Paltry treasure from Expedition Fleet on Open

[Edward Edgemenace]

On test servers, doing the Expedition Fleet battle, I remember getting 6 royals in my light sloop when the ship of the line was defeated.

When they released it to open, they seem to have eliminated the good treasure. It is common to get a single cargo crate (gold value: 14) from ships of the line on open.

What's going on? Am I switching ships too much on open, where on test I mostly sailed from only a single ship? Has anyone else seen this behavior/bug?

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Also, what is the point of the Expedition Fleet? The battles are exciting (I had a 40 minute battle yesterday, mostly solo, before finally defeating the tyrants and Intrepid.) But the amount of reputation from the battle is close to nothing (100 rep per ship) and the treasure is 1/10th the cost of repairing my ships, 1/20th the cost of ammo expended, at best.

As much as I love finally having a REAL sea battle in-game, it seems like there is absolutely no reward. At least on invasions, you get that double rep bonus thing at the end.

It seems to me, that each of the 5 ships that I hit, should award something like a bonus 2,000 rep when they sink, for each person that actually hit that enemy. And possibly an extra 10,000 rep when the last one sinks. These are tough battles - there really should be some incentive here, no?

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What do other people think? Is it enough to just get a feather in your cap, while losing lots of gold in the process and getting no rep? Am I missing something here? Pfffft, I'm gonna go level weapons now.

[JM Ohara]

Got a whole thread on this already mate. See here.... http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/f...491#post200491

To paraphrase, yes, it's incredibly annoying.

[Sven Osymthe]

The point of the fleets is to build up the story. In the recent Casa De Muertos quest they were leaning towards the EITC searching around for lost weapons. The EITC fleets are doing just that.

More rep should be awarded, but the fleets are intended to be more "fun", as well as lead up to future updates (new weapons, etc.) in my opinion. Invasions do give a lot of rep, but there are a lot of different factors there. Enemies defeated, barricades remaining, etc. Enemies there aren't a specific level either, and you are defeating a large amount. But in the EITC fleets you're sinking around 5 ships, all with designated levels, moving from point A to point B.

[ex8404]

I get what you're saying BUT... 10,000 points for sinking a level 81 ship? That's asking for an awful lot. That means that after 4 Fleet Actions, a pirate could go from level 39 to 40... Seems a bit much.

On the other hand, asking for a player to join in on something like this and NOT give them ANYTHING? It is stuff like this that makes a player want to log off...

My theory? It is because you keep changing ships. The "points counter" resets every time you sink or swap ships. And it always has. As for rep?

An un-crewed SOLO Pirate has a notoriety cap of 115 points per weapon. The MAX notoriety you can earn is 230 per ship sunk. 115 for the ship to ship and 115 for the cannon to ship. And that, of course, depends on your level. Using +5 Fury will give fewer points than +1 Round Shot.

I went out with a crew and got 230 points off of the Conqueror... But I didn't sink or change ships...

[Edward Edgemenace]

Originally Posted by ex8404

My theory? It is because you keep changing ships. The "points counter" resets every time you sink or swap ships. And it always has. As for rep?

No, I was specifically talking about gold/treasure. The enemy ship is supposed to be carrying 7 royals. Partaking of the sinking of it, should award those royals, but never does, on open. It most certainly did work that way on test.

Or are you suggesting the points counter relates somehow to treasure dropped? Actually, wait...what exactly do you mean when you say "points counter"? Pirate's point counter? Ship points counter? Enemy points counter? Weapon points counter? Crew's points counter?

[Eliza Creststeel]

Exp should not be huge, just like invasions. People are doing several a day - often on one server after another trying to cash in.

That's way too many points to be swept up so easily

[skullduggery bones]

I have done a fair few fleets on open and on the ones that I managed not to sink I got good gold ( 8 Royals one run ) But once you sink the gold seems to go down dreadfully. ( I may be wrong, just what I have seen) last one I did earlier I sank 2 times and went back out to finish the ship of the line off and got 1 Royal. I wonder whether it makes any difference if you keep the Ship of the line til last. Do you get more gold? Does, when you sink, your gold already earned from sinking the tyrants, sink with you?? maybe, idk? Maybe it would be best to port and go back out. i'll have to try some more a few different ways perhaps.

[Edward Edgemenace]

Originally Posted by Eliza Creststeel

Exp should not be huge, just like invasions. People are doing several a day - often on one server after another trying to cash in.

That's way too many points to be swept up so easily

JR invasions give approximately that much. Why not expedition fleets?

