I know this is a horse we've beaten to death, and I know that the current system in place is not final by any stretch, but I have an additional concern that I've not seen discussed: commandeering and sinking ships.
Being a solo player mostly (until my friends get the game or I decide to just go meet randoms online) I can't use my skill when taking on a galleon. As good as I get, taking a 1v4 fight is just not fair or something that is likely to go my way at all. I have to be creative to take it down considering I'm one man doing the work of 4 (sailing, manning the cannons, repairing, and bailing). While this is manageable to a degree, I still can't come close to sinking an enemy galleon through brute force.
Therefore, I have to be clever. I've done everything from ramming the ship at full speed, forcing it into rocks, getting on board and killing the crew and blowing up gunpowder barrels, and yet, I still can't sink the ship. Why? Because death isn't an obstacle. In every case, the crew respawns on the boat, kills me, and immediately gets to work repairing the hull.
Last night, I had a clever plan, I would climb onto the ladder, wait for them to anchor at an island, and then jump aboard and commandeer the ship. My plan worked flawlessly. One person stayed aboard, but went afk to relieve his bladder. I jumped on, killed him, raised the anchor, set the sails, and got the galley running head on into a rock at full speed. Then things went south. After smashing into this rock, the person I killed respawned on the boat. I heard him tell his crew to use the mermaid to get back to it to help him. One more person came, and the two of them alone were able to repair the massive damage I caused their ship.
I'm fine with a challenge, I'm fine trying to escape a fight that I know I can't win, and I'm fine losing the chests that I just got because I can always get more. I'm not fine with a galleon being immune to a full speed collision. If a boat is going full speed into a large object, it should sink. Period. Full stop. If a boat gets rammed by another boat going full speed from the side, the damage should be so great that it requires the entire crew to work tirelessly on bailing and repairing to even have a chance at surviving. After all, that's what happens to the sloop. Anything more than 2 well placed holes is enough to cause a one man crew to flounder for minutes at a time and give a two man crew reason to run.
The second point I want to make is that the entire mermaid system is broken, not just the respawns. When I stole that boat, I knew I was going to die. Why would I care? My boat had sunk, I'd just respawn at my mermaid, and I'd be back on my way. I just wanted to get some revenge by sinking the ship of the people that stole my plunder. But what if I didn't have to die? The only reason why I ran into a rock was because I knew the guy would respawn on the ship and try to kill me, and at that point, I hadn't even considered that the others get a free teleport directly to the boat, even though I had stranded them on an island.
Once a vessel has been commandeered, any mermaids given to the crew it was stolen from should just take them to a random outpost, halfway across the map and anyone killed respawns at that same outpost. Maybe at this point, they have to source a new ship, either hijacking the next to come to port or maybe buying or borrowing a new one. Or maybe they just spawn with a new boat again.
What's the point of a pirate game if we can't do any real piracy? I want to be able to steal a ship, take it to an outpost, sell the booty, and either sink it, sell it, or let it sail off into the sunset without a crew. I want ships to be status symbols, earned by buying the best ship you can, or taking on an enemy crew and overthrowing the most powerful of pirates. I want fights to be decisive and punishing. I want to be rewarded for being clever and outsmarting my foe. If I outplay my opponent and manage to get a galley sailing on my own, I deserve to have the galley to myself.
I don't want to be forced to sink a ship and then swim out grab everything one by one if I could avoid it by outsmarting the enemy and taking their ship, like something a real pirate would do. Fun fact: Pirates tried to do as little damage to ships as possible, taking out the mast or rudder, effectively crippling the ship for them to raid. They wanted to be able to steal the ship if possible, and you can't do that if it sinks. Ships weren't disposable niceties, they were valued necessities.
TL;DR I want to be an actual pirate that can steal a boat without getting screwed by dumb game mechanics
