[Mega Thread] - Tunnels of the Damned Migration

  • Sonicbob
    Champion
    Rare Employee

    Hey everyone!

    Following the launch of Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life, we've been carefully monitoring your feedback across all our channels and spaces – thank you all for your responses and continued support!

    As you've seen over the past few weeks, we've been steadily rolling out updates to improve the experience of playing the new Tall Tales, by resolving high priority issues that have prevented players from progressing. We will continue to assess your feedback and reports following these updates and identify areas for future improvement.

    A key new feature that has attracted plenty of discussion has been the Tunnels of the Damned and their role in moving players between servers for certain Tall Tales. These Tunnels, when activated, allow a crew to move to a new location to continue the Tall Tale experience, taking any collected resources and Emissary progression with them, while leaving any treasure behind.

    While the primary function of the Tunnels is to seamlessly transition players into these new story focused locations, we foresaw that the Tunnels could be used by players to take some control over their server experience by purposefully triggering a server migration.

    Following launch, we have been closely monitoring how players have been using the Tunnels of the Damned in ways outside of their primary function such as to seek out a new emergent event, to find new foes to challenge or simply to refresh their server experience.

    We want to clarify that for now, we consider all the scenarios mentioned above as legitimate uses of the Tunnels of the Damned. However, we recognise that there are many differing opinions on this topic, and we will continue to monitor both your feedback and how players are using this feature.

    As with everything in Sea of Thieves, we are constantly reviewing, learning, and iterating at every stage of development, from the initial design through to when a feature is released to all players, and the Tunnels of the Damned are no exception. We will continue to assess how this feature impacts the overall play experience and may make adjustments in the future to ensure an enjoyable Sea of Thieves experience for all.

    Thank you all for your continued support and for sharing your experiences! Feel free to leave your feedback on the Tunnels of the Damned in this thread so we have a centralised space for us to review your thoughts.

    Thanks again and see you on the seas!

    Drew 'S0nicbob' Stevens

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  • Gloombeard
    Commander

    @s0nicbob

    That is awesome @s0nicbob , glad to hear it's a feature!
    My crews, and I have been having a lot of fun with this whole feature, the transition is really cool. You can even time out briefly in the Sea of the Damned, for people to go to the bathroom, grab a snack or stretch their legs - before heading back out again, with the epic maiden voyage playing as you sail/enter into a new horizon/server!

    When doing this as a Reaper crew you effectively come to feel like you're being a villainous final boss who just entered the stage, you've laid waste to your old world, and you're entering a new one to challenge for supremacy. Keen-eyed people will be alerted to your approach because a G5 Reaper on the map is going to encourage people to settle their business and make way for an outpost to sell or prepare to fight. While those who are careless, complacent from/by a long period of undisturbed tranquillity, or are otherwise blinded by their own greed may instead find themselves ending up getting caught off-guard! Bwahaha!!!

    Keep monitoring, there's stuff you might have to nerf such as the raw amount of supplies a ship can enter and leave with. Perhaps a gold sink involved with the usage of these portals?
    The Servant of the Flame, Mysterious Stranger or the Order of Souls might offer some form of ''Waystone'' or Dark Relic which enables the use of these portals. At a price...
    We should also be given some form of visual alert that another player crew might be intending to use a portal. Currently, we don't see if anyone else activates the gateways.

    You might also wish to reduce the gateways to 1 per region, instead of the current 2? It's a lot of visual clutter to have them dropped at every outpost in the game, tbh. They're landmarks well enough to simple have 1 per Region, and conveniently close regardless for TT purposes.

    Glad you're embracing this, however, because it's proving to be a lot of fun and a way cooler and more effective method of extending a play session, and losing hours into the game compared to traditional server hopping/restarting everything from scratch. This is more immersive, and people are more prone of getting sucked into letting the fun continue.

    But, yeah. Monitor. Keep an eye on supplies, emissary levels and perhaps some form of gold-sink. Using Dark Relics / Waystones could be a fun way of going about accessing entry. This tech is cool! Maybe you could even have some form of audio cue that a vessel has left or entered your sea using a portal? You have the tech now with the Fort of Fortune update.

    Kindest regards...

