So I just want to know if I'm the only one who thinks this would improve the game. Here's a list of thoughts I had:
Merchant Missions
So since you can't really chain these, given that you have to return to specific ports by certain times, I thought, wouldn't it be nice if you could do these alongside regular voyages? That way, you have incentive to go to specific islands, and IF those islands have what you're looking for, you can grab it while you're there. Then you have to sail to a specific port for everything.
Ship Trading/Selling
It'd be nice if there was a ship-to-ship trading system. Maybe you have 300 cannon balls on your galleon and a couple of cannon ball crates stocked up for a total of 400 cannon balls. Wouldn't it be nice if you could sell/trade them to other galleons? "Yeah I will give you two Captain's chests for that cannon ball crate." But then implement a system that benefits both ships for the peaceful interaction? Like, if this is the first time those two ships traded with each other in the last hour, they both get Merchant experience after they sail away from each other, and so much time passes without them firing at one another. Doesn't mean you can't sneak on and steal it without firing a weapon, but that's just clever work there.
Port to Port Missions
An idea for Merchant missions I had, what if you buy a merchant mission, instead of giving you empty crates, they give you specific supplies. The supplies would sell low with low experience gains, but if you bring them to a specific port they sell high with high experience gains (like how the other missions work). There could even be mechanics that you could trade with other ships who are heading that way for other missions anyway, combining all the previous ideas.
Signal Flags
In old days, there were flags flown on ships to identify who they were, what they were doing, and other minor details. It'd be nice if the ships could have a place for such flags. Like, if you vote on a Merchant mission, a Merchant flag is flown. You could set a clan flag, like one specific to people you approve into your group (kind of like how Spaniards flew the Spanish flag, etc...). And then finally a communication flag, which could be the Jolly Roger if you want to challenge people to a fight, kind of a "come and get me" kind of flag, or a Trader flag if you want to trade supplies, or a peaceful flag if you aren't intending on attacking people. You could implement things like, if flying a peaceful flag, it takes 30 seconds to lower it but you can't fire your cannons at another ship until they fire first, if you get hit with the flag up it does no damage for a few seconds, but then allows you to jump into the fight when that timer is up. This way people couldn't abuse it on either side.
Brig
As of now, the brig is kind of useless. It just gimps you one player who may not have been any help anyway. My thought is this, the brig has a silent timer with the following effects:
- If the person is brigged before landing on an island, and remains brigged until you leave the island, any treasure collected from the island does not benefit the person brigged. This removes the ability to just get brigged and collect rewards
- After 5 minutes in the brig, a new option unlocks, "Maroon", which removes the person from the group and leaves them at the nearest island. After 2 minutes, the marooned person spawns a sloop and is allowed to sail away as a solo sailor. This allows a group to eject an especially useless person, but only if unanimously agreed upon, and after some brig time is served JUST in case an agreement can be made.
- After 10 minutes, the person in the brig has the option to "Escape", which is essentially like a self Maroon, but the Sloop spawns instantly. If you honestly wait around for ten minutes in a brig knowing you're not getting paid, you're a more patient person than I am, but there should never be a point where you feel completely trapped forever in this kind of game.
- Replacement Crew: Wouldn't it be a nice touch, that when you're at a port, you could select an option to "replace crew", which basically just instantly maroons a player at the port with a Swoop in two minutes like marooning, but because you're at a port it is instant? This allows an instantly useless player (like a troll or an AFKer) to be ejected from the group right after spawning in to the game.
A lot of people will argue that brig stuff would be abused, but honestly, if you're in a group that will abuse the brig against you, are you REALLY in a group you SHOULD be in? Let people brig you the minute they approach and island, nothing forces you to STAY in the group, then they just gimped themselves until a random person is added to their crew.
