Treasure Fleet

Edward Edgemenace

Honorable Pirate
Anyone else noticing a HUGE increase in treasure rewarded from treasure fleets today?

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This was the last treasure fleet I sailed today with a couple guild mates gunning - skull loot chests from all 5 ships (had to land for repairs after the first 2.)

The skull chests themselves seem to have equally poor contents, as say, Darkhart. But at least something is dropping for me, now!
 
Igor say aye mate Igor been sailing fleets now that they have treasure!!!
 
Anyone have tips on what makes for great treasure, when sailing against a treasure fleet? I've noticed a few things:
  1. The ship that dealt the majority of the damage, gets the good loot (proportional to damage dealt.)
  2. If you go more than a compass width away and the fleet "disengages" back to it's original route, the damage you dealt up to that point, no longer counts towards #1 above.
  3. Only people aboard who actually shoot the target, partake in the loot. (People constantly repairing get cheated out of their fair share.)
  4. Having two (2) people repairing constantly and three (3) or more strong gunners on cannons firing continuously, increases your chance of survival by 90%.
  5. If you sink, the damage you dealt prior to sinking, no longer counts towards #1 above.
  6. Going for the ship of the line first, guarantees you will sink.
  7. When taking out the 4 escort ships, not taking the sails off first, guarantees you will sink.
  8. Having more than one (1) strong pirate ship attacking the fleet, guarantees bad loot for all.
  9. Captain should usually launch from Cuba so he can repair fast if sunk; crew members should board the captain's ship from Port Royal so they can get ammo quickly, if sunk.
  10. Sea-based skull loot chests are comparable to land based skull chests: 65% common, 30% rare, 5% famed contents.
  11. Sea based skull chests give very different items, compared to land-based awards.
  12. Damage dealt to escort ships from OTHER escort ships, seems to take away from your total damage dealt, towards #1 above.
What tips can you share?
 
Ed:
If I'm in game give me a holler when you go after treasure fleet? My 50's are maxed so I don't mind repairing.
 
I havent done fleet in a while, but now that you get better loot I guess I'm gonna test this out for myself.
 
Oh, a couple other items for the list:
  1. Ships sailing from privateer islands get nothing when they land.
  2. When the fleet is engaged with an enemy, it leaves its proscribed course to fight. If any enemy sinks or disengages, part (or all) of the fleet will proceed back to its route, where it left off.
  3. If you try to solo a treasure fleet, remember that you MUST complete the 5 ships within 50 minutes, or the remaining ships will poof.
  4. I haven't figured out a way to solo a treasure fleet yet. Sailing and keeping myself alive, I'm not able to deal sufficient damage per second, to get all 5 ships to zero, within the 50 minute time limit.
  5. Start between Outcast and Port Royal, if you have time. Clearing out other ships in the way is a VERY good idea, if you have sufficient time.
  6. If you take minor damage before the start, have your crew complete ONLY the right 4 minigames in the ship repair minigame (pumping takes the least time of all of them, patch takes the LONGEST.) When combat begins, one person can effect repairs almost immediately.
  7. Repair games: ALWAYS always ALWAYS always start with the "patch" repair game. It provides partial repairs while in progress. And if other people join repairs, they will spend less time waiting for someone to finish "patch."
  8. Remember that the fleet ships' shots travel to the second compass zoom setting's width. Your broadsides go less than the first (/aka zoomed in) compass width. If you have to run, start running when you are high yellow, not low red.
  9. Remember to launch ALL your ships prior to the start, so that you can set boarding permissions beforehand. (On quiet servers, I always open to public to give people an opportunity to come aboard, instead of competing against me for the loot.)
  10. At 10 minutes after the hour, open MAP and find it. If it is going over Kingshead, consider landing at Port Royal and relaunching.
 
