NPC trader ships

  • Swiftey1990
    Insider

    I'd really love to see NPC merchant ships throughout the game, I saw recently that cursed ship NPCs have been added which is great but I've always thought free roam ships with friendlier intentions could be a great addition.
    All ships could be brigs carrying merchant collectables from crates to barrels and livestock. It's an opportunity to have the first "dual phase" NPCs where if you board and talk to them they will remain friendly and share rumours with you, but if you attack them or take their stock, they will defend themselves

    I think it's a great chance to make the game feel more immersive and bigger than it is especially for solo players. It's also an opportunity to help players out with the merchant alliance grind.

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  • AlexSPK13

    We'd have to depict if ships were merchant, regular players, or skeletons? I'm not sure if I like the idea... SoT doesn't really need any talkative NPCs. The ones it already has now are all pretty annoying and provide no real help or experience for the game.
    KEEP IN MIND ALSO
    Merchant ships ≠ Pirate ships
    I'm quite sure no merchant ships in the right mind would ever just let Pirate Ships on them and be like "Hello there! My name is John! Please, take stuff from our barrels!" I'm quite sure the whole reason merchant ships had cannons back then was to defend from Pirates (And sometimes other countries ships in times of war)
    Its just not very realistic for them to not immediately to fire on you anyways, not only because of the time period but because most people just sink ships for fun so they would just be like "Hey free loot kill it".. You'd think after that merchants would get scared and fire at will at pirates.

  • Sargent Sully
    Captain
    Insider

    @alexspk13 I could see something like a unique set of sails, some banners going between the masts, perhaps even a musical tune that could be a bit more unique from the trade posts. Rather than having "open" barrels which you could take from, they could offer to stock a certain amount of supplies into the player's ship, but limit the amount of supplies so people can't just fully fill the supply barrels. Also as he mentioned if you attack them they would attempt to defend themselves before fleeing. Could see something like they have a unique sail that would allow them to outrace any hostile ships. Could also see buying cargo from them like "Oh you're heading out that way anyways? Well for a small sum we'll cut you in on our contract" and have the cargo be sent to your ship. As for the Merchant ship's crew, it would have to have a fair number of merchants and "body guards" (not sure what they would be due to lack of navy-like faction).

  • txcrnr
    Master
    Insider

    @sargent-sully I think it would be weird to have other non-player humans manning the cannons- perhaps a future event could have a portion of the Skeletons turn friendly? Something about them rebelling against the other skeletons and having the curse broken, but still stuck in their skeletal bodies. They could be friendly until attacked, and I think it would work best if they had 1 randomly rolled faction that you can turn loot in to and a merchant selling items like the new seaposts.

  • AlexSPK13

    If we're just gonna do a bunch of new ship ideas might as put out a royal navy as well, and the merchant ships could even run to them if under attack. maybe even one people could join- hear me out

    This could incorporate some things that players have wanted for a long time- being able to play with more than four friends at once, and I know lots of people have made a makeshift "police force" There would be a few things to limit the power of this navy, though. For instance- if a ship has the white flag on or alliance flag, you can't fire on it or attack them in any way, but you may board it and speak to them. They could even team up with you if you also raise your alliance flag, and it would also make them a member of the royal Navy (Which you can't leave after joining) Any member of the royal navy can't sell any chests or skulls but they get a small amount of money every day as compensation for protecting the sea. Every member of the royal Navy automatically gets the same ship skin and set (Only while in the navy not when they join as a pirate) They would also only be allowed to carry a pistol and sword to keep them from being too overpowered since they're in a group. There would be a max of 12 people in the royal navy, so it could be evenly split for any ship. Merchant ships would be on the map of every royal navy sailor, and would show up red if being attacked. After attacking a merchant ship the Royal Navy can fire upon you for the next 15 minutes no matter what flag they have up. (Have a few more ideas for it but I'm gonna leave it open first people may not like it so I would rather not pour too much time into this)

  • txcrnr
    Master
    Insider

    @alexspk13 That's wildly out there, and honestly I wouldn't expect anything like this anytime soon. Rare is pretty solid on the core gameplay mechanics, and the main dynamic is pirates vs. skeletons. The Royal Navy doesn't even exist inside of the Devil's Shroud. Not trying to shut you down but you would have to rethink this, especially because of the part about no treasure.

