My main way of playing Sea of Thieves is to track and hunt down "bounties" -ships with valuables-. Cannons firing, pirates flying out the cannons trying to get on your vessel and get a piece of your hard earned loot, risking it all "just because we are pirates, what else are we supposed to do",
this is the feeling I get when playing this way and it's SUPER FUN, for real, I have over 3000 hours in the game, and this feeling never goes away. Unless...
My approach was not swift enough and I failed to pin them down, then all the fun would just wash away...
And lead into +1hour chase around all the map between two boats going at the same or greater speed, and me just hoping that they would make a mistake so I could catch up, and them just laughing at me for not being able to catch up, like somehow I can control the winds and the seas.
Great way to farm miles for commendations, not so great to farm fun. Especially when the chase ends and you realize that the grand treasure -that you spent an hour of your life sailing over- was just a single captain's skull and a grade 3 or something emissary flag...
I understand that my way of playing is just one way to play this game and as frustrating as it can be, I understand that pirates can and will choose to run from a fight their are not confident they can win, that is the smart thing to do if you wanna survive after all.
But where is the piracy in that? They get to run around with ALL of their loot without any repercussions, while pirates like me get to suffer from their nasty comments and boring gameplay.
In old times, when merchant ships would spot a ship flying the "Jolly Roger" they would dump their cargo in the sea to reduce their ship's weight making it go faster,
just so they could stand a chance at survival against the pirates. They traded money for life, literally.
So I thought, "What if" there was a weight penalty on the ship based on how much treasure it would be on it. It would have a % gauge meter like it does on hourglass which is based on how much treasure
is "On board" a player's ship.
How would it work:
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Based on the "greed" factor of the crew it would slow their ship down, like for example the "Skull of the Siren Song" would.
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Each rank would slow the boat down more and more -rank 1| 10%, rank 2|20% , rank 3| 25%, etc-, all the way to let's say 45% speed reduction.
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Lastly to make this feature a high risk high reward kind of thing, it could also give them more money and experience by turning in their loot based on their "greed" factor (like it does on hourglass).
Why would this be a good change:
-Add a more realistic factor to "hunts", like it used to be when pirates roamed the seas. Trade cargo for life, fair trade is it not?
-The "greed" factor could be a fun way to make even the lower cost pieces of treasure to gain greater value, and give pirates an incentive to "do more" in the seas, to "be more pirate" , or "do less", but "be a more cunning pirate" about it.
-Make "engaging with other pirates" something exciting and rewarding, not something to be scared off or make you want to smash your controller / keyboard to the floor.
-Teach, the newer players that would spend hours stacking treasure on their vessel, that treasure IS NOT THEIRS if A) They don't fight for it and B) Cash it in at an Outpost.
And well of course, also teach them a new fun way of playing the game.
Closing, Sea of Thieves has so much content to go through on one go, even as an experienced player I still find new ways to enjoy it, but it feels like I'm forced to and I'm being treated like some old tool that is not needed anymore,
just because my way of playing is something many disagree and frown upon.
You guys did such an amazing work to make every trip feel more time rewarding with the changes on how to obtain gold, updated voyages, new events, and all of it is super fun, but it runs out fast, since as soon as the commendations are done and the sought out cosmetics
have been acquired, welp it's "see ya next update" kind of thing.
So please help players like me, that still enjoy the core mode of the thrill seeking combat / shenanigan side of the game to do more of that, thank you for your time, keep up the great work!
