We've all had to deal with a situation where we couldn't get back to our ship in time to be of use because either a Mermaid didn't spawn, or it spawned incredibly far away. But at the same time, most of us players who try and pull a sneaky manoeuvre on another crew have been caught out due to a Mermaid notifying the other crew of your presence . While improvements continue to be made to make Mermaids more reliable, we are still not yet seeing a state where Mermaids act consistently and within the players best interest.
Here's my proposal.
Remove naturally spawning mermaids and give a player a way to summon their Mermaid intentionally. This would mean that a player can make sure they are able to get back to their ship when the time calls for it, or prevent a players position from being exposed due to a Mermaid. Remove the Pocket Watch and replace it with a Mermaids Conch, which can be used to summon a Mermaid.
The Pocket Watch's only use is to track when your Merchant mission is about to expire, or to tell when Faction representatives will replenish their voyage stock. It's not something that is needed so often that it needs to be on the key item radial. This WOULD NOT require a rework of any mechanics already in the game. If you didn't already know (which, lets face it, most of you didn't) there is a pocket watch on the desk of the Galleon that has an accurate reading of the in game time, functioning identically to the pocket watch. Its to the left of the Captains table on a shelf. This pocket watch shows that could be done to both the Sloop and the Brigantine in order to let players still know the information provided by the key item. If necessary, remove the pocket watch from the galleon and replace it with a large clock, and add it to the other ships to ensure players can easily see it. As the only need to know the time is Merchant missions and voyage resets, there's no real reason why you can't just check on your ship, or at least not enough to justify it being a key item.
The Conch can be played in order to summon a mermaid within a few meters directly in front of you (or behind depending on if you are looking at a rock or something) in order to balance this, the Conch would have a cooldown on how often you are able to use it to prevent players being able to instantly re-board their ship in naval combat when they find themselves repeatedly knocked off their ship. Obviously I'm not going to be able to suggest a perfectly balanced cooldown as I cant take into account every situation, this would be up to the developers, but my initial idea was a 30 second cooldown while you are out of the water. This would mean that if you fell off your boat during Naval PvP and summoned your Mermaid, you would have to be careful with how you behave on your ship for the next 30 seconds, as if you get knocked off again, you won't be able to instantly re-summon a Mermaid.
A potential problem with this idea may be that players may see a better alternative to killing their enemies in knocking them off their ship more than once, as they then have to wait out a full 30 seconds for their Mermaid instead of respawning faster via the Ferry of the Damned. To combat this, if you are in the water and further than a specific distance from your boat, your cooldown will be lowered to 10 seconds (assuming it was higher than that before meeting this criteria) in order to help players get back to their boat consistently. Once they respawn on their boat, the cooldown would reset back to 30 seconds. This would mean that if a player wants to try and board another ship via cannon, they can make sure they have their 30 Mermaid cooldown finished in order to quickly get back to their boat if they miss their shot, and then in turn that player will need to play it safe and not attempt another risky board until their cooldown has come off again. This would mean players will need to be more strategic with their boarding instead of just repeatedly trying until they eventually get it right. In non PvP situations, a system like this would only ever benefit the player and never make it harder to get back to their ship.
This system would also help players trying to hide their presence from another crew, such as hiding on an outpost ready to get the drop on another crew, as they won't be caught out by one (or multiple) Mermaids that have spawned on that island for them. But still allow them to quickly get back to their ship in the event that it is necessary to abandon their plan.
ALTERNATIVE TO REMOVAL OF POCKET WATCH.
If you disapprove of the idea of removing the Pocket Watch, maybe due to players losing their hard earned Pocket Watch skins (which I'm sure Rare could find a way to appropriately compensate players). Then instead, a new Shanty could be added to the pre-existing instruments, possibly called ''Mermaid's Call'' that would function identically to the Conch. In order to balance this across consoles, this Shanty may be the default Shanty playable when meeting the Criteria of being in the water and far away enough from your ship so that players don't need to cycle through their Shanty selection Menu in order to summon a Mermaid. This system would also give Instruments a more practical use other than their use in Riddles, opening the Pirate Hideout, as well as a few commendations.
Feel free to comment with feedback such as how to appropriately balance this idea, or with your own tweaks you might think of to make this system better.
Thanks for Reading!
Mike Chapman on Twitter / X
