I fly reaper flag very often, not even really for the pvp aspect but because of the bonus gold. I am nearing level 70 reaper emissary level and I am not sure I have ever seen three ships with a flag in a game. Here recently I am lucky to see one ship with an emissary flag. Does anyone think they know why this is?
And if any developer is reading, I think this is a serious issue. Why would people not be flying an emissary flag?
Athena emissary is fairly pointless for the average pver at this point. Low gold value, high risk of pvp, takes far too long to grade 5 and most don't have time to even do the emissary quest if they manage to pull it off. So they hide in the shadows and take less risk and they aren't sacrificing much by doing so with the current Athena emissary system
lack of information in a giant pool of new and casual players is the big part of the rest as well as narratives about reapers and safety that don't typically match reality for merchant/gold/order
Emissary focused events help with activity but in general we kinda are where we are with emissaries for now. Amazing system that make this game a whole lot better but it has some things fighting against it. A large part not really being anyone's fault really it's just a lot of people that don't have a lot of experience or desire to take advantage of them
As a relatively new player, it's just because I don't feel like taking the risk is a good idea.
It's also kinda the other side of the coin of Gold not being very important. It allows players to shrug off getting sunk (well, depends on the player, but you know what I mean) but it also means that there isn't a MASSIVE rush to raise the Emissary flag.
I only know why I do NOT hoist an Emissary even though I know about them.
Instead of just listing up the thousand details about it I will put it in one simple sentence:
" I do not like the stress. "
Even Megladons and other random naval-PvE encounter do not seem very interested in a emissaryless Ship.
I like it.
I only raise my emissary flag when there is an emissary ledger reward. I normally only play as an emissary once a month and only until I’m high enough in the top tier of the ledger.
I have millions of gold AFTER buying the complete Dark Adventure cosmetics. I have no reason or interest to raise my emissary flag for extra gold. I’m also maxed out in all the factions.
@rongir right now with the start of season 4...because while under the sea and your ship is up there, nobody needs to see my ship on the map, I also don't park the ship directly over the shrines...but regurlarly I have always an emissary flag on
@thrownbacchus said in Why is no emissary flag so common?:
I'd say all of the above reasons are valid.
Also, maybe more people are aware that a Lvl 5 Reaper can pop into the server by using the (Imo) flawed portals.
1 minute, you check your map and horizon and go do a vault or riddle etc. Next thing you know, Reaper is bearing down on you.
^ THIS ^
@rongir ahoy matey!
Lots of good responses here I feel to help you understand why folks aren't running the flags.
And the devs absolutely do check the forum - especially the feedback and suggestions section, as they are allowed, as per the agreement of the forum, to take any ideas here if they wish.
@rongir
That is not so strange , take a look at the New Update with the Sunken Kingdoms. It take some time to finish those Kingdoms and you while your ship sits there with that flag , any Reaper can show up , wait at a distance and charge in when the Pirates are collecting stuff from the Pawn Mermaid ... Uhm , no wonder many don't even use an Emmisary flag anymore.
IMO, creating a "Prestige" system would cause way more people to run emissary. Right now, if you're maxed out, aside from emissary ledger rewards, what's the point? Most players that are maxed out have most of the cosmetics and look at everything that they haven't bought and go...meh...don't like it. So, gold has no real purpose.
Under a prestige system, they could tie complete cosmetic sets to each level of prestige. And to prevent players from going ham, they could allow for players to prestige only once per season.
Most of the dedicated base maxes out the Season Renown in the first 3 weeks of a Season. This would give the dedicated play-every-day players something to work for the rest of the 9 weeks.
With the new rewards starting this month, you might see some more.
Personally, if I'm solo I don't bother leaving an Emissary flag up, I just put it up when selling and I still end up with the top ledger reward each month.
When it comes to risk vs reward, it's just too much risk to leave it up with Reaper Grade Vs hopping servers. Gold is not a motivation anymore.
As for mid-tier players, I blame portal hopping with emissary and the drastic increase of emergent PvE.
Right now, you never know when a Reaper 5 is going to pop up. People who say "bE vIgIlAnT, cHeCk YoUr MaP mOrE oFtEn" clearly haven't done an OOS or even a GH voyage in a while. With all the added PvE, you could be off your ship and away from your map for a crazy amount of time... especially if you've got a 4 captain voyage at, say, Plunder Valley. Or having 3+ 'X marks the spot' digs at, say, Kraken's Fall.
Because the risk of flying an emissary flag and being a target isn't worth the reward that you get from sinking an attacker.
The game needs to make broken Reaper V Emissary Flags worth more (all grades, actually). And they also need to make ships without an emissary flag be unable to see Reaper's on the map.
@mostexpendable said in Why is no emissary flag so common?:
And this is why being able to server hop as a Reaper 5 is so vital. Not that I’ve ever needed to do it more than twice in an evening.
Devil's advocate, as someone who is indifferent to the process at the moment - do you also not think that it would be less vital, were a server able to safely level up rep with companies alongside a server reaper?
There is a massive school of pirates out there who simply wont do it as they don't know when a reaper can appear.
No hopping == more emissaries (potentially)
@sshteeve a dit dans Why is no emissary flag so common? :
No hopping == more emissaries (potentially)
That wasn't the case before the portals tho. From my experience, on a 4 emissaries server, by the time you reached grade 5, 2 of them likely already disappeared and you would be lucky to get something valuable from the last 2.
You're right that there should be an incentive for people to keep their emissary flag up despite a reaper being on the same server. But I wouldn't know how to do it :P
@sshteeve yeah, it was already like that though. People dropping emissary by the time you hit 5.
This is the first time Reapers have had a chance at an intentional server merge. It takes so long though that I’ve never done it more than twice.
@grog-minto & @mostexpendable then I think the issue lies with incentivising emissary beyond the norm and making it worthwhile sticking around.
Ultimate though I wonder if (again - devil's advocate) that Pirates assume Reaper == PVP == grief?
@sshteeve I think the emotional and possessive bond people instantly seem to form with “their loot” is just a testament to Rare and it’s unique game design.
I’ve never seen such psychology at work.
A game with incredible ship battles that don’t exist in any other top tier game and yet people are terrified of participating in them…
I think someone needs to write a thesis on why this game is so emotionally engaging.
Then we’ll have our answer.
The notion that role playing as a pirate in a pirate game could be considered griefing is just a wonderful example.
@mostexpendable and believe me. I have been depressed after some big losses.
I have felt all the emotions.
@grog-minto said in Why is no emissary flag so common?:
@sshteeve a dit dans Why is no emissary flag so common? :
No hopping == more emissaries (potentially)
That wasn't the case before the portals tho. From my experience, on a 4 emissaries server, by the time you reached grade 5, 2 of them likely already disappeared and you would be lucky to get something valuable from the last 2.
You're right that there should be an incentive for people to keep their emissary flag up despite a reaper being on the same server. But I wouldn't know how to do it :P
The problem is the map visibility system. The need for Reaper's to portal hop to find emissaries and the reluctance to fly an emissary flag because of Reapers (hopping or not) all stems from this and to a lesser extent, the emissary table miniatures. At least with the minis, you need to visit an outpost to check so they are not as useful.
It should be pretty clear that the map thing needs to go and ships should hunt others the old fashioned way.