    Gloombeard - Captain of The Wailing Banshee, Commander of The Wailing Fleet, Rogue mystic of the Order of Souls, Novice Necromancer, Caring Owner of Long Neglected Skeleton Pets Without Outfits, Broker of Unfair Deals, Enthusiast of Forgotten and Gloomy Beard Styles, Scourge of The Wilds, Maker of Curses, Redrobed Holiday Terror, Collector of Dark Relics and Forbidden Artifacts, Grimoire Author, Emporium Regular, Binder of Souls, Breaker of Spirits, Monopoly Cheat and nefarious skeleton in mortal disguise!

    alt text

  • BaronBrr
    Commander
    Insider

    Personally I don't see any real problems with it, but if it becomes an issue for the majority of players I would say to introduce a cap on raw supplies a ship can carry when going through the tunnels

  • SpiritRaava
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    I think it's a great feature. There's always been the threat of a G5 Reaper merging on to a server, manually triggering this is just one step forward. And to be honest it's not like people didn't hop before portals were a thing so it's nothing new. Now that the silent reaper thing is fixed you can always see someone coming.

    As someone who likes to play reaper and also grind emissaries, I really don't see any major problems at all.

  • Lem0n Curry
    Champion
    Insider

    @s0nicbob
    I am disappointed that the dev-team didn't decide to fix this instead.

    Basically giving Reaper 5 Emissaries the possibility to "jump" into a server, creating greater risk for other emissaries that are all of a sudden visible to a Reaper instead of a build up and keeping an eye out.

    I also think it's quite unfair to those not reading this forum or using "every tool" are completely unaware of the possibility Reaper 5 can nowadays hunt for emissaries on several servers (including one they are on). I think everybody should be made aware that using an Emissary flag has gotten more dangerous

    (edit, I saw the emissary flag being part of it being addressed, must have glanced over it on first reading - changed my post a bit )

  • D3ADST1CK
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    I haven't really played with it myself, so I have a few questions on how it works before I can form a complete opinion. I know that emissary status remains, but what about the following:

    1. Do voyages in progress remain in tact, or are they dropped when you enter the portal?
    2. Do claimed or unclaimed Grade 5 emissary voyages remain once you enter the portal?

    If the answer to #1 or #2 is that the voyage is discarded, what is the reasoning behind leaving the emissary status up then? This also penalizes the main trading company emissaries and not the Reaper emissaries since they typically don't have voyages running and do not receive special emissary voyages; there's an inherent imbalance here.

    If the answer to both is that they are not discarded, then the only issue I have is that emissaries can escape chase or completely disappear from other ships trying to track them and wait for the opportune moment to attack. This is especially true for ships waiting for a crew to do their Athena dig.

    I don't know if keeping emissary status is good in the long term. The flags are loot, and loot is dropped going through the portal. The emissary status is a multiplier on collected loot, and sought after for commendations, so allowing ships to escape through the portal on a whim (especially with the checkpoint system) seems like it's a net negative for the emissary ecosystem on any particular server.

  • MeLTeDButta
    Ship Mate

    Oh good, we are going to dump on kids and abuse the hell out of this :)

  • JadeScissors32
    Castaway

    I want to say thank you to Dev team and its working... I just posted this in Tavern Tales, how I got saved by tunnels when I got Server connection problems and when I got the menu bug

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/community/forums/topic/139227/story-how-i-got-saved-by-tannhauser-gate-aka-tunnel-of-damned-twice

    Thank you....

  • PithyRumble
    Sailor
    Insider

    @d3adst1ck

    When I tried it I lost the Alliance I was in, and my voyage disappeared. I was specifically checking for that.

    I do not know if emissary reward voyages stay on your radial, I don't usually pick those up.

  • RealStyli
    Vanguard
    Insider

    It’s the main reason I’ve stopped doing Emissaries when solo or with inexperienced crewmates. It’s just too much risk now knowing Reaper Grade Vs have this tool to easily hunt with and keep all their supplies to boot. Now I just raise my Emissary when I sell - more of a grind but far less risk.

    If you want to even the playing field, given the involved nature of a lot of PvE making constant map checking impractical, when a Reaper Grade V appears on a server perhaps a serverwide ominous sound should play?

  • Zanchak
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    You should have to earn your grade 5 on the server you are playing on, whether you logged into it or merged into it. This just opens an actual gate for runners and trolls, those who run from a legitimate challenge to their flag, and those who sail around railing noobs "for fun".

    I think this will turn people away from the game and it negates all the efforts you make keeping an eye on the horizon if "bam" suddenly fully stocked reapers (or whoever else for that matter).

    Remove the progress, and the supplies. They are choosing to migrate, they can restock.

  • Dekeita
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    My general guess so far is that, if either just making money or getting a good fight is your primary interest. The most lucrative thing to do is still having a galleon crew with each individual person server hopping looking for g5 reaper, FoTD or FoF.

    Consquently I don't see portal hopping as particularly OP, or needing to be fixed.

