The issue
The game’s first, and currently only abyssal sea monster, the Omen, is meant to be a raid boss. It’s meant to be impossible for a player to defeat alone, and is meant to be fought in large groups with multiple ships. The Omen is meant to be a terrifying, epic encounter with an enormous Kraken that the player should fear.
The execution of this concept is horifically flawed due to several reasons.
- The Omen can and doesn’t have to spawn anywhere in the Far reaches. This means that players actively searching for it can go hours without finding one, while those who just want to hunt dragons or animals or find the Epicenter can be faced by multiple.
- The moveset is underwhelming. This is an issue that goes for every sea monster in the game, but Krakens are especially guilty of this, including the Omen. These aren’t meant to be fought with attachments on your ship, but with weapons, magic, fighting styles or relics. However, what could be an epic fight turns into basic attack spam as the tentacles smash your ship or try to crush it.
- The Omen is extremely cheesable. People have figured it out barely hours after it released. By just getting a set with enough range to hit god and finding a volcano or an island, the player can fully avoid having either themselves or their ship endangered. One by one, they will take down the tentacles until the Omen is dead, taking no damage from the Omen in the process.
This suggestion aims to revamp the Kraken to make it feel like a truly menacing and proper raid boss with adequate rewards.
Introducing: Ominous archipelago
Ominous archipelago is a new structure which can rarely spawn within the Far reaches, a decent distance away from the player. It would consist of around 12 islets with spires, similar to Halbjorn’s arena. The islets would be small in area, but the area itself would be increased by hundreds of shipwrecks which would cover the area, with ships being beached, crashed onto the islands or even impaled onto the spires. The sea in the area would also be tinted black similarly to the sea around Krakens, but would not damage the Omen if it isn’t spawned.
Dark sea’s skybox would unload near the archipelago, creating a clear circle. Thunder, tornadoes, whirlpools or natural waves can’t spawn in the archipelago due to its function, and players can’t get Water poisoning. Waves from outside that come close to the archipelago will automatically crash into the sea. Atlantean ships also cannot spawn in here, and if they do, they will be disposed of in a manner explained later. Certain waves are immune to this effect, as explained later.
Map
TW: Ass 5-minute microsoft paint sketch
Gray squares are the rough positions of islets, arranged in the rough shape of two concentric circles.
Black spots are a rough idea of spawning positions of Omen tentacles.
Black star in the middle is the position of the Omen’s “head” and the center of the Ominous archipelago.
Omen spawning
When the Ominous archipelago spawns, the quartermaster will alert the player saying “Captain, do you see those islands? Let’s steer clear of them… They don’t feel safe.” If the player comes closer to the island, the quartermaster will say another line, “Captain! Do you see all those shipwrecks? Something deadly is in these black waters! Let’s turn back while we still can”.
If the player sails into the middle ring of sea (consult the map), the Omen will spawn. The boss bar will show up, around a dozen tentacles (preferably exactly a dozen, to remove the highly RNG-dependant health pool of the Omen) will spawn roughly in their given positions, and the sea will become toxic, potentially taking on a darker hue.
Omen moveset
To make the Omen into as interesting and intimidating of a fight as possible, several moves would be reworked, and new ones would be introduced.
Crushing grip
Crushing grip is used by the Omen whenever there’s a ship near the arena being commanded by a player or NPC while it is spawned. If one is detected, a tentacle will emerge and crush the ship, dealing 625 damage to the ship’s durability every second and keeping the ship in place. The tentacle will keep crushing the ship until the player leaves the captain’s wheel, with another ~2 seconds being added to account for the attack’s initial animation.
This move is used only while the player is commanding their ship to force them to use the arena and fight the Omen properly. It won’t be used if the player isn’t commanding the ship.
A special version of this move can be used on NPC ships. If one sails into the arena, wether or not the Omen is spawned or not, a spare tentacle will emerge and crush the ship for 3 seconds, after which it will be sunk instantly. The tentacle used for this attack is purely cosmetic, spawned specifically for that ship and does not count as a mob, instead being more like a special attack visual.
Tentacle slam
Another rework of an existing attack, tentacle slam would be used when the player is near the sea level, not higher than the height of the brig’s deck. It can be used on players who are both on land and on a ship, provided they’re low enough. It’s a large area attack that destroys shipwrecks and deals 2,000 damage to players and ships, as well as ragdolls players. However, it has a long startup of ~3 seconds and can’t change direction, letting the player escape the island.
