suggestions for megalodon hunting

  • Ahoy there!

    I want to talk about suggestions for megalodon hunting.

    It would be awesome to be able to:
    • hunt megalodons with Hunters Call voyages

    • special voyage with 100% meg spawn chance at the end
    • you could make that one a bit stronger than the random encounter megs

    • do something with your ship/on your ship to increase meg spawn chance

    • example: blue lights + play "summon the megalodon" and it will spawn after 5 mins
    • (optional: add a cooldown of 15 to 25 minutes to prevent fast respawns)

    The current system feels very unreliable and can get frustrating.
    We want to hunt the megalodon, but get server merged ...
    or we wait for 2 hours and somehow the server will just not spawn a meg at all.

    cheers! =)

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  • Organic meg hunting has been getting worse and worse.

    One would almost never see one take 6-10+ in game days for a spawn "back in the day" and now it's so common that it might happen daily.

    The randomness is the only reason I still play but the worsening conditions for the organic hunt is leaving out thousands of players because of the time that it takes to get results when not cheesing it with alliances.

    The unfortunate thing is that I think that what is best for the game is worst case scenario for those that want to hunt organically. It has been years of meg bugs and the spawn ones just get more time consuming to deal with.

    I'll never have interest in contrived kills, I think that it's no longer a hunt when it's controlled and guaranteed. The only way to offer the content to most players of the game is to either improve it organically or offer it as a voyage. Unfortunately it's only been getting worse organically.

    A chum system could be the solution but I've hunted megs too long to have confidence in that working as intended.

    I'm surprised it hasn't been turned into a voyage yet, I thought it woulda changed a few seasons ago. I wouldn't enjoy it anymore if it changed but I do think it would serve more people by changing it to something that is realistic for more players, more consistent for more players.

  • @wolfmanbush sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    I'll never have interest in contrived kills, I think that it's no longer a hunt when it's controlled and guaranteed.
    The only way to offer the content to most players of the game is to either improve it organically or offer it as a voyage.

    I would enjoy it very much, if the megs spawn area would be visible on the map.
    (kinda like a small world event, where everyone can see that a meg can be active within an area)
    Then we could sail there, lure it out and hunt it down. =)

    The current spawn mechanic is not a real hunt either, sadly.
    Would much rather enjoy it if we had a chance to hunt it, find it within that area and then kill it.

    Thanks for your reply and your opinion! Made me think about more cool ideas, heh! =)
    cheers!

  • Megs are fairly regular for me, all it takes is a decent session on one server. People that dive a lot will likely hardly see any. I just wish harpooning a meg had a function, because it's a ton of fun. Maybe if you let it drag you around for long enough, it takes a break and it takes less shots to kill or something.

  • @drfauli said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    The current spawn mechanic is not a real hunt either, sadly.
    Would much rather enjoy it if we had a chance to hunt it, find it within that area and then kill it.

    It's comparable to a real hunt.

    It's not that it's a lack of a hunt it's that it's a hunting simulator experience more than a casual adventure experience.

    People are looking to farm, not to hunt. Very understandable in a game where not everyone is putting in wild amounts of hours and a game where not everyone is here for that kind of investment.

    Nothing wrong with changing it because it's just a game but it is sacrificing a style to turn it into meg farming.

    It's comparable to what happened with the box of secrets. It was a hunt and then it turned into farming when it started being a main part of event treasure. There is a sacrifice within the game to make that change, but it's not "wrong" to make it.

  • @hefty-henri sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    Megs are fairly regular for me, all it takes is a decent session on one server
    People that dive a lot will likely hardly see any.

    I do make sure to stay on the same server until i got my meg spawn. =)
    But it can be frustrating, when we get server merged and the game "resets" our meg spawn timer. =(
    Most of the time we do get our spawn - so you could say we get one every session / on every server. =)

    And the diving mechanic does indeed hinder meg spawns, which is sad if you want it to spawn here and there.
    So we kinda just dive to a new server, after our meg spawned, heh! =)

    I just wish harpooning a meg had a function, because it's a ton of fun.
    Maybe if you let it drag you around for long enough, it takes a break and it takes less shots to kill or something.

