Emissaries able to drop their flag to easily.

  • Tommy
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    The current system for Voting down the Emissary flag is too easy. If a player or their ship has been engaged in combat there needs to be a timer of some sort to prevent running to outpost, crashing into the island and voting down the flag. It makes playing as the Reapers Bones with the recent flag changes a chase system with no combat.

    1. Once in combat a timer begins somewhere in the range of 20-30 minutes until it resets, or if the ship you are in combat in is sunk you can then vote the flag down.
    2. You should be required to have the anchor down to vote the flag down. The reason because people will run to an outpost and circle the island shooting each crew member one by one to vote down the flag, preventing any chance of earning a flag.
    3. Emissary Bonus voyage should require Grade 5 Flag to be up while doing it. It's illogical to have an "Emissary Voyage" being done without representing that company at grade 5. You could technically have a different company's flag up and do it at the moment, which defeats the purpose of "representing" said company.
    4. Could make voting down the flag create a timer until you can represent that company again, unless you reached grade 5 and completed the emissary voyage proving you are truly there to represent the company.

    It's frustrating enough to deal with players that don't want to fight while running an emissary flag and it becomes a chase for any amount of time until they crash into an outpost to vote their flag down. Removing the "High Risk" from the High Risk - High Reward System in which it's supposed to be.

    I love the new system, but with some tweaks it could be phenomenal.

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  • D3ADST1CK
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    @tommy said in Emissaries able to drop their flag to easily.:

    1. Once in combat a timer begins somewhere in the range of 20-30 minutes until it resets, or if the ship you are in combat in is sunk you can then vote the flag down.

    So I can prevent anyone from lowering their flag simply by sailing by and firing a single cannonball at them?

    That doesn't sound like a good idea.

  • Nabberwar
    Lord
    Insider

    Having a timer around 20-30 minutes seems extremely high. At the very most it should be 1-3 minutes. Enough time to reward people who can actually escape a chase with enough of a lead on them. Also give players the means to interrupt the timer if they do catch them.

    Right now it is much easier dropping a flag than it is having to haul a chest. At least the chest takes time to get moved while also can be contested. When you cash a chest out, its gone. Yet when you cash out Emissaries the boat still remains there mocking you. It just feels strange over all.

  • Sam Bell3358
    Castaway

    @nabberwar it's your choice to attack them

  • WheeledMender30
    Commander
    Insider

    @tommy said in Emissaries able to drop their flag to easily.:

    1. Emissary Bonus voyage should require Grade 5 Flag to be up while doing it. It's illogical to have an "Emissary Voyage" being done without representing that company at grade 5. You could technically have a different company's flag up and do it at the moment, which defeats the purpose of "representing" said company.

    This. I don't get why they haven't done this yet over nerfing emissary gain.

  • D3ADST1CK
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    @wheeledmender30 said in Emissaries able to drop their flag to easily.:

    This. I don't get why they haven't done this yet over nerfing emissary gain.

    Probably because there is no link between your voyage wheel and how your ship is equipped, so they have no way to cancel voyages if the ship status changes.

  • Schwammlgott
    Legend

    @tommy that's a legit tactic imo...would do it the same way, but only if I sold everything before...

    1. Agree, the emissary voyage should disappear when the flag is lowered
  • Schwammlgott
    Legend

    @tommy 2. I almost never anchor, and I don't want to forced to do that, so NO

  • Tommy
    Commander
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    @schwammlgott Understandable. I am trying to post some brainstorming style improvements and there is no way they're all perfect. Something to get ideas flowing to where the system can get better.

  • Tommy
    Commander
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    Founder

    @d3adst1ck Could be that a single shot is a shorter timer, but an actual ship battle after certain damage would increase the window of not being able to vote down. Say a single shot/minute with a max of 20 hits adding to the cool down. Good thinking because it helps possibly improve. Again I'm not saying any of my suggestions are definite fixes, but they are there to hopefully spark some conversation to improve the Risk / Reward system since currently the Rewards are incredibly high compared to the risks.

  • D3ADST1CK
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    Convoluted hit counters and timers aren't going to work very well. If you want the flag to take more "effort" to bring down, just have the vote take longer to initiate or make the flag an item that needs to be taken down on the ship and cashed in just like a chest.

    Trying to manage the number of hits which trigger a counter that then gets modified by more hits, and hits expiring after a certain amount of time.... way too confusing and cumbersome to manage on both the server end and also to appropriately convey to the end user why they can't lower their flag and how long they have to sit and wait before being able to do so.

  • TariousX
    Marauder
    Insider

    I would like to point out that Reapers can significantly increase rep with Reapers Chests, Fort items etc. Usually chasing someone across the map who constantly runs is a waste of time anyway imo.

    Making a 20 min to 30 min timer is a bit much, but a 1 min to 3 min timer after being struck by another crew would not be a bad idea. If they can evade you that's a win for them as Pirates run just as much as they fight, at least the smart ones do. Sometimes running is better and shouldn't necessarily be punished.

    Just a thought.

  • ViperishEmu2992
    Marauder

    Who does this? Seriously? Who would take the time and energy to vote down an Emissary Flag?

    I'm not saying that it has never happened. But sailing into the Red Sea is so much easier.

  • BurnBacon
    Champion
    Insider

    Seems someone just upset over chasing a ship and having them drop near an outpost and lower the flag. Thus wasting your time and there’s.

    If you want the flag. Be “sneaky” about it. You know...how you tuck?

  • SurveyorPete
    Legend
    Insider

    @d3adst1ck

    | This. I don't get why they haven't done this yet over nerfing emissary gain.
    Probably because there is no link between your voyage wheel and how your ship is equipped, so they have no way to cancel voyages if the ship status changes.

    A merchant alliance quest found in a bottle or barrel will expire, and be automatically removed from the quest wheel if it expires. It should not be hard to flag the four, or so, maps that you get for a free Emissary quest as being "flag dependent". If your flag is voted down, any remaining maps so flagged could simply be removed.

    Right now: Yes. Right now, there is probably is no way cancel voyages if the ship status changes but, it is not something that seems impossible to add.

    I agree with this idea. Reducing the reward for voting down the flag (Level 5 from 15,000 to 5,000) might have been an easy "fix" to the problem of people farming one free Emissary quest after another; but it was a blunt attempt and not really effective. Deleting all (remaining) free Emissary quest maps if the flag is voted down would be a much more elegant solution, and could allow the cash-in value of the flags to be reverted to their original values.

  • D3ADST1CK
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    @surveyorpete said in Emissaries able to drop their flag to easily.:

    @d3adst1ck

    | This. I don't get why they haven't done this yet over nerfing emissary gain.
    Probably because there is no link between your voyage wheel and how your ship is equipped, so they have no way to cancel voyages if the ship status changes.

    A merchant alliance quest found in a bottle or barrel will expire, and be automatically removed from the quest wheel if it expires. It should not be hard to flag the four, or so, maps that you get for a free Emissary quest as being "flag dependent". If your flag is voted down, any remaining maps so flagged could simply be removed.

    Right now: Yes. Right now, there is probably is no way cancel voyages if the ship status changes but, it is not something that seems impossible to add.

    I didn't say it was impossible, I said that right now they do not have the framework for it so they likely did the rebalance instead since they can do that quickly. It's certainly possible to add something like this in the future.

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