Portal Server Hopping Getting Obnoxious

I can't see them removing supplies but, the hope is still that they will strip emissary in the same manner as treasures (drop a broken flag as you port through).

My crew uses the portals when we get to grade 5 reaper, but I do think it is op at times.

I think an interesting way to deal with this is to have any ship going thru the portal spawn in one of the four corners of the map. Also, if they are a grade 5 reaper, some type of warning sound (similar to the fof) should go off, the sound being loud enough to be heard in the entire server. Maybe even make that sound go off when a reaper achieves level 5.

@captaintibbz Considering how much extra space they added for the Davy Jones encounters and the coral fortress, they could put the exit portals in the far corners of the map and not directly near outposts.

I don't really see why this is the portal hopping's fault. I mean, what guarantees that a random ship doesn't appear near you anyways, without portal hopping? You didn't sink because it was Reaper. Sure, you can say "he saw me because he was a Grade V," but that's not a valid argument, since you can see him too. It's not about the resources either. Again: if a random, not portal hopping ship appears next to you, what guarantees that they don't have a lot of resources?

Everything you said here can, and most likely will happen anyways, without portal hopping. Sure, normally you can keep track of a Reaper progressing, but that hardly changes anything, because again, they don't have to be reapers to attack you.

Everything this mechanic adds to the game can be avoided by being aware of your surroundings. The only bonus task other emissaries have to do is to check the map table every now and then, which they would do anyways because of the Voyage / activity they are doing.

@thekratex7201 said in Portal Server Hopping Getting Obnoxious:

I don't really see why this is the portal hopping's fault. I mean, what guarantees that a random ship doesn't appear near you anyways, without portal hopping? You didn't sink because it was Reaper. Sure, you can say "he saw me because he was a Grade V," but that's not a valid argument, since you can see him too. (...)

This is just disregarding the pros of the server hopping as a R5: as soon as the Reaper joins the server they can look for an emissary and set a course - the ships already on the server shouldn't have to have one crew member glued to the chart just in case behind a big rock a new ship could arrive.

@lem0n-curry

Even if you can keep the flag you should lose at least one grade if you hop servers in this manner so folk have time to see a reaper is on the map before they get seen themselves. Possibly even two grades idk, I often have a quick scan for reapers, I like to know if one comes on and where they are cos I do plenty of chests/bountys when solo so it would buy me 10 minutes or so to plan something..

@lem0n-curry said in Portal Server Hopping Getting Obnoxious:

@thekratex7201 said in Portal Server Hopping Getting Obnoxious:

I don't really see why this is the portal hopping's fault. I mean, what guarantees that a random ship doesn't appear near you anyways, without portal hopping? You didn't sink because it was Reaper. Sure, you can say "he saw me because he was a Grade V," but that's not a valid argument, since you can see him too. (...)

This is just disregarding the pros of the server hopping as a R5: as soon as the Reaper joins the server they can look for an emissary and set a course - the ships already on the server shouldn't have to have one crew member glued to the chart just in case behind a big rock a new ship could arrive.

That's true, but I'll ask one more time:

What's the difference from a portal hopping ship and a "normak ship" approaching another ship from nowhere? I mean, before portals were in the game, random Reapers attacked other ship straight out of nowhere, and it wasn't a problem.

You all act like that portal hopping is limited to Reaper Grade V's with 400+ cannonballs and resources, while you also forget the fact that approaching silently is not restricted to those who use portals.

And the answer is, no they don't have to have a man glued to the map table. When a ship approaches, you have the ability to spot them on the horizon. I found myself in situations where a totally random ship appeared from behind the Island we were standing at, and we had react really quickly.. And it didn't only happen once. So, yeah it can happen during usual gameplay.

@ghostpaw i was not talking about spawns. I was talking about ships approaching silently. It happened before, and it happens now too. Clearly, you can spot portal hoopers on the horizon too. The chance of them coming out of a portal right next to you is the same as you standing at an Island and a ship appearing from behind it while you are on your Voyage.

I honestly cannot understand why is it a problem that people have to be more alert now than before. 80% of these portal hoppers are avoidable just by keeping an eye on the horizon.

Source: personal experience

@thekratex7201 said in Portal Server Hopping Getting Obnoxious:

@lem0n-curry said in Portal Server Hopping Getting Obnoxious:

@thekratex7201 said in Portal Server Hopping Getting Obnoxious:

I don't really see why this is the portal hopping's fault. I mean, what guarantees that a random ship doesn't appear near you anyways, without portal hopping? You didn't sink because it was Reaper. Sure, you can say "he saw me because he was a Grade V," but that's not a valid argument, since you can see him too. (...)

