I've been working on an idea for Sea of thieves to make it a bit more exciting.
A new Merchant VS Pirate content. Got a lot in common with the current cargorun system.
Merchant:
Depending on what merchant lvl you are, you can buy quest from outposts with different value.
The quest will be to go to the targeted outpost and collect goods, then you bring them back to the original outpost to get maximum pay.
Maybe??? you have to pay for the goods when you collect them but you will be rewarded to make x2-x3 profit in the end.
The trade route will go between the different regions of the map. The Shores of Plenty, The Ancient Isles, The Wilds. The Devil's Roar poses a bit a problem, but could just give higher reward.
I'm thinking lvl50 merchant = 20K mission. Invest 1k-20k and be able to ~double or maybe ~tripple your profit when you travel the longest distance.
There will be notes on the boxes with destination as it is in the current cargorun system.
You could aslo use the same boxes, plants, rum and cloth.
(https://seaofthieves.gamepedia.com/Cargo_Runs)
Maybe increase the amount of cargo you can take depending on the lvl of the quest.
Maybe give merchants doing this quest a "Royal Merchant" flag to make them stick out a bit from the crowd.
Pirates:
Snitches lurkes around on every outpost. The more money you give them, the higher value will the information they send you, have. The information will be sent when the cargo is being collected because the snitch have eyes on the docks.
The information could contain where the goods were loaded and what region it's supposed to be delivered to. Information could come in the form of a Pigeon post which makes the message a bit delayed giving the merchant a head start.
LvL doesn't matter when you pay the informant. If you are a lvl1 in all classes, you can still pay off the informant to get information about a lvl50 merchant trader.
So why chase after the merchant? Well first, you're a s**m pirate always looking for free loot. Second, you dont have to invest any money as the merchant has to do, remember, 10k investment for a 20k-30k profit. Free for us pirates when we steal it.
Allthough, paying off the snitch could cost as much as 50k total to get to the highest value of information.
Just an idea. Cheers.