Hello, I’d like to suggest reintroducing the ability to find gifts on beaches and/or elsewhere during these holidays, as it was during the first year they were introduced. Many of us didn’t have the chance to complete the commendation that year, and since then, it has become increasingly difficult. Not only do you have to obtain the gifts, but you also need to offer them to the Reaper, and then wait during the session for someone to sell them—even if there are no active Reapers on the server, which you can't leave. It’s quite challenging, and the fact that progress has been stalled for so many years is telling. Thank you for reading, and take care!
Gifts, precious gifts
To put this in perspective.
I just recently got 15 generous gifts turned in through organic play only.
I've found a couple of shrouded ghosts, a pile of organic boxes of secrets, and played more than multiple partners combined and I just got half way through generous gifts in organic play, lol.
That's how rare it is when people aren't cheesing the comms.
I would like for gift-giving to actually be something that requires two crews to meet and be somewhat cordial in order for the act to be recognized. The gift itself can be anything IMO, but bonus points if they're of the Reaper and Athena's wrapped gifts.
A gift should be literally handed from one player to another without it touching the ground in order for it to count.
Unlike the vast majority of players here who seem to value the completion of commendations and acquiring cosmetics quite a bit, I don't really care whether or not the commendation takes a long time to do. I care more about how the game operates as a whole and we just don't have many mechanisms outside of alliances that encourage peace. That's just my unpopular opinion but I still share it anyway.
I wrote a whole post on how I think trading should work in the game and almost everyone disliked it. I really don't understand why so many players (at least who participate in forum discussion) are opposed to something like that. I generally have such a nice feeling when I approach another crew and can chill out with them instead of having to constantly battle.
Yeah, I'm gonna be honest.. The gift thing is really annoying because it's presented as sharing and giving gifts to other players, basically fostering friendship and teamwork among separate crews. In reality, it's more just a giant "tribute and worship for the Reapers" event that only serves to encourage (and sometimes strong arm) players into giving free stuff and an ego boost to the Reapers. It's really tiresome just seeing so much tied to this one faction at the expense of everything else. Can't even have a Christmas event without them being the center of it.
Also, side note.. Why is it that Reapers Emissaries can accept all loot in the game (plus some Reaper exclusive loot) at normal emissary rate while Guild Emissaries only accept "most" loot and only at nerfed rates compared to all other factions?
The idea behind Reapers getting their 2.5x multiplier on everything stems from the fact that their initial design was to be a big bad wolf on the map; their position is always known to all other crews, even before they reach Grade V and so they have the highest chance of being fought against -- at Grade V, they gain the ability to seek other Emissaries out too.
This increased risk led the designers to bestow upon them the increased rewards.
It's completely fine design IMO but I don't particularly like they've associated them with 'gift giving'. It's very tongue in cheek, and I reckon it was initially agreed upon because it upped the sense of unease when a Reaper approached a crew only to be a sigh of relief when they have a gift. OR they thought that players might even approach a Reaper in order to receive a gift. Nice in theory but just can't work in the current mindset of most players.
A much more practical approach would be two differing emissaries (that aren't reapers, obviously) meet and agree to trade each other for the correct loot type that they each specialize in.
Again this doesn't happen now (and probably never happened) since emissaries can dive and get nearly 100% of the loot type for their emissary, so they never have anything that anyone else might want on board, and so there's no reason to even meet anyone or trade.
The designers have oversimplified the core gameplay loop for the sake of convenience for casual gamers and it's kind of lame.
@rare-jumbie said in Gifts, precious gifts:
It's completely fine design IMO but I don't particularly like they've associated them with 'gift giving'. It's very tongue in cheek, and I reckon it was initially agreed upon because it upped the sense of unease when a Reaper approached a crew only to be a sigh of relief when they have a gift. Nice in theory but just can't work in the current mindset of most players.
Huh ? There is no need for the giver to have the Reaper flag up at all.
I mean, that's kind of beside the point that I'm making. I think the point was that whatever ship approached there would be a general sense of unease at first, followed by "oh! they have a gift!"
But I don't think that happens, as per everyone's story here.
@rare-jumbie said in Gifts, precious gifts:
I mean, that's kind of beside the point that I'm making.
If you say so.
I think the point was that whatever ship approached there would be a general sense of unease at first, followed by "oh! they have a gift!"
But I don't think that happens, as per everyone's story here.
When introduced the gifts were "everywhere", it's much easier to convince a crew to turn in several gifts at the Reaper's Hideout than just the one you'll find nowadays (plus doubloons were more sought after back in the day). Unless they're close-by or you sweeten the deal with some extra loot.
Yeah, so then my suggestion for expanding what is considered a gift (to be anything) would alleviate that. If the gifts could be anything why would that make it harder as per @Th3-Tater and your upvote on his comment? You're already saying that you were able to convince a crew to hand it in so how does that make it more difficult?
agreed. If the map board glinted when there was player generated treasure maps / if there was a treasure type buried by another crew that was favoured by the current crew it would be great.
@rare-jumbie said in Gifts, precious gifts:
It's completely fine design IMO but I don't particularly like they've associated them with 'gift giving'. It's very tongue in cheek, and I reckon it was initially agreed upon because it upped the sense of unease when a Reaper approached a crew only to be a sigh of relief when they have a gift. OR they thought that players might even approach a Reaper in order to receive a gift. Nice in theory but just can't work in the current mindset of most players.
