Hello pirates, pirate legends, and underrated bilge people,
while I was at work repairing ships and helping the shipwreight building new ships for newer players and listening to some stories in the tavern I had some interesting conversation with some pirates I got some great ideas floating through my head on how to expand the Sea of Thieves with new Island and how it would fit into the game.
While we see some styles of the east side of pirates and shipmasters, I was wondering why there aren't any new Ship Types on the Seas? Only some really nice decorations on the "normal" ships. Or why we don't find new Islands from the east in the Sea of Thieves?
While we know, they can't/don't want to increase the world of the Sea of Thieves itself because of reasons (Server stability, would players really use the new islands?)
I had some Ideas on how to implement it (maybe even lore wise) to the game while not to worry about Server stability and if players would use the new islands.
So let's get into it, shall we?
The first Idea that I had while thinking about all the problems and how they should introduce new Islands and regarding if it would be worth the creation of everything, I came up with this idea.
The new Island will be introduced in a bigger variant on an adventure when Belle found out, that some people seem to travel between their "world" to our world with an artifact. She saw some new people and new ships on the horizon parked at Old Faithful Isle. You should go and investigate with belle.
While you are on Old Faithful Island you see 3 different ships parked at the Island with different sail designs and some changes in the hulls, design wise.
All have a different structure.
While you are approaching the Island, you see right next to the ships that belles lantern is in the water meaning she is already at the ships so you head right to the ships.
You approach Belle, who is talking with a lot of people wearing all kinds of asian themed clothing designs.
While you approach her, she talkes about how they came to the Sea of Thieves and why - Their land are similar to the Sea of Thieves and "their" ancients found a way to travel between different worlds and they came to the Sea of Thieves to warn us about a danger, far greater than Flameheart or Davy Jones. A power they awoken on their world engulfing almost every land they had.
They also told about a way to reach these lands for a period of time but they seek the help of us pirates to find clues about IF the danger has come to the Sea of Thieves AND a way to dispell the unknown enemies of their and maybe our world. They suspect that, if it is possible for them to arrive here, the danger may follow them.
But our first task, before being able to reach their land, they want proof that they can trust us. Belle told them already about our dangers, The Dark Brethren and Flameheart.
They already heard the name "The Dark Brethren" but have no clue about Flameheart (or they may have, depends on what Flameheart did before he went to the Sea of Thieves)
But they want further prove: And to give them the proof, we are out to find out if the danger followed them to the Sea of Thieves.
Some Islands have strange shadowy figures around the Islands that we can dispell with a special tool the people of the East gave us, to reveal the truth about these creatures and to summon the cause of this shadowy fog. (Not the blue phantom things, more like black smoke)
Belle also told us, they call this fog "Rifts" but they won't go further on explaining what these things exactly are.
So Belle gives us the task to visit 3 Island where she saw some disturbance on some places. She gave us a map where there is an area marked where the Rift travels around (a quite small area) and we shall invastigate those places.
So we head to the islands and raise the tool they gave us to "absorb" the Rift. While we absorb the Rift, shadowy small creatures are coming out of the fog and are attacking us. These creatures definitly didn't come from our world.
We fight those with our weapon of choice and they go down quite easily. Onto the next islands.
The same fight happenes on the second Rift with a little bit more enemies.
The last Rift is not as small as the other ones. It also seems some sparks comes out of it. While we tried to absorb the last Rift the tool shatteres in our hands but the Rift disappears. A small artifact not known in the Sea of Thieves drops at the place of the Rift. There are no enemies around to fight. "Quite strange" you think and head back to the ship.
Going on your ship, nothing seems out of the ordinary. So you are heading back to the Old Faithful Isle.
While going near the Island, you see it is engulfed in black fog. Not a good sign.
You sail normally to the island, next to the ships where Belle and the others have talked.
Belle stands in the back of the others protecting her. Next to her stands one of them with fancy clothing and a sword also not seen on the Seas.
You talk to Belle.
She talks about, while we absorbed the Rift's, the fog around them began to build up. They prepared to fight but as long as they stood there nothing has happened.
The other guy steps in and said that there needs to be a source of the fog. He also said that his name is General da-la láng(Or any other name[This means Big Wolf]. There needs to be a Rift very close that is trying to engulf the whole Island, swallowing it all.
Belle asks us if we could find the source. The General sees that we don't have our tool anymore and asks us if the Rift dropped something. We hand the artifact over and then he gives us another tool, bigger than the last. He says that he didn't thought that they would cause such a big problem around and says that this tool is for absorbing even the sronger Rifts. He says, when we will get back from there he wants to tell us alot about those creatures and where they come from. Belle says that they first need to find this Rift and close it and that they first need to talk to the Pirate Lord before anything else.
