Silver Plated Sea Dog - Reaper Mercenary introduction

  • Ahoy Pirates!

    This post is written like a patch (to keep it interesting to read) and contains in-depth suggestions of how the game can offer more content by introducing minor changes mostly based on already existing game-mechanics.

    Goodbye arena, hello open sea!

    Introduction
    Since the end of arena, sea dogs have more frequently been spotted roaming the open sea. Some now settle to seek regular gold, a few have joined the Reapers, and others reek havoc trying with no luck to earn the long gone silver coins! The sea dogs seem to be looking for a higher meaning - how do they fulfill their need for silver?

    Reaper Mercenary Commendations

    The Reapers have lost their recent battle for The Golden Sands Outpost, and they have resorted to hire the former Sea Dogs who still search the seas for silver. To show the new alliance, the hired mercenaries have been gifted the 'Reaper Mercenary Flag'. A new set 'Silver Plated Sea Dog' can now be obtained from the following commendations when having the Reaper Mercenary Flag raised.
    Weapons

    • Silver Plated Sharpshooter. Unlocks the Silver Plated Flintlock. Grade V - Kill 250 server unique players with a Flintlock while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag..
    • Silver Plated Deadeye. Unlocks the Silver Plated Eye of Reach. Grade V - Kill 250 server unique n Eye of Reach while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag.
    • Silver Plated Swashbuckler. Unlocks the Silver Plated Cutlass. Grade V - Kill 250 server unique players with a Cutlass while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag.
    • Silver Plated Blunderer. Unlocks the Silver Plated Blunderbuss Grade V - Kill 250 server unique players with a Blunderbuss while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag.
    • Master of Silver Plated Arms. Unlocks the Silver Plated Master of Arms title. Own all four of the Silver Plated Weapons.

    Clothing

    • Ship Shifter. Unlocks the Silver Plated Boots & Silver Plated Pants. Grade V - Board another server unique crew's ship 150 times while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag.
    • Silver Dreams. Unlocks the Silver Plated Gloves and Silver Plated Shirt. Grade V - Sell 1000 stolen items to reapers while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag.
    • Emissary Menace. Unlocks the Silver Plated Jacket & Silver Plated Dress. Grade V - Sell 50 non-reaper Grade V emissary flags while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag.
    • Silver Plated Captain. Unlocks the Silver Plated Hat & Silver Plated Belt. Grade V - Sink 100 non-reaper emissary ships while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag.
    • Friendly Competition. Unlocks the Silver Plated Eyepatch, Silver Plated Hook & Silver Plated Plated Pegleg . Grade V - Kill 250 server unique players who sail with the Reaper Mercenary Flag while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag.
    • Silver Plated Artist. Unlocks the Silver Plated Beard, Silver Plated Hair, Silver Plated Makeup & Silver Plated Bucket. Grade V - Decorate 100 server unique enemies with a bucket of puke while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag.
    • Silver Plated Stylist. Unlocks the Silver Plated Stylist title. Unlock all the Silver Plated clothing and Vanity items.

    Ship Set

    • Head First. Unlocks the Silver Plated Figurehead. Grade V - Ram 150 unique ships while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag.
    • Taste Silver. Unlocks the Silver Plated Cannons. *Grade V - Land 2000 cannonballs on enemy ships while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag and wearing five Silver Plated clothing items. *
    • Searching For Silver. Unlocks the Silver Plated Sails & Silver Plated Flag. Grade V - Sail 500 miles while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag and owning and wearing five Silver Plated clothing items
    • No More Room. Unlocks the Silver Plated Capstan. Grade V - Kill 100 unique enemy boarders while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag and wearing five Silver Plated clothing items.
    • Silver Strategies. Unlocks the Silver Plated Wheel. Grade V - Lower 100 unique enemy ship masts while representing the Reapers using the Reaper Mercenary flag and using the Silver Plated Cannons.
    • Silver Plated Captain. Unlocks the Silver Plated Captain title. Unlock all the Silver Plated ship set items.

    Did someone say ... a curse!?

    • Silver Plated Sea Dog. Unlocks the Silver Plated Sea Dog Curse and the 'Silver Plated Sea Dog' title. Unlocked by owning the Silver Plated Captain, Silver Plated Stylist & Silver Plated Master of Arms commendation.

    Reaper mercenary

    Q and A

    Will these commendations not give people a reason to spawn-camp enemies?

    • Long story short - No. Kills are counted on unique enemy players based on the current session. If anything, this could lead to less spawn-camping, as the players focused on these commendations benefit more from killing an enemy player once and then head on for the next player ship.

    Will these commendations not ruin the pve experience for people wanting to avoid pvp?

    • Many Reaper emissary ships currently kill and loot for the sport of it. Introducing the new commendations will to some extent take their attention towards a higher goal, removing the need for reeking unecessary havoc, as it will slow their commendation grinding down.

    Thank you for reading - let me know what you think!
    Written by: Cap'n Norton

  • 34
    Posts
    16.5k
    Views
    communityfeedbackstory & loregeneral
  • @capn-norton First of all, i love this idea! Just a few questions.

