This is something I have been thinking of for a while and message a few others here on the Forum about. First off, a way to improve upon the Voyages one get as a Pirate Legend. The current ones are just doing all of the different voyages from the three factions in one go. My idea, however, is that the Athena voyages could have variations of those voyages while making them feel unique.
Like for example: When you start your Athena voyage, instead of getting a full set of voyages to do, you get a riddle that you will have to solve in order to get to the next chapter. Let's say that the riddle tells you to sail between Mutineer Rock and Devil's Ridge. There is, of course, nothing there... unless you dive into the ocean, where you will find a series of sunken ruins. One of these ruins can be interacted with and you will then get the next riddle on your voyage. The next riddle could then lead you to a Skeleton Captain who has set up camp at Kraken Watchtower, and you need to take him out and claim his fort key in order to get the second to last riddle for the journey that takes you to the merchant on Golden Sand Outpost, which you have to trade three snakes with in order to get the final riddle that will lead you to the Athena chest.
A voyage like this can give players more of a feeling that they are playing a narrative driven adventure than the current Athena voyages.
Mind you, this is not the only way these voyages could go either. One riddle could instead of leading you to sunken ruins, could take you to Thieve's Haven where you have to get a chest which, unlike the normal chests in the game, can actually be opened. Inside there could be more than just gold coins, like trinkets or on rare occasions, special cosmetics, but primarily you will find one of the Athena riddles in them. Another riddle could lead you to just open ocean... until the Kraken, a Megalodon or a Skeleton ship rises from the deeps to challenge you. Once you have defeated one of these foes, you will then get the next riddle.
There are other ways to expand on it like this. But here are a few more Pirate Legends ideas I wanna talk about:
Athena Skeletons: This is an idea I remember reading about a long time ago on this Forum. Basically, unlike the hordes of normal skeletons Pirate Legends face off currently when looking for treasures, the Athena Skeletons are indestructible versions of those. With a ghostly green color on their bones and with possibly some strange markings, these skeletons can't be killed. Instead, when players defeat them, they will merely collapse into a pile of bones on the ground but will eventually put themselves together again and continue to chase after the players.
Openable Chests: Because Pirate Legends have a high rank with the Gold Hoarders, they would naturally be allowed to open the chests they find on their journeys. These chests can be open by holding down the "R" button (or which button one uses to open Merchant crates with the Xbox controller) and not only will players get automatically gold when opening it, they can also at times find other rewards inside of them like trinkets, special cosmetic items, voyages and more.
Able to "Talk" to Skulls: Again, because of their high rank with the three factions, a Pirate Legend could then also be able to "speak" with the skeleton skulls they have discovered, which can then lead them to hidden loot that the Skeleton skull in question hid when they were alive.
Merchant Trading: Like before, Pirate Legends status with the Merchant Alliance would allow them to do a more basic trade like what one sees in games like Port Royal. So they can thus purchase valuable goods and then sell them on one of the other outposts, which each outpost having different selling and purchase prices for each of the goods. For example, Exotic Silk is more valuable on Sanctuary Outpost, Rare Tea is more valuable on Ancient Spires Outpost. etc.
Secret paths and caves: During a discussion about getting the "We Shall Sail Together" shanty as something players could play with their instruments, an idea flashed in my head that was about having the Pirate Legend shanty be used to open up hidden paths and secret caves on each of the islands, an idea which I think would work really well by allowing Legends to discover new things and thus get them in wanting to explore the islands more.
Additional ideas by other users:
@Admiral-RRRSole: Sundial and time of day puzzles:
Whilst reading your post I thought of something new and totally different.
During the course of a voyage you are directed to something like a trinket with gemstone that, when placed at a specified place at a specified time of day, the sun shines on the item and it's reflection points to the exact location of the treasure.
The item could be anything from a valuable gemstone trinket to a disused rum bottle and it could be placed on a rock, kraken skull, beached shipwreck or anything in sunlight that is easily identified by the clues.
Similar constructions using the sundial type of method and time of day could be possible to navigate by its shadow.
@NoFears-Fun: Athena Skulls:
Honestly, I would take your scavenger hunt type of idea, but change the ending to something where you face down a skelly ship with either a Pirate Lord or Skelly Captain that upon victory gives you an Athena Skull.
I do think there are other area's of need for PL as well, mostly cosmetic. But to make it more enjoyable I think more voyage/adventure types are needed most. So I really do like your idea. But I would not use it as a replacement for what is out there, simply a choice that we would have to select between what we have now and what your idea proposes. Possibly even two types of voyages around your idea. One for a chest and one for a skull.
Edit: I would really love it if they do use your idea that they make sure that it revolves around more of the lore behind SoT.
@Bran-the-Ent: Black Market Faction:
I’ve posted this idea elsewhere, but I’ll repost it here.
Add a Black Market Faction for Legends in the PL Hideout. It won’t have voyages of its own, but will take stolen non-cargo run voyage items (pigs, chickens, snakes) at full voyage value. Only stolen items will be accepted.
The game already knows when an item is one that has been stolen, so you couldn’t juke the system by cancelling voyages. I got an Xbox achievement for turning in a stolen Captain’s Chest - so I know it is tracked. It could also work for stolen chests. It would give value to regular items for PLs beyond simply gold - they’d get Black Market Rep and there can be cosmetics associated with that faction.
I am murray
