Patch Notes Discussion - 1.4.0

@genuine-heather Server migration is even wonkier than before. After our third crew member left, my partner and I got merged no fewer than four times within a three hour window. Each time we were merged away from some aspect of our gameplay. It's just plain absurd, not to mention insanely frustrating.

The first time, we were wrapping up with our third crew member and had decided to go attack a skull fort that was nearby. Nope, merged. No sign of any active anything, so we proceeded to work on a couple random merchant voyages we'd picked up. Along the way we were attacked by the kraken and promptly sunk. Okay.

We wound up on an island with two blue mermaid statues. Cool. We killed the mermaids, collected the gems, and got merged just as we were trying to get back to the ship. My partner wound up on a completely different island, sapphire gem still in hand. I suddenly found myself in mid-air, way way above the island, falling rapidly. The fall killed me. I wound up back on the ship. My partner hid the gem on the island so we could return to it, and returned to the ship.

At some point soon after that, we were merged again. And attacked by the kraken again. And sunk again. We both wound up in the water, trying to salvage the few things we had on the ship and get them into our rowboat which was still afloat. My partner died. I managed to save a keg of gunpowder before I was killed, too.

Then we were merged. Bye bye rowboat.

This kind of thing just kept happening. We both loved the new content. We sank a couple of the skellie ships. We killed some mermaid statues. We got some cool rewards. But the migrations and little bugs made it a frustrating night.

Rare, please listen. We nightowls are the ones who suffer from this migration nonsense. We understand why you have them. We understand your design philosophy about keeping the number of encounters consistent. But during certain hours, just face the facts. It's not going to happen. The relatively few people playing during off hours come and go. Those of us playing at those times DO NOT WANT TO BE MERGED CONSTANTLY. We're being taken away from the content with which we want to engage. Being merged four or five times within a three hour window is not fun. It is not adding to our experience. It's making the game suck, to be blunt about it.

Please give us some kind of option to reduce the frequency of server migration, or stop it entirely. This is just ridiculous.

EDIT: Here's some additional madness. After my partner went to bed, I got a solo sloop. I was at an island trying to collect some pigs, when I spotted a skeleton ship bearing down on me fast. I had found a rowboat and had just put a keg of gunpowder on board, so I rowed quickly back to my sloop, docked, secured the gunpowder, raised anchor and prepared for an exciting battle...

…and then I was merged. No skellie ship. No pigs. No fun. Just annoyance. WHY?? How is this fun?

EDIT 2: Annnnnd again. Skellie ship in sight, big fat skull fort nearby. Collected my chickens, docked my rowboat, and insta-merged. I realize I'm going on about this, but that's like seven merges for me tonight alone. How can Rare not see that this is a problem? I want the option to turn it OFF. I don't want to be merged. I'm completely, utterly sick of it. Sheesh.

EDIT 3: Hours Played: 6. Times Migrated: 10+. Attacked by kraken: 4 times. Sunk by kraken: 3 times. Frustration level: 1,000,000.

@mith-bosevem I played about six hours and was merged at least 10 times tonight. No exaggeration. I was attacked by the kraken four times, and sunk by the kraken three. Ridiculous.

@genuine-heather I'm glad it wasn't just me... though, not the Kraken. 3 Meg attacks within 25 minutes while on a solo sloop.

@mith-bosevem I got the fog (the 2nd Meg went at me in the middle of it). You cannot see anything, which is fine, except while avoiding a Meg in it, lol.

@genuine-heather said in Patch Notes Discussion - 1.4.0:

The kraken attacked our brigantine twice within a three hour session, sinking us both times. Our third crewmate had left so it was just two of us. We didn't stand a chance, because the tentacles kept grabbing us. There was no way we could repair the ship.

I think these battles should be difficult and exciting. But they should be rare. Being attacked by the kraken is supposed to be a sort of epic, mythical thing. It shouldn't be happening twice every session. Good grief.

How did you fight the Kraken?

it is not very difficult to get rid of him. Just shoot your canons at the tentacles and as soon as you see that he tries to suck someone in go under deck.

