Sir David Green

The same happened to me except I was Britain and I beat the Germans. Rather disappointed as I wanted to start a 1900+ campaign.

Multiple fronts.

I just think it would be nice for the newer players to be able to get a ship that isn't blue quality, I sure know that I have never made something that isn't blue. But maybe that's because I don't want to spam out oak/oak ships and want to make ones out of decent woods that take a somewhat long while to acquire if your not in a big clan that can buy them with your spare 50k doubloons. It would just be a nice addition so if you want a ship that has more than three slots after some bad RNG, for the price of a few thousand doubloons or ten or so combat medals. Also, I apologize for not clarifying what I meant in the post by the problem with DLC ships. Some people have been complaining about the fact DLC ships can just be any wood type you want. Not only can they get a ship with rare woods every day, but they also basically can try their hand at getting a rare ship every day. So players are sinking or selling their Pandoras and Rattvisans each day to try to get a goldy. People off of that are suggesting that rare woods should be made well... less rare, so I think it's reasonable to suggest making the crafting RNG less RNG. Credit to Mr. Doran for the following:

I have heard a few people bring up the subject of RNG crafting and how it is bad for the game, especially with DLC ships. I propose two possible solutions. Make it so you can guarantee a higher rarity of ship through crafting materials or an increased RNG chance of getting one through buyable items. Either make it so you invest more resources into a ship to get the quality of ship you want (like for a guaranteed purple you would have to put in 1.25x more wood and maybe 2x for gold, and for specific add ons you want, like for 'cramped' you'd have to fork over more hemp); or make a RNG increaser buyable from the admiralty with doubloons or combat medals (for non-outrageous prices) that will make it so your guaranteed at least a purple but also have a 30% chance of a gold. Maybe even have AI drop them at some frequency for specific rate groups of ships (I.E 4-5th, 1-3th, 6-7th). At least something along those lines.

Eventually™

Stealing wind would be interesting, and realistic. HMS Revenge when it tried to make her run through a Spanish fleet was stopped in her tracks because of a huge Spanish ship blocking the wind with her sails.

Wrong thing...

Maybe a toggle for seeing friendly and enemy ship names? I mean, it'd be cool to find a very good enemy player and capture the ship they've personalized with a name and then gain bragging rights. Naming could even bring about more friendly rivalries. If you lose your ship, build a new, better one with the name "[Insert player that killed you]'s Bane." Then seek vengeance!

What they could so is allow for you to name your ship whatever you want. Be it USS Beaver or HMS Triumphant. But, place in a feature where you can report names that have profanities and things of the sort. That way you can have basically whatever name you want, yet there won't be any ridiculous names. Upon being reported and the moderator checks the name and finds it to not suite the game, then you will be notified your ship's name has been reset. You can then replace the name. Maybe even repeat offenders will be prohibited from naming ships for 'x' days.

I thought the Pandora was going to be the early access reward ship, similar to how the yacht was given to alpha players and not DLC? Looking at the older patch notes the Pandora was offered as the early access reward (with more rewards possible). It would be a bit disappointing that the early access reward is a ship from a DLC anyone could get.

I don't think it helps much when it feels like AI are White Death's of the seas.