Puzzles/Minigame for Voyages

  • Ahoy everyone!
    I was thinking that this game could really expand on the puzzle/ mini game mechanic. This system could allow for some interesting mini games that could be incorporated for solo play and multiplayer experiences. Activation of pressure plates, door opening mechanic, targets to be hit, size of puzzle, etc... could depend on crew size. ( As a result all puzzle/ mini games mentioned below were created with solo and multiplayer in mind.)

    Initial Voyage
    The initial voyage should start the moment you first log into the game. It should focus on a couple of things:

    • Immerse you in the world
    • Provide you with a purpose to do voyages, and be a pirate
    • Provide you a ship
    • introduce you to game mechanics

    The initial voyage I had in mind could start you off by waking up inside a slave ship/royal armada ship ( Basic galleon). You wake up inside the brig. A couple of seconds later an NPC captain comes to meet you and reads you the reason for your detainment: Stealing bananas from the King (or stealing them from the King's royal ape, DK: As a small throwback to another of Rare's game). The captain will then tell you that the punishment for these crimes is death and will be transported for sentencing, he will then work his way up to the higher decks. The player will then be left in the cage for a couple of seconds, before cannon fire is heard and the ship begins getting hit (holes in middle deck only). Soon after, the cage doors will open/ break. The player will then be able to pick up a sword in the middle deck and must fight through the top deck filled with royal navy men ( 4 NPC for galleon, 2 NPC for sloop). As the player reaches the top deck, the Sea of thieves main theme song will play. Players will need to deal with a ( 2 or 4, depending on the ship the player wishes to start it in) crew npc battle up here with the npc at the wheel of the ship being a captain: Boss fight. After killing the captain you steal the ship (This is the ship that you will use for the entirety of the game)
    The player must then discover how to repair ship: plug holes, take cannonballs, and use cannons against the enemy NPC ship that is still firing at you (The NPC ship should be focusing all its attack on middle deck as this is meant like a tutorial stage for players). Once the npc ship is left with holes, the player must then board the ship, and make sure npc don't re spawn on ship. If successful, the ship will sink and a common treasure chest, a skull, and a caged chicken will float up into the water. Players can get it and give it to the nearest outpost in which the voyage will end and the player will be able to join the rest of the real players in the sea of thieves. (The ship that the player steals is decided whether the player chose to play in a galleon or a sloop at the beginning of the game. If a sloop is chosen, less npc will need to be fought (No enemy in bottom deck, 2 enemies in top deck - 1 of them, the captain, is the boss). After giving the loot to the outpost merchants they should start a dialogue in which they express how the player should gain reputation for them to amass a fortune in order to enact revenge on the royal land/ king.

    +Side note: This voyage doesn't create a story for you, you are still amassing your own rep whether it's to be seen as the legendary grog master, the legendary navigator, pirate, so on and so on. It simply gives incentive as to why reputation needs to be amassed, the type of rep is up to you.

    Core voyage types

    1. Eye Patch: -
      Bulls Eye mechanic-Perhaps one puzzle could have you or your crew shooting from far distances at a bulls eye to allow a stream of water to flow through a wooden wheal (water mill type of deal) to open a door
      a) This could also work with cannons, hitting the mouth of a skeleton statue on a mountain: could open up a waterfall or wooden wall.
      b) Greater difficulties will have more targets (A skull statue where you have to shoot the eyes as well as the mouth or more skeleton statues. Eyes and jaw moves or open/close, farther targets/ shooting distance.) and a timer for the amount of targets hit stay activated before you would need to replay the mini game.
    2. Pressure plates:
      Crew must find symbols on their map/ walls of caves and jump on the corresponding symbol plate (All players must do so to land on the other side where ur crew must stand on 4 plates (Plate activation depends on crew size) at the same time activating a door.
      a) By pressing on the wrong symbol pressure plate, poison darts begin to fly, spikes stab the plated area, etc.

    3) B***y traps
    left by pirates of long past (could be used as regular traps or as puzzle mechanics)
    a) trip wires/ropes could be used (kind of like how modern movies show a thief in a museum or bank dodging the laser alarms.) If a rope snaps, the players in the area take some form of damage.