    Interesting! Would indeed be cool to make it tired and easier to kill this way. Cool idea! Love it! =)

    @wolfmanbush sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    It's not that it's a lack of a hunt it's that it's a hunting simulator experience more than a casual adventure experience.

    Yeah, I see what you mean.
    I do hope that Rare will change something about that in the future.
    At least add the meg to Hunters Call as a voyage in some form. =)

    cheers! Thanks for giving me new ideas to think about! =)

  • @wolfmanbush Out of curiosity, how many shrouded ghosts have you seen as someone who hunts megs regularly?

  • @hefty-henri said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    @wolfmanbush Out of curiosity, how many shrouded ghosts have you seen as someone who hunts megs regularly?

    2 that I know about. At my amount of play and my style of play it's very likely I've crossed paths with one or two over the years and didn't know it, even though I am very consistent in how I hunt. A lot of pvp and random scenarios where I could have missed one. Especially a few years ago in the wild west of SoT. Way more megs, way more going on in my play, way more chaotic. I have hundreds and hundreds of unconfirmed encounters that I don't even count because it never showed up on the overview stats (I only keep stats that Rare confirms, overview stats turned into Captaincy stats)

    I'd still do it if I had zero. There is a thrill and reward to it when it's the win condition that I haven't found in any other type of play.

    Before it had its own music would have been where I would have most likely missed one, significantly more megs spawning at that time as well. My first one could have been very easily missed. My second had the music which really changes things.

    I think a lot of the longer time players missed one. A couple of years there were meg spawns were high, people were putting in thousands of hours because many were stuck at home, they were afking between islands, there was no special music to identify. Pvp was chaotic. Pve was way more intense. A situation where it's likely that many were missed.

  • @drfauli said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    Ahoy there!

    I want to talk about suggestions for megalodon hunting.

    It would be awesome to be able to:
    • hunt megalodons with Hunters Call voyages

    • special voyage with 100% meg spawn chance at the end
    • you could make that one a bit stronger than the random encounter megs

    • do something with your ship/on your ship to increase meg spawn chance

    • example: blue lights + play "summon the megalodon" and it will spawn after 5 mins
    • (optional: add a cooldown of 15 to 25 minutes to prevent fast respawns)

    The current system feels very unreliable and can get frustrating.
    We want to hunt the megalodon, but get server merged ...
    or we wait for 2 hours and somehow the server will just not spawn a meg at all.

    cheers! =)

    The blue lights idea sounds like a nice idea and a way to reference the event that first spawned them and needed "Summon the Megalodon" to play to summon them.

  • @wolfmanbush said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    I think a lot of the longer time players missed one.

    You may be right here. Still waiting to see the myth myself.

    @wolfmanbush said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    Pve was way more intense.

    I don't miss the endless ads spawning on islands, I'm glad they eventually toned that down.
    But I do miss those meg/kraken/skellyboat triple spawns. I miss when some world events were genuinely hard as a solo.
    It's all pretty quick and easy now....

  • @arthur79474 sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    The blue lights idea sounds like a nice idea and a way to reference the event that first spawned them
    and needed "Summon the Megalodon" to play to summon them.

    I still remember the Hungering Deep event!
    That was so much fun to play and the fight was really hard back then.
    Sometimes the whole server would show up to work together and kill the meg. =)

    The glowing tattoo was cool to see, too!

    Would not mind it, if Rare would bring back the original spawn mechanic.
    Even if that meant, that a much stronger version of the meg spawns. ;-)

  • @drfauli sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    I still remember the Hungering Deep event!

    I didn't participated in the event and would love to have an option to activly 'hunt' the megalodon instead of hoping for a random encounter, which is absolutly luck based. I don't mind the shrouded being so rare, it is just annoying to do unrelated stuff just for an encounter to occur.

