Deeds: A Suggestion to Enhance the Gameplay Experience

Ahoy, Scallywags!

I’m not sure how much traction this thread will get, but I want to detail my thought process for an idea to enhance some core experiences of the game, using mechanics that are already in place. Hopefully, if I’m not the only player that could see a benefit to this, this is something Rare could adopt in a future update. Apologies in advance for the length of this.

~~THE INSPIRATION~~
I’ve been playing this game off and on since launch. Over the last few months, I’ve been sailing the seas quite heavily! A few days ago, I was solo slooping Order of Souls. I had sunk 3-4 skeleton sloops, killed a megalodon, and had finished off a few skeleton bounties. During my voyage, I got an invite to play a different game with a friend. Instead of heading to the outpost, I scuttled my ship and logged off without a thought.

If the Brotato Tot of 2018 had seen all of the loot I knowingly let sink to Davy Jones’ Locker, he would likely vomit.

Looking back on my shameless scuttle, I realized why I had done this: I’ve already looted and sold every piece of treasure that’s on my ship previously. With my surplus of gold, I don’t really feel like cashing it in. I’d rather sink my ship and quit the game than sail to the outpost to sell what I’ve gathered on my voyage. This is a troubling thing to type. The excitement of sailing those to the outpost in exchange for gold wasn’t enough to stay in the server any longer. That’s the core reward mechanic of gameplay.

So, I began to wonder gameplay loops could be enhanced without reinventing the wheel, and I think I’ve come up with a decent idea: Enhancing ALL Loot Tables with Rare Drops that are sold in exchange for a commendation, which unlocks a cosmetic for use or purchase.

In the example that I’ve formulated in my head, I’m referring to them as Deeds.

Below is the full writeup of how this could be introduced in the game, and examples of what it could look like among various aspects of the game.

~~DEEDS: A DETAILED WRITEUP~~

Before I go any further, here’s how it could be introduced into the lore of Sea of Thieves:

A wealthy merchant fleet from a far away land has sunk while traveling through the Sea of Thieves! Valuable documents have been scattered throughout the world. Finding and delivering this knowledge to the right person could lead to unique cosmetics for you and your crew!

(Or something like that. I’m sure there’s a marketing copywriter with better penmanship than me on the Rare team.)

Deeds would come in five forms. Weapon Deeds, Equipment Deeds, Clothing Deeds, Shipwright Deeds, and Pet Deeds. All five of these deeds would have varying degrees of rarity to appear after a particular enemy is defeated, or action is completed (using RNG to roll from a drop table which is separate from the drop table already in place). When dropped, these deeds would then be delivered to their respective shop owners in exchange for either a commendation which unlocks the item for purchase, or a commendation which unlocks the item in the crew’s chest. The idea here would be that all of these cosmetics would be HIDDEN from shop inventory until unlocked.

Following me so far? Let’s use an example of how these deeds would be involved one example to start: Killing chickens. That’s right, killing chickens has the potential to be more interesting than just farming for better food to withstand one additional 360 no-scope Eye of Reach shot from Sweatbeard himself.

As it stands right now, every time a chicken is defeated, it has a 100% chance (1/1) to drop a raw chicken leg. With the implementation of deeds, that 1 in 1 chance to drop a raw chicken leg is still active, however there would now be an additional roll that something from the Deeds Drop Table would appear on the ground as well. It could look something like this:

Chicken, on death:

• 1/1 Chance to drop Raw Chicken Leg AND a one roll from the Deeds Drop Table:

• 1/150 Chance to drop Fowl Weapon Deed

• 1/150 Chance to drop Fowl Equipment Deed

• 1/500 Chance to drop Fowl Clothing Deed

• 1/1000 Chance to drop Fowl Shipwright Deed

• 1/10000 Chance to drop Fowl Pet Deed

Each of these deeds that the chicken would drop could be turned in to their respective shop owners in exchange for a cosmetic item that is relative to the enemy that dropped it. In this case, chicken cosmetics. There would be a full chicken set of weapons, equipment, clothing, ship parts, and an incredibly rare deed for a pet (in this case, you guessed it..a chicken) that could be exchanged at either the Merchant Alliance or the Emporium Vendor.