So we search the Island for the Rift and when we find it it is even bigger than the last one. While we approach it we hear a disturbed voice calling out saying something "We destroyed the last world, what do you have to offer as defenses?"
Then a bigger shadowy figure steps out of the Rift. (He looks completly different than the small ones)
He spawns more of the little ones and we have to fight him and the smaller ones.
When we finish him, all small creatures disappear and he kneels down. While we absorb the Rift, the voices comes back from the Rift saying something like "Aaah... They arrived... This will be interesting..." and then the absorbtion is completed. The creatures and the Fog around the Island disappears with the Rift.
There is another small fragment of an artifact. A piece of something nothing similar to something you would find on the Sea of Thieves.
So we head back to the General and give him the small piece.
He says that they are in search of these pieces. They should be more of this, they already got 2 of it.
Belle says that the Pirate Lord may be of help and that they should head fast to him.
The General says that we should visit them.
Belle opens a portal with something we never saw Belle having and they jump through it. (For the players, Belle and the General isn't there anymore)
We head to an outpost to a tavern. Belle and the General standing there, talking with Larinna.
We can talk with Larinna and she says that it is to dangerous to take people to the Pirate Lord that we don't know at all.
The General then says that he understand the distrust and that Larinna and Belle already talked about what happened. Belle is disappointed in Larinna but still accepts that Larinna don't want the new people going into the Athena Hideout.
The General says something that with the pieces they have, they should be able to create something that opens a portal for a short period to some Islands of their world. He also says that other men of him are talking with the Shipwraight to give her help to be able to create the same ship designs they have.
(Making it possible to have a new Version of the Galleon, The Brigantine and the Sloop, looking different in Design but they all still can be applied the same cosmetics as before).
When you set sail, when you hover over the option of the each ship, you will have the option to choose the Variant of each of the ships. (Asian Themed sails and so on)
They don't really create any advantages over the others but he thinks that this would be a good reward for the pirates who helps them out.
He also assure us, that soon we will be able to use the portal, once everything is settled with our Lord.
Belle says that he will talk with the Pirate Lord. Larinna says that the new people should be cautious to whom they talk. Not every Pirate is on the side of the Pirate Lord.
He says he will be cautious.
That concludes this adventure.
After some time after the adventure, there will be a new small tent with a new Symbol. The Symbol is something that looks like a portal.
We can talk with him about the new feature - The Portal of new Worlds.
This is a whole new System for the PvE enjoyer - While still having the risk of being invaded by enemy pirates!
You can talk with the representive to go on a voyage to distant lands. You buy a voyage, once placed on the table on your ship you get a new tool that has one stone attached to it, not seen on the Sea of Thieves attached to the front of the ship with a small pedestal on top of it.
When sailing out on the Sea of Thieves, you have the possibility to open up a portal right in front of you, to sail to one larger Island, never seen before.
Once you opened up a portal, be aware of intruders! The Portal stays on the Server and enemy crews can go through it to invade your island!
When you vote on the voyage, you create a new instance similar by going through the portal of the damned. There can only be a set amount of portals open for each Island (set by the developer) and when you try to open a Portal when no new instances of that Island can be created, you Invade other players - But it will tell you before you vote on the voyage if you are going to invade another player or create a new instance (The instance is created when you vote on the voyage, not when opening the Portal). You have the option to sail as a Guardian of Fortune or as a Servant of the Flame, gaining allegiance when sinking other players on that Instance or when sinking on an Instance. Once your ship is gone you will be kicked out of that Instance and you will not be able to return to that Instance anymore.
When sailing as either representive, you have a higher chance to invade the other faction or invading ships that represent one of the groups (when it can't find the opposite faction).
When you open a portal without an allegiance, you only can get invaded by ships on that Server where you created an Instance. Meaning, no Invader from completly different servers.
In either choice, when being in the Instance of the Island, another crew can join that Server that you just created that portal. When a Portal is already opened, you can't create another Portal. The Portal will be visible by a big red cloud above the destination the portal has been created (and players on the Server hear a similar sound as when the Fort of Fortune is created) You either have to Invade or you change the Server (remember, the Instance is created when voting on a voyage, so if you don't want to Invade, you check the clouds or the Voyage table if you can create an Instance).
So now what do you do on that Island? Several things:
While going through the Portal, you will be transported at the edge of the Border of that Island. The Island is surrounded with the Black Fog, sailing too far out will destroy your ship similar of how the ship will be destroyed in the PvP battles.
