This is going to be me spit balling ideas of how we could introduce new animals into the game and make these wild additions fun and enjoyable for every pirate on the seas. I don't see this a being added a seasonal update, but something to be added alongside it or maybe added a month into the season (like the Skull of Siren song and Safer Seas), but I'll leave that up to you to decide.
The Story - So I think that the best way to explain why we're seeing animals on the sea of thieves now, would be that recent events involving the Dark Brethren tampering with the Veil has disrupted the balance of nature as well as allowed the memories and interpretations of animals to traverse the Veil to the Sea of Thieves and become real, resulting in a diverse array of previously unseen wildlife to emerge across the seas. While most pirates are eager to find and catalogue the colourful new varieties of birds and other animals, the Hunter's Call and Merchants Alliance see a new opportunity for trade and business.
The Hunter's Handbook - This will be a new section added within the Hunter's Call reputation so help pirates record all the new species of bird and other creature sightings on the sea. This will be structured differently from the usual commendations boards, commendations will be available on the left side of the board with a journal-like page on the right side. when a commendation is unlocked and highlighted, the journal page will display information related the commendation unlocked, displaying information about the animal unlocked or some hidden lore about how these creatures interacted with the ancients or why these creatures have been in hiding for so long.
Passive creatures - These would be passive, interactable, and unkillable entities that would spawn on islands or in the sea based on the vicinity of the players or their ship. There would be many variants of these animals that would appear, so can be found across all anywhere at any time while other variants would require certain locations and time for player to see them. There would also be commendations available for pirates to unlock by spying these animals with their spyglass as less as commendations for spying every variant of certain animal in a group, however they will be scared off and hide if a pirate gets too close to their perches, but they'll eventually return after the pirate leaves the area for long enough, adding challenge while supporting the emersion. These creatures also spawn on forts but would go into hiding when an event become active at the fort.
- Birds: Birds would be the main bulk of the creatures added and would include various kinds of birds including Parrots, Owls (Because I know someone who would be happy to see them), Corvids and more that would be found hanging out in high spots like the branches of trees, rocks, and various manmade structures across the seas. These would be found anywhere on every island across the sea of thieves, you might even see some of the more common variants hanging around at the outposts. However not all birds would be found hanging out in high place, there would be a few flightless birds like kiwis that could be seen poking out of bushes and plant on the larger islands as well as ducks, king fishers and other waterfowl hanging around the pond on the islands. The rarest birds would include mythical birds like Phenoxies, extinct birds like Dodos and the Reaper's Heart parrot (A reference to the Servant's parrot, used to spy on pirates).
- Lizards: Mainly found on the larger islands as well as some of the smaller islands of the sea of thieves, some of these cold-blooded inhabitants would be found sunbathing on rocks and stone structures like Thorny Devils, Skinks, Iguanas and more, though sharp-eyed pirates might spy a few Geckos and Basilisks (Not the mythical ones) hiding on the trunks of nearby trees. The rarest lizards could include the illusive Chameleon as well as some lizards with more dragon-like features.
- Mammals: Mainly found of large islands, these would range from various sizes, starting with small mammals like Rats and other small mammals like Hedgehogs and Prairie dogs scurrying around every nook and cranny of the islands. There could also be some wild monkeys hiding in the branches of trees along with the birds. You could also find wild foxes, skunks and armadillos rummaging around the bushes and under groves, though they'd be more common to encounter at night. Speaking of night, there could be a option to have bats where why'd be found hanging upside down on the roofs of caves as well as the occasional few on a tree branch or ancient structure during the day, but when night arrives many can be found clinging the interior walls of their caves, but many will leave their caves and can be found clinging to the trunks of trees or the flat faces of large rocks. Another mammal that could be added could be Otters that could be found playing in and around the ponds and coasts of large islands. As for rarest creatures, you could offer up a few rarer variants for certain species like vampire bats for bats or unique species that are harder to find like Chinchillas for rodents.
- Sea creatures: These would include a variety of new sea creatures, some like Turtle and Horseshoe Crabs can be seen crawling out on the beach before heading back to the water, others like Orcas and Porpoises can be seen breaching the waters nearby you ship while sailing at open sea before quickly disappearing as well as seals, sea lions that can be found both at sea and on the beaches, many of these creature could possibly be seen as you're swimming down to the siren shrines and treasuries as well if you like. There are more aquatic species to cover, but I’ll cover them later when talking about some of the other gameplay features.
