This is a long post I collaborated with some friends on changes/improvements we would like to see in the game. I understand there are feedback threads but wanted to cover a variety of topics in a single post, so here we are. I currently sit between levels 25-30 in alliances, so if any of this is indeed in later levels I apologize. Also if any of this is mentioned elsewhere (in the same manner) I apologize for the oversight as well. I know that some of the things here have been discussed, but we also wanted to further expand on it and give our take on implementation.
Customization:
To start off, I know a lot of people have talked about wanting more customization. In a game where the sole rewards are cosmetic upgrades, we need a heavy focus on being unique in our look so that we can stand out, both as a ship crew and as a pirate.
As we are limited in clothing/customization choices, one thing that could help individuality a lot would simply be the ability to dye our clothes and paint our ship standard colors. I do not understand why we can't simply purchase a standard color for our boat or sails without having some design on them or multiple colors mixed together. Let us buy a plain black, blue, white, green, or whatever color someone wants for 50k gold instead of one of these presets that we currently have for 70k (no I'm not saying remove them, more is better and some people may like them), and let us choose the color on each individual sail. Also allow us to buy and/or create logos for our ships ourselves. This game needs to focus on the aspect of being individual, and while there will probably be a lot of people who just go with the standard black ship, black sails, and all black clothing, that's what they like and that's what they want and that should be fine. Perhaps someone would want to focus on being a merchant and represent themselves with White and Blue, or White and Red specifically and dress more as if they were part of a royal navy (yes the game is focused on the time period of piracy, but someone could play this game and just do merchant quests which maybe boring to many but if they enjoy it and want to sail around doing their quests as that, why not? It wouldn't affect how the game plays for others).
For clothing customization just make dye a purchasable product. You could even tie it to different alliances at level 25 or something. Maybe level 25 with Merchants is lighter colors such as Blue, Red, and White while Order of Souls level 25 would sell darker colors like Purple, Black, Brown, and the Gold Hoarders would sell Gold, Green, Orange. These are of course just examples and there could be a lot more color customization. The dyes could then be applied a "section" of clothing to further add to the uniqueness of each pirate. Yes, there is the possibility of there being these very brightly colored pirates that look silly (to some people), but who cares? Let people have fun and look how they want.
Ships:
On top of customization, we need more ways to use ships. Crew size is one factor, personally I feel each ship should be able to man enough people for one to be on crow's nest, one on the wheel, and other people that can do all other tasks. So for example on the sloop you'd have your captain at the wheel, a lookout in the crow's nest, and one person that can be firing cannons, repairing holes, going to an island to get loot, boarding another ship, etc. I have read that many people wanted 4 man sloops, but I think the ideal number is ranging from 1-3 for the sloop. That doesn't mean you have to play with someone in the crows nest, but at least with 3 you would have that type of option on a sloop. With the Galleon having 4 guns, I would like to see it be in the range of 4-6 person crews, so that again 1 person on the wheel, 1 in the crows nest, and 4 cannons being manned. Sometimes we do have more than 4 people and it would be nice to have a bit bigger size to accomodate that. There could also be a ship in between The Galleon and sloop with 2 sails, 2 cannons on each side and just 1 below deck floor (I believe someone said this was a frigate) which could accomodate 3-4 people as a standard.
Another factor is our limited ability to fight in different ways. We have a single type of cannonball and damage to a ship, what if a chain shot was implemented? This could damage sails as I think an entire mast would be too complex and possibly too taxing on the computers for some and a new resource type "cloth" could be used to repair sails. It would be nice to damage sails and have a ship slow down or even possibly stop if you can keep damaging the sails with a chain shot. A heated shot was basically a red hot cannon ball that was used to set wooden ships on fire. I can see this shot going two ways, you can put a furnace on the ship for heating cannon balls which would take time (and only one at a time could be put in) and use wood planks as a resource for the furnace to run or you can introduce a new resource "oil" that you put into a cannon after it is loaded with a cannon ball which would turn it into a big firey shot instead of a bright red glowing ball. Either way would be cool and then we could also have barrels of water on the ship where we can fill our buckets if we have no damage below and water coming in, to put out fires (I mean there's so many unused barrels in the ship models anyway).
We also need better ways to board other ships other than ramming them and hopping off the needle at the front or firing a cannon long distance and hoping for the best, maybe a rope tied to one side of the ship that would give some momentum and launch you a short distance.
