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Is there any relation between what AI traders are carrying and the ports they are near? If not, @admin, there should be. AI traders seem to mainly be making short hauls. It would make sense if they were carrying goods consumed or produced at the nearby ports. I apologize if this is already in game and I just haven't noticed it.

This might only work in conjunction with a reputation system, but what if players could craft and trade Letters of Marque. They would temporarily assign the creating nation's flag (with its restrictions on who is an enemy) to the player holding the letter. There are a few options how this might be interesting: 1. Only Nats could make them and only Pirates could get them. 2. Or since alliances are being "turned off" perhaps one Nation could give it to another Nation's player. They would not be free to make and presumably whoever accepts the letter will want some sort of payment as well. A player could only hold one letter at a time I'm sure there are other ways this could play out but it seems like it would have positive impact for low pop nations while avoiding alliance entanglements and provide a mechanism for pirates to do some privateering. Please discuss.

So, I planned to move my outposts around a bit so when no one else was on I could do some trader raiding. It was a little frustrating using the in game map to see where the gold, silver, and copper producing ports were so I took a screen shot of the map and created my own. Thought I would share it even though it is not very useful. Yellow means gold, white is silver, and brown is copper.

Over the past few months, my desk has become littered with books on piracy. Margarette Lincoln's British Pirates and Society, 1680 - 1730 I found to be the most useful, and most recent - referring back to many of the earlier books that I had either already bought or were recommended to me. After reading multiple articles, chapters, and whole books, I felt it was appropriate to write a paper on the subject matter between semesters. I tend to prefer PDFs for sharing of my work for proper footnotes and formatting, so please forgive me for having to go via Google Drive. That said, I present: Stateless Men: An Examination of Historical Piracy

Right now, people who are obviously going to lose a piracy encounter have no incentive to cooperate with their assailants in order to spare themselves anything. Either they escape, or they lose it all. I think it would be beneficial if there was a way to negotiate a surrender so that the fleeing party has the option (if they so chose) to dump some or all of their cargo in order to preserve their ship. It would save pirates a lot of unnecessary hassle and it would save traders...their ship.

We all know that pirates hold ports but many a pirate ship (and some other nations, far from a safe port) would have their ship essentially beached on a shore where at low tide the ship's lower hull would be accessible for repair, naturally some shores were best suited to this and other shores were useless and you'd end up completely stuck, run aground if you tried to careen. So what I propose is that if you are far from a friendly port and need your ship fixed and just so happen to come across an island you can careen your ship and order your crew to gather the required materials needed for repair. Essentially making it a free repair. Naturally this could be exploited so only the smaller classes of ships (probably up to a frigate) could be careened and as well as that it will take time (depending on repairs needed) you would also have the option to send a scouting party out on the Island in case there are any natives who might see you as lunch if you set half your crew on repairs and attack your ship. Scouting should take approximately fifteen minutes and your scouting party can either return completely healthy, with casualties (from hostile animals or native inhabitants) or not return at all, a sure sign that they've died and you should probably make sail with haste. You could choose to repair your ship if your scouting party knows where the native encampment is, however there would still be a chance of them attacking, which would be a lot like boarding mechanics, as for hostile animals; having your scouting party collect the necessary materials nearest the shore under guard with fires lit to scare off the animals, though if your scouting party missed cannibal natives the smoke could draw them towards you. So a quick recap Careening is where you purposely beach the ship at low tide to exact repairs when there is no port or the nearest is far, far away. You would be able to careen on many of the islands with shores but no ports dotted around the map It would be a free (but time consuming, based on the damage and size of ship being careened) way to repair a ship at sea It is not without risk, the island may be inhabited with cannibals or dangerous animals, you would have the option to send out a scouting party, or just exact quick repairs and hope you don't come under attack losing many crew (and potentially having your ship set alight if you lose) in the process Repairs shouldn't be as good as a drydock. 85% hull maximum should be repaired and this would be with a skilled carpenter onboard.