    • Where do i vote for the new flag? On outposts or maybe just at the reapers hideout?
    • Will i be seen on the map like regular reapers? I guess it would be fair.
    • Do i get any flag bonuses at the reapers hideout? I mean most PvP'er would care tbh.
  • Hi @funnyqchen,

    Q: Where do i vote for the new flag? On outposts or maybe just at the reapers hideout?
    A: I figured it was best kept to be a flag like The Flag Of The Reaper's Mark. Hence, being raised on the ship directly like any other flag.

    Q: Will i be seen on the map like regular reapers? I guess it would be fair.
    A: It would probably have to be visible for others as the Reaper Mark flag is to warn unsuspecting pirates on their adventure.

    Q: Do i get any flag bonuses at the reapers hideout? I mean most PvP'er would care tbh.
    A: The flag is like the Reaper's Mark flag. Hence, the bonus is the new items you can unlock by completing commendations when having the new flag raised. So you can still use the Reaper's Emissary for 2.5x gold and rep bonus. :-)

    Good questions!

    \Cap'n Norton

  • Love this idea! Rare please take note.

  • Sounds pretty cool. I would just hope the set would be another color. There are too many red-tinted cosmetics in this game already imo.

  • @woefulmorgana Glad you like it, hopefully they will notice this post :-)

  • Hi @alienmagi,

    The picture I linked is not necessarily the set, just an idea to create a theme for the post. It would also be really cool to have it be black & white for example. Black from the Reaper's colors, and white as a neutral "I sail for whom I get paid by" color.

  • alt text

  • Personally I think this would benefit the more experienced Sot community and give players like myself a reason to grind again, great idea!

    It also gives the less experienced players more reason to engage in PvP and better themselves in difficult combat situations!

  • I've always wanted a pvp curse

  • @daveyup Let's hope this post gets some attention from the devs then ^^

  • There's a lot of thought put into this but I don't think they'll ever add direct PvP commendations to Adventure. It encourages spawn camping, and yes I've seen you've tried to mitigate this by tracking every player and ship uniquely but think of how much additional data the server would have to track and reference each time you kill someone or sink/board a ship.

    The Arena had similar commendations, but they didn't track them as unique per player. This would add an additional list of players and ships that each player on the server has interacted with that would need to be searched/scanned every time in order to ensure they don't get double counted if they ever interact with that player again and that would need to be held in memory or on file.

    It would probably be easiest to grind these by attacking new spawn ships, killing everyone and since this is likely to happen near an Outpost, use a portal to get to a fresh server and repeat. It's not exactly the best behaviour to be rewarding players with cosmetics.

  • Not a 100% pvp player, but I would love something like this.

  • "The servers are dead, reduce the commendations!" Pvp cried because people still don't want to fight all the time

  • Hey @d3adst1ck,
    Regarding how much additional data the server would have to track, this is really nothing compared to what they are already tracking and referencing on players. However, to keep it more simple - they could simply remember whom a player has killed / boarded for the past hour. This prevents spawn-camping and makes it less of a task to keep track of who a player has killed / boarded.

    It would indeed be easiest to grind the commendations on new spawned ships. But it is far from every server you come across that has a new-spawned ship. And if so, no one is hurt by being sunk / killed when they got nothing either way. This is an edge case, not a common thing happening.

  • @blazebeard2313 Glad you like it! :)

  • @pithyrumble I am not quite sure what you're saying tbh.

  • @capn-norton said in Silver Plated Sea Dog - Reaper Mercenary introduction:

    @pithyrumble I am not quite sure what you're saying tbh.

    I'm saying introducing pvp commendations isn't going to make people want to pvp.

    People are going to complain they can't get the commendations.

  • @capn-norton said in Silver Plated Sea Dog - Reaper Mercenary introduction:

    Hey @d3adst1ck,
    Regarding how much additional data the server would have to track, this is really nothing compared to what they are already tracking and referencing on players.

    There is a difference between tracking something in server memory, like your suggestion would need to do so that it can confirm a kill/board/sink is unique, and tracking stats on a separate server like the reputation, commendations and account stats are stored.

  • @d3adst1ck Indeed there is a difference. But I have a hard time seing this minor purely technical "problem" being the deal-breaker here. Someone at Rare can probably without a doubt see how the tracking issue can fit into their current mechanics. You and I have no idea how the current structure is.

  • @pithyrumble I am not trying to harcore PVE'ers into PVP. I am trying to give PVP-players some actual goals in the game rather than just sinking people for the sport.

  • @capn-norton said in Silver Plated Sea Dog - Reaper Mercenary introduction:

    @d3adst1ck Indeed there is a difference. But I have a hard time seing this minor purely technical "problem" being the deal-breaker here. Someone at Rare can probably without a doubt see how the tracking issue can fit into their current mechanics. You and I have no idea how the current structure is.

    True, but that's not the deal breaker. IMO, they aren't going to directly incentivize killing players and sinking boats at all.

