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Smugglers arena is too hard

1
AuthorMessage
Ensign
Mar 02, 2014
33
Does anyone else think that the new smugglers arena is too hard?

Me and my friend went in but between no healing during rounds, companions having recovery time and the guys have insane damage we only made it through the first few rounds.

Does anyone else feel this too?

I don't think i will do it again as the bad script rate drops and most of your companions end up dying. I think that KI have made this dungeon too hard :(

i wouldn't even mind it as much if your companions die in the dungeon but when you come out their fully healed.

If Ratbeard or someone would leave a message explaining more about it that would be great


Developer
Lieutenant
Jun 08, 2009
162
Ratbeard on Nov 24, 2014 wrote:
Yes.

It is hard.
No doubt about that. I'm actually glad it's as hard as it is. the last time I was that challenged in this game was probably MB and AQ during test before they were nerfed. We need more challenges like Smugglers, and I welcome any that come our way. (as long as the rewards are proportional to the difficulty. Tower of Moo, too much payoff for something too easy. Smugglers, too much difficulty for too little payoff.)

Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
Yes, it is hard, and as Ratbeard said - it's meant to be hard. Going in with a full team of four is highly recommended. Having heal cards or a privateer on your team helps, too. You can heal between rounds while the dog is talking ( he does this every two rounds ).
Now if only the scrip rewards were better.....

Lieutenant
Feb 15, 2014
140
scrip is not a little reward
it is rare and this guarantees it
what more could a sneaky pirate with sources in the black market ask

Ensign
Mar 14, 2014
45
Ratbeard just a question but how many stages are there in smugglers arena I got to the point where I faced medusa by myself and then I lost is that the end of the rounds is it where it ends and I only got 38 scrip I thought I'd get higher but I was wrong and I don't get where the smugglers arena ends can you please tell us how many stages are there in smugglers arena

Commodore
May 31, 2009
894
The Smuggler's Arena is certainly very hard; it is meant to be so. I have tried to solo it once, an attempt foiled by the fact that I had most of my companions on task and had forgotten to belay those orders. I did manage to make it to the Gorgon and was defeated by the last standing vulture. I lost two companions each round, so I think if I had all of them available and maxed (all but two are maxed on Live but not in Test) I could have made it to the end. Getting through four rounds rewarded me only 38 scrip, but since scrip is meant to be hard to obtain I am fine with that small reward. Perhaps if the critical rates for the enemies was lowered some the Smuggler's Arena would be a bit easier to navigate, but still tough enough to give every player a challenge.

Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
Very well done both of you for making it that far in a solo attempt! There are five worlds represented in the Arena, and it cycles twice through, so ten fights. A friend told me that if you do solo it the critical rates on the enemies is much higher than a normal four member team faces. This I can attest to myself having tried solo and team fighting.

Developer
The mobs in the Arena don't have any higher crit rates than you guys-- but they DO have a lot of powers. Depending on what level the mob is, they might have up to 6 powers (good powers) at their disposal.

This is the first time I've given the players' powers (Heal, Barrage, Backstab, Brutal Charge, etc.) over to "normal" mobs in anything approaching the quantity that players have access to them. (Yes, including even the Nefarious Five.)

Since the mobs don't typically have access to the same animation set as the players, I must tell them to play their critical animation instead of the normal power animation.

If you are seeing a lot of crits what you are *probably* seeing are all of those special powers kicking off.

So stop complaining about high crit rates; but feel free to complain about all the unfair powers!

Commodore
May 31, 2009
894
Ratbeard on Nov 25, 2014 wrote:
The mobs in the Arena don't have any higher crit rates than you guys-- but they DO have a lot of powers. Depending on what level the mob is, they might have up to 6 powers (good powers) at their disposal.

This is the first time I've given the players' powers (Heal, Barrage, Backstab, Brutal Charge, etc.) over to "normal" mobs in anything approaching the quantity that players have access to them. (Yes, including even the Nefarious Five.)

Since the mobs don't typically have access to the same animation set as the players, I must tell them to play their critical animation instead of the normal power animation.

If you are seeing a lot of crits what you are *probably* seeing are all of those special powers kicking off.

So stop complaining about high crit rates; but feel free to complain about all the unfair powers!
Aha! So that's what they're doing! No wonder I'm getting killed so fast.

"free to complain about all the unfair powers!"

