So,
I think we need 2 things:
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Put a bounty system in place. Here's how it works: Sinking other player ships or killing other pirates increases a crew's wanted level, and sinking the ship of a wanted crew comes with nice rewards- plentiful floating loot and a nice gold payout. The higher the bounty, the bigger the reward. Gaining a bounty also marks crews and their wanted level on the map to varying degrees, similar to things like PvE faction Emissary Flags, raising a Reaper's Flag, or picking up special treasure items that already have an inherent map marker on them. This bounty system has no effect on crews fighting through Hourglass, since that is obviously a dedicated, mutual PvP mode. The bounty level is a persistent value attached to the player's pirate, applying equally to all crew members, that transfers from server to server, so simply causing mayhem and then server hopping to hide is not an option. It is also unnecessary to connect it to a specific faction, as players can gain infamy from their actions regardless of what faction they represent.
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AI crewmates. It's an idea I've advocated off and on for since the Pirate's Life tall tales came out and you had Jack Sparrow helping you during those missions. This one is a solo player service that I think now is the right time to implement as part of Season 13. Reason being is that we now have AI Skeleton crews that are a part of the Burning Blade man o' war, which is a new persistent world event to come in Season 13. The skeletons should be able to do certain things like fire cannons and make repairs, that way a crew of any size can interact with this event that is now the largest ship in the game. This same implementation can be extended further, where that same AI behavior package can easily be distributed to other NPCs that a player can use to fill their crew if they don't have anyone to play with. Players can recruit mercenary AI pirates found at outposts with gold. Players can recruit faction affiliated AI crewmates for free if they are an active emissary with any faction. Players with access to either the Athena's or Reaper's hideout hubs can also recruit ghost or skeleton AI crewmates for free from those hubs. This obviously doesn't replace what can be accomplished with real players in your crew, but this does give small or solo crews a fairer chance against larger ships and sweatier crews. That corrects the single biggest issue that has hurt the game's player base since the beginning- it's often insanely frustrating for most people to play the game unless you already have a good crew. Especially now with the game releasing on Playstation, it's the same cycle of new/returning players joining, then getting pushed away from what would otherwise be a really fun gaming experience by other crews (often sweaty, griefing crews) that target them.
Open for debate on it, but ultimately this post is to share ideas I hope the devs see and seriously consider. This could only help the game have a shot at bringing in and keeping new/returning players, rather than pushing away many who would otherwise play the game if they could only have a more fair and enjoyable experience.
