John.Doe

Pirates should not be able to build anything above 3rd rates, 4,5,6 is pushing it but 1-2st rates required ALOT of manpower to field and ALOT of resources to construct. Instead pirates should be able to freely capture ships whose crews have surrendered or have been decimated (Including 1/2nd rates if the person goes solo). Leaving nationals with restricted piracy but having access to the best lineships and keeping both sides unique. With all this in mind pirates should be able to freely capture and raid ports. The balancing aspect here is that they have a restricted arsenal of ships vs. the nationals so all the more to them if they manage to capture a port. Most of these suggestions are from my days of playing PoTBS, i quite enjoyed the balance between pirates/nationals in that game. I remember at one point players using 1/2nd rates solo would get hounded by pirates and have their ships captured because they were so rare.