Much like my general ship related suggestions, I have a batch of suggestions related to the Dark Sea. Some are small, some are larger. Here’s the rapid fire:
Calm in the Storm
Occasionally, you should reach an area in the Dark Sea where the waves aren’t as common and the rain isn’t as heavy. These areas would essentially be rest areas where the players can catch a break for a moment- and it gives players a chance to repair their ship with a repair hammer if need be. These areas are small, but they also provide lessened insanity and you cannot get water poisoning while in these areas.
Waves Break on Walls
This one is self explanatory. Currently, waves phase through islands and walls. This can lead to unfair situations where waves phase through an island entirely to batter your ship. If waves were to instead break against solid walls or structures that were tall enough, it would add to the immersion of the game and prevent frustration from waves that pass through.
Breakable Rift Walls
I haven’t seen it personally, but I hear that if you end up finding a rift in the later portions of the Dark Sea, you’ll end up unable to progress forward. I have an idea for this- make some parts of those rift walls cracked. A player can then bust open those cracks, either with cannonfire or by having a gunpowder barrel that they brought from the Bronze Sea in order to take it out in one shot.
Edit: It was suggested that rams should also work for this. It might be possible, but only once the wall has taken some damage. Otherwise you’re just dealing massive damage to the ship for no reason. Arcanium rams with solid magics (earth, metal, crystal) would deal even more damage to these rift breaks.
More Intricate Caves
As the name suggests, adding more intricacy to caves on dark sea islands would help add more to do on islands. Some of the massive spire islands could also potentially have these caves inside their center as a more interesting way to get up to the top instead of just having to climb up the side. These caves could also have boosted gem drop rates from their breakable rocks, or have some reagents that are more common.
Whirlpool Mini Dungeons
Whirlpool mini dungeons are mini dungeons you would get to by diving into a whirlpool on islands that are in insanity 2 or higher. These mini dungeons are a handful of rooms connected together with fights or parkour that lead to a treasure room at the end. By opening the treasure room, the whirlpool that you entered the dungeon from disappears and all of the dark sealed chests within it are sent to where the whirlpool once was.
Dark Sea Castaways
I find it strange that with the amount of ships in the dark sea, we don’t find at least some castaways that haven’t been fully mutated yet. So, why not add them? Castaways found in the Dark Sea give much greater rewards than normal castaways, and these rewards are boosted further based on how far into the Dark Sea you rescue them from. The rewards can include things like high tier fish (exotic/legendary), treasure charts which have more treasure per location, a lot of galleons, and potentially some rolls from the dark sealed chest loot table.
Silver/Gold Essence
When using the final use of a silver or golden cauldron or cooking pot, you have a chance to receive a chunk of silver or gold essence. These essences can be used on any normal cauldron or cooking pot in order to temporarily turn it silver or gold for one use. These essences could also sell for a pretty penny to merchants, potentially.
Magical Sealed Chests
This applies to any type of sealed chest, but it would be more noticeable for the Dark Sealed Chests. Magical Sealed Chests are guaranteed to give you an enchantment scroll on top of their regular loot. For Magical Dark Sealed Chests, the enchantment is guaranteed to be exotic. You also gain extra infamy from these magical chests.
Fishing Spouts
Fishing Spouts are waterspouts that appear either on the sea or out of lakes on Dark Sea islands. You are able to fish in them, and when you do you both get bites on your fishing rod faster and you have a boosted chance to get modified fish (small, large, golden, massive). Once someone throws their line into the fishing spout, the spout lasts for a few minutes before disappearing. Until someone throws their line in, however, this timer won’t start.
Wave Density Adjustments
This is more of a personal issue than something I think is super important, but it’s still worth noting: I think that the amount of waves in the Dark Sea should be reduced, but the damage the waves do should be increased. The reason I think this is because it makes expert steering of your ship more valuable of a skill in the Dark Sea, and if you know what you’re doing you can reduce the amount of damage your ship takes overall while traveling.
As per usual, I’ll put a poll in the comments for opinions.