I have some thoughts after seeing the trailer for Season 17 - Smuggler's Tides at the Xbox Games Showcase.
- I would like an emergent voyage that operates similar to the skull of siren song, which you hear the dart whistle and impacts onto your mast which unfurls a paper to vote on the voyage. For example, Red Sea voyages to smuggle loot in/out from the Sea of Thieves or Dark Brethren requests where you have to navigate the Sea of The Damned to deliver odd trinket requests like portraits or statues.
- I hope there is the opportunity to use the loot disguises to smuggle members of the crew in a rowboat to not cause suspicion to get into an area where they must smuggle the loot out
- Smugglers' loot should have loot items that are heavier than normal to shift, to add suspense to lifting the items and smuggling them away
*As there are not guards in this game to patrol loot stashes, pirates contracted to look after loot piles should be bribable or you will be forced to fight your way through it. I guess they could be guarded by a complicated lock that your average pirate may not be able to decipher - Smugglers league should be anti-Sovereign for now, so none of the loot for this faction should be able to be solod to the Sovereigns as it is too dangerous or if they do accept it, it gives the player no gold or reputation reward as they just destroy it. Lore wise I am thinking that they do not want to be seen hoarding the weapons due to their links to the Grand Maritime Union and are focused on exporting funds to support them. Eventually, when the GMU is ready to be added, the option to sell smugglers loot should be enabled - as GMU now wants to siphon the weapons away. Instead, they should only take high value stolen art items (portraits, statues, vases, necklaces)
- Clearly this faction serves as a narrative vehicle to arm both Reapers and Athena factions for an escalation in the war for the Sea of Thieves - so having both Flameheart and Ramsey comment on the need to arm themselves with both hideouts noticeably getting larger and larger armories over season 17 and beyond would be a useful emergent storytelling aspect
- In the lead up to season 17, for The Merchant Alliance should voice concern that they have experienced a decline followed by a sudden drop in keg deliveries, increasing the amount offered for kegs
- I am little lost as to how mechanically it will work, this faction feels like they won't have an emissary flag for obvious reasons as they want to remain hidden...but does that mean that Grade 5 Reaper boats will still detect these boats? Are they going to be located on outposts but behind a false wall or hidden in the caves? Will there be an item that will spawn fog to hide a Smuggler's presence on the seas to avoid chasers? Will we get NPC pirate ships sailing after us if we didn't pull off a heist without suspicion?
- Will there be a Smugglers HQ? I would like it if the community could vote on some options to where the HQ could be established because it would be cool hear the wider communities' thoughts on the most secretive spot on the map. Like Sea Dogs or Smugglers Bay.
- I think this faction could promote player interaction by making the voyages such that cargo in one voyage type where you have to transfer the cargo along a chain of player ships in a game of pass the parcel, with it circling back around to the original crew after the heat has died down.
What are your thoughts on the new faction? I am surprised that lots of players aren't talking about the potential of this already! It is very exciting.
