Balancing Emissaries

@the-aby55 This truly is a garbage update to mostly address the .01% of players out there who are grinding these emissaries into the ground. For those of us casually playing, this is yet another detriment to progression which ruined an otherwise solid progression system. I get the change to Reapers I guess since it was pretty quick to hit rank 50, but then again, how long was this in testing and why wasn't this predicted ahead of time? Math is too hard I guess. In any case, rant over. This is yet another update to cater to the streamers / extreme grinders over the average player base. It would be nice if ACTUAL issues were solved moving forward, but I guess thats a pipe dream.

@hankschrader79 sounds about right.

@sonicsonic3 said in Balancing Emissaries:

I do not agree to the emissary nerfs. Been playing this game for like 2 years (with tons of breaks in-between) and for the first time, I was having a lot more fun because grinding rep and gold wasn't a boring slog with the increased rewards of the emissaries. It was a risk/reward factor, especially if there's a reaper ship on the server. I do not share the vision of the developers with this nerf.

yeah

@marc4815 said in Balancing Emissaries:

So you decided to remove the enjoyable aspects from the update? how perfect. Completing levels and voyages was actually fun as it was not a long overly boring slogfest. thank you, for making me want to stop playing again.

yup back to the slogfest.. ugh..

@d1no said in Balancing Emissaries:

@mikethemutinous As an essential worker still going work with the Covid-19 pandemic, I have not had as much time to play the update as much as I would like to.

It's unfortunate that there was no rollback to those who took advantage of the initial reputation payout. (You have Leaderboards with in-game rewards now so this should have been implimented)

Now those of us who play when we can because of essential work will have to play 3 times as long to get the same emissary rewards.

Thanks Mike! :(

very true

@marc4815 said in Balancing Emissaries:

@d1no Agreed, this is kind of a slap. everyone who could rush through it is fine, but screw over anyone with less time to play. very nice.

indeed, especially people that run the discord total alliance servers..

maybe they could just let people invite more than 4 friends to one server already?

@bennythebanana said in Balancing Emissaries:

I love this change! I love wasting hours grinding the same repetitive voyages over and over and over, just to get some reward that is deemed fancy! I absolutely adore how you made it so you dont feel rewarded by stealing loot from other players! Please keep the game going in this generic, repetitive, not rewarding direction! It is very clear that this is the direction Sea of Athena Voyages needs to go! I also love how you gave people with a lot of time on their hands cheese their way to max levels before this change, instead of putting it in like this in the first place.

you, i like you...

@satanicnemesis said in Balancing Emissaries:

For those of you worried about getting your grade in reapers up being increased by 25% have no fear.

When you start a game grab a ton of cargo voyages, go collect about 40 cargo. Turn them all in at reapers, instant grade v ;)

good thing you posted it here so they can fix that too... smh

@marc4815 said in Balancing Emissaries:

oh yeah, grade 5 flags now sell for only 5K. "we want flags to be a big bonus" when it is less than most of the treasure you sell. come on. why even bother?

5 k? dafudge. was thinking maybe it went from 15 to 10, but 5??? come the f on...

@hankschrader79 said in Balancing Emissaries:

Rare after update: "lets ruin an update people loved!"

pretty typical at this point

@r0b0tears said in Balancing Emissaries:

@the-aby55 This truly is a garbage update to mostly address the .01% of players out there who are grinding these emissaries into the ground. For those of us casually playing, this is yet another detriment to progression which ruined an otherwise solid progression system. I get the change to Reapers I guess since it was pretty quick to hit rank 50, but then again, how long was this in testing and why wasn't this predicted ahead of time? Math is too hard I guess. In any case, rant over. This is yet another update to cater to the streamers / extreme grinders over the average player base. It would be nice if ACTUAL issues were solved moving forward, but I guess thats a pipe dream.

well said

@marc4815 said in Balancing Emissaries:

oh yeah, grade 5 flags now sell for only 5K. "we want flags to be a big bonus" when it is less than most of the treasure you sell. come on. why even bother?

