Bilge Rats Weekender Feedback:

You're trying to encourage interactions while doing the Doubloon Smuggler voyage.
Primary method of earning of doubloons should not be manipulated to encourage this as PvP is not balanced.
Best to keep it organic and we can all accept the current risk.

To say there’s no risk just sailing from A to B would be a bit of a false statement. Yes, you could sail between both islands and never encounter anything. However, you could also encounter other players, skeleton ships, megs and the Kraken. So there is still risk. On one of my runs between Crescent Isle and Plunder Valley, I was chased by another sloop. I manage to sell the doubloon crate but it could have gone very differently.

If this was a Reaper weekend, I’d agree that PvP should be enticed in some way. But it’s a Bilge Rat weekend, I don’t think there’s a need to force PvP into that. People know the route, if they want to hunt other players that may be smuggling doubloons, they can and they will.

@admiral-orca-x

The risk is near zero if you spot zero ships on the nearby islands—the chances of you sinking to PvE are incredibly low. Obviously there is risk once you see other ships or you spot a mermaid. The point I’m trying to make is that too often the region was empty when we were ferrying goods and it completely took away the tension.

Also, don’t conflate having more ships in the area with forcing PvP. If the other ships are gathering their own doubloons with the smaller crates there’s a chance they’re not going to want to fight either. Yes it increases the chance of PvP but it’s mainly about creating tension.

@d3adst1ck said in Bilge Rats Weekender Feedback::

If it was an unlimited run, you'd see a lot more action.

Yeah.
They have the Event Tab that could simply have 0/5 counter for the Doubloon Voyage's completed - give everyone a surplus of voyages - currently only multi-crews have a surplus. Solo's need to hope for the best.

The fact everyone is trying to complete their OWN Weekender tasks means hunting is restricted in all likelihood.
Keep doubloon voyages to the weekend only, open up everything else for the week - would help.

With the wallet limit and limited things to buy prevents big balances being built up - infinite steals isn't really an issue.

Those who 'ploited the first Weekender, ahem excuse me were really good at stealing, bought everything and maxed out wallet, found they had no reason to play the second Weekender given no new stock.
The cheezers may realise they are just removing the motivation to engage in the event at all in their desperation to buy everything and max out in one Weekender.

@d3adst1ck

I agree that waiting around hoping for a steal is indeed wasting time. That's why I'm suggesting that the other events around the weekender consist of a similar mechanic of the cancelled orb-of-souls where we have a crate that starts at 25 doubloons and we do things nearby (social or otherwise) to increase it's value before handing in—people will be doing things, and will have something to lose. Players have the choice of handing in immediately or taking risk.

I still don't get how people are saying that my suggestion is 'forcing' PvP—encourages it yes, but also encourages running away, sneaky plays, using rowboats, mermfruit, etc. We already have a similar mechanic for the Skull of Siren song where it's only supposed to show up when there's a certain amount of ships on the server. Same mechanic also works for Reaper Chests, too, not so?

@rare-jumbie said in Bilge Rats Weekender Feedback::

I still don't get how people are saying that my suggestion is 'forcing' PvP—encourages it yes, but also encourages running away, sneaky plays, using rowboats, mermfruit, etc.

These other tactics you mention would more often than not need to be adopted by the smaller crew or solo.
4 Pirate Galley does not need to be sneaky and multi-crew ship would have the numbers to be able to camp drop off point, defend the drop off and protect ship.
Multi crew ship has the benefit of surplus voyages in the event of failure - a solo does not.

The whole thing would be fundamentally unbalanced attempting to design more interactions in the voyage by having all the shipwrecks in the same area as the Smuggler route for example.
Never mind spawning at Ancient Spire/Morrows Peak and having to sail to the other side of the map for your shipwreck.

There is too much squeezed into a limited time period already - not many folk want the voyage to take any longer as the Weekender is currently designed.

@rare-jumbie

I mean it's not a bad idea, but it doesn't take certain things into consideration.

First, the limited amount of time that Rare (against overwhelming feedback) chooses to give us to participate already limits the exposure to the event activities that it could otherwise have. Creating an environment where people are going to have to spend an extra non-zero amount of time either worrying about and strategizing for the other ships in the area or full on engaging in PvP is going to further limit the completion rates and general engagement in the activities. With only a finite amount of time afforded by Rare and people only having a portion of their busy schedules to participate, you'd naturally see some crews now only able to attempt say 3/5 voyages instead of 5/5. Increase The Weekender to a full week like the majority of Insider feedback requested and maybe this isn't such a worry

Second, you have to remember that not all crews/players are like us. There's swabbie solos, there's open crew galleons, there's tons of different crew makeups that are just flat out not good at PvP and not really even good at spotting threats or strategizing for them. Those crews just turn into easy prey for more skilled crews...and there's more of those [unskilled] crews out there than not. The net result would be the rich getting richer and being the gatekeepers shouting "get gud" to the part of the community that is most susceptible to abandoning the game altogether. If there was SBMM on a given server, this wouldn't matter. But since there isn't (and that would be terrible for SoT IMO) we have to remember that just because you and I would relish in the enhanced risk along with the opportunity for more steals doesn't mean it would be a net positive for the community or the event as a whole.

Finally, regarding this:

I still don't get how people are saying that my suggestion is 'forcing' PvP—encourages it yes, but also encourages running away, sneaky plays, using rowboats, mermfruit, etc.

While not "forcing" PvP, these changes would undoubtedly increase the amount of PvP surrounding the event. By how much? Not sure, but it wouldn't be zero.

We already have a similar mechanic for the Skull of Siren song where it's only supposed to show up when there's a certain amount of ships on the server.

I mean, that was explicitly labeled as a "competitive PvP voyage", so making a comparison of it to your idea while saying that you're not trying to "force" PvP feels a bit counter to your own argument.

Plus, if you remember back to the introduction of the SoSS, all that server density mechanic did was encourage server hopping like crazy. Hard pass on that component.

_

In the end, would I like your changes? Maybe if it was extended to a whole week. With it being only for 3 days, though, I already was forcing myself to get some extra playtime to even participate. It's content that could be fun... But since Rare is stubborn and on a FOMO crusade (I recognize that it's working on me), it's a nah for me.