Here's an idea. This is very far fetched, but what if the game had some sort of Military Faction, such as a British Faction. Think like the Pirates of the Caribbean.
You could have a wanted level, and this factions galleons or brigs could hunt you down, or hire players in the server to track the wanted a for a bounty.
These factions would need a place of origin, so a port city would be awesome. Port Royale would be an awesome place to base it of off. I personally think the game needs more things to do at Outposts that would be enjoyable, like betting, or bar fighting, which is where I think the "places of origin" would come into play.
Roaming NPCs would be awesome aswell, like "townsfolk", it would just make the game feel more lively. With this Roaming NPC mechanic, you could have merchant trader NPC ships that a player can raid or even help, the choice of course changing a wanted level.
These are just some ideas my friends and I thought would be a fun idea. They are just ideas that we would live to see, or things you guys could build off of. Love the game, love the work. Thank you for having an amazing game community!