    • Sequence: Bamboo darts/ spikes activate in a sequence and then go into a resting state. Players must traverse the area by finding the timing pattern and crossing on top of these trap areas while they are resting. These sequences could also be used in a racing hallway section where you must completely turn an anchor wheel in order to de activate for a limited time a bunch of dart walls/ spikes/ and other trap contraptions littered by. The player must jump a bunch of obstacles/ enemies/ and platforms (thin [Log walking section], Some taller than others, some longer distances with a pit in between, under water trap sections [un-breathable], etc)
      B) Barrel run: Mini game mechanic resembling Donkey Kong vs Mario classic segments. Pirates must jump over explosive/ regular barrels. Regular barrels push the player back while exploding ones deal dmg.
      4) The Groggy dance:
      Players must drink from a grog fountain and walk a platform without falling off. The fountain refills the grog. When the fountain completely refills ( Drunken state wears off) the door closes. The pocket watch can also be used as timer (Timer on puzzle section varies depending on voyage difficulty: either the riddle map or something in the environment or a journal will imply/ straight out give the time span that one will be drunk with the grog)
    • 2 door areas are opened when players drink from the fountain (The initial start of the platform and the end of the platform)
    • The doors only open when all players have drank the grog (If solo play then the grog fountain depletes after 1 person drinks it, 2 person? grog fountain depletes with 2 players, etc)
    • Difficulty range is rated by platform(s) quantity, thickness, complexities, jump sections, and abyss (the area below the platform. the abyss area difficulty ranges from water (No player dmg), high platform(instant dmg from falling) toxic poison mist(dmg over time), bottomless pit(Instant death)
    1. Lever mechanic (Many ways this could work)
      A) Alchemy Anarchy: Players must push levers/ move levers to fill up a potion with various effects. Potion falls into 2 effects. Desired and undesired
    • Desired effects include an explosive potion (Blows up a hidden wall/ sealed hole/ platform) to find hidden secrets or to progress the adventure. And a water potion (Fills the room with water allowing the crew to float upwards like an elevator)
    • Undesired effects: Poison intoxication potion (deals dmg), necromancy piracy potion (Spills on the floor spawning skelys), Unstable explosive potion (Blows up in the area dealing dmg to crew members instead of blowing up the obstacle needed to progress), Groggy potion (Affects the crew with drunken state)
    • Some potions could mix (Open for discussion) For example, the groggy and the necromancy potion make an interesting battle
    • Different chemicals are mixed and matched through the use of levers to create potions. Through trial and error or through some riddle or clue the crew may find out which potion is needed.
      *Potions need to be taken and thrown (Either by hand or inserted in some cannon)
      B) Anchor wheel: These type of contraptions could be used to open cave/ dungeon doors which could lead to many mini games/ puzzles/ platforming. Furthermore it could be used to initiate the voyage mini game strting point, or the mini games themselves (Which will then have the anchor wheel turn slowly in the opposite direction it was turned in order to express a countdown timer has been activated to complete the mini game (Until the anchor wheel must be cranked up again to restart if failed)
    1. Shadow hand:
      A monument/ statue/ monolith stands in the middle of the map, players must find a clue (hidden in the map through paintings or as a riddle in the player's map. The riddle will "imply" a clock with a hand pointing at a number in the clock. The player must then use the lantern and point it at the monument/statue/monolith in the middle of the area and walk around it, as they do, a shadow should form behind the object (becoming a hand). The point of this puzzle is for players to move the shadow in the direction where the riddle's clock hand is pointing. 12 o clock should always point north in this game and the obstacle should always be at the center of the area (center of the clock).

    2. Ghastly lamp labyrinth:
      Basically a labyrinth where you must go through different corridors pointing a lamp. Different hued lamps open different doors (Expanding the labyrinth or providing another colored lamp) The doors have a colored gem that has a direct connection to the color/ glow of the lamp and open up when the player holds up the lamp to the gem)

    For added difficulty, the entrance to the labyrinth could close and water could flood the corridors (Water levels fall when a wall gem is activated and a door becomes unsealed or when you get to the end of the labyrinth)

    1. Boulder and log run:
      Crew members must run away from a boulder or log that rolls behind them. Being ran over by the rolling object leads to instant death. If one crew member makes it through, the obstacle blocking the goal is removed/breaks with magical energy/ crumbles away

    2. Pirate Jig:
      Players must stand on different colored/ lit/symbol platform in front of a cursed magical door (Skull head with gem in forehead). The gem will flash out a color and players must then stand on the corresponding pressure plate (Simon says style) with 4 pressure plates in total

    Lower difficulties: Pressure plates are already lit up, players must only look at the door gems color sequence and follow it.

    Higher difficulties: For higher difficulties, the pressure plates will be blank, players must find the color of the corresponding 4 pressure plates through drawings in the area/riddles drawn in the area (Or riddle given with the treasure map). Not all pirate jig games will be the same, pressure plates may alternate between door gem-to- plate color correspondence to, door-to-voice (Door will speak a riddle/ show a color and players must decipher it by standing on the plate and doing the correct emote- emote to color jem can be found through riddle solving or through drawings hidden in the area).
    Punishment system: Doing the wrong emote or pressing on the wrong plate could lead to skeletons being summoned (Arena style)

    10) Run it to the Brim
    A underground hallway mini game- Players must reach the end of the hallway inside a cave area. Players must go down a stair case, down into the starting area of the corridor. Once a player crosses the starting gate (Has the same image of the face on the crying cursed chest) walls, roof, and the gate itself begins to pour water. The gate water pressure from one side doesn't allow players to go back through the gate, while the entrance side of the gate has a another face that sucks in any remaining players through it and then closes. Players must then race towards the end of the corridor (With obstacles and different lvl platforms in the way) while water fills up the corridor. If all players die/ drown, the corridor will drain itself of water and players may start again at the entrance where the gate is at (Gate is connected to ferry of the damn's gate to the living perhaps).

    11) Reflections off of a Northern Star:
    Crew members/ players must reflect a light coming from a gem/ beacon wooden contraption. Mirrors can be found spread throughout the area and players must rotate the mirrors in order for the light to be reflected across the room and into a door/ gate gem (Opens the gate/Door). Where does the light actually come from?

    • The beacon contraption
    • focused sun light (day time)
    • focused Star light (Night).

