The Brig (quite possibly a stupid idea.. again)

I half agree with your post. The brig itself serves as a feature to keep toxic players from completely ruining your current session and giving you a chance to sell your loot and get a new server. This feature is not really a gameplay one and more of a self moderation one so the idea of freeing these teammates for any reason without a unanimous vote should be avoided.

Second the idea of locking enemy crew in the brig without a way out for them is also one that could just ruin gameplay in an unintended way. At no point is SoT is your character supposed to be stuck or reliant on your crew for you to keep playing the game, this is why mermaids exist. SoT could have just as easily decided to not have mermaids and force crews to help teammates who are overboard, but this will lead to more negative than positive experiences so once again should be avoided.

However, the idea of using the brig as a roleplay aspect is one I could get behind as long as it just serves as that! It should in no way be used forcibly against other crews to get them into negative situations or in any way that effects its orginal self moderation purposes.

@nitroxien then what would be the solution to being able to have a role play brig? Cause I completely agree with your points. I'm just trying to think of other ways the brig can be used

@avacadobeard244 Good question, as always its easier to bash ideas than come up with genuine new ones lol which is why I was trying to phrase my point respectfully since you clearly intend well for this change.

I like the idea of the key being able to open and close the brig door allowing for pirates to open and close the door! I would propose the key is kept in the captain's quarters and will automatically return to that location if it falls off of the ship. Inside the cell there will be an interactable item like a small ferryman keychain that players can hold interact with to offer soul and go to the ferry. This will stop players from unintendedly getting stuck in the cell against their will.

All of these features would get disabled though if a crew is locked in the brig though, the keychain and key disappear, the door stays closed, and it returns to a normal brig.

This implementation I think will avoid it being used against unwilling players, maintain its self moderation qualities, while also allowing it for roleplay purposes!

@nitroxien honestly, if you're gonna roleplay, people will roleplay. Just add the option to open and close the door. You don't need a lock. That can be easily abused and omitting it does not necessarily prevent people roleplaying.

@ostara-mk I don't think you could keep other crews players in your brig. They could just leave the game and rejoin their crew on their own ship.

Before the Brig was removed from the Sloop, one idea that I had which I felt could be seen as potentially balanced and adding a buff to defending against boarders was as such:

If you kill a Pirate on your Ship, rather than the normal Revive state before the Ferry they would be shifted to the Brig instead. They would stay in the Brig only as long as the normal Ferry respawn delay before being safe teleported back to their own Ship. This is only a pseudo buff to boarding prevention since Revive was not an option when the game launched so fending off a boarding party as a smaller crew was more manageable than it can be these days (where unless you wipe them there is a good chance they maintain their numbers via revives unless you can maintain really good pressure).

It would make the play of boarding a little more dangerous and shake up the meta some in that regard (while not making it completely impossible or pointless to try), and would have added some general "use" to the Brig (in particular on a Sloop where you couldn't Vote people to the Brig generally). Crews could potentially attempt to Parlay in this time and negotiate with their attacker (though again nothing is forced). It would scratch a little of that RP itch for those looking for it (capturing prisoners and not just locking up your own crew).

Now that the Brig is no longer on the Sloop though this just doesn't really work anymore (unless they bring it back and relocate the bed - which still needs to be raised up some with all the Rats running around now too). I think that could have been a fun and generally balanced mechanic.

C'est la vie.