There could be separate cosmetic sets with differing drop rates based on the frequency that they can be killed. Here’s an overview of how these cosmetic sets would look:

• Chicken – Drop Fowl Deeds at a very low drop-rate.
• Pig – Drop Hog-Tied Deeds at a very low drop-rate.
• Snake – Drop Venomous Deeds at a very low drop-rate.
• Skeleton – Drop Boney Deeds at a very low drop-rate.
• Fishing – Either there’s an extremely low chance to loot ANY deed from fishing, or make a separate set that has to be exchanged at an outpost (so fisherman can’t camp and sell at seaposts).
• Shark – Drop Dogfish Deeds at a slightly higher drop-rate.
• Megalodon – Drop either Dogfish Deeds at a much higher drop-rate than Sharks, or Big-Toothed Deeds at a high drop-rate.
• Skeleton Ships – Drop Boney Deeds at a higher drop-rate than Skeletons.
• Skeleton Captains – Drop Boney Deeds at a lower drop-rate than Skeleton Ships.
• Forts – Low chance to drop Stronghold Deeds, which can be exchanged for Skeleton Lord themed cosmetics.
• Skeleton Lords – Have a low chance to drop Stronghold Deeds.
• Vaults – Have a low chance to contain Gilded Deeds, which contain cosmetics with gold-curse visuals.
• Ashen Lords – Drop Ashen Deeds at a boss-level drop-rate (Maybe 1/50 for the most common deed.) These deeds would be turned in to complete the set of The Burning Blade.
• Flameheart’s Ghost Fleet: Captain Boats would have a low chance to drop Ashen Deeds, while The Burning Blade would have the same drop-rate as the Ashen Lord.
• The Kraken – For being such a legendary creature, the Kraken has the worst loot ever. If the rights to The Flying Dutchman aren’t owned by a third party, the Kraken should drop Fabled Deeds that can be exchanged for the Flying Dutchman Ship Set, and Davy Jones’ Cosmetics.

Let’s say I was with my crew and received a Fowl Weapon Deed. When we turn the deed in to the Weapon vendor, we all unlock one piece of the weapon set at random, until all of them are unlocked. Once all of them are unlocked, you would then receive a large sum of gold, or maybe even a potential reskin roll at some point in the future. (I have visions of the Golden Chicken Cutlet, err, Cutlass now!)

It would be imperative that these items could not be obtained in any other way, or the interest in obtaining these cosmetics would stray away from gameplay and into people’s wallets in a classic “Pay to ‘Win’” gameplay-crushing loop. It would also need to have the same selling mechanics as emissary flags do in alliances. The rewards would only apply to the selling crew, and not a multi-crew alliance.

Looting these rare deeds calls for urgency to sell at the outpost, because the deed must be redeemed at the outpost. If a player ship is sunk with a deed on board, that deed is a physical item on the ships loot (maybe it looks similar to the Merchant Manifest) and can be sold by intercepting players.

If you’d really like to turn up the anxiety when something ultra-rare drops, use the visuals that you’ve implemented on the spawning of the Reaper’s Bounty/Chest or Glorious Sea Dog’s Chest. I just pulled up to Snake Island, killed a skeleton, and received a 1/10000 drop of a Boney Pet Deed (which I can exchange for a small skeleton pet). Well, now that this item has spawned, there is a visual indicator either on the map or the physical game world itself, that shows this item has spawned. I now need to drop EVERYTHING I’m doing to sell this item at the outpost.

To avoid over-farming of one particular piece of content as soon as it’s released (ie, a full server farming chickens at the same time) all of these deeds would need to be released in one update. Flood every aspect of gameplay with the ultimate reward of a unique cosmetic, and see what happens. A win for PvE, a win for PvP, and a win for our solo-slooping chill fisherman.

That’s the idea in a nutshell. Would love to hear anyone’s feedback!