Being wiped in a raid, is bad for the game.

[Captain Jack Shadow 488]

Some people will move on to a new game, if they have been wiped.  Imagine somebody who has worked hard to develop a really good breeding pair of bears.  Very high stats...some good mutations, etc...  Somebody attacks, his crew is woefully undermanned, and they lose everything.  It took him months to create that breeding line.  Think he starts over?  Not likely.  Some will, some won't. 

How about a company that isn't really a full size company...and they got to the game a little late.  They work hard, start building up, get a healthy amount of gold, get some good blueprints, some maps, etc...and just as they feel like they are getting somewhere, they get wiped.  At this point, they are trying to compete against an alliance of Companies that dwarfs their size, and now they have to start completely over.  Do they do so?  Maybe once.  Maybe twice.  At some point, they move on.

So what can be done?  Obviously you want the PvP element, and the piracy, and raiding.  But, how can we do that, and yet not have total wipes?

 

I would put a central banking system into the game.  The banks would be located at the freeports.  Here, you can store your maps, blueprints, and gold.  Obviously you wouldn't keep all of it there, but you would keep there, what you don't need in the near future, like in the next few days, to a week.

At the same time, I would create a Stable, with an animal tender.    In effect, what you would be doing is uploading your breeders here.  They would be uploaded until you need them.  Ideally, you would be able to use a facility on this island to breed babies.

 

The idea here is that you would have to put stuff at risk, to take it back and forth between the freeport.  If you can breed there, it allows you to keep your breeding pair safe, but the babies, once grown, would be at risk, as you transport them home.

Your BPs that you want to use, would be at risk, as you transport them home.  Same for maps, and the gold.

What you have in your base, would be at risk.

 

BUT...when you lose something, even your entire base, it's not the end of the world.  You can rebuild, and not be starting with nothing, in a world where there are people so far ahead of you.

This would help retain players, and companies.