    12) Bombs away:
    Gun barrels are loaded into a cannon- like mechanism. The player/ crew must then shoot the barrels when they are flung in the air or risk getting hurt by the area damage. (ammo boxes found on opposite ends of the platform if done solo then another ammo box can be found in the center of the platform). The platform will be rectangular in nature, with players having to travers the platform from one edge to the other without being thrown off.
    -Higher difficulties could result in...

    • More cannon-like mechanisms/ more frequent gun powder barrels being shot, cannon balls (can't be shot, must be evaded)
    • Platform where player is standing on is decreased in width (thickness), with some form of fall damage/ instant death if player is knocked back by the gun powder barrel or if they aren't careful.
    • Kamikaze skellies on platform
    • Snakes on platform, fire pits: throws a stream of fire upwards from the platform, or skeletons on platform

    13) On strange tides to the Edge: (Could be merchant alliance exclusive)
    While on a ship players must traverse a giant, towering gate. When players cross the gate, they are transported to a ghostly/ ghastly ocean (Ferry of the damned themed). Players must then work together to sail to the other end of the gate where another gate lies while traversing many rocks and obstacles. Traveling through this end gate leads to an island or large cave (with docking) area with hidden (Must look at riddle map to dig for treasure)/unhidden booty.
    Higher difficulties:

    • Red sea (Causes damage to the ship over a period of time)
    • More obstacles (Small islands with skeletons shooting cannons, more giant/ small rock obstacles)
    • Turbulent seas (More waves, rougher waters)
    • Storms (causes dmg to ship and stirs the ocean- rougher waters)
    • Fog: Decreases visibility range
    • Time that the gate will stay open, if time runs out, starting/ end gate will close and the sea will turn dark red (Ship sinking will become inevitable)- Pocket watch with riddle map will tell the amount of time the gate stays open before players must re-do the mini game. The moon will also display the time left (New moon means the mini game has just been started and full moon means that the mini game was failed: At the time of full moon it will turn red and sink the ship quickly, killing all players who touch the now tainted red sea.)

    This mini game must be activated ON SHIP only. The ocean area (A small ocean map separated from the game itself) of this mini game will be limited in size, with clear defined edges with water falling down the edges of the oceanic platform. The 2 gates (starting gate and end gate), will be on opposite sides of this enclosed map with water cascading down into an abyss on all 4 sides (Called the edge of the world).
    Other payers/ crews may also go through these gates as long as they are still open.

    14) Skull of shadows on a pedestal (Order of souls exclusive) :
    Cave area with 4 skull statue pedestals with symbols on them, players must read/ find riddles that show 4 different skulls (With 4 different colored gems in the eye sockets) and tie them to a symbol on the pedestal. Players will then need to fight a never ending wave of skellies. Some of these skellies will have gems in the eye sockets. Defeating them will allow players to pick up their eye ball gems and put them on the pedestals. A correctly placed skull gem will have the eyes of the skull light up in the color of the corresponding gem (The gems in the eyes of the skull will light up).
    Higher difficulties:

    • Once the first colored gem is placed correctly on the corresponding symbol pedestal, the lights will go out in the area. (Players must fight/ find the remaining skulls in the dark with the only light emanating from the eye socketed gems of the correctly placed skulls on the pedestals.)

    Each skull statue will have 2 eye sockets meaning more skellies will need to be fought to get a pair of corresponding gems ( A total of 8 gems will need to be correctly socketed to finish this puzzle)

    No ammo box may be present making sword fighting mastery, a must.

    Lower difficulties:
    Skull statues on each pedestal will only have one eye socket (The other eye in each each skull statue pedestal will have an eye patch).

    Room will not have the lights go out

    Ammo box may be present in the center of the arena to allow for some quick gun play.

    15) Lock picking: This one is fairly simple, some chests, when found, will be encased in a small cage or wrapped in chains and a lock. Players must then use lock picks found around the world to open these chests. The lock picking mechanism may also be taken advantage in skelly forts with gates or doors. lock picks break after a certain amount of tries

    16) Grave digger

    • random graves
      small portions of loot will be given for digging a grave.
      random chance of a group of 3-5 skellies popping out when digging.

    A small item will lie inside the grave. This item will reveal the next piece of the riddle by allowing the glass piece to be used with the telescope/eye patch/ glass eye tool so that players may see magical glowing foot prints or riddles where other wise they may be undiscoverable.

    17) When Fish Fly (Traded to merchant alliance)

    • New tool item: Fishing rods, silk lines (Ammo type), lures.
      A fishing mini game that allows players to hunt and trade in small sea life. The tip of the rod will bend slightly (Controller vibrates) when a fish catches the bait. The player will then need to turn the rod in the direction that the fish is swimming in while reeling.
    • Reeling a sea creature that begins to pull intensely in chaos on the bait will slowly brake the line.
    • Sometimes fish will jump outside of the water, by pressing the button that reels the fish in, the character will instead pull on the rod, flinging the fish closer (Faster than reeling it in)
      #New enemy type: Baby sharks: less dmg than regular sharks, less health, higher quantities than regular shark. Able to be reeled in and traded at merchants.
      #Sea creatures will need to be stored in barrels, filled with water, and then sold to the merchant alliance.
      #Special items of mini game: (Also traded into merchant alliance)
      Kraken tentacle (does not need to be stored in barrel, just stored like chests or skulls)
      Large sharks (Stored like chests or skulls)
      Octopus (Stored like chest or skulls, releases ink cloud every 2-3 minutes, if exposed to cloud, player screen begins to darken till black)

    18) Charting the sea of Thieves (Trading company exclusive)
    Players will be given a riddle or area to be explored that has a hidden cave or island (Not shown on the map). Within these locations their lies lots of loot (Jewelry, goblets, adornments, fine cutlery, paintings, golden animal/ banana statues, etc...) Once a certain level of reputation is gained (At different milestones) with the trading company, these locations become permanently marked on your map.