Another thing to remember:
  1. Avoid using "Plunder Potion" and Sea Charms (wooden charm, lucky charm, golden charm) since they have the OPPOSITE effect they are supposed to, if you have 1 or more points on treasure sense. (If you have zero points on treasure sense, golden charm may help only a little.)
 
hmmm..and don't forget Edward..shooting out the sails is usless against the fleets..as for the rest...and solo
1) get big crews..if you get 12 people together and on the same sheet of music..try two war sloops a war galleon and a war frigate and open up the boats..random ppl showing up onboard help.kinda like Forrest Gump. you never know what your gunna get. 2)now if said twelve individuals are really locked on the same page. MAKE a fleet and open up the ships. every success i have had against the treasure fleets have been because i opened my ships to the public.and i have tried something called Drake's Run..Sven Ironwalker may be aware of what it is. it is where the ships in the fleet make a single line pass, repair and make a second pass on the opposite broadside. getting ppl to do this has been very challenging though.as everybody wants to sink the fleet by themselves. try the Drake's run with a twelve person crew thougheach person controling a ship of they're own.oh and won more thing
make sure the first four ships are War Sloops as they will take the main barrage from all five ships and at least two War Galleons to bring up the rear. they are the slowest and can set the fleet up for second pass.this will take a lot of paticipation from all 12 members. that means in between the War Sloops and War Galleons should be War Frigates. they will weaken the fleet alot. also for added damage boost try Bronze cannon ram on the sailing equip
gives amazing damage boost to max broadsides. as for the treasure...well i take what is given. although i think the treaure fleets should drop better. after all they are a treasure fleet.
 
I agree Charlotte, it's really great to see different ideas and what works for different people.

I have found that shooting the sails off treasure fleet ships does not stop them. But it does slow them down 50%, which makes a crucial difference.

I have found over and over, that splitting the loot amongst ships, causes everyone to get bad loot.

I definitely agree that a large crew is much more fun, makes the fleet much easier to defeat and spreads the wealth to a lot more people. As I said, I open my ships up to public, for numerous reasons. By the way, I said to open ships on quiet servers - on ideal servers I also open ships to public for all the same reasons. But I avoid ideal servers for treasure fleets, for a variety of personal reasons.

I try not to tell people what class of ship they can or can't sail - some people's sailing STYLE favors a war sloop, most people favor war frigates, while people like me favor war galleons. THAT SAID, I recommend using only a single war frigate to defeat a treasure fleet. While war sloops have superb maneuverability, they just don't have the hull points to sustain more than one hit from the fleet.

When I've tried "Drake's pass" methods, I've gotten really poor results. Yes, I've still been able to sink the fleet (in fact, it is easier) but because the fleet disengages on each pass, the recorded damage is lost on each time. Since the treasure awarded is proportional to the damage dealt, only the final pass of a "Drake's pass" method is tallied. So instead of a skull chest and 6 royals, it awards a cargo crate or two.

Additionally, I've found that with two ships attacking a treasure fleet, the treasure fleet ships react in very unexpected ways. It is easier to predict what directions fleet ships will go, when there is only a single target for them to fight.

Most things in the game POTCO are counter-intuitive. For example, you always get more reputation points using your weakest attacks from your weakest weapons. The treasure fleet rules are no exception. Attacking "smart" is penalized with very poor and very little loot awarded. Since everyone aboard is likely to get max rep from each ship, it is a rare occasion where everyone should use their strongest attacks. But most of all, the captain(s) should focus on methods that allow them to stay in the fight for as long as possible - as long as they stay afloat.

I strongly agree with Molly's comments about larger crews. Yes, larger crew are a lot more fun, but only when everyone is cooperating with the same method. When people decide to do their own thing, mid-battle, everyone loses.

I'd love to hear what Molly's result are, especially after comparing a few other methods.
EDIT (Nov 8, 2010 6:22 PM):
Molly, thank you for the tip about the Bronze Cannon Ram. The description of the cannon ram, suggests that it only helps round shot when on cannon - in fact, it dramatically increases the damage of each broadsides cannonball. Likewise the Old Cannon Ram, Iron Cannon Ram and Steel Cannon Ram.

Best of all, equipping these cannon rams gives your broadsides "critical hit" probability (~40%?) which gives double damage for the critical strikes. This makes a huge difference! Thank you.
 
Great plunder! That is a huge increase. Maybe I will start going after them again. After a while it got so that it just twas not worth it!
 
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