Once everything is loaded, a figure spawns on your ship, detailing the task you are given. These range from various tasks:
- Explore the Island filling the map with certain marks and landmarks on that island.
- Find treasures laying around that island. (Hidden and not hidden)
- Defeating the enemies[More on the enemies later on] that live on that Island. (Remember the black creatures on that Adventure? Yea, there are a lot of them there)
- Closing the Rift's on that Island. It will clear up the Black Fog around that Island.
- Doing the Treasure Maps that some enemies may drop (random amount) - The loot will be the same from the Sea of Thieves but some monsters will drop their own loot that can be cashed in the new representive of the Portals of new Worlds.
- Opening the secret lair (you have to clear all other Rift's before you can open the lair)
- Forming alliances in the Instance or sink invading ships
As said above, you can Invade those Instances - You will still get the same tasks. The Ships on that Instance will get a notification if a Ship is invading (similar to when you found a match on the battle of the Sea of Thieves). Having the same tasks will encourage the crews to work together - Or not. Depending on what each Crew want's to do, attacking or forming an alliance, is up to them. If they form an Alliance, the Instance will get more difficult - More enemies spawn but also more maps and more Loot. Means, working together is practically better.
A lot, right? But now we know some small things what we can do. Another question is - How we can get back to the Sea of Thieves?
Well, that is quite simple.
You can only go out of that Instance if you do one task of any of them. Setting one feet onto that island, openes a big Rift out in the open Ocean next to that Island. When you get close to that Rift, you can reopen this Rift with your acquired Artifact that the representive gave you.
But wait - Why is it called a Rift?
Well, because when you open it enemy Shadow Ships arrive (numbers depending on the size of your ship and if other crews are in your Instance) and you need to fight them to open the portal. Once you have done that - Trying to open that Portal back up - No enemy ships can Invade you anymore.(But be careful, Ships that are in your Instance before, will still be there). The Portal on the Server you created the Instance will be closed and Crews on that Server can open a new Instance - If there are enough free Instances available.
The Black Ships are a little bit stronger than the Phantom Ships you knew - While you only needed to hit the Phantom ones, here you need to destroy certain places of that ship enough to make it disappear. That can either be the front, the middle part or the back of the ship. When you have dealt enough damage to it (depending on your ship size), the enemy ship will blow up in black smoke, releasing a final barrage in a random position. (This can be far away from your position or, if you are unlucky, directly on your ship).
But damaging the ship on other places has still a cause! You can still damage all sides, and depending on the side you destroy the ship, it gets weaker!
When you destroy its sails, it gets slower in turning, if you destroyed the cannon sides, it cant make the final barrage when completly destroyed and so on. (and if you are luckly and your task is to destroy the cannon sides, if it dies it also wont do the final barrage when destroyed).
The ship will drop normal loot (you can even see the loot inside the ship since it is semi-transparent) and at least one Shadow Storage Crate with supplies.
Once you destroyed all ships, the portal will open up and once you sail into it, on a random server, where no other Portal is open, a Portal will open when you arrive on that server and you come out of it. The portal will always spawn away from other players (so spawn camping portal places is impossible). But danger is still near - The artifact you used has become engulfed in Black Fog and you will be marked on the map as a black ship (also engulfed in Black Fog).
You can be attacked by Black Ships from now on (similar chances like Skeleton ships).
You need to sail fast to an outpost (or the Reapers Hideout[More on that later])
Cashing in the loot is the same as before - Bringing each to the representive. There are some new loot that you need to give the representive of the New Worlds.
Now in detail of the Tasks and the Island itself:
The Islands are a lot bigger than the ones on the Sea of Thieves 4x-10x times the size depending on what Island you get. There are a set amount of them in the pool and you can get any Island. Maybe you will have the chance to get one Island especially if you want to but only on the higher levels of your New Worlds.
The Islands look nothing like the ones on the Sea of Thieves (maybe there are some that are similar but not exactly the same).
They will have completly different foliage and different sand. The sand will be more dark and the grass is also different color. The sun has a slight different sunlight and each Island has different dangers around them - Maybe different animals?
The first task he/she ask you to do is filling the map. On each Island there are points of interest - These can be Structures already on that Island, markings on the stone and maybe even a place where it doesn't really fit the Island (Foliage is different). Walking around the island also marks the island more and more (A Radius around the player will be drawn on the map). If you are near a point of interest there will be a prompt to "mark the POI on the Map". Once you done that, it will be obviously marked on the map. Shadow Figures of different sizes randomly spawns on each POI and smaller creatures randomly will spawn around when walking on that Island, similar to how Skeletons and Phantoms will spawn on the Sea of Thieves. By the way: Skeletons will still spawn on the new Island, but they will look a bit different, engulfed in the Black Mist. Phantoms will not spawn.
