Once upon a time, before computer issues prevented me from playing Sea of Thieves, the game was in a glorious era. You weren't obliged to get voyages for a certain faction to progress in that specific faction if you didn't feel like it. Nor were you obliged, more importantly, to do riddles if you didn't like them. Why?
Because on small islands, there was a chance for captains to spawn that would drop X marks the spot treasure maps. And on large islands, there was a chance for captains to spawn that would drop riddles. And everyone was encouraged to go out, cut loose from voyages if they wanted to, and just go out and explore, searching islands for exactly those kinds of mini-quests and rewards they wanted out of the game. PLAY THE GAME HOW YOU WANT TO! Absolutely everyone could get out of the game what they liked and enjoyed most. Can you imagine? It was heaven.
And since I like X Marks The Spot treasure maps more than anything else in this game... I was hooked. I could set out alone if my friends didn't want to play, and I bought pets to accompany me on my solo adventures. It was amazing.
Here's why this was so fantastic in general. For one, you were able to gather a little bit of everything. The captains, guardians and key masters dropped skulls that you could sell to the Order of Souls. The X marks the spot treasure maps led you to rewards that were often for the Gold Hoarders, and occasionally for the Merchant Alliance, while you were also able to find mermaid gems and random items along the way that could be sold to any of the three factions. And the cherry on top was that the new emissary system allowed you to zero in on rewards for a specific faction as giving you the most coin and reputation.
Here's why this was fantastic to me specifically: I love treasure maps. And I don't care about riddles whatsoever.
Here's why it might have been bad in the developer's eyes: because this system showed just how much more rewarding it is to do treasure maps than riddles.
The most obvious solution to work on this imbalance would be to make it require slightly more effort to do treasure maps, in the following way. 'Nerfing' treasure maps on the one hand, 'buffing' riddles on the other hand.
- It could take longer to do the treasure maps. You visit a small island, it spawns a captain, you kill it and get an X marks the spot treasure map drop FOR ANOTHER ISLAND, maybe even a big island, in any of the wide oceans' areas!
- It could be less rewarding to do the treasure maps. The rewards for treasure maps could be slightly reduced as opposed to what they were before (lower chance for high-value treasure, higher chance for low-value treasure). (But for the love of biscuits, let me be able to dig up a treasure from a treasure map and find a Stronghold Gunpowder Barrel or Captain's Chest, for example, even if there's only a small chance.)
BUFFING RIDDLES: Make the reward for doing a riddle a(n almost) guaranteed high-value treasure. That would make the time investment on riddles much more worthwhile. And perhaps the riddles can always drop on the same island where you have to go search, thus cutting down on time and tedium.
Instead, everything changed for the worst. I logged back on after not having able to play for so long, to find that every randomly spawned captain now drops a riddle. I have never ever got a treasure map drop from a random captain on a small island anymore.
But wait! Surely that means they boosted treasure maps when you take Gold Hoarder voyages, right? Wrong. I clearly remember when I was a lower level, treasure maps were a common sight for voyages, but that as I levelled up to eventually become a Pirate Legend, the treasure maps were all but replaced by riddles. And this is still the case. When I finally did get 1 treasure map alongside 3 riddles... it was for 1 treasure on a small island on the other end of the whole map. Turned out to be a Marauder's Chest.
I don't know what's going on. I can pay 200 coins for a slight chance to get maybe one treasure map, but I would be throwing away my coin and cluttering up my radiant voyages wheel 90% of the time. I can't find any treasure maps in the world. It's ridiculous how my favorite part of this game has become almost unobtainable.
Please. Nerf the treasure maps if you must, but let me do the X marks the spot treasure maps if I want to do them. I agree that riddles are currently a waste of time (high time investment, low reward) compared to treasure maps. So make riddles better, rather than forcing players to do more riddles instead of treasure maps. I've given you my suggestions, please consider them for implementation in some way, shape or form. Right now, I have little to no reason to play this game anymore. I don't care about riddles. I don't care about doing order of souls quests. And everyone knows merchant alliance voyages are un-fun and the absolute worst (i.e. another area that should be improved). The way the game worked before, allowed you to forge your own adventures AND do what you like most AND level up in all three major factions along the way. I would like to see that return, along with a reliable way to find and do treasure maps.
TL,DR: Please bring back the X marks the spot treasure map drop on random island captains, maybe make them drop treasure maps for other islands (big or small) than the one they're on and/or tweak rewards if you want to balance them out. X Marks The Spot is the single biggest reason I played this game, and now I'm not sure if there's enough content I actually enjoy to keep me invested in playing.
(Edited for grammar, ease of reading and better structure.)
