On Fort Hopping

  • More often than not when I check out the SOT discord, I have to parse messages and weed out crews that are only trying to hop to different servers in search of a skull cloud. I do not find this a very enjoyable way to play, and I believe that these pirates are missing the point of the game.

    For full disclosure, I will admit that I have never completed a skull fort using this method. I did attempt it, trying to really experience as many ways to play this game as I could. The crew I joined was very efficiency minded, and I was given a rebuke when I blanked out and started stocking a ship on a server without an active fort. This, combined with the unpleasant nature of constantly switching servers and perpetually looking at the loading screen made me quit after a short amount of time.

    Again, I would say that this crew, and all of those who engage in server hopping, are missing the point of the game. From my perspective, these players are taking the absolute fastest route to pirate legend and are grinding for cosmetics that are meant to enhance a part of the game that they aren't participating in much. It's methodical and efficient, and prioritizes rank and rewards over actually having fun, the reason most people play games.

    I'm not saying that this way to play is "wrong". People can play however they want, as long as it doesn't utilize an unfair advantage. Skull forts are the one mechanic in the game that reliably brings together PVE and player interactions in a very exciting way. However, letting this happen more organically (and rarely) allows for a more rewarding experience, especially mixed in with all the other ways to play this game.

    I'm open to counter-arguments, and let me know if you think I'm off my rocker. Thanks for reading my essay! No offense meant to anyone that plays this way, all of the above is just my opinion on what I think is an un-fun, but not wrong , way to play.

  • 53
    Posts
    17.7k
    Views
  • @voyager4200 I think you have a very valid point and expressed yourself in a way as to not say "you must play this game this way" which is commendable.

    That job is up to Rare. They could implement it so that if you have recently defeated a skull fort that you are not joined to a new server that has a skull cloud active.

    It seems an easy fix to an ever growing issue.

  • @admiral-rrrsole That's a good idea! I don't know how difficult it would be to implement however.

  • Forts are not very efficient in getting to pirate legend. They are fun because of the player interactions though. Probably so many hopping because of the pvp and people believing it's faster than voyaging.

    I hop by the way, try to get one or two a day. Also I been pirate legend since day 30 of release.

    Edit: it is even less efficient now with the loot scaling on voyages.

  • @jdetrimental Yeah, it's a great way to level up with the companies when starting out: one or two forts can get a new pirate a long way. After a surprisingly short time voyages are much better. It just seems a shame to take out one part of a game and play it exclusively to the (possible) detriment of other players' experiences. It merits more discussion to be sure.

  • @jdetrimental said in On Fort Hopping:

    Forts are not very efficient in getting to pirate legend......
    .......
    I hop by the way, try to get one or two a day. Also I been pirate legend since day 30 of release.

    You've just contradicted yourself.
    I can't see a possibly way of becoming a Pirate Legend within 30 days without hopping or cheating to some degree.
    We play for 8 to 10 hours a day and I'm only 44/41/39/2, with only missing maybe a week of playing in total.

  • @admiral-rrrsole be more selective in voyages you do? Your doing something wrong if you spent 10 hrs a day since launch and not legend. Also I didn't contradict myself, and I didn't once say I didn't hop. What I did say was based on my experience (of grinding to legend forts and voyages) even before the loot upgrade, voyages were more efficient. Some people actually do forts because it is fun, not efficiency.

  • @voyager4200 Thanks.

    The implementation would need to use some sort of flagging system in the player's profile to indicate that they have just defeated the fort.
    It could even be that anyone from a skull-less cloud server is flagged to not gain access to a server with an active skull cloud. Perhaps easier to implement but less likely to be approved by the majority.

    I admit I haven't given this much thought so I am yet to foresee any issues with this idea.

    Although I enjoy taking on skull forts, I also enjoy the tranquility that active skull fort clouds provide by drawing most possible threats away from PvE.
    If my (player flagged) suggestion was implemented, as soon as it became publicly known, we'd be stuck with hordes of PvP wanting to rain on the parade of PvE minded players.

