[Bountyhunting]

Good idea, but once they are killed the bounty needs to be removed, otherwise they could just continiously attack the guy for the bounty. Or the bounty is put only on the top 20 players of that day, the bounty is only for one destroy or cap, and the top 20 changes each day.

Yeah the bounty would be removed on death, losing that pirates place on the leaderboard, although you could have "Biggest Bounties of all time" board recording the biggest bounties ever amassed in one life and naming the hunter who got him.

[Bountyhunting]

I'd prefer to see the bounty system be server controlled based on how notorious a pirate has become base on his actions against other players.  Every time a Pirate attacks a trader or sinks a battleship his bounty is increased...  until somebody finally sinks him and his bounty tally is reset...  All Pirates will want to be the guy with the biggest bounty and all national players will want to be the guy that finally sinks the world's most notorious Pirate.

 

Could have a couple of league tables, Top 20 Pirates with the biggest bounty and Top 20 Pirate Hunters who have claim the most rewards.

[Change the name of the Frigate to Cherubim]

"Snow" is HMS Ontario and "Brig" is USS Fair American.

 

To be honest I don't really like the names. the whole "Spotted 2 victorys and 3 constitutions to the south" just sounds horrible to me... Ships names are personal.  I'd prefer to have them named so its "First Rate(HMS Victory)" and "Frigate(USS Constitution)" sure people will still call them vics and connies but at least people will know its 'a' frigate called Constitution not just 'a' constitution.  But I'm sad like that

[Resolving the Conflict between Casual and Hard Core Players]

Like most things in life the more time and effort you put into something the quicker you get the results... I personally don't see that as a problem... I don't have much time play NA just like don't have much time to play my guitar... I don't expect to be sailing around in HMS Victory anytime soon anymore then I expect to be able to play my guitar like Jimi Hendrix anytime soon... doesn't mean I don't enjoy playing my guitar or enjoy playing NA.

 

The things we desire most are often the hardest things to get, when giving these desirable things for free they soon lose their desirability... You give everyone HMS Victory and we'll soon all get bored of large HMS Victory battles pretty quick because the HMS Victory is no longer special and large battles are the norm.

 

The goal is to make "the grind" as interesting and entertaining as possible without watering down the achievement.  Because that feeling of achievement is what gaming is all about.

[Settling the "naming ships" discussion]

I think factional 'tags' like USS and HMS should be automatically added when you part of that particular navy instead of being added by the player other then that I'm fine with players naming their own ship with a filter on offensive terms. Sure you'll get some silly names but that's gaming for you.

[Is player nation just a cosmetic trait?]

I quite like the idea of historical factions being at war, peace or allied with at other at different times for different conflicts, could also be used at a population balancing tool, if Britain is over-populated then they could be at war with both France and Spain to even it out, with the smaller USA and Netherlands being at war with each other in a different conflict, then as the devs see fit they can shake it up and the factions can be in different conflicts later on,  would give players in the non-player factions a more diverse PvP/trade running experience that doesn't become a Port Royal to San Juan zerg that never ends.

 

Player factions could war or peace with whoever they want for there own personal goals which I think would be a more rewarding, long term standbox experience for players who really want that.

[Will there be one mega-server?]

With combat being instanced and the map being so huge I don't see why it couldn't be one large server,  the only issue might be the hub areas, if Port Royal becomes a lag fest if too many ship are idle there then they may have to have a shard system in such places, guess we'll just have to test and see.

 

I don't really see much of a problem with having many people from different time zones playing in the same server, the population will be spread out among the factions, if you think no Europeans are going to play as America or no North/South Americans are going to play as a European faction then your being a bit silly, even if it is split up there nothing to say no guild will do 'night ops' are take territory at 4am as seen in other games.  Depends on what capture system they go for.

 

The scale of this game is so huge I feel it would be a shame not to have everyone on the same server, the Caribbean is pretty damn big and would be quite lonely and boring with a small server population.