A list of what should be sailing the seas!

My second post right after the first one! Bear with me once again.

As a longtime Sea Of Thieves player (started season 10 so I consider myself slightly "old"), I have loved this game to the ends of the earth. Rare, there is no game like this. Make use of that please. What am I suggesting here today? Why, it is a list of suggestions that have been on my mind for quite some time now. I feel today is the time to express them. I will be structuring this post in three clear sections.

1. The Do's:

Firstly, this section is dedicated to additions I believe are doable and not "out there".

1. Add more voyages. We require more voyages because that is a integral part of the game. Every session starts with at least one voyage of the quest table. We need variety. What I am preposing here is content such as a quest where you hunt for a lost map containing hidden treasures. Something simple, easily rememberable.

2. Add more advanced quests. This is a suggestion I have had for quite some time and I believe is doable. What I am trying to express here is voyages that involve a major amount of content within them. A prevalent idea I've had is a escort quest where perhaps you escort an AI merchant ship. Or for the Reapers Bones a skeleton ship. It doesn't even have to be tailored to the trading company, you could just slap a reskin over a skeleton ship and give the skeletons merchant cosmetics, or reaper cosmetics. You have the code already within the game ready for use. The escort might involving attacking AI threats you have to defend yourself and your fellow compatriots against. Think skeleton ships, ghost ships, megalodons, you name it.

3. Make the world feel more alive. We've all experienced this. We'd be sailing away, minding our own business, you just look out and wow, nothing! To put it simply, there needs to be more activity within the world. Yes, a world event does cater to this slightly but it is not enough. Add more skeleton ships, perhaps mini world events, like a sea fort getting sieged by skeleton ships; sort of like a mini reaper fort. This isn't just limited to normal events though. I believe that dynamic systems in place for already existing world events should exist. Think the Burning Blade, at the current moment in time all you can do on it is go around collecting rituals. Why? Does Flameheart still need this, why can't it iterate, why can't it have a multitude of different things to do depending on the current state. Say a reaper fort just got taken down, straight after a Burning Blade spawns, lore-wise you'd think "Flameheart lost his forces, lets repair them". Why not make that a feature, depending on what has happened in the world, things change. The Burning blade is tasked with gathering tribute for the forts. Make it all interconnected, alive.

4. Hourglass... Yes, I'm talking about Hourglass. The PVP system. Firstly, Rare, I have to hand it to you, you are already on this one. Thank you, truly I really do appreciate it, this grind has been tedious and this will help newer players and seasoned ones relax a little bit. There is still room for improvement though. Firstly, add more ships. We need 2v2's, 3v3's ship battles. I know we are getting this for a time limited event but it should not be time limited. This will make the grind more engaging for players. I have seen with my own eyes, players touching hourglass, getting "stomped" and never touching it again. Secondly, (prepare yourselves)... add a PVE way of getting the rewards. Shocking, I know. Before you all pull out your pitchforks and cutlasses, let me explain. We can add this without killing PVP, you see we already have the system of defending, where you collect treasure and items to progress your faction stash and grade. How about we add a system where selling to the respective faction your faction stash will give you reputation. Think about it, this will not alienate PVP as it stands as you will still be defending, players will still need to fight, this is just an alternative way of progressing the faction, just as defending was originally intended to be.

5. Lift SOME Safer Seas restrictions. PUT DOWN YOUR BLUNDERBUSSES. I know fellow friends of mine has gotten sick and tired of this games PVP intergration. It's fair to be completely honest, some of us just don't like PVP and that's completely valid. So, what am I preprosing, well, as it stands, some quests are unfairly locked in safer seas. Some of these make zero sense whatsoever. Firstly, lift the smuggler's quest restriction. There is no real reason against this, yes the whole point of the faction is avoiding any threat to your illegal goods. But we already have skeleton ships aganist us policing the seas. If this is not enough, add more skeleton ships to add that sense of contest. Secondly, add captained ships. What exactly is the reason why this is not in Safer Seas, I can't see any reason against it. Lift athena quest restrictions. This one is suggested because you can only earn pirate legend in high seas. The sense of threat can be fixed by upping spawns during quests, such as skeleton ships appearing to take your treasure, intervene during the world event during Legend of the veil, and more. (This excludes fort of the damned I presume). Also remove the ghost fleet restriction, odd one to restrict. Again, we already have the code for this. Let me know if any other unfair restrictions should be suggested as I feel I have missed one.

2. The Maybe's:

This section is dedicated to suggestions that I feel are "out there" but also doable.

1. Add a fleet system. We should be able to band up together and summon a guild fleet. It doesn't have to be flashy or overly complicated, just automatically allianced up ships part of guild sailing together. Now before you shut down this suggestion, yes this would ruin the balance of normal servers. Here's a fix, dedicate servers to guild fleets, this means fleets can battle each other!

2. Make the Burning Blade a diveable voyage. STOP, I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT. Do not fear, I do not mean the type of Burning Blade where you can take it, but a sinkable one only. Not much else other to say here other than faction based loot.

3. A change to the update system. It would be favourable if we changed our idea of a "season", as it stands they end up being too long and lack content to suffice. I appreciate the hard work you put in Rare, and this is why this suggestion is a "Maybe" one, but I think it's time we change our update system.

4. Add Safer Seas secondary ships. This one is a "maybe" suggestion for a good reason, as many people I believe do not like this. How about we allow players to go on a second ship, say one friend on one sloop, the other on a second sloop. Not much else to say here.

The "DO NOT's:"

This is a section dedicated to things I ask of Rare not to add.

1. Do not remove safer seas. Listen, Safer seas is not here to hurt us my friends, it is not siphoning the majority of the playerbase as it stands. We just have a part of our playerbase who prefer to PVE than PVP. That. is. valid. Keeping this will expand the playercount for people who do not like PVP.

2. Stop time limited events. This is a big one, recently the multi ship hourglass system has been announced, and whilst it is a good addition, it's time limited. Let's change this, let's create an experience all players can enjoy, at ALL times. Time limitations not only create Fear-of-missing-out (FOMO), but just general disappointment, especially if the event is good.

3. Stop forcing PVP. I have noticed, ever since season 12. Each season seems to be catering more towards the PVP part of the playerbase. Let me say upfront, that this is not a bad thing necessarily. It's just, we need to cater to PVE players too. Rare, PVP in this game is an option, not a forced part of a "story", let's stop forcing it. The good news is that it appears that this season is catering towards PVE players as it stands so far. Let's continue to find that balance so that all players, PVP or PVE, can enjoy updates!

4. Don't abandon the story. This is one that is slowly becoming less of a concern, but to just make sure it is set in stone. Let's not abandon the story, there are players here who enjoy the lore, reading the books, researching about Flameheart, Ramsey (The pirate lord). This involves the subplots too. I take it from recent sneak peeks we are getting an invasion of the Grand Maritime Union, make sure to keep the subplot going, don't let it die after it's relative season.

I hope you have enjoyed this read, and I hope you consider these ideas. I look forward to all your responses, and I hope someone at Rare also reads and responds so we can make the changes that seem right, implemented.

Have a nice day!