[Mega Thread] Forsaken Shores
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@personalc0ffee Making a game challenging is one thing, but the Devil's Roar is unfair. Players should have some way to be able to be reasonably certain that their ships will be safe from non-player threats when they go to show.
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@personalc0ffee Tell me how you save your ship after you get oneshot by a 3 rocks hitting your ship? How do you save your ship when it get's hit by the volcano and sinks before you can get back? What mindset do I need to have when my ship gets sunk and I swim out to a mermaid to spawn on an island where my ship is being bombarded by a volcano on a different island, and when I try to climb the latter I get oneshot by another rock?
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@personalc0ffee said in [Mega Thread] Forsaken Shores:
@ultimate-powa said in [Mega Thread] Forsaken Shores:
On another note, there REALLY needs to be two outposts, so far I've spent an hour just trying to turn in.
Also WHY ARE THERE SO MANY MEGALODONS?!?!?!
EDIT
Just got to my 4th outpost and it's still occupied, looks like I gotta find another and go through 6 more Megs again.... oh great.The area is not big enough for two outposts in my opinion.
The reason there are ships at other outposts is because of;
Sinking
Campers
Merchant Alliance being gone from Morrow's PeakThey could put one up in the North, there appears to be room there.
It's just super frustrating having to get all my supplies drained from endless Megalodons, something that should be a rare event happening ever minute or so, only to finally reach the outpost for it to be occupied by a much larger crew.So far since my original post about Megs, I have seen 5 between now and then, no joke.
This should be a rare event like the Kraken, not an annoyance from hell. -
@khaleesibot I think this update could of had more lore not just people dancing to volcano's. more in depth like the ancient isles. For example more sea monster cave paintings,etc
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I go back to by previous posts and that of others. It is about balance. A condition in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions. It does not mean challenge has to go away. It does not mean rewards have to go away. That is not what is being asked for. It is better balance.
It has nothing to do with skill, mindset, muscle memory, or whatever excuse anyone can come up with to disagree with the attempt of other players to give honest feedback they feel they need and want to. It also has absolutely nothing to do with an unwillingness to use the tools and mechanics as intended.
Those tools and mechanics could be a lot more fun to use and rewarding in the ways that really matter if they were delivered in a more balanced and polished experience. Devil's Roar right now is unfortunately harsh and unforgiving in all the wrong ways for all the right intentions.
I am happy you and the majority of your crew have shifted your mindsets. Maybe you could also shift your mindset just a little bit more into being more accepting of other people's points of view and be less condescending and rejecting of players trying to give simple feedback for a game I am sure they love just as much as you do.
Let's sail on allowing others to give feedback, both positive and negative. If everything balances out, Rare can and hopefully will do the right thing.
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@ultimate-powa
Although I haven't felt the need for more outposts in the new map extension myself, I can still agree with logic.It's safe to say that the new map extension is no less than one third of the existing world we've had since launch. The map had catered for that world with six outposts so it's only commons sense that by adding another third or more to the map, it would also come with two outposts, again retaining that each region of the map have two.
As it sits, Morrow's Peak is in a direct East / West line to Ancient Spire without any island interrupting the path or view from one to the other.
Maybe it could be swapped with Brian's Bazaar and another outpost created about four grid squares due South of Brimstone Rock.Again, very little to no thought has been placed on outpost locations too. I'm starting to sense a "very little to no thought" pattern with FS.
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@khaleesibot Ok, after a little time and use I am getting the hang of the rowboat and now I really like it. Use it on runs with multiple treasure, chickens, ect. and just load each chest, cage, ect. on the rowboat instead of swimming back and forth you can dock it and take off to go get things out of rowboat at your leisure.
The rowboat is more useful than I first thought, I even used it to sneak into the outpost with another ship taking way too much time to leave so I turned in the needed items and away I went. -
@personalc0ffee said in
Tips for that?
You're not gonna give me any for the problems I mentioned....
-Do not park close to the islands and in range of volcanoes
Not possible. The Volcano's range is long enough to hit adjacent islands.
-If in range, dodge the rocks with the ship, as in watch where they are arching and anticipate the fall.