@xghostadmiralx said in Balancing Emissaries:

@marc4815 Do they seriously now only sell for 5k?

@marc4815 said in Balancing Emissaries:

@xghostadmiralx yes, they only sell for 5 K. so basically a huge F*** you from rare for people who can't play as often.

They sold for 10k first. So 50% cut, not to bad. If you are grade V reapers it still sells for 12.5k.

@xghostadmiralx said in Balancing Emissaries:

@mentimjojo So being a Grade 5 Emissary and lowering your flag in any company how much gold will it give you?

oh you meant your own flag? From 15k to 5? Well thats good, since now it can be cheesed anymore. Do a fort, get grade V, sell, lower flag, raise flag, do the next fort. So it had to be done.

I thought you were talking about selling enemy flags :') Maa bad.

@shuoink said in Balancing Emissaries:

@sonicsonic3 said in Balancing Emissaries:

I do not agree to the emissary nerfs. Been playing this game for like 2 years (with tons of breaks in-between) and for the first time, I was having a lot more fun because grinding rep and gold wasn't a boring slog with the increased rewards of the emissaries. It was a risk/reward factor, especially if there's a reaper ship on the server. I do not share the vision of the developers with this nerf.

yeah

@marc4815 said in Balancing Emissaries:

So you decided to remove the enjoyable aspects from the update? how perfect. Completing levels and voyages was actually fun as it was not a long overly boring slogfest. thank you, for making me want to stop playing again.

yup back to the slogfest.. ugh..

@d1no said in Balancing Emissaries:

@mikethemutinous As an essential worker still going work with the Covid-19 pandemic, I have not had as much time to play the update as much as I would like to.

It's unfortunate that there was no rollback to those who took advantage of the initial reputation payout. (You have Leaderboards with in-game rewards now so this should have been implimented)

Now those of us who play when we can because of essential work will have to play 3 times as long to get the same emissary rewards.

Thanks Mike! :(

very true

@marc4815 said in Balancing Emissaries:

@d1no Agreed, this is kind of a slap. everyone who could rush through it is fine, but screw over anyone with less time to play. very nice.

indeed, especially people that run the discord total alliance servers..

maybe they could just let people invite more than 4 friends to one server already?

@bennythebanana said in Balancing Emissaries:

I love this change! I love wasting hours grinding the same repetitive voyages over and over and over, just to get some reward that is deemed fancy! I absolutely adore how you made it so you dont feel rewarded by stealing loot from other players! Please keep the game going in this generic, repetitive, not rewarding direction! It is very clear that this is the direction Sea of Athena Voyages needs to go! I also love how you gave people with a lot of time on their hands cheese their way to max levels before this change, instead of putting it in like this in the first place.

you, i like you...

@satanicnemesis said in Balancing Emissaries:

For those of you worried about getting your grade in reapers up being increased by 25% have no fear.

When you start a game grab a ton of cargo voyages, go collect about 40 cargo. Turn them all in at reapers, instant grade v ;)

good thing you posted it here so they can fix that too... smh

@marc4815 said in Balancing Emissaries:

oh yeah, grade 5 flags now sell for only 5K. "we want flags to be a big bonus" when it is less than most of the treasure you sell. come on. why even bother?

5 k? dafudge. was thinking maybe it went from 15 to 10, but 5??? come the f on...