Interactable creatures
- Feeding tables: These could act a small platform that pirates could place food upon such as fruit, meat, bait, or seed to attract creatures out of hiding to get a better look at them and maybe even pet them before the wander off into the wild.
- Dolphins: These aquatic chaps will spawn randomly alone or in pods while you’re out on open sea, if your ship is moving, they'll follow your ship for a few miles before leaving your ships side, but will hang around if your ship stops, but will flee when attack in anyway. But you don't want to scare them, because Dolphins aren't just admirable to look at, they act as deterrents against NCP threats like sirens and sharks so you can linger in the water as much as you like, plus they can act as an early warning against emergent threats like megs, skeleton ship, even the kraken, if a Dolphin suddenly makes an alarmed squeal and disappears you know something is coming. Plus, in addition, if you feed them a fish, they'll return the favour by helping you with collecting floating items or saving sinking items.
- Oysters: These shellfish will appear on large islands on rocks near the sea and can be pried open for the chance to find pearls that come in various rarities and values, these can be sold to any company for gold and rep, but these pearls will be worth more when sold to the Hunter's Call, plus there will be a few commendations in it if you sell pearls there.
Hostile creatures - Not all creature added will be passive, there are new creatures that have come out of hiding and are not afraid to stand their ground against any pirates that cross their path. These creatures would have more health than regular animals (I'm thinking around 200-250 HP) and will drop unique meat that will have healing properties like Meg and Kraken meat. These new creatures will not only provide a new obstacle to pirates on large islands, but the Merchant Alliance are offering some high rewards to any pirates brave enough to capture them and bring them back, but in order to catch these creature you'll need new cages provided by the merchants as well as a new addition to the Sea of Thieves inventory, the Net.
- Boars: Finally, after so long, boars are returning to the Sea of Thieves. These will look like pig, but slightly bigger, furrier and with big tusks. They'll appear on larger islands, come in a variety of colours and styles and wander around the island like regular pigs, but the moment they see a pirate they charge with no hesitation. They will charge a in a straight line 3 times which pirates will have to dodge, less they receive 50HP damage, until the Boar tires out which will giving you a chance to throw your net on them and place them in a cage.
- Eagles: Eagles have taken roost on the larger islands where chickens dwell, you'll usually find them roosting at their nest which they'll have set in the branches of large trees, on top of tall rocks or on the side of cliff faces. They won't attack pirates on sight like the Boar, so you can admire the Eagles all you want, but get too close to their nest and they’ll fly at you to attack you, slashing you to deal 30HP of damage before flying off to circle around before attacking you again until the pirate is far enough from their nest or dead. The way to capture these birds is to first leave a piece of meat on the ground near their nest, either by dropping it or killing an animal. Once they land to feed, you'll have the chance to throw your net on them and placing them in a cage.
- Frilled-Neck Lizards: These bizarre lizards will be found skulking around large islands along with the snakes. When a pirate is spotted, they'll take a defensive stance, standing up on their hind legs with the frills outstretched, if the pirate chooses to approach them or throw a net at them while standing in front of them, it'll quickly charge and take a 25HP bite out of the pirate before running away at almost lightning speeds. There is no method to slowing this creature down, you're going to have to trust your aim to throw your net on them before it gets away and place them in a cage. Or if you playing with a friend, you could stand off against these Lizard while your friends nets them from behind.
- Cursed animals: These would be very rare variants of the 3 new animals (Boars, Eagles and Frilled-Neck Lizards) and 3 original animals (Pigs, Chickens and Snakes). These Cursed Variants act like their respective animals and can be caught in the same way, but they've been afflicted the skeleton curse, making them appear partially or completely skeletal. Sadly, the Merchant Alliance won't take these cursed variants, but fortunately the Athena's Fortune and Reaper's Bones will happily take these curse creatures off our hands. The Athena's hoping to study and understand the skeletal curse to learn how to reverse it, while the Reapers will take anything pirates give them, though I can't shake the feeling they have sinister plans for those cursed animals.
New Items - There will be some new items added that will enable you to better experience the joys this update would bring as well as assist in commendations new and old.
