Athena Voyages and Game Time

@captain-arcanic I agree and have noticed people complain about this a lot in the past.But instead Rare upped the time it takes by tossing waves of skelly ships, meg, and krakens at you. Sometimes I think they hate their players.

@boomtownboss said in Athena Voyages and Game Time:

@captain-arcanic I agree and have noticed people complain about this a lot in the past.But instead Rare upped the time it takes by tossing waves of skelly ships, meg, and krakens at you. Sometimes I think they hate their players.

Yeah, that definitely happened to my crew last night. The last two voyage maps took us FOREVER due to skellie ships and megs. I'm not saying it wasn't fun to fight a ship and a meg at the same time. I AM saying it wasn't fun to finish in the wee hours of the morning and go to work today on too little sleep. All joy left the game as I wearily turned in the loot at the end of the night.

I don't think this is the desirable game play experience RARE wants for their players.

@captain-arcanic I think it's very irresponsible for any game developer to subject their player base to binge gaming. All voyages should be able to be completed in 30 minutes. Yes, it should be challenging; but NOT time-draining. Instead it's easy and time consuming.

@boomtownboss said in Athena Voyages and Game Time:

@captain-arcanic I think it's very irresponsible for any game developer to subject their player base to binge gaming. All voyages should be able to be completed in 30 minutes. Yes, it should be challenging; but NOT time-draining. Instead it's easy and time consuming.

Maybe not ALL voyages, but there should be versions that allow us to progress if we choose to play shorter sessions.

Posted this in another thread about needing breaks, but thought it needed to be here too.

Let people save unfinished voyage maps. Not treasure or cursed cannonballs. Though I would be fine with saving other supplies.

Your halfway through an Athena voyage. You turn in your loot, save your ship maps and exit the game. Walk your dog, eat your dinner, take the kids to the pool, return and start a new game, load your last voyage, continue.

A few basic rules:

Only the player that laid down the voyage can initiate the save.
A Majority vote of the current crew must Vote to Save the voyage.

Aye @Captain-Arcanic is right we have talked about this before. The time issue comes up a lot. Here are my thoughts.

The entire concept of an Athena voyage needs to be reworked. It may have been fine in the beginning to bundle the same voyages together and stick the special chest at the end when there was not much else there. We have commendations now, but since Rare did not save data a lot has to be redone to earn them. No need to have the progression so slow at this level. Would lessen the pain for those that need to repeat voyages to get what they already earned.

Do something like a few of the standard skeleton captain bounties. They give up their heads and maps. Maps lead to a chain of new riddles and puzzles to the chests instead of just X marks the spot.

Can have a few surprise skeleton fights along the way. The Athena chest is waiting at the end of the last riddle or puzzle, not a X marks the spot. Once and a while it could even lead to a final show down with the skeletons to pry it from their bony hands. Could even use one of the forts as one of several different random endings where we fight one of two waves to get the legends chest under a fort.

If cargo runs stay, the plants, cloth, and rum need to go. Have Athena only cargo runs with special and mysterious cargo. Special missions moving secret items for the Order of Souls and Gold Holders. With the skeleton ships now roaming around they can be sent to intercept.

Part of the reward of getting to do Athenas should be getting to do new things that mix up what we have down before in fresh new ways. They could make the time more manageable by making the Athena voyage episodic. We can complete chapters of a single voyage in more than one session. We can finish chapters and come back to do the rest another time. Each voyage could be longer playing out like a mini story we can finish at whatever pace we have time for.

Maybe with all new questing coming it will include Athenas. Putting the excuse to satisfy the impatience of encountering organic PvP in Sea of Thieves, one of the excuses for The Arena is people do not have time to play games outside of small increments. Yes, some seem to have so busy lives they only have 30 to 60 minutes to play a video game, but cell phones have contributed much to this. Hopefully the thought will not be to keep the core game time intensive and leave The Arena for everyone’s pirate quick fix.

An Athena voyage (with collecting the treasure) takes about 1.5 to 2 hours if done semi-efficient. Naturally the flow of the game can be disrupted and add an additional time to it (PvP, Kraken, Megans, Skellie ships) though unless it is PvP the loss is minimal. (I don't do the Cargo Missions if they are out of the way btw)

I have run Athena voyages solo in less than 2 hours, though it usually is between 2 - 3 hours when all by yourself (OOS quests can be hard).

If you have 2 hours to play it should be very doable to complete the mission if you have a coordinated crew. You would have to focus on it, but don't think that is an issue. Taking longer than this, means that there some improvements to be made in actually finding and retreiving the treasure.

