This thread is solely based on data gathered from video material and reasoned thorough my experience pool up to date.
I have not posted here before and I made few searches based on few keywords to grab some general image after I wrote the findings down. Here are my findings.
DISCLAIMER: Anyone with exact same or similar ideas, kudos to you for thinking alike. These ideas are as much yours as they are mine. However, I apologise in advance about how the text ended up and may possibly irritate the reader to an extent. I wrote most on-the-go and I did try to format it, but it still may feel a bit jumpy.
CONTENT
Predictions & Ideas
Discussion Jewels
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Predictions & Ideas
CREATING MATES IN THE PUB
| eight randomly rolled mates at a time
- every mate is different
- even their tone of voice is different
- only foes can hear the voice of your mate
- you can hear the voices of foes and neutral mates
- crew members cannot hear the voices of their mates
| mostly cosmetic changes and a start-up item
- shows plain underclothes at the very first time
- item shown implies of explorable pirateristics
| body type changes affect their acrobatics and feats
- slim ones look lean and agile (Genji)
- they constantly parkour thorough environment
- they may tip and roll a barrel before them also while
- they may tow a treasure chest behind them the same time
- they can be tossed aside by their thewy counterparts
- they can slide underneath their thewy counterparts
- thewy ones look big and strong (Winston)
- they occasionally grapple foes immobilising them
- they may lift and move two barrels at once or instead
- they may lift and move a whole treasure chest
- they can be knocked aside by their beefy counterparts
- they can ricochet themselves from their beefy counterparts
- beefy ones look round and silly (Torbjörn)
- they willingly tumble downhill like a wrecking ball
- they may carry a barrel on their hide or instead
- they may carry a treasure chest on their hide
- they can be tackled aside by their slim counterparts
- they can bounce their slim counterparts up high
| ability to reroll all eight mates anew
- have no rush to judge
- pick one that calls you like a spark in the cosmos
| while approach differs, body type affection is cosmetic at core
- gaming pace is even between body types
- no advantages present
| every change is distinctly presented on the mates
- venturing unveils further pieces to match the fantasies
- no advantages here either
| pick a mate to begin the venture
- saves the mate and exists the creation screen
VENTURING IN THE FIELD
| venturing and performances happen in real-time
- players everywhere
- only player navigated ships to battle with at sea
- islands may hold foes of other kinds as well
| weather and daylight cycles happen faster
- weather at sea may build catastrophical storms
- weather at bayside usually stay gentle enough
| players need to read the game to make the best of it
- everyone should use the environment to their advantage
- they need to manage very limited inventory choices
- they will build their reputation as a pirate
- they have the privilege to learn and share tricks
- they display signature taunts to tantalise resistance
- environment works to resist and assist
- it provides all kinds of means to those keen enough to seek
- it provides less to those yet inexperienced, flowing about
- it sends hordes of monsters to shuffle the score
- it rewards having fun, reasoning and making mistakes
| body type and cosmetic appearances develop down the road
- available cosmetic changes are applied at will at the shops
- they become available after they are obtained
- only few items are offered at the shops at any given time
- items are cycled when a mission is returned to a faction
- only items in a shop associated with the faction get cycled
- items in every other shop stay unaffected
- body type changes are experienced over time
- they are brought forth thorough choices
| mates need to endure procedures to reach body type changes
- less plundering and more feasting make them beefy
- both plundering and feasting equally make them thewy
- more plundering and less feasting make them slim
| body types can go extreme lengths as well
- slim to runt, thewy to heavy and beefy to fat
- runt looks more like a mangled stick (Junkrat)
- they cannot parkour anymore
- they can instead hide in a barrel
- heavy looks more like a bodybuilder (Reinhardt)
- they cannot grapple anymore
- they can instead jump very high
- fat looks more like a teddy bear (Roadhog)
- they cannot tumble anymore
- they can instead sit as a roadblock
| crews may occasionally lose some understanding for a time
- duration varies case by case
- losses experienced are of joy, sense, point and aim
- joyless mate is unable to play instruments
- senseless mate is unable to repair ships
- pointless mate is unable to harm opponents
- aimless mate is unable to persuade traders
- related activities may inflict these losses
- only one loss can be experienced at a time
- greater crew comes at the cost of wider variety of losses
- therefore as a lonehook, you avoid all losses
- cooking is an activity, but doesn't deal with losses
- cooking has a different way of affecting mates
| clothes and tools are found across the field
- from the merchants to the hidden treasure
- by haggling, digging, fishing, scavenging and crafting
- haggling at merchants ensures a quick bargain
- digging is used to reveal hidden grounded objects
- fishing is a random item generator at sea and shorelines
- scavenging props replenish inventory deficiencies
- crafting is fixing and mixing things for balance changes
| players have four options to gain results from islands
- passing, sieges, expeditions and persuasion
- pass things yet uninteresting to you to get where you want