    • lower lvls
      Instead of finding new islands or hidden oceanic caves, players will be sent to islands (Map visible, already known) to discover caves or hidden locations on said island. (Found by following a riddle or given by a drawn schematic of the entrance of the location (At basic lvls, the secret cave/ land area is already marked).
    • Higher difficulties
    • Will be asked to find whole islands or cave areas hidden below the ocean or outside the map (For the duration of the voyage, the area with the red sea will not turn red. These out of the border areas will have island or underwater sea caves that could be large and disappear after voyage completion.)
    • Might contain B***y traps

    19) Cannon dodgeball
    arena style (rectangular)
    In a long rectangular arena, players will climb down the steps into this floor on one side, on the opposite side, a bunch of skellies with cannons will lay in wait. Scattered throughout the arena players will find plot holes and trench like holes as well as wall barricades. Players must then use a combination of dodging/ evading flying cannonballs, timing the cannonball shots, and quick shooting (preferably eye of reach rifle) to get to the other side.

    Difficulty rolls:
    The challenge in this particular room is that it will randomly generate from 5- 10 skellies on each cannon
    And barricades, holes, inter connected caves or trenches to hide in might be scarce to find or abundant, every environment will be different.

    • The area may have waves of spawning kamikaze skellies, infantry skellies, and cannon skelly waves for higher difficulties

    20) Athena's fortune: Athena's awakening- Rising Atlantis in the ocean of Seven (Or Charting the sea of thieves continued lvl 40+)
    (This upcoming one could be used either for the trading company or the legendary voyages: Athena's fortune. either or but not both. personally I think this one goes better with Athena's fortune. What you guys think?)

    • Will be asked to discover deep underwater ancient civilization city ruins (With enemy types including mermaids, sirens, sea creatures, Atlantian- like tribe people)- Works like a large dungeon event- This is for the most highly ranked voyages- the city will contain a mixture or combo of the puzzle/ mini games seen here as well and will have rewards far beyond a skelly fort. Furthermore, in order to find the reward (Open the city underwater gate), players must first mark the area by shooting a magic bluish flair gun (so that the trading company may find you and pin point the location they wanted you to find which will then alert the order of souls to perform a ritual that allows the city to surface and open its magical gates). During this time the flair will not disappear till the city rewards are taken and when it lands in water or an island it floats and sends a smoke signal seen far up into the sky (Other players may also find you by seeing the flair). Furthermore, players will need to watch out for areas exposed to water (water fills up certain areas of the city and sometimes shark infested waters). New enemy types should be added into this voyage in order to make it more challenging as well as enemy positioning with rifles or cannons (Instead of raising health or precision with weapons). Riddles and maps (from gold hoarders will lead you to the series of mini games that the player must accomplish to reach, reveal, or open the vault room. Occasionally, before reaching the vault room, players must reach the "throne room": Boss battle type, rectangular arena with lanterns/ candles lit up on or near some pillars. The boss in question should be able to summon other enemy types, as well as be able to use guns with magical properties (shooting volleys of ghastly/ regular fireballs at players, spitting grog through a torch creating a fire breath, teleportation, quick leaping, etc...)
      The boss battle should allow players to react to certain moves(If about to volley fire balls with 2 flintlocks it will first touch the flintlocks, look side to side (as if scanning arena), and finally initiate attacking action (firing volleys of fire balls). As the boss gets into critical health, it will begin to attack in chaos, and reaction time will be decreased for the player as the boss attacks faster. (Furthermore, players may always use throne chairs or column to block these special attacks).
      In some instances the throne room's lanterns/ candles will go out, turning some areas (Sometimes the whole throne room) completely dark. (If throne room has glass windows, or roof window and if the city area is caught in storm, then the flashing lightning will light up the arena area for a fraction of a second allowing you to see the boss and enemies summoned.) In addition to this, since this boss battle should be a drawn out one, death will have a lesser penalty chance: Plentiful banana barrels can be found around the throne room.

    Some throne rooms will have the area fill up with water, making for an underwater battle in which players could run out of oxygen, and will begin to drown (Players must fight underwater, while health gauge depletes over time, and multitasking fighting the boss, with regenerating health with bananas.

    *Note: These areas aren't restricted to other players in any way, other players may see your ship anchored (Or see your character or the flair) and may discover the given location.

    For a bit more shine, this underwater city voyage could sometimes have the city act like a limited time event, players have a certain amount of time to complete this voyage. Once they shoot the flair in the location tasked to the player to find, the underwater city surfaces from the depth below in an amazing show of waterfalls and falling rocks/ debris (With some debris creating bridges into/around the city). The city will lie on the surface of the water until it sinks back down at the end of the voyage end time. (Or no time restrictions could be involved, and the city sinks after 30 minutes after the player has taken control of the reward room/ area (The inner walls of the city could crack and water will begin to pour inside.)