Also, not possible most of the time. They come In big groups of rocks and ships aren't nearly maneuverable to dodge(even sloops)
-Do not stand in the middle of the ship.
Idk why you think that's a tip. I've never been killed in the middle of my ship.
-constantly have the crew moving around if ship is going to be hit
I play solo most of the time.
-Be below deck when rocks are incoming
I have to drive the ship...
The Roar is entirely possible, doable, and challenging.
Obviously it's doable, it's hard in a bad way. It's hard because it's unfair. The parts that are bad(like the volcano) are not "challenging". "challenge" means that there is something to overcome. Unless you are referring to the "challenge" of overcoming the frustration of constantly being one-shot and sent all the way back to the West side of the map, then sure... it's "challenging".
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Here's my feedback.
The barrel change is good, but as a PC player I would appreciate the ability to use x as an alternative to esc for other menu's.
The row boat is fragile to the point of uselessness in the Devil's Roar. the scenarios it was designed for (getting you and your loot too and from an exploding volcano are also situations where it get's 1 shot killed. I'd prefer it to be virtually indestructible. It's weaknesses being powder kegs and going down with the ship if not detached.
Volcanoes. I don't mind the geysers, earthquakes, lava and boiling water. But I do hate the range and accuracy of the lava balls. If you park miles away you really need a row boat... which easy easily destroyed. Or if you park closer you really need to leave someone on the boat or hope you get done on the island quickly. maybe leave the non-quest volcanoes with long ranges to keep the imminent threat alive in the world. But the quest islands should have a much shorter range. Say just past the boiling water range, so we have a visual clue on where it's safe to park, but we still know we can't get too close. This range is also close enough to cannon over from should you die. The point is to have a balance of interesting mechanics whilst still being able to play the game instead of waiting for a volcano to stop erupting.
Server sizes. One of the things my crew and I have notices is how much more alive the server feels when there are 3 or 4 ships in the same zone. It would be great if you could build on that so that the servers could handle maybe 20 ships instead of the current 5 or 6. Maybe have the conditions be something like if there are any ships that have player initiated quest for devils roar + any other ships with no quests is less than 6 AND if any ships that have a player initiated quest for the rest of the + any other ships with no quests is less than 15 then you can let another ship onto the server.
Finally, can the next zone be more tropical in design? Prior to this release my crew would actively avoid questing in the wilds for more than 1 or 2 maps if at all possible. Now we are done with all the commendations the same thing will occur for the Devil's Roar unless we want some PVP action over the next few weeks. The $25K chest and extra Athena rep isn't much of an incentive to quest there. It's a bleak zone to be in, and very noisy to be in (to the point that I was having to yell in my microphone to be heard properly by my husband gaming right next to me)
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Morrows Outpost
I've noticed that towards the middle of the deck if you unload your loot, sometimes the loot falls throught the deck. If you have a lot of loot you will definitely lose items. Before you leave the outpost look under the deck to see if any loot is floating in the water. At first i thought i was dropping them in water on accident. Several times i would drop a chest or skull in middle of decks and it would go through the wood and straight into the water.
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@admiral-rrrsole You can always let me know when you are playing and dont check under the deck and I can check for you :D lol
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@muller15 lol
Not a chance bud. I have never dropped anything but my boots on the dock of Morrow's Peak.
But I like the cut of your jib. :o) -
Rowboats can be buggy at the best of times.
The following list of rowboat issues would sound like a Dr. Suess book if only it rhymed better. :o)They gave us rowboats with the Forsaken Shores,
despite the fact it had no oars.They said we should use them to explore,
so we rowed for a bit then some more.We've found them stuck on top of geysers when spawned,
or lodged between rocks so we sighed and yawned.We've had them where we fell straight through,
no matter what we tried to do.We've also had 'em hover waaaaay above water,
but not many have done what they aughta.We had one that simply started to sink,
a hull should be water-proof, one would think.We've had them where they would just get stuck,
so we cursed and swore with words like "Firetruck".But when it was all said and done,
we agreed they were a lot of fun. :o) -
Although the Morrow's Peak merchant isn't around,
would it hurt if she bought the crates we have found?To remove her until the cargo run,
is like removing a third of the game's total fun.So what if she hasn't a contract to sell?
