Have played and contributed to the New Horizons expansion for POTC (based in
www.piratesahoy.net). I didn't care to touch titles like EIC for their bad reviews.
I'd rather take a heavily modded ancient (openended) game and hammer it into my liking than to shell out $50 for some half finished crap.
Port Royale and Patrician impress me with their economic systems and I play them for the managerial challenge. For actual AoS naval combat action, New Horizons.