Reapers Bone Emissary Tweak

The point with embracing an emissary is that you're putting greater risk on yourself for greater potential rewards, and that's why the reapers see only emissary ships on the map. Wouldn't make sense to have non-emissaries also become visible, but I get where you're coming from.

Also, if you became Reaper Grade V and became invisible on the map it would go against the faction as a whole showing themselves on the map because they are Reapers. It would be quite overpowered too.

@festis1337 Yes great risk great reward and all that. My point is in the many many times I have gotten to rank 5, I have only seen 1 other ship marked as an emissary on the whole map. Meaning the rank 5 perk is essentially useless. In all other emissaries you get a mission that is very profitable, but Reapers essentially gets nothing.

The argument for greater risk/reward doesnt really apply then because ALL emissaries get the increased loot bonus. When looked at from a purely statistical stand point, reapers have the same loot bonus as the other factions, but no rank 5 effective perk/mission. This is compounded by the disadvantages that everyone can see/avoid you from afar, and you can only turn into loot at one place in the entire game. From a pure gold making standard, you would be better off being a PVP gold hoarders then a Reaper, and there should never be a faction better at making gold in PVP, then the PVP faction. Cant be see on the map, can sell in multiple places and you can still sink people.

They need something to level the playing field. Making themselves invisible on the map(The default setting for literally every other ship, including other emissaries), wouldn't tip the balance at all in terms of power. It would instead encourage players to get to Rank 5 to continue on their murderous rampage. There is nothing even remotely over powered about making ships invisible on the map. It would instead reward players that managed to get that high.

My other suggestion to make it so you can see ALL other ships on the map isn't even that over powered either. It levels the playing field. They can already see us, if we get to rank 5 we should see them. It would force the more strategic players to wonder, did that rank 4 reapers lower their flag, or can they now see me? Even if you combined the 2 together, so that you were invisible on the map, AND could see everyone, it wouldnt be that overpowered. This isnt some super power up here, you sink once and have lost it. You would then have to start back as a rep 1, where everyone can see you.

@lem0n-curry In the entire time I have played this game as Reapers, I have seen 1 other emissary, with the exception of other Reapers. But frankly I didnt feel it was worth mentioning that because the rep 5 reapers perk is still useless.... against reapers whose flag I can see regardless of level.

@sinsoffallengod Why should a PvP faction be the best at making gold, if I may ask? Just asking for your argument on this.

Why is "leveling the playing field" an issue? If you become a Reaper emissary you're accepting that everyone will see you and you're out to steal other's loot openly (except for the Reaper pansies avoiding PvP entirely and just grinding PvE). If you can't catch emissaries before they're done with their voyaging then you just didn't execute your plan very well.

And yes, being able to see other ships (emissaries specifically) is inherently tied to the introduction of the actual emissaries. There's a trade off you're making when becoming a non-reaper emissary: you can gain so much more from your loot/cargo for basically free, and the incentive that Reapers get is a boon to the value of what they otherwise would have stolen anyway + the emissary flags, of course. You have nothing to lose as a Reaper, unlike the other emissaries, except for the loot that you might have already stolen. So, if you're not opting into the emissary mechanic I think it's fair to argue that non-emissaries should just be able to go about doing their own thing just as they used to, without grade 5 Reapers being able to tell where they are.

If you have only ever seen one other non-reaper emissary then you haven't played enough since the Ships of Fortune update dropped. And the perk of being a Reaper is quite clear: the more you progress in the emissary the more you profit from the work that other pirates put in, just to have it stolen from them. Doesn't matter that you don't get an emissary voyage, you just sink them fools and take what was theirs for yourself. If you're capable of achieving that, that is...

@surveyorpete I did not know that, that is great to know. Thanks boss!

I feel the location power should scale up earlier, for instance letting reapers of level 2-4 know how many emissaries are in each region of the map, just to help directing them to other emissary ships.

@tehstepford I low-key agree with is. I get why flying the reaper mark flag makes you appear on the map, and it would make sense for a Reaper Bone ship to also be marked, but leaving them unmarked until they become Grade 5 would (possibly) help with keeping emissaries on the servers.

@coffeelight5545 said in Reapers Bone Emissary Tweak:

@sinsoffallengod
When a Reaper Bones ship is victorious and sinks a ship, the fallen ship simply hunts down the reaper ship. They don’t bother putting the lost emissary flag and keep coming until the reaper ship has fallen. Meanwhile, the reaper bones ship gets nothing for repeatedly sinking them.

Maybe keeping the current rep 5 buff, while making it if you are rep 4+, ships that you have already sunk cant see you. Will prevent that endless swarm where they just wear down your supplies, while also not being overpowered.

@sinsoffallengod sagte in Reapers Bone Emissary Tweak:

Maybe its a bug, or maybe the incentive to get to 5 is pointless given no one is doing emissaries.

Rare nerfed all kinds of emissary strenghts way overboard.
I know the game is supposed to be a mindcrushing grind that can only be endured if you truly love the game itself and not the actual progress,
but now that we have tasted the heavenly Emissarys of week 1, everything else tastes like burned food. x_x

And I was wondering why Rare would nerf the Rank-5 flags turn-in value so hard?
Then it suddenly hit me. " Oh! They did it so that people would carry it around longer and Reapers would have more juicy targets to aim for! "

But I think Rare makes the same mistake that all developers do, when they implant a system that goes against what people are most focussing about.
And that is: People hate the thought of others taking from them what is not theirs.

And who decides who owns what? ;)
The winner? Of course of course.
Same as in war. ^^
It does not decide who is in the right.
Only who is left.

So what do people do when they have no confidence in their PvP skills, which will always be the majority of players who Rank from skill levels 1 to 9?
They will just not risk it regardless and not equip the flag for long.
Only the skill level 10 players will do that.
That - or the poor people who just don't know better.
Resulting in extremly less targets.
'

And what does Rare do?
They nerfed the time it takes to reach Rank 5 apparently.
I dunno why since I cannot be bothered to do a Thieves Heaven run these days but when I made a few in the first week, a single mission allowed me to reach Rank5 and going for the bonus missions in the process.

But when I took a goldhoarder mission a few days ago and actually completed it, it was not enough to give me Rank5.
Maybe I made something wrong or my memory is just messy, I dunno.

• But overall I must say... for people willing to hoist the flags and rank them up as well, it must absolutely not take long to do so.

If it does, this is a big mistake. People ' dont ' want ' to ' be ' a ' big ' target ' for ' long.
And most people tend not to want to play for too long in general.
But I admit that I have no clue how many hours the average SoT player invests in a single session.
For mental reasons I never play for too long.
( I get triggered very easily by annoying PvE and have general trouble to focus over longer periods of time, its a condition. And it gets only worse as I age. But I love gaming and SoT is a great game. )
'

So~ I expect people always to be similar to myself.
In order to attempt something, it must feel worth the risk or putting the time in.
There is nothing more frustrating and offputting in the game as having to invest like 30 or 40 minutes just to prepare for something (like the FOTD for example) and then use even more time to actually do it,
and then maybe lose an ambush with PvP and all your spend time is just... gone!
It does not matter if that is part of the game, it doesnt feel good. =)

And now Emissarys feel more of a drag then ever before.
Definitely not what I expected. First the gain through the Emissarys was apparently too strong and now it feels like another heavy drag until you finally reach the Rank that might enable you juicy rewards.

But hey everyone gets screwed over.
Reapers too have their own set of troubles.
Campers, Campers, Campers. Campers for days.
Lazy people without the will to invest time but always willing to take the invested time from others and man how despicable I find them.