@musicmee @MikeTheMutinous I still believe the Emissary detector is a perk too far. We'll see if this balances it a bit, but especially with the greater rewards for lower grade flags, this will increase the value of items on the Smorgasbord Menu given to Grade V Reapers. I still believe Reaper's should be about hunting, not shopping. Let them use the spyglass. Maybe add music that indicates Grade of the Emissary they spy. Much more immersive, more interesting, and still allows for naval tactics, and evasion, when in combat with Reaper's.
As an example, I had a Grade IV Reaper hunting me (I'd "opted out" by not having an emissary flag, myself, but that was no disincentive for them, obviously). We were in the Roar. I was down by Ashen Reaches. I tried boarding to stop the chase, but my gun wouldn't fire (hope that's fixed) and I was killed. I headed East and then North toward Glowstone Cay as the Fog was rolling in and I hoped maybe I could get them to run aground. The fog got thicker sooner than I expected. I saw them disappear behind me on my left (they were close, though). I then saw the top of a rock on my right, so I silently turned hard right, raised sails to increase my turn speed, and dropped to get behind the rock (thankfully not smacking into it in the fog). It worked. They turned around thinking I'd doubled back, but I just moved slowly to keep the rock between myself and them. The fog lifted, and it felt a lot like this:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/c3qNy2bwmLo/maxresdefault.jpg
It was incredibly tense, and amazing. After what felt like an eternity, I guess they got attacked by a Meg and then were Grade V. But, my naval tactic had worked, and they sailed back West and out of the Roar. Had I been an emissary, that skill would've meant nothing. And, I don't feel that should be the case even with emissaries. I'm not against PvP encounters, but I feel we should always be able to use the tools at our disposal in combat - use of the terrain (either to evade or get a better position for combat) shouldn't be removed because someone happens to reach Grade V.
Solo slooping should be a challenge, a difficult challenge, even. The YouTube video where @resident-veg and @keeyaa discuss the challenges of solo play inspired me to create my strictly solo pirate character. But, if you are going to allow for solo play, it shouldn't feel futile, and, unfortunately, on release of the update, that's what it felt like. Prior to that, reaching PL and then A10 was hard... really hard... sometimes resisting punching the screen hard, but it never felt futile. I always tried to say "GG" to anyone who sank me and got my stuff. I never thought, "Why am I even bothering?" That happened for the first time this week. I actually sat waiting for Morrow's Peak to stop erupting (for the third time), loot on the deck, sighed sadly, and just quit the game. No threat approaching, just after a few hours of play, an overwhelming, stone in my gut feeling of... "What's the point?" Never experienced that before with this game. Hope to never feel that way again.
I hope these changes and the server fixes bring that back from feeling futile to feeling very hard.
