since the player is able to sail up to a npc ship or group of ships and then bring up the pirate flag n attack them i was thinking would it be possible to make a chance for some normal merchant or group of merchant ships could be pirates in disguise, or better yet initialy on the encounter, on the map it would say single dutch er whatever contry merchant, -hmmm easy pickins you think, so you engage, you enter sailing mode and there she is the single merchant ship, as you get within say 300 or whatever is the grape shot distance then the merchant strikes their colors and raises the pirate flag an 2 or 3 more pirates appear on the horizon and now yer either runnin for it or settin up a defense of some sort uh sorry if this been brought up already