Hethwill, the Red Duke

Yarr they have all the time in the world to surrender before the inevitable. ( I agree a surrender option should be available in the mini game )

Hmmm it would make it very OP and wouldn't change anything regarding outcome if clean slate interception. Only a Lynx to catch a Trader Lynx given the same build and setup. Regarding the Cutter, the Privateer struggles with the downwind, true, but the Pickle will get it. But... wind and land can change everything. Just my million cents on it.

You can't simply summon Hugo von Grojt like that... leave that specific bad guy alone

You interpret the mechanic wrong. No one is going to steal your share. Your share is yours. Your share depends on nation population. No one can steal your share. Please, let's test it. Let's test it all and them get everything wiped so we start anew in a "perfect" gold release version.

Almost as good as HMS Diamond Rock, the stone frigate.

He is vicious.

Yarr, do it now ! Impregnate their home waters with the black seed. Forget ports, let's make the change.

War against Pirate "Nation", I will make a lot of enemies with this one, is a War against all Nation's traitors. It is not a war against piracy. You won't find pirates in home waters that much, but you will find traitors and defectors a lot. That is the naked truth.

Make it count as friendly damage. Make it harsh.

Let's see how the national crew pool will balance things along with the Lordship and entire PB system changed. It will be the same for all nations, so nations with more population will have more difficulty crewing in the long run. Less populated ones will have more crew reserves per player.

Please do not have mercy nor look upon what is bad for the game. The Black really needs it. We are, and should not be, a national refugee camp and I, personally, would welcome the cleansing deluge to get rid of the non-pirates. After all, all that is required, honestly, is Mortimer and the Free ports. Raid trade for what we need. Maybe then we can show a door to a definitive change in the Pirate choice as a unique option gameplay, different from the nations, harder but way more fun ( for me ). Blockade all movement at all times. Make it National efforts. Bring your newcomers to pvp and have them learn. I am not being sarcastic, I really want it to happen.

Nations MUST go to war. Simple as that. They must go to war for resources and trade. Making 5 to 10 ports unassailable is fair game with one limitation to make it fair and square - 1 building per port only.

I think I like the trade raiding game more than you, as we don't have the same feedback from the playstyle I have fun raiding trade. If it is empty, well, tough luck for me. Will try again. I never get upset by it, may try once or twice and if the pattern holds I just leave the game and return at another hour or another day. Also I take mental notes of routes and times used in the different nations so it becomes easier to decide where to go at what time. After a while, taking on the trader-fisherman difference, patterns start to show and it becomes easier to tell the difference between white fleet and cargo haulers. And... Selling looted fish meat from the white fleets, at nice prices, has yielded close to 500k since it was introduced. I call that a good amount to share between a crew of 67 I know my ships and those of the prey, having played them all ( it helps !!!! ) and no matter the ships, initial relative positions, land and wind are the name of the game. I'd say it is a half/half business. Half getting away, half getting caught. Half of that half has goodies. The other half has little. Still I do a fair amount of a small fortune with raiding. Takes time, takes dedication, takes a different approach to pvp, but if it is the playstyle you like then it is ultimate fun and the profits will by far, by faaaaaaaar, cover any expenses ... there isn't even a comparison. But hell, every playstyle takes time, dedication and if it is really what a player likes then fun is assured and results will show. Trade needs more raiders. Raiders need more trade.

One step at a time and we will get there. I see a lot of topics in the OP focus on the much needed Pirate option and not the refugee camp we have to day and I must applaud that. I also want to see Nations to be equally changed especially in regards of Navy Captain and Merchant Captain. The Officer slot can be used for that.

Every fight is different. And no, it is not a "disadvantaged side" option. If anyone wants to surrender so be it. Surrender mechanic is finally useful. It saves lives of crew and officer and that is the focus point of it. Nothing else matters let alone BR. BR advantage/disadvantage must be visible in the rewards. From a high ratio to a almost zero ratio.

Little sense on this. We had a frigate surrender to our two schooners. He would not be able to surrender and only prolong the agony

Tested ?

Yarr'n'avast Capt'n !!! Should we hoist the Caps !!!???

Well, pretty much broke the 10 million liquidity barrier just with raiding and selling the proceedings from the raids whether basic resources or transformed into materials. I've spend 7 million already in "luxuries" including upgrades to test and them basically giving them away or exchanging them for other versions and I do not use any big ships, the biggest being a Surprise and the rest being schooners and brigs. I do not plan on retirement. I plan on breaking the 50 million next. Pretty sure I am much more successful that most of the "I went pirate because..." and they play farmerboy or traderscum or worse...pirate-of-the-line-of-battle.

Pirates need to be addressed to wash away the refugees. Won't disclose the majority of the testers discussion on how to achieve this but let's say it leads Pirates to be Pirates and nothing like we have to day, taking that even half the build up would get implemented. Pirates must not be farmers, nor builders, nor godamn traders. That is anathema and a shame to the working pirate class Pirates must be unique and hardcore.

As a dedicated trade raider and hard toiling honest pirate I disagree OP. A pirate crew can sort of see details like heel and buoyancy of the target vessel and make a bet that there's cargo but it is not always certain. I like that gambling game and it doesn't really take much time to chase a trader... or if it does better let it go, after all piracy is a game about being effective in the less time possible. Plenty of blunders happened back in the day. Actually crew has been massacred because there was no cargo and pirate captain went on a tantrum rage. and everyone was put to the sword ( technically not a pirate but a sanctioned raider ). It is part of the game. What is lacking is a full wash of Pirates to cleanse the black from the nation's refugees.

Nope. If you are really from the EU you'll want the PBs to be from 1AM to 3AM, except at weekends, including friday where it is best to be at 2pm - 4pm.

What would happen to the fleet ship cargo if your own ship gets captured or sunk ? Would all the cargo from all ships be lost ? NA Rule: no teleport with cargo. So no chance of the fleet ship to teleport to you with the cargo.

I would wildly guess the ships are built with a cargo mass or weight shift ( like guns discharge ) calculations in mind. Well some didn't and proved to be very unstable. Guess NA serves the age of sail building parameters nicely.

Easy answer: a vicious one.