This is just disregarding the pros of the server hopping as a R5: as soon as the Reaper joins the server they can look for an emissary and set a course - the ships already on the server shouldn't have to have one crew member glued to the chart just in case behind a big rock a new ship could arrive.

That's true, but I'll ask one more time:

What's the difference from a portal hopping ship and a "normak ship" approaching another ship from nowhere? I mean, before portals were in the game, random Reapers attacked other ship straight out of nowhere, and it wasn't a problem.

If an Emissary ship is on the server and there is also a high level Reaper around for a while, it's a total different situation. A proper Emissary should have been aware of that one. If it's still creeping on the Emissary, that would be on the Emissary. Happened to me - thought we would be safe and had a large enough distance or thought they were PvE-reapers, but we knew what the risks were, we deal with it and deal with the loss (if any).

You all act like that portal hopping is limited to Reaper Grade V's with 400+ cannonballs and resources, while you also forget the fact that approaching silently is not restricted to those who use portals.

And the answer is, no they don't have to have a man glued to the map table. When a ship approaches, you have the ability to spot them on the horizon. I found myself in situations where a totally random ship appeared from behind the Island we were standing at, and we had react really quickly.. And it didn't only happen once. So, yeah it can happen during usual gameplay.

One of the tactics Emissaries employ is staying away from threats such as (high level) Reapers. When there are non, collect treasure for as long as possible, if one appears - adapt by (for example) selling, staying more aware, different routes or voyage &c - until they reach grade 5 and again adapt to the new situation if needed.

Total different situation from a grade 5 Reaper or other ship purposefully looking for a nice haul or ship with lots of booty without anything to lose but their supplies and possible being way more close than other ships already on the server (if you keep good lookout) or ships that merge "naturally" and probably have another goal than just sink the closest emissary. Most natural server merging with a ship just looking for a fight doesn't happen that often I would think.

@wagstr said in Portal Server Hopping Getting Obnoxious:

@lem0n-curry

Even if you can keep the flag you should lose at least one grade if you hop servers in this manner so folk have time to see a reaper is on the map before they get seen themselves. Possibly even two grades idk, I often have a quick scan for reapers, I like to know if one comes on and where they are cos I do plenty of chests/bountys when solo so it would buy me 10 minutes or so to plan something.

A suggestion I proposed in another thread.

But what should happen with flags of the other Emissaries, don't want them to go G4 and have another easy emissary voyage within 1 level.

@lem0n-curry

Maybe drop all flags two levels to keep it fairer. Maybe lose the flags, I dunno. There needs to be some penalty.

@thekratex7201

No matter how vigilant and proactive you think you are there is always more you can do I have found. No ship appears from nowhere if you doned your homework unless they did the portal thing.

@wagstr Loose all flags if your an emissary. If your doing the tall tale there's no reason to be an emissary, the bonus isn't significant enough

@red0demon0

I agree 90% but there are two things occupying the other 10%. The issue is around the 'tall tale' portals but I refer to them as server hopping potals for this post.

Firstly, servers do empty quickly when a reaper is on and I feel a bit for the reapers there, they should be able to hop to another server maybe, the same as an emissary worried about reapers should be able to hop as well maybe. They all should not be able to hop with the full weight of their flag though, that is unbalanced.

Secondly, it would encourage players to check their maps more often. It's a good habit to get in to and would enable emissaries who are on the ball to make a decision as to whether they want to hop (losing two levels themselves).

This does come back to the point that newer players would be at the squitty end of the stick though...

@wagstr I don't feel for them at all. I don't hate them or anything, but I wouldn't say servers empty for reapers nor that the circumstance is understandable, server hopping with any emissary flag in tact is wrong regardless of the emissary type. It's taking advantage of game mechanics to grief other players, be rewarded by it, and then run with their tails in between their legs when things don't go their way.

@red0demon0

Reapers sinking a ship with an emissary flag is not griefing by any stretch of the imagination.

I think it is a great use of the portals and the devs have said the same. Think of it from the other perspective, a reaper ship has gotten to level 5 and has none to sink cause everyone left when they saw a reaper join so they had to do all that work for nothing but they can now do additional stuff to get a new server. A reaper or any ship of any for that matter can just appear on top of you. I always check the horizon every few minutes and I check often enough to see someone come from a portal, it's just part of the game now.

Once they go in and come back out they should just spawn fresh like everyone else not Carry over. New server new ship.

