(TLDR at the bottom)
Cargo Runs are imo a great addition to the Merchant Alliance and it's all I've done for that faction since then. Problem is, they got really boring, really fast. Here's a list of the reasons why it got boring or frustrating and how I think could be improved:
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REWARD: you get the same gold for every item, depending on its condition. While I agree the reward shouldn't be as RNG as every other item, I think it should vary. Adding an economy system should add another layer to the cargo runs. Let me explain: you get the cargo and a destination, and on the contract you get the total reward written for you, given you manage to get all the cargo in top condition.
Now, you could deliver it as you normally do for said reward, OR you could be a pirate and sell it to someone else, doing this could get you more (or less) gold, but how can you know where and to who you should sell it? Well talk to them!
Speak to a character while on a cargo run and there should be an extra dialogue option, they might reveal what type of cargo they need, sometimes the Clothing Shop owner might be in desperate need for clothes, or the Tavern innkeeper might have run out of grog!
You could also get the opposite, a dialogue in which they say they already have a full supply of said cargo, and if you sell it anyway you will get less than the fixed reward. But why would you do that then? Why not sell the cargo directly to the person who will pay you the most? Well first you have to find them, and you need the time to do so, and there are going to be times where you don't really have time to speak with every person in the Sea of Thieves, like when being chased by a galleon, for one. So you might want to sell the cargo to the first person you see, you might get lucky and get 600 or unlucky and get 100 for example.
Also remember you are breaking the contract with the Merchant Alliance! This means that while you could potentially double your gold reward you will also lose a small chunk of Reputation with the faction! It's up to you whether you want reputation or gold (once you become Pirate Legend reputation doesn't matter anymore, so you should always opt to sell cargo to the highest bidder).
And if you don't want the hassle you can always deliver the cargo like said in the contract and get 350 gold, plus REP! -
CONDITION: the biggest feature that separates cargo from all the other loot is that it needs to be maintained and if not it will get damaged or even ruined, granting a much lesser reward. However plants get another mechanic the other two types of cargo don't have, and that's that when they start to wither, you can just restore them to top condition with water. Once damaged, crates of clothes and bottles stay damaged and there's nothing you could do. I agree that once ruined they should stay ruined, but when slightly damaged I think you should be able to restore them like you can do with plants. With clothes, I think you should be able to leave them in the sun to dry, although I'm still not sure what to do about bottles, I don't think slapping a plank on the them would work like on my ship anyway.
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PVP: attacking a ship full of cargo will almost always be a waste of time, the bottles will get destroyed and clothes will get wet leaving you with only plants, if you are lucky. Also from the point of view of the crew being attacked, since you only have one destination possible there's not much you can do aside from fighting back or losing all your cargo. For this you can see the first suggestion and try to sell it to someone else while running away. But from the attackers perspective getting cargo (or any loot for that matter) is more of a game of gambling since there isn't much you can do to know if a ship is carrying cargo without actually boarding the ship. And that's where I'd like to introduce a neat new mechanic that should make cargo runs (and any voyage) more exciting.
You can bribe any Merchant in telling you about an active shipment, you'll pay more than a regular contract, but you can also skip most of the work by waiting for a ship full of cargo at the destination and rob them. To maximize profit you can see the first suggestion and sell the cargo to someone that pays more for each type, or sell it directly there.
As a side note I'd like for this last thing to apply to the other factions and voyages as well, but since we're talking about cargo I wanted to make it exclusive to that, but just imagine killing another crew while they where digging for treasure or fighting skeletons and get all their loot because you bribed a member of a faction that told you where to go. Lore wise, both the Gold Hoarders or the Order of Souls don't care who brings them gold or skulls, so it shouldn't be wrong for either of them to sell the same voyage to one more crew as long as they get a what they want, and a little more gold as well.
Also while there's still little information about it, I think THE ARENA will work a bit like this, all the crews will get the same map(s) and fight over the same loot. So it's not like this last suggestion is not going to be in the game anyway, even if it's in a much more larger scale. I think having a smaller version of this in Adventure Mode could benefit both.
TLDR: economy system so you can decide to break contract and sell the cargo to someone else who will pay more, but you won't get any rep for it; you should be able to restore 'damaged' (but not ruined) cloth and bottles like you can with plants; you can 'bribe' a merchant to tell you if a crew is on a cargo run and the destination so you can ambush them, given they don't decide to sell it to someone else.
What do you think?
(I know in the end I deviated a bit from the main topic, sorry about that haha, but I'd like to get some comments about both!)