    For that reason alone, I'd say leave it as is. But that's just my opinion. :o)

  • Well here's an idea. Merchant Voyages kind of suck, and they're a chore. But if you do other voyages, all your reps level faster than Merchant so you're stuck doing Merchant at the end. So maybe server hopping is the most fun way to get pirate legend because you can grind all your factions at the same time and get some PvP in without having to chase people down. But really if you can get a skull fort every hour, I don't see how grinding a different way is faster when you consider you're leveling 3 things at once.

  • I fort hop because I enjoy killing other players while also gaining loot fast. Forts are the sure fire way to get other players into your area so you can sink them. Often times we will even ignore players not interested in the fort on the way to it. However, once the fort is done and if we didn't hop, we're going to kill anyone we see even on the horizon because that is simply what we find fun in the game. We aren't targeting specific people, we just kill what we see. If fort hopping is removed entirely people like me will simply just stay on servers and repeatedly kill people for their loot and the thrill of PvP. We sunk the same legendary ship 3 times in a 2 hour sitting simply because we saw a ship on the horizon that happened to be them (we sunk 13 ships in a row without sinking once in that session). When I say people should be allowed to hop you better believe it cause otherwise all the PvE only players who mind their own business will end up meeting the business end of our cannons way more often than they want simply because we can't find other people to sink.

  • @zherron-vorse Earlier this week I sunk 3 ships and almost sunk a 4th all by myself without even having a ship, before this stupid shark patch. I'm gonna add you, I bet we'll get along great.

    PvP is the content of this game. My brother and I rolled up to an outpost on a sloop and scuttled right after the skull disappeared. Then here comes a galleon sailing in with stronghold loot. We got the stronghold chest and skull, and defended the shore for at least 60 kills, but it was 2v4 and since we had to secure the chest and skull, we weren't able to surprise them obviously, they just camped ladders and died 50+ times trying to get us off the outpost.

  • @zherron-vorse I think staying on a server and being predatory is a perfectly legitimate way to play the game. That is how many actual pirates used to operate after all. The risk of losing everything, and deciding whether to fight or flee makes seeing other ships on the horizon so exciting. Taking people out is legitimate, it's what could be seen as exploiting a game mechanic that I'm calling into question.

  • I find server hopping to be a bit cheesy. I actually tried it, hesitantly, a couple nights ago because a crewmate was begging to. We were able to get 3 Forts in about 90ish minutes. 2 of the forts were nearly completed and we simply sunk the poor sloops that were there and took them.

    If that’s how people want to play, whatever, but it just didn’t feel right to me. I understand this is Sea of Thieves, where stealing is acceptable, but there was something about intentionally cheesing the game that didn’t feel all that great.

    I wouldn’t mind them putting some sort of a restriction on joining servers with forts currently active.

  • @voyager4200 i am a player that hops for forts on occasion, not necesarily to boost to legend status completely.

    I enjoy doing Gold hoarders voyages and i also enjoyed the regular trip to 50 for OoS which i have recently achieved. However the merchant voyages could die in a fire for all i care i genuinly hate them and forts can be a way to still keep my merchant rep somewhat on the same level as the others.

    Next i love the PVP aspect of defending or overtaking a fort and consequently defend it from pirates who wish to take our precious rewards.

    Alot of people seem to think that fort hoppers are at an advantage, however the onky advantage they have usualy just is being really proficient in thise kind of tactics

  • @callmebackdraft I don't think anyone is saying that server hopping merely for forts is a bad thing. Just that those who choose to do it are missing on the majority of the intended game.

    I think that the only disturbing part is when you feel confident that nobody is interested in the fort as the cloud has been there for ages then suddenly you are surrounded by anything that floats on water. Yeah draw your own images in your mind for that. lol

    I especially don't like the vultures who sit back, an island away, just waiting for the cloud to dissolve before making their move. We see you.

  • @voyager4200 An alternative method to my previous post (if Rare thought it necessary to stop fort hopping) would be to apply a time stamp of the person unlocking the stronghold and all members of that crew.
    When they next try to unlock a stronghold their previous fort's time stamp would be checked.
    If the time difference is below the set period of Rare's choice, access would be denied.