    If an option like a voyage or a trigger-based event is added i would definitly go for that. Maybe not all the time, but as an alternative goal for a session, because i love the diversity of the game.

  • @trcynic For the Ghost, to make it any less rare or more consistent than it is now would take away from the legend of it. It's the one and only thing that some players with 5000 hours can say they have never seen before, and many haven't. That adds something cool to the game imo, the notion and running gag that it's teetering on the edge of being a myth and not real.

    I'd say the game could even use a couple more things like that, something only a select few are lucky enough to have seen or gotten. As long as they don't give it a Steam achievement ;)

    But yes, more reliable ways to get meg encounters in general would be ok.

  • @hefty-henri
    They don't need to make the Ghost less rare. They can even make it rarer while you do the voyage-variant, in my opinion.

    I also like the legend-status and don't want to diminish that. I just want the encounters to be something on there own and not a thing you do while you do other stuff.

  • @trcynic sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    I just want the encounters to be something on there own and not a thing you do while you do other stuff.

    Right now, as it is with the spawn mechanic of the megs, you feel "forced to stay" on 1 server,
    until you finally had your meg spawn happen ... and then finally you decide to dive to another server
    to be able to get yet another meg spawn, after another long wait. ^^

    Not ideal. Can get frustrating.
    Feels like a waiting game, rather than a real hunt. =(

  • @drfauli sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    Feels like a waiting game, rather than a real hunt. =(

    We have spent 125 minutes on the same server today
    and sadly got only 1 skelly ship right at the end,
    followed by a server merge, while collecting the loot.

    It does not feel good to lose the meg spawn like this.

  • @drfauli said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    • hunt megalodons with Hunters Call voyages

    • special voyage with 100% meg spawn chance at the end
    • you could make that one a bit stronger than the random encounter megs

    +1 - cool idea to add something useful to the Hunters Call!

    • do something with your ship/on your ship to increase meg spawn chance

    • example: blue lights + play "summon the megalodon" and it will spawn after 5 mins

    +1 - yes, please! Or place a chicken on the ship as bait.

  • @trcynic sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    We have spent 125 minutes on the same server today
    and sadly got only 1 skelly ship right at the end,
    followed by a server merge, while collecting the loot.

    This is the reason why I really want to have a voyage for meg spawns!

    Getting server merged after 2 hours without a meg spawn is indeed very sad. =(
    I do hope that Rare will think about other ways to implement the meg spawn.

  • @drfauli said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    I would enjoy it very much, if the megs spawn area would be visible on the map.

    This could be a cool addition to meg spawn mechanics.
    Making it possible for crews to engage with the meg whenever they want to.

    Would much rather enjoy it if we had a chance to hunt it, find it within that area and then kill it.

    Indeed. This would change it to a hunt, rather than random spawn chance/waiting game.

    @wolfmanbush said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    I'm surprised it hasn't been turned into a voyage yet

    Yes, I feel the same.
    Rare has already changed other content to be "on demand".
    So it would make sense for them to enable us to have the meg on demand, too.

  • @hefty-henri sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    Out of curiosity, how many shrouded ghosts have you seen as someone who hunts megs regularly?

    since March 2023 my meg kill count has been:

    • 142 hungering / blue
    • 103 crested / purple
    • 77 shadowmaw / red
    • 35 ancient / yellow
    • 0 shrouded / white

    We kill all megs, that we encounter - unless it is during PvP
    and the meg is just in the way or we do not have the time to kill it.

    We stop any PvP for ancient terror or shrouded ghost megs.


    @smuntface sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    But I do miss those meg/kraken/skellyboat triple spawns.

    Those still exist. Megs and skelly ships can still spawn during an active kraken.
    You are already on open waters, so spawn chance is the same as usual.


    @sinusjupiter496 sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    So it would make sense for them to enable us to have the meg on demand, too.

    They do not even have to remove the random encounter meg spawns.
    Just add in a way for us to actually go and hunt for the meg in an active way.

