Reaper's Bones Rework

Agree with points 1&2 for sure. Although I don't know where exactly I'd want to prioritise it in terms of trading company reworks.

Not sure what the benefit is to point 3 though.

Just to make note, I completely forgot to add the 4th thing, I just wrote it up, so please take a look!

Good concepts and ideas

The Point of the 3rd concept is that Reapers Bones doesn't have any Faction loot except their Reapers Chests, and Flags based on each faction. This makes sense as their point isn't getting loot for themselves, but stealing the factions loot. This is why I think that it would be cool if the Reapers marked Faction loot as their own. As PvE Reaper would be much harder to do without doing the new voyages, this would mean partaking in PvP as a Reaper would be more rewarding, as such being able to Mark loot which in turn lowers the value of the loot for other crews would make them more threatening. As even if the Reapers lose, they've still shown themselves to be a threat to the companies as they have tampered with their supplies.

I agree with you but will never happen...

Thanks for the Reply.

@kakaroto9766

'' You mean the EASIEST? Yeah, its easier to go do a fire tornado than it is to sail around looking for people to rob, but THAT is part of the work. That is part of being a reaper pirate, the hunt.''

I guess this part is more up to interpretation of the Reapers motives as well as how each individual has different opinions on ways the Game could change or be improved upon. I Personally think that if a Faction is dedicated to fighting, then the most efficient way of making money shouldn't be doing voyages or world events. That's not to say they can't do world events, but I don't think it should Overshine PvP as much as it does currently. Sure you can run reapers and hop for 3 hours, it only takes finding that one good server and steal that one loot haul to make your millions. PvE via world events is much more consistent and why a lot of people do it. I think Reapers should promote PvP or Reaper Specific PvE Rather than doing the regular stuff everyone else is doing. Currently Reapers is kind of just the faction to raise if you're gonna do something that gets a lot of loot that isn't just one faction, so you get more money, it doesn't really feel all that threatening as it should. But again, that's my opinion, and its what a suggestions thread is for, posting opinions.

'' "Disrupting other trading companies" is just your opinion about how reaper should work mechanically in the game. Reapers are the real pirates of sea of thieves. Thats it, its not about disrupting anyone, its about making money, whether it is from events or from people.''

In the Ships of Fortune Content Update Video, which was the introduction of the Reapers, there's a line that states ''This Sinister Lot are all about battle and bloodshed, and would like nothing more than for you to burn the other emissaries to the Ground''. This is where the idea that Reapers being rivals to the rest of the Factions sort of started, and why their Emissary Power is being able to spot other players repping other companies, as the Reapers want to disrupt them as much as they can, both as a mechanic in the game to find players with loot, as well as lore wise. I've always seen the motive of the Reapers Bones to be this, Disrupt the factions and haul loot in order to terraform the world inside the shroud into an ideal position for Flameheart to come back into, where the Factions are dwindling and pose less of a threat. This would be why they buy loot, to encourage Reapers to steal loot from the Companies, making their lives harder, and to stockpile all of that loot which might prove useful.

(https://seaofthieves.fandom.com/wiki/Reaper's_Bones#Lore) has a bit on the connection that Flameheart and the Reapers have.

Most of the people in this Community I've talked to about the topic of Reapers have generally expressed they are disappointed, or at least think there can be improvements made, on how the Reapers work. I think overhauling them to be a bit more interesting in game by tieing the gameplay a bit more to Lore would be a nice way to do this, and benefit both PvP and PvE Reapers.

''I agree with the idea of reaper voyages. But not making them PVE. I would like voyages that send you to...''

The Reason I suggest these voyages is that it would fit thematically for Reapers in terms of trying to disrupt the factions, as well as directly involving battle and bloodshed, in a more formal way than something like a world event. Sure fighting Skeletons is still technically battle, but its fighting waves of nameless throwaway drone skeletons. Fighting faction reps and chasing down faction ships would feel more like actual fighting against the people of Sea of Thieves and I would assume the Servant would be much more satisfied with it. Gameplay wise it would introduce a new voyage type, exclusive to a faction that doesn't see much development in game. It would also still allow people to do Reapers while focusing on mainly PvE. I really like the new Manifest and Vault voyages as the voyages almost feel like a story, you do multiple steps in order and it feels like there's progression throughout a plot, rather than regular voyages such as Gold Hoarder where you just go to any of your islands in any order you want, just to get treasure from each island to bring back. That's why for this Reapers voyage i based it on a similar concept, where you start at one area, listen in on Human characters, then the narrative moves across the world in an order, then you get to the climax when you fight that Merchant ship, and then you reach the end when you claim that loot and set sail to go and collect that last bonus set from listening to the 'story' thus far. I feel like it would be a more engaging voyage type, almost like a mix between Talltale and Voyage.

I'm not entirely opposed to the common concept of a 'bounty' system, but there's a lot of potential issues with it that would have to be well thought out to solve, I'm sure Rare could do it, and make updates to improve it.

