Given Rare's most recent comments on their Podcast, this type of an update is not on the menu for early 2024 and thus gives us time to give them ideas for what to add! If anyone feels inspired in comments to expand on one of these ideas or to comment their own ideas please do! The goal of this update would be to shed light on fringe game mechanics, bring a sense of server unity, expand the reach of the Hunter's Call elements to every corner of the game, and revisit underutilized locations all while limiting the amount of additions to the game to make it more palatable for Rare to implement. Below are my current ramblings on different mechanics that could be added to achieve my goal in order of plausibility to add.
Max Level Increase to 75
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New titles could include 'Angler' as an additional level of prestige (ex. Seasoned Angler, Master Angler).
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This would facilitate some room for level progression for these subsequent possible additions for those who have the Hunter's Call maxed out at 50.
Reintroduction of Fishing Voyages
There was a brief time where there were Hunter's Call Voyages that took you across the map to find specific fish for an increased value at turn in. I think that bringing these back alongside some new additional voyages that are detailed below would serve to make the Hunter's Call a fully-fledged faction.
Emissary Flag & Ledger Rewards
The Emissary Flag if it were to be introduced to the Hunter's Call should be something that should not be viewed as necessary if the player wants to go fishing for the session. mostly because I believe most people will start to grind the Hunter's Call commendations in Safer Seas.
Grade 5 Mission could give the crew a set of 3 random Monster Hunt voyages. These voyages would be either a Megalodon Hunt, Kraken Hunt, or a boosted new Ocean Crawler Hunt voyage. Once Emissary quest is accepted it could be 3 Krakens or any 1 or 2 of each.
- This would help give pirates the opportunity to grind out Megalodon Trophies and also give a consistent way to spawn Megalodon's for those of us who want a crack at the Shrouded Ghost.
Extremely Rare Fishing Outfit
This could be caught piece by piece and is added to the Treacherous Plunder pool of items
If you already own the set they can be turned in as Treacherous Plunder
I'd honestly just be content with a recolor but a unique Dredger's set would be amazing
Legendary Fish and Rare Bait
Legendary Fish is truly a must have in the case of a Hunter's Call update. It fits the theme perfectly, adds new things for long time fishers to do, provides cool new trophies to display, and encourages longer session times.
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Finger Bones can be found as a low drop chance in storage crates from skeleton ships
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The Legendary Skeleton Scourge can only be fished up using the Finger Bones in the underwater tunnel and small cavern pond on the uncharted isle northeast of Crook's Hollow.
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Ethereal Worm can be found as a low drop chance from Phantoms or found in Storage Crates of the Damned
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The Legendary Veilfish can be caught with the Ethereal Worm on the Ferry of the Damned during dawn or dusk.
Maybe a green light flare can be seen in the distance on the ferry during that hour to indicate the Veilfish is in the waters around the Ferry of the Damned (like the soul returning to this world from At World's End duuuuude). -
Torch Worm can be found as a low chance digging only on erupting islands in the devils roar
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The Legendary Searing Serpent can only be fished up using the Torch Worm and while fishing in Boiling water around volcanoes and volcanic islands in the Devil's Roar.
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Ancient Feather can be found as a low drop chance in supply barrels inside of Siren Shrines, Treasuries, and the Shores of Gold.
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The Legendary Drowned Ancient can only be fished using the Ancient Feather while underwater close to a Shrine or Treasury. Pirates would be best situated near a bubble vent to breath during the fishing mini game.
Bait Barrel Flotsam
These would be floating barrels that can't be interacted with for storage or anything but can be harpooned. They would be painted White, Pink, or Purple for the bait color. They hopefully have a 'leaking' texture but they would be called 'Barrel O' Leeches', 'Barrel O' Grubs', or 'Barrel O' Earthworms'. Once these are harpooned, there would be a small circle around the boat where fish that would usually require the bait to spawn can spawn if you're in the right area of the map. Making it so that fishing boats can sacrifice functionality (the barrel would have to stay on the harpoon in order to work) for more efficient fishing. True fishing legends could disable both their front harpoons and get a harpoon rowboat to get all 3 bait barrels. These would be a semi-common spawn in flotsam since they could be any of the 3 different bait barrels.
They could be purchased from the Hunter's Call representative at Seaposts and spawn in the water adjacent.
Fishing Contests
At every sea post there will be a large scale like those old timey photos of fish hanging from cranes. There would be a default Stormfish of a sizable weight until a pirate interacts with the other empty hook to attach their own fish. Each fish should be given a random weight value and hopefully they would be a fun animation with the scale teetering when a pirate relinquishes their fish. Once the pirates fish is weighed against the current winner and its determined to weigh less, the fish presented will be lost (maybe it either falls off or just disappears). If the presented fish weighs more than the current winner, the current winner would be replaced with a model of the fish that was presented. This scale model at each sea post is then updated to show the new fish which is now interactable to show the weight of the winning fish and the pirate who caught it. Throughout the day, other fisher pirates can come present their own fishes to hopefully topple the winner. Whichever pirates fish ends up on the winning scale at the end of each day in the Sea of Thieves will be rewarded with 10k and some additional rep towards The Hunter's Call. Since this is a server wide contest, every time a new fish exceeds the previous in weight a little firework display will shoot up from each scale across the Seas to indicate there is a new big fish. Once the contest is won, a new default fish of significant weight will take over the scale for the next contest.
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Cooked fish cannot be presented to the scale
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The reward for winning should be less than a Rare, or Legendary fish turn in.
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Pirates won't know the weight of their own fish until it's put on the scale to be measured and either they beat the current biggest fish, or their fish is lost.
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Trophy fish will definitely have more weight, giving more incentive to catch them.
