How could volcanoes be made more interesting?

  • mferr11
    Vanguard
    Insider

    Any pirate that has spent some time in the Roar is well aware of the volcanoes. While a cool concept, their execution leaves something to be desired. All of my voyages in the Roar consist of:

    1. Head to island
    2. The island shakes
    3. Go back to ship
    4. If erupting, sail away
    5. Be bored for 5-10 minutes

    Rinse and repeat.
    This isn't a cry for a volcano nerf. They're already way to easy. But I feel that volcanoes should change the way your voyage plays out, not just put it on pause for a few minutes. Maybe if the range of the volcanoes was reigned in to the point that if you park your ship on the shoreline it'll sink, but a bit further away you'll be fine, and to compensate for that make the volcanoes shoot out more rocks more consistently, it would encourage crews to adventure out onto the island while it erupts, instead of just pulling up another tab for a few minutes,

    How would you make it so that volcanoes are more interesting, instead of just putting your voyage on hold?

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  • Capt Soul Beard
    Commander
    Insider

    A simple fix would be to remove the scope and red dot sight the volcanoes have, just make the volcano bombs actually random lol.

    @mferr11 said in How could volcanoes be made more interesting?:

    How would you make it so that volcanoes are more interesting, instead of just putting your voyage on hold?

    Tough question but here's an idea just on the top of my head:

    Maybe have a volcanic crystal core that when heated enough makes the volcano explode but you can cool it down with water (Think Chest of Rage (Remember that thing?))

    That way if you wanna quest uninterrupted you have to have a crew member work on the cooling process. If you fail, it can explode for a random amount of time between 1-3mins then goes into the "cool phase" again.

  • Shadow20642
    Marauder
    Insider

    I think volcanoes hone in on your ship. Some are meant to near miss and then hit etc. However if it was totally random it would be more interesting.

    Parking your ship at devil's roar etc and possibly not being hit, or being annihilated.

    Sailing at top speed and running right into a boulder etc etc

  • JadeDragon00
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    Honestly I am not sure how to "change" the volcanoes.

    Frankly from a functional standpoint I do think they are fine (certainly still a challenge if your caught off guard, compared to how OP they were initially - and that was BEFORE they added more complex ship damage and fire.)

    As to the Voyage halting thing, I think alot of it has to be the length of time that the eruptions last.

    I mean take yesterday. I was on the live build doing DR cargo runs, I got unlucky and the outost began erupting when I pulled up. (Caught me off guard right?) While my ship did not sink (though it certainly came VERY close), the eruption lasted almost 6 minutes.

    Another instant was on the way to Fetcher's Rest, the island was already erupting on my journey there, and when I was close enough that I had to stop, it was still going. The journey from Morrow's to Fetchers was about 3 minutes and then another roughly 5-6 minutes, before it stopped.

    During the Crews of Rage, Molten Sands Fort, would sometimes erupt more than once with only a 3 minute reprieve between roughly 2 separate 5-6 minute eruption. See what I mean?

    Call it a nerf if you wish, but frankly the TIME at which the Islands erupt seems to be more of the issue. Though I dont mind if the frequency remains the same, but while it may not seem like much on paper; in practice doing NOTHING for 5-6-near 10 minutes is quite a long time from a gameplay perspective.

    I guess on that note, if I WERE to suggest a change, it would be, Make Each island Erupt every say; 10 minutes, but make each Eruption last 3 minutes max.

    The timer would start from the eruption, so it would essentially mean each island would have 7 minutes of "safe" time so to speak. And it does not need to just be an eruption. It could still rotate between a chance at eruption or quakes. Make it a 50 50 split, so that eruption would still be present and a worry but not so lengthy that they cause voyages or progress to come to a halt so often.

    I.E:

    • Game rotates a RNG 50% split of Either a Quake or an Eruption Every 7 minutes
    • Quake/Eruption begins, resetting the a 10 minute timer
    • Quake/Eruption lasts 3 minutes
    • After 3 minutes, quake eruption ends, leaving 7 minutes before the next eruption
    • Go back to step 2 after 7 minutes

    7 Minutes of free time, 3 minutes of Danger for a solid 10 minute rotation in the Devils Roar.

  • D3ADST1CK
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    In order for the volcanoes to be random and not targeted, they would need to throw out way more stones or else you'd likely never get hit. I don't know if this would be possible from a performance standpoint since you'd be increasing the number of projectiles and associated hit detections but that might be why we have them the way they are right now.

    I think that making the radius around the island smaller might remove the boredom issue. The reason people sail away is to protect the ship, but if you can still park the ship relatively close to the island while it's erupting then there's no reason to sail away. You can continue doing your voyage, but you'd have the extra danger of being crushed by a rock. They could even increase the frequency of the eruption.

  • naynaySO19
    Seafarer

    Can we get something done about the steam pockets. They spawn right next to you when youre digging. And they kill every skelly faster than you can see them. It takes the challenge away just to agrivate you while you shovel. Idk how many times it spawns 4 boss skellies and they insta die to the flipping ground.

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