@bugaboo-bill
nah, its just like @entspeak said.
they are trapped and for whatever reasons they dont want to fight they are fine to decie that way.
The thing is catch them before or you failed.
They are welcome to do it just as I am welcome to call them out on what they are, unsportsmanlike sore losers. I will disagree with you on this, this is no different then someone flipping the monopoly board when they are losing. To make it so when you are about to lose and take steps to make it so everyone is losing, is just the definition of a sore loser. Their is nothing tactical about it. This is a video game, remember, stealing and battles is part of the fun, why be a sore loser about it? I will never self sacrifice loot just to deny it, its pathetic and makes you look salty.
Running is also stupidly easy in this game Bill, as long as you are paying attention to the horizon, you have a giant head start. That is more than enough time to B-line to the edge. The pursuer also has to deal with more threats over the lead due to boarding and kegs. The one chasing can't physically do anything but fend it off. I'm not complaining about that, but don't sit there and be all smug when someone can successfully flee for so long when they have a mountain of tools to not get caught. Runnign is absurdly easy when you understand you can board non-stop, attack them and they can't attack back, people can even launch over to island cannons to chain shot passing ships. They have so many tactics.
I have zero issues with people wanting to run til the ends of the earth, but to run it into the red is just pathetic. I have more respect for the runner than I do for those kind of people. They could even call me a mountain of names ranging from TOS breaking to minor ones, I still have more respect over the kind of players willing to flip the game-board when they are about to lose.
This may come off as me being salty, which isn't my goal, but I have zero tolerance for sore losers.