Ahoy mateys!
Whether or not you like commendations, they’re currently an important part of surfacing information to players about content new and old. Offering challenges to players to engage with the content and try out things that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. They’re comparable to achievements with the exception that they offer in game rewards. Like achievements however achievements they’re hidden away in a menu and not really referenced anywhere.
A friend who recently started playing had no idea these existed, let alone that there are so many of them. This triggered me and I started thinking about how these could be made more visible by giving them an actual place in the world without steering the player or holding their hand. While an easy solution would be to mention them during the maiden voyage when the Pirate Lord suggests you to go explore and come back to him when you’re ready to sail, referencing the commendations in its current form would seem out of place to me.
For the sake of creativity please forget about constraints like the amount of time and resources this would cost or that there’s much more important stuff needed.
TL;DR; Replace current commendations with "tall tale"-like book which fills up by talking to NPC’s, making it into an ingame item.
Story
After waking up on the beach during the maiden voyage, the Pirate Loot let's you do some simple tasks to collect some gear. Before sending you off to the ship however, he offers you a piece of guidance that helped him along the way.
Everyone you’ll meet on the Sea of Thieves will want something from you for some payment ofcourse, however the taste of grog will interfere with your ability to remember these things. So drinking grog will mess with you getting rewards and since not drinking grog is out of the question… I offer you the solution: My "magical" notebook.
He pulls out an old waterlogged book, rips out all the pages that had writing on them and proceeds to scratch off his name and replace it by yours.
As my pirating days are over, I give you this euhm “magical” notebook that lets you keep track of everything. To get you started off, I’ll give you a list of meaningl... uh IMPORTANT tasks for which I would be ever so grateful if you did them for me. I will in return reward you handsomely.
He then hands you a crumpled up piece of paper with a list of items on it. Upon accepting the list, you see the book opening and in it the first chapter is added, describing who you talked to, some background information and the tasks/rewards.
With this book at the ready keep your eyes and ears open and you’ll be presented with lots of extra opportunity to increase your wealth or you know... have a talk with my friend Duke in the tavern, he has a nose for these things. Now go on and explore the island and let me know when you’re ready to set sail.
Mechanics
After receiving the book it'll be added to your wheel (somewhere) replacing the entire current commendation section hidden away in the menu. Selecting the book will put it in your hands just like the Tall Tales book, being able to show it to others and hold it up for yourself. This book however is more personal as it will show your personal progress on items.
To incentivise exploration and talking to NPCs the book will only contain the information that you've aquired so far. For new players it'll be chapter 1 Maiden Voyage and for others I guess it'll contain all the commendation chapters that you've made progress to so far.
To prevent players from going around with an empty book the front will contain a short note from the Pirate Lord wishing you good luck on your adventures and insisting you to have a word with his buddy Duke who you can always find in the tavern somewhere. Duke will always offer you dialogue options pointing you in the direction of NPCs that have rumours of treasure (commendation chapters you're still missing).
NPCs will only have rumoured information based on things that fits their profession/role. The information will be presented as added dialogue options and added to the book after you speak to them. Once you have the information in the book already, they offer an option "Can you tell me about .... again?" to flip the book to the correct page in an instant.
Having a notebook like this will in my opinion make the commendations (I don't like the name to be honest) an actual part of the world which NPCs can talk about and reference to. It gives the information a more prominent place and allows you to actually visually share your progress with your fellow pirates.
So what do you think? Let me know below.
Signed,
Captain FishSt1ck