  • AlexSPK13

    @txcrnr I feel like getting payed would be more realistic but yeah I dont think it will be incorporated I do think it would be fun tho

  • txcrnr
    Master
    Insider

    @alexspk13 Fair enough, nothing against wild ideas since I do come up with a lot myself- this actually seems like something that could fit in another game, I don't know which though!

  • UltmateRagnarok
    Master

    @txcrnr The skeletons shouldn't be able to turn friendly, as they are following basic instincts. Even the skeleton lords are like this, with their minds being twisted around to the point of insanity in some cases. Under the threat of death (with the alternate option being helping or ignoring you), or the order of a friendly skeleton lord, they may become friendly or at least neutral. This does bring up an old idea of mine, being once the game has been updated and Rare runs out of ideas, they can have some force attack the Sea of Thieves as a whole, uniting all of the forces. You would fight alongside the monsters and skeletons (although this will probably never happen).

  • txcrnr
    Master
    Insider

    @ultmateragnarok Well, the skeletons are turned that way because of a curse- Wanda, for example, was temporarily intelligent while still skeletal according to her writings. I think it could be interesting to see some break the curse on their minds but not bodies.

    On the second part: The attacking force could just be the rest of the Kraken's body XD

  • AmbiguousMonk
    Insider

    Rather than implement NPC trader ships, I think it could be much more interesting and inline with SoT to implement systems where PLAYERS can be de facto traders with other players and are sometimes incentived to be. e.g. players could find/purchase more per session utility items (e.g. like the crates/cages we have now), and thus trading those to players for treasure/other utility items could be something that could reasonably happen. This could be accomplished simply by adding more utility items, of which there could be a whole slew possible

    An idea I just had for one might such utility item might be something like a safe or lockbox. Essentially a container that, once placed on a ship and 'clamped' cannot be picked back up and can contain a single piece of treasure loot. Only fellow crew members would be able to 'unclamp' and pick up the safe. The loot would be 'locked' in the safe, but could be 'cracked' by enemy players through playing some form of simple minigame. It could also be opened through being hit by a gunpowder barrel. Fellow crew members could retrieve the loot simply through interacting with the safe for some amount of time (similar to how it takes time to repair a hole). If a ship sinks, all safes would despawn along with the ship, releasing the loot item to float up to the surface just like any other item. Safes would not be persistent across sessions, like all utility items ought to be. This possibly isn't the most useful idea, but it shows how other utility items could be implemented in the game

  • UltmateRagnarok
    Master

    @txcrnr Wanda was a skeleton lord; that was why she had her own thoughts. The normal skeletons (and I believe the captains work the same way) act on primal instincts of survival with the basic drive to continue what they died doing (normally fighting other pirates or protecting treasure). The skeleton lords still think, but have a change to their perspective on matters. The curse on their minds is because of their bodies, from them losing their brains and their humanity. The kraken does need a body though.

  • txcrnr
    Master
    Insider

    @ultmateragnarok I feel they could change things if they need to, though. We have ghosts that we can interact with, so if they want to 'break the curse' but still have them keep skeleton bodies they could do so.

  • UltmateRagnarok
    Master

    @txcrnr The reason for the skeleton's existence is that they died before the creation of the Ferry of the Damned. They then could inhabit their corpses, which decomposed despite being animated. The ghosts in the Athena's Fortune were formed at the same time as the Ferry, as the Ferryman was part of the crew of the Athena's Fortune (he was punished for attempting to kill the pirate lord). To be fair, it is unknown exactly how the curse functions, so possibly the skeleton's minds could be reverted, but they may already be too far gone. The skeleton lords could possibly have a change in perspective, as they have minds capable of complex thoughts. This is due to the fact that they were not killed and came back, but cursed by some object (for instance, Wanda was cursed by Flamheart's stolen cannon). I don't know how the crew of the Athena's Fortune became ghosts (they say they chose it, maybe dying of natural causes in the Sea of Thieves in particular).

  • Lucky 13 X
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    You should seek out my thread about Merchant Navy 2.0. Ships designed to hunt PVP players or provide a distraction to those players so PvE players can sail more safely. It also has plenty of the rare washed up on shore items like spices and box of secrets on it when sunk.

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