add merchant delivery requests to the quest board

I am gonna write further ideas and more contextual info in this post, to elaborate a bit more:

Why put it on the quest board and not as a merchant voyage selectable from the quest table?

• I see this quest as a high risk delivery that has had failed attempts by other NPC crews
• adding it on the quest board was a last resort for the merchant alliance to get this delivery done
• it would also make the quest board more interesting by adding 100% megalodon/skelly ship spawn chance to it

Small island or shipwreck to pick up the broken crates?

• I feel like there could be both options: either dig up the crates from a small island
• or mark an area on the trade route, where a shipwreck is located and within that, you find the broken+empty crates
• the crates itself could be empty or almost empty, so we have to fill them up before we can deliver them

Megalodon and skelly ship spawns:

• merchant delivery quests can be quite relaxing (or boring) ^^
• these special delivery requests should be a "long distance" and "high risk" delivery
• adding 100% spawn chance for a megalodon and/or skelly ships would spice it up
• these spawns would also add some reason to do the delivery request and get some special/extra loot out of it
• meg/skelly ship loot could include special merchant items, that were on the NPC crews ship before they got attacked
• this would further increase the value of these delivery quests for people that want to level merchant alliance
• and it would give us a way to hunt for the megalodon

Warning message on the trade route paper:

• New players might look into the quest board and find those high risk delivery requests.
• This is why I believe it would be a good idea to add a warning message on the trade route paper!
• It should be clear from the beginning, that this request is on the board, because an NPC-crew already failed to deliver the crates
• And now the merchant alliance is looking for a crew that is able to defeat the megalodon and/or skelly ships on that trade route.

@hefty-henri sagte in add merchant delivery requests to the quest board:

I like the idea of hitting 2 birds with 1 stone with making the quest board more relevant while making merchant delivery achievements doable again.

Yeah, I think this would indeed be a good way to combine a few much needed features.
It would make these delivery quests more useful, instead of them being a grind for a commendation only.

I'll take whichever method is quickest for Rare to implement at this point.

+1

Not sure if they'd be open for a guaranteed meg

We have access to so many parts of the game now via the diving mechanic.
Why not follow that path and give us on demand access to the megalodon spawns? ;-)

The old spawn timer was around 30 to 60 mins ... ~45 mins average for a spawn.
If they give us those long distance delivery voyages on the quest board,
then we still would end up around 30 to 45 minutes for 1 spawn, but we can actively do it.

but the way it ''works'' currently is almost the same, sail around for 90 min and get a meg.

The random spawn can happen between 15 and 240 mins, as far as my testing goes.
1h 20m seems to be the current "default" for meg spawns.

But I often end up without any spawns, because I get server merged or decide to dive
to another server ... or do not stay in that session long enough ... too many reasons for no meg spawn.

Great idea! I really like it.

Good way to add something new to existing game elements.

@drfauli said in add merchant delivery requests to the quest board:

We have access to so many parts of the game now via the diving mechanic.
Why not follow that path and give us on demand access to the megalodon spawns? ;-)

If they give us those long distance delivery voyages on the quest board,
then we still would end up around 30 to 45 minutes for 1 spawn, but we can actively do it.

+1

How about rather than heavy handed going from rare to easily available everywhere do a middle ground.

Don't know if it'd work but allow people to post the ones they've found, so the community who don't need it can help others...wishful thinking?

@hiradc sagte in add merchant delivery requests to the quest board:

[...] allow people to post the ones they've found, so the community who don't need it can help others

Oh, interesting idea. ;-)

Allowing people to post their active bottle quests to the quest board would also increase the use of it.
I feel like we would end up with a lot of cargo runs then, but we could give it a try. =D

@DrFauli @HiradC

allow people to post the ones they've found, so the community who don't need it can help others

Allowing people to post their active bottle quests to the quest board would also increase the use of it.

I agree. +1
This could work well and gives us a reason to use the quest board more often.