Thanks! We try to keep everyone updates as much as possible. 
The game is kind of a mix between survival and online-pvp / rpg. Kind of like Rust in a pirate setting, but in stead of base building you have ships and much more combat oriented gameplay. Base building is not really something we are planning to add to the game unless massively requested. In stead the game will feature advanced ship customization as well as the ability to craft and buy a large array of items. You will be able to acces an “Item menu” which will have two tabs. One is for crafting, the other is for buying. In the crafting menu you will be able to spend resources to create all kinds of elementary / basic items, such as a bow, axe, spear, basic clothes, a raft, camp fire. Basically all the things you would be able to craft with “wood and stones”. The other menu, is where you will be able to spend gold to buy more finished products, such as flintlocks, muskets, a ship, cannons, etc… You will also have a seperate ship menu where you will be able to purchase upgrades, do customization and invite people to your crew. All progress is server-side. Meaning each server you join will be a fresh start, exactly like most survival games. You will however be able to customize the look of your character (hair, beard, tattoos, …) in the menu which will stay the same cross-server. When you first start out on a server you will not have any gold yet and so you will have to gather resources on the islands and craft all the basic stuff you will need to start your journey. As you move and explore other islands, you will find treasures. Killing other players or sinking other ships will grant you gold. Treasures can be sold to npc’s which will spawn all over the map. When you die, you will not lose anything from your inventory except the treasures you carry as well as a percentage of your current gold amount which will be granted to the player that killed you. You only have to buy your ship and items once. When your ship is destroyed you will have to repair it though with resources found on the islands. Repairing with gold will also be available for faster repairs. Weapons will require ammo which also has to be crafted or bought. The game is a lot about exploration and finding treasure and hunting other ships and players. New treasures will constantly respawn on semi-random locations so staying at one place all the time will not be very profitable.
One thing that might change though, something we are still debating and will probably start a poll for is whether we will move the buying menu to npc’s as well. Meaning you will only be able to use the “crafting” menu and have to talk to npc’s to acces the buying menu. We will nonetheless have to do extensive playtesting to make a final decision though.