Gross
Kind of a 'for aesthetics' concept, but what about if the ship slowly got dirtier and dirtier the longer it sailed. Everyone has a mop, and can clean it if they wish. For added amusement, if it gets max level dirty, people will occasional vomit just from how filthy the boat is. There would be no REAL benefit to cleaning, but if you're OCD or picky, you might assign a newer player to clean the ship while he/she learns everything else. An advanced pirate might even look for dirty boats as a sign of likely having more treasure, so there's an incentive to at least swab the deck.
Unhired Crew
It'd be nice to be able to join a server without a boat, have a few bar mini games, and be able to join a crew if enough people agree. Plus, it would be hilarious to accuse someone of cheating, then shoot them with a pistol causing all out bar fights.
Oranges
Really Rare? You gave us pirates with no oranges!? Why not give us oranges? They don't even need to be worth anything, like maybe all they do is remove drunk effects, but you can stock up on them because THEY'RE ORANGES! Who doesn't love some citrus? You could even make them able to be sold cheaply for Merchant experience, like occasionally you'll find orange crates similar to cannon ball crates. Fill it with 50, sell it to Merchants. Or make them identical to bananas from a technical aspect, and just add an orange barrel by the banana barrel. Make it so people can EITHER carry 5 bananas OR 5 oranges, and then bing bang boom, it's not game changing. Plus people could trade oranges for bananas with the previously mentioned trading mechanics. "We have 50 oranges but no crate. We'll trade you 50 oranges for 50 bananas since we DO have a banana crate".
Grog Barrels/Rum Bottles
Works like spices, more common, but sells cheaper. Just aesthetically a fun thing to have a few of tiny barrels of grog on a ship. And of course, when you can't find rum, you can complain that the rum is always gone.
Permadeath
Not what some people might be thinking of, but if you manage to sink a ship, the ship spawns on another random server, and as the crew dies/mermaids, they are brought to that server. This prevents the problem of sinking a ship only for it to return a few minutes later while you're still trying to loot an island. You sank? You're now ostensibly dead (at least to the people on that server). Plus it works as a server balance mechanic. If you get sunk on a super populated server, it favors low population servers to balance out where everyone is. Plus it is more satisfying sinking a ship, because now that ship is just GONE. You feel like you accomplished something. But now, a bigger badder pirate crew might join the server and take you down the same way.
Fishing
Sometimes you don't need 4 people doing something at all times. It'd be nice if you could fish and capture fish to sell at a port. They could even "go bad" after a couple of game days, so you're not just stock piling them. Plus again, for the ship-to-ship mechanic, you COULD catch fish while flying the peaceful flag, sell fish to other players in exchange for cannon balls, chests/treasures, fruit, or planks.
Whales/Harpoons
Wouldn't it be amazing, if you could have whales occasionally swimming around? You could use harpoons to catch the whale, drag it to the surface, and fight it. It would work a lot like the kraken, except not be aggressive. If you harpoon the whale, you get a random number of "blubber barrels", which can be sold for Merchant credit. They could sell high, but be rare spawns, like one whale per server spawns every ~1-3 hours, but goes away if not killed within an hour. Cannon balls do little damage to it, but you can load harpoons (which do little damage to ships) which instead do large damage to the whale.
Titles
This could just be a funny addition based on what happens in the game. When you load in, you're just yourself. But as you sail, your "pirate title" could change. For instance:
I spawn in as Korinra.
I keep digging up treasures on my first try, after 10 in a row, I'm now, Korinra "Gold Beard".
Instead, I keep missing over and over, "Dirty Shovel" Korinra
I complete 10 voyages, "Sea Legs" Korinra
I find 5 bottles/books, "Sharp Eye" Korinra
Killed the Kraken, "Kraken Slayer" Korirna
Sink 10 boats? "Dread Pirate" Korinra
Play a lot of music? "Master Maestro" Korinra
You can collect multiple pirate titles throughout your session, and change them in the vanity chest. But they all go away when you leave the game. This makes each thing you do feel like an achievement, and gives more enjoyment in doing the little things, with no tangible reward.
Those are just thoughts I've had, feel free to let me know what you think on any/all of them.
