New Updates make Old Commendations harder to complete

  • TheMetalMan4011
    Marauder
    Insider

    I am a complitionist and have been working on my commendations since I started playing this game about 4 years ago.
    I want to bring up two concerns of mine.

    I work on whats new, what's there is time for and what my fellow pirates want to do.
    But in the background I am looking for to complete the Merchant Bottle Quests, Merchant Forager, Merchant Shipwright, Cast Iron Merchant
    and Black Powder Merchant, (these are to sell supply crates to merchants at outposts) have seen little progress the last year or so, even though I am almost done.

    Bottle Quests are available, but they next to never do they give a shipment for fruit, wood or cannonballs~~(or kegs)~~. Its been a really long dry spell for me. It might be chance, it may be random, but it feels its too rare now for it to feel doable. Even some of my mates who played since day one and are actively searching for them, and still haven't completed them. And it especially feels like this after the additions of Breath of the Sea bottles, and adding Kingly Trerasure quests in bottles. I personally ponder if the increased amount of options/possibilities is what causes this rarity? Since they are less sought-after quests.
    Could also be that no one looks in barrels anymore for supplies, so quests at outposts are missed when you use a storage crate to gather supplies for the session.

    It would make sense if these quests could pop up during normal merchant quests or similar. Perhaps part of the melody quests? I understand since we can already purchase supplies from merchant this could trivialize it, but what is the point if I can't even get the chance to complete them? Also the fact you need to sell 50 of them.
    I just want to be ability for me and my friends to finish this grind once and for all.

    Second note, do you still get Reaper's gifts from skeleton captains on small islands? That feels like forever since I got one of those lately as well... I just get either stronghold kegs, or a storage crate. Consistently.
    Again might be interference with kingly treasures, but at this point Reaper's Gifts are almost infuriating to successfully get other players to sell. I just need to get two more generous gifts sold by another crew and its starting to take its toll for me.
    I used to just sail around killing skele captains to get them, sail them to the reaper with a reaper chest/bounty as a lure. It worked sometimes. I also had people just sell the reaper chest, ignoring the gifts. And now the only way to get the gifts seems to be skeleton forts, which is not guaranteed to spawn. Then you need to find someone who can sell it for you. You also need to be on the same server as them when they sell it. I've had it happen that I complete a fort, get sunk, they steal my gifts, as I watch them sail to an outpost, raise reaper and dive for hourglass... leaving my gifts on the dock to rot.
    And yesterday, I tried to get help selling a single gift, only to get betrayed, sunk and then watching them raise reaper and chase my ship for no other reason then to TDM.
    Am I supposed to stay on the server, until they get grade 5 reaper and finally sell in an our or two?

    At least around Christmas a few years ago you had quests that gave Reapers Gifts, Athena kegs and Ashen Wind Skulls. They have since then not returned.

    I just want to finish my grind, but I feel I make no progress because of limitations of the game, rarity of the items or the attitude of my fellow players.
    And if you wonder why I am posting about it here, I sent a support ticket to get advice and they told me to post it here. So here I am, what do you all think?

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  • WithMyApologies
    Legend
    Insider

    These are the kind of suggestions I can get behind. Take my upvote.

    Some kind of change to the way these are encountered or the percentages adjusted, would be appreciated. Me and my crewmate are generally more PvE oriented, so are regularly jumping off at random islands and flotsams whilst also doing missions, yet very, very rarely find any of the aforementioned Merchant quests required for the commendations (wood/fruit/cannonballs etc). Despite just under 2500 hours in this game, I've yet to finish those related commendations as they've just become more and more difficult due to all of the new stuff introduced, whilst old stuff is seemingly forgotten about.

  • Lem0n Curry
    Vanguard
    Insider

    They should increase the chance of getting the merchant variants linked to commendations. I think they upped it a bit a month or so ago but that could be attributed to luck, I guess.

    They shouldn't add them to the merchant voyage. They've been depending on luck from the beginning, realising this, I (and I think other players as well) prioritised them above doing other quests you were able to find. They should keep this as it's part of getting the commendation. Being able to do loads of them in a single session would IMO devalue this and also give rise to the opportunity to get those crates for free instead of buying them.

  • iTz Majman
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    @themetalman4011

    do you still get Reaper's gifts from skeleton captains on small islands?