  • @drfauli said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    Those still exist. Megs and skelly ships can still spawn during an active kraken.
    You are already on open waters, so spawn chance is the same as usual.

    In Sot there is always the chance for something odd and something unintended to happen but I'm pretty sure the trifecta of terror is out of the code and has been for a few years now.

    2 happen regularly but I haven't seen 3 since they silently got rid of it a long time ago and I see krakens and megs every day.

    People might see 3 around with other players around but as far as 3 targeted spawns on one boat goes I think that is long gone out of the code.

  • @wolfmanbush sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    2 happen regularly but I haven't seen 3 since they silently got rid of it a long time ago and I see krakens and megs every day.

    I guess I was thinking about my recent encounter with the kraken inside the storm. =)
    Had a skelly gally spawn on my solo sloop, followed by the kraken: interesting fight. =D

    People might see 3 around with other players around

    I love to follow other player ships in order to get their skelly ship and meg spawns. ;-)
    This can lead to fun moments, when the other crew suddenly decides they don't want to run anymore. ^^
    ... but it can also be difficult to get their megs/skelly ships to aggro on us ...

  • @drfauli said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    ... but it can also be difficult to get their megs/skelly ships to aggro on us ...

    This started in season 8 pretty terrible bug/change (I dunno which it is) Made it very very unlikely to get the kill before the despawn.

    Recently I got a couple kills from other people's megs after a long drought but I haven't done it enough to know if it's a fluke or if season 13 brought in a fix/change to it.

    Unfortunately meg spawns change regularly as an effect of patches/changes/bugs and it's rarely talked about so it's largely just going off the experience of the few people that do it as a playstyle.

    Could be some random bug or change, could be 6 boats, could be the bb. It's always different and typically leans in the direction of worse spawn rates.

  • @wolfmanbush sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    [...] but I haven't done it enough to know if it's a fluke or if season 13 brought in a fix/change to it.

    I have noticed a change in other player's meg behavior in season 13, too!
    During season 11 and 12 it was impossible to get aggro on the meg, when the other player's ship was sailing away.
    In season 13 you can aggro the meg and it will stay in open waters with you, even when the other ship is sailing away.

    This seems to work best, if the other ship is heading to an island, where megs will turn back to open waters.

    Unfortunately meg spawns change regularly [...]

    Yes, I have noticed this. Never talked about in the patch notes. =(

    I still do not understand why some servers do not spawn any megs at all.
    We have often been on 1 server for 3 or 4 hours and never got a meg spawn.
    There seems to be some weird server condition, where meg just will not spawn. =(

    And ofc there is also the very awesome 15 min meg spawn, right after log in.
    Gather supplies, set sail: bam! there it is! =D

  • @drfauli said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    since March 2023 my meg kill count has been:

    • 142 hungering / blue
    • 103 crested / purple
    • 77 shadowmaw / red
    • 35 ancient / yellow
    • 0 shrouded / white

    You really take meg hunting serious!

    I am at:

    • 23 hungering / blue
    • 19 crested / purple
    • 19 shadowmaw / red
    • 6 ancient / yellow
    • 0 shrouded / white

    @wolfmanbush said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    Unfortunately meg spawns change regularly ...
    ... rarely talked about ... going off the experience of the few people that do it as a playstyle.

    Do you have any tips on how to get a meg spawn?
    Is there a certain way to play, that will improve the spawn chance?

  • @sinusjupiter496 said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    Do you have any tips on how to get a meg spawn?
    Is there a certain way to play, that will improve the spawn chance?

    It's so time consuming to regularly get kills in the organic play style that there is no easy way really to get results.

    Every season changes and every patch changes.

    Example, I've had more meg spawns take over 10 in game days in the last couple of months than I have had in the last 5 years of meg hunting. It's not good organically right now and inconsistency makes it more difficult to give people useful tips and tricks.

    My style/game time is extreme and I have a lot of experience with it and I might only get 3 or 4 megs a day so in terms of casual play a person might only be looking at 1 or 2 for a day of play. Such a low result that really "wait it out" is all that really would work for a lot of people.

