Server jumping.

As it stands, it is WAY too easy for people to hop servers at the sight of a Reaper (of any grade) on the map before ever even setting sail. That's equally as bad for the ecosystem as portal hopping as a Grade 5 Reaper.

It's not just Emissaried portal hopping that is broken...it's the entire risk/reward mechanic.

I've presented several ideas on how to re-balance the emissary system to create a true risk/reward system.

What I would not support is just getting rid of the Emissaried portal hopping mechanic without making any other changes. That just takes the system backwards.

Regarding the one-shot-rifle stuff...hinting at hacking...I'd hope you collected video evidence...right? RIGHT?!

I wish I recorded it.

jumping servers should be treated the same as logging off and back on.

should lose their emissary status

I dont wanna lose my status as a GH emissary :(

a grade 5 reaper literally appears in the water next to us.

Literally? as it it just materialized? or did you sail to close to a Arch? Near an outpost. So your more hating a Grade 5 Reaper teleported to your server. No just Emissary, just reapers.

shot it with 3 fire bombs, 2 cannonballs. They one shot killed me from long range while I had full health, then one shot killed my buddy who also had full health.

Has nothing to do with them using the Portal, they just...won a fight here.

Again, Not all Reapers are Pvp, like myself I just wanna lvl it up...Portal hop if I dont wanna wait on the Fleet to be finished. Some GH and OoS will also do this to you...Portal Hop and attack players. OR not even Emissary holders.

Grade 5 Reaper, defeating you means Nothing. A normal non emissary ship can pull this same feat off.

@burnbacon literally manifested on the map, nowhere near an arch. And yes we did lose, to one shot kills which do NOT happen except close quarters with a blunder. This was a one-shot kill with a rifle at range.

@restlessboredom said in Server jumping.:

@burnbacon literally manifested on the map, nowhere near an arch.

It sounds like they got server merged onto your server. Nothing crazy about that.

And yes we did lose, to one shot kills which do NOT happen except close quarters with a blunder. This was a one-shot kill with a rifle at range.

Without proof, it's tough to believe. Losing stinks... But calling people cheaters without gathering evidence lumps you in with all the other boy-who-cried-wolf players out there.

I've been accused of cheating a bunch of times...I play on Xbox 😂

You know, I just have to say, it's ridiculous how some people expect others to be recording everything.

Believe it or not, most of us are not content creators. Which means we lack a reason to ever be recording. So we never do. So we never have video of anything that happens.
That doesn't magically make us liars.

@the-old-soul800 there is a system built in to both the Xbox and the Gamebar for PC that will allow you to record clips of things in the game. And it back tracks, so you can record the last 15, 30, 45 seconds of what happened in the game. You don't have to be a content creator in order to grab evidence of potential cheating or violations of the community guidelines of either Xbox Live or the game itself.

@restlessboredom said in Server jumping.:

And yes we did lose, to one shot kills which do NOT happen except close quarters with a blunder. This was a one-shot kill with a rifle at range.

As someone that has been having trouble managing my own HP status in other games lately, I can assure you that if you're getting shot at with an Eye of Reach and you're dead, your HP was under 70%, which likely happened if you went broad to broad, taking damage from cannonballs doing splash damage to you, and is followed up with an EoR shot, or worse, sat still while at least two EoRs shot at you at the same time (for some reason, this has been a common tactic that experienced players with friends tend to do in order to kill their targets with an EoR very swiftly).

Reapers "hop" servers in two ways: Utilizing the portals used by the "A Pirate's Life" tall tales, and server merging. If a ship is in an area on the server they're on where there are no ships to be seen for a very very long distance, the game will merge your crew into another server where it might be more populated nearby. This happens to any ship in the game, and the process is usually done by losing control of your character and a short poem of words are shown on screen momentarily.

Chances are this Reaper V you have been trying to keep an eye out for, server merged into the server while you weren't looking (someone in your crew might not have been telling the truth?), saw the yellow/golden Reaper's Bounty move around like it's on a boat when they looked at the map, and went directly for it, and sank you effortlessly.

Assuming someone is hacking because "their boat ended up right next to you all of a sudden" and "one shot with the EoR (when you likely might not have been paying attention" is textbook lack of awareness. Without proof, I have no valid reason to believe your claim.

The subject of portal hopping has already been addressed and discussed, and nothing is going to be done about classic server merging, as it has always caught crews who aren't being merged off guard since there's no truly immersive way to tell another ship simply "appeared" out of nowhere in your server session.

If this scenario happens to you again, I can only recommend having your "Record last X seconds" bind ready as evidence to send to Support, and to others for their input.

@sweetsandman I didn't once say they were cheating, others did. I dont know how they managed the one shot kill on each of us. But the main issue with my post was the server jumping/merging. Ships shouldn't manifest in the water near you. Because, especially if they appear behind you or next to you and you don't know it, they have an advantage on you by catching you unawares.

