Two days a week, I play SOT with a fellow Pirate (Friend) of mine and we both ended up experiencing having the worst evening of play on 02/24/2024 sometime between 17:00 - 20:30 pm pst. The worst of it happening more towards the end starting at around 19:00 pm pst.
Before I get to that wonderful highlight. I have noticed a startling and unhealthy trend on Safer Seas since my fellow Pirates (Friends) and I have started sailing back towards the end of December when I finally picked up the game after a long hiatus. (In having to wait for the desired private servers to be released.)
Given the factor that in Safer Seas, there is only one ship on the server instead of anywhere of 4-8 ships depending on crew size. The number of skeleton ships spawning in Safer Seas on one ship is if not ungodly as soon as my crew and I leave an island, rather its taking down a skeleton fort, doing bounties, or lolling about. Its became so repetitive that there is no break from it. We could spend up to an hour or so on an island and no sooner than we leave it a Skeleton Ship spawns. With out the threat of the kraken to keep them in check, it becomes so passive aggressive in game that it has become that annoying mosquito to Pirates. The frequency at which they spawn I have estimated down to at minimum perhaps between 30 minutes to an hour and I haven't seen any despawn as they continue to linger around if we manage to sail out of their arena zone. So we have taken to much to our chagrin and headache, ramming them so they sink faster and it becomes this mini war of take out the pest somewhere between 5 - 20 minutes.
Now to address the issue about Molten Sands, the Skeleton Fort in the Devil's Roar. The pain that was mentioned in the times above. While we were sailing in the Devils Roar and touching the southern isles to collect for the Season Pass Deed and taking out any mini boss skeletons that have spawned in. We noticed that a Skellie Fort spawned on Molten Sands. Well, we sail to it, praying that it does not despawn, make it and start to take out the waves, during this time I had our ship anchored between one of the guard towers and the island, the lone one on the Northside, well the game didn't like that and despawned the ship out from underneath me, dropping me and what loot we had into the water. My friend was forced to die, respawn (At Cinder Isle) and sail our ship back, meanwhile, I'm picking up our loot and dropping it onto the guard tower till they do return with our ship. I save all it except for two, a gold coffer and vase for the gold hoarder that becomes glitched into the digital graphics of space that can't be rescued no mater how many times with an intended harping and the rest safely onboard, phantom treasure chests, treasure chests, bounty skulls (like 12 or more disgraced ones), merchant wares and etc.. We agree to give them up. small price to pay, well. I decide to slowly adjust the ship to the Eastern side to place between the two other guard towers instead as my Friend goes to finish the fort. As they are on land, the volcano on Molten Sands decides to blow her top, I immediately start sailing away from the island to tuck behind a rock outcrop in the distance when we take a flaming ball, I extinguish, put it out, repair, bail then port side broadsided with a cannon ball from a Skellie Ship that spawns on me. I struggle to bail with boiling water, repair and taking HP loss as I turn around to see that the water has hit the "No Return" or "You are Sunk" line.
We both respawn at Cinder Isle and sail back in hopes of finding our loot and signs of the Skellie Ship. Can't find one trace, iota, of our loot by the birds in the air, and know that Molten Sands sunk the Skellie Ship with her Volcano. Tragic loss. We decide to finish the fort and we are about almost done with looting the fort when Molten Sands blows her top again and sinks our ship. By that time, my friend and I are just done. Fed up and just Rage quit on the spot. We talk and agree that the Mechanics with Molten Sands and the Skeleton Ships spawning have become outrageously abnormal.
Fix Molten Sands that if the Skellie Fort is active on it, she does not blow her top and erupt fire and brimstone.
If she is Erupting, then no Skellie Ships are to spawn in her radius.
The spot between the two eastern guard towers are to become a protected place for ships against eruption if the choice of the two mechanics above are not feasible to do.
I have noticed that as soon as we finish a Skellie Fort of any kind, we get Skellie Ship spawned on when we sail for an Outpost. Its been more Skellie Ships than Megalodon's spawning in, and even the Meg's have become glitched and bugged to the point that there mechanics are not working properly and can easily be broken by sailing next to a rock formation or into an islands vicinity.
Turn down the spawn rate of Skellie Ships on Safer Sea's for crew's as there is only one ship versus the 4-8 ships that a server see's on the High Sea's as the mechanic only is allowed to select at random the one crew that it spawns on.
More to be added in a post below.
