Just imagine:
Sea Of Thieves - The Legacy of the three Skeleton Kings
Lore - rumors have reached the sea that many years ago 3 pirate kings used to rule the sea battleing one another at who was wealthier and stronger. It is said some of them had castles and hideouts with endless streams of gold... but its also said their greed awakend something. Some say the wilderness of the land got them, other say an old evil deity crushed them and their greed.
Basics - a new island.... HUGE! So huge that it would take 10 minutes to walk from north to south and west to east. Maybe even a coast at the border of the map. 3 Rivers make it possible to navigate through it by ship but barely wide enough to turn, definitely not wide enough to have classic naval combat. A huge thick jungle with 3 ruins spread out. These ruins are basicly the castles of the pirate kings. One castle is high up in the mountain with snowy landscape and rocky caves to climb (hide and seek). One castle was build in the fallow jungle with huge trees and tree houses (verticality). One castle is located underneath in a big cavern at the waters with ropes to climb etc. Designwise these ruins should tell just by exploration what kind of pirate king and culture lived there. Every castle has a remaining magical throne. The rivers and the thrones should be comfortably apart from another so if a crew ankered their ship in the river next to a castle ruin it should take them about 30-60 seconds to walk back in case of death. Every now and then little water streams are nearby in case of fighting gold skeletons.
The gameplay idea - while players go through this huge island they sometimes come across one of the legendary king skull chests (carrying one of the three kings skull and crown) which spawned randomly and a bit hidden. Carrying those king skull chests forces a player to walk slower but in return they dont have their name displayed above them anymore so they can hide in the thick jungle vegetation from other players while they carry it. Placing a king skull chest on a throne of a castle ruin starts an event. A king of the hill mode basicly. At the beginning only a few skeletons spawn to defend the throne and destroy the king skull chest sitting on it by brute force. If you let them they will destroy the chest which cancels the event and you have to go and find a new king skull chest. But if you fight them of wave by wave with increased difficulty the king skull chests magicly fills with gold for every skeleton you kill nearby. This kings chest glows brighter and faster the more gold it carries. The end boss of a castle is a skeleton king which is a better version of a usual skeleton maybe even bigger and bulky in size with smashing attacks. Once this boss is defeated the king skull chest gold value gets another huge boost but gets locked which means you cant use it to start another event. You can sell king skull chests at order of souls lady or gold hoarders both alike and provides an amount of gold between 1k and 25k depending on the gold filling it recieved during a king of the hill event. Any kings skull chest can be placed on any throne. Sometimes lets say about 20-25% of cases the end boss of such an event is a world boss. Rare can do whatever they want here but i thougt of a giant evil undead crab basicly which rewards another legendary item to be sold for big money at the witch lady.
Mechanics - new item for every player in the inventory. A carpenters hammer. Using this spawns a little piece of wooden wall in front of you which is easy to jump over and only about 9 feet wide. If players choose to "repair" this small wooden wall using 5 wood planks the wall grows so its not possible to jump over anymore but has small wholes to shoot through. Further "repairing" it with another 5 wooden planks make this wall have a barrell where bananas and such can be placed in. After 15 wooden planks this wall also has a ammo chest. After 20 wooden planks this wall also has a bug cannon to shoot real cannon balls. Enemy players can chop up these walls using sword (about 30 sword swings should destroy it) or explode it via gun powder barrel.
Wildlife - new island could also mean new wildlife maybe but i got no idea so far about that part...
Pvp - enemy players can fight you at these events too because active events are indicated at the sky so everybody will know whats going on. They also can steal king skull chests directly away from the throne leaving you with the current amount of enemy skeletons and running away with a half filled chest placing it on another castles thrown themselves while you are fighting for your survival. Since most crews will want to use the river for their ships aka. Respawn location other good pvp moments could be sieging rivers with those self made cannons and gun powder barrels swimming in the river water. The main mechanics thou is that the big loot comes from only one extremely valuable chest which can only be carried walking very slowly. Thats interesting coz escorting this chest as a team will be like a capture the flag game mode itself, fighting on land, in the jungle reaching your ship and get away fast instead of taking forever to take 20 small chests. Securing such a chest all by yourself will propably be easiest sneaking, hiding in jungle bushes etc. For they are basicly invisible without their name floating above their heads walking in the night and the thick jungle.
The possibilities - huge potential for a big lore and story boost in the game, telling a story of 3 pirate kings of the past. PvP Land combat which is not very common at the moment, such a shame actually (Adding verticality). River combat moments. Capture the flag moments. Hide and seek moments. Building own cannons to fight off giant land world boss is epic as hell!
What do you all think so far?
