Warning, its a long one and a bit out there. :)
Possibly put NPC's in the world that could sell supplies. Could find on outpost or maybe JUST islands and you use some of that extra gold you have laying around to speed up supplying for a fort or long voyage.
Some kind of Player Crewed merchant ship that can sail around as a non PVP ship (I realize this is abusable, perhaps they fly an emissary like flag and crews become dishonorable and marked on the map if you attack the Trader Player?) Has to go to port to become PVP eligible again, even then have a 5 minute or so timer so they can't just bait a player into trading.) They could trade players a rowboat if they had one, or spare chest, supplies like cannonballs, food, wood. Possibly could trade for items like skulls, mermaids gems, random junk, maybe a lower set gold price than they would buy it at from an NPC vendor. These ships could also set up at an outpost to quickly crews looking for a Trader whether it be a stop between their voyages or they are fresh to the match and want to get into the action without gathering up goods. And for those that are more patient and want to get every last bit of gold. No more just deleting all those goods you gathered in your journeys might as well spend a few minutes sitting in port making some gold before you set off to bed.
THE FLAWS
How do you stop players from just adventuring under that guise to be safe regardless of their activity? I was thinking maybe item locking them, so when the flag is up they can only pick up certain items like Chest you can store items in and perhaps rowboats.
How The Trade Occurs, I was thinking a new shop interface like chest for the ship on the top deck, maybe at the front of the ship, The trader crew places items for sale on one side and the offered items for that trade on the other side, and both parties must hit accept. (Maybe the amount of items they can receive from other crews is based on their trader rank. Example a level 20 trader has the storage for 5 items (traded from other crews for goods) in the trader chest
Gold Trading, yes I can absolutely see how this can be abused, so the items system may be better, but in a game where your currency is just for cosmetics does it really hurt?
Goods Are So Common Why Bother With Trading? My only idea is lower the global spawn amount of goods in barrels. No more picking up 8 food items in one containers. (Not including Barrel of Plenty and other good specific containers)
Other Crews Could Just Loot Their Barrels, maybe lock them so only the merchant crew can access them.
Thank you for the read, happy to have any comments or additions.
