This update for Sea of Thieves expands the game with more risk, meaningful choices, and dynamic player-driven stories.
With the new Infamy System, every player has an additional reputation score as a dangerous pirate. This value increases when you attack other players, steal loot, betray alliances, or use the black market. It decreases when you play honestly, complete missions, or help other crews. The higher your Infamy, the more attention you attract in the game: you can earn more rewards, but you will also be hunted more often and live a more dangerous life.
The Black Market is a hidden trading system for stolen or illegal goods. Players can earn significantly more money here compared to regular traders, sometimes nearly double the value. However, this comes with high risk, as traders may betray you or other crews may be alerted to your presence through hints or tracking. Higher rewards always come with higher danger.
As an extension, there is a secret criminal faction called “The Black Tide”. It is only accessible to highly infamous players. Members gain access to exclusive missions such as raids, sabotage operations, and targeted robberies, as well as special rewards and black market deals. At the same time, they become much more visible and hunted by other players and the world itself, and trust within the faction is never guaranteed.
In addition, the system introduces a bounty feature. Highly infamous players become visible targets for other crews and can be actively hunted. Players who successfully defeat them receive rewards, creating focused hunts and meaningful PvP encounters instead of random fights.
The world reacts more strongly to player behavior overall. NPCs, traders, and events adjust depending on how infamous a player is.
The goal of this update is to strengthen the sandbox gameplay of Sea of Thieves by adding real consequences to player actions and creating more memorable and unique player stories.
Update Idea: Infamy, Black Market and Black Tide System
A punishment system for playing the game randomly.
One week I’m attacking players, next I’m being helpfulBut what defines as helping? What defines as being bad?
Breaking alliances now a troublesome feature as it increase something I don’t want to worry about?Fun for certain games but punishing in this one.
adding real consequences to player actions
Yup not in my play book. My consequences are the other player coming back for revenge and winning.
I understand the concern about defining what is “helpful” and what is “bad behaviour”, because at first glance it can feel subjective.
The intention of the system is not to judge isolated actions in a strict moral way, but to build a pattern-based reputation. That means Infamy wouldn’t increase or decrease from single moments, but from consistent behaviour over time.
For example:
Repeatedly attacking players, breaking alliances, or stealing loot would gradually increase Infamy.
Consistently completing voyages, assisting crews, or trading honestly would reduce it.
Breaking an alliance once wouldn’t suddenly label someone as “evil” – but doing it regularly as a playstyle would.
This also means “helping” doesn’t need to be perfectly defined as a single action category. It’s the accumulation of positive interactions versus hostile ones that shapes the reputation.
The goal isn’t to punish freedom or random gameplay, but to make different playstyles more readable and meaningful for others in the world. Right now, the game already allows total freedom, but actions often have no long-term identity attached to them.
This system would simply make that identity visible and create consequences that are consistent with player behaviour over time.So depending on how we play (which is relative to each individual) it's going to punish us? I'd like to know how on earth this system is going to determine if I've "helped" other crews or not, especially when it seems I've been encouraged to do more harm than good. As it currently stands, my FPS alone screams whenever I simply look at Port Merrick, so this system should work great.
I also love how this will help us target specific players in order to ruin their experience, which violates the game's code of conduct.
So you want people to be punished for being a pirate in a pirate game? Please make this make sense. If being a pirate and stealing loot from others is way to hard to comprehend and grasp maybe this is not the game for you. Skull and bones may be a better choice. You don't steal treasure from others. Truthfully I couldn't even read all what you wrote after the 1st part of it making zero sense. You can't say hey go be nice to someone so you get some "bad points" taken away you naughty naughty pirate. The game chat itself blocks you from typing Gg in Hg after a fight when you do it too many times after so many battles. It tells you censored chat. Unable to send message. So you aren't even allowed to be nice to your opponents. They would get so many reports saying I did this trying to be nice. What you may define as good and bad acts will be way different to someone else and will cause more toxic interactions Not a great idea.
Repeatedly attacking players, breaking alliances, or stealing loot would gradually increase Infamy.
Again, this happens daily and part of the game core. Its not encouraged but happens even if you dont mean too.
And Stealing loot is commendation/achievement bound sometimes. So if I dont want to increase, I cant do my coms or achievemnts?
Another: Attacking/Defending myself is subjective. Someone gets close and stands in my way, I might have to swing a sword...if they die even by accident? That would count.Consistently completing voyages, assisting crews, or trading honestly would reduce it.
"Assisting" depends. I could assist by picking up loot for a player who sunk, but the game sees that as stealing even if I dont turn it in.
Im being forced to do things in a sea of free to do what I want.The goal isn’t to punish freedom or random gameplay, but to make different playstyles more readable and meaningful for others in the world.
Seem alot more punishing. It already clear as dawn how players playstyles are, making them readable doesnt help.
create consequences that are consistent with player behaviour over time.
Punishing me for being a Pirate, in a game built on being a pirate.
Seem more of a system to keep players in check, or hunt down the "bad" players for no reason. Your labeling players for there actions and playstyle, nobody wants that.
You might as well boost bad behavior for being a Reaper Faction and never harming another player. Or because you sided with Flameheart.thanks for the detailed feedback you’re right on several points.
Especially the idea of measuring “helping other crews” is way harder to define cleanly than it sounds, and it could easily be exploited or feel inconsistent in practice.And your concern about targeted bounty hunting is also valid. If it’s too specific, it could quickly turn into griefing or focused harassment instead of fun emergent gameplay.
My idea was more a rough concept to add risk/reward and stronger player-driven stories, but I see now that the implementation would need a lot more safeguards and clearer rules than I initially considered.