@mith-bosevem Hm ok. Had three encounter with him so far since the update (once on a Sloop and two times on a Galleon and it wasn't hard or difficult for us to kill him all the time.

For each ship type he also has a different difficulty.

It seems like many people are frustrated by the frequency of Kraken and Meg spawns, but due to the nature of the Shrouded Spoils commendations (Kill the Kracken 5 times, Kill Meg X) perhaps the spawn rates are set to be much more frequent than normal. I have some friends who have played for many hours and have never experienced the Kraken prior to this update.

While the server migrations are a definite irritation and more frequent than ever, I would say we wait for the end of the Event phase to see if encounter rates decrease. They increased the spawn rates for cursed canonballs and powder skellies during their events. This is most likely the case once again.

@jagnew92 aye when is the next pirate times? and this is a cool patch

The Megalodon was always very frequent to me. In a gaming session of a couple of hours, he could easily spawn 10 or more times, even if you are just traveling between outposts - he usually likes to appear when I'm nearing an outpost or in a skeleton ship battle (the one that has waves of ships).

As for the Kraken, I've still have to encounter one in the 2 weeks I've been playing...

And Rare, thanks for the extra glint on the skeleton ships loot! Got really frustrated some days ago when we defeated the various skeleton ship waves, and couldn't retrieve any loot because we couldn't see anything on the ocean as it was night and due to the high waves. After searching and swimming for some minutes around the area were the skeleton ship sank, we just left the game.

On another note, skeleton ship steering and collision detecting/avoiding has to be improved. It is easy to make skeleton ships crash into rocks or island and just watch them sink, only to grab the loot peacefully. This is a good example: https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/a1fhno/wait_for_it_please/
Another one: https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/a1bbxj/one_hitting_a_skeleton_galleon_as_a_solo_sloop/

@longlivecayde6 said in Patch Notes Discussion - 1.4.0:

It seems like many people are frustrated by the frequency of Kraken and Meg spawns, but due to the nature of the Shrouded Spoils commendations (Kill the Kracken 5 times, Kill Meg X) perhaps the spawn rates are set to be much more frequent than normal. I have some friends who have played for many hours and have never experienced the Kraken prior to this update.

While the server migrations are a definite irritation and more frequent than ever, I would say we wait for the end of the Event phase to see if encounter rates decrease. They increased the spawn rates for cursed canonballs and powder skellies during their events. This is most likely the case once again.

I'm imagining the same. I think they increased the spawn rate for them like the did with the Festival of the Damned storm.

What I really dislike though is that it is possible that a skeleton ship spawns beside you (coming from the depth) and then also a Meg comes to attack you.

We were on a Sloop yesterday and couldn't encounter any of them and had to flee, sadly.

@c3dpo The glint is fantastic! Much appreciated!

@zontexx

My friend told me about the FoD storms. Said they were brutal. I missed the majority of that event, although I will be going back to complete commendations.

I encountered the Kraken on my solo sloop. It was fun but I was vastly understocked and was a few tentacles from finishing him off. With the frequency of and new threats, it seems stocking up for each voyage is more necessary than ever! While you may have ran away, you will live to kill another day!

@raen-yrtham

I, too, see the Meg often. The Kraken, though, was a rare tale told by a handful of us crusty sea dogs. I think it is good the spawn rates are upped for commendations. Even if they tone them down later, I hope they stay a bit more frequent than prior.

I love the glint as well! I fought the Kraken and, while I failed to kill it, managed to get one piece of loot out of the encounter. I would have never known in those inky depths had it not been for the tempting glint provided by the update! This was great and seems to be welcomed by all thus far.

@hruodbhertsasha I understand that. I am the same way. I do grind some things but mostly I just play and whatever I get is gravy.

Once Rare doles out some of the new cosmetics for over achievers, as mentioned by three sheets neate, that may help ease the sting. I hope I get something but doubtful.

@longlivecayde6 Thanks mate, but I can't take the credit :)

It was our awesome design and engineer team that made this little bit of magic possible

Some quick first impression feedback.

This update is awesome. Love the fact that you can have back to back skelly forts. Have yet to see one on any of the newly activated forts, but sure I will soon enough.

