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[Pirates] Back after a long hiatus - Where the heck are the merchant ships?

Maldar

Sage
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Most Pirate Ships are in the area east of Jhelom. There are a couple in the area north of Moonglow. Merchant ships are also in the areas. They are other places, as well, but these two spots seem to be the most prolific. Use Tracking to find the ships: Say "Start Tracking" to begin and "Stop Tracking" to do just that. You DO have to cancel Tracking and start it over again to "refresh" the results.
 

Hell's Ironworks

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Thanks Maldar, yes i know i have sunk 1000s of ships before i left . I used to find them ( merchants ) in tokuno south of the docks, and North eastishh of moonglow island. I was around Jhelom last time i logged in and all i seem to find is a few Pirate ships. I have yet to stumble upon merchants. Thats on Atl
 

Basara

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You can also find a lot of them on the seas of Tokuno
 

Specialist

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
well on ATL i went at all the usual spots and have seen none. Unless there's a weird bug making them invisible only to me...
merchant ship, pirate ships and plunder beacons all share the same spawn. Meaning if ur hunting plunder beacons and all ur findind are pirates there maybe too many pirates spawned a plunder beacon cant spawn. Kill a few pirates and u may get a beacon to pop. If u cant find merchant might have the same problem too many pirates active u may need to kill a few or do a beacon to get some merchants to pop up.
 

virtualhabitat

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No merchant ships for a week. Nowhere. nada. Sucks. PLenty of beacons and pirates though. If that's your thing I guess.
 

Basara

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read the post above yours. when you kill a ship, another respawns.

The new ship might be a merchant, a pirate, or a beacon.

If you only kill merchants, eventually all there will be are pirates and beacons until someone kills some of the pirates and beacons.
 

Cinderella

Babbling Loonie
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Think of the High Seas as a champ spawn.

there are some people who only want the beacons.
In order for them to spawn, you have to do the merchant and pirate ships.

When you kill them, you get cargo drops, which can be turned in at either Bucs mint.
the higher "points" you get for the kill, the better the cargo.
The highest being from the plunderbeacons... (which is why some only go for these)
 

Cinderella

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1604704937925.png
This is the map south of Zento (across the server line)

When doing this as a guild event...
I usually stay in the area directly south of the docks with my ship (on Sonoma)
And other guild members would park their ships on the right side of this map.

You can also check east of zento docks, but I only do that if I'm desparate.

(I have found them in all of the area shown in this pic)
 

virtualhabitat

Lore Keeper
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Yeah, I'm not buying what you're selling. I have destroyed enough beacons and pirate ships in the last week to get two tritons and about 15k points away from a third. have seen zero merchant ships spawn in that same time. They simply aren't there. I can take you to a place where orc ships spawn over and over. I have even scuttled two at a time twice now because they spawn almost on top of each other.

I have done so many beacons I have now worked out a method where I can do it without taking any damage to my boat.

I'd rather have merchant ships.
 

Basara

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Well, I've seen it the other way. We'd go out hunting beacons and pirates, and eventually we'd end up with nothing but merchant ships.
 

secao

Visitor
An Corp here because its 2 years later and the same is happening to me ...
farmed 2 Hooks Shield and seen 0 merchant ships...
read all google had to say, nothing fixes whats happening
 

gwen

Slightly Crazed
An Corp here because its 2 years later and the same is happening to me ...
farmed 2 Hooks Shield and seen 0 merchant ships...
read all google had to say, nothing fixes whats happening
Answer is go to another facet : they spawn in Tokuno , tram and Fel
Once on Asuka I haven't seen em in Tokuno for like several months. After next patch they did appear there and do exist there now.
Or go to another shard if it is feasible for you.
 

Basara

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And, again, the answer is that beacons, pirates, and merchants are part of the same spawn pool.

There's a limit of X number to spawn combined of those, and when you kill one, the replacement may not be what you killed. This results in eventually all the spawns being the thing you're not wanting to fight.
The same thing happens at champ spawns like in the Twisted Weald or Oaks. If the spawns are Creature X and Creature Y, and you only kill X, eventually, from half the respawns being Y, you'll go from 50%/50% X/Y, to 75% Y, to 87.5% Y, to 94% Y, to eventually all the spawn creatures are Y, and you have to start killing Y to get the candles to advance.

