Ladies and Gentlemen, we have found the most evil player on the forums i believe
If you wanted to be really evil, knock out their sensors too. They might end up limping to a station only to realize they have to self destruct.
The long con...
How to make piracy better?
- Thread starter ciger
- Start date
If you wanted to be really evil, knock out their sensors too. They might end up limping to a station only to realize they have to self destruct.
The long con...
Only skimmed the thread and haven't been on the receiving or giving end of an player piracy, so make of this what you will.
Improved comms, seems like there's general agreement there.
Cargo scan from supercruise. Might be rather hard to justify lore-wise but I'm assuming piracy would pay better if you know there's anything worth even bothering for.
Like the Pirate Guild idea (tie it in to those unsanctioned outposts in some way). Puts me in mind of Terry Pratchett's Theives' Guild.
Better black market prices sound good, perhaps tie that in to the Pirates' Guild and unsanctioned outposts, need to be a member to get the prices.
Traders need some defence other than "go to remote parts of the galaxy", whether wings will do that or better police presence in secure systems. Get faster / higher priority assistance if you're friendly or allied with the locals. Trundling around in an unarmed, unshielded freighter full of gold needs to remain asking for trouble. I'd love to see incentives for them to go to anarchies, paying for escorts to do so, perhaps some sort of game-generated events to lure pirates and traders to the same place.
Improved comms, seems like there's general agreement there.
Cargo scan from supercruise. Might be rather hard to justify lore-wise but I'm assuming piracy would pay better if you know there's anything worth even bothering for.
Like the Pirate Guild idea (tie it in to those unsanctioned outposts in some way). Puts me in mind of Terry Pratchett's Theives' Guild.
Better black market prices sound good, perhaps tie that in to the Pirates' Guild and unsanctioned outposts, need to be a member to get the prices.
Traders need some defence other than "go to remote parts of the galaxy", whether wings will do that or better police presence in secure systems. Get faster / higher priority assistance if you're friendly or allied with the locals. Trundling around in an unarmed, unshielded freighter full of gold needs to remain asking for trouble. I'd love to see incentives for them to go to anarchies, paying for escorts to do so, perhaps some sort of game-generated events to lure pirates and traders to the same place.
I thought the rares were just for this; relatively low risk because of high profit margin and only a couple places with good supply. ie. profitable for trader even if attacked and target rich environment for pirates.
The problem with rares is you get them then jump right out of the system, and because of the price with range increase there's nowhere to guarentee finding a ship loaded with rares coming to sell them. Now on the other hand if word gets around that a place is buying stuff for a good price that should concentrate everyone.
There is already some really viable defense against pirates, and that is "Don't D-grade your entire ship".
The most popular pirate ship these days seems to be the Asp, and that ship is not that fast.
What traders need is to have some sort of protection from being killed regardless of their actions if they can't escape.
The most popular pirate ship these days seems to be the Asp, and that ship is not that fast.
What traders need is to have some sort of protection from being killed regardless of their actions if they can't escape.
The asp is slow? That's news to me and my almost 400m/s asp. I can catch up to all but massively upgraded cobras.
There's not many ways to protect traders against killers after you drop your cargo. Maybe something like cargo is always abandoned as long as it's dropped willingly but, it turns to stolen if the trader dies before he leaves the instance. That might work.
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How to make piracy better ?
Admittedly this is more of a wish list (adapted from a thread by FD in the DDF)
The end result should be a system that encourages people to pirate rather than murder each other.
Granted clans / corps are still going to go to war with each other but now it would become a little trickier depending upon where the fight takes place which might make the resulting combat more interesting.
ETA:
The key thing is that there is no real incentive to pirate someone (there is no point) and when in combat there's little reason to let them live. There should be a reward system in place for doing things right (piracy rating) and consequences when you become a psycho. Let's see what FD do
Admittedly this is more of a wish list (adapted from a thread by FD in the DDF)
- Give piracy a rating (like BH / Trader / Explorer)
- This will encourage people to follow the pirate "code" rather than act mental
- You gain rating by selling cargo that has been stolen from NPCs / players
- You loose rating by destroying a victim that has surrendered
- This will encourage people to follow the pirate "code" rather than act mental
- Implement the "hoist the flag" mechanic
- Aggressor signals the victim you're about to pirate them rather than just blow them up
- This gives the victim a couple of choices
- Surrender
- victim should drop some cargo (within a time limit)
- can't spool up drives until cargo has been dropped
- Try to run - aggressor is now free to shoot them to try to force cargo (hatch breakers / shoot cargo doors
- Fight
- Surrender
- Increase the penalty for murder
- The bounty for murder should be increased (for killing players)
- Maybe introduce a "kama" hidden-stat for the commander
- Kill players and the stat increases
- Play for a period of time without killing players and the stat slowly decreases
- At various thresholds the game increases the level of response to your actions
- In supercuise if the system authorities spot you they call in for reinforcements
- When in normal space if the police come (as a result of your victim having the "report crimes against me" enabled) they start to come in force (imagine if you are enemy #1 and they turn up bringing Damocles )
- In general more bounty hunters start to actively look for you
The end result should be a system that encourages people to pirate rather than murder each other.