I heard that killing Megans, Krakens and Skellie ships also are providing with small amounts of Athena reputation. So, you could also grind yourself up that way though I bet that would be really slow.

I have no issues if they introduce new game play that is more challenging, hard to complete, but shorter in duration if done properly. A new variety to collect Athena Reputation. I am against just dumbing down, shortening or any type of save from session to session for the current voyages (cargo runs already shortened it as you can just pick up and drop + removed the risk of losing your cages).

Edit: Btw. my crew tends to go AFK for like 5-20 mins based on the activity they/I need to do. We just try to avoid having more than 1 person go AFK at a time while we continue.

Idk it's already pretty easy now to get to pl and now with added athena rep for commendations it's even easier to rank up athena, progression in factions and cosmetics is all there is in this game the more you make it easier the more pointless and less prestigious it becomes, maybe if there's a shorter athena voyage maybe half the islands but only half the rep, so all in all its pretty much the same except easier for time constraints I guess wouldn't be so bad

Regular runs should never take more than 2 hours with 2 or more people once you find the rhythm. 90 minutes is a pretty good rule of thumb. A good speedrun might make 60. It honestly doesn't save that much time.

Remember, you don't need to dig up/load/sell anything. Just get the voyages ticked off. Fire people off without stopping to solve riddles/tap chests/get cargo as you see fit. Riddles are definitely worth skipping. Send half the crew to solve them while you sail to the next destination. Only stop at OOS. Take bananas. Go in together. Grab one skull (edit: each). Leave.

Don't take the first mission blindly. See how it looks on the map. You can definitely roll missions which have things on islands pretty close together, or with an OOS on a small island for cannon support if you want. Or maybe you're a reasonable person and refuse to stop at krakens/old faithful/thieves/etc because they're awful for quests.

Devil's Roar. If you can rustle together a brig or galleon of friends with mics, 40 minutes is entirely possible on a speedrun (if you just tap chests and fire people off). Abuse geysers for OOS.

With Devil's Roar, even if you don't speedrun, a lot of the time you'll also get multiple objectives on a single island, and the max sailing area is much smaller. Also, they're worth more rep and money (9k vs 6k for the final item, and everything else is double too).

And trust me, by the time you're on your 30th athenas, you'll be sitting on so much cash that dragging a sorrow's across kraken's to the boat won't seem like a fun thing to do. Speedruns will just be something you do.

edit: and with Athena's commendations triggering all the time for non-athenas stuff, there's even less grind.

@lethality1 said in Athena Voyages and Game Time:

I'm most definitely not PL yet, so I can't speak directly, but I see this type of thing come up a lot in many gaming communities.

The more "accessible" Rare makes this, the less rewarding it will feel once you've earned it.

After all, if we enjoy playing the game then the rest of the progression will just come naturally through doing that.

Believe me, I am starved for time as well... that's why I have just a few custom pieces of clothing and ship gear and wear them proudly - because to me it meant something to do what was needed to earn them!

I don't know if Rare will ever expand to "Athena 20" or that kind of thing, but I would hate to see them fall into the Blizzard trap of catch-up mechanics and such, so maybe there's some room to make it a bit more speedy currently.

We're not saying we should take less time to achieve the rewards, just that the same time could be better managed in smaller bites.

The problem is once you hit PL the only way to level is multi-hour grind fests. The game is forcing us to binge.

And for those suggesting speed runs, leaving chests in the ground and skulls uncollected, I say such methods go against the spirit of the game. Give me a more challenging, but shorter Athena voyage, or let me split up the current one over multiple sessions.

@captain-arcanic said in Athena Voyages and Game Time:

And for those suggesting speed runs, leaving chests in the ground and skulls uncollected, I say such methods go against the spirit of the game. Give me a more challenging, but shorter Athena voyage, or let me split up the current one over multiple sessions.

I agree. Speed running has always felt so cheap to me. No chest left behind!

I love that legit Pirate Legend/Athena voyages take a long time. It makes you think. It makes you consider if you have the time and/or the crew. They are not for everyone and that's fine. 'It's' now owed to any player. Players have to put in some work to get an Athena voyage done. There is no reason to make things easier.

If a player can't get a larger number as fast as other players, it's okay. It's already WAY easier now that you get your Athena number moved up without even doing Athena voyages.

But, that's all just my opinion.

