Early 2016 had great numbers though, and we had the comfort of resources being within 2-3 ports, i think most distant resource for british was the silver on pedro cay? Even a pleb like me could get into crafting without sailing hours upon hours to get my materials to my shipyard. And we had fleets coming to fight at jamaica from the danes/french/pirates on a daily basis most out of les cayes/cayman brac with most likely tp'd ships i dont see them coming when they need to spend xx hours just to craft there ships and then another x hours to move the ships to the frontline for what can be just 1 fight and then do it all again.
Guess devs have been delusional from the start giving us all this comfort and then pummel us taking them away and replacing them with nothing, it certainly showed on player numbers