Many people have shared their ideas about what a new ship type should look like. One of the more popular ones is the Man o' War, which would be introduced as a bigger variant of the Galleon for six or even eight crew members. Regardless of what a new ship would look like, I think it could use an appropriate introduction.
What purpose does a new big ship serve?
As of right now, there are three ship options: Sloop, Brigantine and Galleon. These ship types satisfy most of peoples sailing desires. Choose a Sloop for a compact sailing experience with less cooperation to rely on. Choose a Galleon for firepower and a team-focussed experience. The Brigantine seems to capture the mid-way point of the Sloop and Galleon very well. But the desire of sailing a humongous ship with a big crew remains, and the Galleon doesn't seem to be big enough.
So we need a big ship which fits a large crew. We want a ship that feels massive and which has a shilouette that strikes fear to everybody who points their spyglass at it. A ship with so much firepower that is oblitherates any ship that is unfortunate enough to approach its broadside.
How do you create a fearsome image?
Simply creating a gigantic ship doesn't make a ship scary. Some may agree with me that Galleons aren't too scary because they're often manned by underexperienced crews which make them easy to take down. What I'm trying to say is: the crew on the ship has a big effect on how feasome a ship really is.
My idea of a fearsome ship is: a big ship with a strong, large crew. These are the three points that I would like to see when a new ship is introduced.
So how could a new big ship type be introduced?
My suggestion is to add a new Legend-only voyage type. The Pirate Lord himself requests your crew to go search the wereabouts of a dangerous crew: the crew of the Reapers' Carrack. This crew is planning to reak havoc in a certain area of the map. The Pirate Lord requests you, as a pirate legend, to find the Reapers' crew and defeat it.
When you reach the specified area of the map, a storm cloud appears above your ship. Next, the Reapers' Carrack appears; it's a gigantic ship with massive firepower. Your goal is to take down the ship and its crew in the storm.
How difficult will fighting the Reapers' Carrack be?
Compared to the existing world events (e.g. Skeleton fort, Skeleton fleet and Flameheart's Ghost fleet) this event is even more difficult. The existing world events are balanced in a way that you can finish them as a crew as well as by yourself. The Reapers' Carrack, however, will require you to have at least two seperate ships to take it down!
In order to take down the Reapers' Carrack and its crew effectively, you need a total of around 5 players on two or even three seperate ships. This voyage is increadibly challenging, but provides appropriate rewards to make up for it as I will clarify next.
What is the reward of taking down the Reapers' Carrack?
When the Reapers' Carrack is close to sinking, its crew forfeits and flees from the ship. The storm covering the fighting arena will subdue. This leaves a close-to-sinking Carrack floating on the (now calmed down) sea.
You now have two choices: you either shoot the finishing blow, sinking the Carrack and allowing the loot to float to the surface. You can devide the loot with your alliance and sail for the outpost.
Your other option is to board the ship, repair the holes and bail the water from its hull. This will provide you with a good-as-new Carrack. The loot will be stashed away in a room on the ship.
But what about sailing the new ship yourself?
After repairing the Carrack, you and your alliance can gather on the deck of the ship. Ideally, your alliance consists of exactly six players. The Reapers' crew has kindly dropped the anchor of their ship right before they fled.
Now you and your alliance can raise the anchor together (with up to six people at once). When raising the anchor together, your alliance becomes merged to form one large crew to sail the Carrack together.
You can sell the loot as one crew so nobody has to miss out on reputation or gold. The loot will mainly consist of Athena's Fortune items and Chests of Legends, because it is a Legendary voyage after all.
The original ships you were sailing with before you formed an alliance and fought the Reapers' Carrack together will remain afloat for a couple minutes, allowing you to migrate any supplies and/or loot to your new ship.
Why would I want to sail the Carrack?
For starters: your sailing a enourmous fearsome ship with a large crew. What more do you want?
Jokes aside, sailing the Carrack will prove even more difficult than sailing a Galleon; you have a larger crew to coordinate, a larger ship to maintain and the ship might have even worse characteristics than a Galleon. So there should be a reward to sailing such a big and inwieldy ship.
These rewards could include:
- Commendations for sailing and voyaging on the Carrack;
- Unlocking new high-value legend voyages while sailing on a Carrack;
- Other types of goals that encourage players to sail on a Carrack.
Adding these rewards would make taking down a Carrack to start sailing around with it worthwile. You can vote to raise an emissary flag to get increased rewards for voyages, putting your ship at risk from other players who would be interested in the riches that are to be found on your gigantic vessle.
What will the other players in the session experience?
Other players in the session can join the fight against the Reapers' Carrack. However, only a maximum of six people will be able to be recruited to sail as one crew by the Carrack.
When encoutering a Carrack that is manned by another crew, you know the following:
- The crew has at least one legend, since you need to be able to buy the voyage from the Pirate Lord in the Athena's Fortune.
- The crew is realitively skilled, because they managed to take down the Reapers' Carrack in a storm.
Knowing this, you can be sure that you are facing a decently skilled crew. This help maintain the 'fear' factor of seeing the masts of the Carrack on the horizon.
What happens if you sink while sailing the Carrack?
When sinking your Carrack, you won't respawn at an island with a brand-new Carrack waiting in front of you. Instead, your crew will become disbanded and respawn at an island with their original ship of choice. This way, sinking your Carrack is meaningful and consequential.
The goal of introducing a new large ship type this way is to encourage players to meet and work together. You need to find other players in your session to take down the new ship to claim it yourself and sail together with your new trusted crewmembers. It allows players to interact and cooperate similar to the update of The Hungering Deep.
I would love to see this kind of player interaction come back to the Sea of Thieves, and I think introducing a new ship this way would be perfect!
Thanks for reading my post!
I'd love to see people add to this idea or to share their concerns.
