Tl,dr: rare treasure that must be found in the world that converts existing treasure into something that will be accepted by a single faction.
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Most people tend to dislike at least one of the three original trading companies for one reason or another. I've heard people complain that the Gold Hoarder riddle quests have a poor time-to-reward ratio, that the Order of Souls skeletons have obnoxious amounts of health, that the Merchant Alliance voyages are boring, etc. Rare has somewhat addressed these concerns with mermaid gems, but I think that more could be done.
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What if you could find special items out in the world that could convert the treasure of other factions into something that would be accepted by a different faction?
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Enter the ravenous chest, the glutton's skull, and the export crate. (Unlike regular skulls, the glutton's skull is a larger two-handed item)
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Each of these items can be found randomly in the world (washed ashore, shipwrecks, PVE loot, etc.) and can be turned in to the Gold Hoarders, the Order of Souls, and the Merchant Alliance, respectively. They're not worth much as is, but their value will increase if you "feed" them treasure. Any treasure you feed them will vanish, but 50-75% of its worth will be added to the chest/skull/crate. This would allow someone to gain a large chunk of experience in a faction at the cost of gaining less treasure/experience overall if they'd distributed the treasure to their proper trading companies. These items would eventually max out once they reached a certain value (perhaps somewhere in the 5-10k range?) to ensure that you can't use one to completely skip multiple levels in a faction.
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Limbic, won't this be abused by the emissary system to gain a lot of gold? If you only want gold, your best course of action would be to turn all your treasure in to the Reaper's Bones while flying their emissary flag. These three items would most benefit those who want to level one of the three starter companies. Besides, these items would be rare and must be found out in the world; there's no way to force one to spawn.
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Limbic, why didn't you make an equivalent item for one of the other four factions? Because it wouldn't make sense. Athena's Fortune is such an exclusive faction that it doesn't accept mermaid gems nor Bilge Rat commendations. Reaper's Bones already accepts all treasure. Sea Dogs are all about fighting in the arena, and don't accept treasure aside from the sea dog chests. I did consider Hunter's Call- they'll accept mermaid gems and Bilge Rat commendations after all... perhaps you could have a small chance of catching a large catfish or a small whale that's equivalent to the chest/skull/crate?
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What do you think?
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Credit where it's due: I got this idea after reading @PeeweeRage's topic about adding hostile mimic chests to the game.