    This could also be replaced with the time stamp being compared before the key drops from the fort's skeleton captain.
    In fact, why not check for the time stamp before each wave of skeletons even starts? If that crew has recently opened the stronghold in the given time frame, then the skeleton waves don't spawn for them.

    To prevent players from taking the key away from the fort, it could be set to de-spawn at any given distance away from the fort island.
    Of course warnings of such changes should pop-up on screen "The skeletons will not be active because.." and "The stronghold key will de-spawn when taken from the fort".

  • @personalc0ffee Well, if that's what you really feel then I have offered suggestions.
    Personally I couldn't care as long as they don't slow down the servers any more than they are ready are.

  • Well written but I think it's misleading. People like to play games differently, some like to min/max and play efficiently otherwise they feel they're wasting their time. Why does it make their way to play any worse or better than your own? Or that they're playing the game in an "unfun" way? You're free to play with like-minded individuals that just screw about and they're free to play with efficiency monsters. Also there's a few things you should understand...

    1. Fort hopping is not an efficient way to level and hasn't been since like the first two weeks of the game every time you get contested which happens often screws up the efficiency rate. It's even less efficient now since the buffs to voyages. People like to fort hop cause it's fun for them.

    2. Forts aren't for PVE, they're for PVP. They're really the only place in the game right now that encourages PVP and people to actually fight instead of flee. To try and be an aggressor.

    3. For my crew and I, closed crews + fort hopping is the only fun thing for us to do in the game. We're all Legends, we all hate Athena's, we want to PVP and forts are the only consistent place to get PVP. If they were to change fort hopping or discourage it, it'll literally ruin the game for us without some kind of supplemental change: PVP based trading company, bounty idea, modifier for keeping more loot on board, more people/ships per instance, etc

    I see all these threads complaining about PVP and I understand if you lose a lot it can be extremely frustrating but this game is really hard to get consistent PVP in if you don't fort hop and chase every ship you see. You can be in most instances without a single ship being the aggressor for a long time.

    @admiral-rrrsole said in On Fort Hopping:

    @jdetrimental said in On Fort Hopping:

    Forts are not very efficient in getting to pirate legend......
    .......
    I hop by the way, try to get one or two a day. Also I been pirate legend since day 30 of release.

    You've just contradicted yourself.
    I can't see a possibly way of becoming a Pirate Legend within 30 days without hopping or cheating to some degree.
    We play for 8 to 10 hours a day and I'm only 44/41/39/2, with only missing maybe a week of playing in total.

    If you're playing that much and you're not Legend by now you are doing something wrong. Which is fine you don't need to be Legend if you're enjoying your time but don't tell other people who know what they're talking about that they're wrong. Merchant cheese or fort hopping isn't cheating or cycling voyages.

    I've been a Legend since a month in as well, I even screwed around a bunch and pvped a ton, stopped playing for a few days to play Far Cry 5.

  • @voyager4200 said in On Fort Hopping:

    I'm open to counter-arguments, and let me know if you think I'm off my rocker.

    Thanks to all the pressure against PvP Rare quite obviously reduced the overall server population compared to the scale tests so that there is basically no PvP anymore in Sea of Emptiness unless you are at an active fort. So if you enjoy PvP your best option is to hop servers until you find an active fort.

    In my opinion as soon as the vault of an active fort gets opened another active fort should spawn on the server. That way there would be always PvP on every server and no need to hop anymore. At the same time increase server density to such an amount that you always at all times see a ship on the horizon, and not one ship every 30 minutes.
    PvP would mostly occur around the fort area while people not interested in PvP could just stay away from the current fort area and do their voyages with a lowered chance of getting sunk since all PvPers are at the fort.

  • someone please get these people a battle royale mode. sink all the ships you want, for no reason, as usual. then i can join a server without being sunk at an outpost while looking at cosmetics. being sunk before i even set a foot on my ship.

