Ahoy!
I know the SOTL has been raised a number of times over an extended period, there are many who complain that they are just going to be too overpowered or too nerfed if they are added. I've seen suggestions for them to be limited in many different ways, so far the best idea I've come across has been to make them a Guild Ship.
I personally think they could be added, as a Guild Ship is what makes the most sense to me, limited to maybe 2 allowed per Guild and restricted as to who from a Guild has the power to launch them (for example only Guild Masters and Co-Guild Masters).
Implementation of access to them could further be limited by some form of Quest chain to unlock them, with a Difficult Final Quest which would require a Full Crew from a Guild in order to complete it. Make them only available to purchase for players who are either Guild Master or Co-Guild Master and with a hefty price of something like 1,000,000 (a million) Gold. Something which requires some form of Bank System to be implemented for Guilds, which could use either Gold as a Currency or even some form of Conversion to something like Guild Coins, which to further raise the difficulty could have an Exchange Rate like 3-5 Gold = 1 Guild Coin.
There are so many possibilities for them to be implemented as a Guild Ship and to make Guild Life even more valuable and important for everyone...
I'm open to further comments and suggestions on this, but I definitely think this is something which should be made a Guild thing.
Cheers!
Kriss Wild Wolf
Guild Master of Caribbean Curse.