I noticed during the weekend prime time we had 600+ players now, and keeps dropping. Balancing nations is good and all, however we need to address the whole server population issue first.
The current game punishes players too much from all directions. The new player, or average player, and event veterans alike are discouraged by harsh game settings. Who either quit for another game, or become disgruntled from the current state and quit for another game later. Only the small vocal minority of elitist players are still active, however they will suffer from attrition as well.
I sincerely want Naval Action to strive and succeed. However the current course is not working to maintain a healthy player base. There is far too much grind, and less chance for action. And the action is mostly getting ganked, or chasing someone to gank for hours. The game use to thrive years ago, there was much action compared to the grind.
I would recommend more rewards for combat, more pvp events everyone has easy access to, and more in-game quality of life tools. And maybe a safe zone for new players. I also believe we have far to many nations and ports for our current server population.
That being said, grinding and sailing doesn't need to be so mundane, something more than staring at the water for hours, or a high chance of being sunk just doing AI fleets outside your own port. I see far too many people getting sunk right outside friendly ports all the time, then quit the game in the coming weeks.
I have stated my opinion, those of you may agree or disagree. But facts are clear, we need to attract and maintain more players for the game to remain healthy and for us to enjoy.