Pirate The World - Online Adventure Game

I was wondering what exactly does observation do other than give you an idea about the strength of other pirates? I think it helps you to steal gold from other pirates when they attack you. But that might also have to do with my strength vs. their strength. All the instructions say is that observation can be used in other calculations. So... what does that mean exactly?
Thanx

obs does nothing but waste your gold , I never had mine higher than 3 .

If you make your obs too high all it does is make those nasty fisherman turn green and take your gold because they can hide better with the greenies

There's a really good suggestion in the suggestion forum if they would just think about it. Make obs help towards lowering the cost of hitting storms. Otherwise it will always be pretty useless. I have an obs of 1 and won't upgrade for probably a couple more weeks. A high obs will however sometimes help in stealing gold from other pirates if they fail on an attack against you (but you will never recoup the gold you have spent on obtaining such a high obs).