Right now, the game feels like the textbook definition of a grind. Doing the same repetitive tasks in the same exact way over and over till you reach a goal (Pirate Legend/Cosmetic).
I've played well over 100 hours and I'm only half way through the grind...and it's tough to actually focus on ranking up because it utterly sucks to focus on just the grind of the quest system and not just goof around instead because it's much more fun. It feels impersonal and utterly meaningless to play the game as intended.
This could be offset with a more organic and exploration focused reward system using your already extant organic quest system, but changing the way the game works to make that the primary means of play. I am referring to washed up bottles, books that reveal quests, etc.
With the following system journeys will feel more meaningful and unique without any major additions and new features...just changing the way content is brought to the player.
The minor changes required?
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Kill the quest-givers, they offer zero gameplay value. They are and should only be receptacles you put the treasure in to get your gold and nothing else...they shouldn't give quests. They are the crux of the overly stringent structure that plagues the "make your own story" feeling in this game. If they do give a quest it's only one or rumor they heard about a quest spawn location...and that's only to get you on the seas to find the real quests.
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Buff up random quest spawns. More books to find (main way of getting quests), more bottles on average, and new forms of organic quest givers (mermaid/good skeleton/note on a lone skeleton)/Digging near certain objects (like a dead skeleton) might unveil a bottle/quests that are already in action being added all together. Books now feature Merchant time-tables and books that are found on Outposts are more likely to have time-tables for deliveries, merchants now sell crates in a store. You can either choose to keep the new quest you found in your quest log or discard it. You could also hand it to a crew member who needs more quests.
Quests should be saved to your person and shouldn't be crew-wide. While rewards are still equal and shared. There is no use for the "show map" feature...this is it! You show them a part of your quest you want to do. You can show them all of the quest or just some of it...depends if you trust them. You show them the island with the x's and they mark it on the main crew map...or you just become the navigator for this quest because it's yours. If you didn't finish the quest before you need to log off you can continue from where you left off last time.
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Increase treasure reward output and lower frequency. Getting a chest should feel impactful...right now it's just another of 100 you need to get the one thing you want. Sure, having 100 chests on your ship is cool looking, but it takes an hour to move them, and turning them in can feel awful when you see +120 gold for a thing you spent the same amount of time on as the +1200 gold item. It turns a reward into a burden and a chore when you play the numbers game.
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The number of steps in a quest should ~= the value of the chest. 4 step riddle? That's more than a 3 step or a 2 step. Some pirate went through a lot of voodoo to hide that chest...the more work the more value it probably had.
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Random chests shouldn't spawn over a certain caliber. No more finding a captain's chest just sitting on a rock or in a puddle...like who allowed this? Talk about removing the perceived value of something entirely. (Oh I worked x amount of hours for this and I just found it now for zero work) Castaways with a lucky Seafarers...maybe. Ideally random chest spawns are more hidden by nature. Crabs may encircle a random chest spawn that you can dig up that was buried by the waves, ants may form a line coming from a chest hidden in the bushes, etc.
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Steps should save to a person to be accessed again later, but there should be more steps. Riddles should unveil more riddles depending on the prize of the chest. Sure, go to an island and dig it up instantly for a Castaway's...but dig up another step in the riddle and it's now a Seafarer's, etc. This allows for longer journeys and for rewards to be much larger for that bigger payout...we will FINALLY be in the money!
- No more, One Faction At A Time, when it comes to Hoarders and Skulls. Sometimes, a Captain's chest could be defended by the captain himself for an extra turn in. Sometimes a step in a riddle spawns a legion of skeletons (a current wave) with the leader having the next map on the back of their skull. Sometimes that node you just made glow will start spawning waves until the captain shows up. Sure, skeleton quests lead to more skeletons on average, and the same for chests...but they both use riddle quest structures and can be intermingled (a legendary captain skeleton head with a legendary chest after a long quest).
The current quest system is so utterly predictable and degrading...it NEEDS to change on a fundamental level for the health of this game. It has been reduced to a math and you just don't do certain quests because you KNOW they won't be worth the time...this needs to end
New Gameplay Loop Example:
A guy in the crew has a message in a bottle about a chest. This is a map with an x marks the spot. He tells them where the island is and when the crew gets to the island they notice that a skeleton nearby has a book in his hand, they grab the book and it's the guy's diary. The book has a page in it with a riddle about a deadly crew with a massive haul on an island. They go to that island and down into a cave. Along the way some crew members find more quests unrelated they log for later. They get to the deepest part of the cave where they light a fire that turns green and waves of skeletons spawn and the fire stays lit until the waves die down. The final skeleton has a map on his head. This leads to a grave where they dig up the last step which is a map with an X. They dig it up and the captain himself spawns with the treasure (Captain's Chest) and they fight the captain and his crew to get the chest and also get the skull(s). The skulls cost more, the chest costs more (couple thousand), etc. Along the way they picked up a bunch of random treasure that washed up, or did smaller quests that were along the way from quests they picked up.