    The voyage location could appear in the current map from the depth of the ocean, or allow you to traverse outside the map for a limited amount of time to reach the city area (Red sea will not turn red in this area, ship will not break.

    If this voyage is implemented into the game as Athena's fortune, then a legendary chest should await players in the final area/ riddle of the city/ voyage. (along with lots of other rare loot like fortress skulls/ chests)

    How it all comes together
    Puzzles should not be available in every quest, they should be given out in rotations like the quest rotation system. Some Islands will have puzzles, some islands will have puzzles with boss battles, some islands will just have you go dig up the treasure. The complexity of the puzzles encountered depend on the difficulty of the quest chosen/ player progression. Higher quest difficulties will provide players with more puzzles/ mini game quantity and complexity of the puzzles( as described before ex: More platforming/ greater punishments, etc...) as well. (Think of a difficulty modifier that randomizes or chooses the severity of the punishment or the lack of a mechanic: which would make the puzzle easier to handle- also known as a punishment system randomizer. The higher the difficulty the more chances a consequence is added. At really high lvls, almost all consequences are selected for the level of difficulty that the player has progress into.
    Rewards
    In conjunction, the rewards gained will have 2 core mechanics: quantity and rarity.
    For completing a mini game or puzzle, a singular (debatable) reward will be given out. For each mini game or puzzle given after the first one, the rewards will increase +1. If puzzles are disjointed: Meaning that one puzzle is done in one island (Island A) and the next following puzzle is done in another island (island B), then the reward and rarity for beating the puzzle on island B is multiplied by 2 (2x reward quantity and rarity). The rarity however depends on the puzzle mini game difficulty. Higher difficulties provide rarer skulls, chest, or spices (depending on whom your doing the voyage for)
    For completing all puzzles (And therefore the voyage) At the end of the last mini game\ puzzle a large reward will be accessible in which the quantity depends on the amount of puzzles\ mini games the whole voyage had and the rarity of each reward will depend on a range selected based on the voyage difficulty/ player progression

    A treasure chest/ reward will be available at the end of the completion of each puzzle as well as a shortcut (Mermaid statue- front entrance in island teleport system) back to the island where you may carry the rewards back to the ship.

    As mentioned before, SOME puzzles should have a boss battle at the end (Look for other boss battle threads to get idea) Some battles should be unique such as a dark cave with a spider boss that can't be seen without a lantern. Players need to use lanterns to find the spider and use weapons to kill it. Boss type and frequency of these battles (If they happen or not) should be determined by rotation or randomizer system. In addition, some boss battles will have a twist/ secret boss
    ex: Fight a giant spider first time- crew member selects the same quest in the future- Try to find out what happened to the captain and missing crew members- The boss fight is the cursed skelly captain with his cursed crew out for revenge

    Furthermore, each quest should have some sort of sub story. The quest givers will provide a small summary of the quest to be given (Some pirate and his crew fought 1,000 men at sea, stole some loot, disappeared near the island in question) The riddle map could help guide players to the entrance of the puzzle through hidden meaning/symbols/ etc... Once the riddle is started, the environment will have drawings, notes, journals, dead skeletons, weapon props, ship wrecks, fossils, etc. that will help explain the story. (For ex: Doing pirate jig game in a cave also has you notice a painting on the cave wall (entrance) Showing a bunch of pirates entering a hidden cursed chamber. After this puzzle is solved you are lead into another one, the groggy dance, shows a pirate skelly sitting on the floor (With a sword or a mug in hand- connects story to mini game) The skely may have a readable note nearby or a journal that the players may view, etc... (Flip pages but can't put in inventory. Page describes a giant beast or imply some creature/ rough waters/ Curse- The reason why the pirate crew went missing etc... as well as some personal back story on that specific skely and how he might have died).

    After completing a puzzle, a small shortcut should be available to players so that they may transport their loot/ reward back to the ship with ease (Such as a cannon on top of an island's mountain, a waterfall with a pool in the bottom where players may jump into, or a hidden cave opening where players can only come up from when water fills it up (From the potion mini game)

    Cave areas could also be used in some voyage types in which the mini games/ puzzles are inter connected(Meaning that the cave area could have different mini games that connect to each other- Once one is beaten it leads straight to the next mini game room) by randomly expanding, generating 1 specific cave area with different amount of lower floors.) Like a limited time event, this cave area reveals its expansion when the voyage is initiated but closes completely (Making it into a regular small cave 5 minutes after everyone leaves the island/ cave)
    Conclusion and afterthoughts:
    I think that the puzzles/ minigames could provide an interesting and entertaining gameplay style that may be reminiscent of older games. Furthermore, they could be used as easter eggs for classic pirate games or Rare made games ,and for the inclusion of pirate magic (As with the case of mixing potions mini game).

    Puzzles should refresh after a certain amount of time (Maybe 5-10 minutes?) after all players leave the island (Gates/Doors/ water levels/bosses all reset)

    So now that you heard my ideas what can you guys come up with?

    • A lever system?
    • Some form of platforming puzzle
    • Jigsaw games?
    • Treasure hunts?
    • Boss battles with riddles or puzzles?

    What do you guys think? Any ideas to expand this? Concerns? Any new ideas you can come up with? Could this idea sail without mutiny afoot?!!
    FIND OUT NEXT TIME IN THE NEXT SEA OF THIEVES COMMUNITY REPLY POST!!!

