Chapter 5, is insane. Was insane.. for a soloer who is still a complete n00b at naval battles.
Picture this: ghost ships VS a single Sloop. And then going against The Flying Dutchman. I mean yeah you have help.. but YOU are the one responsible for ending the campaign. You gotta take your own ship, and your own two cannons against something bigger than a Galleon. When Jack Sparrow tells you to prepare, he’s not fucking kidding (which goes against what Orion told me).
First time I died from a freak cannonball that got shoved down my throat as I was trying to repair my ship (and I was at full health). Couldn’t make it back in time and lost it.
When I came back I was in a dense fog bank. Headed due East and was on my way back to the battle area. Almost there and a god damn emergent skeleton ship shows up! FFS!! NOT NOW you boney assholes!! Saw I was near the outpost I started at and made a hard turn towards it, the skeleton ship in hot pursuit. Got to the island, threw down the anchor and felt “there you go! Sink it if you have to!” and swam to the island. They decided to go past my ship and go around the island.
Huh.. I could use this to my advantage. Quickly got back onboard, raised the anchor and tried to quickly sail away from the island, hoping by the time I get away I’ll be out of range of the skeleton ship’s aggro radius. The plan worked perfectly.
–
Back in the battle area, I tried every combat tactic I could think of to keep me out of harm’s way yet get me close enough to Davy Jones’s ship to get a few hits on her; trying to “keep it tight” around the spire while also avoiding the small rocks. But I spent more time repairing and less time attacking. MAN was it difficult!! Came to a time I had completely run out of planks/cannonballs, and I was forced to retreat and restock.
Made it back to the island (again). I saw three shiny things on the pier and parked near it. It was a bunch of resource chests, with two treasure chests that
had “(something) Gift” inside them. It’s like as if the game knew I was struggling and wanted to give me a hand. I left them alone and took advantage of the free resources. Yes I know there are resources in the water you can harpoon in the battle, but I was too focused on.. not sinking to care. Went back in, now fully stocked thanks to the mysterious pirate crew who left their resources for anyone to take.
I tried another combat maneuver, which was staying outside of all the ships and keeping the Dutchman on my starboard side at all times (where I could react quicker to the cannon). Basically I ‘locked’ the wheel (going in one direction) so I could focus on the cannons.
…After three hours of doing this campaign, I SUNK HER!!! FUCKING FINALLY!!!
THAT’S for sinking my ship, you asshole squid!!
Ohh my LORD that took way too long!! I’m not going to reveal what my reward was, but it was worth it. That and saying, I soloed A Pirate’s Life! Every. single. campaign, solo’d!
I didn’t get 100% commendation. Didn’t expect to, and I don’t think I’m going to attempt that again for awhile. If I do, I’m going to come better stocked. But honestly, it’s better off I have help with this (especially how one of them seems to revolve around YOU destroying 20 ghost ships (and not the AI). ..I dunno. All I know is it showed 0/20, when I know the AI destroyed more than enough, yet it shows 5/10 on Mural Statues destroyed (which I did try to help with).
I just need someone controlling the ship and “keeping it tight” to close the gap with
the Dutchman (make sure she isn’t able to use her portside cannons on us), while the other gets cannonballs into her.
So after the battle was finally over and I got to sail back to the outpost, when I arrived I went up to the crow’s nest, scuttled the ship and played a shanty so the battle-scarred ship could finally rest at the bottom of the sea.
Now I’m pretty sure if Orion and Shaw were doing this (with myself and Blender being there), they would’ve not had only made the encounter with the Dutchman an absolute joke, but complete it 30 minutes or less. And that encounter really is when you know how to naval battle (and when you got a full crew with two experienced pirates).
—
Still, pulling that off the first time? That’s impressive. I’m proud of myself. I didn’t give up. And the ending was quite satisfying. Makes me wonder what’s going to happen next.
I think tomorrow, I’m going to go to a movie world in VRChat and try to watch the
first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I’ve been wanting to do so for awhile. That should help reveal some hidden lore of the backstory of the characters in the chapters. I do realize it’s likely in all the journals I read but.. who’s got time for that shit, huh? Especially in that chapter.
==============================================================
“DoorDash Policy”; reason I didn’t get a refund
==============================================================
“Don’t hate the service, hate the restaurant” I’ve tried to use whenever I got my order wrong. But recently I changed my special instructions for the dasher to make sure the order is correct before they leave. They told me before they can’t “because of COVID restrictions”, but that was back in 2020. With COVID-19 cases on the decline (and them not really needing to wear masks anymore because the vaccine is so readily available
now), there should be no excuse (in theory). ..But they managed to come up with one after they got our order wrong with Dairy Queen.
My mother was supposed to get a Small MooLatte, instead she gets a small cookie Blizzard with a Mocha smell. And her Honey BBQ Sauced & Tossed didn’t come with Country Gravy (when it was supposed to). When asking DoorDash support, I waited 6 minutes to speak to someone. Finally I got one and sent my complaint and expected to see “I’ll give you this much in DoorDash Credits” as what I usually see.
This time… I got how it’s “against DoorDash Policy”. The FUCK?! Your dasher didn’t check to make sure the order was complete, and all the sudden it’s against policy to help out the customer…?! The person wouldn’t even give me an answer as to why it is.
The only thing I can think of is.. apparently the customer is ‘only allowed’ a certain number of times they can ask for credits or a refund. And I guess I ‘exceed this quota’ and my account was flagged to not give anymore refunds.
Wouldn’t need to ask for a refund, if the dasher DID THEIR FUCKING JOB!! ..It’s like they think I’m doing this deliberate, so they’re doing this to protect their asses. Feels so god damn obvious, and that shit is why UberEats and GrubHub are going to stomp all over them.
–
I told this to Jero. He said I definitely should move away from DoorDash and find one of their competitors. Said he does check people’s food but stopped after being told by his customers he’s “tampering” with their food and has sense stopped doing that; it has nothing to do with COVID restrictions. Fucking knew it. It’s 2021. There’s vaccinations available for everyone. Using COVID as an excuse isn’t going to work anymore.
It’s a shame. Wasn’t that big of a deal to just give some form of a refund, but I guess it was to them to use their “policies” against me and won’t even explain what rule I broke to cause this.
Well, they won’t be hearing from me anymore, as I canceled my DashPass subscription and deleted my account.