Whine whine complain rant moan complain.... Thanks for explaining about the cricitcals, er, powers Ratbeard!

Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
Ratbeard on Nov 25, 2014 wrote:
The mobs in the Arena don't have any higher crit rates than you guys-- but they DO have a lot of powers. Depending on what level the mob is, they might have up to 6 powers (good powers) at their disposal.

This is the first time I've given the players' powers (Heal, Barrage, Backstab, Brutal Charge, etc.) over to "normal" mobs in anything approaching the quantity that players have access to them. (Yes, including even the Nefarious Five.)

Since the mobs don't typically have access to the same animation set as the players, I must tell them to play their critical animation instead of the normal power animation.

If you are seeing a lot of crits what you are *probably* seeing are all of those special powers kicking off.

So stop complaining about high crit rates; but feel free to complain about all the unfair powers!
Those mobs are horrible, horrible! Evil, bad, wicked Ratbeard! Who knew getting beat up was soooo much fun!

Dread Pirate
May 27, 2009
2131
Ratbeard on Nov 25, 2014 wrote:
The mobs in the Arena don't have any higher crit rates than you guys-- but they DO have a lot of powers. Depending on what level the mob is, they might have up to 6 powers (good powers) at their disposal.

This is the first time I've given the players' powers (Heal, Barrage, Backstab, Brutal Charge, etc.) over to "normal" mobs in anything approaching the quantity that players have access to them. (Yes, including even the Nefarious Five.)

Since the mobs don't typically have access to the same animation set as the players, I must tell them to play their critical animation instead of the normal power animation.

If you are seeing a lot of crits what you are *probably* seeing are all of those special powers kicking off.

So stop complaining about high crit rates; but feel free to complain about all the unfair powers!
This is exactly what I thought -- that these enemies were acting a lot more like other players than normal mobs. It felt quite a lot like jumping into a high level PvP match (which I don't - PvP, I mean).

It's not going to be something I buy when it goes to the Live game, because it was so very difficult and I don't have a team of friends to do it with, but I can see how it would be great for PvP practice. Solo, it was just to punishing to be fun.

Dread Pirate
Jun 17, 2013
2743
Ratbeard, I thank you for the Smuggler's Arena, for teaching me a lesson in humility and for causing me to mix things up a bit more.

Before the advent of the Smuggler's Arena (and the Tower as well- although I still only have 1 solo run and 1 team run at that), I had been lulled into a bit of a monotonous 'this works- it ain't broke, so don't fix it' type of BLAH. Prior to these updates I pretty much had not lost a companion since some time in MooShu, besides against that Heinous Hydra and it's Glitchy ways. I would lose one here and there, but this was primarily because I would leave the computer for a couple rounds while I went sniffing around in the pantry and fridge. Because of this I had become a bit of a one-trick pony towards the end of my Spiral story adventuring. I found a crew that got the job done with extreme ease, used pretty much the same BLAH tactics and it is was just one battle after another for awhile-- rinse and repeat. But even though I was having great success and was blasting through Dogs and Eagles like I didn't have a care in the world, I was missing something-- excitement, variety and paprika!

When I tried the Smuggler's Arena for the first time I thought.....Holy Moo!....this.....is.....AWESOME!!! I was getting my tail handed to me and my same boring tactics and same boring strategy wasn't working out so well-- SWEET! I did make it to the 6th round on my first attempt but this Arena has really gotten me to spice things up a bit (ooh look, there's the paprika!) and to look outside the box more (and there's the excitement and variety!)-- something I used to do quite often, but I had long ago put that train of thought high up on a shelf, for the last couple worlds at least.

So thank you for causing, no make that forcing me, to get back into the groove, breaking me out of my doldrums and monotonous ways, and enlisting some new recruits to smack my pirate and crew around a bit. It was much needed and is much appreciated!

Ensign
Mar 02, 2014
33
Lieutenant
Feb 15, 2014
140
the harder it is
the more fun in the arena of
doom

Captain
Dec 01, 2012
607
Ratbeard on Nov 25, 2014 wrote:
The mobs in the Arena don't have any higher crit rates than you guys-- but they DO have a lot of powers. Depending on what level the mob is, they might have up to 6 powers (good powers) at their disposal.

This is the first time I've given the players' powers (Heal, Barrage, Backstab, Brutal Charge, etc.) over to "normal" mobs in anything approaching the quantity that players have access to them. (Yes, including even the Nefarious Five.)

