Haron wrote:That is naive, in my opinion. There are several things that could be done to promote more combat. Some ideas have been posted, and there are several other alternatives as well. Which of these are the best, is not an easy thing to determine. I think your suggestion might lead to fewer battles, though. If it becomes more dangerous to do pirating, I believe it is more likely that pirates will conduct fewer attacks, than that we'll see an increase in retaliation attacks from merchants. That said, it is definitely possible to attack pirates with the existing rules, but you need to attack them in a different way than you would attack a trader. Obviously.
How does a merchant engage in more combat with a pirate, when that pirate only runs 1, 2 or 3 fleets??? If a pirate runs say 10 or 20 fleets, I guarantee I will be engaging in more battles with that pirate on my behalf not his.
I tis easy to do this, give merchant a voodoo card that allows them to lock up a pirate's fleet in port for say 12 hours or 24 hours. If a pirate is serious about attacking and being attacked, he/she will run more than 2 or 3 fleets in effort to combat that voodoo. So no, it is not naive.
Now, instead of throwing merchants under the bus, why don't you consider the repercussions of running merchants out of the game...