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The game comes across as very realistic, and each update seems to make it even more so. There are some things that jar (and feel more out of place after each update), as they just don't fit, like "clans" instead of "Fleets", or being able to sail by a huge enemy AI fleet with impunity as it never attacks on its own initiative. The way the pirates are now is the same, it just doesn't come across as quite being as realistic as the rest of the game. I have some ideas for pirate benefits, as well as some liabilities that would, I think, (hope) still keep pirates as a faction that people will play, and also be a better fit to the game overall. Benefit: Pirate ships are faster than other player ships Historical basis: Pirates were fanatical about keeping their hulls cleaned, but they lacked shipyards to clean larger ships. Tweak: 5th rate ships and below should keep this benefit, Fourth, and 3rd rate ships should have no benefit, and 2nd and first rate ships would have a minus speed benefit (this also being one reason pirates didn't have larger ships). Benefit: Pirates were better marksmen with guns than even naval marines Historical basis: Pirates had to make landfall and hunt game for food. They had more practice then their military counterparts, and if they didn't become good shots, they went hungry. Tweak: Pirates should have a plus with regards to handguns, and muskets Benefit: Pirates should have a benefit when boarding ships. Historical basis: Everything they did was to ensure ships they wanted to capture would surrender quickly. tweak: Pirates should have boarding bonuses for boarding ships, more so for merchant ships. Liabilities: Pirates didn't have shipyards, even if they did, they wouldn't have naval architects, carpenters, craftsmen, etc. to man the shipyards. Pirates should be limited in the kinds of ships they can craft, offsetting this, they should be able to keep ANY ship they capture. Liability: Pirates didn't have access to brass or iron foundries or casting houses (as per shipyards) Pirates should be limited in their ability to purchase canons above a certain size. Also, pirate gunnery should have a negative modifier above a certain class of cannon as they were challenged to outfit their ships with cannons that were matched sets (another reason they didn't have larger ships like 3rd 2nd and 1st rates). Pirates would be limited to 9 or 12 pound cannons, and large ships (3rd, 2nd and 1st rates) would have negative modifiers to accuracy and damage. If the above were introduced, then pirates would have some significant advantages with regards to 5th rate and lower ships, but would be disadvantaged with 3rd rate and higher ships. More of their ships would be captured ships and fewer would be crafted/purchased, so to be fair, there should be an additional tweak to hit points (or improved damage control...etc) to off set the loss in durability. They would retain an advantage in boarding. 4th rate ships would be on average the same as all other nations. An additional idea would be to allow them easier access to all ports, but have a slight chance of being discovered (in reality, getting caught historically would result in being hung or placed in a gibbet at the ports entrance so all could see the dying pirate, or his corpse)...in game, maybe would result in the loss of the players ship and cargo, or possibly a percentage of wealth in fines (bribes) to escape. I think the above would make pirates a lot more realistic. They gain advantages at the lower level ships, are on par with everyone at the middle levels, but have some disadvantages with larger ships, they lose ship crafting ability, and lose easy access to cannons, but gain the ability to retain all captured ships, including 1st rates. Plus they would have boarding bonuses at all levels. One thing I don't have a suggestion on is fleet size. Pirates only very seldom operated in fleets and then only small groups of ships (up to 3 ships, not very often more than 3). Pirate captains generally didn't submit to another pirates authority, and also there wasn't a huge amount of trust when it came to splitting the spoils afterwards. A large decrease in the amount of prize money and goods could be imposed if the pirates had more than a certain number of ships in a battle but, I can't think of an offset to that (and I did come up with offsets for everything else). As the game is now, it seems pirates have advantages, and no disadvantages and are more like a separate nation than a loose confederation of outlaws. Assuming the game coding would allow the tweaks I'm suggesting, I think the above would make pirates be more like pirates, and still keep them as a viable faction.