I've suggested this before, I'm doing it again in a thread. Let's talk the Bilge Rats and the Quest Board and bringing more life to both of them.
So, starting with the Bilge Rats, I think it is high time that the Black Market makes a comeback (and in the process of this, we should move the old Black Market items that cost Doubloons back to this). We need to start dropping some Cosmetics back in this bucket and having them cost Doubloons (to keep that side of the Economy fluid) just as we need our Gold based Cosmetics and Ancient Coin based ones too.
As for the Quest Board, let's rope this into the Bilge Rats as a Faction. Then, let's set it up so when you Post something to the Quest Board you will get Doubloons as part of your Reward for doing so - and the amount will scale based on the Value of what is available from the Voyage generated. For the X Mark Maps we have now, it makes Burying and Posting a matter of deciding to get Doubloons or Gold (cashing in normally). This adds some more value to that, presuming we keep actually dumping some content behind Doubloons.
Now, we are starting to position the Bilge Rats into a unique position of being the Player Generated Content Faction which helps them stand truly apart from the rest of the Factions. It further fits their theme about Pirates making their own Adventures out in the world via chasing their many Commendations and creating Adventures for others.
Now, the part that is less fleshed out on my part, but an area I think Rare should consider here with potentially better options even than I am about to propose.
Now, how about we expand on the options available on the Quest Board to give both those undertaking the Voyages and those making them some more options available to them. We can do similar to what was done for launch, and look to existing options for making these, and some could feature a twist.
How about Lost Shipments? So, how about we set it up so that when Loot sinks out on the Waves it generates a Lost Shipment Voyage in the inventory of the Crew who the Loot had been tagged to (and would appear on the table of their likely newly spawned Ship). Loot up to a certain amount will contribute to a single Lost Shipment before being split up into a second and so on. This means players could also cause this without sinking by just hucking Loot overboard. Again, you could get Doubloons if others go and do it, people could steal it, or you can go and try and reclaim it yourself. This might also help lessen the sting to being sunk in the instances where those Pirates don't take the Loot and just carry on letting it sink - you can go try to claim it or post it.
How about Bounties? Now, of course actually sending players after other players has loads of pitfalls that make it not work in this type of game. But since memories can get into the Sea of Thieves from the Sea of the Damned, what if we had something on the Ferry that would allow us to Generate a Bounty when we have been killed by another player. Doing this would make an OoS style Bounty Quest, but you would be hunting Phantoms and not Skeletons. These Phantoms would be named ones, with the names being that of the Crew that had the Bounty placed on them and their appearance would be a snapshot of their Pirates taken at the time that the Bounty is created. You could get a Phantom Skull from these when killed, and could serve as a sort of way for players who were defeated to excise their frustrations at the victors or let someone else exact justice on them (or, well, a memory of them). This could require something be done to fully activate it and make it viable, such as sacrificing Skulls or some such (so there is still a Loot cost involved here).
In conclusion, I think this would add a lot more value to the Quest Board and make it a more viable option to utilize and make stuff for, and would go a long way to giving the Bilge Rats a really cool identity within the meta.