To look at her we couldn't tell.But to see the empty shelter there,
is far more than some pirates can bear. -
So here it is the Devil's Roar,
something new at last, for us to explore.With volcanic eruptions and geysers galore,
you need to wait, then you wait and wait some more.Parked miles away from the fearsome shore,
you wait and you wait then you wait some more.Your will to continue has taken a fall,
but you wait then you wait and you wait some more.The waiting game is hard to ignore,
you fall off your seat, asleep on the floor. -
People rag on about folks who "like to grind" and magically enjoy an update that opens the grindiest area ever. It's not fun, it's tedious. There's no victory of "beating" a volcano, you just keep running your ship back and forth to escape it.
Rare could release an update whose only feature was to allow birds to p**p on your pirate and there would be certain members on here talking about how great and exciting it was.
Edit: wow, I can't believe that word was censored. I think anyone old enough to read is old enough to not be offended by that.
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My thoughts and feedback on the update are similar to others. I love the update, but there's a couple of tweaks I'd like to see.
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a change to either the frequency or length of eruptions to allow a little more time on island before the next eruption. 5 mins maximum is nothing when you need to park 3 minutes away.
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rowboats are awesome but they need to be repairable. I suggest 1x plank = 25% condition, so 4x for 100%. Boat can only be repaired when docked or when beached.
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messages in a barrel - I like that we are getting these but I'd really like to be able to discard them. I love clearing a wheel of quests and currently it feels like trying to bail with a bucket that has a massive hole because the wheel just keeps filling up (I know I don't HAVE to pick up new voyages, but I have no self-control, save me from myself Rare!)
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Animals and Wildlife in the Roar. These may be coming with Week 3 or the zone may be devoid of fauna due to its volcanic nature, but there really should be fauna, we have flora, if one can survive there then so can the other, maybe just not the chickens and pigs we're used to, is that bacon I smell or fried chicken?
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I added this to a different thread:
I have a theory that the rocks spewing from a volcano aren't "real" for performance reasons and that at a random time, if you are within range, it will "attack" your ship and launch a real rock. I believe these are the larger ones that sometimes come in groups (# of rocks is likely somewhat random). I'm about 50/50 on whether this is actually a simulated physical arc or if the client just renders it that way and the collision points are predetermined (this would again be for performance reasons).
I'm pretty sure that the boat position is not simulated on the client side, but is done server side with client side prediction - which is why you get floating boats when you get disconnected; your prediction is using the last known information which happened to be your boat heading upwards.
The easiest way for them to do the targeting would be to use a sphere around the entire boat model (and we've seen this in videos of their prototypes) and then apply some random deviation to get the impact points for the rocks. If this is how it works, is it possible that due to the difference in ship size that using the target sphere that is variable by ship size and same deviation formula for all ships results in a tighter grouping of impact points on a sloop?
There isn't anything difficult about the volcanoes in their current implementation. They are just time wasters. The only way to avoid being hit is to stay out of range, or by moving through or away at full speed and perform a few high speed turns to outmaneuver the predictive targeting.
I don't know if the damage needs to be lessened, but the randomness of the targeting needs to be changed. You should be able to park a ship in the eruption zone and expect it to take some damage but at least have a chance that it won't sink every time.
If they were actually difficult you would be able to sail through the eruption zone and avoid being hit by watching the projectiles and skillfully directing your ship while staying within close range to the island. High skill sailors would be able to overcome the difficulty to negate the danger.
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Players appreciate a good challenge, but it needs to be balanced. It needs to be tough, fair and fun. Right now, the Devil's Roar is tough, but at times it feels unfair and un-fun.
Unfair
- Volcano Accuracy: This doesn’t feel like a natural phenomenon. It feels like skeletons are shooting magma rocks at you.
- 1 shot ability: Dying instantly and coming back to a sunken ship feels cheap. Direct hits should deal 80-90% damage and maybe inflict some type of damage over time. Also, please add better audio cues so it’s more obvious when a magma rock is about to fall on your head. This would also allow for some fun counter-play. (If accuracy gets nerfed enough, this probably becomes much less of an issue).
Unfun
- Volcano Duration: Waiting 5 minutes for a volcano to finish erupting is the worst. I’m not even playing the game at this point, I’m checking my phone and texting people. This is not challenging, just boring.
