Pirates, Plunder, and & International Trading

[Crayon]

This is going to be unpopular but knowing how everyone likes their history, I think its appropriate

 

Historically, pirates could not get resources they desperately needed. If resources were acquired it was usually through plunder. The plundered goods that were not consume would usually be sold to various merchants they had dealings with, for a fraction of what merchants of the time would pay for from whichever port(s) they would be traveling to, and the merchants who made those types of deals profited greatly. In fact, pirates had so much trouble acquiring resources they needed to maintain their ships coupled with rare port access, they would often swap ships with their victims or salvage those ships and enslave the crews to maintain their own.

 

This leads me to my suggestion, which I leave open for further suggestion.

 

Instead of having pirates able to buy resources such as repair kits, and trade goods, have them plunder it. Enslave their victims' crew for labor hours, and generally, make it so the pirate life is not relative to the national one. Pirates were able to trade with merchants who in turn did business with the ports they had their contacts in.

 

Also, historically speaking, foreign trade ships were generally welcome in ports not flying the same colors as their ship. For example, Britain and United States had quite a bit of trade between them. So to did the Danes and French.  

 

 

Edited for clarity.

Edited April 8, 2016 by Crayon

[SirLeggit]

maybe you should go and research the history of piracy...far more shades of grey than the rather black and white picture you've imagined.

[Crayon]

Actually I did. Pirates would actually haul their ships onto a beach so they could scrape barnacles off. Pirates didn't trade with ports under a national flag. However, they would sometimes raid the ones on the outskirts if the party was large enough, but that was a rare occurence, and it was usually ports that had little to no value to their governments, or werent worth the time. I'm not saying there were no ports that dealt with pirates, but there were VERY few.

[KittyHawkes]

which was usually free ports if i´m not totally wrong... which again is pretty much displayed in the game... many free ports were known to be magnets for outlaws of all kinds, often including those who ran them and the markets there,  if i remember my good old books right...

[Kutai]

Oh look. Someone else who has recently been the victim of Pirate conquest taking a day on the internet 'researching' 'history' to come up with an 'amazing' plan to be more 'historically accurate'.

Or allow me to translate.

I am not currently happy that Pirates took our ports and we were unable to stop them in game. Can you please nerf them because we do not want to actually have to work for a victory.

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

There is no definite pirate history unless you are following individual captain exploits. Other than that just out-of-the-caribbean  pirate history that is.

 

 

The big unbalancing issue here is that to propose this for pirates then, to keep it true to form, one must also redefine the national ports and most especially the shipyards. Not many could be used for 74's anchorage except at large. And even less, quite a handfull actually across all map, had the docks to even build anything above frigate level.

 

So, despite all honorable intentions it will not happen, not in this way, due to historical credibility versus game compromise.

 

Maybe another way can be found.

[Crayon]

Oh look. Someone else who has recently been the victim of Pirate conquest taking a day on the internet 'researching' 'history' to come up with an 'amazing' plan to be more 'historically accurate'.

Or allow me to translate.

I am not currently happy that Pirates took our ports and we were unable to stop them in game. Can you please nerf them because we do not want to actually have to work for a victory.

 

actually i just sink pirates all day. Dont care a damn about the east coast. GG 

 

And if you dont like the suggestion, then heres a new one. 

Remove pirate on pirate battles. Its a privilege other nations do not have, and its a perk that shouldn't be allowed if your a black nation. Not to mention its pointless.

 

Or better yet just remove nations, and port battles. Problem solved. Its just a game right? 

Edited April 9, 2016 by Crayon