@hankschrader79 said in Balancing Emissaries:

Rare after update: "lets ruin an update people loved!"

pretty typical at this point

@r0b0tears said in Balancing Emissaries:

@the-aby55 This truly is a garbage update to mostly address the .01% of players out there who are grinding these emissaries into the ground. For those of us casually playing, this is yet another detriment to progression which ruined an otherwise solid progression system. I get the change to Reapers I guess since it was pretty quick to hit rank 50, but then again, how long was this in testing and why wasn't this predicted ahead of time? Math is too hard I guess. In any case, rant over. This is yet another update to cater to the streamers / extreme grinders over the average player base. It would be nice if ACTUAL issues were solved moving forward, but I guess thats a pipe dream.

well said

This is actually good for the game, since reapers is a PvP faction. Now it actually gives more rep/gold for stolen loot + flags and less for PvE loot. But I get it, your one of these peeps who want PvE servers :)

@shuoink maybe they should fix it, maybe it’s intended.. what does it matter? It works now so use it.

@mentimjojo They sold for 15k. Where did you get the 10k number from? All tier 5 emissary flags always sold for 15k gold.

@quietrobot I don't get it though, like...you're already the top spot, and even if you fall a bit in rank and are over taken by some other bot on the seas, you are guaranteed the reward. That's just grinding for the sake of grinding with absolutely zero reward for being number 1. It just moves the goal posts for everyone else below.

I have noticed quite a few bugs plus server connection issues with ships of fortune, were there any bug fixes this patch?

@musicmee thanks 👍🏻

@sonicsonic3 said in Balancing Emissaries:

@mentimjojo They sold for 15k. Where did you get the 10k number from? All tier 5 emissary flags always sold for 15k gold.

We sold many enemy grade V flags while we where reapers Grade V, they sold for 25K. Assuming its 2.5 multiplier, it means that enemy grade V flag is by default 10k.

I only have to agree to what people are saying here. Those changes are not necessary, or if they are, not as bad as they are now.

The game was finally enjoyable, nobody wants to do the same thing we did for the last 2 years without a good reason to do it, which is increased rep mostly. And now you are ruining it.
You're not even adressing that the people who didn't made it to 75 for the Reapers Bone on the first week are at a disadvantage compared to those who did. Do we really need to play 4 times more than those who rushed through the rep? That's a shame. I lost my willing to get into the Reapers Bone right now while the rest of my crew is 75 easy just because I couldn't play.

About Athena rep, not one wants to sail longer to get the loot, it's literally the worst part of the game. Just make it so we have to keep the flag to do the emissary 5 quest if you don't want any loop "exploit".

It's great to be transparent on why you did it, but you're not right on this one, that update was great, now I really don't feel as good about it as I used to. That game doesn't have to be a grind fest, or if it does, question the content of your game.
That's coming from someone playing since day one.

@dekeita I guess I'm confused by the community rewards for the sake of community rewards. Why not set hard values for the cosmetic rewards rather than base it off of a sliding competitive scale? It just feels odd in SoT is all.

Only 5k from lowering Grade V flag? I can't believe this. This update was looking so good.
This is why we can't have nice things.

@musicmee I have noticed a problem in arena. Sometimes when a match starts there is an empty boat due to players leaving, at the start of the match some ships head right for that boat and only shoot top deck holes preventing the boat from sinking but still getting the easiest 4,000 points ever which is so hard to complete against, do you know of any possible way this could be fixed?

@xghostadmiralx It's 5k gold.

@phelim-mcnab I would have been ok with 10k. I would have accepted 7.5k too, but 5k? Now we have to grind harder to get to Grade V for less than before. I'm happy that Grade V flags can't be chained anymore, and that rep is being balanced, but it's heartbreaking to see once again that something that was not the issue at all was "fixed" for reasons unknown.

I think a lot of these balance changes are much needed but I think your timing here for some of it may really annoy some players genuinely trying to legit get on the leader board.

The leader board still has 30 odd, days left on it. These changes will now make it impossible for anyone to contest the players who have amassed millions within that short period.

While I think these changes are much needed, it also does throw a wrench into the works of the leader board this month and now you have given those players who cheesed the system protection from anyone being able to overtake them.

I think since the leaderboard still has 30+ days left on it, it should be wiped and let it start again with these updates.

Just my 2 cents. I appreciate the updates, and I am glad to see them.