@captain-arcanic said in Athena Voyages and Game Time:

And for those suggesting speed runs, leaving chests in the ground and skulls uncollected, I say such methods go against the spirit of the game. Give me a more challenging, but shorter Athena voyage, or let me split up the current one over multiple sessions.

“Speed runs” is truly dumbing down the game. One could say that The Arena will be doing that to the entire game.

I totally agree with you sir. I have been saying the same thing you did here: ”more challenging, but shorter Athena voyage, or let me split up the current one over multiple sessions”.

What I was adding by having these voyages become episodic delivered in chapters is that a single Athena could span across play sessions. They can be more challenging, even longer, but played in installments. While being delivered in a richer story method and enhanced with deeper lore.

Hopefully, the new quest system coming will make Athenas better in these ways.

@x-crowheart-x said in Athena Voyages and Game Time:

Hopefully, the new quest system coming will make Athenas better in these ways.

What is this new quest system you keep speaking of? I'll be honest I've missed the past few dev update videos. Was this something they announced?

@jonaldinho

Here you go:

Sea of Thieves' Joe Neate talks about lore coming to the game

and a post from @KattTruewalker:

https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/78094/sea-of-thieves-joe-neate-talks-about-lore-coming-to-the-game-gamereactor

It's rather rare that I'll drop an Athena Voyage, knowing it means I'll be planted in my seat for a good two to four hours, at least. From a health perspective, sitting that long can be a Very Bad Thing. As a matter of fact, it can literally kill you (no exaggeration, I speak from experience). Even though I really enjoy running Athena Voyages, and do on occasion log those long hours...I can't do it on a regular basis.

I think rather than change the way Athena Voyages are done, I'd prefer having some more options for gaining Athena rep. The commendations help a bit, but don't add up to all that much. I'd propose adding another legend voyage that takes maybe half the time to complete, for half the reward. Sort of a "mini" Athena, maybe.

I'm sure a reasonable solution can be had.

I didn't think that new quest system had anything to do with legends. I've literally avoided playing this game because my only option is to do a 2 hour binge. It's unhealthy.

@boomtownboss said in Athena Voyages and Game Time:

I didn't think that new quest system had anything to do with legends. I've literally avoided playing this game because my only option is to do a 2 hour binge. It's unhealthy.

I do not know for sure mate. The interview info is all we have for now. Hopefully, we will hear more about it and get to experience it soon. I cannot see changing things for the better as mentioned without including Athenas.

I can understand and sympathize with health issues playing video games. I know how disabilities and health issues can impact doing everything, including playing video games and how playing them can seriously impact you back.

Agree, Athena can be long and tedious even with a full experienced crew.

Rare please listen to your fan base and modify this by simply adding a save option, allowing to save quest progress and not having to grind 2 hours at a time with no other option.
-To prevent abuse perhaps quests progress can be limited to one save?

Athena 9.75 here. Phew! So close. I'll be glad when those 2-4 hour sessions are over.

Edit: I don't speed run because it feels cheap and I often do forts along the way, hence the 2-4 hour estimate.

@jonaldinho said in Athena Voyages and Game Time:

Athena 9.75 here. Phew! So close. I'll be glad when those 2-4 hour sessions are over.

Edit: I don't speed run because it feels cheap and I often do forts along the way, hence the 2-4 hour estimate.

Nice! I'm 1 chest away from Athena 9 and also can't wait to feel my restraints lifted from me and allow me to sail freely. I've been speed running DR Athena's just to get it done with faster. As a pirate, I feel the cheap way is the best way!

@boomtownboss said in Athena Voyages and Game Time:

Nice! I'm 1 chest away from Athena 9 and also can't wait to feel my restraints lifted from me and allow me to sail freely. I've been speed running DR Athena's just to get it done with faster. As a pirate, I feel the cheap way is the best way!

To each his own! My time on the seas has hardened me. I'll probably spend my remaining days sinking everyone I see. Those young sailors will learn eventually!

I did another DR Athena voyage this weekend with an experienced crew. As with most, this is how it went:
1st hour = Fun and laughs.
2nd hour = "Okay, let's buckle down and get this done."
3rd hour (after being stuck on Devil's Thirst for WAAAAY to long) = "I am SO done with this!"
4th hour = "I vaguely recall when this session was enjoyable. Just turn in the stupid Chest of Legends so I can take a hammer to my console."

Granted, they don't all take four hours, but I have to believe, and this thread proves, there are many others out there that share my pain.

Saving a voyage doesn't make the skill or time required any less than it is now, it only promotes healthier gaming and dare I say it, less SoT burnout.