What about a new hostile faction?

  • NimbleOrchid1
    Castaway

    Hello there. I have an idea for future content. What about a new hostile faction? Something like an Imperial Navy that wants to conquer the map.
    And there should be a new friendly faction, and when you interact with the NPC you can see a progress bar and when you fill it, you can receive a reward, like money, food, or a certain ammount of special cannon balls. And there should be a new shop selling special potions to swim faster and breath under the water for a short duration, and maybe a potion to see a trajectory line when using cannons.

    And each weekend you can give rewards to the top 3 crews that contributed the most. To gain reputation with the new friendly faction you have to get a special item dropped by sunken ships and also, conquering the isles that were taken by the enemy.

    The new friendly NPC should have an option to update the map on your ship and allow you to see the enemy conquered isles, and area of influence, like in Civilization 5, or Stellaris.

    And what about customization options for the harpoons. The default harpoons are ugly, and they look even worst when you have all your ship customized.

    Also, I think there should be a burning vial and a poison vial for the sword.

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  • UltmateRagnarok
    Master

    @nimbleorchid1

    A Navy doesn't work in the Sea of Thieves - the Devil's Shroud keeps them out, and many of them don't even know where it is, if they believe that it exists at all. The entrance through the gap in the Shroud is also too small and dangerous for fleets or even individual larger ships. The many shipwrecks scattered throughout the Sea of Thieves are the result of one such attempt by the Grand Maritime Union, the only group that wants to get in. They're currently trying to get through with the use of their shroudbreaking Ancient Coins, but we'll have to wait to see how that goes. Given how the last major invasion, being the skeleton armada, ended, I doubt it will be successful, as only pirates respawn through the Ferry and the battles of the skeleton fleet lasted for over a month straight, still continuing today.
    For gameplay, a large navy still doesn't work. The skeleton armada was tailored by Rare to fulfill all of the requests - fortress islands with vaults of treasure; passive roaming ships laden with treasure; fleet battles in open sea and among larger rock formations; pirate-hunting ambush ships; etc. A navy can't do much of anything the skeletons haven't or can't, excluding maybe swimming.

    For the new faction, buying direct advantages with in-game or real currency is not something that will be coming to the game. It goes directly against the horizontal progression that the game has, where everyone is equal in equipment and differs only in skill and experience. Also, trajectory lines for cannons would be incredibly overpowered.

    For the 'top 3 crews' thing, I don't think that's a good idea, either. The game isn't meant to be played by focusing on grinding the most, it's meant to have you gradually gain reputation and gold in the background while experiencing the myriad of things to do. Giving extra to the top grinders incentivizes the opposite of that intended playstyle.

    For taking sections of the map, that's one of the worst ideas on this post. This is not a game where you fight in a war in every aspect, it's a game where you are one of many pirates who are free to do as they wish within the area, provided the other pirates and creatures aren't able to stop you.

    Customization for harpoons, and much more, is needed. There are so many smaller parts of the ships that could be changed - the railing, the rigging, the lanterns and compass, the bowsprit, the decorations on the sides of the hull (the current galleon having those decorative doors, for instance), the crow's nest, etc.

  • TheUnionJames
    Marauder
    Founder

    I'd get excited for any faction that isn't skeleton based. Navy, Fishmen, Tribal warriors, ghosts, vikings... etc. More enemy variety is badly needed

  • NimbleOrchid1
    Castaway

    @ultmateragnarok Thank you for giving me a better understanding of the game. What do you think about a flamethrower in the front of the ship, or maybe a barrel luncher in the back.

  • Galactic Geek
    Seafarer
    Founder

    @nimbleorchid1 We already have 2 harpoons at the front; having a flamethrower would burn those lines. We already have rowboats at the back; having a barrel launcher would blow us sky high as a result.

  • Sargent Sully
    Captain
    Insider

    @ultmateragnarok Yeah, as you said they are currently using the ancient coins to fund a new fleet, at least according to the Devs; I think it was mentioned in an older update video talking about the emporium. Course that does raise a question as to who will join them. Will it be players or just human NPCs? On top of that, will they go the route of them trying to find an artifact to clear the shroud to bring in a new Armada (and perhaps get betrayed by the official fleet, would love such a twist, just feels like poetic justice) or would they just work with the fleet they are building? On top of that...when can we get their fancy stuff? I mean, I think one of their merchants has a braided beard with gold beads if memory serves me right.

  • Sargent Sully
    Captain
    Insider

    @galactic-geek Agreed, plus the flamethrower idea just seems so out of place. The barrel launcher as well, but that does give me an idea. Why not add new oil or grog barrels that can be dropped overboard and ignited or shot and ignited to create and AoE of fire for a given time. Ships that sail through it could catch fire. Not saying to do the barrel launcher idea, but just for barrels that we can toss overboard. I used to do something similar with kegs. While my allies would fire at the enemy EoR user to distract them, i'd run to the back of the galleon with a keg and drop it into the water.

  • UltmateRagnarok
    Master

    @nimbleorchid1
    While from a realistic mechanical standpoint, both of those are possible, they would require considerable compromises as @Galactic-Geek has already mentioned and wouldn't do well for gameplay. Sure, you could replace the aft mast on a galleon with a rotating platform that has some kind of siege weapon on it, but then ship combat would steadily become less and less fun as it's the only thing used. I once designed both a harpoon ship capable of dragging other ships to a point and destroying them and a fully flight-capable airship that could often survive being shot down, but that doesn't mean either one is good for gameplay.

    @Sargent-Sully
    The Ancient Coins themselves are said (by way of their shopkeepers' slip-ups) to have minor shroudbreaking capabilities themselves, on top of that they could be used as funding. I'd assume many of the people from outside of the Sea of Thieves will join their fleet, but that doesn't remove their inexperience with the Sea's threats and that they don't respawn within it - only pirates do. The skeleton armada still fights to this day because their ships refloat themselves, but the GMU's don't, as their shipwrecks in the Shroud and the Sea show us. As for getting their decorations, I'm surprised we haven't already. I'd assume the gold-braided beard would be easy enough to resize for all characters and add, since there's already a model.

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