Piracy not encouraged but in the game?

[Julio Montega]

Pirates can be pirates all day long. There is thousands of NPC traders that they can pirate from.

Bountyhunters understood that concept. Most of them are NOT after other players, but after NPC pirates, getting bounty from them.

Player pirates are in nearly all cases only after other players, and not because they want to be pirates but because they just wanna have an excuse to kill other players.

If pirates, like bountyhunters, understood what their JOB is (pirate EVERYONE, not only players) theyd be making craploads of money.

Craploads of money you say?
Well i flew a cobra with 36 ton cargo, a default sortie yielded about 35-60k credits and took more than 15 minutes.
You call that money?

A single python bounty is about 40k and takes about 2 minutes to claim (given you use ammo weapons like missiles).

The problem is with piracy, you got to be lucky to get the big bucks,
from rare cargo or highly priced goods, which is 10% of all sorties.
There is no money making in NPC piracy, that is why player piracy is a necessary thing,
stealing rares and selling them is worth the effort.

 

[gamecat]

Pirates can be pirates all day long. There is thousands of NPC traders that they can pirate from.

Bountyhunters understood that concept. Most of them are NOT after other players, but after NPC pirates, getting bounty from them.

Player pirates are in nearly all cases only after other players, and not because they want to be pirates but because they just wanna have an excuse to kill other players.

If pirates, like bountyhunters, understood what their JOB is (pirate EVERYONE, not only players) theyd be making craploads of money.

What utter rubbish. Piracy is extremely expensive. You don't make much money due to constantly being bounty hunted, players logging when your trying to get them to drop cargo and dying a lot. You die a LOT as a pirate. It's the players being pirated that ruin the game logging every time they are interdicted. Poor pirates don't stand a chance. NPC's are often carrying rubbish as well PC's tend to carry more valuable goods but like I say they just log.

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If you need to hunt players there is actually one place which is full of them ;

THE ERANIN AREA.

From Sideys to Anacondas, we have them all

Yeah if they didn't log. It's also full of Bounty Hunters and Cops. You try pirating in Eranin and see how long you last. I did I got interdicted perpetually once I got a wanted status.

I'll say it once and I'll say it again Piracy is an expensive hobby that's great fun but totally broken at the moment. It's easy to fix partially. If your interdicted by a player with a bounty and you log out then your ship stays in the instance, goes invulnerable so it can't be destroyed then drops half it's cargo then logs.

 

[zombieapocalypse]

I think it should be pretty obvious that pvp is the most challenging aspect of any game, so e:d really needs to pay attention to it and remove things like the ability to disconnect and instantly vanish. I play open mode for reason, this reason being interaction with human players. Getting shot at includes it. People who are too afraid of it and prefer calling others "griefers" need to either play solo or grow up.

There is a disconnection timer now. If you try to quit the game in normal space you have to wait 15 seconds before you can disconnect.

 

[Zomb Lee]

What utter rubbish. Piracy is extremely expensive. You don't make much money due to constantly being bounty hunted, players logging when your trying to get them to drop cargo and dying a lot. You die a LOT as a pirate. It's the players being pirated that ruin the game logging every time they are interdicted. Poor pirates don't stand a chance. NPC's are often carrying rubbish as well PC's tend to carry more valuable goods but like I say they just log.

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Yeah if they didn't log. It's also full of Bounty Hunters and Cops. You try pirating in Eranin and see how long you last. I did I got interdicted perpetually once I got a wanted status.

I'll say it once and I'll say it again Piracy is an expensive hobby that's great fun but totally broken at the moment. It's easy to fix partially. If your interdicted by a player with a bounty and you log out then your ship stays in the instance, goes invulnerable so it can't be destroyed then drops half it's cargo then logs.

I like this idea as the pirates on the server are small. With as many bounty hunters as there is we'll all soon be relegated to hunting Sidewinders with 200cr bounties. I sincerely wish I saw the poll a user posted before I chose hunting. I'd be curious to know how it could be implemented for the 'Fetts as well. I recently encountered a player with a large bounty on his head. He was in a Cobra and I am still in my lowly crappy Sidewinder. For all intents and purposes it was suicide on my part to attempt to fight him, but I didn't just want to run in guns blazing, so I tried to be a gentlemen, and messaged him with the phrase "Nice bounty" to which he tried to run. I began to target his FSD and started plinking, and lo and behold, he disconnected. I am 95% certain if he fought he probably would've killed me.

 

[Vandaahl]

There is a disconnection timer now. If you try to quit the game in normal space you have to wait 15 seconds before you can disconnect.

<ctrl><shift><esc> takes you right to Windows task manager, end process and you are done. Its your PC and you do whatever you want with it. When I call it a day or have to go, I'm not going to wait 15 seconds.

 

[Hexen]

THE ERANIN AREA.

You mean Communist capital? That was hardly a bait, everyone knows that they have a lot of players, it will be a witchunt and in no way fair competition.

