I love the new ghost forts this recent update, they add a completely new loot route for me and my friends when we are sailing, I love that it is quick and straight to the point and may I mention I love the interior it actually feels like a fort I wanna defend but here comes the problem.
Once we hav taken the fortress and got all the loot. I don’t see us realistically staying there to “watch out for enemies”. As there is no real point in defending it. This is the suggestions me and my friends came up with in less then 25 minutes whilst walking around the fort with the cool ideas we have and we plan to make the new forts more engaging to play around.
#1 -SECURE THE FORT-
We need a real reason to protect the fort as right now I see it as free money and run, this is why I suggest adding some sort of flag in the area which can be controlled/raided by player groups. This adds a whole new pvp dynamic (king of the hill) there might need to be a few balance changes or not to the fort defences because the amount of cannons on the forts is crazy.
#2 -REASONS TO TAKE FORTS-
Well not only do you get the forts loot but capturing the flag (mentioned before) will allow for the fort to generate 10,000 gold per day cycle and the gold generated should stack if all 4 forts are captured so 40,000 gold per day doesn’t seem broken but nice to have whilst voyaging for bigger rewards.
This small bonus will ensure that there will be a constant demand for the forts as other groups would like to have a share this is where raiding comes into play. The enemy group will have to fight the players or the ghost wave.
If the players are on the fort this will make a fun pvp dynamic with swords and guns on the fort and blunderbombs and cannons against fort Vs ship. If the raiders successfully take control of the fort they can rush to the flag room and claim the fort for themselves.
But if ghosts show up on the fort that means no one has been on the fort for a specific amount of time, they will go through the same wave as the previous group went through. Once the captain is killed he drops the key to the loot room and flag room as once again to claim the fort.
If by any chance the players do return when the ghosts spawn they will be friendly for 5-10minutes before they disappear (the flag and loot room opens to make raiding balanced). This can also add immersion as they could call the players random names like captain or matey anything to add to that pirate legend immersion.
#3 -RAIDING/DEFENDING-
Attacking
During a PVP raid the tension is high and communication is key teams must find the best way to enter and wipe the team safely. (I know I’m asking for a lot but) maybe add a curse cannonball which will paint a static ghostly image of a players location for a few seconds (basically wall hacks but these cannonballs should be quite rare) but this ball is only meant for forts but can be used for other places (also using hiding emotes masks you from the curse which saves the fellow ninja pirates out there) and is meant to be used as an entry device for the team to get information on the enemy teams positions. If the attackers die at any moment the battle is not lost as respawn is drastically faster than defenders this is to prevent the attackers from losing to ship hull damage but nothing is stopping the defenders from sabotaging the boat.
Defending
During a PVP raid the defenders have access to supply barrels to heal and send attacks on the enemies ship but if they start to infiltrate the gates can be used to block of many but not all entry points of the fort keeping fights to one tunnel, the floor hatches can also be used to jump or elevate the gunfight, defenders can pick to spawn either at the top of the fort or at their ship but do keep in mind if the defender spawn at the fort there is a chance of spawn killing but this already happens and that gives a sign of defeat for the defenders.
Counters
Nothing is stopping from other enemies to attack this can be an absolute game changer creating chaos and havoc making the gameplay absolutely insane to watch/experience, from pirates attacking everywhere to cannonballs being launched across the fort. This can be an experience which can destroy any experience in the arena gamemode.
#4 -CONCLUSION-
In the long term this can easily divide the PVP players from the PVE players in adventure mode as I have seen a lot of complains about “toxic” pirates chasing down innocent sloops for hours and hours just to sink them, instead of making the map BIGGER and emptier you can keep the size the same but make dedicated PVP hot zones like forts. But in game events will still be the main source of income for most players but the PvP may not be as satisfying as this idea could lead to something great, like community events of Sea Of Thieves Group V Group.
The only problem I see with this idea is that the PVP community is quite small as most player I come by in the Sea are new pirates or friendlies. And the other biggest down side of this mass scale pvp area is the bad hitreg but that can be fixed hopefully.
Please do remember this is an idea me and my friends came up with in like 20-25minutes and I just had to share it with some other people and get feedback which I’m glad to respond to any extra ideas or problems you have please share and I hope this idea could be fully fleshed out some time in the future.
