Firstly, I want to talk about infrastructure. Coastal towns should be able to build piers, docks and shipyards over water. Settlements can also build fishing huts. These buildings are unique to seaside towns and can mass produce dried fish in shorter time than on drying racks. But of course, they will cost a lot of resources and add a very small drain on town upkeep. Another building is defense tower. I take my liberty to add this here because there are some talks about improved defense mechanics for towns later on (maybe just another suggestion so I do apologize to the devs if I jump a gun in this one). These towers don't automatically shoot at intruders like in warcraft
. Players get a bonus to damage dealt to raiders when firing muskets from towers. And, if I may venture further, cannons can be built in towers, accuracy depends on players' aim. So, what do you fire at? Not at the ships but at boats and raiders rowing in them. I will discuss this point later. There will be limited numbers of defense towers built in one town. I am thinking of 2 or 3 per town and towers decay every month, repairable with stone, granite and lime. Secondly, I suggest more types of ship. Something in the line of sloops, cutters, luggers, barca-longas, bankers, etc... in all, small coastal ships. These vessels can contain 2 or 3 smaller boats in special slots. They can only be built from shipyards which in turn buildable only in coastal settlements and partly over deep water. Shipyards don't build ships by themselves but people have to build ships by adding materials into frame erected inside the buildings. They provide the necessary place to launch the vessels after finish as players cannot lift them. These ships would require a huge amount of materials to build. I think nearly or over the amount needed to build windmills. Materials should be planks, tar, ropes, naval supplies, cloth and logs. They also wear like rowboats but at slower rate. Ship, for example, a sloop, should have about 10+ slots to store objects in which 2 or 3 are for boats and can carry up to 20 people. Ships cannot sail into shallow water so for raiding towns, raiders have to launch their smaller crafts and row inland. On this note, a variety of rowboats may make things more interesting. A longboat which can carry 6 people including 2 rowers and 1 helmsman who controls the direction of the boat. It carries the same amount of objects as rowboats. Ships and boats could also be attached fishing nets and used as fishing vessels.
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etc... as food or inspirationals for studying. Tunas could be used in bulk to make fish oil. Fish oil can sell to stalls in Boston or trade to other players as an ingredient in a fancy fish recipe ( increases BB and YB, perhaps).