 

[Cidcaldensfey]

What utter rubbish. Piracy is extremely expensive. You don't make much money due to constantly being bounty hunted, players logging when your trying to get them to drop cargo and dying a lot. You die a LOT as a pirate. It's the players being pirated that ruin the game logging every time they are interdicted. Poor pirates don't stand a chance. NPC's are often carrying rubbish as well PC's tend to carry more valuable goods but like I say they just log.

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Yeah if they didn't log. It's also full of Bounty Hunters and Cops. You try pirating in Eranin and see how long you last. I did I got interdicted perpetually once I got a wanted status.

I'll say it once and I'll say it again Piracy is an expensive hobby that's great fun but totally broken at the moment. It's easy to fix partially. If your interdicted by a player with a bounty and you log out then your ship stays in the instance, goes invulnerable so it can't be destroyed then drops half it's cargo then logs.

I had wanted status and a 30-40k bounty in my noob sidewinder. I was dict'd every 5secs or something in LHS 3447. An eagle eventually managed to stop me with a OHK after I failed to escape one interdiction. Am I upset? Absolutely not. But really, high pop areas is where noob bounty hunters hunt noob pirates. I got smart, flew far, far away and now I'm sitting pretty far away. Haven't seen other players though!

 

[Taverlisk]

What a shame, looks they've created two versions of ED.

Solo - Space truckers 2014.
Online - Extremely weak mmo and pvp experience.

I would have thought a better system would have been one mode all online, having highly patrolled safe zones for traders and new players. With greater risk and reward the further you ventured away from the safe zones. Trading is too easy with minimal risks, to earn those massive profits there should be some risk.

For me PVP is where all the fun is, while trading and making loads of money is fun for a while, it soon becomes a boring grind.

 

[Kalasa]

I think this is not a problem to have a pvp-piracy in E. There is just a need to bring some RP in that. Interdict other player, and ask by comms, what he/she think about fair piracy act of role play. If victim decides, what it is fair, he/she don't do any unfair actions(disconnect, switching to solo-mode, etc). And both will have some fun in that situation.

P.S Sry for my poor English, btw

 

[Joe Spivey]

What a shame, looks they've created two versions of ED.

Solo - Space truckers 2014.
Online - Extremely weak mmo and pvp experience.

I would have thought a better system would have been one mode all online, having highly patrolled safe zones for traders and new players. With greater risk and reward the further you ventured away from the safe zones. Trading is too easy with minimal risks, to earn those massive profits there should be some risk.

For me PVP is where all the fun is, while trading and making loads of money is fun for a while, it soon becomes a boring grind.

ED is NOT a PvP centric game. ED is a player co-op game with a PvP element.

 

[Robert Maynard]

What a shame, looks they've created two versions of ED.

Solo - Space truckers 2014.
Online - Extremely weak mmo and pvp experience.

I would have thought a better system would have been one mode all online, having highly patrolled safe zones for traders and new players. With greater risk and reward the further you ventured away from the safe zones. Trading is too easy with minimal risks, to earn those massive profits there should be some risk.

For me PVP is where all the fun is, while trading and making loads of money is fun for a while, it soon becomes a boring grind.

The idea that solo and private groups should be removed and everyone forced to play in open is not a new one - it is usually proposed by players who prefer PvP.

Thankfully, the stated game design has included the group switching feature from the outset - Frontier have dared to be different and, it would appear, a lot of players are quite happy about that.

 

[gozulio]

Because if your selling point and everyone else's mantra is 'play it your way', you're basically saying that I can't or I am discouraged from playing my way because it interferes with YOUR way of playing the game. By stating this, you're showing bias that your way or your entertainment is more important than what I feel is entertaining, yet the only difference between our playstyles is that the developers openly encourage and facilitate methods for you to play it your way. Where as for me, I'm playing with something that has been half- in terms of functionality and I am also considered to be a griefer for doing so when in fact the issue is that I am not allowed to play the game how I want to play because you don't want me to/let me even though it's in the game.

I think its been said enough, attack the NPC's, but if you want to go around popping canopies be my guest... well... would rather you not be MY guest... i like my canopy firmly attached to my ship thank you. its up to you how to deal with the pilots federation, up to you how to deal with the fines, station security ripping you a new one, and that anaconda that just shredded you into ribbons with whatevers mounted in that class four hardpoint (forgot what its called...)
Though i have seen someone ghost a player right outside of a station and get away with it... though the victim was in a sidewinder...

 

[VladtheImpaler]

If you like to play with other commanders, come back to the eranin area! We should make it the most player active place in the galaxy!

 

[Joe Spivey]

Fair enough points. I haven't tried anything else besides bounty hunting in SP, but in general more social interaction or means to do so for everyone would be interesting. It just feels weird to play an MMO which also happens to feel very isolated. As for my thinking behind piracy is more lucrative, you have more people trying to kill you as a pirate than if you were just a space trucker minding your own business. There is more danger in playing a pirate, especially given how a large portion of players favor (playful polls or not, I still regard it as data as I have nothing else to go by). More danger should mean more rewards regardless of how it is achieved. How else are you ever going to challenge yourself if the score is weak with a high risk attached to it (risk of player bounty hunters looking for you, security forces hunting you down, being turned hostile towards stations, etc). Piracy is a high risk activity. Crime in general is always a high risk activity. You've seen Scarface, haven't you?

