a better mercantile/ naval combat game than any i have seen so far in terms of the concept/ the system of gameplay... however, there are a number of imbalances which i think need addressing. many people have commented that the combat is too easy. IMO, the opposite is true. You simply need to make the trade system less dynamic and more forgiving, and people would focus less on acting as a pirate.
Additionally: the combat difficulty does scale too slowly as well, so you should take this into account to accomodate more skilled platers, but really just do this and you will get mob appeal:
Tweak two things in combat: the boarding system, and the aiming system. Boarding tells me that it has a 100% chance of working every single time, yet fails more than 60-70%, and aiming at the crew not only costs more AP, but generally hits neither the crew nor the ship itself. I have found that taking regular quick shots effects the AP of the enemy more than aiming the majority of the time.
If you were to do nothing else to this game, these two combat changes would at least make it more acceptable for the masses of retards who crave instant gratification.
This is a great game, and i love it, but it simply isn't done yet. I think that you should take the time to carefully read through these comments, so as to make your game as perfect as possible.