- Nets: Let’s start with the item that we've been talking about with the new hostile creatures. These Nets can be found in barrels around the Sea of Thieves, but captains can purchase a handful of them from the shipwright. These nets come as a throwable projectile that will unfurl with a wide hitbox making it easier to hit a target when thrown and can be picked up again if it lands on the ground or in the water without hitting anyone or anything. As we established in the Hostile creatures section, nets are used to capture the new creature so you can properly cage them, but you can also use them to catch pigs or chickens as well if they are a little too fast for you, note that the net will be used up when used on any animal or NPC and can't be used again. Another use for the Net will be for fishing, in this update you will see schools of fish around large islands and shipwrecks, the visuals of these fish will update to reflect what fish a pirate can catch at that point in time, if a pirate throws a Net at a school of fish, it will turn into a Fisherman's Bounty, a bundle of net containing 2-5 fish of any species available to the pirate, this can be open to view and pick up the fish caught or emptied straight into a storage crate or food barrel, after being emptied it will revert back into a Net for the player to use again while the school will reappear after a 10 minute cooldown. You can also use these nets on NPCs like a skeleton and phantom to stun them and keep them in place for 5 seconds so you can finish them off, just don't expect these to work on bosses or red ocean crawlers. If these nets are used underwater, they will spread out in front of the pirates, might look useless, but they are handy for stunning a shark or siren swimming straight at you for 5 seconds and using it to deal some damage on them. And who said we must stop a PVE? Yes, you could use Nets against enemy pirates and stun them for 2 seconds. Now you're probably wondering how is 2 seconds of stun supposed to help in a PVP scenario? Well, let’s say you're trying to board an enemy ship, but there's someone watching the ladder. Throw a new at them and use the opportunity to climb up but be careful not to miss or they might pick up your net and use it against you. Or someone has gotten on your deck, and they keep slipping through your fingers? Stop them in their tracks with a Net and finish them off but be careful not to hit your own crew by mistake, you get the picture; it's risk vs reward. I think Nets could be a long-lasting feature as both a useful tool and PVP gamechanger if implemented correctly.
- Hunter's Trap: The Hunter's Call have noticed the abundance on new creatures populating the oceans and wishing for pirates to bring them some unique sea creatures have devised a new instrument to assist pirates in this endeavour and can be bought from any of the Hunter's Call representatives at the Seaposts. The Hunter's Trap as they're calling it, is a small cage like item that has been specially designed to be attached to a pirate's fishing rod to capture these new sea creatures such as crustaceans like Crabs, Lobsters, and shrimp as well as other oddities such as Octopi, Ammonite and who know what else lurks in the depths. Once attached to your rod, a pirate can drop it into the water from their ship or the jetty at any Seapost and wait for the trap to catch something, once something is caught you'll need to begin reeling it in, but the cage might become caught on something, so you'll have to stop an angle your fishing rod before continuing to reel, less you lose your catch and the Trap, but if you're successful you'll pull the trap out of the ocean with something inside, be mindful you didn't bag a piece of Treacherous Plunder instead (Then again, people would probably like a way to farm Treacherous Plunder). This trap, however, will wear down with each catch made, so you best hope you get some good catches before it becomes damaged beyond any use. Don't worry, you can sell the broken Trap back to the representative along with your haul to buy a new one, you might even find one washed up on the shore of a nearby island that you can use.
Commendation rewards - I though one possible cosmetic reward could be an outfit and equipment set that looks like it’s been covered in leaves, grass, and twig as if to create a pirate version of a camouflage suit or an outfit and equipment set based of the stereotypical birdwatcher/wildlife explorer outfits you see in films. Other than that, you could add a few unique items based on certain commendations and plenty on new titles.
Conclusion - Alright that's all the ideas I can come up with off the top of my head, if you've made it this far into my post I thank you for taking the time to read through my idea and hoped you enjoyed reading them, this was just something I wanted to write for the fun of it and I think it came out well. If you have any of your own ideas to add or maybe improve upon ones I've proposed, don't be afraid to share them, after all that’s what these forums are for, sharing and discussing idea. So, as I finish typing this, I'd like to know what animal/s would you guys like to encounter on the Sea of Thieves and how would you implement them into the game?