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  • I'm pretty sure these will be going into the game at some point. I remember in one of the promotional videos a character held up their lamp and a wall lit up. Hopefully they will expand upon it like you suggest though.

  • @cptncuttlefish I hope so, speaking of which, you just gave me another idea. Ghastly lamp labyrinth: Basically a labyrinth where you must go through different corridors pointing a lamp. Different hued lamps open different doors (Expanding the labyrinth or providing another colored lamp) The doors have a colored gem that has a direct connection to the color/ glow of the lamp and open up when the player holds up the lamp to the gem)

    • For added difficulty, the entrance to the labyrinth could close and water could flood the corridors (Water levels fall when a wall gem is activated and a door becomes unsealed or when you get to the end of the labyrinth)

    And another idea I just got is, boulder and log run. Crew members must run away from a boulder or log that rolls behind them. Being ran over by the rolling object leads to instant death. If one crew member makes it through, the obstacle blocking the goal is removed/breaks with magical energy/ crumbles away

  • @red0demon0 Rare, hire this man. He will make the best Riddles, no doubt :D

  • The pirate Jig: a door/ wall/ statue holds 4 gems representing different colors. Each color represents an emote/dance. (Players must find the color corresponding to the emote through wall symbols/ map riddle instruction, etc.) the object with the 4 gems will then activate the gems and you must play a game of Simon says by using the emote corresponding to the colors activated.

  • Much as i love these ideas and they definitely fit with rares historic game styles, you would need to think how these can be adapted for solo and co-op teams.

  • @red0demon0 After 2 years on this forum I can confidently say that this is the best Idea I have ever heard.

    If you've played much of the Alpha you will see that the "quests/voyages" are extremely repetitive.

    Puzzles could change your voyage depending on how many players are on in your crew.

    In a Galleon 4 crew members might have to stand on separate plates which opens up a door to reveal even more puzzles underneath the island.
    The door could then close behind them and they would be given a limited time to complete as much puzzles as they can. The more puzzles completed the greater the reward.

    In a Sloop 1 crew member would be able to stand on a pressure plate which would open up a door to the inside of the island again.
    The second teammate would then have to walk through while the door is being opened and then do a puzzle to allow the second teammate in.
    After that there would be puzzles that require two crew members to perform each task and they could get a set reward.

    As a Lone Wolf there could be scrolls which would have to be dug up.
    They would have a pattern on them that would have to put onto levers and they could open a door into a cave full of b***y traps.

    I think this topic should be called Design a Puzzle to see what you rascals can come up with.

    It has be put into the game.

  • @Red0Demon0 Most of those ideas sound really good, especially 1, 3 could work really well with that we've been shown already. 4 Could be really interesting for solo players with some kind of platforming, only showing you the platforms after you drunk the grog.

    2 Sounds like a really easy way to incorporate having to play with other people.

    Not sure how 5 will fit into the current gameplay, sailing from island to island and getting treasure or at least it would have limited use, when it's stationary on islands.

  • @red0demon0 Something that I would love to see is having to sail from island to island, finding items you have to use to solve a puzzle at another island, creating amore connected voyage.

    Of course big concerns for puzzles in general are replayability (keeping voyages interesting over a long term) and the amount of players for each voyage.

  • @dynamicpioneer
    Really, you think so? I feel like puzzles add to the replayability of the voyages. Like not all of them should have a puzzle but if they add some sort of story element, maybe in scribbles made on walls of caves or letters lying around and they add a boss battle at the end it would be really cool. Besides with a quest rotation system, each island (and with it, each puzzle appearance and mini game area will be different) For example, the groggy dance mini game/ puzzle won't always have the same platform. Lower quests might have you run a wide straight path (Which lets you have a fun race with your friends to see who reaches the finish line first while being drunk). But at later levels the platform could have some turns and jumps/multiplatform design. The pit where players fall in could also range from taking fall damage, having a poison cloud:dmg over time, falling into a water pool: no dmg, and a bottomless pit: Instant death). Plus like some have said already, the current quest of get treasure and bring it back with nothing else in between gets repetitive quickly.

  • @red0demon0 said in PuZzLes!:

    @dynamicpioneer
    Really, you think so? I feel like puzzles add to the replayability of the voyages. Like not all of them should have a puzzle but if they add some sort of story element, maybe in scribbles made on walls of caves or letters lying around and they add a boss battle at the end it would be really cool. Besides with a quest rotation system, each island (and with it, each puzzle appearance and mini game area will be different) For example, the groggy dance mini game/ puzzle won't always have the same platform. Lower quests might have you run a wide straight path (Which lets you have a fun race with your friends to see who reaches the finish line first while being drunk). But at later levels the platform could have some turns and jumps/multiplatform design. The pit where players fall in could also range from taking fall damage, having a poison cloud:dmg over time, falling into a water pool: no dmg, and a bottomless pit: Instant death). Plus like some have said already, the current quest of get treasure and bring it back with nothing else in between gets repetitive quickly.

    Basically, the puzzle and boss element will be given randomly through rotations (dependin on which island you need to go to) Some islands will just have you grab treasure and leave, but others might have try to find treasure left behind by "story info:" Captain flitlock who's crew mysteriously disappeared around a specific island after successfully pirating a huge hoard of loot)" or something around those lines. Then you do a puzzle (More quantity and complex puzzles for harder difficulties) and learn more about what happened to the captain and his crew as you progress.

