New PvE gamemode

Agreed!

Except I would phrase it a bit differently. This PvE content should take the form of instanced dungeons which you access and leave via the portal system. This is an untapped opportunity to expand the seas in ways many players want, but aren't feasible either because of old hardware, poor networking, unoptimization, or just because a lot of PvE only content clashes with design principle of risk/reward.

That last one is important because I agree that there shouldn't ever be a risk free way to earn the same treasure that everyone else has to risk to earn. But what if the treasure wasn't just gold or doubloons? Now, it is an evolution of the gameplay loop, a higher purpose to use your gold and doubloons.

The advantage of this can't be understated. It provides a way for Rare to continue to build the game without cluttering what they already have, which might otherwise come with performance hits or dilution to gold / world events. It also creates some content which is safe, but which requires investment and risk on the wider seas.

These proposed dungeons require initiation from the Sea of Thieves open world using a new wager system in which relics / rare found items are combined together at specific locations. Different combos of items create different dungeons, each with unique rewards. Ideally, Rare can work out a way for these items to be tradeable, persist between sessions, but also be stealable within the session they are found / session they are intended to be used. There would be a cap on how many you can have in your inventory to save and use at a later time.

The instanced dungeons would be new biomes / locations, and would have a series of objectives to complete which differ each time. They would be challenging, failable, would cost gold to enter, and some of which would be cooperative (two ships must donate rare treasure to initiate), or would be competitive (two ships initiate on different servers and are merged together).

Everything else you said could apply, including limitations on what you can and can't use in the dungeon (as part of the challenge).

Ultimately, this kind of content is what creates a great gameplay loop. You get gold doing everything we do now so that you can buy some "expedition" voyages which you lead you to random relics. You use these relics to initiate dungeons, and others to "modify" the dungeon slightly (enable coconuts when you initially are only given bananas). You complete these dungeons or fail them, both of which spit you back out into the main world in a new server to either reconsider your strategy, seek help, or flaunt your new rewards. Maybe you can pay extra gold/doubloons to bring in items from the main seas like tridents, ashen winds skulls, cursed cannonballs, etc. I should clarify that while in the dungeon, your spot on the server is no longer reserved so that the seas don't empty further.

Rare could even monetize if they wanted to. If these dungeons provided coupons to the emporium for specific items as a potential reward, that might encourage people to buy sets they have their eye on. Alternatively, Rare could offer some ways to shortcut the relic finding process by allowing small amounts of ancient coins to be used instead. This is a live-service game after all, so as much as I hate microtransaction timesaving stuff as I feel that it dilutes the value of the cosmetics, it is smart business if they have a winning formula and can develop enough cosmetics to keep the cycle going. And I believe that SoT has all the foundations already, but just needs that endgame "repeatable" content to really drive up the sales (and of course some really talented artists to keep generating cosmetics to earn).

@calicorsaircat said in New PvE gamemode:

Agreed!

Except I would phrase it a bit differently. This PvE content should take the form of instanced dungeons which you access and leave via the portal system. This is an untapped opportunity to expand the seas in ways many players want, but aren't feasible either because of old hardware, poor networking, unoptimization, or just because a lot of PvE only content clashes with design principle of risk/reward.

Kind of how the "A Pirate's Life" story is set up? You start on the open world map then trigger the PvE dungeon/story/etc by talking to someone or acquiring an artifact then travel through a portal to where you can play the content and earn whatever rewards then return to the main map?

@kiethblacklion Yes exactly. Unlike the pirates life tall tales, these should take real risk and upfront cost to get the required relics / artifacts to go through.

This idea is inspired by a old game called Gunz: the duel in which they had a separate quest mode that worked similar to my idea and was also kind of an offshoot of a mainly PvP game.

Here's how it worked / differs slightly from what I am thinking for SoT:

1. There is always a level 1 dungeon you can run that has a chance of dropping a relic, a feather for example. Except in Sot, we already have regular voyages that you can supplement with a chance at relics, or create buyable voyages that lead you to guaranteed relics.
2. In Gunz, you joined via lobby, so what you did was make a new room and title it "have feather, need skull", which is another item you can get from that same level 1 dungeon. In SoT, this would be done more organically on the waves.
3. Someone joins, you both contribute your items, and off you go through the portal, now you are doing a level 2 dungeon, and can repeat the above if you get new artifacts, or just get the cosmetic reward, whatever is given to you.

If you wanted to, you could front both rewards yourself, but you would still want a full team of people to join because this was challenging content.

The same loop can happen organically out on the seas. You approach other ships, ask what items they have, decide if they are good enough to gamble your items and collaborate with them, then both go in for some tailored difficult PvE content. Other dungeons you can run solo to get the prerequisite items so that you are ready for the harder stuff when you do come across a worthy vessel.

Alternatively, sacrifice a rare skull artifact at an inactive skull fort, and spawn a red PvP portal. You will be notified when someone else on a different server spawns one too, and then can choose to accept or decline (and get your items back) and go through to compete for treasure. You will be matched together and will need to fight it out at some point in the dungeon to see who comes out on top. Possibly could allow ships on same server to compete too, but might open the door to alliance dungeons which could tarnish the value of these rewards.

I don't care how it's implemented, but a Man'o'war (or just giant ship) bossfight would be epic

Imagine sailing over and some massive thing comes out the water, 5 decks tall and like 8 cannons on each side!

You could have it drop lit strongholds kegs if you are behind it and it can shoot chainshots and blunderbombs.

Its behaviour could change depending on how many decks youve filled up

You could have it sink back underws the and then reappear somewhere else!

The thing could be manned by skeletons, with ocean crawlers all over the top deck and a skeleton lord at the helm. Then watchtower skeletons with snipers all over the thing!

I think it would be cool, as a world event or PvE gsmemode