merchant, I had 0 merchant voyages done when I hit pirate legend, my rep was from forts and old athenas. I'm looking at 500 cargo deliveries in perfect condition for the merchant items and I hate it more than 500 skelly ships
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I quite like MA voyages. I do them a good bit when I'm soloing during the middle of the day, but it's quite a chilled experience, and little more excitement wouldn't go amiss.
I'm kind of disappointed that the Kraken and Meg kills weren't more tied to the Merchant faction as it was kind of hinted in dialogue with the traders. My guess is that's the way they were going to go but changed their minds as it could be seen as adding trophy kills to the game - not a good look.
@realstyli I think you're right. The least they could do is have krakens and megs defeated under merchant instead of athena.
@RealStyli agreed makes sense that the biggest threats to trading, past the pirates, should be on the MA hit list.
As for finding MA missions boring, yeah I mean sure its fetch and carry like most of the mission (maybe a touch more tedious than normal) I usually do them solo while chilling out waiting for other peeps to jump on.
On another note why are my rum bottles always the first things to be hit whenever some PVE event starts while carrying them :(
When I first started playing I thought that merchant was going to be the lead boot of the trading companies ... but then OoS began to show its true colours! As it stands, I actually ENJOY merchant, and especially the new cargo missions unless they're part of an Athena.
What I want to see next is postal missions - being given a bag of letters and delivering them to all the NPCs across the Sea of Thieves!
I think one thing they could do is add fluctuations to the prices of cargo at different outposts, like a stock market per say..
So then you can buy banana, wood, cannonball crates amongst other items and try and find the best place to sell them for a tidy profit.
And maybe the more profit you make the more reputation you are awarded.
I believe it would make it interesting because you would also have to put your own gold on the line which would be a risk off its own so you will probably want to take extra precautions so you don’t get pirated.Plus you carry cargo thats worth hunting and stealing.
At the moment when pirates get me and i get boarded if they see the cargo or animals they often say its ok and i can continue.. they dont take the cargo it has no value to them -.- thats a real problem to make merchant exciting and for pirates its not fun to catch..
The changes I would like to see:
Instead of the voyages to catch 2 golden, 2 black and 1 red snake the voyage would require you to collect 5 snakes of your choice. This would improve it a lot.
Instead of getting the cages you could buy 5 cages of each per an in-game day and outpost. Also it should be possible to buy the empty banana/wood/cannonball crates.
For the cargo runs:
Always load up the cargo at the spot you are at. If you start the voyage near seapost you get it at that specific seapost.
The cargo runs should also be bigger - 16 items for level 50. That makes it 4 items per a person of galleon.
Also I wouldn't mind a new type of cargo runs that would have multiple stops.
Fe: Take items from A to B, then from B to C. Or from A, B, C to D.I will admit, I was shocked to see so many positives in general (lol) given the mood lately but also positives surrounding merchants. Hats off to everyone who loves merchant. Seems like something people enjoy because it is relaxing and I will say my buddy likes cargo runs for that reason. Also, love the idea of multiple delivery locations.
@nunoazuldimeter said in Will merchant ever be good?:
@acebead40319154 selling supplies maybe... ?
I mean, that's patently not true. I run at least one cargo and animal mission every day....
.............. stupid commendations.
I don't mind merchants, I just don't love them. I raised it to 50 well before cargo runs were introduced and had my fair share of pig feeding and snek calming.
That said, I just don't think they fit well within the games overall design as they currently are, and the introduction of bone dust and various other methods of gaining random merchant items is really a bandaid over this core issue. It feels like the result of a "what could be fun alternative activities" brainstorming session, rather than a carefully considered activity that builds synergy with the rest of the game.
In my opinion the primary role of a merchant is to make money, and to have agency over that by understanding trade in the world. A flat rate on cargo just makes this uninteresting. The joy in haggling/finding a good price and combining that with a large supply of cargo to sell to game the system and make a good profit is just completely absent. The only way to really make an above average take is to hope for a good voyage and to sail as fast as you can. Which is fine, but hardly breath taking.
It is one of the few activities in the game that actively dissuades you from taking part in any other emergent activity that may be happening around you that risks conflict of any kind. Sinking a ship that has merchant/cargo items is just a disappointment for both sides. It promotes fleeing, rather than defending. Particularly due to the fact that conflict can occur by random chance (meg, skele ships, kraken).
I would prefer visiting sea posts and outposts to find what the most valued items of the day are, and holding on to a large stock of items so I can take advantage of this. At the same time running a risk by holding onto cargo that it might be taken by pirates because it is of value to them and not easily ruined by a stray cannonball. This adds choice, do I defend my cargo, or attempt to flee and sell it all at the closest outpost but perhaps at a non-favourable price, or do I fight. It also promotes travel around the world, spreading out the ships and increasing their chance of encountering each other.
