I have been in some situations where i had nearly nothing to lose and got my sloop anchored at an outpost.
In both situations another ship came close and attacked me or my ship.
The first time a galleon came close while i just spawned in and roamed the npc shops.
They parked a bit away and used the cannons of my sloop to shoot themselves back on their ship, a clever use of other ships i have to say.
But when they finished selling everything they started to search the outpost for me and started to shoot at me obviously - at least one of them did. When he was unable to kill me (i didn't even care to shoot back) he took his tankard, send me a cheers through the chat menu and went to the tavern. To see what kind of a player he is i followed him and we drank a few tankards only for him to literally stab me in the back for no reason. At least i got an achievement to drink with someone from another crew for that.
The second time i parked my sloop at the pier just to sell everything i had on board.
Everything was sold besides a crate of bananas which wasn't filled completely, a bunch of bananas were still missing when a sloop attacked me, started shooting at me and sank my unmanned ship.
I did already "hide" the banana crate at this point, but it would have been very easy to find.
They seem to look around the island for a short while before they took of again without realizing i was watching the from a very short range.
When they took of i just grabbed my banana crate - which they didn't find for reasons unknown - and searched for the last bananas across the outpost so i could sell it.
Actually i saw them heading towards an active fort, so they in fact wasted their supplies on an unmanned ship before heading into battle.
So i was wondering: What do people think when they sink unmanned ships or trying to kill a peaceful player? Do you guys think just for a second about your reputation before doing this? And pleace spare us with the "it's a pirate game" comment, i am talking about the real player who act like this and not about a npc which is scripted to be an awful person. Are any moral decisions thrown overboard when people jump into this game? Let's just answer this right here: no! This decision is made by every player for himselve with his level of common sense, the game does not make the decision for you.
Just think about the fact that your reputation is the thing that helps you over a long term, backstabbing and cowardly acts don't, even in games. If you meet someone again who was friendly, chances are you will help him out in a fight or with some supplies, but anyone else didn't earn this.