Since the mobs don't typically have access to the same animation set as the players, I must tell them to play their critical animation instead of the normal power animation.

If you are seeing a lot of crits what you are *probably* seeing are all of those special powers kicking off.

So stop complaining about high crit rates; but feel free to complain about all the unfair powers!
*starts writing angry letter.Finishes angry letter.Rereads angry letter.Finds a bunch of typos.Fixes typos.Letter doesn't make any sense.Scraps paper.Starts over.

Continues doing this for a few minutes,and isn't angry anymore*

Lieutenant
Aug 09, 2013
160
Ratbeard on Nov 24, 2014 wrote:
Yes.

It is hard.
Keep the difficulty Ratbeard, I LOVE the challenge Smuggler Den gives me ;)

Captain
May 16, 2011
552
To be honest, I completely disagree with you. While it is hard, it's a great test of skill. I think the last time I tried it I got to the 4th or 5th, then was defeated mercilessly. Ha-ha. Ouch.

So what if it's hard? It's a lot of fun, plus the reward is very useful. But, you are entitled to your opinion. And I shall respect that.

And to the unfair powers: just one word - "YES."

Ensign
Jul 16, 2013
1
I soloed that place twice it easy need something more hard

Pirate Overlord
Mar 10, 2009
6204
The Hoodoo Master on Nov 26, 2014 wrote:
*starts writing angry letter.Finishes angry letter.Rereads angry letter.Finds a bunch of typos.Fixes typos.Letter doesn't make any sense.Scraps paper.Starts over.

Continues doing this for a few minutes,and isn't angry anymore*
Good therapy there Felix. If a lot of ranters would employ your technique then things would make a lot more sense here and be much more useful

Commodore
Feb 02, 2013
838
not going to lie, its to easy with a team, 4 companions lost between 3 players the whole dungeon, please add a hard mode

Captain
Jun 26, 2010
734
Me only complaint is there should be a lot more scrip fer all that brawli'n from those scum suckers ye unleashed on us, I was able to finish it with a few of me mates, but we only got so little scrip by the time we max out on scrip it'll "two years" so ye think we could get a wee bit more scrip fer ALL our hard work.

- Deadeye Jack Morgan

Ensign
Jun 13, 2014
48
I feel that the rest of Pirate 101 is a little on the too easy side. Granted, maybe that is because I am a 44 year old gamer and this game is mainly geared towards a younger crowd (I still love the game though). I have dou'ed the tower (twice) and even did the nefarious 6 duo (ie- was a group of three and one of the players drank the potion). And no henchmen were used (privy / swash and witch / swash). In fact, I have never lost a fight on pirate 101 (until trying to solo the Smuggler's Arena in test and not including pvp).

That being said, I haven't had the chance to test the Arena with anything other than one person who quit after the first round saying it was too hard. I feel the hard part about it, is that it causes people to think about different ways to use their characters (example- Ratbeard with multiple hold the lines for the clay warriors).

I feel this is the kind of thing that will make people think critically and come up with new ways to use their companions.

Though, I will say I think the scrim reward is kind of low for how hard it is, in my opinion.

Developer
zuto4011a on Nov 29, 2014 wrote:
not going to lie, its to easy with a team, 4 companions lost between 3 players the whole dungeon, please add a hard mode
not going to lie, its to easy with a team, 4 companions lost between 3 players the whole dungeon, please add a hard mode

It is designed to be easier if you take friends in with you. Therefore, "Hard Mode" is "Solo."

Though, I will say I think the scrip reward is kind of low for how hard it is, in my opinion.

Scrip is not balanced in terms of difficulty. It is assumed that for any given activity, you will ultimately be successful.

Scrip is easiest to obtain by sinking ships. Your best bet is to sink the highest level ships that you can sink in the shortest amount of time... figure out the best balance point for your ship/nautical level and farm there. If you improve your ship, your equipment, or you have friends to help you (one, two, or dozens of friends...), consider moving up a few levels.

Ensign
Jul 12, 2010
1
i think it's to hard i can't ever even get more then 3 hits in before the fight is already over which is not fun at all and just makes me irritated. all i feel is that i wasted crowns i could have used to other purposes and now i can't even get scrips which was the point. if i could sell it back to the crown shop for at least half or a bit more of my crowns i would.

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