    What makes mine difficult is my own rules, I only play organically, no stat padding, no meg alliance server stuff, no contrived scenarios for megs. Organic and chance encounter or I won't do it.

    99% of the players don't need to do that so just take whatever pops up imo. If y'all wanna farm them together when you're in alliances that would make it easier. Make friends that also wanna kill megs and try to hunt together.

    I'm super strict and particular about how I hunt but there is nothing ethically wrong with people hunting megs in other ways. Group up during community events would be a good way to get some megs, it's about the only way people can really bump the spawns up these days.

  • @sinusjupiter496 sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    You really take meg hunting serious!

    Heh, yes. That is true.
    I do enjoy to hunt them and would do so even more, if we could actually search and hunt for them.


    Do you have any tips on how to get a meg spawn?
    Is there a certain way to play, that will improve the spawn chance?

    Each ship has its own meg spawn chance and timer.
    Timer reset happens when you dive (or switch/merge servers) or when your ship sinks.
    So it can increase your chances, if you follow/chase other players around the map. ;-)
    (unless they just spawned on or dived to that server)

    Megs will only spawn while there is an active World Event on the server.
    (they will not spawn during that small timeframe in between world events)

    example: if you just finished a skelly fleet, pick up the loot and head straight to Dagger Tooth,
    then you arrive at the outpost just around the same time as the new World Event opens up.
    You will not get your meg spawn within this timeframe.

  • @drfauli sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    And ofc there is also the very awesome 15 min meg spawn, right after log in.
    Gather supplies, set sail: bam! there it is! =D

    I would love to get one of those...

  • @trcynic said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    @drfauli sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    And ofc there is also the very awesome 15 min meg spawn, right after log in.
    Gather supplies, set sail: bam! there it is! =D

    I would love to get one of those...

    not even really worth trying for the most part.

    It's so random and unpredictable a person could end up spending a lot more time trying to save some time than just sticking to the basics

    If someone was an ultra casual player and didn't really care about much else it would be alright to just give a bunch of different servers 20 minutes of time but for most players it really wouldn't pay off much.

    The lucky 15-20 minute megs also seems to be tied to a new boat/session from all my testing. I've never had a pve dive lead to one for example on a new server. It seems to be based on a new ship in a new session with one exception below.

    What is worth the try is waiting on a server 15 minutes after killing a meg, once in a while a person can get another one. Still very random and unpredictable but might pay off.

    I'll give a merge some time as well.

    It all used to be a lot more predictable, but now it's all over the place. Unless someone really enjoys the hunt it's pretty tough to recommend as a style these days.

    alt text

    fresh example here

    I got one, waited a bit, merged, waited a bit after the merge and got one

    Pretty rare but it can help make up for some of the 8-10+ in game day spawns that happen these days.

  • @wolfmanbush sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    It's so random and unpredictable a person could end up spending a lot more time trying to save some time than just sticking to the basics
    If someone was an ultra casual player and didn't really care about much else
    it would be alright to just give a bunch of different servers 20 minutes of time but for most players it really wouldn't pay off much.

    I agree. But this is not fun to do at all.
    Maybe once in a while you could do this, but there is not much to enjoy doing this.

    You pretty much explained the reason why I want to have a voyage with a 100% meg spawn chance at the end. =)

  • @drfauli said in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    @wolfmanbush sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    It's so random and unpredictable a person could end up spending a lot more time trying to save some time than just sticking to the basics
    If someone was an ultra casual player and didn't really care about much else
    it would be alright to just give a bunch of different servers 20 minutes of time but for most players it really wouldn't pay off much.

    I agree. But this is not fun to do at all.
    Maybe once in a while you could do this, but there is not much to enjoy doing this.

    You pretty much explained the reason why I want to have a voyage with a 100% meg spawn chance at the end. =)

    It's completely fair that people want it changed.

