I wrote this whenever some idea popped up, its not structured and some ideas might not be amazing. Since the game has not been released yet, there may be stuff that would be redundant, added already or conflicting with other stuff in the game.
But I do believe that some ideas would make the game so much better than it already is.
Character selection on PC requires you to press the scrolldown button to get more options. But laptops don’t have extended keyboards with those buttons. Please change it to something else or make it clickable with the mouse.
Would also like a bit more options.
I understand you don’t want to give full customization to the player, but a bit more is appreciated. From what I have seen a lot of characters look way too much like each other right now.
In quest where you need to hold the lantern up high it would help if the lantern was clearly higher after right clicking. Right clicking kind of seems to do nothing because it moves very little on the screen. It's one of the things I see let's players/streamers often not understanding because they didn't notice they can.
Bounty hunter NPC.
At this NPC you can place a bounty on other players, costs 100 coins plus an extra 100 coins placement fee.
A bounty can only be placed once per day on a maximum of 4 different players. A killed player with a bounty on his head will leave a skull that can be redeemed at the bounty hunter NPC. When you or one of your teammates pick up your own skull it disappears making it impossible to redeem your own bounty, Skulls disappear after 5 minutes if not picked up by a player. Bounties will stay active until that player gets killed and the skull is redeemed, even if that player logs off. Strong popular players are likely to receive a bounty, making them more famous across the seas.
You can receive nameless bounty posters at the bounty hunter NPC. But only from those that are online in the same server. You will need to match the looks of the players to find out if they are on the list or not.
On the website of Sea of Thieves will be a rank list with names:
Famous pirates - Ranks players by the total bounty ever put on their name, but that doesn’t mean there is an active bounty. Active bounties can only be found in game by face.
Famous bounty hunters - Ranks players on how much bounty they redeemed.
Many players will likely want to have bounties on their heads because of the rankings.
Merchandise store on the website allows you to buy an official wanted poster printed with your character + name + total bounty.
Main focus should be on the current mode. But I would love to see more game modes
My suggestions is a hardcore mode and combat only.
Hardcore server
No respawn at the ship, making it possible to steal a ship with the full loot on it, but also make it easier to lose everything.
I personally love a challenge and this is perfect for a challenge once I get a little bit better at the game. It will keep the crew alert on possible hijackers. And makes risk and reward something the full crew needs to decide. It will also create true sad moments when a crew member dies.
Combat server
No treasure to be found, islands only function to restock, all that matters is ship combat. Smaller map or more players per map to make it easier to find enemy ships.
This will likely make shorter play sessions fun as well.
Raft
Can be made from 5 planks.
When your ship sank while being on an island you can get back to an outpost using that to sell your treasure. It's a nice way to rescue yourself, it’s very easy to be taken down because its slow, doesn’t allow you to hide your loot and only requires 1 hit to break.
Has a place to stand on and a sail, can set sail length and angle, And has a stick to use as a rudder to steer, but lacks all other ship features.
The option to make one will only come if you stand at the edge of the water with planks in hand.
More ship types
3 man ship
2 sails, 2 cannons each side and a size a little bit smaller then the Galleon.
Sometimes you want to play with 2 friends, but don’t want a random 4th player and the Galleon is too big for 3 players.
And maybe some different configurations on the current ships.
Like removing 2 cannons but having a stronger bow for ramming other ships.
Or a ship with more wood/cannonball/banana storage and an extra ammunition chest, but slower travel speed.
Or sacrificing ramming damage and 2 cannons, for 1 forward cannon at the bow.
bombs
does the same damage as a cannonball. Can be used to damage ships without cannonballs, but is hard to use against players.
If you equip bombs you will fill up 1 of your weapon inventory slots. It has only 1 ammunition. You can light it by holding right click for 5 seconds, once lit, it will explode 15 seconds later. And cannot restock until it exploded to prevent spamming bombs inside enemy ships. You can throw it using the left click, the longer you hold left click, the further you will throw. A bomb on the ground can be defused with the use button making the bomb disappear. A lit bomb gives sparkles from the fuse, making it easy to spot in the dark.
Portable cannon
Can be found randomly on islands, like gunpowder barrels and chests. It’s rare to find one. Must be carried like barrels and chests. Once placed you can use it like a normal canon. But its smaller, so it has less reach, will deal less damage to players and can’t be used to launch players.
You can use this on an island or place this anywhere on a ship to get extra canons. Because it weighs more you can only walk or swim at way slower speed (which makes it hard to sneak one into an enemy ship to destroy it from the inside).
Shooting 5 times with a gun at the same spot also makes a hole. If it already had a hole but that hole is patched up it will only take 3 shots. If you shoot a hole while its being repaired it will interrupt the repair process. It will be hard to damage a ship without cannons, but it will be possible this way. The blunderbuster will only damage if your close to the ship, to prevent the big spread to do be abused.
Chest of blood
attracts more sharks then normal. Requires a well parked ship or teamwork to transport in the water.
Skeleton chest
When held changes the looks of the full crew to skeletons and enables friendly fire. Which might confuse the crew to kill each other. Also makes it harder to fight real skeletons because of the confusion.
Chest of death
Temporarily lowers health to 1hp and lowers walking speed. When you let go your health returns to the previous value.
I love the system to play your own music, but it’s few songs get repetitive fast. More music to play would make it so much more amazing.
And please add 2 more instruments, making a full crew band possible.
My suggestions: a flute for the melody only and a drum for the rhythm.
Maybe you could also make the different models of the same instruments in the shop also sound a little bit different. Metal/shiny looking ones with sharper tones, shorter notes and a bit more volume balance on the high pitches. Wooden/older looking ones with warmer tones, longer connecting notes and a volume balance that increases the lower frequencies.
Islands with platforming parkours that you need to jump to get to the chest. Some moving platforms and hazards would make it even more interesting.
Islands with b***y-traps to protect the chest
Uncharted islands that sink underwater during the day But are invested with skeletons during the night. So you either dive trying to find random chests or fight hordes of skeletons on the hope to find them.
Uncharted turtle island. On the back of a giant turtle is an island that moves around the map. Because it moves around you will need someone to let the ship follow the turtle, otherwise it swims away from your ship making you unable to get of the island safely
Islands with the legend of zelda type of puzzles to solve instead of riddles only. Would be best if they also have a slightly randomized layout each day, that would keep it interesting even if you already seen the island.
The official European price of the game is 70 euros, while the American price is 60 dollars. 60 dollars are actually worth about 50 euros, so it’s 20 euros cheaper to buy in a different currency. On one of the biggest tech sites in the Netherlands people already complained about the 70 euro price tag, not realizing that they can save money by buying it in dollars. If I didn’t play the free stress test before knowing the 70 euro price, I would have lost interest myself and not even bothered to try.
Make it 50 euros, matching the dollar price and it would result in way more European purchases.
Flying skeleton ship
A rare sight like the planned kraken. Its flying in the air hidden in a storm. When lightning strikes, you can sometimes see its silhouette in the clouds. Once you get close it will go down into the water and attack you. It’s an extra large ship with 5 canons each side with 10 skeletons on deck. If you kill a skeleton it will respawn in 2 minutes until you sink the ship. Has a few high value chests inside the captain’s cabin, but also a stronger captain skeleton that will only attack when someone enters the ship. Once sank it will drop the rest of the chests.
Below decks is blocked of for simplicity. If you don’t attack it fast enough it will automatically repair 1 hole every 10 seconds. If no ships are around it will fly back into the clouds.
Will be hard to take down with one crew, if your skillful you can try to steal from the captain’s cabin then run, will likely require multiple crews to take down. especially because the storm also makes it hard.