I wanted to get some thoughts out there on these forums after playing quite a bit with the new update, as the recently released Reaper Forts has me potentially excited for the future if this is the direction we are going with events, because I'm going to be honest... Many World Events have lost a lot of relevance over the years, in my honest opinion, unless they have the Chest of Fortune or Mega Stash enabled, which shouldn't be the case in my honest opinion. However, Reaper Forts fixed all of my gripes with one of the World Event... So, I hope that more future changes can revolve around this. Before I do talk about my gripes with the other Events, and provide any suggestions, I want to talk why I think Reaper Fort fixed everything...
The Classic OG Fort, just like a lot of the other events, have went through a lot of changes and even a few variations. However, certain changes were never truly undone and fixed, nor was the Fort ever updated for the current scene of the game... It has always been pretty much the same. We even lost elements over the years, such as the Captain Wave. The Captain Wave essentially got replaced with the Ashen Guardian Wave, even though there was a time where both existed... The Loot of the OG Fort has also changed a lot, use to be source of Gifts for example and for the longest time, was the main source of Stronghold Loot, though other Forts, Voyages, etc eventually changed that over the years which remove a lot of relevance from the OG Fort, alongside with nerfs to the waves & removal of the Captains. Forts just kinda went downhill and the only relevance it ever kept was that Forts were the only source of the Rags & Bones Crate, and that's it...
Reaper Forts? Well, it seems like they are have completely replaced natural spawning Forts (I have tested it a lot in Safer Seas to see if OG Forts can still spawn but no... They never do, always will be a Reaper Fort or one of the other events)... And honestly? I like this. The OG Forts still exist as Raid Voyages done for any faction to get faction specific loot, which I think is a really good way of doing this change as it allows the Raid Voyage variation & the natural spawning Event look different for other players (granted, Rare ruined this by adding an Athena Raid Voyage of Reaper Forts). On top of that, Reaper Forts brought back literally everything that OG Forts use to have at one point. The aforementioned Captain wave is back once again before the Ashen Guardian wave, Gifts are back on the menu, etc. The main loot pile itself also got updated for the current scene of Sea of Thieves and thus Reaper Forts have became super relevant for what Sea of Thieves is now, and this is before the new changes such as the Forts having traps now, weapon caches, and the invasion of Phantoms to give it a new flavor, plus all of the newer skeleton variations got added to the waves to mixed things up more so than before... They are essentially just a proper update to the OG Forts, and I greatly enjoy doing them. I don't ignore them like I did with the OG Forts.
Honestly, after such an amazing improvement and if this is being kept as is going forward with the OG Forts being Raid Voyages only, I love it. I want to see other older events get updated to some degree. I think Fleets should be next. Bring back their original ship count, allow Fleet Events spawn in multiple open water area like before, update their loot pool, and hell... Throw in the Dark Brethren Phantom ships into the ordeal to really get things going... (I know, not original and nothing huge here, but I just want to get the thought bubble rolling at least). Fleets use to be pretty massive, and one of my best PvE moments with Skeleton Ships was from a Fleet Event that spawned inside of the Devil's Roar, near a volcano. Back then, the Fleet Events had more ships per wave (even a wave with two Galleons & one Sloop if I remember). Use to get A LOT more treasure due to the increased ship count, and a lot more Ashen Chests too... Bring a lot of that back, make Fleet Events feel heavily rewarding and highly dangerous. A true battle zone of ships between warring factions, and PvP mixed in as well? Huzzah!~ Let Fleet Ships also be properly Captain Flameheart's, with updated Skeleton Variations too, this might even allow them to have more fire-based loot, including up to the Chest of Rage (their ships and skeletons can be fire immuned, yes?). The current Fleet variation, that only has one sloop per wave and then a galleon wave (three ships in total! Wow, such fleet!), can remain as a Raid Voyage just like what happen with the OG Fort, while an updated version of the Fleet Event becomes the new natural spawning one, maybe also getting an Athena's Raid Voyage version too just like Reaper Forts... Ye'!~
As for other events? I think Ashen Winds is alright, other than the loot should more likely give the higher varieties of the Ashen Loot (Mmm yes, Ashen Bounty Skull. Totally will not leave that behind!), but again... Ashen Winds is alright overall, it's by far the easiest and quickest event to do currently so the loot itself doesn't need to be massively adjusted or updated. The Phantom Fleet is... Odd. Gameplay wise, it's fine. Loot is also a bit okay, though it did lost some relevance recently because the ghost cannonball crate can now be gained from Reaper Forts, and most of the other ghost loot is obtainable from other sources. This leaves ONLY the ghostly captain skull as the only relevance, and I just not sure how one can really update the event past that (since it supposed to be ghost themed). I do think it should have Captain Flameheart's head again, personally, so it looks different in the sky compare to the Raid Voyage version of it, and the smaller cousin within Order of Souls voyages. Beyond that, I have no idea. Ghost fleet is a very odd event to update... Burning Blade is completely fine as is, no need to change that one at all. FOTD & FoF do not need any changes.
Anything else I am forgetting? I do apologize for sharing my thoughts here, this is just me having random thoughts and I am still riding on that excitement of the recent update, so brain do be ze' thinking.
