Meaningful Mercantile

[Iratequaker]

I have been reading the Open World posts on how to set the tone for Open Water/Open World gameplay and I know that regarding PBs it had been suggested they come up with a system of different defenses. 

 

It gave me the idea that we could allow the various Governments to "Defense Spend" based on the amount of mercantile traffic we see.  This way the Merchants and Carebears provide a necessary function while expanding the game concepts in a relevant manor. 

 

My suggestions would be to take a percentage of the gold traded as a 'tax' that could be used to upgrade port defenses.  I would include AI merchant ships in this calculation so that those bent on fighting could directly influence this metric as well.  It also historically gives power to the Pirates since they are going to be specifically hunting merchants and must be dealt with accordingly.