Hidden Caches

Kresslack

This idea came to me when reading Tesha's Sea Trade idea, so figured I would share it. I occasionally dig when I visit islands or new places, and while I mostly don't find anything, sometimes I do. I would be really interesting if there were hidden chests or supply caches that were generated randomly about the islands, in both wilderness and non-wilderness locations. These could be dug up using a shovel, and working in a similar nature as the Globes of Shifting Contents, would potentially contain valuable items or regular items.

There could be different types of chests or caches, which would not be apparent until they were dug up and opened. Some could be empty, the contents having rotted over time. Others could be trapped, simply a decoy to lead a would be thief to their demise. Then there could be those that are the real deal and hold either supplies or valuable treasures.

I think it would do a lot for the exploration aspect as well as encouragement for Seafaring in general.

Grandue

Like this?

Paine

Isn't this the whole point of diving? Every time you dive there is a chest reward of some kind. It could be 237 gold or it could be 237,000 gold.

Tahquil

Randomly digging up objects in island wildernesses is already a thing. He's just asking for caches to be added to the things potentially found.

Kresslack

Paine said:

Isn't this the whole point of diving? Every time you dive there is the potential for a chest reward of some kind. It could be 237 gold or it could be 237,000 gold.

As Tahquil mentioned, and as the initial post itself mentioned, this is more for a topical treasure hunt. Smugglers have hidden caches of supplies, ships wreck and some of their cargo and contents find themselves washing up on shores and sometimes getting buried as a result of the tides, and sometimes people bury treasure or gold for safekeeping.

Tahquil

Sometimes you'll find a pile of gold instead of a chest. But there is always gold or a chest in each area.

Blujixapug

Digging up a whole area is quite tedious. With diving, it's mitigated by knowing that there is always a cache in each underwater area, and the areas are of limited size. I love the idea of treasure hunts, but suggesting people should dig up the hundreds or thousands of rooms comprising island wilderness areas seems very tedious, even before you factor in the possibility of finding nothing due to unlucky RNG or someone else digging it up just before you do, and the open-ended, endless, chore-like, burnout-driving nature of the activity.

Personally I'd do it by randomly finding treasure maps while performing other tasks (walking, bashing, questing, Seafaring activities), and having those offer some kind of clue to point the way. That gives the activity more of a timeframe, making it less of a needle in a haystack thing.

One other problem is that while it would be an interesting activity, I doubt they're interested in creating a new way for people to gain valuable rewards just for the sake of it. You'd have to justify how it would benefit the game. Ship diving puts more vessels on the ocean to drive piracy and conflict - this would have no such benefit.

Kresslack

Wilderness locations on islands tend to be pretty small, and islands are locations in which things can reasonably be expected to be stored or hidden or washed up. Also puts more ships out in transit.

Or the ability to pull up randomly spawned wreckages from the ocean floor to try to scavange for treasure or other things, with the chance of having to fight of some wave of creatures or another.

Inuad

Blujixapug said:

Digging up a whole area is quite tedious. With diving, it's mitigated by knowing that there is always a cache in each underwater area, and the areas are of limited size. I love the idea of treasure hunts, but suggesting people should dig up the hundreds or thousands of rooms comprising island wilderness areas seems very tedious, even before you factor in the possibility of finding nothing due to unlucky RNG or someone else digging it up just before you do, and the open-ended, endless, chore-like, burnout-driving nature of the activity.

Personally I'd do it by randomly finding treasure maps while performing other tasks (walking, bashing, questing, Seafaring activities), and having those offer some kind of clue to point the way. That gives the activity more of a timeframe, making it less of a needle in a haystack thing.

One other problem is that while it would be an interesting activity, I doubt they're interested in creating a new way for people to gain valuable rewards just for the sake of it. You'd have to justify how it would benefit the game. Ship diving puts more vessels on the ocean to drive piracy and conflict - this would have no such benefit.

I'm not sure whether tedium should play a factor in this, as it seems like something entirely optional that a character might do. If you don't feel like digging, don't. If you do, do.

As to valuable rewards for the sake of it, the goodies dug up could be less gold/heron feather types of things and more cask of rum or a battered figurehead types of things.