So as a long-time player, I have reached the point where I have started to complete individual commendations for the sake of it. And having recently started to seriously work on Merchant missions, I have come to this conclusion.
Merchant Missions stink.
Merchant missions haven't ever been the most popular, but especially after Season 11, the main voyages outside of Lost Shipments are pointless to do outside of commendation progress, and even then, commendation progress is slow. To illustrate this problem, I'll do some math.
From a reputation and gold perspective, an Executive Merchant Contract requires you to deliver 4 animals from crates found on that respective island that contains all the animals needed. Sounds fine, however, 4 animals will at most give you 30000 gold from getting 4 Golden Snakes and a Grade V merchant emissary (already a decent time investment per session).
Simply put, this is the slowest way to progress in this company. The best possible version of this voyage is still worse than a typical Lost Shipment voyage. Even a Cargo Run could be completed faster and earn more gold per hour than a Merchant Contract. Keep in mind we also can't do Cargo Runs and Merchant Contracts at the same time anymore. It's slow, boring, and easily one of the least fun things to do in this game.
Now from a Commendation perspective. The Merchant animal commendations require 200 of each animal (not counting gold animals since thats chance-based). To complete this commendation, you will be required to complete 150 Executive Contracts. 150 versions of sailing to an island, finding crates, catching the animals, deliver them while making sure they don't die, and then repeating. Again, one of the more boring things that you can do in this game, which is why most people do Lost Shipments or Raid Voyages.
Furthermore, some commendations now exist in circumstances so rare they may as well be impossible to do. These are the Merchant Shipwright, Forager, Black Powder, and Cast Iron commendations (50 wood/Fruit/Cannonball crates and 100 gunpowder kegs). Gunpowder deliveries used to be part of Contract voyages, until season 11 removed them. Similarly, crate deliveries used to be found inside of barrel messages until those were removed too. Now they all only exist in bottle quests, which at best gives a 20% chance it'll be related to one of those commendations, and an even smaller chance it'll be a specific crate delivery.
So, in light of this, I'd like to suggest these changes:
Animal missions will never be fun to do in my opinion. Its not like a gold hoarder map or skeleton bounty. What can be done is that the value of these voyages to incentivize more people to do this voyage. First, the reputation of animal deliveries should increase to be more in line with other Merchant activities. Second, I propose what I call a Commander's Contract with a random amount of deliveries to be made from a large island (essentially a pre Season 11 voyage in terms of randomized requirements). Thirdly, one of two changes should be made for crate deliveries. Either A: crate/keg deliveries should be a random chance occurrence from a contract or B: bring back barrel quests. And finally, Ashen Lost Shipments should give Ashen treasure. Because why not?
Overall, Merchant hasn't been in a great position compared to other companies. These changes could help rectify that.
