Ahoy there!
As the title suggested, I wanted to collect suggestions to spice up Gold Hoarder voyages with new or altered voyage types or mechanisms. If you have any feedback or ideas, let me know in a post below and I'll try to update this (and give credit) accordingly.
For suggestions on the other two factions check here:
Order of Souls voyage suggestions
Merchant Alliance voyage suggestions
We're in the money! (Additional loot types)
Currently the Gold Hoarders will mostly request you to fetch treasures in the form of chests (since they have the only key for those chests). They'll also reward you for some smaller items like the cups and other trinkets that you find in fort treasure or on a beach.
With the Gold Hoarders being somewhat shady I could imagine them dealing in any matter of items without asking questions about the original owner. Thinking of additional loot types like paintings, decorative artwork, jewelry and bags of diamonds.
Changes to riddle maps
The riddle maps are a lot of fun and some are quite hard, however a lot of people don't think they're worth it because they take a long time and the rewards seem to make it not worth it.
Have riddels span across islands
Having a longer riddle that spans across islands or even a single riddle that at the end lets you dig up followup maps.
Add sketches to riddles (Suggestion by @Erinom3)
Instead of describing a certain features on an island, the pirate that hid the treasure could also have made a sketch of a very recognizable landmark on an island.
Add underwater markers as well
On some islands there are some quite nice locations underwater, they could be implemented into parts of riddles as well.
A worthy reward
To reward your effort of finding a treasure through a long riddle, it should reward you with a significant treasure. Why would the pirate that hid his/her treasure go through all that trouble when the treasure wasn't worth hiding in the first place.
Multiple dig spots
At the tree closest to the camp walk 7 paces NE and dig then 5 paces SE for chest number 2 and 10 paces N for the final reward.
Multiple chests in the same digspot (Suggested by @Hynieth)
Seeing how you can stack multiple chests into eachother, having a higher number of chests on the same digspot shouldn't be too hard to implement.
Smaller rewards in between islands
It would be nice if you get a small reward on each island, like a relic, flagon or jewelry box together with the clues that direct you to the next island (Suggestion by @IceMan-0007).
Better treasure for long riddles
The longer the riddle, the higher the chances for good chests.
More steps to the reward
By adding more directions to the ending you'll make the treasure harder to find. Example:
Walk 15 paces N-NE, from there 5 paces S, 12 paces E, 3 paces NW and there is where you'll find the treasure.
Retrieval of specific hidden treasures
Sea of Thieves has a lot of hidden locations and uncharted islands. Give players a voyage to uncover the secrets of a hidden cave. Looking for a Rare pieces of loot in combination with exploring hidden locations will be a nice addition.
Serverwide Scavenger Hunt (Suggestion by @Hynieth, @John-Hatter)
At a random time (once a day) everyone on the server will get a riddle, either by just adding a riddle map to their inventory, showing the riddle like the server merge message or showing a banner. The riddle promises a large treasure to the first crew that finds it.
Upon solving the first clue and dicovering the location you'll have to complete tasks to find the next clues. These tasks can vary from normal riddle solving, digging up new clues, finding clues in scattered books or notes, defeating some skeletons or finding a specific animal. Each clue will give you information towards the next one.
Clues won't dissapear so sabotage won't be possible, however the first that'll find the end will get all the rewards, the rest will just find a note saying they were too late. The treasure itself should make it worth everyone's time.
Uncovering sunken treasure
Voyages to "Look for the 3 sunken chests North of the coast of Island X"
Rumoured treasure (Side-Voyage)
Have the Gold Hoarder conversation contain bits and pieces that hint towards treasure on certain locations. Instead of it just being random chatter, make sure there's actual treasure there.
Pirate of the Week award (Weekly challenge)
Every week there will be a challenge of collecting the most valuable treasure. Everyone will automatically be signed up for it and the counter is reset after every maintainance. With the extra chat option at the Gold Hoarders "So how am I doing for the challenge?", they'll let you know how much gold you've collected over that week (or maybe add it at the top of the Gold Hoarder commendation page).
At the end of the week, the pirate with the most valuable treasure will get the Pirate of the Week reward, which is a symbolic amount of money, a title "Pirate of the Week" and your name on pamflet attached to the Gold Hoarder tents accross all servers stating: "Pirate of the Week: Captain FishSt1ck, for the 52nd time this year".
All torn up (Suggestion by @Admiral-RRRSole)
A combination of riddle and X marks the spot.
You dig at each clue in the riddle, revealing a piece of the torn map. After collecting all three or four pieces you then lay the map out (preferably on the ship's table) and they glow like a solved riddle clued. This could be substituted by map pieces simply being dropped close together on the ground. This action will then glow green and mark the "X" like a riddle coming into focus.
All torn up II
An alternative to that would be using one riddle to find and dig up another riddle which could take you to a different island to dig up another riddle and so on. I think this would be way too annoying. Although if it just gave an X map on that second island it wouldn't be so bad.
Treasure roulette (Suggestion by @Admiral-RRRSole)
This would work with either X map or riddle.
At each given location you are prompted for a choice, either take the chest or move on to the next tier of another GH riddle or X map. Leaving the island will de-spawn the unclaimed chest. The thing is, each progressive quest is worth more than the previous except for the dud (empty chest) which is added to the mix at random.
Would you stop for a lesser value chest or let your greed take the risk of a higher reward or possibly the dud?
The worst part is you won't know until you sell it to the gold hoarder. Another twist here could be that the dud chest has a gimmick or joke. One gimmick could be that your pants drop to your ankles making you trip over but besides the extra animations a lot of pirates run around in their underwear so that wouldn't be practical. lol
Cutting out the middle man (Suggestion by @Admiral-RRRSole)
Another form of X map or riddle could find skeleton keys.
Each key type only opens the respective chest type. So if you find a captain's key it will unlock all captain's chest during your entire game session. Unlocking the chest will earn you more gold (the GH's share) as you no longer need the Gold Hoarder to open it for you. When opened the value will instantly add to your crew's account. The same as selling it at an outpost. The chest will then de-spawn.
Following a trail of treasure
Someone robbed the gold hoarders and managed to steal a huge treasure, they damaged the chest they took though and it's spilling treasure. Follow the trail of shiny items to find the treasure. This could form a problem though if other crews would be able to see the trail of shiney loot as well and you suddenly lose the trail.
Obtaining items from NPC houses
With the Gold Hoarders being a shady bunch, they could have heard rumors of a certain item in a certain NPCs house. Finding and "taking it off their hands" would earn you a nice reward.
For example:
The Gold Hoarders have a client that wants the painting that's currently hanging in the Tavern on Golden Sands. To obtain it, you'd either have to try and steal it without being seen or convince the innkeep to give it to you.
Stealing the painting
Would require you to distract the innkeep in a certain way, which you have to find out by talking to other NPCs on the island. Trying to take the item without distraction, will get you killed.
Convincing the innkeep to trade you the painting
The innkeep is willing to part with the painting after you complete a task. This would mean either deliver a message, deliver a package or retrieve an object for them.
After you successfully retrieve the painting you walk back to the Gold Hoarders with the painting (which acts similar as a map, but is a held item like a chest) and you hand it in.
Thank you for reading and again if you have any feedback or ideas, feel free to let me know in a post below and I'll try to update this (and give credit) accordingly.
Signed,
Captain FishSt1ck