  • @jcmdeadpool said in PuZzLes!:

    @red0demon0 Rare, hire this man. He will make the best Riddles, no doubt :D

    I second this notion! Red Demon the puzzle pirate!

  • @laughsmaniacaly
    Well help me out with this lol :P So far I think it's fairly easy to implement with solo play. Many of the ideas I created were intended for solo or co op. You see, like the amount of switches or items needed for activating the puzzles would differ based on the amount of players in your crew. So if their is 2 people who enter the "dungeon/cave area" (The place or area where the puzzles take place. Could be any place not just the ones I mentioned) then there would be 2 pressure plates to activate a door. The groggy fountain from the groggy dance minigame would be depleted by having 2 people drink from it instead of 4, etc.

  • They are some great ideas

  • @red0demon0 Lets make a campaign for puzzles in Sea of Thieves and not stop till Rare listens to us!

  • Well that's what I'm trying to get at. So this forum post will need to get a lot of people involved. I left some room for additional ideas or expansion to the ideas I already posted. Come up with new puzzles, or flaws you might find in my or others ideas. Don't let this topic die out, I feel like we just uncovered bury treasure here, let's share it with the rest of the community... just this time ;)

  • @dynamicpioneer Oh also, I like your idea, like finding some skelly keys or artificats that help you interact with other islands. The flaw with this however is that if thequest are based on island rotations and you get to choose 1 of 3 quest, then you could basically play the game without seeing an island that has that artifact for a very long time. It does provide players a reason to try out new quests though so thumbs up for that! Maybe this could also be used as a bonus area type of deal? Like if you found the artifact needed a bonus room appears and you get a bonus chest or something (But not that it would be needed to progress one quest over another)

  • @red0demon0

    @red0demon0 said in PuZzLes!:

    @red0demon0 said in PuZzLes!:

    @dynamicpioneer
    Really, you think so? I feel like puzzles add to the replayability of the voyages. Like not all of them should have a puzzle but if they add some sort of story element, maybe in scribbles made on walls of caves or letters lying around and they add a boss battle at the end it would be really cool. Besides with a quest rotation system, each island (and with it, each puzzle appearance and mini game area will be different) For example, the groggy dance mini game/ puzzle won't always have the same platform. Lower quests might have you run a wide straight path (Which lets you have a fun race with your friends to see who reaches the finish line first while being drunk). But at later levels the platform could have some turns and jumps/multiplatform design. The pit where players fall in could also range from taking fall damage, having a poison cloud:dmg over time, falling into a water pool: no dmg, and a bottomless pit: Instant death). Plus like some have said already, the current quest of get treasure and bring it back with nothing else in between gets repetitive quickly.

    Basically, the puzzle and boss element will be given randomly through rotations (dependin on which island you need to go to) Some islands will just have you grab treasure and leave, but others might have try to find treasure left behind by "story info:" Captain flitlock who's crew mysteriously disappeared around a specific island after successfully pirating a huge hoard of loot)" or something around those lines. Then you do a puzzle (More quantity and complex puzzles for harder difficulties) and learn more about what happened to the captain and his crew as you progress.

    The last part sounds really interesting, narrative thorugh the environment and puzzles in the game. If puzzle appearances and solutions are always different, like the riddles with always different chosen, but already placed points of interest they can have a high replayablity.

  • @red0demon0 ok i see your view, i was concerned at first glance that you intended this for only 4 person crews and as a majorly solo sailer didn't want to miss out.
    In hind sight i have seen many a thread purporting to the concept of traps, the physics of such are not such a bold step from this. One such post i made was for an underwater wreckage that would have time sensative activations such as moveable planks or having to swim out to turn the helm thus moving the rudder and allowing you passage to below decks, this could in turn then sequence a small selection of puzzles. The idea being that this puzzle is time sensitive due to the finite length of time you can hold your breath but also the other pve aspect of underwater predators.

    I would love to see some mind challenging puzzles in game although i understand that rare are aiming for a 12 rating so i doubt getting treasure for reward of getting drunk would see the light of day

  • @laughsmaniacaly said in PuZzLes!:

    In hind sight i have seen many a thread purporting to the concept of traps, the physics of such are not such a bold step from this. One such post i made was for an underwater wreckage that would have time sensative activations such as moveable planks or having to swim out to turn the helm thus moving the rudder and allowing you passage to below decks, this could in turn then sequence a small selection of puzzles. The idea being that this puzzle is time sensitive due to the finite length of time you can hold your breath but also the other pve aspect of underwater predators.

    Building on that, it would be awesome to have interactive environments, being able to use already set b***y traps to lure other pirates in your own trap as an example. Generally making use of structures in wreckages or on islands, best of course with the already existing item set of swords guns, cannons.

