Main concept:
You do much pvp, you go to this new sea, "skeletons" attack you as direct reward.
Premise:
Pve players have to participate in pvp while being at disadvantage due to voyages, numbres, ships, experience, moment of surprise and so on. To balance things out there should also be posibility of the opposite - pvp players having to participate in pve and pve players gaining advantage.
The new sea:
Like the other seas, there would be two outposts and couple of bigger and smaller islands.
Unlike the other seas, the outposts wouldn't have usual trading companies, instead there would be a new faction - for example Marines or bounty hunter trading company derived from them. This new company dislikes piracy so they pay in gold for all kinds of treasure from fish to athenas the same way other companies do, while only rewarding their own reputation instead of the normal one. They can also attack players like the skeletons do, but instead of range, the trigger is piracy.
The piracy:
Pvp actions increase players' bounties and the piracy level. Pve actions decrease it. This changes how the new NPCs behave around players. Low piracy = they are nice. High piracy = they are not so nice.
Example:
- piracy level - the new NPC faction stops giving players voyages
- piracy level - they stop accepting treasure
- piracy level - new outposts and patrols attack the players
- piracy level - ships spawn at new outposts specifically to attack the players and pursue them to the end of the new sea
- piracy level - ships spawn and pursue the players across half the map
The piracy level is combination of player bounties in the crew. Those are persistant through sessions, but slowly decrease through time. When piracy happens specifically in the new sea, it increases the piracy level temporarily by 2 until the players leave it.
Certain situations give only small amount of piracy and don't cause the temporary increase. Killing players on or near your ship. Attacking ships that had your treasure placed by enemy players on board recently. Attacking ships that damaged your ship recenty - they have to land the first hit, be it the cannonball, gunpowder, bombs or hitting rocks while driving your ship.
Bounties of players and piracy levels of crews currently playing in the server can be viewed at every tavern, including portraits, names and sketch of the ship. The utility of the board could be controlled by updating it at specific hours of the day - for example at 9 am and 9 pm, so the players would have slightly outdated information or the option to wait for new info.
Rewards:
The new faction would reward cosmetics that work only with low bounties and piracy levels. Increased bounty would strip the pirates naked. Increased piracy level strips the ship.
There could also be rewards for higher piracy levels which work only with high enough piracy. Earned through pvp and pve with the new faction.
That's the main idea. Thanks for reading.