Arrr me hearties! So ye be fancying herself to sail on the account (piracy)? There be a few things ye should know before ye haul anchor! As Pyrates, we live free, but we don't get rich, exceptin' if ye bag yerself a treasure galleon. Pyrates make our fortune by taking over other mens ships & selling them. Before ye sign articles (agree to the code of conduct on board a pyrite vessel), ye should know a few quick things about the life. Grab a mug 'o rum and listen here. [_]P Pyrate ships: 'istorically speakin' Pyrates prefer small quick vessels, wot to evade being hanged by the authorities, see. They be sailin' closer to the wind than a bigg ship. ye want cannons on yer ship, or ye baint vein much good at stalin. Cannons & carronades: Cannons fire at longer ranges, which makes them good for catching prey. Carronades fire short range only, but use bigger shells. Great for sinking ships, but that means your money goes down to Davey jones with it! Shot: Ball, Chain, Grape, & Double. Chain will rip yer prey's sails to ribbons, allowin' ye to get close for the kill. From there you can either board her, or grape the crew to death. Prey: There are three unarmed vessels ye can easily take as prizes; Trader's Lynx, Traders Cutter, & Trader's Brig. Lynx: Crew-20, Guns-0, Cargo-200 Cutter: Crew-20, Guns-0, Cargo-400 Brig: Crew-65, Guns-0, Cargo-600 BEWARE the Trader's Snow, she carries three 18 lb carronades on each side! Traders snow: Crew 60, Guns 3x18lb each side, Cargo 800. Now Pyrates can only trade in pyrite ports, but Pagan Pete likes to think ahead, wot to keep on top 'o things. I mention cargo capacity, as that may be of some import when the craftsmen arrive on your ship in a few days! Arr! The more ye can haul, the more ye can sell, the more profit ye can make! But beware… ye can't put guns on a trade ship. Ye'd be a sitting duck for a hangin'! That there lesson for ye Cabin-boys and powder monkeys bein' concluded, I nows open up the floor for me Pyrate mates to drink rum, sing songs, and tell tales o' plunder!!!! Yarrr! I'll buy ye a rum if ye share your tales! [_]P Pagan Pete