Granted clans / corps are still going to go to war with each other but now it would become a little trickier depending upon where the fight takes place which might make the resulting combat more interesting.
ETA:
The key thing is that there is no real incentive to pirate someone (there is no point) and when in combat there's little reason to let them live. There should be a reward system in place for doing things right (piracy rating) and consequences when you become a psycho. Let's see what FD do
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I don't think a minor dip into the profits would change much for pirate behaviour there. Especially with the proposed solution of making anarchy stations buy stolen goods without the 50% reduction.
And yes, ships that don't break 400 m/s are slow when you're in a Clipper.
In supercuise if the system authorities spot you they call in for reinforcements
When in normal space if the police come (as a result of your victim having the "report crimes against me" enabled) they start to come in force (imagine if you are enemy #1 and they turn up bringing Damocles)
In general more bounty hunters start to actively look for you
Getting interdicted by the Police Academy clown town more often would just be very annoying instead of an actual risk.
And players need to have a high speed ship that is incapable of being a pirate vessel, for example a few Size 1&2 compartments, and only one size 4, and the shield generator must at least be Class 4 too if bounty hunting is to become an actual thing. Vipers and eagles are too slow to effectively go after cobras and Asps.
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How about a "piracy contract" enforced by a game mechanic?
This would be binding on both parties:
- Pirate makes an offer, give me X number of your cargo Y (if scanned, otherwise free choice for victim), and you are free to go.
- If victim accepts, they must eject cargo per offer. The cargo is not regarded as stolen - since there's a contract, even if backed by potential violence. If they don't accept the offer - think they can win or escape - then we're back in the current mechanic.
- If pirate breaks the contract and attacks victim, they receive a higher than normal bounty. Maybe cargo is again regarded as stolen since contract was violated.
High bounties have proven to be irrelevant. Pirates already shoot down police ships for sport to artificially increase their bounties.
And pirated cargo should always be regarded as stolen, unless victim abandons.
Increased bounty is a bonus for hunters. The point of contracting for abandoned cargo is a financial incentive to be an honourable pirate. It won't stop PK, clearly, but a player who is offered a contract should be more likely to surrender, making piracy a more viable profession - and increasing revenue.
Had another "kill after drop" today. A Type-7 who went from 20% to 0% hull through overheating. Dropped cargo while going down...
I think higher bounties do mean more hunters go after you. The problem is that it's fairly trivial to avoid them. Only the best and most determined hunter can take down an observant pirate. I've not met one yet. The only bounty I've had clear, as far as I remember, was from self stupidity (dock at fed station to claim another player's 300k bounty, then die shortly after from being an idiot, 1.4 million payoff!).
I think higher bounties do mean more hunters go after you. The problem is that it's fairly trivial to avoid them. Only the best and most determined hunter can take down an observant pirate. I've not met one yet. The only bounty I've had clear, as far as I remember, was from self stupidity (dock at fed station to claim another player's 300k bounty, then die shortly after from being an idiot, 1.4 million payoff!).
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Highest bounty I have seen on the system boards is 15m.
Bounty Hunters need more tools. Totally radically different game but anyone ever bounty hunter other players in SWG? Droids helped a lot. Again hugely different games but sort of a similar underpoint; Bounty hunting does require some tools to locate and stay on the trail of your target.
Right now Bounty Hunting isn't hunting so much as its just "Bounty Sweeping"
Right now Bounty Hunting isn't hunting so much as its just "Bounty Sweeping"
That is millions...
Yeah except that guy legged it 100 LY away from whatever fed system he got it from to Katraxas deep in empire space.
I also doubt he legitimately earned that bounty through killing, he probably just let himself get scanned with a big cargo ship full of Tobacco over and over, so he'd get #1 on the "high score board".
The only response I can think of is either (a) yes, millions, or (b) you saw higher ?
(Not sure what you meant
)Need a KWS then .. I used one recently and bagged myself a 5.5m bounty
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I am afraid all of these suggestions are kinda useless (albeit I like most of them) when for every single open trader there are 100 carebears in solo. I would boost the income from open through the roof to compensate for human pirates. Actually... pirates in solo do not exist. They are pirate cosplayers who interdicted just to watch the boost boost fsd combo.
Remove DRM, ha ha, ha.... i'll get my coat