Vexy

Brex, you covered some points of my post #25, what you wrote would work in pve i think, but in pvp imo privateers should lost their license right after commit crime against friendly nation players and may be some additional punishment , its not so realistic but will rid of trolls, if pirate want pvp do it without backstabbing, else lose license for that nation(that may be reobtained by bribing or pleasing nation) and lose smthing else too(as i proposed in my post its rep or rank exp). What you described is change to pirates but it gives them too much versatility without equal drawbacks (ex. as british privateer you can do everything that british navy player can + you can pirate your own nation to some limit).

Dont have courage to make new topic, so ill just write my thoughts here. Atm pirates not much differs from regular nation player. At start players choose which nation's navy they will serve, nation pays for missions, for sinking ships, for capturing enemy nation's ports etc. First main difference - noone pays pirate for missions or for sinking ship, but he can get all loot for himself and can capture ships (unlike navy players). So its easy to become pirate but it will cost you in profit. But we need give pirates chance to serve crown and there goes reputation system. reputation system: Lets say at start player have 5000 reputation with his nation and 0 reps with others, sinking ships and all kind of act against other nations lowers your reputation with hostile nations and raise your reputation with chosen nation. So if good navy person killed ship of his own nation, or done other criminal he recieves some penalty ( may be instant -10000 and force him to piracy or may be more interesting - lower his rep by a bit, raise jolly roger for some time(anyone can attack him) AND remove some of his exp points - cap with bad reputation cant get much crew). If player become pirate he will have neutral or negative reputation with some or all nations, point is - if he constantly sinking ships that hostile towards one nation, that pirate in time will raise reputation with that nation high enough to become privateer for that nation. Privateering gives benefits - some gold for mission and sinking ships, neutral status with nation's navy, ability to dock in nation's ports, limited trading. May be think of additional way to get pirate license - bribe nation (pay x gold to receive some rep). Privateers still counts as pirates. There should be some drawback for privateers too, may be if you get yourself pirate license you lose some reputation with pirates that also lowers your rank in exp (pirates dont respect domestic rats). But i really think changing sides should have heavy drawback : player started as navy and switch to piracy - lose rank, if committed minor crimes (friendly npc killed) - lose part exp. If pirate went to privateering for some nation - lose rank with pirates, going back to unlicensed pirate wont affect rank, cause everyone knows him as scoundrel and will anticipate that behavior. And i really think of neutral nation, that wont be joinable from start, some trading company, if you want join, you should be neutral or above with nations and positive rep with traders. Trader rep will raise from trading acts and from bribing trader "nation". Traders shouldnt have much ports, one mb but they have free passage in every nations waters and will be defended by nations navy npc in case of pirates or greedy navy players. If trader attack first - instant rank loss and piracy side.