@guerreret The sloop is a ship fit to combat brigs and galleons, you have 1 person steer while the other fires cannons, and when its possible the other guy fires off, kills the crew, then the other guy on ship keeps the ship alive and then helps sink the ship. I honestly do not understand how you say it is not fit to combat brigantines or galleons as I counter them with sloop all the time.
Sloop is aimed at resisting attacks and fleeing (upwind) when need be like you said, but it is also useful for outmaneuvering its opponents and keeping out of their range of fire. Brigantine is aimed at running in, firing a lot at a ship, then running out, repairing, then coming back, and if they run, you can chase it down. Galleon is aimed at just rushing in and tanking while firing as much at the enemy ship as possible till it sinks. Brig only has similar maneuverability to sloop when it has all sails up. As the brig has more sails and tends to go faster, it will on average have much worse maneuverability than the sloop. Sloop also has a tighter turning circle so it can use that as well The sloop has a defined role and is perfectly fine as is.
If an item, which you are supposed to find and put on your ship, not spawn with, is easy to find, why do they need to remove its role as an item that you find and put on your ship when you can find them fairly easily? If I remember correctly, they said that rowboats would be valuable in the video which they introduced them. This also would buff server-hopping, which really does not need a buff. You would be able to do stealth attacks right off the start instead of having to spend time finding a rowboat to use it or swimming over.
