Here are my ideas.
Two/Max teams. (I think max is 6 for regular ones) All have a spawn and a duty. When two ships want to battle, they vote on it. The ships will be builds, of course. There could be a jailer soldier, he jails other team's men and can make prisnors do what he wants. Although, he can pardon prisnors too. There will also be a captain. Pretty simple, just like a team leader. He can have better weps. There shall be regular pirates, his crew. Duke it out until you own the other team's treasure. Oh, and if you want, you can use events to kill the supporting brick of the ship, thus drowning them all >:D. I know those events already exist.
The chatkill prevention mod shouldn't be hard. I discussed it a bit with Randomguy. It will turn you into a non-combatable player while chatting. It may be abused though, but if abused the host can just kick 'em. Does this one sound easy?
Discuss.