Merchant brigand

Merchant brigands are groups of NPPs that gather commodities that spawn on uncolonized islands and sail them to colonized islands. They have exclusive access to the raw commodities markets at all uncolonized islands. When enough commodities are collected, the brigands ship them in bulk to colonized islands and sell them to shoppes and stalls. The shoppes and stalls that are sold to are randomly selected from all the highest listed buying prices.

The merchant brigands know the buy prices for commodities at all islands. They pick their destinations using a secret formula that includes distance and price. Merchants will not engage player ships, but may be attacked by players. If the merchants have won any battles along the way, they will sell their plunder (e.g., cannon balls) when they reach port.

Merchant brigands always start at uncolonized islands, but never sail back to them. Merchant Brigands will continue to load and deliver commodities from an island until it is colonizable, taken by a player flag and a fort built. The merchants will also continue to load from an island that is controlled by a BK but not built on (confirmed by OM Hypnos)

Merchant brigands, unlike usual brigands, carry the title  instead of  on their ship's panel. Merchant brigands also lack the swordfighting icon on their might ring that their brigand counterparts have. Like brigands, they can rank from sailors to imperials. If a player ship defeats a merchant brigand, the players receive a portion of the merchant's commodities in addition to the PoE they would have received from a similarly difficult brigand. Small merchant ships tend to carry valuable and rare commodities while the large merchant ships usually carry fairly common, bulky items such as hemp and fruit.

Historical notes
Merchant brigands were introduced in to replace the previous game mechanic of players foraging for goods.

External/other links

 * Commonly discussed ideas from Game Design
 * Announcement of the Merchant Brigand System