This is a long post so sit fown in your captain's chair and grab a nice mug of grog.
Maine like Area with icebergs in the water. Think Pine Trees, Mountains, and north american forrests.
Forces of Nature(i.e. Giant Monsters and Weather)
Frozen North Exclusives:
Great Eagle
Blizzards
Moby D**k(Megaladon Reskin)
Icebergs and Floats
Whole World:
Giant Crab
Maelstroms
Fog
Megaladon
Angler Fish
Icefloats can be broken by the Icebreaker which is a plating added to your ship which protects it and can only be unlocked once you become a pirate legend
Icebergs must be avoided
Icebreaker also makes it easier to ram ships
New Small Animals:
Frozen North:
Hostile:
Cougar(Panther Reskin)
Wolves
Lynx
Owls
Bears
Non-Hostile:
Squirrels
Duck
Salmon
White Tail Deer
Moose(Hostile when Provoked)
Whole World:
Hostile:
Crabs
Monkeys(The Japanese Ones in the Frozen North)
Swordfish
Black Panther(The Big Cat not the Marvel Character)
Ocelots
Hammerheads
Baracuda
Eel
Non-Hostile:
Sunfish
Octopus
Tuna
Blobfish
Surgeonfish
Whale
Armadillos
Capybara
Otter
Dodo
Raccoon(Sorta)
Sloths
Hyrachyas
Two New Guilds: Fishing and Hunting Guild: With this new land comes new oppurtunity Now those not inclined to hurting others can do the next best thing hurt the wildlife
The Fishing Guild: You can now fish using a fishing pole quests will require you to get certain amounts of certain fish which you put in baskets, and occasionaly thry will require you to hunt down larger fish like Swordfish,Hammerheads, Sunfish, and Great Whites with a harpoon gun These fish will be attracted to certain areas i.e. Shipwrecks or open ocean at night so the quests will give you the time and place they are best found. There are also Fleet Quests which I will explain later
The Hunting Guild: You shoot thing it die bring carcass back you get money; Ocassionaly you will get quests requiring you to kill certain animals with certain weapons and occasionally you will get mini bosses that are buffed up versions of a normal animal think a buffed up cougar, wolf, moose or even a monkey they do more damage and are harder to kill and will usually have some unique variation in how they look i.e A****o and when it comes to and animals like the Hyrachas its the same but instead of doing more damage they are harder to find. Then there are fleet quests which I will explain right now
Fleet Quests are my idea on how to best have large groups of ships working together. Basically these are quests you couldn't do alone or with a crew of four and allow you to go with a team 12. These Quests are tough, timed, and are a big part of the new end game. You can either set up a crew manually or random matchmaking. Once you have 12 the game puts you into your own instance so you can't bully other players, but this doesn't make it easier no not by a long shot you have a time limit and if you don't complete the quest in that time limit you fail and the group is automatically disbanded and thrown into different servers.
Fishing Guild: Hunt a Kraken
Hunt Moby D**k
Hunt a Megaladon
Hunt 50 Sharks and 50 Anglers
Hunting Guild:
Hunt a Great Eagle
Hunt an Angler Fish
Hunt 100 Black Panthers and Cougars
Order of Souls:
Raid a Skeleton Fort and Get back with the riches
Fight Captain LeChuck and his whole awful cruewl and bring back their heads(i.e. hunt down a bunch of skeleton captains in one area in a certain amount of time)
Stop an ancient Aztec Ritual(i.e. fight a bunch of skeleton captains and then a huge undead version of a small hostile creature i.e. Giant Undead Monkey)
Merchants Alliance:
Capture 200 Animals
Race Each other in a 4 v 4 v 4 or 2 v 2 v 2 to see who can make a full loop of all the outposts before the others do.
Deliver 100 Explosive Barrels to 10 different outposts
Gold Hoarders:
Find the Ancient Stash of Captain Grogbeard by following world spanning riddles and quests
Go Into the Cursed Maelstrom and fight your way through an ancient aztec temple with a tough boss at the end to get their ancient stash(Dungeon Crawl/Raid with Puzzles)
Find the Cursed Ship of Captain Vomitbeard and steal their gold(note ship doesnt move but you do have to board it and its a huge frigate that can fire cannons
Difficulty is scaled to fleet size, but your probably thinking after my 100th Kraken kill won't it loose its scare factor no because These quests constantly rotate in an out and every day and you can only do them once per day and every time you defeat the monster it only gets to tougher more health and damage etc.
Also these FoN still exist in the world and will be a real threat especially since there are 3 in the Sea 1 in the sky and 1 on land and in future updates more will be added.
Map Size Increased Obviously the frozen north will be a substantial addition but the classic biomes will have Islands that are more extreme then ever for example:
The Wilds will look like a ship graveyard with more rocks and crags then ever before and it will be filled with Skeletons of the previous crews who met their unfortunate ends on the rocks. This Biome would even have skeleton forts and other structures located high atop the deadly crags
The Ancient Somethings(Couldnt remember the name) Will have thick and dense jungles which lead to Ancient Ruins from Civilizations Past which will be filled with Treasure for those willing to take it but beware both Spirits and Wildlife want their share.