@nex-stargaze that was just an example of what can happen, because it happened to me. As for the hp, I had just ate 3 fruits raising my hp to full, and they never fired a cannon shot at us yet, they fired the rifles first followed by ramming our ship. I didn't accuse anyone of cheating, I dont know how they did it, but they did. I know alot of people complain about hitreg, so that could have been in their favor. But I also don't report every last thing to support.
I know I can be outclassed and outgunned, it's happened many times. But this was started and finished insanely quick.

But as far as nobody paying attention, we had just set sail from getting the reapers bounty, we were heading for reapers outpost. I was watching the horizon for ships and that is when they legitimately popped up out of nowhere, and I told him it's a reapers ship, where did a grade 5 reapers ship come from. There was no outpost, nor a portal nearby. That is where my issue comes in, server hopping I know is by portals, but the merging needs to make both parties aware it's merging. Not just the ones it's moving, because we were unaware of a ship popping up near us out of the blue. Had we known it was merging, we would have been prepared to alter our course of need be.

As for recording, I do stream occasionally but I don't actively record every little thing that happens, as I said im not out to report every incident. I just feel server merging needs to be addressed and set up better.

@restlessboredom said in Server jumping.:

@sweetsandman I didn't once say they were cheating, others did.

Apologies. It sounded like you were trying to set a narrative.

But the main issue with my post was the server jumping/merging. Ships shouldn't manifest in the water near you. Because, especially if they appear behind you or next to you and you don't know it, they have an advantage on you by catching you unawares.

My crewmate and I have had a ship literally land on top of our ship via a portal. Very odd experience and I even recorded it because it was so funny!

I've also had the pleasure of being at Plunder Valley doing an OOS voyage (solo). The skelly waves were on the south cliff by the cave so I parked my ship over there by the shipwreck...I finished a wave and went to scope the horizon and actually watched a Brigantine appear at the portal by Lost Gold Fort. I was an OOS Emissary so I hopped over to my ship assuming they were a Reaper...sure enough, they were a Reaper 5 and they were b-lining to me from less than 2 squares away.

Considering those experiences and some others I've had, I agree that the proximity to other ships when merging/portaling could use some tweaking.

But...that's about the extent of what I'd want to see changed.

@sweetsandman the reason I suggested losing that emissary status, is because I think people would be less likely to server hop if they lose their grade 5 reaper. They're after that reward they get for hunting at grade 5. Take that reward away, they stay where the are. Merging just needs better mechanics as far as, when it merges, and others are nearby.

Que WolfManbush's arguement about organic play.
Que SweetSandMan's proposal for a change to balance out risk/reward.
Who's argument did I forgot?

Okay jokes aside, I suggest you read this thread. Not that old yet and covers this exact topic.

@funnyqchen I do agree with his ideas on there regarding how to handle the grade 5 reaper system and the maps.

But my point was when they merge servers, ships popping up next to you. That part is what needs fixed, because only one of the two parties are made aware of the merger. So they're prepared to look for a ship popping up near them, the other ship is not.

I've seen non reapers pop up, but 90% of the time they sail the other way. The only ones I normally see actively looking for a fight are reapers.

I agree with op, changing servers is same as logging on or off. No other faction has any real benefit of hopping servers apart from reapers. Rare either for whatever reason let us log off and keep emissary status for next day or disable this blasphemy

@zig-zag-ltu said in Server jumping.:

I agree with op, changing servers is same as logging on or off. No other faction has any real benefit of hopping servers apart from reapers. Rare either for whatever reason let us log off and keep emissary status for next day or disable this blasphemy

I agree, another thing is running to the despawn wall in the red sea. The only reason anyone does this is to remove the possibility of another crew gaining loot that the running crew was going to lose anyway. They should turn up the red sea damage output to 2-3 holes or more at the same rate that it does 1 currently. Make sure crews have a chance to recognize and turn back if they accidentally sailed into the border but prevent it from being physically possible to reach despawn.

Patching portals keeping emissary and this BM strat at the same time would be well balanced.

@restlessboredom said in Server jumping.:

@sweetsandman the reason I suggested losing that emissary status, is because I think people would be less likely to server hop if they lose their grade 5 reaper.

Take that reward away, they stay where the are.

False...they would just sell/lower and leave the server like we used to have to do.

Once all the Emissaries are gone from a server, there's virtually no reason to stay on it as a Reaper (of any grade) because no new Emissaries will join. The only reason to stay on an Emissary-less server as a Reaper is if you plan to PvE...but then you're basically just streamer-bait.

Map visibility of any kind is terrible for organic experiences and an organic risk/reward system. Reapers always appearing on the map for everyone is rubbish. Reapers seeing other ships when they hit G5 is (partially) rubbish.

Here a way to fix the Emissary risk/reward system...
-Get rid of all map visibility of other ships (aside from the Flag of The Reaper's Mark)
-Get rid of the little ships on the Reaper's Emissary table at outposts (they can stay on the table at the Reaper's hideout).
-For Reapers, adjust non-stolen loot to raise their Emissary level at 25% of what it does today
-For The Reaper's Hideout, add a map to the table (similar to what's at Sea Forts) that shows all the other Reaper Emissaries on the map if you are a Reaper Emissary

With those changes...

