Lately, I've been thinking about how fun a hardcore mode for Sea of Thieves would be. I've come up with quite a few ideas as to how a Hardcore Server might work, I'd love to have some opinions on my ideas, and see some other ideas thrown in as well.
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No More Wind Lines - I realized how cool this would be when I had a bug happen to me while playing the other day, where the wind lines disappeared. As this was happening, I was forced to use my flag as a means to know where the wind was coming from, and I really enjoyed it.
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No More Mermaids - This is a big one. If your ship sinks, you are now stranded, you will have to die to respawn at your new ship, or you can do whatever else you wish to do in the meantime.
If you get sent overboard, or intentionally jump overboard, you will not be able to hitch a ride with a mermaid any longer, you will have to die, or have your crew bring the ship around.
This will make Ship combat much more SHIP oriented, there will be less jumping off and swiming to an enemy ship and boarding, and much more ship vs ship action. As there will now be more risk to missing an opportunity to board an enemies ship, making people think twice about it.
(At the very least, make Mermaid spawn times take much longer, like a solid minute to two minutes. Though I'd prefer they were just gone for Hardcore.) -
Limited Items - Quest Items and Player Equipment is limited and shared. For example, there are only two shovels per crew, one compass per crew, one spyglass per crew, etc. Also only one treasure map, only one Tall Tale book, etc. Creating more of a requirement to assign jobs and tasks to specific crewmates.
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Map - Your ship does not appear on your map, to navigate you will have to use your compass and landmarks, maybe even the stars.
Using the Reapers Mark flag will still make you appear on other peoples maps, but not your own. -
No More Sparkles - Treasure does not sparkle anymore. This is something that bugs me in adventure mode despite it being beneficial to me.
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No More Names - Names do not appear for pirates outside of your crew. You can choose to display your crewmate's names, but other pirate's names will not appear anymore, making stealth much more possible.
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Reflections - Spyglass reflection gone, and Eye of Reach reflection only occurs during the daytime.
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Friendly Fire - Cannons can deal friendly fire damage, if you're aboard another ship and your crew is firing upon that ship with your cannons, they can deal damage to you. Aside from Kegs and Fire, Cannons will be the only thing that deals friendly fire damage.
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Hardcore Benefits - Now, obviously there should be some added bonus to playing on a much more rigorous experience right? I believe that all reputation rewards should be doubled, as well as all gold rewards.
Thoughts?