    Moreover, I think this ability restores more of a sense of the original design behind emmisaries and reapers. And I think @realstyli comment actually shows that quite well.

    It’s the main reason I’ve stopped doing Emissaries when solo or with inexperienced crewmates. It’s just too much risk now knowing Reaper Grade Vs have this tool to easily hunt with and keep all their supplies to boot. Now I just raise my Emissary when I sell - more of a grind but far less risk.

    Even with limited ability to defend themselves people felt comfortable still being Emmisary because they weren't huge targets for Reapers and usually if they were casually paying attention to the map they'd have enough of an advanced warning to wind down what they were doing and sell off before the Reaper hit grade 5. Now that's not as certain.

    But while perhaps not quite as lucrative, as server hopping. This allows you to more or less play Reapers as the system was intended. It's generally more enjoyable, And I think the ecosystem is better for it.

    However, I increasingly feel the value of having Tall Tales on the shared world adventure servers is questionable. And having these systems that people use for other reasons connected to them is an issue. I think ideally, the Tall Tale version would take away loot and emmisary status, and just not allow you to cancel the tale if you're in there tbh. Maybe even, you don't start it by sailing your ship. But rather you step into the castaways tent and that whisks you away to a ship on the other side (I feel like you could have easily made tt2 and 4 instanced like this as well, but I guess we're not gonna get that ever)

    And then you have much more leeway to balance things for a intentional Adventure mode trek into a shared world SoTD. There could be so many more possibilities of what you can do with these systems. Many of which I imagine are being considered already. But in any case I'd like to see this made into a deliberate mechanic thats acknowledged and explained by the game, and not merely a byproduct of something else.

  • Chronodusk
    Commander
    Insider

    @s0nicbob

    I'm not able to post my reply, the "submit" button will not respond when I type my full reply...

  • Chronodusk
    Commander
    Insider

    @s0nicbob

    I believe using the Sea of The Damned to Server Hop is antithetical to Emissary Gameplay

    You created Emissaries with the purpose of creating higher risk and higher reward, and you designed them with a very specific balance.

    Now grade 5 emissaries can simply escape from servers with Reaper players, where before they would need to decide to continue putting themselves at risk or vote their emissary down to play safe. Now they do not have to make that decision any more - they can simply turn in their loot and move to another server. That doesn't feel right to me.

    On the other hand, it further interferes with your intended balance of Reapers Vs. Emissaries in a way that also negatively affects the main company Emissaries - in most cases an emissary crew can remain aware when a new Reaper Emissary has appeared and keep tabs on their grade progression. Now it is possible for a Reaper 5 to simply appear on the map.

    I think Sea of The Damned Server hopping simply interferes with the balance of Emissary gameplay far too much.

    I truly hope you will at least decide to drop the player's emissary flag upon entering the portals.

  • hammerz73
    Master
    Insider

    Looks like this is here to stay, even if a bit unbalanced on the hoppers side. Seeing as that fully stocked grade 5 reaper with no value apart from that flag turns up on a server where I'm committed to a voyage, if I do manage to sink them as another trading company emissary can you make it so I can sell that reaper flag at the trading company and spawn them on the furthest island possible?

  • PapaRug420
    Master

    I server hopped TWICE today and I must admit... It was awesome!

    Anyone and everyone can do this. It's an awesome new feature and I hope it is here to stay

  • antfornicator69
    Marauder

    @s0nicbob i honestly believe its a great addition and think it is what reapers should have been since they have first released

    because previously if you wanted to reach grade 5 reaper inorder to find ships you would wipe the entire emissaries from the server and there would be no more emissaries to hunt.

    so what would happen is you would be at the mercy of the random migration mechanic and sit there for hour if you wanted to merge into a server with emissaries to continue to hunt them, this fixed the whole issue for me,

    me and my friends had so much fun i played in a session longer than i ever had i think it was like 7-8 hours, constantly hunting for emissaries and honestly believe its the most fun ive had in a multiplayer game ever,

    i dont really care if emissaries can use it to run away with their flags as long as it can work both ways, or you can disable the portals if they got hit with a cannonball in the last 60 seconds?, or you can also work on that by forcing a ship fight in the portal and whoever wins can grab the flag and move on to the next server or is that too much work? anyways

    i also agree there should be a supplies cap like 200 cannonballs 200 wooden planks 10 pineapples/large cooked food , 20 mangos/smaller cooked food , 35 pomegranets 50 coconuts 100 bananas

    best of luck, hope you understand this addition is amazing and i am glad is a legitiamte use of the tall tale

  • jumli7
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    In my opinion a great feature, BUT emissary flags shouldn't carry over. Reaper emissaries should definitely start from grade 1 so people would have a heads up and have the option to lower theirs. Reaper Grade 5 is very quickly obtainable anyways, so wouldn't be a problem if they didn't carry over.