• What if that crew you're hunting disconnects while you're on your voyage? Does the voyage just end while you're sailing around trying to find them, meaning you just wasted all that time and have to sail back to Reapers to try again? Would it change your target? meaning you have to go back and forth across the entire map. Like if I fought a crew at Smugglers, read the nametags, and saw it was the wrong crew so left them alone. I then sail down to Devils ridge, my hunted crew disconnects, and I'm now told to go fight the Smugglers crew, now I have to go all the way back up there, just to find out they are now at Old Faithful Isle.

• What if that crew runs for 30 minutes? It means if you finally kill them after 30 minutes and bring back 4 chests, you're making far too little money/rep for the time you spent.

• What if the game tells you to bring a Merchant flag because there's a merchant online, and then the merchant lowers? Same issues with specific crew hunting.

• Being told the location of another crew could be fairly overpowered and for the most part would defeat the point of the Emissary Power to find other crews. If the other crew gets told a reaper ship has been dispatched to hunt them you'll find that 95% of those crews would just head straight to an outpost, sell all their loot, and hop servers. If I'm freshspawn and gathering my outpost supplies ready to start my day and get told that I'm being hunted, I'll just dodge lobbies. Its the same issue you have where if someone is looking to do some emissary work, and look on the map to see a grade 5 reaper, they'll just dodge the lobby, its not worth staying in there.

• Placing a bounty on another crews head as revenge for sinking them wouldn't be to do with Reapers, but the 'bounty' that is on that other crew that sunk you is the loot. If they sunk you and stole your loot, the 'bounty' you are seeking for sinking them is that loot, so in a sense that mechanic is already in game. If you had no loot and they sunk you then revenge sinking them isn't really necessary unless they were super toxic in chat and you just want to get revenge, but even then, the 'bounty' is getting the sense of accomplishment for defeating toxic players at their own game.

'' "Lets punish PVE players who recovered their loot from a primarily focused PVP player for absolutely no reason" HAhaahahh HAHHAHaa aha X). Worst idea of this post.''

Initially I put this as either 50% or 75% of the value as I didn't know how I thought it should be balanced, but I'm definitely more on the side of 75% so that the loss is lower. The idea of this was to make Reapers a little more threatening as you don't just have to worry about sinking, but also the fact you're loot will decrease in value. This is somewhat to counteract the fact that Reapers have a disadvantage in PvP due to them being highlighted on the map giving the enemy a headstart in knowing how to approach the situation. As well as the fact Reapers only have one area on the map to sell, opposed to everyone else having 6, meaning Reapers usually have further to sail in order to sell their loot. Also, their sell spot can be much easier protected. If I sink to a reaper I can just sail to reapers and block it, then start the fight. If I sink to a gold Hoarder and block Sanctuary, they can just go down to Golden Sands or Daggertooth. The reason I didn't want the mark to lower the value too much is because if you're emissary, you already lost a lot of value. As if you were grade 5 you would've gotten 2.5x base value, but now you only get 1x, but then it'd be actually 0.75x with Marking. Maybe the 0.75% is only if you were non-emissary, and depending on your emissary grade, the outpost will be a bit more lenient on the sell price and let you sell for more than 0.75x due to you having shown commitment to their faction by becoming a high level emissary. Balancing that would again be up to Rare, I don't know exactly how that would be balanced or even if it would be balanced. I still do like the Idea of Reapers Marking loot as their own, whether that changes value of loot monetarily, reputationally, emissary value, etc would be something to consider.

The Hunters call thing was written before Sirens were introduced and talked about adding Sealife to the game that are mainly found in Coral Reef Locations. Sealife such as Piranha, Lionfish, Dolphins, Hammerheads, Crabs, Turtles, Stingray Etc. Some Sealife being passive, some being friendly, and some being aggressive, with the relative hostility being based on the region you're in, Wilds being mostly Aggressive, Ancient Isles being Mixed, and Shores of Plenty being Friendly. My Concept of Sirens was that they effectively defended these Coral Reefs as well as being emergent encounters in general like they are currently. In terms of fighting Stronger Meg or Kraken, I think a Voyage for this would be a little overpowered especially if you can get Commendation Progress for killing Megalodon Variants. My Concept for this was instead a world event, marked by a Seashell Cloud, that had one of many Sealife Bosses, such as Strong Meg, Strong Kraken, Crab Boss, Turtle Boss, Moby Boss, Manta Ray Boss, etc. Each of these would have unique battles that are a bit more than just shoot the main body until it dies.

The Voyages for Hunters Call had you put Fishing Nets on the Back/Sides of your Ship replacing the Rowboat Spot, and you went to Coral Reefs to Incapacitate Fish and lure them into your net, then Haul the Net to the Hunters Call to sell them. And while you're doing the voyage you'd get hassled by Sirens trying to defend the Sealife.