For all non-Reaper Emissaries, risk increases because it prevents them from just hopping servers because there's a Reaper on the map...while simultaneously decreasing the risk because no Reaper is going to have a tracking device on them at any point.

For Reaper Emissaries, the Reward remains high in the sense that anything they sell gets a bonus...but the risk is that unless you sink other ships and collect loot that is stolen, it would take you 4x as long as it does today to get to Grade 5...and other Reapers can easily find you if they swing by the Hideout.

@funnyqchen For your reading enjoyment :)

@kommodoreyenser RedSea is where the map ends, I prefer this mechanic than hitting an actual physical wall like in Trumans Show. If a bigger crew, or a crew runs from a fair fight - very, very low. If a Galleon is chasing a sloop, then I have no problem with this tactic personally at least. It's equally boring for both. And by the time a crew can see that the ship is going to red sea, why continue the pursuit, its clear that the other one does not want to fight them.

@mintharp184509

The only suggestion of yours I would tweak is concerning the ships on the reapers table at regular outposts. Rather than removing the ships from the reaper’s emissary table which is not fair to the rest of the other emissaries who will still have their presence known immediately by anyone server hopping how about simply removing the table and thus access to vote to raise or lower a reaper emissary flag at regular outposts.

Love it. I can definitely see some pushback on that idea, but I think it's fantastic. Only being able to vote up/down Reaper at Reaper's Hideout is the missing piece of my balancing ideas.

PS I think the map table at the hideout should only reveal active reaper emissaries and it should be accessible by anyone who sails to the hideout. Or it doesn’t have to exist at all and all hunting can be pure and organic with no easy way to track any emissary. On second thought, it could make sense that the map at sea forts and the map at the hideout all reveal the location of active reaper emissaries.

My suggestion was to only have Reapers be visible on the map to other Reapers at the hideout, but I'd be open to it showing Reaper location(s) to anyone.

I don't love the idea of it being at Sea Forts but I could probably be talked into it.

Obviously we're most impacting server hopping Reaper hunters with these concepts, but hopefully Season 8 provides the PvP outlet that will better satiate that player-type.

@zig-zag-ltu said in Server jumping.:

@kommodoreyenser RedSea is where the map ends, I prefer this mechanic than hitting an actual physical wall like in Trumans Show. If a bigger crew, or a crew runs from a fair fight - very, very low. If a Galleon is chasing a sloop, then I have no problem with this tactic personally at least. It's equally boring for both. And by the time a crew can see that the ship is going to red sea, why continue the pursuit, its clear that the other one does not want to fight them.

Plenty of other options for the runners as well besides this trash "tactic." Drive-by selling, rowboat sell plays, probably some other new tactics I am not aware of as well since I haven't played much since the sovereigns were added. All involve zero fighting back so the "i don't want to fight at all" POV makes no difference here.

Also, I never mentioned hitting a physical wall. I meant making the red sea do what lore says by "ripping ships apart" so that no matter how fast your crew repairs and bails, there is zero chance of reaching a magical despawn wall. Yes you would sink, yes the loot would be retrievable but it would be EXTREMELY difficult as ships/rowboats would be taking vastly increased damage from what we have now. The change would make it possible but not probable that it could occur. Unlike now where the loot is absolutely irretrievable. Right now the red sea damage is more akin to a tickle than a flurry of damage it is supposed to be.

@kommodoreyenser Well, it's what it is. I would put the blame for this situation on the devs, Risk/Reward factor is non existant. You can risk all for nothing. Nobody with a functioning brain would do this if they have anything to gain or care just a bit about earning gold. You don't just spend 1-2 hours gathering loot, to give it away in an unfair fight.

The chasing ship always has an option, go mind your business and do some PVE yourself, or find other people who are willing to PVP...The bad thing about it tho, is that in 2022 the only willing ship they would most likely meet would be bigger crew/better crew/have nothing of value themselves. This was certainly not the case was when I started in 2020. But the game felt more organic and balanced.

Whatever approach the devs will take, including the next season, I hope they will sit down and think of everything, leaving no corners untouched. At the same time they must take into account human nature and not 'what we would like players to do'

Happy sailing mateys

I’ve always thought that, whenever a reaper reaches grade 5, or portals/merges into a new server, the should be a loud Viking horn sound, similar to the fof sound.

@baconavenger764 said in Server jumping.:

@iloveponies15 said in Server jumping.:

@restlessboredom I server hop all the time looking for ships. I literally have to float around for 30 minutes to find a single ship that might not even have a flag that's going to instantly run. Server hopping is a necessary evil.

So, logging out and back in to get on a new server is not an option... why? The chances of being placed back in the same server tend to be pretty slim as far as I've been able to tell

It is an option and its what most seever hoppers do to find reapers and sink them.

Portal hopping for pvp is a giant waste of time, not to mention exiting a TT portal glitches the game in numerous ways.