Tentacle swipe
A new attack (at least I think), tentacle swipe would be used only when the player is on land and not higher than the height of the brig’s deck and has a chance to replace tentacle slam. It’s a giant sweeping attack that sometimes destroys shipwrecks, dealing 800 damage to players, ragdolling and throwing them far away, likely into the toxic water. It has around ~1.5 second startup and can be avoided by staying above it.
Ink shot
An attack only used if the player is out of the tentacle’s reach and near the center of the archipelago, a giant blast of ink (possibly recolored water magic blast) would be shot from the center of the archipelago, where the Omen’s “mouth” would be. The attack has a slight arc, like barrage, and upon impact, deals 1,300 damage, poisons the player and inflicts them with the Inked status effect, greatly darkening their vision for 5 seconds (or just 5 stacks of blindness if we can’t have nice things).
Tentacle punch
Another new attack, tentacle punch would be used exclusively when the player is out of reach for any of the other attacks due to elevation. When using the attack, the tip of the Omen’s tentacle will curl into something like a fist, and then fly towards the player. It’s an attack with small area but heavy damage capable of destroying shipwrecks which deals 2,700 damage, ragdolls the player and knocks them away, possibly causing additional fall damage.
Rubble throw
An attack used when the player is out of the reach for any of the other attacks with a chance to replace tentacle punch if certain conditions are met. The Omen’s tentacle will curl around the rubble in the water and swing it towards the player, resulting in a shotgun attack which gains size and density the more rubble there is in the water. Each hit of rubble deals 125 damage and inflicts bleeding.
Special mechanics
There are several special mechanics which affect some attacks and the fight in general, making it either more fair or more challenging.
Rubble
Rubble is spawned whenever the Omen destroys a shipwreck, and is visualized by crates, barrels, planks, bottles and similar debris which floats in the archipelago’s sea. Shipwreck destruction, while reducing the available area the player has, also adds rubble, with each shipwreck destroyed adding 100 rubble to the internal counter. Atlantean ships sunk by the crushing grip attack also provide 100 rubble.
When the rubble throw is used, half of the rubble is depleted (rounding to the upper multiple of 10) and translated into the attack. Every 100 rubble used increases the spread of the attack by 10% and adds 10 more projectiles to the attack (can be just changed to increasing spread if this is too laggy).
Toxic sea and waves
Falling into the sea, just like in Kraken fights, will result in a powerful poison effect being inflicted, dealing 2.5% of the player’s health as damage each second for 20 seconds and being reapplied whenever the player falls in the water. The player also gets the Inked status effect, greatly darkening their screen for 5 seconds (again, can be replaced by blindness).
The Omen can also spawn special waves in case of certain attacks, mainly tentacle slam and swipe, if they land on water. Slam will spawn two smaller waves on each side, while swipe will spawn one giant wave in the direction of the swipe. These waves are immune the the arena’s despawn effect. Players caught in these waves will get a one-time poison effect inflicted on them identical to the sea’s, to prevent unfair death by being trapped in the wave for too long.
Lost harpoons
Primarily an addition for strength players, certain spots in the Ominous archipelago will feature large bundles of harpoons. The damage of these harpoons scales off the player’s investiment in strength, just like the ship attachment (albeit at a higher rate), and they can’t be destroyed by the Omen. To use them, players simply have to walk up to them and grab the harpoons, which will give them up to 2 harpoons crossed on their back. Pressing R (while not carrying cargo of any sort or having a tool equipped) will let the player aim their harpoon and charge the throw.
Singular targetting
As complex as this may sound, it’s really simple. Each player could only have one tentacle aggroed onto them at a time. This is to prevent the Omen killing the player by having multiple tentacles attack in a fashion that’s uncounterable by the player.
Rewards
Alongside pieces from the Omen set and Omen meat, several new rewards would have to be added to make the fight feel properly rewarding. When the Omen is defeated, a shipwreck would be spawned in the center of the archipelago, the remains of the Omen’s last meal. Aboard the shipwreck, players could interact with the treasure pile similar to the one from fort raids. Each player is guaranteed a mystic chest, 1 imbued rare chests for each tentacle and many uncommon chests. Around the shipwreck would also spawn lots of Lost cargo, possibly ~20 to allow for a good refill on supplies.
I’m pretty sure that’s all for this suggestion, if anything else comes to mind I’ll add it later.
