Captain Kibble

Some would say the downside is you are then using AI to do a job that real people could do. Added benefit being that you could inject more cash into the economy at the same time from the payments made to these escorts. Bring back the AI for the newbies only, if you must have some AI, since potentially they would not necessarily have the cash to pay for a player escort (however, crew limitations make it unlikely noobs will use the AI. I didn't). The bigger traders should be hiring real people to do that job.

Could implement a "tow" feature. Send a minimal crew over to the captured ship to hook up a rope and pull it back to port. If you get caught in another battle, the captured ship is unusable. If you're sunk, you lose the capture - as is normal. As for capturing multiple ships? That's a different discussion pertaining to the credibility of chain-boarding.

This I'm ok with, there should be some risk to trusting an AI captain with delivery of your goods. What I do not want to see are more PvE opportunities, such as these random mega-convoys, on the PvP server.

There is no need for AI fleets, period. Noobs cant field them effectively. If you have the crew for a bigger ship, get the bigger ship. Need an escort for your valuable cargo? Hire someone and increase the PvP on the PvP Server, and put some of that wealth back into the economy by paying those escorts.

Exactly. We are finally starting to see traders that understand the benefit of coughing up some of their gold for an escort (clans have been doing it for free for a while). Don't ruin that now by adding in other unnecessary AI crutches. The PvP potential is there, it just needs to be utilized.

I would love to see a mechanic - it has been suggested before - that would allow the weaker side to receive reinforcements until the BR is even.

Or just start escorting the traders from your own nations so they can stop complaining about being jumped by pirates all the time....? I've been thinking for a while now that it's amazing how few traders ask (or are willing to pay for) escorts. Yet, they spam nation chat in a panic when they get jumped by pirates.

And format it in the appropriate lexicon/form for the times! https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/5740/page/1

And the problem with this is......? Don't forget, you're playing an Alpha. You are an unpaid tester; re-balancing is the name of the game.

^^This. That slight hope of gaining Independence again is what would keep me playing even after being conquered. If it was just a matter of joining the conquerors until reset, I would probably go play PvP2 until the reset happened.

This is why I think a much better solution would be to give nations that have been conquered some way to rebel against their conquerors after a time, rather than a server reset at the end of a "season". I don't see how assets could carry over after a reset. This would keep the world in a perpetual state, rather than in cycles which is very unappealing to me.

Taken from the store page: "Naval Action is an exciting, realistic, and beautifully detailed naval combat game immersing players into the experience of the most beautiful period of naval history - when sailing ships ruled the seas....." While I understand that this is, ultimately, a game and the "fun" factor needs to be considered - If people want to see a game (that is advertised as "Realistic") have more historically accurate features when it comes to things like factions, then why not? Just because some people think its cool to fly a pirate flag while still acting like any other nation, even when history is as far from that as you can get? Those who play pirate should want to do just that - play pirate. Otherwise, join a nation. Pirate changes are coming and it's going to shake things up. It's just unlucky for pirates that those changes are coming after the diplomacy patch, and we can already see there are going to be growing pains within the Pirate ranks. Most likely, it will start to sift out those who actually want to be pirates from those who really should be part of a nation. The pirates need to be a thorn in the side of a nations economy, and currently they are just not - simply another nation (albeit, a nation disliked more than others). Everyone just needs to calm down until the Pirates get their makeover.

Unlimited, they are randomly generated.

You're right, and Calcasieu has no letter (typo?) Admin, give us a clue! @Vernon, neutrals are cappable, Freetowns (Independent?) are not.

Looks to me like "I" is freetowns, "N" is Neutral (capture-able). No idea what the white circles would be. EDIT: Red circles are obviously capitals, seems like white circles are towns that may be changing faction? E.G Sunbury is listed as US on this map?