In my case , using a twostop strategy worked out well . Any progress made up the field during the first phase of the race is welcome , but you really start racing when the rest of the field makes their stops , as you ' ll be on low fuel and hopefully at the front of the pack , with no traffic . Generally , the fastest threestoppers still won ' t have made their way to the front after the stops , so you can rely on your competitors to hold each other up while you build as large a gap until your own first stop . <| sep |> I like that your combat skill will forever be uncertain . It ' ll always force you to step back and evaluate ALL your options when coming across another pirate crew , because you never know if you can really beat them in combat . I hope this encourages people to not always be blowing each other ' s brains out whenever the meet another crew . I ' d like to see elements that might even encourage some sort of scurvy pirate alliancestemporary maybe , sure . Betrayal on the high seas is a common theme