- Respawns: Sinking in Devil’s Roar and spawning all the way in Salty Sands or some other island on the west side... I’m logging off at this point. The world has expanded significantly, and spawning rules need to be adjusted accordingly.
- Frequency: After waiting 5 minutes for a volcano to finish, sailing in and having it erupt again 3 minutes later... Unpredictability is good, but it needs to be within reason. (This wouldn’t be that big of a problem if eruption durations were significantly reduced)
- Volcano Range: The crazy range prevents fun counter-play...
I would like to row in to an erupting island while parked far away, but I'm not rowing for 2 miles while trying to futilely dodge rocks. I'm better off just waiting (AKA checking my phone).
When I don't have a row boat, I would like to cannon-fire a friend near an island and for his survival to be tough-but-possible. Right now, he will almost certainly be pummeled to death by rocks or die to the boiling water before he reaches it. So we just sit and wait (AKA we are both checking our phones).
I would like to work on a voyage without being hit from a completely different island 2 miles away. I think it can be fun to be hit from different islands, but again, the distance should be within reason.
Additional Thoughts
I don't want this area to be easy (I don't think anyone does), far from it, I just want it to be fair and fun. In fact, I would like to see the difficulty increased in some areas! Order of Souls is too easy with the geysers, for example, and the damage they do against skeletons should be nerfed.I love tough games that are fair and fun (Super Meat Boy and Spelunky come to mind). The Devil's Roar needs some work before it feels like that.
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Hi everybody,
I may be the saltiest pirate ever but I've just spent 4 hours playing Sea of Thieves and the latter 2 were painful to experience. Note that I have been playing on a sloop with a friend of mine, and exclusively in the Devil's Roar region.
First: the fact that you have to leave your ship away from most islands in order to avoid getting nuked by rocks (more on that later) is a really cool feature... But it makes it SUPER VULNERABLE to anyone who wants to get your loot. Ok, pirating is part of the game (of course it is!) but shouldn't we be able to defend ourselves a bit better than just crying while watching our ship getting boarded from afar? Maybe leave a crewmate on board to flee from attackers? Well it's kinda boring to just wait, sitting on your ship while the other person is on the quest. Maybe they require help, maybe we won't get attacked and I wasted all this time for nothing. My point here is: Forsaken Shore does not seem designed for 1 or 2 players to explore.
Second: What is up with these laser-targeting artillery that you call a volcano??? I understand that you can't spam the whole area with projectiles and so you must get the volcano to aim at the players but if, for any reason, you are forced to stop in range of an erupting volcano, your ship is basically sunk already. Why would we ever stop in such situation? Well in the very particular case that our rowboat (loaded with treasures from the last island that we were fleeing) got hit, destroyed, and we were at risk of losing all of our hard earned treasure! So that was very annoying. Maybe volcanos should have some mechanic like "aim at player until X holes are pierced in the hull" or maybe just make the rowboat invulnerable while attached, it seems good to me. And you may need to check that no 2 volcanos can shoot you a the same time AND that we can't respawn in range of an active volcano.
Third: maybe tune down the volcano eruption rate! There may be some other solutions, but the point is that the player can't know if it's worth to go somewhere else during this eruption or if it's going to be a short one, wait around and go back to the island right after. Maybe make them all last longer? That way, when it happens, players just have to go do something else. Or give us more time in between to actually accomplish one quest, and not stand around for ages, just waiting to be attacked by other players (can't imagine finding megalodons or kraken at such moment, that would be beyond annoying). Right now, it just feels like the whole map gets on fire regularly and if I take the time to leave the area to get somewhere it's safe to explore well guess what? By the time I arrive, the 3 volcanos that are located here are erupting while the ones I fled from just stopped. It gets frustrating to be so unlucky for so long. Maybe have each volcano on a timer, set randomly within a preset range and starting when a player steps on the island? That way, we may develop a bit of a prediction of the time we have on our hands and whenever we have to leave because of an eruption we can just go to the next island over to have adventures there, rather than choosing between sailing half the Devil's Roar zone or waiting an unknown amount of time, doing nothing but watching the volcano from a safe distance.
