Hey there Rare,
I had a few suggestions that I thought would make the game more fun make progression feel like actual progression. At the moment the grind after about level 20-25 is horrible. Yes, I know it is supposed to be a grind to get to pirate legend and that's fine, but at the moment the lack of progress and lack of rewards for the progress you do make is demotivating. I have a few suggestions to help fix that as well as a few random suggestions.
Daily Voyages
Add in daily voyages for each faction that you can pick up from the vendors on the outposts. Dailies would provide a more reputation than your average voyage, possibly a set percentage of a level. It would provide a more reliable way to progress for more casual players.
Weekly Goals/Quests
In addition to the dailies, adding weekly goals (i.e. Turn in x chests to Gold Hoarders, Capture and Turn in x chickens to Merchants, etc) with a large bonus to reputation for completion. Doing a specific faction each week would keep this from becoming a quick way to pirate legend, as would setting the goals to be fairly difficult to achieve.
Interim Rewards/Unlocks
Right now the progression slows significantly after level 20-25, but the first things you begin to unlock for cosmetics are in the 30s. You don't unlock anything for the ships until level 50. This really takes the motivation out of grinding until you actually get to those levels. Adding additional unlocks for both Ship Customizations and Character Items from levels 20-30 would greatly increase the motivation to get through those slow levels once you initially hit them.
Merchant Rewards
Outside of quests, merchant rewards suck if I am going to be honest. You can't get more than a couple hundred gold and a sliver of reputation for animals and crates of supplies. It makes it so that it's not really worth it to bother with pig and chicken crates, or supply crates, unless you are on a merchant voyage. If I find a chest from an island or a shipwreck, it's pretty close to the same value as a voyage chest, why arent the animals the same way?
Purchasable Merchant Supplies
To help with the merchant faction issues, it would be nice to be able to purchase empty animal and supply crates. Supply crates could be used for earning gold and reputation or just to hold more supplies, but at an initial cost.
Second Voyage Slot
Allowing 2 voyages would help significantly. I've seen a few people suggest 3, which would be nice, but might shift the balance a bit too much. With 2 voyages you could work on a Merchant Voyage and one of the other voyages at the same time which would not only be beneficial, but would also allow for greater efficiency when setting sail.
PVE Servers
This is a hotly debatable issue and I completely understand people that are against it. Part of SoT IS the PVP aspect. That being said, a PVE server would be great for casual players, players who don't enjoy playing with others or have social anxiety, and players who just want to set sail to relax after a long day. I enjoy my bouts of PVP and the thrill you get when you see another ship on the horizon, but sometimes I just want to not have to worry about it. A good way to counter the removal of that danger would be to have decreased rewards on PVE servers, or increased rewards on PVP servers.
High Risk High Reward Hoarding
The lack of rarer chests (even with more expensive voyages) is frustrating. Also there is no incentive, outside of a single achievement, to hoard treasure on your ship. This makes PVP a bit less rewarding if you are trying to be an aggressor. Why blow through your supplies and risk being sunk yourself over a couple of low level chests? Solution? Increase the rewards and quality of rewards in relation to the number of chests, skulls, and goods you are keeping on your ship. For example if you have 10 treasure items on your ship, you are less likely to find castaways, at 20 almost no castaways and a reduced chance of seafarers. If you are holding onto 40-50 treasure pieces on your ship you would consistently find marauders+, hateful+, and high level goods.
This would encourage people to hang onto their treasure longer to reap better rewards, while at the same time making it riskier and more enticing to engage other ships for their potential hoard.
I have more ideas but I will save them for another time.
