Merchant Alliance. A faction that encourages PvE and an idea to build on that.

@olgilviemaurice

PLAYERS TRADING! this is what I would love to see. when you spot a Merchant Alliance emissary ship you get excited, not to just sink them but to trade with that player. Maybe they have special Voyages that they will get a cut of if you finish them or they trade you a Skull for a rare crate of spices.

In all honesty, this is something that Rare should stray away from if past failures demonstrate anything. Rare has a history in this game of requiring teamwork to accomplish stuff for events, only for it to never work. The simple answer is this, having to rely on other players sucks and rarely works.

Not long ago, there was an event that introduced the gifts. Humble/Generous Gifts were what they were called, and all players needed to do was turn them in. Players were encouraged to leave the gifts at a table for other players to turn in. It was so simple, but players never did. It was one of the few events Rare gave us that people struggled to complete because players simply refused to do something so simple.

If you can't rely on players to simply turn in free loot, I can't imagine how an idea like yours will actually function. Rare needs to stop forcing cooperation to do required tasks. It simply doesn't work anymore.