Once again, I may be a salty, unlucky, incompetent little pirate, but I really felt that the game was being unfairly difficult. And I love difficult/RNG based games: I play Darkest Dungeon, XCOM, Enter the Gungeon and many others without getting this much stomped on and frustrated! Anyway, if someone has any advice as to avoiding these issues and/or devs would decide to do something about it I'd be glad to hear from you all!
I wish you better luck than I had on the seas!
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@most-dubious said
Love the update, only question is, why is nobody talking about the bat cage and crab pot at the merchant dock in FS?!
Would you like to tell the world that you caught crabs off some ol' bat? lol
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tl;dr at bottom
As much as I love SoT, the direction it's going, and look forward to seeing what comes next, this expansion is far too punishing to be remotely fun for me.
Allow me to elaborate, and take all this with a grain of salt as with all forum posts. I like exploring, and I like playing solo by necessity, as I don't have a lot of friends that play SoT, and I enjoy sailing solo enough that I don't feel the drive to go on the Discord or make any lfg posts. That being said, this is an area that is just not conducive to solo playing.
Keep in mind that I don't have a whole lot of time to play this game anymore, so when I do, I'm looking to achieve something, whether it's gold, doubloons, or just having had fun, or even relaxing. But even if I prep like I'm used to, which includes overstocking on supplies (especially wood planks nowadays), and grab a rowboat and at least one gunpowder barrel, I still find my efforts wasted. Between searching new islands slowly with my lantern out, as the area and terrain are very dark, dealing with the usual skellie threats, and suddenly-appearing sociopathic players who are on the hunt for ships to randomly sink or rowboats to steal, I also have to deal with earthquakes that break my sprinting, health hazards that force me to eat bananas and look for more, and volcanoes with a ridiculous radius that render rowboats fairly useless. Due to the time it takes to launch a rowboat, row two squares over to the island you're wanting to visit, land, try to find what you're looking for, then beat a hasty retreat to the rowboat as the volcano erupts, which usually ends up with me watching my ship take lava bombs because even though I parked nearly two islands away, it means that the handiest use for rowboats are rendered moot. All of this ends up meaning that the last several play sessions I've had have been rough at the least and extremely disappointing and fruitless at worst.
I know it's supposed to be a challenge. I know it's supposed to force us to change how we play, approaching the area and it's tasks with more caution. I've changed and adapted as best as I could, especially considering I'm playing solo. But it's forcing me to choose between playing solo and having my time wasted due to a myriad of reasons, or just playing a different game that respects my time more. I've never ever felt like SoT didn't respect my time, and while the base game does, Forsaken Shores definitely does not.
Also, inb4 "this isn't a solo game". It's a whatever-you-want sandbox game, with solo options. You can't say "this isn't 'Sea of Friends'" and then turn around and tell me it's not a solo game. Pick one and stick with it.
TL;DR: I'm salty because I can't play the new expansion solo with a limited amount of time each session and expect to get something out of my play time. I know how dumb that sounds/is, so unless you have any constructive criticism or thoughtful feedback (which I'd genuinely be open to hear), move along, nothing else to see here.
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I agree. It is incredibly difficult and feel as though perhaps the accuracy of the flying boulders could be nerfed and perhaps the eruption frequency toned down.
I forecast this area to be a chore and rarely visited by most people if these aren't resolved.
I got one-hit-killed 3 times in a row all within 1 minute of respawning from boulders the other night. Even with a galleon crew. Doing order of souls i spent more time in the ferry than playing.
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IMPORTANT: Not sure if this has been discussed, but can you throw bucketed boiling water and hurt other players with it while they comically scream? If so, I want to be able to burn my own crew members as well! I can throw vomit at them and blow them up with a barrel... let's be consistent here ;)
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@gonnableedya said in [Mega Thread] Forsaken Shores:
IMPORTANT: Not sure if this has been discussed, but can you throw bucketed boiling water and hurt other players with it while they comically scream? If so, I want to be able to burn my own crew members as well! I can throw vomit at them and blow them up with a barrel... let's be consistent here ;)
And then if they add an ice realm we can do the ice bucket challenge all over again! Love this idea, other than the torture aspect, but still would be a lot of fun to watch them dance because of the hot water!