Upgrades:
I believe I saw on a post that someone had claimed the shovel you get from Gold Hoarders makes you dig faster, which does not seem so to me but I started thinking "why not?" If it only makes you better at PvE how about allowing us to purchase "upgrades" that allow us to PvE better. It would make sense with progression as well; for example if I'm digging up a lot of chests, I could be faster at that so purchasing the upgraded shovel will make me take 2 less actions to dig up a treasure chest. Things like this do not harm the pvp "who's more skilled on even items" concept and would make sense progression wise. Change the current spyglass to one that doesn't go as far as an upgraded version, make the lantern have a larger AoE or turn the shadow pirates to normal faster, anything that would give us stuff to work towards.
New Raids/Enemy types/Voyages:
Currently "raids" are very bland and are just a cheap impersonation of games like Killing Floor where you fight waves of skeletons until the end. When I think of Raids, I think of them being incorporated into voyages and the voyages being far more colorful in terms of interaction rather than just being fetch quests. Maybe our voyage calls for us to raid an outpost that is heavily protected by the Royal Army (instead of skeletons) and we have to fight our way through the actual fort to find the captain at the top. Fighting could take place across a whole town instead of a circular arena. Make it a challenge, have us fight towards finding a key in the town that then opens a door to where the captain is hiding out.
Having multi tiered voyages that are just the same as the beginner voyages but with 3 or 4 of the same beginner voyages mixed into 1 is not progression. I expect when I am a beginner pirate that I will just be learning to go find a chest, or kill 1 captain skeleton that is on a random small island, or grab a couple of chickens for the merchants (which personally, I find merchants to be quite boring, liven them up please). As I become a greater pirate I want more interesting voyages, for example: send me with 1/3 of a map on the front and a riddle on the back to an island where i find another 3rd of the map and a key, the 2nd 3rd of the map has another riddle where i go to find the last piece of the map and another key. Once I have assembled the map I can then take the keys and go to the island on the map and unlock a door that allows me to go through a dungeon with traps and potential pitfalls, meanwhile fighting off skeleton hordes and other pirates. At the end of the dungeon is a highly valuable chest that we get to carry off (maybe more than a stronghold chest, since it is alone, or include the stronghold skull and chest).
These voyages could also include different interactions as well aside from "hold up the map" "hold up your lantern" and "hold up your compass and walk X paces." Maybe we're told to go to a side of an island (north south east west) and look for fish in the water from the crows nest that gives us coordinates of an island instead of an actual piece of paper right away. Once someone uses their spyglass to spot the coordinates it would do the green glow like all of the other pieces do and then you would have the coordinates scrawled in your voyages menu. Some voyages could also include PvP, maybe you could need to steal an item off of a ship you sank (wheel?) that floats to the top along with any treasure? Have us seek out sunken ship specific items (which dont currently exist), basically just give us more things to do.
How about a mountainous island that the top can only be reached by cannon shot and once there we open the door with 2 keys and a skull (obviously for bigger groups) and once we get into the dungeon the doors close? Then you could actually FAIL a raid rather than these quests where if a group dies repeatedly trying to kill a skeleton captain all they're going to lose is a little bit of gold (whenever that update comes where the ferryman takes money) they can actually lose the voyage in total. Maybe at the end of the dungeon you raise anchor on a ship that's sitting at the bottom of the dungeon and set the captain free (like One Eyed Willie from The Goonies). This could be really interesting as the ship could have lots of loot on it, but the key to the lower decky only releases from the captain's grasp once the anchor is raised and then you're fighting against time to drop treasure overboard before the ship fades away along with any treasure on board (dropping you in the sea).
Main Point: Make voyages more interesting! I know this has been said, but I just wanted to add some thoughts.
Other thoughts:
Can we get a Ship Ledger or something along those lines so that we can see what gold we have made recently and from what items? The idea that they pop up is nice, but as the messaging system is delayed it would be nice to have a ledger in the captain's quarters that allows us to look at a history of what we have sold in the current game session.
Also, is there going to be any type of item where we can see number of ships sank/pirates killed? It would be cool if we had an item we could show other players as kind of like a signed document or warrant for our arrest as a pirate to boast with just for fun.
If you read this far well, wow, congrats. Thanks for your time, see ya on the seas.