*re-reads what she wrote*

OMG, if you aren't getting thousands of rep from invasions, you're either a basic member, or doing something horribly wrong.

The point of this entire post, is that the reward for expedition fleets should imitate (or at least come close to) the bonus of invasions.

[Crazypirate]

Last one I did I got 1 crate didnt even cover the damage to my ship as well as ammo replacement!

[Edward Edgemenace]

Originally Posted by TheHawke

Got a whole thread on this already mate. See here.... http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/f...491#post200491

To paraphrase, yes, it's incredibly annoying.

Thank you - I think when posts are marked as trolling, the thread disappears from the "new posts" list or something. Maybe that's why I didn't see that thread. I honestly didn't suspect this was such a touchy question. But I suppose people who only do expedition fleet battles on busy servers must incorrectly think it is easy everywhere. So I guess I can see how they would start in with flamebait. How sad.

Invasions are generated with enemies proportional to the number of pirates around. Why does an expedition fleet on abassa have only 5 ships? Should be more like 40 Tyrants and 10 Intrepids there, no? Here's a picture of a typical modern navy battle group. But keep in mind that in pirate times they had smaller ships - so they simply launched many more ships as a battle group. (The face that launched a thousand ships...)

(Probably worth mentioning that a carrier battle group is only a small part of a true "fleet" of ships. Then again, the forward aircraft carrier there is that battle group's "flagship." Funny that in POTCO, a flagship is no such thing. And in POTCO, a true flagship is called a SOTL, while ships of the line are called tyrants. And in POTCO roving gangs are called a "crew" yet a ship's crew isn't even recognized as existing as a crew. WTG - let's mess kids up more, with even more backwards terminology! "Expedition Bonus" = amount of gold you lose when you win one with a small group of friends, or solo.)

[ex8404]

Originally Posted by Edward Edgemenace

It seems to me, that each of the 5 ships that I hit, should award something like a bonus 2,000 rep when they sink, for each person that actually hit that enemy. And possibly an extra 10,000 rep when the last one sinks. These are tough battles - there really should be some incentive here, no?

Why should Disney give a total of like, what? 25,000 points for something as silly as a fleet invasion. 2000 X Each Escort Ship plus 10,000 for the Conqueror? Is it REALLY that important?

Or are you suggesting the points counter relates somehow to treasure dropped? Actually, wait...what exactly do you mean when you say "points counter"? Pirate's point counter? Ship points counter? Enemy points counter? Weapon points counter? Crew's points counter?

Calm down. I was talking abut the rep. Period. If you actually read my post, you would see that...And I said what I meant. If you sink or change ships YOU START OVER. I have NO idea how the gold divvies out but notoriety thing isn't that hard to figure out.

[Edward Edgemenace]

Originally Posted by ex8404

Calm down.

Please do not ascribe emotions to bland statements I make. I have said nothing with any panic nor urgency. Just asking questions. (Question was about gold, not rep, btw.)

[seafox]

I'm still gnawing over the forty minute battle.....none of the five I've been in lasted longer than mebbe 12, 15 minutes tops. Even on an almost empty server, a few server hoppers got in on a potential longer one ....but the fleet seemed awfully fast on that server, too. Ah well, ......

[Edward Edgemenace]

Originally Posted by seafox

I'm still gnawing over the forty minute battle.....none of the five I've been in lasted longer than mebbe 12, 15 minutes tops. Even on an almost empty server, a few server hoppers got in on a potential longer one ....but the fleet seemed awfully fast on that server, too. Ah well, ......

I start with rank 5 chain on their masts. Edit: I also always draw them back - always attacking from behind their formation so that they have to slow down, turn, come to me, slow down again, if I have to port, turn off, reposition at medium speed. By the time they are back in formation, I've repaired and relaunched from Port Royal (lag permitting.) I'm moderately good at "tagging" them from 3 compass widths, which sometimes draws them back as I reposition. (Obviously, it should all the time, but just doesn't, for no reason at all.)

[Kat Five Knives]

I too am a little disappointed in the Expedition Fleets. After reading the posts made by the test peeps, how hard it was, how many times they were sunk and just kept going back - and that it was such a challenge and very fun....

It has been nothing like that for me on open. Yes, they are more difficult to sink, but if I am sunk, it is over before I really get a chance to get back out there. I didn't get to do very many - but those I did do were not as the test people had described... I believe Big D did lower the difficulty level or something before releasing it to open... and I question the wisdom of that move.