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Vegetto

Too many Ships of the damned?

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So I sailed from N13 to N8 and returned, there were so many ships of the damned on way, we would encounter 4-5 of them at once. Avoiding them was impossible. Not a huge problem but the spawn rate seems too much because we saw atleast 40 of them(in render distance) in 1 region while travelling.

Did devs increase their spawn rate or the ships just keep spawning even if no one destroys them and their number keeps increasing?

Edited by Vegetto
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Some say that they not just spamming - but exists and if no one take care of them, they flood every available space around.

In arctic region, where almost NO players at all - there are hundreds of them. I once spoke with a guy who said that every day he go around the island and kill any SotDs, and that's why there is calm place there. And I sailed through the zone and met just few of SotD's. There are clean waters around big companies bases.

So it might be true. I started to clean the area around my base and my waters are actually feels a bit safer. But when I go to neighbor island - there are tons of them there. And it's weird because I have just a Brig with 8 usual guns each side and my neighbors have for like 5 Galleys and more then 10 Brigs and they DO NOT DO ANYTHING with SotDs around.

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3 minutes ago, George Catcher said:

my neighbors have for like 5 Galleys and more then 10 Brigs and they DO NOT DO ANYTHING with SotDs around.

They (the green ones as that's what you meet most of the time) are waste of cannon balls - that's why your neighbours and many others don't kill them and they pile up.

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Theres a cap on the number in one zone, I beleive 40.  But they tend to pile up.  Unless somebody kills them on a regular basis, they stay around.

If nobody in your zone clears them out then yeah, it's bad.  Some zones are highly pruned though. 

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I can not stand when there is barely any wind even sailing with the wind and you get surrounded by 4 or 5 of them worse if they are high levels... Even if you fight them get ready to be sunk.

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2 hours ago, DilBert said:

unless your ship is overweight they are easy to outrun no matter how many there are. 

 

Yup.  I have never taken more than 2 volleys from any sotd provided my ship is below 70% weight (which isn't a special number it's just the line draw)

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20 minutes ago, Archsenex said:

Yup.  I have never taken more than 2 volleys from any sotd provided my ship is below 70% weight (which isn't a special number it's just the line draw)

It is a lot harder on a galleon if the wind changes, as it is a lumbering bitch.

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10 minutes ago, gadefence said:

It is a lot harder on a galleon if the wind changes, as it is a lumbering bitch.

The wind should only change drastically when a storm hits, and then you have minimum force meaning you should get good speed.

I primarily sail galleons.  And when unladen you're the fastest ship in the game.

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I mean cannon balls are pretty cheap. I destroy all ships that get behind my boat. I actively hunt any over 15. It's not that expensive to sink all the crap boats. I agree they usually have terrible blueprints... mind you I have had COMMON blueprints with better damage than masterwork... And the "Loot quality" doesn't really seem to actually matter that much. It's very very rng and more often then not the stat rolls are meh.

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Sotd were acting strange tonight, i came in contact with 2 or 3 with my gally right in a row, they showed a health bar like they were agroing, but never fired a shot

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Theres a cap on the number in one zone, I beleive 40. 

I would say - about 100-150 actually. Maybe even 200. If you run through Arctic - you meet around 40 just by a straight line : )

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I definitely noticed more today after really getting around but just chewed through them with the galleon. Was a lot of high level ships out sank like 4 28+ in a row and a few lower level ones. Definitely seems to be bumped a bit.

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They have nerfed this stuff so bad already if your complaining now we should schedule you an appointment with Dr Phil.

It used to be a survival game, now its mostly a nerdy adventure game. If your that bad at sailing read the wiki or something.

 

PS they are not magnetic...sail the other way.

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6 hours ago, jabnlab said:

Sotd were acting strange tonight, i came in contact with 2 or 3 with my gally right in a row, they showed a health bar like they were agroing, but never fired a shot

Had this same experience last night.  Was it also on PvE?  Do SotD still even agro anymore on PvE?  We wondered if the new changes to avoid greifing have rendered the SotD useless.  If so, it totally takes the thrill of sailing around out.

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A few patches ago, it seemed like they started to hesitate a few seconds before firing after aggro.  Even before the last patch I'd sometime be going fast enough that the ship didnt get to firing before I was out of range

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We keep seeing more and more of them as well. The largest group I've seen is 8 all together and I feel like last night I always had at minimum 2-3 in view as I traveled. They aren't mostly green either. Last night there were 3 yellow and 1 red in a group. I've seen groups of oranges just bouncing off of each other. I've sailed along region borders and had them just in a long row the whole way. I feel like in PVE, people are just not doing anything about them so they accumulate, and in the large groups that they are always in now, I don't feel like we can manage. Fighting several with one ship is not a task I want to take on. Traveling already takes forever most of the time with the constant crappy wind conditions, but now that we have to weave in and out of mobs of SOTD, it takes several hours. By the time I reach my destination, I don't have time to do the task I came for.

They are definitely still agroing, though. I was shot at several times yesterday, and granted we are fast enough to outrun them, it's super stressful when you're transporting resources or animals that it took you hours to acquire, trip included. I DREAD border crossings because on numerous occasions they are camping the border and you can't see them until you are literally sitting on top of them. When this was just the occasional single SOTD it wasn't so bad, but when you land on top of 3 or 4 of them. Ugh. 

I feel like they need to de-spawn after some allotted time in order to keep the numbers reasonable. It'd be nice that they not lurk around border crossings either, unless the devs make it so that regions are continuous and we can see what we're sailing into. 