  • @captancola sagte in On Fort Hopping:

    Well here's an idea. Merchant Voyages kind of suck, and they're a chore. But if you do other voyages, all your reps level faster than Merchant so you're stuck doing Merchant at the end. So maybe server hopping is the most fun way to get pirate legend because you can grind all your factions at the same time and get some PvP in without having to chase people down. But really if you can get a skull fort every hour, I don't see how grinding a different way is faster when you consider you're leveling 3 things at once.

    yes thats my issue now,i didnt leveld up smart im on 50 43 39.now i have to do oos n merchant all the time,i thought about fraction specific raids

    white skull-mixed up items

    blue skull = merchant

    golden skull = gold hoarders

    red skull = order of souls

  • @personalc0ffee said in On Fort Hopping:

    @eatdamuffin said in On Fort Hopping:

    PVP based trading company, bounty idea, modifier for keeping more loot on board, more people/ships per instance, etc

    I very much doubt we will be getting any of that, especially anything rewarding PvP beyond its innate benefits. Rewarding PvP will only lead to more attacking on sight and more griefing. It would greatly destroy the social aspect of the game.

    I, despite liking the PvP, do not feel ideas that reward PvP, belong in SoT and are contrast to the goofy, casual, kid friendly atmosphere they are building.

    Those sorts of ideas belong in proper, serious pirate games and SoT is not the kind of game.

    Disagree big time. It's hard enough to get consistent PVP and there should be titles and rewards for PVP. I don't get where most of these people feel like there's an abundance of PVP, if you stay in one instance most times you're not going to be attacked that often if at all.

    The game has a goofy aesthetic but the core design is anything but, being able to take someone's quest rewards is pretty "serious" also the game can still be both. Right now it doesn't favor or encourage much PVP. Most people don't have anything of value on them.

  • @admiral-rrrsole said in On Fort Hopping:

    @jdetrimental said in On Fort Hopping:

    Forts are not very efficient in getting to pirate legend......
    .......
    I hop by the way, try to get one or two a day. Also I been pirate legend since day 30 of release.

    You've just contradicted yourself.
    I can't see a possibly way of becoming a Pirate Legend within 30 days without hopping or cheating to some degree.
    We play for 8 to 10 hours a day and I'm only 44/41/39/2, with only missing maybe a week of playing in total.

    I would bet both of my nuts he cheesed merchants 100%. Maybe not OoS (although still possible) but definitely Merchants. Also I'm at 97 Skull Forts done (99 if I got points for my last 2) I hopped forts to 40 40 38, I did a few OoS in between, then hard ground OoS up to 50 first, then GH then finally merchants, doing Forts when they turn up, they are great for leveling at the start especially when loot scales...so c**p loot at the start and I can solo a SF in like 25 minutes (less with my crewmate) if you consider the time it takes to sail to an island and dig for treasure and kill skeletons, 3 captains chest worth of Stronghold Chest and 3 villainous skull worth of stronghold skull is definitely preferred. Although you can be delayed because of pvp, I did all mine before the respawn nerf so some forts took hours but I'm relentless and stubborn 😂. I have forgotten what my point is....but yeah Forts are good for low levels but really at higher levels you should be efficient enough to bang out one reputation and do forts inbetween

  • @personalc0ffee cool, thanks, had no idea. was cool reading your reply to something you didn't read.

  • @personalc0ffee i don't know what the ... you think i wrote, but you need to chill and stop putting words in my mouth. i, in summary, stated the particular people who sink for no reason other than kill kill kill need a "be stupid" mode. i can't bring myself to play the game anymore because of people and their "super fun" playstyle of killing and sinking people who LITERALLY JUST JOINED the server. sinking people who don't even have anything of value. but, oh no, let's not use the word griefer because "it's a pirate game" and I should just scuttle and move on, right? didn't even touch the pier and I was already slain and shipless. so tell me what's really making players leave. i never once said disable pvp or anything like it. it IS exciting. it IS tense. work on reading comprehension and sarcasm. I'm done spelling everything out.