  • @d3adst1ck

    This system already exists in the game, when you run reapers bones and get rep for killing emissary players, the amount of rep you get drops for each kill of the same player. They could easily get it to only count 1/player, though probably only for that session, not an all time "Well you've killed them before, so nah"

  • @woefulmorgana That is true, good call! :-)

  • Hi @zeyrniyx ,
    The killing, cannon blasting and ship sinking is not what killed arena. What killed arena is Rare lacking resources to maintain PVP, and hence, never updating it and making people grow tired of it. They discontinued its development for years up until they eventually pulled the plug - what is to be expected? The PVE part of the game would die out as well to an extend if they just stopped updating it now..

  • Initially, while reading your suggestion (which is very well organized, BTW!), I didn't like the fact that it incentivizes killing other pirates. There shouldn't be an incentive other than whether or not you think they have loot on board. Then I noticed your server-specific wording. That is a good call, IMO, as it would mitigate or reduce the chances of such a crew killing everyone constantly on the same server.

    However, there are still a few concerns. For example, having multiple mercenary crews on the same server. All of a sudden, that is a very hostile server. With multiple mercenary crews, they're not likely to be friendly to each other either like some Reapers might do, because each additional kill, sink, steal, etc. will benefit them.

    In contrast, many of these can be boosted via Alliance servers, where everyone simply takes turns killing, sinking, stealing, etc.

    As for where the flag should be raised and lowered - at the Sea Dog tavern, of course!

    Lorewise, these mercenaries shouldn't be considered Sea Dogs anymore - just as Mercenaries (since we already have a full cosmetic set for them), who were formerly Sea Dogs. Perhaps the Twisted Knives could make an appearance as their 1st in-game debut and get in on the action too?

  • Hey @galactic-geek,
    Multiple mercenary crews on one server
    They are indeed not likely to be friendly to each other as reapers might be. However, reapers have a reason to keep coming back to a fight after they sink to regain their loot - mercenaries have often gotten what they came for on the first or at least second try (Kills, boards, ship rams). Hence, making them to be less of a pain in contrast to reapers just sailing to cause mayhem.

    Boosting via alliance servers
    Yes, alliance servers can be used to boost. But only to a very limited extend. The weapon commendations are based on unique player kills, and hence, can give them a max of 15 kills.
    The ship concerned commendations also states unique ships. Hence, boarding, ramming, sinking, and shooting masts of a ship will give an alliance server very slow progress compared to people jumping servers and doing the real work.

    In short: Alliance servers always finds a few to ruin stuff, but I find it hard to boost any of these commendations effectively apart from the cannon ball hits one. And I even countered this by forcing them to have the clothing items equipped to progress this commendation, forcing them into non-boostable commendations firstly. This can be even further intensified, by forcing them to have all the weapons unlocked for the shots to count (forcing them to have 1000 unique kills. Good luck doing that in an alliance server.).

    Raising the flag
    Good call on the Sea Dog tavern, that would make great sense. I would like it to be a flag like the Reaper's Mark and not an Emissary Flag. But it could actually be a great idea to have them raise and lower the flag at the tavern anyway, so they cannot simply put it down if they are about to be sunk to prevent others from progressing.

    Thanks for the feedback! :)

  • @zeyrniyx

    "A full PvP mode does not go into an adventure mode"

    I see nothing here being unrealistic. It is not a "full PVP mode", it is a set of commendations - nothing in the Sea is changing game-mode wise. Indeed the Reapers have for a lot of people ended up being a PVE faction for farming gold, which is by the mercenaries aim to actually provide some pvp commendations and content into the game. The reaper faction's commendations present no challenge, the mercenary commendations try to give people having been reapers for a long time now, some new stuff to do and spend their time on.

    ... Will end with the same thing as the arena

    I still do not see how you get to the conclusion that it will "end with the same thing as arena. It is not game-mode, it is part of the general Sea experience. You do not opt into a specific PvP world with mercenaries going on a rampage.

    Alliance servers.... I'm not saying more because I think you'll understand.

    See my reply below to galatic-geek, it touches upon the topic of alliance servers.

  • @zeyrniyx You keep dwelling into assumptions without listening to the responds im giving you to your prior questions. I can see from your other posts that this is how you debate.

    So, let me give you a short and final answer from my point of view:

    • It will not lead to abuse & additional toxicity, quite the opposite actually. Read my post again and prior replies in the thread and see how this is countered through making kills / sinks etc. be on unique players & ships.
    • You do not have enough data to call out any "average player" behaviour. Even if we agree that the average player will run away, so what? They run away from the reapers already, this adds nothing to it.
    • Not commenting further on arena, see my prior reply to you on this.
    • I myself doubt that many of the things in suggestion forum are actually implemented anytime soon, but hopefully this sparks some ideas for the Rare developers which can be seen implicitly in future content updates.
  • @pithyrumble your the first one who ever said that because most pvpers do a little portal hop hahaha

  • Love it, clearly a lot of time and effort put into this

  • Yes
    Yes
    And
    Yes

  • I like the idea of something like this, or at the very least some cosmetics unlockable by actual pvp.

34
Posts
16.5k
Views
communityfeedbackstory & loregeneral
33 out of 34