So i've been wanting to get back to Sea of Thieves for a while now as i found myself having very much fun with the game at launch. While i certainly appreciate them updating the game for free i think most of their updates looked very uncreative, mostly adding stuff to a gameplay loop rather than addressing the core problem with the game: There is a clear lack of depth. Let me tell you how to instantly fix this and i even give this advice for free. What a great guy!
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Step 1: Add the open sea! While i never noticed it when playing, it is a little disappointing that you basically only travel in shallow water, between some islands and that the map feels a bit too small for an "open world" game. How about adding a giant open sea to the north (or south) of the map. You could travel there for hours without seeing solid land, you'd have to prepare for your journey and you'd possibly come accross some dangerous sh*t out there. Maybe you'd also start gaining thirst and hunger on the open sea, having to clear salt water in order to drink and having to fish to still your hunger (exciting stuff amirite?).
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Step 2: Add a giant pirate city beneath the open sea! You'd obviously had to get to something when you embark on your journey through the sea, a big f**king city. Doesn't even have to be an island, it could just be part of the main land. Things you could do in that city: play minigames, get wasted, meet new factions (royal army, navy or merchants), have tavern brawls, enter the new arena mode (?!) and much more sh... stuff you could come up with. The city would be guarded by some city guards, basically making pvp in there much harder but not impossible.
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Step 3: Have ports in this city! Basically you would spawn your normal ship types at the start of each new character, like it is now, BUT you'd have the ability to register it in this new city (behind the open sea) giving you the ability to own your f**king OWN ship (you know, like a real pirate). Here's the deal: from there on, you'd be able to fully upgrade your ship. You could transform it into new shiptypes, add new cannons front and back, get new cannontypes, new sail types, faster anchors, defensive hulls, a faster respawn on deck, etc. This would all cost a significant amount of money of course and more importantly you would lose all of it once your ship is sunk, making PvP not only meaningful but also insanely scary (you would basically respawn with a new basic ship on the islands). Also you could park your new own, customized ship in your port where it would be invulnerable or something.
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Step 4: You added flags, now add a claim-system! This has been suggested before, but in addition to the new and improved shipsystem, where you have your own ships, you could claim other ships by raising your own flag on them. This would take a lot of time, maybe involve a mini-game and/or teamwork to get done but it would make it your own and it would prevent dead players from respawning on it. Again it would be a way to make pirating actually worthwhile, rather than getting only loot and the adrenaline rush from it you'd also start building your own FC**G fleet, holy moly, what an exciting idea!! (Also add housing in that city btw, ez pz)
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Step 5: Add a questline for diving gear! This would be a fun little questline where you can obtain diving gear allowing you to go for a deep deep dive in, you guessed it, the open sea. Basically make subnautica within Sea of Thieves (tall order but this is ACTUAL gameplay depth).
Voila you have a very solid foundation to actually expand upon, rather than infinitely adding more raids or enemies or loottypes. Just hire me already ;)