Ocean Crawler Revamp & Hunt Voyage
Ocean Crawlers have been the in game since A Pirate's Life and clearly had a ton of development time dedicated to creating their unique models and fighting mechanics. Nowadays Ocean Crawlers are essentially just walking Siren Statues. I think that they could drop higher value or rare food items that could be cooked for additional gold to the Hunter's Call.
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Crab Crawlers could now drop an oversized Crab Claw that can be cooked and sold to the Hunter's Call or eaten for the same regeneration as Monster Meat.
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Clam Crawlers could now drop a large Clam that could be cooked and sold to the Hunter's Call or eaten for the same regeneration as Monster Meat.
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Electric Crawlers could now drop an Electric Eel that can be cooked and sold to the Hunter's Call or eaten for the same regeneration as Monster Meat.
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There could be a new Ocean Crawler Hunt Voyage that would give the pirate an island to investigate to locate the Ocean Crawlers. After a few waves of Ocean Crawlers there would spawn a named Ocean Crawler that would have a guaranteed new meat drop. All the other Ocean Crawlers that spawn will have the same regular drop chance for gems and the new meat varieties, giving this voyage pretty good gold value.
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If this would be adopted as part of the Emissary Mission for the Hunter's Call, the supped up version of this voyage might include a named Ocean Crawler of each variety to spawn, one per wave. This would guarantee a good amount of the new meat options and make getting to Grade 5 worth it on top of Megalodon and Kraken Hunts.
Crab Pots and Crab Pot Voyages
These would be items that would appear like metal chicken cages that are dropped off the side of the boat into the shallows of islands. After they are dropped off the side of the ship their model would hopefully turn into a buoy. Once they are full of crabs or other sea floor creatures, the lights on the buoy will turn on. They could be interacted with at the buoy to remove crabs and giving more opportunities to heist Hunter's Call items. The pots might be filled at a rate of 5 per in-game day. Voyages could be purchased from the Hunter's Call representatives on Seaposts and also from Shipwrights alongside other Captain's Voyages. However the Voyages will firstly direct you to collect Pots from your nearest Hunter's Call representative. One version of the quest could be purchased at lv 25 in the Hunter's Call which would include a number of standard sized pot that would hold 5 crabs each. Then later at lv 50 a larger pot voyage could be purchased where the pot size is increased to 10 crabs per pot. Filled Crab Pots could then be sold to the Hunter's Call at a premium if it's a part of a voyage, or for less gold if not.
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There might be 1 variant of crab per region that can spawn in the shallows of that region's islands.
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These crabs can be sold singularly to the Hunter's Call and act as a new category of 'fish' in the UI.
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The gameplay would be understandably passive, but that is intentional to allow the pirate to go do other things in the Seas and come back to their Pot and turn it in alongside everything else.
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Crab Pots would appear on the ship's map to remind the pirate where they placed them, or anyone tucking or boarding would be able to know their pot's hiding place.
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Once the Pots are full, the buoys will light up and give everyone in light render distance their location but not marked on the map.
Server Wide Cooking Buffs
Each Cooking Pot on every Seapost will have the option for players to add ingredients to the pot like in the Monkey Island Tall Tales. There will be a few options for Stews that will provide different minor buffs to players detailed below. Alongside these buffs are associated negatives that I hope will serve to balance out the buff. The buffs will not work for those pirates pledged to either PvP faction since even minor buffs could be the difference between crew's winning and losing. Each pot will have their own internal list of ingredients that have been added but once a recipe is completed, every sea post on the server will have access to that stew for 5 in game days. Pots that have a few ingredients, but not a full recipe will reset every in game day. The Stew/Buff will last until the pirate dies but they can return to any Seapost and reacquire it within the time frame. Recipes would be posted below the Cooking Pot to remind players what they need. Here are some examples I thought of and their ingredients to create the Stew.
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Big Lung Stew (Breath of the Sea, any Trophy Pondie, Clam from Ocean Crawler Revamp)
Pirates can breathe underwater.
Pirates can now drown on land if too long out of the water
Pirates can splash themselves with a bucket of water to reset the air drowning timer. -
Spicy Gumbo Stew (Mega keg, Cooked Kraken, any Crab or Crab Claw from either Ocean Crawler Revamp or Crab Pots)
Entities that are in contact with someone with this buff are set on fire as if the player is on fire
If this player enters a ship with water in the hull, the water will start boiling
Can set off kegs if physically close, or holding one. -
Lightening Stew (Crate of Ancient Bone Dust, Wraith Ball, Electric Eel from Ocean Crawler Revamp)
Faster reeling in fish.
Faster digging.
They are always targeted by lightening near storms as if they are constantly holding a sword. -
Hearty Stew (Chest of Ancients, Cooked Megalodon, full Fruit Crate)
Full regen bar at all times.
Movement speed impaired slightly.
Whale
New passive sea creature encounter that slowly moves throughout the sea of thieves on a few set routes. Only visible by the large water spouts from the blowhole that will function like a supped up geyser. Once it arrives on a server, a loud whale sound will play similar to the FoF horn. The actual encounter would involve players sailing in front of the Whale's path and dropping treasure into the water. Once the whale runs into these treasures they are destroyed but added to the whale's internal counter. Once the Whale has 'gulped' 5-10k in value,
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Ambergris will be added to next water spout. Ambergris can be sold to the Hunter's call for a good profit who in turn sell it to those 'perfumed' sovereigns.
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If the Whale runs into a boat, that boat takes hull damage.
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Boats can be launched by waterspout and flung high into the air.
Sorry for the strange formatting at times. Thank you for reading this far! Let me know what you guys think in the comments.