@wagstr said in Portal Server Hopping Getting Obnoxious:

@lem0n-curry

Maybe drop all flags two levels to keep it fairer. Maybe lose the flags, I dunno. There needs to be some penalty.

@thekratex7201

No matter how vigilant and proactive you think you are there is always more you can do I have found. No ship appears from nowhere if you doned your homework unless they did the portal thing.

As stated above, I had experience with this, not only once. You saying "it cannot happen" doesn't make it so. Because it happened with me. And it's not about me not being alert. There are rocks in this game and big Islands. If a ship comes out from behind them, it's still a suprise. And if they aren't Reapers, I can't even see them on the map.

This part is for everyone:

Why is it that you all say "you could see every threat on the horizon before" but now you just say "portal hopping is unfair"?
What's the difference? Do you not see portal hoppers in the distance? They aren't invisible.

And to this question, I received some answers like "when a Reaper is progressing you can see them on the map".

Yes, and what about others? Reapers are not the only ones who can, and will attack your ship.

Interesting how you can prepare for these random, non-Reaper encounters that come out of nowwhere, but you can't do the same when a ship comes out of a portal, isn't it? Please tell me how these two are different?
Don't tell me it's because "they know where am I". That is ridiculous. I mean, they won't become better at the game because they see a ship on the map. Nor do they become invisible.

I did this portal hop once or twice, and most emissaries knew how to deal with it. One of them was a newer-ish guy in GH custome, so it wasn't just "veterans" who knew this.

Also, it often happens at world events that we are focusing on the waves so much we forget to look around, and so we only notice a ship when they are really close. I don't even care of they are portal / server hoppers... Why would I? My task is to manage to survive the encounter anyways. And 90% of the time, it works. I CAN escape. I CAN attack back if I want to.
And those emissary guys I mentioned before could also do this.

The chance of Reapers coming out of a portal that is right next to you is EXTREMELY LOW anyways.

This is the same as saying "they should remove the ability from sea threats (monsters / skelly ship) to attack you togrther". It happens rarely, but it can be survived, and moreover, unlike server hoppers, you can't avoid them. And still, they don't remove it, because why would they? It's part of the game, and it is an extra layer of activities. The same goes for portal hopping

For those of you who refuse to read more than the title of the post, I don't mind the server hopping, but if the portals are bringing in new players to the session they shouldn't be put near other players, just like every other way to spawn into a server functions

Emissary flags should definitely drop, how it's being used to hop servers doesn't matter, it's the same thing as running with loot as the flag itself is valuable. If you can turn it in for money/rep, then it shouldn't be able to go through.

@thekratex7201

As stated above, I had experience with this, not only once. You saying "it cannot happen" doesn't make it so. Because it happened with me. And it's not about me not being alert. There are rocks in this game and big Islands. If a ship comes out from behind them, it's still a suprise. And if they aren't Reapers, I can't even see them on the map.

Like I said there is always more you can do - choosing where you park up is key and someone remaining on the ship or even circling the ship round the island if you have real valuables on board and poor visibility is also an option. If you are talking solo play then that is 'hard mode' anyways. Doing a world event with loot onboard already is pretty hardcore stuff bro.

Anyway the only issue here that really bothers me is a L5 Reaper being able to able to browse servers at will with no penalty..

Nah it works fine.

@captaintibbz said in Portal Server Hopping Getting Obnoxious:

Did Rare intend on this being used like this?

Based on their initial posts on the matter, Rare did not intend it to be used like this. However, big streamers adopted it so it is A-OK in rare's book, despite being the complete antithesis of there stated goals.

@dr-orchamedes Its crazy that youre able to load up on ghost ship supply crates and just constantly hop between servers with this arsenal of stuff all because its not counted as "treasure". I think even siren staffs as well but i could be mistaken.

Ships need to be reset back to the default stock, no emissary flag and portals should be moved farther away. The map has all this empty space on the edges now unless Rare plans to add more places like coral fortress.

Decided to do a thieves haven run today. Checked the server for reapers and there were none. Got to the top of TH and checked the horizon - completely clear in every direction. I proceeded to do the first quest.

Get back to my ship and bam, grade 5 reapers heading right towards me two islands over. Thankfully I had the wind against me so I got to plunder outpost and lowered my flag/sold my chalice before they got to me.

I've been a solo player since day one. I've never had an encounter I wasn't in control of because I'm vigilant as hell and make tactical decisions about what quest I do and when.

This portal hopping bs makes all my decision making completely irrelevant. Doesn't matter how smart or watchful I am, at any moment a grade 5 reaper can just appear fully stocked out of thin air just a few islands over and know exactly where I am. Completely unbalanced.