- siege whole islands, forts and ports from around and far
- expedition allows venturing of surgical depth
- persuasion makes a fortune, but also personal enemies
DEATH AND RESPAWN
| soul of a dead mate appears at a ghostly crossroad
- ghost ship is navigated by a ghost captain
- respawn by going thorough the captain's cabin door or
- pay the captain to return you as a ghost to haunt your ship
- accepted payment for haunting comes in cursed coins
- each coin given prolongs the duration as a ghost
- they also allow you to interact with your ship
- the more you give, the more available the ship is to you
- the more available ship, the easier to sail it to safety
- you return to the ghost ship if it sinks while haunting
- you return to the ghost ship if you get fully exorcised
- getting exorcised shortens your haunting duration
- it also spawns you somewhere else on your ship
- when haunting is finished, you return to the ghost ship
- while waiting for respawn, you may meet other mates
- they get sucked thorough the keyhole instead if they go first
- they see you go thorough the keyhole in case you go first
- you see yourself go thorough the exploding door and
- they see themselves going thorough the door as well
| sunken ship is an important asset to PvE thorough PvP
- each ship that sinks is used as a quantity variable
- each sunken PvP ship adds a PvE version for players to loot
- the one who sunk the ship on the spot doesn't get it
- the one whose ship sank on the spot doesn't get it
- third pirate party in a bubble at the spot gets the opportunity
- theoretically every third pirate or crew benefits from this
| shipmakers have a replica of your ship to sell to you
- the actual ship is gradually ripped apart soon after it sinks
- player has to either buy a replica from the shipmakers
- or do a favour for them in exchange for it instead
- gold always comes first to acquire a replica
- favour would be to perform a trick at the island you are on
- after the trick is done, you get your replica from the shipyard
| last options for a survivor in case the ship sank and you did not
- a mackerel appears on the spot to help surface your ship
- in case you said yes, the ship is raised from depths
- they also use their magical trident to teleport you there
- the spot is the same and the foes might still be there too
- or you decide to make a raft and sail forth civilisation
- you don't need a raft if you are at a port town already
| what happens when a mate respawns
- past the white light, the screen gradually becomes clear
- they have washed ashore gasping water out of their lungs
- they always appear at a beach near a port town
- the island is a new bubble so technically the player is alone
- until someone sails or drifts on a raft there
MICROTRANSACTIONS
| premium goods and services
- cannot sense a decent way for these to be utilised believably
- no point to implement into a game with innate traction
- unless tapped into added addiction enhancements
- company that relies on these variables isn't reliable
| manipulative variables relate to following features
- incoherent rewarding asking results before proficiency
- pseudo-randomness asking loot without ventures
- r******d progression asking joy thorough maximisation
| consider educated actions when a feature fails at these sources
- the obvious
- calculated predictions
- offered roles
- elaborate storyarcs
- appropriate itemisation
- tactical countermeasures
| some characteristics that should raise an alarm at a detailed level
- flaky limitations
- abstracted content
- false advertisement
- meaningless feeding
- zero impact
- power tapping
| failure examples that eat believability and therefore clientele
- can cross tall walls with ease, but not IKEA tables
- trace and RNG surplus leads to bloated repetition
- hype a character and deliver it as premium
- expanded reward pool only for social gambling sources
- item textures or fantasies don't fit the theme
- power creep and other similar number games
PREMIUM ADVERTISEMENT
| word about in-game advertisement
- educated newbies don't buy anything at start so no pre-ads
- pre-adsing is a form of bullying and a predatory practise
- never bully your customers
- no ads during sessions, ever
- no after-session ads either
- don't post any ads outside their respective shops
- no prompt ads on screen
- no still ads on screen
- no menu shortcuts
- leave out the shallow booster wares and corner cutters
- they only work to drain effort and bloat numbers
- the premium shop needs to be away from the basic ones
- players have the right to never find the premium shop
- so make sure it stays hidden well enough
| premium shop characteristics that work as a whole
- best one never misses the theme
- best one always fits the theme
- best one never competes with basic content
- best one always promotes the basic content
- best one never offers pay-to-win and pay-to-awe items
- best one always offers balanced items
- best one never finds itself in the game
- best one always resides outside the game
PREMIUM INFLUENCE
| word about premium currencies in games
- use only one premium currency if you really like the concept
- otherwise leave premium concept out altogether
- use of premium currencies bloat repetition
| something perhaps unusual to consider
- with premium shop residing outside the game
- and no premium currency in place
- instead, devs could rob the Gold Hoarders occasionally
- this means the game and the shop communicate with each other
- deprive them from half the gold of each voyage carried in
- this means each gold amount rewarded to players is copied
- and then offer that gold to the players located at the shop
- via shop, copied gold can be bought to covet surplus
- buying gold directly is simple and a further supportive act
- no hassle and affects gameplay whenever players want