You kill only pirates, eventually all the pirates will be gone, leaving just beacons and merchants.
You kill only merchants, you'll eventually be left with just pirates and beacons.

In a strange sort of way, it mirrors the issues with the pre-Beta ecosystem ideas from the early days of UO programming.
 

gwen

Slightly Crazed
@Basara , what you wrote makes sense in theoretical way. But I myself witnessed no traders (both gargish or tokuno ships) in tokuno at all for very long time. May be traders spawned somewhere else (not in Tok), may be spawned on shore, may be crossed map border and disappeared (pirates do this sometimes ) Now all 3 types are present on Asuka . And I am not picking, just kill all 3 types when I see them.
 

Theo_GL

Grand Poobah
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you aren't alone. Can't find them either on GL. Sailed all over. Ghost town on the seas.
 

Jibbed

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
I regularly find none when I go ship hunting but what I find works most of the time is do a small run searching then loop back on myself and go back to where I started. It is like they don’t spawn until someone has been in the area to trigger the spawn and then I find 4+ ships spawning where I began
 

Maldar

Sage
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I regularly find none when I go ship hunting but what I find works most of the time is do a small run searching then loop back on myself and go back to where I started. It is like they don’t spawn until someone has been in the area to trigger the spawn and then I find 4+ ships spawning where I began
I have discovered the exact same thing. There will be no ships around but they will start spawning when the program sees activity in the area. Like Jibbed said, just go back the way you came after a few minutes and you will most likely find some ships to attack.
 

Cinderella

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Plunder beacons? I have been gone 5 years. This is new to me.
1679037231653.png
you have to kill the orcs
before you can attack the lighthouse
(also the cannons will shoot at you, until the orcs are defeated)

Uo-cah has a video of how to fight them
 

Drakelord

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When you see a lighthouse, be sure to park your ship far enough away to not take damage from the tower's cannons. Use a rowboat to move in as close as possible at the one of the four corners of the tower. Pets can battle from there and some can even get off the rowboat to fight on the tower orcs themself. Be watchful of the Monsters that spawn on the water around the tower as well. Here I am taking out a tower yesterday, she is a 120 SW/Archer/mage.
3-16-22230009.jpg
I carefully clear one side then the other doing this. Once both side are clear, I move in with my ship to hit the tower with my bow cannon
3-16-22230010.jpg
Since all the ores are dead the tower's cannons will not attack my ship and the only attacks are from the tower on my character.
 

gwen

Slightly Crazed
When you see a lighthouse, be sure to park your ship far enough away to not take damage from the tower's cannons. Use a rowboat to move in as close as possible at the one of the four corners of the tower. Pets can battle from there and some can even get off the rowboat to fight on the tower orcs themself. Be watchful of the Monsters that spawn on the water around the tower as well. Here I am taking out a tower yesterday, she is a 120 SW/Archer/mage.
View attachment 141461
I carefully clear one side then the other doing this. Once both side are clear, I move in with my ship to hit the tower with my bow cannon
View attachment 141462
Since all the ores are dead the tower's cannons will not attack my ship and the only attacks are from the tower on my character.
I am not using rowboat and my thrower kills orcs just fine with no damage to ship. I put ship where your rowboat is and move it when corner orc is killed.
I plan to give thrower SW for reaper form and additional 16%SSI but too lazy to do so )
 

Drakelord

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I am not using rowboat and my thrower kills orcs just fine with no damage to ship. I put ship where your rowboat is and move it when corner orc is killed.
I plan to give thrower SW for reaper form and additional 16%SSI but too lazy to do so )
one little slip with your mouse controls and your ship takes damage, I made the mistake of letting guild mates use my ship while I was off line only to see it so badly damage from a tower battle that it took almost 20 min's to limp into land for a full repair, even the emergency repairs could not help it. Now the person that did it, did not fess up, so I did not change the security, but when it happen a 2nd time I was really pissed and delete everyone level to passenger. When that happen I was able to get the name of the person that had done it. That person is still listed as passenger
 

gwen

Slightly Crazed
I invite other folks on my shard only after I finished with orcs. And I don't sail with mouse moves. Only with commands (Pinco UI gives nice little ship command command menu). Sailing with mouse is sometimes unpredictable and it rotates ship , so pirates start running away.
 
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