Out of curiosity, where were you located when it happened? You were coming to an island, so was it around when the banner popped? I try to stay up to date on the triggers for a merge.
I agree that merges can be annoying, and we have lost our share of loot because of them. I also understand the need for them and the reasoning for their changes to trigger them outside of an anchor drop. That said, we are used to them and accept our losses when we are unable to avoid a merge and lose loot.
If we break our crew up and have loot stashed, we become a bit more wary of a merge if we do not see any other ships nearby and keep one of the crew off the ship at all times until our loot is secured. Sometimes you have to go back for an event like the Kraken, but then have someone jump off right as it is completed if not a moment before.
We have noticed that a merge seems require that all crew members be on board the ship and the server in a merge state. These two things are checked when certain triggers are fired.
- Enter/Leave the bounds of an island (banner distance)
- Complete an event (Fort/Fleet, Kraken, Meg, Skeleton Ship)
- Crew member boards the ship (player state changes from land/water to ship)
- Anchor Drops
After one of these triggers, if all players are on the ship and the server is in a merge state, a merge occurs. Not as easy to avoid as in the past, but still possible.
Was doing a basic Athena in the Shores of Plenty a week ago for example. Going from Smugglers Bay to Cannon Cove for a Riddle, I dropped off in a rowboat just north of Cannon Cove to cut over to Rapier Cay for our bounty. Completed the bounty and was lucky to score Skull of Ancient Fortune along with a Villainous Skull of Ancient Fortune with a couple Hateful Skulls. I brought them to the rowboard to bring back, but I magically got blackscreened while climbing the rowboat and triggered a server merge when I loaded in as the other 2 of our crew were on the ship loading their haul from Cannon Cove. Lost the skulls; not too big of a deal since we are done with those commendations, but still stings a little.