In my opinion the biggest problem in sot is that you reach a point where your satisfied with your cosmetics , whilst this sounds like a good thing it slowly kills your motivation to play the game. For example If I've got a cool shipset , clothing /curse, and weapons and I cant find any cosmetics that I think are cool enough to grind for and replace my current ones why play the game? Sure you can stack loot and get gold and reputation but gold and reputation become meaningless if they don't provide something the player wants. What point is there to grind world events or just gold based actives in general if it does nothing but make the number in the top right of your screen go up. As someone whos about to get the silent barnacle shipset and has all curses besides golden pvp curses there is nothing to grind for that is worth grinding for. What I mean by this is that you always need something to work towards to keep the circle of progression going. Another huge part of this statement is that expensive cosmetics or any hard to get cosmetics must be worth getting in terms of design.
Ps I'm aware the dark adventurer set exists but Its looks don't make the price tag reasonable and after getting the set players still face the same issue of being satisfied.
Here are some suggestions:
Sails with the white sea of thieves logo that require getting a distinction five in every faction and cost an absurd amount of gold. You could also make other parts of the shipset available for completing other hard activities.
Sails for reaching distinction five for each faction I think this is especially good if the sails are designed well And cost a crazy amount of money to still encourage players to play open world content to afford them. This would work especially well regarding the trading company voyages that reward the most reputation don't award a lot of gold.
Figurehead and title for defeating ten of each megalodon (Besides shrouded ghost) To actually create a reason to defeat them.
Sails or a different ship part for fully completing all bilge rat commendations.
A cosmetic set or a single cosmetic for completing the commendations for every tall tale.
Sails that resemble skeleton ship sails that could be obtained by sinking a certain amount of skeleton ships If were to chose I'd say around 500.
More cosmetics between levels 200-100 for servants of the flame and guardians of fortune. (Good ones because the reaper emissary ledger cosmetics and ghost/guardian ghost cosmetics are terrible)
Sails and hull that closely resembles the sailor versions but could be called the pristine sailor shipset or something similar that shows the sailor set in all it glory (No patches and no off white color) To separate the noobs from the sweat lords. This could be availble by getting the legend of the sea achievement or something similar sounding where you get every curse besides gold pvp every distinction and complete all commendations for every tall tale.
If some cosmetics similar to this list came into the game and some madman were to get all of them sot should find a way to keep those players entertained by making new cosmetics every season that are hard to obtain and limited time perhaps so the player has reason to obtain them. for example the golden sailor figurehead that costs ten million and involves completing a number of world events and mini world events (Shrines sea forts etc) so the player has reason to complete main game content even after "doing everything"
