Giving some Love to Commodities

  • Hefty Henri
    Marauder

    Commodity trading was a great first step to adding a little logistical fun to Sea of Thieves, especially for people who enjoy games where you haul stuff from A to B. Personally i play a lot of these types of games, but its addition to SoT was a while ago and nothing has been done with the admittedly barebones system since then.

    I'd love to see an upgrade to it as part of a seasonal update, in particular regarding the quantity of goods you haul, the way you load and unload them, and a dedicated storage facility on your ship that is used to neatly stack a large amount of commodities. It would be great to have some dedicated cargo ships (just your captaincy sloop/brig/galley but with a trading focussed loadout) that maybe sacrifice visibility and room to maneuver for cargo racks that will let you neatly stack a tower of commodity crates on them. Another upgrade you could get is a cargo crane that lets you load and unload multiple crates at once between the docks and your cargo racks, though this crane could also become a part of the dock near the Merchant Alliance. The variety of goods are already in the game, you'd just be able to buy/sell more of them at once.

    Risk/reward would be present as always, and your ship might be slower to get to full speed, slower to turn, and visbly has a large stack of cargo on it from maximum spotting distance to let pirates know you are a juicy target to attack. At full load your ship might also lie low in the water, similar to being hit by a ballast ball (except it's real ballast in this case). The offset to these increased risks are ofcourse being able to make a lot of gold from one heavy and long trip. Though i wouldn't do it for the gold as much as just combining one of my favourite things to do in gaming with one of my favourite games.

    Just some wishful thinking from a merchant sailor

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  • PotatoSord
    Marauder
    Insider

    You can already stack an infinite number of crates in any spot on your ship and they will only need to take up the space of one item. We don't need ship additions/modules, the game is sorta designed around slow loading and unloading so that there is a chance you could be attacked.

  • Europa4033
    Commander
    Insider

    So, how will this make doing commodity runs (which are boring to do in the first place) more fun and engaging if they give a downside to the crew doing them?

  • haifery
    Castaway

    @europa4033 pretty sure the idea is for people who dont find them boring, also "The offset to these increased risks are ofcourse being able to make a lot of gold from one heavy and long trip." the plus would be a bigger payout

  • Europa4033
    Commander
    Insider

    @haifery
    It's a horrible investment for time if you're trying to make gold, sailing around the map for hours having to organize crates as to what each outposts takes and sells. Having the changes suggested would only increase player frustration, leading to the same fate as the SoSS.

  • Hefty Henri
    Marauder

    @europa4033 You simply sound like someone who doesn't engage with commodity trading or transport gaming at all as something to do for fun rather than some kind of money grind. If you don't care about it to begin with, why chime in on ideas to improve it for people who do find it fun?

    The overall idea is to put serious heavy cargo trading in SoT, which is fun for people who are into that sorta thing, and gives pirates more targets to attack to try and steal all of that cargo. It will create ships doing long journeys carrying a ton of loot, something that is currently quite rare to come across in SoT because people sell often. I won't care about the drawbacks, because they add to heavy transport immersion, and on the flipside i'd have gained the fun of more loading/unloading mechanics, being able to stack a ton of cargo in an aesthetic way, and transporting it.

    And ofcourse the thrill of having invested a nice chunk of my own gold into my current cargo and trying to protect my trade routes to hopefully turn that investment into fat profit. Like actual historical trade/piracy emulation in a fun SoT way.

  • Europa4033
    Commander
    Insider

    @hefty-henri

    In the years playing this game, I honestly can't remember the last time I've sunk someone doing commodities. To quote @Vorack , it's just empty sailing, boring to run, boring to steal, and the attacking boat ends up destroying 2/3rds of the cargo. To add insult to injury, a player purchased those commodities, so sure-- let's have them buy a ton of them because it's a good idea to go slower and have the ship ride low so others can see they've got loot to deliver that they actually paid for. Like I said, it's been years since I've sunk or seen anyone doing them, but making it more frustrating with these mechanics, make no sense if you're trying to attract more to doing them.

  • Lem0n Curry
    Vanguard
    Insider

    @europa4033 said in Giving some Love to Commodities:

    @hefty-henri

    In the years playing this game, I honestly can't remember the last time I've sunk someone doing commodities. To quote @Vorack , it's just empty sailing, boring to run, boring to steal, and the attacking boat ends up destroying 2/3rds of the cargo.

    AFAIK commodities don't get destroyed; I think you're confused with Cargo deliveries (cloth, rum & plants).

    To add insult to injury, a player purchased those commodities, so sure-- let's have them buy a ton of them because it's a good idea to go slower and have the ship ride low so others can see they've got loot to deliver that they actually paid for. Like I said, it's been years since I've sunk or seen anyone doing them, but making it more frustrating with these mechanics, make no sense if you're trying to attract more to doing them.

    People pay for wood, fruit crates and others that get stolen all the time 😀.

    The main reason I stopped doing these is the awful interface when buying them; also I don't know if they have fixed the bug that sometimes you can't pick up all the commodities you bought.

  • MisereNZ
    Captain
    Insider

    A buy all option would make them worth grabbing.

    Don't need a special place for them on the boat but a re-skin would be great for making them easier to sell. Each one has two symbols/letters added to them. The first is the outpost they where bought from, the second is the outpost wanting that item for top dollar. Sure there is the book to refer to and the web but this would make it easier.

    On top of that having occasional double rep/gold week for t

  • Hefty Henri
    Marauder

    @europa4033 You are making my case for me, it's in the game but not many people do them because it needs an update. Furthermore you don't even know what you are talking about, because you can't destroy commodities. If you have a better idea to update commodities than what i posted in the original post rather than decry an idea about something you never engage with to begin with, let's hear it.

    Commodities are meant to be fun for players who enjoy transporting things and buying/selling with some risk attached. They're just pretty weak right now for players who really want to do this on a grander scale, with a ton of cargo, higher risk, and higher reward.

  • Hefty Henri
    Marauder

    @miserenz Buy all or at least buy x50 would be a must on larger scale trading. And a way to transport all that to your ship in a fun way.

    The reason i bring up storage for the ship is because you can neatly arrange it on deck yourself but that will only really work for like 20 crates before it becomes a huge mess again, not to mention it takes forever. Transport games are partially about your rig looking impressive while storing stuff efficiently, and being able to neatly store a huge amount of crates on the ship would be a fun addition.

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