It wasn't clear to me that I could just shoot at a "friendly vessel".
You can manually fire at friendly vessels, yes.
But either they'll ignore it or they REALLY won't like it (can't remember which of the two it is; we went back and forth of that a bit based on
@Grey Roger's suggestions) .
If you hoist a flag hostile to another ship, you can shoot at ANY ship. Even at your best buddies.
There may be consequences to doing that, but nobody is stopping you from double-crossing your friends and allies.
Shouldn't HE be the pirate? I mean, he is smuggling after all...
Smuggling isn't the same as being a pirate.
Probably the Dutch government doesn't know he's smuggling or they might even secretly approve, depending on their international relations.
In this particular example, you should never personally get to sink the ship, which means that you are also free of any consequences from taking action against the Dutch.
If desired, I could make the Vogelstruys hostile to you regardless of what flag you fly.
That is always possible and may prevent the confusion that you ran into.
But that also bypasses some game and actual logic, so I prefer not doing that if not necessary.
After all, if they're hostile straight away, then WHY would they be? He's got no clue you're there to sink him, does he?
And of course I have the latest version (including the nearly countless quick-fixes that you posted for me
Probably some time soon(ish) I should post another "official" update. I've made rather a lot of changes lately, mostly based on your feedback.
