More variety inbound!

First off let me say that this game is awesome but can become dull after playing the same setups time and time again.
I would like to offer the idea of ship perks!

Now what would ship perks be and what would they do?
These proposed ship perks would allow us to tweak our boats to better fit the playstyles that we have chosen.
There would be a variety to choose from each with unique benifits, that when used properly could shift the tides of battle in your favor.
Im imagining a bunch of universal ones that can be equipped to any ship, and a handful of specific options for each ship.

Following is a few posssible perks i have come up with:
Scout - +25% Ship speed, +50% Mark duration
Assassin - +25% Damage on next shot fired after eliminating a target.
Ranger - +20% damage to targets hit at the max range of your weapon.
Duelist - +10% damage on next shot fired after taking damage. (Effect wears off after 10 seconds with no damage taken)
Tank - +100 defense after recieving damage (lasts 10 seconds, stackable)
Artillery - Increased splash damage
Heat sink - -50% cooldown on all items after taking damage.
Nomad - Incrementally increases ship speed by 5% per second while in motion (stackable to 50%)
Trap Specialist - Highlights all enemy mines and torpedos, visable through walls.
Surgeon - +50% chance for critical heal when ally is below 25% health.
Aluminized Lining - Reduces incoming fire damage by 25%

These are just some of the ideas i came up with, Feel free to submit your own!!
Disclaimer: Actual numbers/ percentages would most likely need refinement for balancing purposes.

 

Unlikely

 

The thought behind this is that it would allow players to either take full advantage of their strengths or to cover themselves from their weakness.
As an example if any specific player has an issue with fire damage, they can then equip the perk that weakens it.

Think of it as players self balancing various aspects of the game based on their own opinions and preferances.

From the developers perspective, depending on how they decide to make these perks available they could either regain some good will from the community by giving full access to all perks for free or they could add another opportunity for spending.

Ideally, I would like players to have access to a new shop that has all of the perks available in their common rarity. We then purchase whichever perk we would like to equip and head to battle.
From here the perks can be upgraded to higher rarities by completing challenges associated with the perks ability.
For instance if you wanted to upgrade the Assassin perk you would have to eliminate X amount of enemies while having the perk equipped.

A little after thought, these challenges would also provide end game players something new to work on which could help hold their interest in the game.

 

Honestly, I talked to devs about introducing ship talents few weeks ago.
The purpose of ship talents is to provide an efficient balancements system which will lead to nerfs and buffs.. Nerfing meta loadouts.
First step will be nerfing overused ships.. and nerfing meta loadouts on each ship unless the ship is underused. Then buffing underused items on each ship.
Every ship and every loadout will have fair odds to win which will bring more variety to battles.
I don't want to explain more now, but hopefully it will make it to the game soon.

Regarding your suggestion. The implementation and the functionality of your perks are too hard. I don't see it in because it will require too much work for not much benefit.

 

Sounds interesting, I look forward to trying it out!
The main thing my suggestion would promote is encouraging players to actually have a specific playstyle rather than just running around spamming random items.

It would also help separate the good from the bad a little more effectively since a good player with a perk that compliments their style will be able to outperform a player of equal gear

 

I like this idea!

Maybe each ship could unlock new Ship Perk slots at specific levels… that would provide an incentive for people to upgarde their ships.

 

Excuse my terrible photoshop but heres a mock up of what it could possibly look like.