I've seen a topic addressed to a problem which is there are too many 1st rates in battles and will be more. Most of users claimed making them harder to get is the proper way to solve. but I beleive it would make this game only more grindy and less fun if it is going to be the only improvement which will be done on this 1st rate zerg .
Solution shouldnt be like this: aah its easy to get 1st rates lets make the game more grindy.
Just nope. maybe a different battle mechanic such as
1)
Every team can only bring 4, 1st rates 5, 2nd rates 6, 3rd rates,5,4th rates,5 rest
or
2)
Every team should have a maximum battle rating lets say (10300)25v25(9600) rating decided by nations strenght(based on port count, port variation, port economy) divided by active fleets. and yes fleets should be able to merge just as ai fleets merge.
Since what I suggested in 2nd idea can be a problem for weak defender nations, they would have serious disadvantages which might be balanced with homeport morale boost, high morale should increase crew's efficiency increase reload,repair speed.
or ports strengthen by additional defences I think ports should have their own charecteristics, like they should be able to transform, to a trading posts or battle focused ports or ship production focused, it should be somehow varied. it should show somewhat they are alive and dynamic.
Maybe battle rating can be decided by the initial port it formed by admiral of fleet. players who wants to join to fleet should be able to join only if they have invitation or access like fleets should have options such as (publicly open, more then commodore rank, invitation only).
Every nation should generate a fleet power in time depending on its strenght and player donations, fleet power should only be utilized by some players(lets say members of council elected by players of that nation). like if a nation wants to form a 25 santissima fleet fine let them but they have to invest a huge partition of fleet power of nation which is hard to generate and could have been utilized more efficiently in multiple various fleets.
This creates a question so if a nation forms a 25 santissima fleet while another one didnt, how are they going to fight agaisnt them? current situation in game is not that different but maybe with new patch port defences may vary, or devs can implement a port development progress just like system in total war which is designed for cities. ports should develop in time or regress it should be decided by certain algorhytm which can be acceleratable by players who pay taxes to nation or donates gold, labor hours and materials to ports etc that would make a certain port has strong defences which is wished to be defendeble agaisnt a huge fleet.