Skeleton Forts : How to make the experience less repetitive, and more unique and dynamic (UPDATE : 11/09/18)

@grievous32 That's amazing, I have an idea of a Phantom Fort that is here it could be implemented in that way you've shown.

@fantomloki thanks, I thought about it since I play tested the Skeleton Forts, but I knew it could be changed for launch in this way. Now I hope it could be like this in the future !

@Gamingboy177 a lot of nice ideas in your thread ! Some of them should be added in the future for sure (like the different fruits or animals) because some 3D models have been shown already. Instead of Phantom Hideout (it sounds too much like a Skeleton Fort in my point of view), it should be great to have a Mermaids Hideout, where you should forced to buy a potion to be able to breath underwater when the alchemy shop will be opened. It could be really cool and really different than a Skeleton Fort !

agree about every thing... even more i will add a PRE PHASE!
A naval pre phase where you have to destroy all the canons and watch towers before be able to start Phase one...

-And about the 3 keys, why not had 3 treasures rooms! that would help the solo sloop!

Every thing on this topic is great idea, i truly wish it was like that... ,with this fort gameplay in my mind, kinda fell fell empty to play fort as they are right now T.T

I think it's the best way to improve the experience and make it less repetitive. Even if Forts don't spawn often, sometimes I don't want to go there because it's always the same thing, there's no strategy, you just fight a wave, then another wave, and again...

The idea here is to have ALWAYS skeletons to not have these moments where nothing happen. We're on a Fort, we're at skeletons' home, it's not logical sometimes there's nobody to fight.

@stoker1980 6 hours ? If the enemy crew and your crew are in PVP mood, now with the farther respawn of the ship, it would take less longer than before.

Also, the fact I suggest to put 3 keys already spawned in the Castle is in a precise goal :

• You have to be careful about all the 3 keys, maybe another crew could steal one and run away with it
• As the keys are already on the island, we can't just let only one, it could be too easy to open the door of the chests room
• 60 skeletons are necessary to be killed to be able to steal the keys, so it's really less than now, but it's still enough to make it complicated because of the continuous spawning skeletons

Everything is thought to make the Fort easier for solo players, but still difficult to finish because of the number of skeletons you'll have to deal with if you didn't kill all of them before you want to steal the treasure.

It would not really take more time than the Forts now, it would just give a different way to finish them, a way more dynamic and which need more teamplay due to the number of skeletons constantly the same (1 skeleton dead = 1 skeleton respawns). This is also for that reason and because of the presence of the Captain and his bodyguards that it will not be so easy to take the keys. You'll have a lot of skeletons to deal with if you want to run away, even the guardian with Eye of Reach which could kill you while you try to get out with a key.

It's not really difficult, it's just more complex than wave 1 - wave 2 - wave 3 type quest, but at the same time, it's easier to open the door of the chests room (less skeletons to kill).

In the case another ship try to kill you and your crew, then, you'll still have a chance to face them, win after 10 - 30 minutes, and continue the Fort.

200 skeletons to spawn, it's huge, but you still have the possibility to focus your attack on the Captain. He will just be protected by 2 or 4 guards AND all the grunts who will respawn and basically attack the players. But if you defeat the Captain, all these enemies will die at the same time.

Now just tell me you have a lot of fun with the Fort and you enjoy the way to do constantly the same thing to each Fort, and I'll ask you finally, don't you really want something better ?

@exeternautical The don't really spawn constantly, just imagine 10 or 15 skeletons always on the island. If you kill one, another spawn. But there are just 10 to 15 skeletons at the same time, not more.

Also, when you kill 30 skeletons (and it's really fast) you access to the next phase. As you don't need to kill the Captain to open the door of the chests room, then it's easier to a solo sloop to steal some treasures. Actually, it can take 1 h - 1 h 30 to finish a Fort for a solo player. With this, I think in 20 minutes you can open the door. Then you'll have to go inside of the room and get out of it with a treasure, against 10 - 15 skeletons. That's why it can be a little difficult and why a solo player would probably not try to take all the stuff.

@canadianmuscle3 the fact is if you have to kill the Captain to steal the key, it will be really hard for a solo player to have fun and to finish (open the door of the chests room) a Skeleton Fort. But if you put a unique key inside of the Castle, protected by the Captain, it will be too easy for a crew to open the door. Take an object and run away with it is really easy.

The other possibility would to make the Captain more agressive than other skeletons, making him attack faster.