I see what you mean, yes the rewards are not worth the risk and ever present danger of the career path. But I seriously doubt there will be enough reward from just pirating ships. In the golden age of piracy on earth pirates varied ship attacks with attacks on towns and cities. maybe something along these lines should be persued with FD?

 

[Cronax]

Perhaps some of us have been 'spoiled' by games like EVE Online where, in spite of what some of its 'weaker minded' players would have you believe, PvP and PvE are treated roughly equally. I use the term 'weaker minded' because if a human being cannot handle setbacks, this makes them mentally weaker. That doesn't mean everyone has to thrive on conflict as you stated, but in a world like the one of Elite: Dangerous, which advertises itself with "Fight, trade, explore and survive in a cut-throat galaxy", is some mental fortitude not something that can be expected?
What's so cut-throat about a universe where the biggest danger someone poses to you is cutting into your profit margins a little?
Personally, I don't usually engage in PvP in most games I play or have played, including EVE Online, but in that game the very fact that whenever you undock there is a danger of losing what you took with you makes the game better. It makes your new shiny ship mean more than just the credits it cost you, and flying the exact same ship for months on end MEANS something, because you were strong enough to have it survive that long. I'm not saying Elite: Dangerous should revolve around PvP the way EVE Online does but at the very least, it should be a valid way to play the game, perhaps with an 'opt-in' or 'opt-out' functionality.

 

[Robert Maynard]

I'm not saying Elite: Dangerous should revolve around PvP the way EVE Online does but at the very least, it should be a valid way to play the game, perhaps with an 'opt-in' or 'opt-out' functionality.

Attacking players is a valid way to play the game - if it was not then our weapons would do no damage to players and player / player collisions would do no damage either.

The fact that attacking / destroying players has consequences is because that is something that Frontier have decided upon and have clearly stated that "we (Frontier) are making the game that we want to play".

A PvP opt-in / out in the same game-world would lead to exploits.

 

[Sanguisaevum]

I honestly don't see why you think pirating should be more lucrative than legal ways of making money.

For the record, i am NOT currently a pirate. I am a bounty hunter and imperial Naval Pilot. (Though i have dabbled with piracy in the past)

However, i did feel the need to pick up on this point...

By FD's and Brabans own admision... every career path in the game should be just as viable as the others. Piracy should not be MORE lucrative... certainly.. but it really should be AS LUCRATIVE, to ensure balance between the career choices.

It is evident that this is certainly not the case. Even if a pirate sticks to purly NPC targets... he will struggle to make ends meet, let alone turn the kind of profits that traders make.

This is in direct violation of the stated goals of the dev team, and does, in my opinion, need addressing somehow.

On the subject of tools available to Pirates... i disagree with the sentiment that they are lacking.

Popping the target's shields, disabling drives, and destroying the cargo hatch are laughably easy... even against players (and yes... i have done this in the past)

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A PvP opt-in / out in the same game-world would lead to exploits.

There is allready a opt in / opt out for pvp.

it is called solo / open modes

 

[Taverlisk]

The idea that solo and private groups should be removed and everyone forced to play in open is not a new one - it is usually proposed by players who prefer PvP.

Thankfully, the stated game design has included the group switching feature from the outset - Frontier have dared to be different and, it would appear, a lot of players are quite happy about that.

I think that was a mistake! This limits the possibilities the game could have offered. Now it's just becoming an updated version of Elite 1984, rather than an online game where player interaction is encouraged. Playing against AI all the time quickly gets boring. Yes I prefer PVP, I gave up playing solo games a long time a go as I find them uninteresting. The only solo game I've ever put any time into was the original Elite, that's why I'm still here and hoping, even though ED isn't what I hoped it would be.

I can only hope there will be enough players like me, who enjoy the challenge of PVP to keep the online mode interesting. As there do seem to be a lot of players who prefer playing in safe mode!

 

[Milky82]

Being a pirate in ED has negative consequences, why wouldn't there be. As a profession it's the most difficult to succeed in and before the jolly Rodgers moan.

Let's take a real world example, do you think it's easier life being a driver for Eddie stobbarts or hanging off the coast of Somalia hoping to jump an armed merchant man ship while the U.S. or Royal Navy patrol the waters ?
And to be fair it's actually easier being the captain of the merchant man as most ships attacked get away.
I can't understand the Pirates bleating on how hard it is, if you live outside the law don't expect an easy ride. Society doesn't appreciate it and never will.

 

[Divinious]

When I get a decent enough ship, I'll be pirating and plundering players all day long. Their hard earned loot is my easy money.

Not that easy as most players would rather risk fighting to the death than dropping cargo not much profit in blasting a trader to dust.