I´ve been thinking about ways of making OW more alive and less steril; and one of the ideas I had, which perhaps will be unpopular to those same people who resist changes, is a new kind of delivery system. One that is actually real. When a delivery is sent, a contract is signed, an insurance is offered, the price is paid and a neutral ship is created which sails all the way to the destination port. Along with this new system, a new identification system would also be needed, one that is more realistic than our current, one that will only ID a ship within certain distance, and also, will only reveal if a ship carries "Contraband Goods", forcing players to try a new gameplay approach, more realistic, investigating ships. Also, along with these new changes, I´d say it would be important to bring back Neutral faction ships, to sail around; merchants they are.
1- Real Delivery system with Insurance Price
2- Distance based ID system. It first IDs the ship´s nation, and then, at really close range, it IDs the existence or not of contraband goods, or goods in general.
3- New faction: Neutrals and their NPG ships populating the game world.