This topic is to explore Spastic's suggestion of taxing (or fining) the plunder of members of own nation.

Option 1) Nation plundered (All nations or specific nation)
Option 2) Percentage of fine (1%-75%)
Option 3) Minimum fine (0 - 250,000 gold)
Option 4) Maximum fine (250,000 - 1,000,000 gold)

This offers a diplomacy tool for the governing council as well as a means to generate revenue for the coffers. The numbers I used are arbitrary, as I simply wish to open the idea for discussion.

Would this be applied to NPC plunder? Just wondering because if you are plundering NPC and have the misfortune to get a pirate hunter of your own country would you be able to attack to get rid of him? Or, would you have to quit a port that you may have NPC voodoo on and move to another port to continue NPC plunder?

-Important Notices for Pirate Hunter:
1.If a Pirate Hunter appears, you must beat it before you can patrol more in the particular port. If you think you cannot beat the Pirate Hunter, it is better to leave the port and seek battles elswhere. The pirate hunter will ultimately leave the port.
2. Pirate Hunter fleets can be quite strong and their strength is often unrivaled. You may need more than 1 attempts to beat a Pirate Hunter.
3.The next patrol after beating a pirate hunter is never a pirate hunter again. It will be replaced by a Merchant Fleet or Military Convoy. You also gain a +5% bonus in finding a Treasure Fleet in your next patrol.
4.Pirate Hunter will usually bear the flag of the strongest nations and never your flag.

Actually once i did have a pirate hunter of my flag it only happened once never saw it again but it is possible (apparently). But for the plunder rules i was thinking the council could apply some sort of bounty on a person outside of their country i'm not sure if that has been mentioned before. Also the npc do act like normal citizens of a country so making the tax apply to them in the current situation makes sense, but maybe it could be a lowered fee when compared to attacking a player of your own nation, or this decision can be left up to the country it self.

It has happened to me on many occasions where I will get 3 pirate hunters within 5 or 6 turns, even back to back, although this supposedly has been fixed to reduce this from happening. Possibly there could be two different catagories. One set of fines for PC and a sliding scale based on hostility from NPC.

I think a distinction can be made between plundering on PVP and patrolling NPC players. The law if designed for revenue would tax all plunder done by its citizenry. To encourage plundering a nation the government could lower the fine rate. To discourage plundering a nation, raise the fine levels.

As for NPC patrolling, I guess a country could fine it, but I see patrolling as a necessary tool for acquiring rank and title.

Please don't include NPC Patrolling in the law system. Patrolling has an entirely separate purpose than plundering players. The NPCs you patrol have no effect on nation relationships and diplomacy so there doesn't need to be any laws affecting your decisions there.

I like the idea of a fine when plundering a nation. It could serve to reinforce national friendships in a new way.