enhance the sandbox

While I don't necessarily agree with all the specific ideas that you mentioned, I absolutely agree that Rare should focus much, much more on the sandboxing elements, since that's what makes this game both unique and amazing. They can keep adding whatever grindy progression/commendation chores they want and that's all fine and good, but eventually the people that are attracted by that will complete it all and then move to a different grindy progression game. Those things don't make SoT special. If they continue to focus making this game a brilliant open world sandbox, the people who are attracted by that will play it for as long as Rare supports the game. At least I will. Hell, I get on the game just to sail aimlessly around the world sometimes because the core mechanics and atmosphere are that good. Focus on that, instead of the endless repetitive tasks that every other game on the planet focus' on

The pillars of 'the pirate life' are freedom, adventure, and conflict; doing whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want, to whoever you want, for any reason you want, and struggling through the consequences thereof. Commit to that and SoT will be one of the best open world sandboxes made to date

@bugaboo-bill I really like the idea to summon the hungering one with Merrick’s shanty requiring at least a second crew member.

Still want a salt water crocodile for a land to water threat. A shoreline threat with a small aggro. Get to close, will charge on land and will outswim you in water.

@br0crastinat0r said in enhance the sandbox:

Still want a salt water crocodile for a land to water threat. A shoreline threat with a small aggro. Get to close, will charge on land and will outswim you in water.

Oh snap, this is an amazing idea. I really like this

@ultmateragnarok said in enhance the sandbox:

"Make every ship having some special loot become a reaper flagged ship..." That would cut out the population who play purely for PvE. They wouldn't be able to get some of their chests purely from random chance.

I agree, this is harmful to the game and rather unnecessary. Some people have put forward the idea of a Reaper's Chest that causes a ship to appear on the map as though they were flying the Reaper's Mark as long as it's on board and I LOVE this idea, but it's not quite the same

@bugaboo-bill said in enhance the sandbox:

Ships with loot need to be recognizable.

They already are. My crew identifies them by chasing until we can get a boarder, either by sword lunging or cannon launching, and then the boarder runs around looking for treasure until they die. Spyglassing from the crow's nest is also a good way to tell sometimes. If there's none to be found, we just leave and move on

If nothing else using the loudspeaker and saying "Hey, if you show us you have no treasure, we'll leave you alone" might work

@ultmateragnarok I think it should just be a randomly discovered chest, much like the cursed chests. In fact, it should BE a cursed chest. Keep in mind that it only forces flying the flag if it's on a ship. It itself doesn't have a Reaper's Marker, so it could be hidden on an island, rowboat-ed somewhere if you really felt like it, or even swam somewhere if you're REALLY dedicated

I usually try not to sink treasureless ships either, (unless they're in the way of a fort or something or if they're stalking me) just raid them for supplies if we need them

there are a few things like the new powder keg i would like to be added, such as different variations of cannonballs that can be placed in cannons but not stored within barrels or stored within your inventory.

@ultmateragnarok I agree with it having it's own Reaper's Mark, although I think having some type of visual on the ship to indicate it would be good too. I don't see what's wrong with making it spawn under the same conditions as any other cursed chest. It's a risk and reward thing, not a mandatory turn in. If someone is doing something they find important and doesn't want to take the risk, then they just leave the chest. You still get the voyage completion. You've just opted not to take the risk of transporting the chest

That's where we differ then lol I love fighting other ships. Boarding and sailing another ship away takes too much time, increasing the chance of another ship arriving. It's faster to just sink them and siphon supplies (if needed) while doing it. If a ship is tailing me to a fort or stalking a fort as we complete it, I will absolutely sink them to possibly avoid a find on top of the treasure/key. I'm actually not a fan of the alliance system as it is. I think it's actually brilliant, but I hate the gold sharing concept. I know a lot of people would complain, so it probably won't be done, but I'd much rather have the gold sharing aspect removed entirely. Alliance would then have to trust each other to split the loot fairly, which leads to actual interesting ship politics. I pretty much only alliance with ships to act as bodyguards for solo sloops or newbies, since that's actually fun

@enf0rcer I will champion it any time it’s relevant, until it’s placed in the game in some form or fashion.

Maybe a Reaper's chest worth a lot that is cursed and puts the reaper flag up on your ship. But only that cursed chest.

I love the idea of the different meg variants having different mechanics. Make one more susceptible to sword slashes and you have to stun her with a keg. Make each only spawn in certain biomes so they can be hunted. Make them different sizes and difficulties and make huge ones that are almost raid bosses that drop crazy loot. I want more rare spawns. Rare skeletons (maybe silver versions of the metal skellies) that drop trinkets or gems.

Maybe add a pickaxe to mine in caves on islands or veins that show up on the land. It's a tool like the shovel and not a weapon. You can put ore in a crate and sell it to the merchant alliance or smelt it down and sell the bars to the Gold Hoarders.