The more you fill the map, the more you will be rewarded once you give it to the representive of the New Worlds.
Treasure can be stashed in a pile on the Island at random places. Once you approach them, a lot of enemies will spawn and you need to fight certain amount of waves until you can interact with the loot. But what stops you just taking the treasures and ignoring the enemies? Well, if you approach those piles, you see that a globe surrounds you that you sadly cant pass through. Once the final wave spawns in, there is a small boss that is a stronger creature, that has an artifact stuck inside him. You need to kill him to dispell all enemies and the globe will disappear. Now you are free to go.
But wait, do I have to get all the treasure to the Ship? Gladly, these creatures have great tools stuck inside them to help you on your journey! Quite weird, isn't it? The big creature drops that artifact for you to use it as a fast transportation of your loot pile. You can interact with the loot and it will open a small portal that transports your loot to the ship - Randomly dropping it on your ship.
There are a certain amount of piles of loot hidden on that island. It's not a fixed amount - You can be lucky and have 6 of those piles around that Island or you are unlucky and there is only one. The loot piles are also a POI, so it will be marked on your map - meaning the map is also more worth. Find all the treasure places!
Defeating the enemies is self explanatory - The more enemies you defeat the more treasure maps can spawn and giving you more loot. Each treasure map has at least one loot for the New Worlds.
Closing the Rift on the Island is your most important task. They are placed around the Island at certain places and are heavily guarded, each of them housing a big enemy.
When trying to close the Rift, enemie waves will spawn and you are - again - stuck in a globe. So you need to fight. Once the last wave commence there will be a bigger creature that you have to fight - This creature has something stuck in their body and you need exactly that thing to close the Rift.
If you defeat that enemy, the globe will disappear but the Rift is still open - You can use that thing that the creature had in him to close the Rift - And in doing so the artifact gets charged and is a new loot that you need to get to your ship - and yes, you need to walk back to your ship.
When you have closed all Rifts on that Island, you hear a loud roar around you. What was that? No player's can Invade you at this point and the Portal on the Server you created the portal will close.
The secret Lair has been opened. Somewhere on that Island, a Rock has been cracked open - Revealing the final Rift on that Island.
Once you approach the place, you will hear music that gets more and more intense the closer you get. Once you are almost next to it - The music starts to fade away.
You approach the Rift, trying to close it - But things aren't easy here, aren't they?
The Rift disappears and you start to hear boss music. Behind you there is a big creature that you have not seen on the Island or on the Sea of Thieves. A monstrosity.
It has a lot of loot stacked in him - Precious loot you want to get, don't you?
The Rift dropped a completly different artifact than the ones before.
You can use it to "Summon help" - When you interact with it, the artifact disappears and Ancient folks wearing different clothes than our Ancients spawn and fight with you.
The enemy will have different attacks - But on the Creatures we will get later in Detail.
Once you defeated the enemy an Ancient will absorb the creature with a different artifact that you didn't recognize. (A lot of new stuff, isn't there?)
He speaks to you and thanks you for trying to free this place of it's curse. He also tells you that - Well, besides the treasure - This Island will not be freed for long. It will get cursed again and the circle will repeat itself.
A lot of loot has been dropped from the boss so you need to transport it to your ship, right?
The Ancient tells you that he and his man will transport the loot onto your ship and that he wants to talk with everyone at the beach. (Woah, story time finally?)
You now head back to your ship and you can talk with him. All the loot you acquired from the boss fight will be randomly placed on your ship and they will wait for you on the beach.
If you talk with him, he will say that he is really thankfully for you to arrive here. They will try to protect the Island as long as they can and if you would come back in-time they will talk with you about how they think this curse can be stopped - But now is not the time, the Rift automatically opens and Black Ships are on your way!
He says that he would love to help but he can't. They don't have a ship and can't really interact with the real world.
He wishes us luck and disappears.
The final Rift battle is exactly the same as before - Defeat the Ships and it will open the portal.
So this was a lot to write - It took me a long time and I'm really happy about that Idea.
So I wanna hear your thoughts about all of this! This is like starting a whole new Story Arch for the Sea of Thieves and in my opinion, having new Islands is a thing that I really wish to have because I loved exploring the Islands when I was new to the game! I want to introduce the exploration back into the game, because except of the small changes that happenes to our little pirate world doesn't really scratches the itch for me anymore.
This has a lot of content backed into it and obviously with such a big Update there will also be new Cosmetics, new Systems and even new Ship types introduced to us! Seeing more variaty to the ships we sail would be super crazy.