NOTE: Pirates are in-game and playable. Any discussion or debate as to the necessity or want of pirates is now irrelevant. Please avoid any pirate-based flaming (or flaming of any nature for that matter). Thank you. As alluded to in a separate post, I hope very much so that Pirates and Piracy will be handled rather uniquely in comparison to other nations in Naval Action. (it is my ultimate hope that each nation will operate in their own unique way, but that is a discussion for another day) As stated in many other topics discussing it, I agree that Piracy should be seen as the "Hard mode" of Naval Action; it should not be for the faint of heart, heavily PvP oriented (but not exclusively PvP; a player should be able to make their way without PvPing, but have a much harder time of it), with simple goals. This all hinges on how Piracy is implemented, including the very first step of actually becoming a pirate: Turning to Piracy- In my opinion, Piracy should be a middle-to-late game decision. If done too soon, the player could (and should) be run into the rocks without mercy. The Pirate's Life is not an easy one. Because Pirates are KoS for basically everyone, this is a good thing in that new arrivals will not enter into a 100% hostile environment with the bear minimum of resources. Going Pirate should be like a fry deciding they have grown big enough to swim out of the protection of the shallows, at which point they are at the mercy of the sea and all its malicious mechanizations and inhabitants. The Pirate's Ship- Emphasis should be placed on smaller ships for Pirates. The speed and maneuverability of smaller vessels was more fitting for Pirate's hit-and-run tactics historically, and should be reflected in game; Pirates should want to hurry up and capture a ship, plunder it, and sail away (also the fact that pirates preferred ships with low draughts so as to navigate shallow waters). Long, drawn-out fights with heavier armed and armored navy ships should not be something a pirate is eager to do. The largest ship that a pirate should be able to efficiently able to pilot in my opinion is a Surprise at the moment, although I could be swayed to bump that up to the Trincomalee (Any ships yet added between the Surprise and Trinc should also be taken into consideration). NOTE: I am not arguing that pirates should be restricted to small ships; If a pirate get's their hands on a Heavy frigate or ship-of-the-line, so be it, let them sail it. But it should A: be no small feat to do so, and B: Incentives should be placed where sailing a smaller ship would be more lucrative/safe than a larger ship. The good captain Darby discussed this here and I am in agreement: In short, set a cutoff point, and any ship above that will have repair costs raised to exorbitant prices, to the point that either scuttling it or keeping it simply as a Trophy ship are the only viable options. The Pirate "Economy"- Much is up in the air as to what the in-game economy will look like. But regardless, I believe that Pirates should have a minimalist approach to the overall economy as far as direct supply. Should pirates be allowed to have a plot of land to farm some sugar here and there? Sure. Should they be able to prop up a (single) ramshackle rum distillery (which produces a paltry amount of rum)? Eh, ok. Could they even sell their rum (No! Not the Rum!) to shady/desperate traders or smugglers for a spot of coin? Absolutely. Should they be able to corner the rum market in their region? No. In my opinion these things should only be a secondary option to a pirates income. The pirates main place in the overall game economy should be to simply be as a parasite on said economy; "Take what ye can and give nothin' back".. or, you know, sell it back for some gold (sell-back price will depend on where and who you can safely sell it to). But in short, Pirates should not be trying to compete with trade companies to corner any markets. Mobility of Pirate Ports and Havens- Pirates shouldn't be camped in areas heavily trafficked by navies, nor should they be occupying a plot of land that has an incredibly valuable resource sitting in it, thus being a major target for nations. A pirate want's his safe-house to be just that: safe. Sitting on a massive gold mine that England wants is just asking for some major overkill on England's part. That said, pirate ports probably shouldn't be permanent: what good is a secret hideout if it is no longer secret: "A (simple) Pirate's Life for me!" - "Politics? Domination? A Pirate craves not these things." Pirates should not be concerned with "conquering" a map, nor should they be concerned with capturing ports. Raiding them of their valuables, perhaps, but only the most daring and cunning (and foolish) would attempt that, and it should be considered a major gamble. Pirates should have their own separate RvR system/goal, and not give a hoot as to whether the Nations are killing each other or not (although, navies being preoccupied with war and less with Pirate-hunting would be nice). Other mechanics such as crew recruitment could be tweaked, such as crew could only be recruited when boarding and capturing a ship, or have crews harder to come by in pirate ports. Things such as smuggling and port accessibility will have to wait until the game is developed further. Cheers, William Drummond, the Drake.

For open world it would be interesting to see a set of "rules" for players to follow and contribute to realism. There were two ideas where the concept of admiralty law could work, piracy and salvage. The first being piracy because it is going to be popular. someone sees another player attacking someone unprovoked then they could file a report at the nearest port and get the pirate marked. The first incident nothing happens, then there would start to be increasing penalties the more reported incidents there are. Some of the penalties could include higher insurance cost and reduced prices for "questionable goods." Eventually the final penalty would be a bounty for that player and a reward for killing them and restoring peace. The second thing is salvage. If a ship is sunk in shallow enough waters to be accessed by divers then someone could go to the wreck, identify it, and lay claim to anything of value. The player then remains over the wreck after laying claim to it and recovers the cargo while being vulnerable to attack. Once the cargo is recovered the player gets a percentage of the original value. The Spanish did this in order to recover treasure from their galleons that sank in the Caribbean so it would be a nice historic touch. Admiralty law has a rich history and would be a nice touch of realism to the game as well as provide structure to open world. The concept could also be expanded on to include more than my ideas but they were the first things that came to mind.