  • antfornicator69
    Marauder

    @jumli7 i feel a better heads up would just be a trumpet like fort of fortune is

  • Pace Fan
    Castaway

    There should be a better way to use the tunnels for merging than starting and cancelling a tall tale tbh. Even though it's confirmed an intended feature, it feels like something that's not supposed to be there. There should definitely be a better and more fluid method. Also, maybe have a sound effect play when a grade 5 reaper merges into your server?

  • Pace Fan
    Castaway

    @gloombeard You worded it perfectly. The main thing Rare should take away from this is that it will increase playtime across the board.

  • Pace Fan
    Castaway

    @lem0n-curry Good. Emissary flags can give you up to a 2.5x boost on all of your loot, without much work beforehand. It needs more risk.

  • jumli7
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    @pace-fan @antfornicator69 A sound effect when a player or Reaper merges to the server would be an interesting idea, BUT it would still be quite unfair for players who have an emissary flag already raised and doing a voyage. Just a sound is not enough for an heads up, in my opinion.

    When you hear the "player/reaper alert sound", the Reaper ship is already sailing towards you. You'd have to quickly finish the quest, carry the loot and then sail towards an outpost. The Reaper ship would already be at your location when you're at the "carrying loot" part.

  • Lem0n Curry
    Champion
    Insider

    @pace-fan said in Tunnels of the Damned Migration:

    @lem0n-curry Good. Emissary flags can give you up to a 2.5x boost on all of your loot, without much work beforehand. It needs more risk.

    1. It takes quite some time to get to grade 5 Athena (2 Roar Athena's if you're lucky).
    2. It only gives a 2.5 multiplier on all your loot when you're a Reaper, it only works on loot you hand in that corresponds with the emissary flag.
  • LordPlinde
    Ship Mate

    @pace-fan sagte in Tunnels of the Damned Migration:

    There should be a better way to use the tunnels for merging than starting and cancelling a tall tale tbh. Even though it's confirmed an intended feature, it feels like something that's not supposed to be there. There should definitely be a better and more fluid method. Also, maybe have a sound effect play when a grade 5 reaper merges into your server?

    Yes. And they should introduce it to everybody ingame. Most People have no idea that this is even a thing. I was very surprised when I saw a Reaper grade 5 on the map although I have checked it constantly. Falcore has some good Points here

  • Lem0n Curry
    Champion
    Insider

    @lordplinde
    One of the points Falcore made was that it should costs something - on that I agree but not a couple of thousands of gold - that means nothing to most players who successfully server hop with full supplies and Grade 5 Reaper.

    Perhaps a percentage of supplies get lost in the transition.
    Perhaps a grade in emissary on leaving the server, so grade 5 OoS/GH/MA can't pick up immediately their emissary quests and grade 5 Reaper have to do something to gain access to information about other ships again.

    Someone noted above that grade 5 is easy, so it shouldn't take too long :).

    This does not take away that this feature should not be hidden behind the workings of two Tall Tales. Emissaries may need some reworking, not only to give a bit more help for Reaper 5 who are after other emissaries but also so those grinding servers will take a considerable hit.

    Drop number of initial ships to 5 again and let the hopping Reaper G5 be the 6th ship or would that be too harsh for one side and too easy for the other ?

  • DanielSpuds
    Marauder
    Insider

    This is literally the best unintended consequence of the new Pirates Life Tall Tales by far. I can say for me and my crew, it has breathed new life into this game. portal hopping creates a more fun and prolonged experience with each session. We never have to menu server hop again! LOL seriously though, if more people try it out they will find that this not only benefits reapers, but all emissaries as well.

  • LordPlinde
    Ship Mate

    @lem0n-curry sagte in Tunnels of the Damned Migration:

    @lordplinde

    Perhaps a percentage of supplies get lost in the transition.
    Perhaps a grade in emissary on leaving the server, so grade 5 OoS/GH/MA can't pick up immediately their emissary quests and grade 5 Reaper have to do something to gain access to information about other ships again.

    I could live with that. Supplies and emissary grade is worth more than gold imo.

    What I am thinking about - is there realy more action with this feature? A grade 5 Reaper enters the server and everybody else leaves... I barely start fights but I am ok with a battle. But having all this private server requests in mind I could imagine that lots of People will just sail to the next Portal.