- leaves more room to focus on actually meaningful content
- meaningful content is what brings movies and books alive
| how gold costs are to be restricted
- same type items must cost the same amount
- this means no fantasy is above another at the cosmetic level
- item price range has to be influenced by the offered item amount
- this means the more is offered at once, the less gold each costs
- items have to require materials to craft them
- materials are spread across the environment
- material requirements need to match the fantasy of the item
- leather and string for boots, wood and string for clogs
- less materials given means more gold is asked instead
- the more gold is given, the longer it takes to complete the order
- more materials given means less crafting delay suffered
- crafting delay has to account merchant's efforts as well
- after crafting delay, delivery delay remains
- distance between the ship and the shop forms the delivery delay
- the closer the ship is to the shop, the less delivery delay is suffered
- same delay variables apply to any shop in the game
| further clarification
- gold is mandatory so items and the exchange won't feel exclusive
- serving attained gold keeps the economy manageable
- and technically allows us to keep the company in check too
- in other words, let us utilise blockchain of sorts
- you can't sell gold that you don't have
- you can't rob Gold Hoarders from gold that isn't there
- no treasure chests sold means no gold at Gold Hoarders
- works as a reasonable motivator
- and provides simple statistics
- zero gold generated implies zero customers
- involvement is not limited to just Gold Hoarders
- any gold reward receives the same procedure for coexistence
- this way any voyage is equally important at this level
| heads up, the best simple "premium" shop, ever
- the shop resides at the site
- at the shop, sell real accessories
- no need to buy the game to be able to buy accessories
- no need to buy accessories to get ahead in the game
- accessories need to be practical and useful
- plushie satchels, bed sheets, lamp shades, dimming curtains etc.
- keyword; tailored accessories
FOCUS & FUTURE
| suggestions with the future in mind
- always focus on new content
- keep tactics and item diversity as the primary directive
- use your 'reasonings' young Skywalker
| about item pool and the variety
- don't reveal and offer all items at once
- too much items on screen feels intimidating and cheap
| about sets and item names
- no set items because they break some of the fantasies
- name items only by the names of their real life versions
- do not add titles into item names, e.g. admiral
- let players assign titles to their mates instead
| names of our mates
- do not show them on top of their heads
- ruins all fantasies in every single game that has those
- instead let them have their names tattooed on them
- or not names and we get another cosmetic variable to play with
- aim your compass toward one to make it glow ghostly green
- no need for names when we can differ ours from foes this way
- OR even better, do this in Death Note style, plus the tattoo
- aim the compass to reveal our ghostly names on top of us
- and have our tattoos still glow ghostly green as well
- except whenever there are obstacles between us
- creates a deeper meaning for many things
| about item cycles
- cycle items at shops to keep the game fresh
- items offered must be of a different type to one another
- cycled item must not be offered again until all items are cycled
- offer only two competing items at a time within each shop
- picking one cycles the other
- cycled item returns to the item pool
- picked item is removed from the item pool
| about item purchases
- picked item is a purchased item
- to purchase an item, match the item's criteria
- to match criteria, either use materials required or gold
- materials allow to have an item with less crafting delay
- gold allows to have the item after a longer crafting delay
- the less material given raises the gold asked in return
- more material given lessens the gold needed instead
- giving only materials in return reduces gold required to zero
- you may buy gold from the devs, but not materials
- gold and materials can be found around the environment
- be aware where you park your ship
- distance between the ship and the shop increases delivery delay
- plus the other possible pirates too, robbing your order and so
- no courier follows your ship to the edge of the world either
| about shops and their affiliations
- a completed voyage deals a new shop offering
- each shop is affiliated with a unique faction
- only the offering related to that affiliation would be renewed
- bring the fruits of a voyage to a faction to complete it
- the one employed you or their rival, doesn't matter which one
- if they don't want the fruits, persuade them to take 'em
- or return to that faction who wanted them in the first place
- beware of faction bought players hired to avenge them
- some may not take threatening so lightly you see
| about the atmosphere in general
- let each day, week, month and year feel mysterious
- not every day should be a Kill the Kraken day though
- pity that it doesn't attack at the edges of the world
- would have made it a pleasing feature
- not all sea monsters can be won you know
- sometimes the key is within invincibility
- maybe add a sea monster for each season
- each seasonal sea monster would reside at the edge
- whenever confronted, they would always sink our ship
- in a very stunning and astonishing manner
- the trophy doesnt always have to be a head
- sometimes a tooth is all we need for clarity and fun memories
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TO BE CONTINUED
This thread continues in part 2 post.
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Thank you for reading mates!
