Nice

Only found one goof. A tactical officer became a whole tactical office at one point.

ouch, thanks!

Neat tricks, though considering the increase of activities of pirates, I wonder if this will really help the overall problem with pirate activity.

I'm starting to wonder if those colonies run into the ground by that group of companies might be in part causing the increase in activity?

could be, but these toys will make it harder to know where fleet really is (and these guys don't have to play by the rules that fleet does. )

Well I suppose pirates will all have different things that will motivate them. But if you kick up the poverty of a place and worsen the living condition there it probably can lead to an increase in crime.

true, but you have to have some funds in order to maintain and crew a pirate ship - or would those funds be better spent on food?
(by killing off pirates, it makes buying food with their funds more profitable ... )

I guess the desperate ones won't last long then. Ships need all sorts of supplies to run and those things don't come cheap either or are simple to keep running either.

and it gets harder to crew them when others like them just 'disappear' when they go out hunting.

I'd imagine that would also lesson the need for the desperate to consider such actions as well.

Plenty of business to go around means profit to fill bellies and keep businesses afloat.

just like the here and now, the crime rate goes down in an area after a few reports of thieves being killed by those they were trying to steal from - they either look for other means of supporting themselves or pick up and move to where they think they have a better chance of getting away with it.

Folowing this logic there should have been no crimes in europe during the middle ages, they did quite nasty things to people suspected of crime.
A fair chance to support one self due to work (at reasonable income) though seems to lower crime rates a lot.

"... they did quite nasty things to people suspected of crime."

And it was a great way to condemn someone you didn't like (or wanted out of your way) "She's a witch! He's a thief! Hang them high - stone them!"

But it's quite another matter when the highwayman tried to stop and plunder a caravan - only to never return because whatever it was he went after was bigger/meaner than he and his friends were.

This is what Neal and friends do most of the time, they move freight, and they 'remove' things trying to get in the way of them moving that freight.

How gentle/rough you may have to be depends on the force levels of both/all sides. If you're the underdog you'd best be ready to kill and kill quickly using every/any dirty tricks you can. Even isn't much better, you have to hurt them before they can hurt you. Only if you have a large advantage can you think about being merciful to the enemy - and even then you have to watch out for any tricks.

Pirates are looking for plunder, so they can't just destroy the ship - or there'll be nothing left to plunder. On the other hand the attacked is fighting for their very lives ...

Nothing is ever just black or white, you will always find shades of gray.

Adding to my other thoughts, this isn't what the laws or what the sheriff would/might do to them, this is them dying at the hands of those they sought to rob/kill. This is the heads on pikes outside a home/business saying 'These tried to take advantage of us - and this is what has happened to them - and will happen to any others so foolish'.