  • antfornicator69
    Marauder

    @jumli7 You are acting as you are the only emissary in the server and are the reapers only target, and that the reaper ship is invincible and cannot be defeated, also you dont have to finish the quest, you can run to a outpost sell all your valuables that you already have and be done with it, and you are also acting that the reaper ship would literally spawn on top of you and have full wind towards your location, when it probably would have spawned across the map and would take them 12 minutes to even get close to you

    you have plenty of time the map is gigantic, try to adapt to the game instead of making the game adapt to you

  • jumli7
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    @antfornicator69 Well actually I don't do voyages, mainly PvP. It is way too easy for us to spawn in with grade 5 and just check the map. It doesn't take long to sail to a ship even if it was a bit further away. A sound wouldn't help them. We'd sink them before they get to the outpost.
    I don't think anyone who mainly do voyages would be okay with that. A sound alert wouldn't make much difference in my opinion.
    Spawning in with grade 5 Reaper is literally us appearing from nowhere. It doesn't feel right.

  • antfornicator69
    Marauder

    @jumli7 grade 5 reapers migration already could happen prior to pirate's life, this just puts it in the players hand whether they want to migrate or not

    you can see the reaper on the map you hear a loud fort of fortune trumpet what more?
    a large event cloud above their head too i guess

    if your a pvp player then i am a pve player, i check my map whenever i can
    a trumpet would be a great heads up for me to go to an outpost sell all my valuables before they have enough time to arrive

  • Kezmur
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    I think it's pretty great the way it works now. It allows sessions to continue longer in general. For Reaper's in particular it alleviates that feeling you get when you've made it to Grade V only for every other emissary to have already lowered their flag. It's like if the NPCs for the other factions glitched and didn't give you the emissary quest at the end, but now if that happens you can go search for some. Or even if you do get to hunt on your first server, it allows you to continue your sessions afterwards the same way any other faction can just drop another voyage on the table, instead of quitting for the night or starting from zero again and again.

    I'm also not as concerned about supplies as other comments. Currently, you can use the "Lords of the Sea" final Tall Tale checkpoint to farm an immense amount of supplies very quickly with no effort. It is incredibly easy now to have far more wood and fruit than you'll ever need and 700+ cannonballs. It has invalidated buying supplies from the merchants entirely. Anyone can have an incredible amount of supplies right at the start of every session they do now, I don't think someone's supplies from a server hop are that much of a concern. It's only chain shots, blunderbombs and firebombs, and cursed cannonballs that a player really needs to look for from islands/ships.

  • Rare Jumbie
    Captain
    Insider

    @zanchak

    It opens the gate for everyone, not just "runners and trolls". Last night we were Grade V reaper emissary after sinking a skeleton ship and one Gold Hoarder with a fair bit of loot. It took a little over an hour for us to get there because there were few emissaries and I guess they ran from us.

    The Gold Hoarder were some presumably young teenagers that kept running around on their sinking ship saying "Can you say hi to us? Please?" while simultaneously trying to kill us. After we had sold our loot at the hideout, we noticed the same kids with a Reaper's Mark up trying to chase.

    Was it worth it for us to waste supplies on them again? Nope. So we angled to the point of sail with the greatest speed, which was also in the direction of Dagger Tooth. There was a storm nearby; two of my crew voted while I kept the boat moving and within a few minutes we were able to merge into a new server.

    A Grade II Gold Hoarder at Mermaids Hideaway was the new target; they were the only emissary on the map. And you know what? They were prepared. We didn't catch them off guard. And they sunk us with a solid broadside and some good shots.

    So you can hold that point where it "negates all the efforts you make keeping an eye on the horizon".

    We weren't trolling. We were just looking for ships worth our time, and we lost, while our target got a nice Grade V Reaper flag. My only wish was that the flag was worth something to them as a Gold Hoarder, but my understanding is that none of the Trading Companies accept Reaper flags. They should change that.

  • ajm123
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    my reply to anyone against a option to server merge.

    Being a true reaper and sinking emissaries for loot is ridiculous now tbh.

    Everyday I find a server with 4 emissaries. By the time I hit grade 5 all the emissaries are gone making reapers 100% pointless.

    The ability to leave the server is what will keep the reaper emissary a viable emissary for anything other than gold.

    I would 100% pay the ferryman or whatever to use the tunnels.

  • Guilleont
    Champion
    Insider

    The problem with supplies is the fact that they are purchasable, not the tunnels themselves. Every single ship you sink has tons of them. It's crazy.

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