The QoL and Bug fixes are amazing. The fluidity of simple things like jumping into water, while they seem simple enough, really make the experience feel more real.

The random skelly ships do not offer enough loot sometimes. We took on 6 of them yesterday. Only got two skulls out of all of them. No chests other than some castaway. Most of them were not that great. I know they are easier to beat because it is one on one, but you still go through a good amount of resources in battling them. Should have at least one skull or chest per ship. Doesn't need to be both, just one or the other plus the other random loot.

Battled the Queen Meg, took quite a while to beat her, and we got a box of tea and a gold goblet thing. Total gold value less than 1K. Doesn't seem like enough for the amount of resources used to battle her and the time it took.

On one occasion we were sailing towards a skelly fort, and the fort cloud disappeared. We were not in the zone yet, but close enough to see there was no one there and honestly, it was not up long enough for someone to have beaten it. So we turned around and went after a skelly ship. While we were fighting it, the skelly fort cloud popped back up. Not sure if this was a glitch, something to expect from now on, but figured I would mention it here as I am not sure.

Did not get to experience being in the fog, but did see it in the distance a couple of times. Also did not see the new sloop skelly ship.

Overall the experience was great. The additional forts, skelly ships and QoL/Bug fixes really have made the game exciting again. Almost as wondrous as it was when we first started playing. Great job Team Rare.

@zontexx said in Patch Notes Discussion - 1.4.0:

@genuine-heather said in Patch Notes Discussion - 1.4.0:

The kraken attacked our brigantine twice within a three hour session, sinking us both times. Our third crewmate had left so it was just two of us. We didn't stand a chance, because the tentacles kept grabbing us. There was no way we could repair the ship.

I think these battles should be difficult and exciting. But they should be rare. Being attacked by the kraken is supposed to be a sort of epic, mythical thing. It shouldn't be happening twice every session. Good grief.

How did you fight the Kraken?

it is not very difficult to get rid of him. Just shoot your canons at the tentacles and as soon as you see that he tries to suck someone in go under deck.

The first time we were a two-person crew on a brigantine. We both got sucked up almost immediately as our ship was smashed to bits. We never stood a chance. The second time took a little longer but ended with the same result. The third time I was solo on a sloop. That time I survived, barely. I didn't win the battle, but I didn't sink. Yay. The fourth time, still solo, happened within minutes after the third. A storm raged in during the battle, which didn't help. What killed me, though, was simply running out of planks. I never had time to properly resupply the ship between attacks. I fought about as well as anyone could have. I did everything right, but was simply overwhelmed.

The biggest issue isn't simply getting sunk. It's the time all this takes away from the game. Getting attacked by the kraken should feel like an epic, mythical encounter, something that only happens rarely. Four times in a single night is absurd and annoying.

By the way, I don't mean to sound unappreciative. There's a lot in this update that is honestly awesome. We sincerely enjoyed all the new content we encountered. We had a really fun battle with a wandering skeleton ship while anchored at an island. I was able to use the island's cannons to do some serious damage to the skellie ship. We were down to our last 10 cannonballs when we finally sank it. Great fun! The rewards were great. But our night was plagued with server migrations and odd bugs. You might say it's simply too much of a good thing, especially in regard to the kraken. I really wanted to hit a skeleton fort, but every single time I had one in my sights, I was merged away from it.

In short, I love the update, but hate the migrations, the bugs, and the absurd rate of encounter with the kraken.

@diinoozz others have said, and I tend to agree, that the frequencies of these attacks may be reduced after the events and whatnot.
I hope that these people are correct, as a little more spice naturally makes the game better, but too much is overkill.

@genuine-heather said in Patch Notes Discussion - 1.4.0:

@zontexx said in Patch Notes Discussion - 1.4.0:

@genuine-heather said in Patch Notes Discussion - 1.4.0:

The kraken attacked our brigantine twice within a three hour session, sinking us both times. Our third crewmate had left so it was just two of us. We didn't stand a chance, because the tentacles kept grabbing us. There was no way we could repair the ship.

