In the time my 3 friends and I have been playing together, we came up with a few things we'd like to see:
-Pirates being incognito until a battle is initiated.
-Pirate faction ships allowed to trade at any port.
-As a pirate, no penalty for shooting other pirates who join in on your battle to try and steal your prize. (and vice versa)
-Fishing and Whaling
-Slave trade
-Visible crew on ships in open world
-Telescope in open world
-Fix scale of ships in open world
-Courier and Merchant missions
-More variety in port visuals
-Ability to leave ship and walk around (obviously a farther future update)
-Ability to access cargo of other ships in my fleet
-Allocation of crew numbers to ships in fleet (including a ship i have just captured)
-More detail and options for fleet control in battle (grape shot, command to board)
-Map navigation tools (Please dont ever put waypoints and/or markers)