@zockeraxel Lets address the issues you seem to be having.
You suggest that a smaller crew has no chance against a bigger crew that knows what they are doing?
True and false, so lets go in depth into the matter.
If you have the larger ship and your crew is good, then yes going up against them with a smaller crew is hard. I said hard though, not impossible. If you have the smaller crew that would imply that you are sailing the smaller ship. Which dictates that you have the maneuverability advantage over the bigger ships.
If you are having problems getting away from the bigger ships while sailing the smaller ones then I suggest you learn more about the game and get better. If your problem is that once they are on board you have no way to fight back then all I can say is you need to learn more about the game and get better, because if you are getting caught then that is on you not the game.
I am an avid PvP'er. My crew mate and I will hunt Galleons while in a sloop. We have gone half way across the map to get to a sloop just to turn back around and go the other direction when we see a Galleon.
The PvP will come with experience. Go out there and get your feet wet. You might think the game is unbalanced to smaller crews but it really is not. SoT is one of the only games I know of where personal player skill is more important than character skills or in game special abilities. The game is really balanced.
This does not mean you can automatically just ignore your surroundings though. Again the game is heavy around player skill and knowledge of the game. One of the things you don't want to happen is have the larger ships get the drop on you. Always watch your horizon frequently and keep note of any ships you see. Do they have the wind at their backs? A full sail Galleon is deceptively fast. You might think you got time but you don't. How is your ship parked? Can they see you easily? If you decide to run can you? Is your anchor down? Will you be sailing with or against the wind if and when the enemy shows up?
As the smaller crew you have more things to think about.
What about the engaging?
Do you have any GPB's? Well then can you get on their boat when they are chasing you? Well are their any islands or rock formations you can snake through or sail around?? Any storms nearby that you can use to your advantage?? Any cursed cannon balls?? How much room do I have before I run out of space with the headwind? If I turn around can I get to an island before they catch me with that tail wind?
You have to be on your toes constantly thinking about all of these things.
Even before the engagement happens you have to make sure you are prepped for one just in case. If you are not prepped then you are basically choosing the run away and drive by turn in tactic. Which is fine, sometimes I use that tactic when I'm too lazy to fight.
1 of the best crews I ever fought against with my crew mate was a 4 man Galleon. These guys were on their game. Always knew when I was going to sneak on board. Always knew where we were. Their cannon shots hit us way more than they missed. The reason why we won? They got complacent. They thought we weren't a threat. We kept pelting them over and over while going in circles around them. This went on for little over half an hour. Us trying to get on their ship, them trying to get on ours, shooting cannons at each other. Eventually I finally got on board and noticed a very very important detail :). We shot them with 1 ballast ball and the game was over :).
If the situations were different we would have changed our tactics.
Its all about what you know and how you sail.
I will say this though, if you get boarded and it is at the stage of spawn camping, just Scuttle your boat, you lost. You can keep trying if you want. Just don't come in here and complain about spawn camping next :).
SIDE NOTE I agree with @CotU42. They still need to fix the spawning with the models loading before the player gets out of black screen. It doesn't effect a lot of players but it does effect some and this is a HUGE disadvantage towards them. I was always in favor of the invisible character model that is invincible until the player moves. There is worry about the advantage players would have of being able to see everything thats happening on their ship while being invisible but we could always find ways to work around that I believe. I would go into more detail but just realized how late it is.
Night night
