Coastal encounters
Pirate raids need a settlement beside broad coastal water, a suitable loaded shoreline landing and deep water for the ship. A bucket pond beside an inland town is not a port. The Pirate coast preset schedules the real raid system.
Natural raids have an initial delay, low chance and long multi-day cooldown. The source's next-raid due interval includes 5400 active seconds plus a seed-dependent addition. It is not a promise that a raid always occurs exactly a certain wall-clock hour after launch.
Ships and crew
A sailing ship approaches and moors. While docked its hull, deck, rails, masts and gangplank are physical blocks. Crew can fight guards, demand supplies, loot actual chest/market stock, harvest crops, kill livestock, damage gates/timber, light fires and restrain weak residents. Some pirates have ranged attacks. Raid crew can have different health from individually spawned pirates.
Responding to demands
Offer the selected stack with right mouse. The current interaction takes up to eight items from that stack and marks an active raid paid, while telling you to stay out of the crew's way. This does not guarantee an instant peaceful end to all pirate actions. Keep clear or resist; pirates can kill a resisting Mortal player. Creator suppresses player-directed targeting/demands while the encounter's other interactions can continue.
The crew may occupy the settlement overnight, collect plunder and sail away. Surviving restrained residents are released. Guards still have finite health, ammunition and supplies.
Recovery
Recovery has stages: residents arrive, workers spend actual wood/stone on repair, agricultural supplies arrive, livestock can be replaced and production returns. Dead workers do not keep producing. Recovery is not an immediate undo of every damage event.
Raids/rebuilding simulate near loaded communities; the ship retains a small extra offshore loaded area. Long siege balance, rare events and navigation around heavily edited coastlines remain playtesting limits.
A pirate egg places an individual pirate. It does not itself produce a complete ship, crew, mooring plan and recovery sequence.