I was thinking of a game mode where you are a hired Pirate escort of a ship. The ship travels across the map to a designated area. Along the way it's location is displayed to everyone on the server who can then try to attack the ship. Your job is to make sure the ship makes it to its location fighting off other pirates. If they eventually allow multiple ships you could create an armada to protect the shipment. Upon safe arrival you are automatically paid so you don't have to worry about getting hit on land and your ship getting sunk. The attackers have to sink the ship and collect the treasure in the water then claim at outpost. end location is only displayed to the escorting ship so the attackers don't know exactly where they are going and the ship doesn't just travel in a straight line,maybe makes stops. The escorts are not allowed to claim the treasure if the ship is sunk, to avoid cheating the game and sinking the ship just to claim the treasure.
Game Mode Escort
Not a bad idea, I had a similar one for the merchant's alliance and that they would give you a special chest that only a particular outpost had the key too in which you had to keep it on board and take it there. If someone sunk you, they would have to go cash it in at that particular outpost as well but wouldn't know which one it was unless you marked it on the map or showed them your quest. Or a similar thing could be hauling a large amount of resources that you can't tap into. Locked resource crates. If someone else sunk you they would be able to break them open for use but your crew wouldn't be able to make use of them.
@zherron-vorse I also thought instead of a treasure it could be a NPC. Like a prisoner that has broken out of jail and you have to escort him to his pick-up location. And other boats are trying to collet the reward for the escaped prisoner. Even though pirates don't like the law they are ruthless enough to collect the bounty.
Another variant could be that your boat is piloted by an NPC and you have man the guns and adjust sails while dealing with the attacks and other environmental issues. As you adjust the sails and remove water from the hull your boat could go faster or slower. The object trying to get the NPC to a specific location while keeping your boat from sinking.
