Reintroducing the Black Market

  • I think a lot of pirates have a decent stash of doubloons that they can no longer use. Therefore, Reaper's Chests or other treasures that sell for this currency are no longer as sought after due to the low prices of cosmetics that are purchased with these coins.

    The Black Market was an interesting mechanic when it was first introduced. It brought time limited items back with a clear approach: "we smuggled these items back for you, but at a high price". Since Rare has mentioned their desire to bring back some of the seasonal items, this could be a nice way to do it.

    For example, every month or every season, we get a new collection of items. In the first iteration, we could have 3 items from any of the previous seasons:

    • Accomplished Bone Crusher Wheel - 900 doubloons
    • Lucky Hand Eyepatch - 300 doubloons
    • Snug Scarf Jacket - 450 doubloons

    The Black Market could then cycle through some of the previous rewards, allowing players to purchase these items once again. I believe this would still be in line with the Sea of Thieves lore.

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  • I don't mind the idea, but I feel that it would need to be taken a step further in order for me to really support it. Us players that have completed every season would still be left to sit on a pile of worthless doubloons. So we need to make sure that the dedicated players among us are also encouraged to participate.

    My suggestion would be to have an alt version of every cosmetic offered for those that already have the one that's been made available. Similar to the Grogmanay tankard and how it added a notch to your tankard if you participated in the original event. Nothing too flashy that would alter the cosmetic too much, but something to differentiate it from the original and give those players that actually played the season something special. Examples below.

    • Accomplished Bone Crusher Wheel - 900 doubloons

    Make the gold bits glow or add some more gold bits or something.

    • Lucky Hand Eyepatch - 300 doubloons

    Add a 3rd card or change it to spades or something.

    • Snug Scarf Jacket - 450 doubloons

    Make the scarf longer or change the color somehow.

    Creating a doubloon sink is a great idea...but doing it in a way that leaves the folks that likely have the most doubloons out kind of defeats the purpose.

  • @sweetsandman said in Reintroducing the Black Market:

    My suggestion would be to have an alt version of every cosmetic offered for those that already have the one that's been made available. Similar to the Grogmanay tankard and how it added a notch to your tankard if you participated in the original event.

    Indeed! Additional attachments for players that already obtained them would be very nice. However, are you suggesting that the base version that you already obtained is changed, or that the new players receive something different? The Grogomany Tankard brought small changes to the already existing cosmetic for older players, although I am not sure if it removed the 1st year notch tankard from your inventory.

    A way that could please both groups is to add conditions while purchasing the items. For example, if you already owned the Lucky Hand Eyepatch, you get access to purchase the new variant that you mentioned. In this way, older players still have something prestigious to show, and newer pirates can enjoy some of the old cosmetics.

  • Yes! That would be amazing.

    Anybody knows why it was removed in the first place?

  • @andrew2747 I'd be fine with either replacing it or adding a second option...My suggestion was more to replace the original with the alt version (like the Grogmanay tankard) if you elected to purchase it.

  • @sweetsandman I understand now. The forced change would be a bit problematic if the older players enjoy the original look. Offering alternatives alongside the original one would reward dedicated veterans with additional cosmetics, but I'm not entirely sure if Rare wishes to dedicate resources to recreating cosmetics.

    I'd love to see it implemented in this manner (veterans having access to a higher tier of the cosmetic), although I am not sure how realistic our idea is :(

  • I would be nice to have ANYTHING to spend doubloons on.

  • @themetalman4011 said in Reintroducing the Black Market:

    I would be nice to have ANYTHING to spend doubloons on.

    But there is:
    The shrine voyage, Ashen Keys and Chests and a ritual skull map are available, along with several items in the store.

    If nothing else convert it to gold during rush hour next G&G weekend.

    Put Dubloon items back in Larinna's Stock tho lol.

  • The Seapost traders should be the new black market. Coukd be that merrick's family fish up all sorts of bits and bobs from the Sea and then get the cargo NPCs to sell it for them at extortionate rates as its Rare items that aren't being "made" (sold) anywhere else.

  • @zig-zag-ltu
    One word- DUKE.

  • @courtingnose1 said in Reintroducing the Black Market:

    @zig-zag-ltu
    One word- DUKE.

    I'm aware Larinna replaced him, but can't remember if she had the black market available? Thought she did for a while

  • @zig-zag-ltu Yes, she had the black market for a while but the black market archive was getting a bit long in tooth and Rare couldn’t commit to updating it every month due to COVID so it was removed. However most of the black market items are in the shops of the respective outpost vendors albeit at a slightly increased price.

  • @sailorkek Interesting proposition, but that would imply it changes more frequently (and varies between servers), and players could cheese it to get the cosmetics they want. The seasonal rewards are limited, and the concern described above regarding older pirates not being able to spend their doubloons would still stand.

    However, making it possible to buy curent things from sea posts with doubloons instead of gold would also be interesting.

  • @andrew2747 said in Reintroducing the Black Market:

    @sailorkek Interesting proposition, but that would imply it changes more frequently (and varies between servers), and players could cheese it to get the cosmetics they want. The seasonal rewards are limited, and the concern described above regarding older pirates not being able to spend their doubloons would still stand.

    Not necessarily, the way the seaposts are currently set up is that each post/region will have 3 items and they change each in game day, as far as I'm aware each server has the exact same items for sale.
    Maybe as an addition to the 3 regular cosmetics for a discount a 4th cosmetic from an old discontinued set should appear that changes every 24 hours IRL, that way players can't just cheese every cosmetic from week 1

    However, making it possible to buy curent things from sea posts with doubloons instead of gold would also be interesting.

    Yeah using dubloons as an alternate currency for things that usually require gold could be cool to but I reckon it'd only be useful for newer players

  • @andrew2747 I like this idea. The season renown give me heaps of doubloons with nothing really to use them for (except getting 20k gold for 50 at double loot weekends!)

  • At first I thought this would be some sort of "bring 'insert cosmetic from 2018 campaign' back pls" but I'm shocked at how good an idea this is. Kudos to you.

  • @sailorkek Hah, imagine everything coming back as a "barnacled" version.

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