im reminded of Starship Tycoon, by the same developers of Democracy 3, which is a game where you have a ship that you can haul cargo, passengers, must hire crew and more

has anyone played both of these?

im really intrigued by this game but im worried: do you have enough freedom to play the different ways? (pirate, privateer, etc)

There is a lot of freedom in the game and it looks like you can even be a pirate (although I haven`t had the chance to try yet). However, the game is VERY buggy; buggy to the point I just can`t complete some missions, so I`d wait a few months before considering buying this.