The Golden Sands will be become even more picture esque with Islands dotted with coral reefs and crystal clear waters but be wary this might seem to be the most calm area but the wildlife is anything.
The islands added would be big islands maybe 4-5 each and represent these areas to a tee. With maybe 2 small islands to make it not seem too odd.
Anyway I'll explain the animals and FoN now:
Angler Fish the angler functions different then in real life first off it is massive not kraken massive but still very large its about rhe size of a sloop it uses its lantern to look like the lantern of a ship and it has a horizantal fin to look like a sail it only appears at night and tries to lure greedy pirates to their doom once you get near it; it lunges at your ship and does a massive bite which deals a ton of hall damage you'll know its the angler because it will "sing"(mimic) Wayhay and Up she rises.(The Cool Part about the Angler is that Sloops could play the audio on mic and through a speaking trumpet during night time with their front lantern on to scare larger ships away)
Moby D**k/Megaladon: These monsters randomly appear like the Kraken but unlike the Kraken they just bite the ship and smash into it and their prescense is much more physical so you could.hop ontop of them they also can jump up in the air and land on ships until they flop off you defeat them by first shooting their eyes and then their mouths. Their appearence is signaled by the water turning extra foamy almost completely white. They can also fight the Kraken, Great Eagle and Giant Crab if the encounters line up. Moby D**k although a reskin of the megaladon is way tougher with more health and much stronger in general making it the strongest monster in-game and he also can blow water out of his blowhole flooding your ship.
The Great Eagle is A Massive Eagle that swoops down from the sky and can pick boats up and toss them or bring them up to its nest on Mt. Desert It can also simply land on larger boats and will often fly near or above the ship sending out massive sharp quills like a porcupine which are hidden under its feather and act like harpoons(Mentioned Later) Your best options are a sniper to the eye or the newly added mortar(Mentioned later) If you shoot its eyes out or mortar its feathers off it'll plummet into the water which is where Phase 2 will begin where it becomes sort of fish like swimming through the water it now has its quills fully exposed and uses its beak to ram your ship and still shoots its quills from here on out you use cannons and blunderbusses/pistols to shoot at it but getting to phase two is extremely difficult because these are supposed to be Forces of Nature not Bosses. It is signaled by feathers raining down from far above. It would have a dedicated home on Mt. Desert and always flies back there so if you wait it will come but it won't be hostile to any ship in a radius near Mt. Desert unless provoked or you steal one of its eggs as a delivery quest for the Merchants Alliance. If you steal an egg it will be p****d but only if it finds out i.e. goes home but once it does it will hunt you down basically having GPS towards your boat
Giant Crab This is the weakest Force of Nature and is more akin to a classic boss occasionally when you are just chilling on island doing something a giant crab will come up from the sea and go onto the island its underbelly is its weakpoint and its main attacks are its claws(duh) you can break the shell with cannons and then everything is its weakpoint. It doesn't focus on the ship it focused on you but can be found on the sea floor eating the larger fish.
Two FoN Monsters fighting each other would be pretty rare but would be similar to MH:W Turf Wars The Ecosystem is like this: All other wild life<Giant Crab<Whales<Megaladon<Great Eagle< Kraken<Moby D**k Encounters would go like this GC vs. MG MG bites into GC's shell breaking it doing essentially what cannons would have done this one would happen on the shoreline basically the MG jumps out of the water grabs Crab and drags it down then thrases for a bit and then the GC comes back.
GC vs. GE GE picks up giant crab takes it to its nest on Mt. Desert and if you go to Mt. Desert you will be able to find a weakened GC. GC vs. Kraken the kraken chucks the giant crab far away you might be able to find it without its shell on some far away island . GC vs. Moby D**k MD grabs GC and bites into it killing it instantly.
Megaladon vs. GE: Great Eagle grabs the megaladon and brings it back to its nest if you go to Mt. Desert you'll find a Megaladon Corpse(Note: If you are doing a fleet quest then this does count as completion you just have to find the carcass)
Megaladon vs. Kraken: The Kraken picks up the megaladon and throws it far away similar to the GC but less distance.
Megaladon vs. Moby D**k: MD bites into Mega but Mega bites back they thrash for a bit and Mega loses an eye.
Kraken vs. Great Eagle: Krak pulls GE down into the ocean and tries to drown it once it is unsucessful it throws great eagle away putting him into his second phase automatically
Kraken vs. Moby D**k This:
COLOSSAL SQUID (giant squid ) Vs. SPERM WHALE "EPIC BATTLE"
Your probably wondering what about the Angler Fish well it is completely nocturnal and actively avoids all other FoN Monsters so yeah.
There would be similar small animal fights like Wolves Hunting Otters and such.
