Emissary flag disappearing after sinking?

  • GuybrushCrpWood
    Master
    Insider

    Hello,

    Since the last update, we've sank several emissary ships whose flags have not spawned after sinking.

    They were not near outposts (so did not remove the flag). And they definitely had the flag once combat commenced.

    Also, they did not quit the game either, so it wasn't that issue.

    The recent ship we sank said, and I quote "no flag no money", which I assume is a reference to them having done something to make it disappear.

    We've had the same problem before too. We sank a level 5 reapers brig at a fort once, who made a similar comment, and spawned no flag.

    Can someone please explain whether this is a known exploit that people are using, and is it likely to be patched?

  • Login To Reply
    13
    Posts
    11.1k
    Views
  • Archangel Timmy
    Legend
    Insider

    I believe scuttling the ship can cause the flag to not drop.

    A lot of people are adopting this method of denying others the flag. Never ran into until a few nights ago when the first 4 ships we encountered did it right as they were sinking.

  • GuybrushCrpWood
    Master
    Insider

    @archangel-timmy Nope, they didn't do that either!

    This is why we're puzzled!

  • Archangel Timmy
    Legend
    Insider

    @guybrushcrpwood That is indeed very odd then, and most troubling if there are multiple exploits that allow for the denial of the flag!

  • Archangel Timmy
    Legend
    Insider

    Looking around a bit, many others say that scuttling has nothing to do with it...

    The night I mentioned, we were a crew of three on a Brigantine. As the first ship was sinking, they scuttled or quit and I immediately told the crew "There goes their Emissary Flag" to which one of the crew argued that wasn't true. There was indeed no flag, and the next 3 ships also scuttled or quit as they were sinking and no flag was dropped; so I assumed it was linked to that.

    I am surprised that so many people know how to do this, yet it doesn't appear to be that common of knowledge for some of us.

  • GuybrushCrpWood
    Master
    Insider

    I wonder if quitting the game, only briefly, and rejoining the session is the cause?

  • Archangel Timmy
    Legend
    Insider

    I could see quitting being the case because the flags function similar to voyages in that they get voted up and down, so it would also make sense that they would be voided if the crew left the game like a voyage.

    I am not sure about purposefully exiting the game to rejoin because the server keeps your session open for 10m or so.

  • L0SSAVERSI0N
    Seafarer

    When this happened to me, you can see that the emissary flag disappears immediately when the ship is scuttled:

    https://youtu.be/tb_ZZi9uCyk?t=219

    This is timestamped. You can see at 3:40 and 3:47 that the flag is still there on their boat, but that as soon as they scuttle at 3:50 the flag simply pops out of existence (my view happens to be barely capturing this happen as I was stealing their cannonballs).

    This is definitely something that can happen, but I'm uncertain if it's intentional by these players or not. I can say that these two players did drop the majority of their treasure in the water as we were chasing them, so they were attempting to deny us that at least.

  • SatanicNemesis
    Lord
    Insider

    Leaving the game causes this

  • L0SSAVERSI0N
    Seafarer

    @satanicnemesis said in Emissary flag disappearing after sinking?:

    Leaving the game causes this

    Interesting. Sounds like a very easy test case to reproduce then, and likely a relatively easy fix too!

  • SatanicNemesis
    Lord
    Insider

    @l0ssaversi0n Yes, Rare have already been made aware of it.

  • Daddy Sanctus
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    My crew just had our first experience with this. Sank a sloop with a level 3 gold hoarder, and then to our surprise there was no flag. Not sure if the guy quit or scuttled to be honest, there was no mermaid present in the water. But that's a pretty broken mechanic and quite an oversight on Rare's part.

  • ReapingLegion
    Commander
    Insider

    This happends all the time BUT if you servermerge it actually drops 2 flags after you've sunk....which is a bug also which will take them a long time to fix.
    So we gotta have to accept the fact that if you scuttle and leave game....then you wont loose any flags for now.

Login To Reply
13
Posts
11.1k
Views
4 out of 13