As a veteran of the SOT community being interested and involved with the game since its Late-Alpha/ Early Closed Betas; it has been magnificent to see this game strive into such success as it does now. There has been troubles and issues cough Sniper Skeletons* over the years and though the game released in a "sub-par" state, content wise, it has been amazing to see a game, thought by many critiques to go belly up after a year, skyrocket into such popularity as it has now.
But one ,major issue I have seen over the past year/year and half is the inflation of Sea of Thieves "Gold" currency. Currency, even in videogames has a set value to a player based on their desire for the object, often determined through demand. The more gold you require to purchase a new shipset, the more useless 100,000 gold feels, this behavior has unfortunately plagued the game, especially with the dire need of late game content. To fix this, there are either two ways, make more profitable events, or reduce the price of everything including loot tables. Since the latter option would be rather hard to implement because of already wealthy players and the nerfing of loot tables would most likely feel unrewarding for players, the best option is make gold easier to get. I remember back in the Old days when completing a skelly fort was by FAR, the most profitable way to level up and though Rare's development changes over the years have significantly changed your varieties of ways to get loot, there are still issues with surmounting reasonable quantities of gold in one casual sitting. After all, with the addition of ship cosmetics that cost up to millions of gold just for a sail, the very long/competitive events or repetitive missions like Athena Thieves Haven run have become stale and boring for gathering gold/Xp.
To combat this I am here today to suggest a new feature that will update an old relic of an event into a nice, profitable event for Late game players. My idea is that Athena's Fortune should receive another quest variant, this would be named the "Stolen Booty of the Lord" quests, or something similar. This new quest variant for pirate legends would be a one chapter quest that allows you to collect 2 ritual talismans that you would use in a ritual to summon the skeleton fort. To start, A player would have to go to the pirate lord and purchase the quest. Afterwards the player would vote as usual and be given a riddle to a location. upon arrival at the location, the player will have to eliminate a skeleton captain(Who holds a key) and dig another key from the ground using the riddle as mentioned. After finding the two keys, The player and his crew would attempt to find an ancient vault located somewhere in the island. The players after finding the vault would insert the keys and enter the vault. Upon entering, the players would have to do some sort of puzzle that unlocks a sarcophagus which would hold the two talismans. After acquiring the talismans, the players would have to find 1-3 ritual skulls to do the ritual. After the completion of the ritual at the skeleton fort of their choosing,(besides fort of damned) the fort would be active and this event would continue as normal. This would allow the skeleton forts to be easier to find in a server, especially when having to deal with the constant spawns of Flame heart, and fleet events, AND with a simple buff in quantity of loot if the fort is summoned, the skeleton forts will become a relevant, fun and special way to get your precious gold.
In addition to this basic idea, the addition of numerous cosmetics could be added to go along with this rework such as maybe a "charred bone crusher" set or a bone dust war paint item. Also another suggestion to keep summoned skelly forts different from regular event ones could be the implementation of an Athena's vault that can be opened via sea shanty just like in the tavern. This vault would contain the higher leveled and also more valuable loot such as one Athena's chest and other assorted Athena fortune goodies (cups,kegs,etc). And with maybe the final addition of the "Wardrobe Chest" or "Legendary Locker Chest", you could top the metaphorical cherry on a light Athena's fortune re-haul. This chest's mechanics can be determined by Rare, but the broad recommendation I suggest is a chest with two variants, Athena and Ashen Athena, these chests upon selling to the mysterious stranger would randomly reward each crewmember 1-2 pieces of clothing. The Clothing wouldn't be anything too special, meaning the clothing would not be an item earned via commendations, bought with blue doubloon's or bought in the Athena clothing shop. This chest would only be a way for end game players to find a way to feel special/ earn rewarding loot, and MAYBE, MAYBE, even add a chance with the Ashen chest to reward ship cosmetics. All of this is a suggestion, obviously subject to balancing and discussion, but I think these new feature could be a great addition to either a mega update or update of its own, and would for sure, bring a new experience for veteran players. Thank you so much for reading this post and best of luck to you all at sea! -YeetMeister
