Make skills attached to levelling

[Jerome]

Skills that can vary and reflect a captain's style and effect; such as choosing between more accuracy, faster reload, better sailing, more precise navigation, etc.

[OlavDeng2]

Please, got no lets not make this an mmorpg with leveling and such, it will be only bad for the game.

[SirThorne]

The combat is meant to reflect a skill based simulation more than an RPG with a full skill tree, and though I feel like your post is trying to strike a compromise, it adds a mechanical element that will end up feeling artificial, since skill trees almost always suffer from the same problem; There is always one mathematically optimal build, and people will feel obligated to use it.

[Jerome]

I was thinking about being able to choose between specializing in accuracy, reload, sailing, etc.  No special bang bang skills.