12 hours ago, Thor Ragnarock said:

I mean cannon balls are pretty cheap. I destroy all ships that get behind my boat. I actively hunt any over 15. It's not that expensive to sink all the crap boats. I agree they usually have terrible blueprints... mind you I have had COMMON blueprints with better damage than masterwork... And the "Loot quality" doesn't really seem to actually matter that much. It's very very rng and more often then not the stat rolls are meh.

Thor, what setup are you running on your ships for this? I keep messing around with options, but haven't found something that works well for us.

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I'm not thor, but my galleon just has broadsides with 6 rear facing cannons.  Yes, you can just put all cannons behind and take a lot less damage, but I find broadsides work well and you take very little damage.  Even against a 30 I only took 3 real volleys.  And maneuvering them behind you isnt foolproof either

I sometimes fight 2 or 3 in rapid succession when In the middle of a pack of them since i can engage in both sides at once

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15 hours ago, Archsenex said:

The wind should only change drastically when a storm hits, and then you have minimum force meaning you should get good speed.

I primarily sail galleons.  And when unladen you're the fastest ship in the game.

This is true, however the wind can change direction without warning if a storm happens in another zone. It's weird.

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4 hours ago, KeyenDF said:

Had this same experience last night.  Was it also on PvE?  Do SotD still even agro anymore on PvE?  We wondered if the new changes to avoid greifing have rendered the SotD useless.  If so, it totally takes the thrill of sailing around out.

The do still shoot you in pve, this morning it seemed like they were making up for not shooting us last night, lol. Our freight galleon took a few dozen hits on our way home, they were so thick in areas it was impossible to avoid. 

People have started farming them in our home grid (including us) and that does help keep the numbers down

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Update:

Same situation everywhere I go. Their number has increased but their aim is really horrible. Out of so many sotd only 1 managed to hit a shot that too on almost point blank range. And they just try to T-bone our ships now. Interesting AI.

And on PvE most of the people left playing because their claims will be safe for 20days so they just login to keep the upkeep and leave. And everybody is interested in building castles rather than sailing ships and fighting damned.

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plenty of SOTD but its just not worth it taking them down at one point , our little region of space has increased with alot of sotd but dwindling player base and well as said not worth the return taking them down means they will keep getting to be more to a point where its either dealt with or well people keep avoiding them

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So those of you with the git gud posts, let me point out a few things before you condemn the op as sucking.

1. Where I live, SotD form conga lines. I've see 7 of them surrounding my ship at one time.
2. Fog. I was was just on a run to pick up some metal. The fog was so thick that I saw the cannonballs coming at me before I saw the SotD.
3. Speed. I've been running a brig with 2 speed and 1 handling sail. In crap winds it BARELY outruns a SotD. Which means, When I'm surrounded and left with few choices, I tend to eat a few cannonballs before I can get out of range.  The other option, which I'm doing now, is to anchor on some island and wait for winds not to suck, which is not my idea of entertainment.
4. Waste of time.  I've noticed that in middle latitudes there don't seem to be as many SotD.  I'm assuming you guys in temperate and tropic zones keep them pretty well under control. In the tundra, where for example, we have 2 metal nodes on an island with 20 odd companies, we find SotD's to be a waste of cannonballs because the loot utterly sucks for the metal we have to expend to kill one.  It's simply not worth the effort it takes to run to a polar region, farm metal and then, run back to our tundra just to kill SotD's.  Was out with a fully gunned galleon last night. The owner lives in a temperate. He had no problem unloading a broadside onto a low level SotD just to get rid of it.  In the tundra, that's an extravagance we can't afford.

Therefore, before you condemn someone for speaking their mind and describing their particular issues, please consider the fact that where you live, the circumstances may be vastly different.  

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11 hours ago, Joibie said:

We keep seeing more and more of them as well. The largest group I've seen is 8 all together and I feel like last night I always had at minimum 2-3 in view as I traveled. They aren't mostly green either. Last night there were 3 yellow and 1 red in a group. I've seen groups of oranges just bouncing off of each other. I've sailed along region borders and had them just in a long row the whole way. I feel like in PVE, people are just not doing anything about them so they accumulate, and in the large groups that they are always in now, I don't feel like we can manage. Fighting several with one ship is not a task I want to take on. Traveling already takes forever most of the time with the constant crappy wind conditions, but now that we have to weave in and out of mobs of SOTD, it takes several hours. By the time I reach my destination, I don't have time to do the task I came for.

They are definitely still agroing, though. I was shot at several times yesterday, and granted we are fast enough to outrun them, it's super stressful when you're transporting resources or animals that it took you hours to acquire, trip included. I DREAD border crossings because on numerous occasions they are camping the border and you can't see them until you are literally sitting on top of them. When this was just the occasional single SOTD it wasn't so bad, but when you land on top of 3 or 4 of them. Ugh. 

I feel like they need to de-spawn after some allotted time in order to keep the numbers reasonable. It'd be nice that they not lurk around border crossings either, unless the devs make it so that regions are continuous and we can see what we're sailing into. 

Thor, what setup are you running on your ships for this? I keep messing around with options, but haven't found something that works well for us.

We have 2 variants on the brig and the galleon. We also split the cannons into Left/Right/Large for command groups. Pretty much drive near/past them get agro, turn the rear towards them and kaboom. Then stop and pickup loot/crew and continue on.

Brigyq6ObNy.jpg
 

And GalleonYcTr4Cu.jpg
                      lQArb93.png

Galleon turn's very slow though I honestly prefer the brig but it's fun either way the Galleon is stated heavily into weight so it can carry a LOT of ammo. We used triangle decks at the rear of the galleon to get the larges back far enough to hang off the rear of the ship otherwise it's hard to get them back far enough and the square ceilings say out of bounds for the very last row.

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