    There are very few people that play how I play. I think many do enjoy the chance encounter design but we've been losing that battle in SoT for quite some time. Meg hunting alliance servers, box of secrets becoming common, the chance encounter hunt isn't as much of a thing anymore.

    To me if it's caged it's not a hunt and contrived encounters are caged so there is no appeal there for me.

    Someone could easily make the case that it would be more taking out a threat in a territory which is fine but the lack of randomness prevents thrill and largely prevents risk (it wouldn't be risky to do a voyage). Not everyone is looking for thrill or risk though, some find enjoyment in the farm style and there is nothing wrong with that.

    SoT has shifted quite a bit away from the thrill of the hunt and towards farming in more ways than one. Even pvp has been more about the farming style than the hunting style. People seem to much prefer the quick reward many times rather than the rare reward once in a while in SoT.

    My concern with farming is that people lose interest when there is too much and it's a constant push for more more and more. We see that with events, treasure, gold, pvp, everything in SoT.

  • @wolfmanbush sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    I think many do enjoy the chance encounter design

    I do enjoy the idea behind a chance encounter, too.
    It should stay in the game as it is, so new players can experience it.
    (getting a meg for the first time is very cool or might even be scary for some!)


    [...] the lack of randomness prevents thrill and largely prevents risk
    (it wouldn't be risky to do a voyage).

    I understand that.
    Rare should indeed not remove the random spawn chance for the meg.

    I just think that a "on demand" meg spawn via voyage could be added
    for people that want to hunt the meg rather than wait for it to spawn. =)

    For me personally, it currently feels like there is a lack of options,
    as we have to wait between 15 and 240 minutes for a random spawn
    and therefor do not have that option to go and hunt the meg, when we want to.


    People seem to much prefer the quick reward many times rather than the rare reward once in a while in SoT.

    I think Rare pushed the community towards this behavior, when they made most content available
    "on demand" via the new diving mechanic. Everything can be accessed so quickly now.

    The old voyage system had much more focus on sailing long distances to reach your islands
    and now you can just dive or even get a voyage for the island right in front of you.

    I have adapted my playstyle to this new mechanic and it was quite a change for me.
    But I do enjoy it now and often find it interesting to hop between small islands and see what I can find there. =)
    (including the 2 chests, that we can now just spawn in for each of those, if we like to) ^^


    My concern with farming is that people lose interest when there is too much

    I think this is true for most sandbox games.
    Players have to make their own stories and goals.

    If you play SoT the same way each session, it might also get boring quickly.
    You need some kind of goal for yourself to follow and get motivation from it.

    But Rare has given us this sandbox world with many tools to make our own goals.
    I just feel like they have to fine tune a few old things and bring them up
    to the level of accessibility that the diving mechanic has added to the game. ;-)

  • Chance encounter is quite brutal for players who do not spend hours and hours a week on the seas. The ability to put down a hunters call voyage for the meg would be ideal. just like the skelly fleet you fight 3 megs. Defeat the first, second spawns, defeat the second and spawn the 3rd. Perfect.

  • @skognacious sagte in suggestions for megalodon hunting:

    Chance encounter is quite brutal for players who do not spend hours and hours a week on the seas.

    Yes, I agree. Most players might miss out on the meg spawn, if it takes longer than 90 mins. =(

    The ability to put down a hunters call voyage for the meg would be ideal.

    ;-)

    just like the skelly fleet you fight 3 megs.
    Defeat the first, second spawns, defeat the second and spawn the 3rd. Perfect.

    Hah, wow! I was not even thinking about that option so far. ^^
    Big crazy meg "fleet" / world event with stronger than usual megs.

    I am not sure how I feel about this ... sounds a bit too crazy,
    but then again I love your "lets get this done and spawn 3 of 'em"-idea, somehow. =D

    Thanks for your input, matey. Would be cool to see a meg-cloud world event someday. Heh!

  • @drfauli

    Yeah I have often thought of some type of meg world event with a really juiced up meg. I would settle for a raid type voyage to be able to dive to a location and tackle 3 or even 2 of them at will.

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