More Npc activity: merchant ships that can be raided and receive materials and gold.
ships of the damned are great but do get a little boring.
miltary fleets that are very strong and would require some team work to sink with much higher rewards for doing so.
Let people wanting to play more of a pirate roll the ability to play that roll.
addition of pvp in the lawless regions as well as the ability to flag yourself for pvp without having to fully commit to a pvp server.
Pirate missions, national missions, etc
There simply needs to just be more stuff to do.