This is a simple idea at its core. Hunting sea monsters is already a thing in game- you do it for potion ingredients, self defense of your ship, or clearing out diving spots. I think we could lean more into monster hunting, as to me personally, the idea of chasing down and hunting large sea monsters is incredibly fun, and I think it can be expanded on into it’s own type of side activity.
So to start, there would need to be bounty Boards. Unlike the ‘human’ bounties, bounties posted on sea monsters should be around the docks of civilized islands, in lore they would be posted by sailors and merchants rather than the navy.
As a function, the posters will hold only surface level similarities with ‘human’ bounty hunting. Posters will spawn in a few minutes after a sea monster does. Every time a sea monster appears in the news, the bounty poster will update that particular monsters bounty to show the new location. However, to make this more of a relaxed game activity one can partake in on the side, bounties cannot be ‘stolen’.
If, for example, someone were to take Obulus before you because they stumbled upon it randomly, you shouldn’t be punished. Instead, the poster stays in your inventory, and should you run across another in your travels, defeating it will let you claim the poster then.
To let newer players partake in this activity as well, regular sea life like sharks and whales will also have smaller bounties on them, and players can claim these by hunting any of said creature (Or perhaps 2-3 of said creature, for sharks.) These bounties will always be on the bounty board to take at any time.
I have made two mock ups for posters:
Bounties would appear on just about any form of sea creature you can find. From Tiger Sharks to White Eyes, there will always be something for you to persue.
Here is an example UI with the limited posters I have made so far. I have no posters for Whales, as they are fairly common and should be like Sharks, an ‘infinitely repeatable’ sort of hunt.
If you claim the bounty, you’ll get a little notification like this:
I won’t say that they should give renown- that would be up to Vetex and the wider community, I only wish to present the idea at it’s most basic.
Potential Rewards
So, why engage with this feature? I mean, aside from some money as a bonus for hunting a sea monster? Well I have an idea: Unique Ship Parts. Hunting Sea Monsters or creatures could reward you with unique sails, and figureheads, and MAYBE unique rams and hull armors as well.
So, for example, say you hunt Obulus and claim its bounty. What might it drop? Well as a starter, I was thinking an ‘Obulus’ figurehead. As a base, it’s a darker purple, and the light on the end actually grows and illuminates the sea in front of your ship. You know, small little things like that.
For regular sharks, there could be shark patterned sails, figureheads, maybe even rare sail drops that look like they had a ‘bite’ taken out of them.
Now if we wanted to go one step further (And we already don’t have to, this is purely just additional ideacrafting), there could even be ‘trophies’ you can win for the Captains cabin rarely by hunting monsters via a poster. A White Eyes Tooth, an Obulus Orb, a Poison Jaws… Jaw. Really let people deck out their Captains Cabin like a trophy room.
A HUGE thanks to @Tobi for letting me use his Sea Monster Designs, seriously, this idea would be so stale without you Tobi, thanks a million.
