Firstly to say that I 100% agree that the dock with 2 pages and the (fire galley) upgrade are amongst the hardest things to even notice when you are a new player. I have some suggestions:
A separate dock for civilian and warship units, maybe called a dock and wardock, or port and dock I don't know about the names, but the idea is that it allows all warships to be on one page and all non aggression ships to be one page (which you will need as I also think we need more variety of ships). Also on a boomy map like black forest you would only make the civilian dock in your pond which maybe could be a cheaper building than the wardock? This would likely also increase strategic diversity on what type of dock to go for and where. Obviously they would need some kind of different building visual.
Another idea that I have heard is having a docksmith/shipwright building for techs like careening which would work similar to a blacksmith, I like this as when I started playing it took me a long while to realise fletching affected galleys for example, this building would streamline where to go for ship upgrades and maybe enable some more upgrades to be put into the game, Faster firing, movement speed, area of effect etc other people will probably have different and better ideas about what techs would be useful/fun.
On to making the water maps more diverse and fun, I think we need some more types of ships and options on the water, I would introduce a builder boat in the civilian dock to let you build some form of water tower which could either be just for vision similar to an outpost or have an attack like a watch tower etc ( the strength and cost of which would need to be determined over time) plus you might actually see heated shot researched in a game! I like this idea as it gives you a way to maintain vision over a section of water much like on land , and to potentially help in defence. Some form of pontoon wall could be interesting as well and would help lower elo players defend their fish, although I think this would need a relatively high cost to stop it becoming OP. With regards to warships some form of mangonel ship would be a great addition to let you have a comeback mechanic against large balls of galleys or longboats much like on land when you try to comeback against a ball of archers, also I would like to see a ramming ship which has a charge attack on it's first attack and then significantly reduced damage after that it would also be a great ship for taking down enemy docks as after your opponent has researched masonry this can be quite difficult to do with the current ships.
I know that you might think having more types of ship would make it more difficult to learn, but I think having them in two different clearly labelled buildings (3 with the docksmith) and enabling some form of defensive walling and watchtowers, would make water maps more low elo friendly whilst enabling some varied and interesting strategies and gameplay at a higher level on what currently is most players least favourite types of maps. Also it gives the devs options for more civ unique techs and options with regards to water, which in my opinion can only be a good thing as currently we have a very small pool of civs to pick from on the various water maps.
A separate dock for civilian and warship units, maybe called a dock and wardock, or port and dock I don't know about the names, but the idea is that it allows all warships to be on one page and all non aggression ships to be one page (which you will need as I also think we need more variety of ships). Also on a boomy map like black forest you would only make the civilian dock in your pond which maybe could be a cheaper building than the wardock? This would likely also increase strategic diversity on what type of dock to go for and where. Obviously they would need some kind of different building visual.
Another idea that I have heard is having a docksmith/shipwright building for techs like careening which would work similar to a blacksmith, I like this as when I started playing it took me a long while to realise fletching affected galleys for example, this building would streamline where to go for ship upgrades and maybe enable some more upgrades to be put into the game, Faster firing, movement speed, area of effect etc other people will probably have different and better ideas about what techs would be useful/fun.
On to making the water maps more diverse and fun, I think we need some more types of ships and options on the water, I would introduce a builder boat in the civilian dock to let you build some form of water tower which could either be just for vision similar to an outpost or have an attack like a watch tower etc ( the strength and cost of which would need to be determined over time) plus you might actually see heated shot researched in a game! I like this idea as it gives you a way to maintain vision over a section of water much like on land , and to potentially help in defence. Some form of pontoon wall could be interesting as well and would help lower elo players defend their fish, although I think this would need a relatively high cost to stop it becoming OP. With regards to warships some form of mangonel ship would be a great addition to let you have a comeback mechanic against large balls of galleys or longboats much like on land when you try to comeback against a ball of archers, also I would like to see a ramming ship which has a charge attack on it's first attack and then significantly reduced damage after that it would also be a great ship for taking down enemy docks as after your opponent has researched masonry this can be quite difficult to do with the current ships.
I know that you might think having more types of ship would make it more difficult to learn, but I think having them in two different clearly labelled buildings (3 with the docksmith) and enabling some form of defensive walling and watchtowers, would make water maps more low elo friendly whilst enabling some varied and interesting strategies and gameplay at a higher level on what currently is most players least favourite types of maps. Also it gives the devs options for more civ unique techs and options with regards to water, which in my opinion can only be a good thing as currently we have a very small pool of civs to pick from on the various water maps.