  • @dynamicpioneer
    Yup! and I'm thinking of haing the player themselves become part of the narrative too. For example, lets say you decide to do the puzzle area with another crew and at the end of the quest their is 1 treasure chest. All of a sudden the other crew turns against your crew (Or ur in a rat race where your crew and the other crew are trying to kill each other every step of the way starting from the get go!) In this scenario I wouldn't know how puzzles would work. Why would I want this implemented? Well, I don't want to restrict puzzles just to ur crew members only. Other crews should be able to join in on the fun but idk this is open for discussion (Not sure how I feel about more than 1 crew doing a puzzle or about a crew killing you at the end of so much hard work. In the end I guess it depends on trust and if you want to work together.) Basically I share in the idea of the devs, I don't want puzzles to restrict the current pvp mechanic in place of finding other crews out in the world

  • @red0demon0 said in PuZzLes!:

    @dynamicpioneer The flaw with this however is that if thequest are based on island rotations and you get to choose 1 of 3 quest, then you could basically play the game without seeing an island that has that artifact for a very long time.

    Do mean having this issue within one voyage (visiting multiple islands) or that you might get a lot of other voyages before you get this specific voyage?
    I imagined it as one complete voyage.

  • @dynamicpioneer I mean it as the second otpiton you provided. The system the devs now have in place has you choosing 1 voyage (each crew member chooses 1 quest) and then they all decide out of the quest they chose, which specific one they want (or at least that's what I understood from the dev video) so theirs a possibility that you might get a lot of voyages before you get the specific one you need. Idk anyone else has greater sight behind this? 1 voyage of visiting multiple islands is great but with a crew the focus of which island to go to might be dispersed a bit so idk... interesting idea though, I like things that make you slow down and truly explore for benefits.

  • @red0demon0 honestly I'd say have all puzzles static to crew, of course if a second crew turn up and see certain doors open or beacons lit then it's fair game for the second team to short and narrow up to the first.

    It's just the pirate way

  • If you watch jungle run you would get some great ideas off of it! :D

  • @slipkick01 said in PuZzLes!:

    If you watch jungle run you would get some great ideas off of it! :D

    Going to watch it, thanks for the advice. also, in reference to your previous reply, the one about the galleon, the sloop, and the lone wolf (Sounds like a role playing story based on the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina), I like the idea behind it but wouldn't necessarily like for the doors to close behind. The devs believe in not separating the player base and are iffy on safe zones. So I think all puzzles should be accessible to all player whether they play by themselves or in a crew. Also from ur eply I also got the idea that maybe the location for where the puzzle progression could begin could be given out in a riddle. The riddle would then lead you straight to a hidden cave or door (Or reveal the door with magic) Within the riddle or when choosing a quest, they could implement some narrative summary or a piece of narrative that ties into the riddle like a narrative that focuses on a captain and how his shadow cast at a 6 o clock angle opened the door of a labyrinth. What would be the point of this? Well If you have a lantern then you would need to use it on a mysterious pillar by going around it and making the pillar's shadow angle down into the direction of a clock hands if the clock was traced on the land, 12 o clock would always point north: To avoid confusion

  • Updated. Can you guys Come up with more ideas on puzzles and mini games? It doesn’t necessarily need to tie into treasure hunting

  • islands with with multiple rocks surrounding them that players have to carefully maneuver around in order to get to the island.

    Traps:

    • hanging net trap: if you get caught, multiple skeltons will spawn and attack you as you are caught. shooting the rope from the outside or hitting it with melee on the inside will get you down.
    • poison needles: players will be shot by hidden bamboo pipes and loose health over time.
  • @red0demon0 These are Amazing Ideas!! I 3rd the Suggestion for Rare to hire you. I posted another thread but it didn't get much visability. Here is one of my ideas.

    1. What if you made a puzzle mechanism inside the brig. If your teammates lock you away it grants you the ability to unlock youself by solving a puzzle.

    You could do this throgh the lock itself. Make it a random combination of pinholes that you have to click to escape. If you can't figure it out then there is a timer.

    To add an even higher level of excitement, you can lock your foes in the brig as well. You capture them, they get the same unlock puzzle. This allows you to temporarily clear/board their ship. Only problem is, if they solve the puzzle quickly they are now loose on your ship. The whole brig could be set to a max timer to allow friends and foes who can't solve the puzzle the ability to escape. In addition, you could add a lockpick idea where your foe may have a lockpick on them to unlock the brig instantly.

    1. You could also add sailing puzzles. Like you have to sail through the dolphin rocks to unlock a section of a puzzle. Or you have to sail past islands in a specific sequence to unlock items.

    2. You could also add puzzles that relate to the time of day and/or islands. For example, watch the sun set between the palm trees of chicken isle.

    I love the puzzle aspect in games and it keeps them interesting and fresh.

  • @ivorydoll I like that idea of sailing between "dolphin rocks" as a mini game where you have to traverse the treacherous seas with obstacles in the way but of course I wouldn't like this as part of the actual map, I can't imagine how many repairs would need to be made on the ship. I like the time/ day aspect although waiting for the precise time might be challenging. I was thinking maybe an old magical pirate like solarium puzzle in caves would be cool (I'm thinking about something like what skyrim did if you ever played it.) or light reflection mirror puzzles would be interesting too (Where you need to rotate gems/ mirrors to reflect light through some mirrors.) As for brig locking, I don't really like a mini game/ puzzle mechanic to go into that. Brigs are more of a punishment system for conduct and other forms of misbehavior. Imagine a player who is trolling your crew, you sent them to the brig, they solve a puzzle, they get out and begin to blow up explosive barrels on ship sinking all your hard earned loot. Same goes for enemies crew. What I like from this is that it implies a lock picking mechanism, maybe you can create an idea with this in a different situation (Not involving brigs?)

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