  • @maquark You're being sunk at an outpost because you are a threat to the incoming ship who wants to unload. What do you expect them to do? Sail away to another outpost to turn in? What if they're on a merchant quest to that specific outpost, are they just supposed to wait? Are they supposed to just trust you, who has nothing to lose and could well sink them and/or steal some of their loot?

  • @lotrmith yeah. start communication first. super simple.

  • @maquark said in On Fort Hopping:

    @lotrmith yeah. start communication first. super simple.

    Or get the first shots in and eliminate the threat before it has a chance to jeopardize your own ship.

    You're expecting all players to risk everything on the chance that a docked ship won't be hostile just so you won't be minorly inconvenienced by having to respawn with a fresh ship when you just spawned in with a fresh ship.

  • @personalc0ffee said in On Fort Hopping:

    @lotrmith Yes, they can absolutely do some of those things.

    So you expect all players to go out of their way at great inconvenience and expenditure of time just to accomodate you and not waste the five minutes of your time that you might have spent stocking your freshly spawned ship?

    Oh no, they might sink your freshly spawned ship and send you instantly to another freshly spawned ship. How terrible!

  • @lotrmith said in On Fort Hopping:

    @maquark You're being sunk at an outpost because you are a threat to the incoming ship who wants to unload. What do you expect them to do? Sail away to another outpost to turn in? What if they're on a merchant quest to that specific outpost, are they just supposed to wait? Are they supposed to just trust you, who has nothing to lose and could well sink them and/or steal some of their loot?

    of course there are always instances where attacking 1st is the best option. it'd be nice to refrain from that practice when it serves no purpose though.

  • @squallycircle7 said in On Fort Hopping:

    @lotrmith said in On Fort Hopping:

    @maquark You're being sunk at an outpost because you are a threat to the incoming ship who wants to unload. What do you expect them to do? Sail away to another outpost to turn in? What if they're on a merchant quest to that specific outpost, are they just supposed to wait? Are they supposed to just trust you, who has nothing to lose and could well sink them and/or steal some of their loot?

    of course there are always instances where attacking 1st is the best option. it'd be nice to refrain from that practice when it serves no purpose though.

    I can think of no better purpose than the defense of your own ship.

    This is Sea of Thieves, not Sea o Friends. Complaining that players treat eachother as potential threats when the entire game is literally premised on the idea that all players are potential threats is hilarious.

  • @lotrmith
    sure, but if you have nothing substantial on board then you are making an enemy that you don't need to. if you need to go to the outpost then no problem, but a lot of crews see the ships at the outpost and only go to engage them.

  • @squallycircle7 said in On Fort Hopping:

    @lotrmith
    sure, but if you have nothing substantial on board then you are making an enemy that you don't need to. if you need to go to the outpost then no problem, but a lot of crews see the ships at the outpost and only go to engage them.

    That's quite an exaggeration.

  • @personalc0ffee said in On Fort Hopping:

    @lotrmith said in On Fort Hopping:

    @personalc0ffee said in On Fort Hopping:

    @lotrmith Yes, they can absolutely do some of those things.

    So you expect all players to go out of their way at great inconvenience and expenditure of time just to accomodate you and not waste the five minutes of your time that you might have spent stocking your freshly spawned ship?

    Oh no, they might sink your freshly spawned ship and send you instantly to another freshly spawned ship. How terrible!

    Did you get it all out of your system, buddy? You done now?

    Because I never said that.

    You expect them to risk their cargo by not sinking you or else avoid you completely, so, yeah.

  • @lotrmith said in On Fort Hopping:

    @squallycircle7 said in On Fort Hopping:

    @lotrmith
    sure, but if you have nothing substantial on board then you are making an enemy that you don't need to. if you need to go to the outpost then no problem, but a lot of crews see the ships at the outpost and only go to engage them.

    That's quite an exaggeration.

    of all the exaggerations on this forum mine is of note? if i had said 99.9% then yeah, i'd feel you. things may be evolving for the better though. early on, when we were eager to throw some cannonballs around, it was hard not to engage anything afloat. now i find crews more open to live and let live if there appears to be no advantage in attacking.

53
Posts
17.7k
Views
1 out of 53