I made a tweet recently with some ideas for future ideas. I am going to post them here.
New areas to explore
1. A swamp area: It would be neat if a new area to explore would be very swampy, like the Florida Everglades. Picture a very flat area so filled with mangrove type trees that it is not possible to navigate except by rowboat or swimming in the alligator filled rivers and streams. This would make a row boat something needed rather than just a convenient thing to have. Limited and Difficult to get to land masses for quests that also have quick sand patches. Also these swamps would have alligators instead of sharks possibly with a higher spawn rate. And there would also be giant snakes to fight as additional danger. These snakes could wrap players and damage them over time if their team does not help them.
2 A frozen area: not an original idea but an icy landscape could be a neat area. I see it having low visibility, icebergs that float around so the sailing routes are never the same. If you hit them they cause damage to the hull. Slick spots that affect mobility somehow. Yettis as a threat on land. Blinding snow squalls that can freeze parts of the ship (wheel or sails) slowing them down maybe.
New equipment and things
Make rope a resource that can be found in barrels. It can be used to board ships by throwing it at other points than a ladder. Throw 1 piece to board a sloop, 2 tied for a brig, 3 tied for a galleon. Also it can be used to set traps. Possibly used to swing from a mast too.
Ablity to set traps: for example, use rope, planks and fire or blunder bombs to set a trip trap. Balance them some how so they can't be used to camp an outpost. But giveplayers the abity to rig an island where known quests will be (like a gilded, mercenary, or thieves haven athena type quest) while using the resources required to make the trap. They will be kind of slow to set. You can gain the items if you find and disarm it before triggering it.
Boarding axe: used to cut ropes or harpoons from a ship, can be used as a melee weapon instead of a sword, maybe take away the jump lunge, make it slower bu more powerful. Some way to balance it and make it a different tool. Also give it the abity to remove a repair plank on an enemy ship over time. I think that is it for now. Sorry for the long post.
