Grog.
It's fun, makes some humorous stories, and is a pirate staple. But in Sea of Thieves at the moment, it is pretty pointless, and only serves to hinder your journey :(
My proposal is a simple one: Make Grog your healing item.
That's it. You drink grog to heal. Each full mug holds one health bar of grog. So to recover 50% of your health, you'd drunk half the mug. This means you can heal in a fight, but doing so will inhibit you more and more. It will also makes things interesting as the longer a fight goes on, the drunker everyone gets. You could then implement that bananas are a consumable to reverse intoxication. This leave other fruits and vegetables you may be thinking of adding later to make sense as other buffs and effects.
Pros:
- The grog mechanic serves a productive purpose in the game. Instead of being largely ignored.
- The choice between healing and trying to fight drunk or running away adds to the lite strategy of the game's combat.
- Long open sea battles between two crews completely drunk, throwing up on eachother as they sword fight and try to aim cannons, would be hilarious.
- All forms of combat become more interesting, making fights against skeletons exciting, as the old tactic of walking backwards and shooting is hard when your character is stumbling all over the place.
Cons:
- Bananas no longer the giver of all life in the universe :(
- Using up all the ship's grog for fun impacts survivability until refilled
Sea of Thieves is not a competitive game. It is a game of risk/reward choices. I feel the above system suits this theme perfectly while providing that extra dynamic to player experience in both humor, and overall fun.
Just my 2 dubloons on the matter :)
I'll catch you all on the next tide, mateys!