Just my 2 cents.
I liked doing the merchant quests if I was in the mood for something casual. Merchant quest were all I did for awhile if I was solo slooping. None of my friends liked merchant quests, so I would do gold horders and order of souls with them and I would do merchant quests if I was playing by myself. By the time you level merchant quests up to 30 you start getting the quests where you make a TON of gold for easy work.
If you are trying to avoid conflict while doing merchant quests, my suggestion is that you try to roll a good one at Galleon's Grave because the outpost you need to deliver to is (almost?) always at Daggertooth, which is only 2 islands over. Plus, Sunken Grove is between the two outpost and its easy for finding snakes and pigs.
@macdoland I would love a simple in game economy like this. I think it would add a good amount of depth to the MA like you stated. While I don't mind MA the way it is, I think that a slight change like this where usable items as well as the MA cargo like chickens, etc. could be sold at a higher value would be great. It could even be incorporated into the events - maybe there's a shortage of Gold Striped pigs and they become extremely hard to find during the event, which makes them even more valuable at certain Outposts. I think it could add a lot of interesting stories.
I honestly think that the amount of gold and rep you get from selling animals outside a contract needs to get buffed. As of right now, I believe it's still barely a fraction of what you would get with a contract. It also might entice people to actually bother picking up random animal crates when they encounter them.
@blam320 Why would you turn in animals without a contract? When I want to use random crates, I grab a black or golden animal and buy contracts to deliver them. I may have to discard a couple, but the payout far exceeds the cost of a couple of contracts. Before discarding a voyage you don’t like, grab all the empty crates from the merchant to fill with more black and gold animals. A session focused on this results in a lot of quick and easy gold.
@KnifeLife – I’ve always hoped the blackboard at outposts would come into use with what items that merchant is looking for. I’d like to see the crates (tea, sugar, spices, etc..) used for this. Along with higher payouts, they could have lower payouts meaning you'd need to gain knowledge to get a better payday.
@Archaell – Not sure having a catch any coloured animal would benefit the MA. If you choose the right islands (small to medium), you’ll get what you need in under a minute (per island). If it was catch any colour, why would players catch anything other than gold animals?
Also disagree cargo runs need to be larger. I helped someone complete the gilded MA (50 crates) and the reward didn’t match the effort. We did it on a sloop and had to outrun a meg, skellie ship & other pirates. If I lose 6-8 items due to damage (PvP or PvE threat) I can handle, if it’s 16 plus like you suggest, I’d not be too pleased. I’d also like to see some hardy cargo that the longer you have it on-board the greater its value.
I actually liked the original merchants. Not big on the new voyages for them, but here are some ideas I have.
Change Banana/Wood/Cannonball crates to work like cargo runs (have a delivery note on them when you find them washed up) and remove the bottle voyages for them.
Add Animal capture voyages that require you to capture a snake that can't be charmed, a really mean rooster, and a boar (all 3 would attack you relentlessly). Maybe have these animals summon-able? Like the voyage tells you to go to the top of old faithful and play a tune and -BAM- angry boar appears. OOO! We could make them skeletons! Skele snake, rooster, and boar.
I feel like I could brainstorm a few more ideas for merchants. I feel like it could be the best faction if we keep adding variety to the voyages available for it.
@tartansnake The coloured animal voyages aren't balanced when compared to the other reputations.
The Gold Hoarders send you to an island with the map of treasure, you find a random chest which you can sell anywhere.
For The Order of Souls you have to search for the enemies, but they move in zombie herds and the music changes. Again they drop random skulls which you can sell anywhere.
The animal voyages require that you find the island with the said animal. Even if you know where the animals are, the animals of the smaller islands are often all dead so you have to change islands. Then you need to find the specific variant of the said animal. After you catch the animal it needs the bananas / music / not getting killed management while you get it to the specific outpost in specific time. The specific outpost is probably the worst part, because it leaves you vulnurable to PvP and PvE encounters.
The main problem with the cargo runs are the bottles - the shallow waters and players/island cannons/skeletons/ghost ships/megs/kraken/storm/vulcanos all damage these. The cloth can be kept on the shelf and stay safe most of the time - you just have to park close to shore, avoid rain and keep it on the high shelf. The flower has to be watered, but you can fill your ship up with water, or it happens during the pvpve encounters naturally. To save the bottles you have to pick them up and throw them over board (be it in the rowboat or not) which means you can't continue to the end destination. The bigger shipments make it less likely to get mostly the bottles and the travel time gets shorter which increases the payout while having the downside of bigger stuff to take care of.
The Gilded voages are better than the normal voyages. Of course the more you have on board the bigger management and risk of damage. But you have the choice to carry 20 or all 50 at once.
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