Also I would like to add something about AI. At this moment, the AI of the skeletons are really too basic in my opinion and I'm pretty sure you agree. Imagine different Captain which force you to adapt your way to play. Okay, I understand it will need to create new AIs, but it would be cool. What could be even cooler is to create for example 6 different Captains, and change a little the environment of the Fort, depending who is the Captain you will deal with. You could just by the environment know what type of boss you will have to fight at the end (just in Shadow of War fortresses, changing if you fight a hunter, a necromancer etc...)

EDIT : Hello, @Nuzza I'd like to submit you this idea, of course I guess you would maybe not be able to make something alone but I wanted you to have some new ideas to make the Fort completely different than what we can see in the Order of Souls' quests (wave after wave until we kill the captain).

I just edited my post to change something.

Some Fort can't allow the 3 phases, so there are just 2 phases one outside and one inside the castle. In this case, the first Phase will ask you to kill 50 skeletons before the door of the Castle open. Then, as each Skeleton Fort, you have 2 objectives :

• Open the door of the chests room to steal all the chests
• Kill the Captain to bring back his Cursed Skull to the Order of Souls

I added some new details to reinforce the idea of a unique skeleton Fort experience depending on which Captain you will fight.

Abstract :

• The Captain has a unique design
• The different Captains have different pattern in attack
• Each Captain brings aesthetic elements to the Fort to allow players who's inside the Castle and to give a personality to the Captain
• Each Captain has an entrance when the Castle's doors are opened to give them a personality and warn players they are in the Final Phase
• The Captain at Skeleton Fort MUST be different than the Captain the players hunt down for the Order of Souls to encourage people to do both and have a feeling to do the same thing

It would be a lot of work to create maybe 6 different Captains and give them 6 different patterns to attack, and 6 different cosmetic elements to each Skeleton Forts, BUT, with all this work, it would clearly improve the experience of Skeleton Fort to make them less repetitive, more unique, very dynamic, and maybe memorable.

Players will have more way to tell their tales, when you'll talk about the moment you fought the shaman Captain who summons new skeletons to protect him, or throw you fireballs or summon a lightning strike because you were inside the storm... Or the moment you fought the two-headed Captain who was defended himself with his sword, while he shot at you with a blunderbuss.

I hope @Rare-Employee, even if they maybe can't make all these ideas, would find inspiration to make the Fort much more epic and unique !

Really nice man good job.

@urihamrayne thanks ! Feel free to give me some ideas we could implant in this thread !

@angrycoconut16 I will create another thread soon about the Skeletons, just to make more differences between Gold, Plant, Shadow and Basic Skeletons.

I'd really love to see something different in the Skeleton Fort, with this customization depending on which Captain is in the Fort, and create some differences with their attacks (a Shaman throwing flames, making spawn 10 - 15 basic and weak skeletons for example). I hope @Rare-Employee will make this better than the current version of the Skeleton Fort to create something more like this and make it dynamic, different than Order of Souls' quests and funnier for both crews AND solo players.

@ultiproductions a dit dans Skeleton Forts : How to make the experience less repetitive, and more unique and dynamic :

@grievous32 This is amazing! However, I don't believe it'd work on the current forts. However, imagine if Rare added this type of fort to the new area in the "Forsaken Shores" update! They would have enough time to figure out how to do it. Great idea mate!

@UltiProductions Why not ? I just took a screenshot from an island already in the game. As I said, some island are not separated in 3 different areas, so there could only have 2 Phases : one outside, and one inside. ;)

@Wicked-Six-Gun thank you very much, this is absolutely amazing to read this kind of comment ! I hope Rare will continue to make things already in game, still evolve overtime !

@Glannigan yeah, most of the time, but there are times where you're just alone, and if you could play the Skeleton Fort's raid better, would you refuse it ?

@lotrmith it's hard to force the cooperation currently because AIs are too basic. Anyway, by adding more objectives (3 keys here), you will have to cooperate more, just as if there were Sniper Skeletons.

@lotrmith hahaha, why ? The entire sailing gameplay forces players to play co-op... This is a game where EVERYTHING is made to force co-op, even dig a hole to take a treasure...

@captsubtext420 the fact is by doing the Captain the only objective, you totally leave the idea that solo players can have some stuff "easily" to have some fun and rewards playing the Skeleton Forts. I know that's the point which could open a debate, but I thought a long time to imagine how it could be fun for a solo player (because I play sometimes in solo) AND for a crew.

The Captains must be powerful and difficult to defeat, so in solo with all those skeletons who respawn... it would be really hard to have the key the Captain has on him. So to rewards players, I decided to put 3 keys to not make the door too easy to open, but also to make the Captain drop a Cursed Skulls which give a lot of XP and Gold when you bring it to the Order of Souls, to reward players who want to fight against the Captain.

@grievous32 the forums need more constructive posts like this ! I hope they add more along the lines of this as they go