    That is long gone, probably not been a thing for well over a year at this point. You can only find gifts by taking down skeleton-forts that you haven't spawned yourself through the dive-mechanic, as far as I know.

  • Arias1101
    Ship Mate
    Insider
    Founder

    Absolutely.
    I'm gratefull I'm done with gifts because they have been removed from the captains loot table.

    They also have been removed from Fof loot table.

    Not mentionning merchant forager wich is basicaly non possible at this point...

  • TheMetalMan4011
    Marauder
    Insider

    @lem0n-curry

    They shouldn't add them to the merchant voyage. They've been depending on luck from the beginning, realising this, I (and I think other players as well) prioritised them above doing other quests you were able to find. They should keep this as it's part of getting the commendation. Being able to do loads of them in a single session would IMO devalue this and also give rise to the opportunity to get those crates for free instead of buying them.

    I dunno if it would devalue them that much, after all you need to do them 50 times, and when you get them they are empty, so I dont see how getting from for free as opposed to buying them (which is quick and easy) would make it broken.
    That said, adding them to merchant voyages was just the first thing that came to mind.

    Would you consider adding them to emissary quests to be better? Or a chance of them appearing in emissary quests?

  • TheMetalMan4011
    Marauder
    Insider

    @arias1101

    They also have been removed from Fof loot table.

    Really? Didn't they add them to Fort of Fortune just a few months ago=

  • Lem0n Curry
    Vanguard
    Insider

    @themetalman4011 said in New Updates make Old Commendations harder to complete:

    @lem0n-curry

    They shouldn't add them to the merchant voyage. They've been depending on luck from the beginning, realising this, I (and I think other players as well) prioritised them above doing other quests you were able to find. They should keep this as it's part of getting the commendation. Being able to do loads of them in a single session would IMO devalue this and also give rise to the opportunity to get those crates for free instead of buying them.

    I dunno if it would devalue them that much, after all you need to do them 50 times, and when you get them they are empty, so I dont see how getting from for free as opposed to buying them (which is quick and easy) would make it broken.

    People use them for more than supplies: in the past they were used for making a barrier. Besides, they give reputation for Merchant Alliance and Guilds. They could also be used to gather fruit, planks, cannonballs more easily at an outpost without buying a resource crate.

    That said, adding them to merchant voyages was just the first thing that came to mind.

    Would you consider adding them to emissary quests to be better? Or a chance of them appearing in emissary quests?

    Certainly with the possibility of getting more than one quest per bottle, I think Rare could just increase the chance of coming across those quests around the same as pre-voyage change without too much difficulty. There was no need to have made those commendations harder to get. They could add the merchant quest to barrels again as well.

    A chance (1 in 3 or so) for being part of an emissary quest could be a an alternative, I guess.

  • TheMetalMan4011
    Marauder
    Insider

    @lem0n-curry said in New Updates make Old Commendations harder to complete:

    @themetalman4011 said in New Updates make Old Commendations harder to complete:

    @lem0n-curry

    They shouldn't add them to the merchant voyage. They've been depending on luck from the beginning, realising this, I (and I think other players as well) prioritised them above doing other quests you were able to find. They should keep this as it's part of getting the commendation. Being able to do loads of them in a single session would IMO devalue this and also give rise to the opportunity to get those crates for free instead of buying them.

    I dunno if it would devalue them that much, after all you need to do them 50 times, and when you get them they are empty, so I dont see how getting from for free as opposed to buying them (which is quick and easy) would make it broken.

    People use them for more than supplies: in the past they were used for making a barrier. Besides, they give reputation for Merchant Alliance and Guilds. They could also be used to gather fruit, planks, cannonballs more easily at an outpost without buying a resource crate.

    I still think it would be faster, more efficient to buy supply crates then spam voyages to get some free crates, that cannot take things like cursed balls, chainshots and scattershots from barrels.
    Not sure people would use them like that, crates don't cost too much. Or maybe I am just rich?

  • Hefty Henri
    Marauder

    Obligatory chip in to boost visibility for fixing merchant delivery quests availability.

    What i hate about it the most is that these are achievements people are meant to do over a long period of time, organically. It's been broken for over half a year, and all that time people have been playing without making organic progress.

  • WHawK0
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    +1
    I fully support this. This is probably the sixth article on this topic that I have read.

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