FoN Weather:
Blizzards Tough Storms exlcusive to the Frozen North it wouls cover the entire area in snow a physical object that you can walk through and it leaves your footprints which makes it easier to track tricky animals. You also have to shovel snow off your deck or else your boat will sink from the weight similar to a roof collapsing
Fog: Its Fog also this would be an eaiser one to develop since the clouds aren't just a skybox you can just bring the cloud models down to the ground and use them as fog and it would make it more realistic since thats literally what fog is.
Maelstrom: A whirlpool that sucks your ship down and sinks it it would be signaled by a flushing sound all you have to do to avoid it is sail around it.
Also Icebergs are like rocks that move around and Icefloats are small bits of ice both wreck up ships without the Icebreaker but Icebergs wreck up ships even with the Icebreaker.
Animals:
Hostile:
Cougar/Panther: Lurk Around and wait to pounce on anything, except wolves, including unlucky scurvy dogs. They mainly hunt at night. Cougars are found in the Frozen North And In very far north areas of the wild, Jaguars.are found in the Ancient Whatever,Golden Sands, and Southern Parts of the Wild.
Wolves: Found in packs of three or four they usually hunt smaller animals and pirates although they occasionally go after Cougars and are fpund everywhere in the Frozen North
Lynx/Ocelots: small Cat like creatures only hunt small animals like squirrels and only attack pirates if provoked. Lynx are very rare and hide in the furthest areas of the frozen north. Ocelots are also rare and found in the deeper jungles of the Ancient Something, Golden Sands, and the Wilds.
Owls: They live in trees everywhere in the Frozen North hunt small animals and only attack when provoked.
Crabs: They live on all of the shores and just kind of scuttle around and snip at you doing a tiny bit of damage.
Monkeys: Live Everywhere although vary region to region(Sniw Monkeys that live in Hot Springs, Generic Monkeys in Golden Sands etc.) They stand in trees and are jerks they attack unprovoked often throwing cannonballs, skulls, swords, buckets of brown "water", bananas, and occasionaly shoot flintlocks. The regional northern variant lives in hot springs and are a bit calmer, the GS is the classic, the Ancient Whosawhatsits are outwardly hostile hunting you, and the wilds are usually sparce and care more about food then attacking you so just give em some bananas and they will help you.
Swordfish: When you are swimming they will try and shiskebab you and thrre nose functions like a skelton using a sword so you can have swordfights underwater.
Hammerheads are much meaner then the Great Whites they are weaker still but much more aggressive if they see you they will chase you down even while your sailing and won't stip until you kill them.
Baracudas: They hunt in large packs and our found around shipwrecks easily lured away by chum buckets and can be killed by swinging your sword wildly or firing a blunder buss into a crowd of them.
Eels are found around reefs,caves, and wrecks they are hostile upon seeing you but won't chase after you they emit a small electric shock around them doing damage they can also hurt you with a bite.
Non-Hostile:
Squirrels: Live in the Frozen North mainly just scurry around and do their own thing.
Duck: Lives in Lakes in the Frozen North
They swim around and make quacking noises.
Salmon:FN:Found in various streams often swimming up them
White Tail Deer:FN Very Chill they eat grass but are easily scared away often bucks will fight like in real life
Moose: FN:Usually Non-Hostile but if you attack them they get angry and fight back.
Various Fish: They Swim around blob Fish: Stays at the bottom of the open ocean.
Octopus: When you get close he inksprays the water and swims away(side note you can throws a captured octopus back to sea to make your enemy think a kraken is attacking and they might run away
Whale: It swims around occasionally shoots water out of its blow hole and makes loud noises
Capybara: I dunno issa capybara
Armadillo: Just roams around hides in its shell when you get close
Dodo: Dumb Bird just waddles around stupidly
Otter: Found in Lakes and Streams across the various seas swims around and hunts fish.
Raccoon: Digs through barrels hunting for supplies and if your boat is close enough to shore can hop on it and steal supplies if you catch them you get all their stuff. Will attack if cornered.
Sloths: Sit in trees all day found in Ancient Whatever and Golden Sands.
Hyrachas: Functions like White Tail Deer but in the Tropical Areas.
Ship Mods:
Mortars: Are in the front center of the ship fire in an arc, have 360 degree rotation and can fire directly up syarts a fire on the ship which has to be either stamped out or put out with a bucket.
Harpoons: Great for Hunting Monsters and Fish. When Launched it Drags the ship or creature closer to your boat so you can board them/shoot the creature. if it is a fish you can drag it on board if its a ship then its self explanatory.
Why a Maine like area because its captures the Theme of the seas it feels like the ocean sure it may not be the classic Carribean but it still stands out as an important icon to sailing also people ran rum through Maine so its sorta related
This is more so a general list of odeas just compiled in one place I really like the Angler Idea personally its my favorite. Anyways I'm really excited about Sea of Thieves and all it has to offer. Thanks for Reading this whole text dump
