TLDR: flaregun to mark floating loot and extend its despawn time,(or even mark player/npc ship could be doused with water) , touching loot to extend sink timer.
Im sure it's been mentioned plenty of times but I've read loot will float for 5 mins and some of the merchant items for 15.
Even spawning on a close island after loading and possibly respawning then locating where you sink this is almost never enough time.
I do think think it's fair to not always get your loot but there are also alot of scenarios when playing solo that take more than 5 mins and you wind up getting nothing for your time spent for instance fighting multiple skeleton ships or fighting npc and players at the same time or multiple players.
I'd like to suggest either a slightly longer float time or at least extending the floating time if you touch/swim the loot to the surface.
Few examples just from play yesterday.
I sank a skelly ship and another spawned as I was finishing sinking a second one a reaper player (no loot on board typical) attacks and after I sunk their ship the pirate loot was long gone and all I'm left with after 20-30 mins is a few junk barrels
Another battle between 3 ships 1 sinks and me and the other person board and sink eachother, I spawn one Island over and theres no loot to be found from any ship(I had loot).
I parked at a seaport on the edge of a storm and was killed by lighting when I respawned my undamaged ship was somehow already underwater I brought all my loot to the surface and took a mermaid to a new ship very close by, sailed directly there and nothing was at the seaport. I could see the seaport from where I spawned.
This all was in one day.
I like that the game can be difficult but 5 mins is a very short period of time when you factor in respawning, boarding and getting your new ship sailing it's more like 2 mins to find and collect your loot.
I feel like this type of thing is extremely common and for a bigger crew it's no problem to have one person baby sit the loot but for new people that may not know the map or many solo players like myself it's a really annoying aspect of the game.
At least with extending the float time on npc loot and loot a player has touched it would eliminate the loss of loot to accidents or buggy things in the game. Maybe even a purchasable beacon or flare gun tool you could shoot that will show on your map for a few mins to help find the loot and maybe extend its despawn time and be visible to other ships that may be close by.
