'Safe' Social Zone
This certain zone in question, would not allow the cashing in of chests or any other trade company missions. Nor would this island allow any chest within its safety radius, in order to stop people fleeing and camping with das loot. This island would strictly be a safe place for socialising and games. Maybe a great place to buy better cosmetics and a place to trade with other players. Poker to play and bet against other pirates, put your gold on the line in other mini games against players such as blackjack or some creative twists on mini PvP games. Find a crewmate. Just some island or place in which pirates can just kick it back and relax rather than worry if there ship on port is receiving plentiful of cannonballs to the hull.
Personally I feel like the ideal way to implement something like this, would be to add an island that players can travel to in order to socialise. Our very own pirates paradise, a vibrant Tortuga where rival crews can drink grog and new friends can be found. If a player was being griefed, this could be an escape or refuge from those pirates. Seek help in the social hub port town. The dome would not be visible to players in order to maintain immersion. Once entering its safety it would transition into a mini cinematic, mirroring what is currently in the game when you enter a point of interest, island, shipwreck etc and would read along the lines of 'Port Royal - Pirate Law'. The other suggestion was making it into an instance which was a good idea, however the main point of this 'safezone' and topic of discussion is to alleviate the congestion at outposts along with griefing and I don't see how it would do that. Placing it in the world as we know would help griefed players and would add more things to do resulting in less congestion at outposts. Having this place in an instance also takes away the romance from a place like this. A well lit port city after a long and successful voyage to travel to in order to spend your gold with more exotic cosmetics and purchasables being here etc. Fellow crews docking in the port, customising their vessels with expensive paint along with buying supplies. A crew of fresh faced sailors about to set sail on their first adventure, not after hearing out tips and tricks from the battle scarred pirate they met, DiscoDarren73 first though! The potential is huge.
As for crews patrolling outside this 'safe' social hub; You simply punish crews that choose to patrol outside the safe zone, whether that is done by the community themselves as a collective destroying the hostile crews or if developers have to add in cannons to keep order outside of the dome. These hostile crews patrolling the border wouldn't be getting treasure either, as this social hub doesn't allow treasure into it's safe domain. If worst comes to worst, scuttle your ship and start from your new island. Another great suggestion was to add a seedy looking merchant in the social hub that would allow players to place a bounty with their own gold, on another pirates head. The bounty hunter who kills said pirate, sails back to the social hub to collect their reward of fine gold! Collectively we can create a solution that pleases and benefits the entire community.
Adding a duel mechanic to this place, to please everybody would be a welcome addition. Simply challenge a pirate to duel, agreeing on an amount of gold for the winner of the duel. It adds abit more excitement into the place and really gives the feel that PvP players want, of a pirates haven such as Tortuga with fistfights and guns shooting. That way players who are there to browse, buy, socialise, earn a small fortune playing poker and drink grog can do so uninterrupted and those there to cause a ruckus and beat a pirate up for there gold, can go about there business too.