I don't see what's not believable about releasing cargo not marked as illegal. Also that I would like to delay your proposed change until they properly buff piracy. We don't need to kill off a profession that is already unpopular for immersion.
What do you suggest should be buffed exactly? Would you say the selling price for stolen goods at black markets should be increased to 100%?
If you care to read it, there was a discussion about this topic a few pages back. I was under the impression that complains by pirates about low profits because of the value reduction of stolen goods to 75% was misleading, since pirates don't have to
buy the goods they are selling to the black market in the first place, hence sales equal profit (whereas traders have a much more reduced profit since profit = sales - investment for them).
Or is the opinion that piracy profits are to low grounded in the assessment that pirates can't pirate as many ships as traders can run trade routes?
I am genuinely trying to understand the reasoning behind piracy being called "low-profit" (from earlier in this thread) and needing a buff, since the point about pirates not having to pay in the first place for what they sell seems very convincing to me, so please forgive the potentially naive question.
I have only tried piracy early in the game, when hatch-breaker limpets where introduced, and only on NPCs, but I thought it worked quite well.
Could the recent change to NPC trader cargo in 1.5. be considered an appropriate buff for piracy?