After sailing for more than 1000 kilometers I can safely say that SoT is one of my all-time favourite games. For me, it all comes down to its amazing premise - constructing an environment conducive to creating my own adventures and stories. This results in nearly unlimited replayability, as I'm encountering new people every time - some ready to steal my loot, others happy to sail in my alliance. When I am the agressor, some try to flee, others try to stop me in a fight. The concoction of PvE and PvP content is extremely well brewed, that's for sure.
However, there is still room for improvement - and for me, it is the fleeing-chasing part. Usually, it all comes down to who's getting bored first; the escaping crew chooses the direction in which the wind suports their ship type the best, while the chasing team tries to cut corners. This usually results in pretty similar speeds and, therefore, quite lengthy and boring pursuits, spiced up only by some explosive barrel action.
My suggested addition would be able to solve this problem, giving escaping ships a chance to gain some extra speed, at the expense of taking a risk. It would also create many amazing stories, great battles, and provide a better immersion into the world - all of these features seem to be the core of what SoT really is.
Giant maelstroms (just like the one in Pirates of the Caribbean), scattered around Sea of Thieves, would pose a threat to everyone daring to sail next to them; however, they would also reward skilled captains, able to maneuver through extreme tides. Falling into the center of a maelstrom would result in instant sinking, making it quite a dangerous environmental obstacle. An attempt to travel against the rotation of the vortex would also be a terrible idea. On the contrary, sailing with the spin would be still dangerous, but doable. The closer you get to the center, the more holes are blown in your hull, but also the faster you get - up to maybe twice the normal speed for a period of time after leaving the maelstrom. This would make it a great way to travel quickly and leave the ships chasing you behind, but would be risky and challenging at the same time.
...I've just found a first problem with my idea (that's already looking fantastic, duh) - items form ships destroyed by maelstroms. Losing your items forever would not create a great experience. One of possible solutions is to just make them pop up near the maelstrom, ready to be picked up. Or maybe the whirlpool could activate and deactivate in a cycle - sometimes close up and spew out everything that got sucked into it.
I've spent some time looking at how the engine of this game generates movement of the ship and it seems very well done. Rather than using some clever tricks to make it look believable enough, developers were able to emulate the movement of different ships with attention to the smallest detail. This is the most visible in the storms, where we are climbing giant waves constantly. Therefore, creating curved water slopes necessary for maelstroms seems possible. Or maybe I just made someone reading this cackle and think 'this guy clearly doesn't understand how game engines work'. :P
All in all, I hope I'll start a small discussion here, maybe someone had a similar idea or found a way to improve mine.
If anyone from Rare is reading this - thank you for your time and for this amazing game. You really outdid yourself with Anniversary. Keep it up!