I think these battles should be difficult and exciting. But they should be rare. Being attacked by the kraken is supposed to be a sort of epic, mythical thing. It shouldn't be happening twice every session. Good grief.

How did you fight the Kraken?

it is not very difficult to get rid of him. Just shoot your canons at the tentacles and as soon as you see that he tries to suck someone in go under deck.

The first time we were a two-person crew on a brigantine. We both got sucked up almost immediately as our ship was smashed to bits. We never stood a chance. The second time took a little longer but ended with the same result. The third time I was solo on a sloop. That time I survived, barely. I didn't win the battle, but I didn't sink. Yay. The fourth time, still solo, happened within minutes after the third. A storm raged in during the battle, which didn't help. What killed me, though, was simply running out of planks. I never had time to properly resupply the ship between attacks. I fought about as well as anyone could have. I did everything right, but was simply overwhelmed.

The biggest issue isn't simply getting sunk. It's the time all this takes away from the game. Getting attacked by the kraken should feel like an epic, mythical encounter, something that only happens rarely. Four times in a single night is absurd and annoying.

I understand what you mean. I imagine that maybe the attacks are little bit higher now while this content update out and when the next one comes in it is much lower (as they did with the storm in the Festival of the Damned update).

To be honest all the time people want something to do while sailing on the sea (minigames , etc.) now there are the ships, kraken and megs to (maybe) fight. That's awesome!

We also got the Kraken yesterday while I played with two friends on a Brigantine. It was an intense fight lasting several minutes an we were gettin short on supplys, also a Skeleton ship emerged on us, too. It was intense and a lot of fun but we were close to sink.

The Patch Notes read:

• Kraken Updates - The difficulty of Kraken encounters has been increased and balanced for different crew sizes, meaning it can now assault any ship, even your Sloop! Watch out for its new slap attack too. The seas just got more perilous...

So I would interpret that the difficulty of the Kraken encounters is going after the actual players on a ship.

The Kraken attacks on a (2P) Sloop and a (4P) Galleon feeled a lot easier than the one yesterday to be honest (read still fun no complain here).

@raen-yrtham You must have gotten lucky before the update, it could definitely erupt within 2 minutes of erupting giving nowhere near enough time to dock and do anything important.

As for the fog, I dont know if you've played again since you posted, but that is the wrong fog that you are seeing. That is the render distance fog. I kept thinking I saw the fog on the horizon but I was wrong. Here are the two most important tips:

1. The sunlight makes areas near the sunset or sunrise seem foggier, it is usually not actually fog
2. When fog comes, you WILL see it. You will know when you find it. A sliver of the horizon for about 45-90 degrees around your ship will be a significantly different shade of cloud, a bright white that is impossible to miss. If you dont see it, you are definitely not near any fog. It will last for a few minutes, go into it if you want to see what its like.

I am having so much fun with this update.

The solo Skelly ships are great and I enjoy hunting them as a solo and they are a great sidequest to an Athena voyage.

Same with Meg and Karen encounters. They feel like sidequests since they actually have decent loot and that's a great thing to add to the content. There always seems to be something to do now and they make the world feel more alive. And it was great to be in a two man sloop with me firing on a Skelly ship and my crewmate on the other gun fending off a Megalodon.

Wyatt Friggin' Earp!

Having the Mermaid statues back in the game with all the extra sunken loot makes for more exploring and it is a welcome return. The gems dropping (that have a great gold value) have been implemented so that they can be turned in to any faction which is an absolutely brilliant way to make them viable again.

One thing that was a delightful surprise was the additions of Meg skins and the rare Ghost spawn of her. This is a great direction to go although I think there needs to be a bit more added. Certain skins or varieties should have a better chance of spawning in certain biomes. IE the Ancient Terror spawns mostly in the Ancient Isles, The Ghost only while in the fog and maybe the ShadowMaw spawns mostly at night. It would allow for more depth to the lore and help folks actively "hunt" them. Also have a certain behaviour or attack pattern that's unique to each. Maybe one reacts to EoR attacks with an immediate charge, or one that gets stunned in place for a minute by a powder keg.

I LOVE the idea of hunting for a rare spawn and I hope there are more monsters added land and sea.