dont even bother as a new player, especially if you play alone

without a clan you`re just stuck in this perpetual loop of non progression, since guns are now very inaccurate
AI stays really far away, HP of all ships got nerfed so you sink faster, meaning you also dont really level up to get better gunnery perks/lasting upgrades or any improvements so you could bypass this awfull start of your career

buying a dlc ship doesnt even help because you cant use it since you dont have a high enough level to crew it and it doesnt solve your inaccuracy problems since its just a different hull
but lets say you try it get a dlc ship and crew it hypothetically

you then fight bigger ships since you theoretically can but ohh no all the battles take atleast twice as long than before sincethe "improved" Battle AI still stay far away sailing in a circle or 8 line pounding you with impunity and accuracy against the wind making enganing enemy AI fleets a chore compared to what it was before(engaging, fun and logical)

but hey lets say you manged that and now have some cash and resources to get your outpost up and running you make a shipyard and want to make more ships the big ships everybody want, well bad for you they require new resources now that are hard to get and other players will gank you for,since theyre only available at one location in small quantities

you want to set up a farm, tobacco a classic for example, well the weight of tobacco has been multiplied by 400% so now you carry less value per run making you a lot more vulnerable to get chased and sunk by other players because now you can only sell your less value per weight tobacco in only 4-5 ports making into a chore to generate some "reliable" cash except if you buy the dlc trader rotterdam of course which has more cargo space, if you made it this far and can crew her ofc ;)

the devs managed to create so many problems with this game, nerfing the repair mechanics of the ships, making the boarding of linehsips with your own lineships borderline impossible, changing the perks into objectively worse choices, or the fact big clans can just abuse the auction house system to transfer their big top tier ships of the for example santisima trinidads into the new wipe/season and this just gets ignored

creating so many problems being greedy devs and failing to sell you the proper solution is a special kind of smart i have never seen before

its just sad honestly
this is the only kind of age of sail naval combat game like this
a niche game genre but still a monopoly in this and they ruin it and this has been going on for a long time now

the same downward spiral all mmo´s sail into at some point but this time
they make it worse so players hopefully buy the dlc to make the last bit of money they can actually failing to sell the dlc that would "help", players not doing it because they are not stupid and dont spend money on games that doesnt respect them as a player

just sad