The problem with that is that the reapers aren't giving gifts, they are the ones taking them. A reaper would never approach with a gift because them giving them out doesn't do anything for them. Only reapers receiving gifts does anything for either side. Plus, as you said, the mindset of most players who play reaper is either stay away from everyone and pve or bloodthirsty 24/7, with no inbetween.
Edit: Also, as to my other point with guild emissary, there's still a risk as you are still highlighted on the map for all reapers and when you hit grade 5, you are highlighted to everyone just like a reaper would be. So the risk is pretty much the same with less reward.
@hiradc said in Gifts, precious gifts:
Imagine....the map boards actually worked and persisted beyond sessions. This would be a perfect way of doing these.
Yeah, I never understood why those were never fixed and end up prioritizing the dev pre made maps over player posted ones.
Yeah, there's no point for the Guild Emissary Grade V to be on the map as it's an invitation for other crews to come attack—since hey, there's nothing else to do with other crews.
As for which ship or which emissary is intended to be giving / taking the Humble / Generous Gift, I'm not sure since the commendations fall under the Mercenaries. As mentioned above no Emissary is required. It just gives more reason for anyone to sink everything in sight if that's the case, though. Since there is no real way to track "giving" and a crew can just steal it from another ship and still have it count towards the commendation I guess that's just what will happen.
@rare-jumbie
The reason I say that the reapers are the ones who get them is because it's turned into the reapers representative (no one else seems to accept them) and specifically adds to reapers progress. So... By that definition, it is quite literally reapers exclusive loot. To say the least, it's a little nonsensical. And if it is a joke, it's kinda in bad taste.Agreed. It's in poor taste. It might be different if an Emissary giving the gift to a Reaper (with them actually accepting it by hand) does something positive for both crews. I posted a few years ago that if a Reaper accepted a gift from an Emissary it transferred the value of the gifting crew's Emissary flag to the gift. So if I was a Grade V Gold Hoarder and I gifted a Humble Gift to a Reaper the gift becomes worth 15K gold/rep (or whatever a grade V emissary is worth) and my Emissary flag no longer has value to that Reaper ship. That would dissuade the Reaper from sinking the Gold Hoarder in exchange for the Gold and Rep of a grade V flag without any fighting.
@rare-jumbie said in Gifts, precious gifts:
Agreed. It's in poor taste. It might be different if an Emissary giving the gift to a Reaper (with them actually accepting it by hand) does something positive for both crews. I posted a few years ago that if a Reaper accepted a gift from an Emissary it transferred the value of the gifting crew's Emissary flag to the gift. So if I was a Grade V Gold Hoarder and I gifted a Humble Gift to a Reaper the gift becomes worth 15K gold/rep (or whatever a grade V emissary is worth) and the Gold Hoarder Flag loses its Gold and Rep worth but still remains intact and flying on the Gold Hoarder ship. That would dissuade the Reaper from sinking the Gold Hoarder in exchange for the Gold and Rep of a grade V flag without any fighting.
Sounds more like a play for pre-made alliance servers; and it won't change anything if the giving crew doesn't fly an emissary.
It's a gift. The one who turns it in gets the doubloons and the giver gets progress in their commendation.
As for the narative about it's a cruel joke regarding Reaper ... Emissaries were introduced in 2020; the gifts were introduced in 2019.
Pretty much anything requiring the cooperation of more than one crew can be “exploited” with alliance servers. So what? I don’t see the developers disregarding all non-zero sum game mechanics just because of that. Plus who wants to sit around having someone else farm gifts in an alliance server when I’m sure there are more lucrative opportunities with that setup?
The point I’m making is that it might have some in game use as a get out of jail card for players who are generally not interested in PvP.
Previously, in the game, missions to transport supplies (shells, wooden boards, fruits, gunpowder barrels) could be found through buckets on islands.
But starting from season 11, they removed the parchment from the island barrel.
To complete these commendations now, you must rely on the drifting bottles and mysterious diaries on the island,
Even if you discover the drifting bottle and mysterious diary. You also need to pray that the mission belongs to the Merchant Alliance rather than digging for treasure or fighting against skeletons.
Even if the task belongs to the Merchant Alliance, you still need to pray that it is to transport goods rather than goods.
Because they removed the parchment, obtaining such tasks became even rarer.
This commendation is extremely difficult to complete. For this reward, you may need to spend over 5000 hours searching for drift bottles on different islands.
It's been 14 seasons now, almost a year, and I've seen a lot of feedback from players in the community, hoping to modify or restore it. But they didn't,
So regarding the issue of gifts you mentioned, nowadays gifts can be obtained from the Skull Fortress or the ships of Flame Heart.
I don't think they can redo this for the sake of a gift.I feel the gifts should count towards being sold regardless if you're no longer in the session. It feels forced to have to find someone to give it to and wait for them to sell it. Also increase the rewards for actually selling the gift to entice players to pick it up and reward those willing to leave the gift behind by counting towards their commendation progression. This shouldn't be a 10 year task.
@cainbong said in Gifts, precious gifts:
I feel the gifts should count towards being sold regardless if you're no longer in the session. It feels forced to have to find someone to give it to and wait for them to sell it.
That would be great, they can ceep track of burried treasure maps that have its treasures dug up to give you renown if you've left the game.
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