It would appear FD doesn't want Pirates.

Majinvash

Banned
Hi

I spent today Pirating in Yemba.

I have a silly bounty of my head now and an even stupider fine to never pay.

However... Pirating just doesn't pay, now im not going to stop because its a damn sight more fun that Desert Bus but I only just broke even today and I had a very successful day.

Taking a side damage from fights ( I kill a lot of players today and stole probably about 800k in winnings ).
The integrity repairs from the over heating bit and the damage from interdictions.
Unless you luck out and convince a Type 6 to Abandon 20 gold, palladium etc each time.
You end up with stolen goods worth half what they should be.

The price of shield and chaff, hits too.

The good goody player vigilante force cost us too.. This is fine.. I had 3 on me at once today.. (Didn't loose a ship)

I think after one "successful" sortie, I came back with 85% hull. And a hold of booty.
I had to pay back about 8k in repairs, 15k in integrity. And about 9k in ammo,cells and chaff.
And that was with all the fights I would say I easily won.

So yeah.. In normal Elite Dangerous where you can expect a scuffle, its very hard to make a decent profit from pirating/bounty hunting.

Now I am sure you all love to hear the woes of a pirate but lets be honest. If there is no money in it, apart from the fun.
There is no reason to pirate ( or bounty hunt ) and everyone with will either quit or just become boring haulers ( yes i know some people enjoy that but meh.. its a bit dull )

I am not sure really how to fix this, without all the haulers crying that pirates/bounty hunters are now boosted etc. but think long term. If the pirates and hunters go.. What a BORING and undangerous game this will be... ON NO ITS ANOTHER NPC EAGLE ... zzzzz

Majinvash
 
I guess the life of a pirate should not be the easiest..but it's true if it's just not fun and not profitable that there won't be any..

I guess it depends who you ask if that's a good thing or not.
 
Yeah, piracy is a waste of time, even against NPC's. I've just done about 2 hours of pirating and ended up with about 50k in "profit" and a 65k fine for the stolen goods. There's no point to it at all at the moment, it's a non profession right now :\
 
I have to agree, pirating is now the worst credit gen profession in game, even exploration is more lucrative.Limpets are very unreliable, blowing up cargo hatches almost imposible,scooping takes ages.And worst of all you lose 50% value when you sell the goods. Pvp pirating is also crazy beacuse on 1 pirate there are 10 bounty hunters eager to kill any player for even a 200cr bounty.
 
This makes me sad, haven't tried piracy since release but I'd like to know it was a viable option and want to know the pirates are out there stealing booty, drinking grogg and generally making life more dangerous. If you could change just one thing to make this work what would it be?
 
Yep. I really don't get all the traders complaining that piracy is "too easy". Have they even tried it? I very much doubt they have. Piracy for profit just doesn't work.
 
There are some players who apparently can make PVP Piracy work very well, their streams are on twitch, too.

There are a few things wrong with piracy, though. For a start, obviously the 50% reduction makes for poor profits. IMO, a station held by a pirate faction such as any "Mob" or "Clan" should allow you to trade stolen goods that the station has a demand for (due to its economy) for the full value. It makes sense to take a major cut when they have to sell that stuff on, but if they can just open the containers and use it right there, they should do that.

Yep. I really don't get all the traders complaining that piracy is "too easy". Have they even tried it? I very much doubt they have. Piracy for profit just doesn't work.


Oh please, show me one post of a trader complaining about piracy as a whole concept being too easy.
 
I'd have to go looking. I was referring more to the comments traders make such as "Oh, I'm glad they did such-and-such, that will make it harder for the pirates" etc. Also, I should add I am a pretty bad pirate. I let folks go if they have no cargo, and if they do have stuff worth taking, I demand only a small portion of it. I have never actually tried to make credits via piracy, so my opinion is of limited value.
 
I'd have to go looking. I was referring more to the comments traders make such as "Oh, I'm glad they did such-and-such, that will make it harder for the pirates" etc. Also, I should add I am a pretty bad pirate. I let folks go if they have no cargo, and if they do have stuff worth taking, I demand only a small portion of it. I have never actually tried to make credits via piracy, so my opinion is of limited value.

Traders will welcome anything that makes their profession more viable, just as pirates will welcome anything that makes their profession more viable.

Sounds perfectly normal to me.

If piracy is too severely hampered right now is a different question of course.
 
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surely pirates don't care that they have bounty and just sell their stolen goods to unaligned systems


if you can kill 5 people, take their cargo and then redock and clear your bounty for murdering AND make a profit thats pretty strange. because it means you can murder with no consequences. the consequences of being a pirate are that everyone will attack you.
 
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I'm not a pirate, but it seems to me that a good solution would be for pirate factions to offer better black market, ammo and repair prices etc to players who have worked up good rep with them.

^^^This^^^ I totally agree.....Im not a pirate/hunter, I'm a boring old rares trader, but if all the pirates went, where would us Traders be kept on our toe's
 
No, this is just "I wish" in action. I did 20 trips through Yemba now and I've been pirated exactly once so far - without success on their part.
More pirate CMDRs needed then!

Are there nearby stations giving missions for pirating/destroying traders? (I'm exploring around 500LY away)
 
There are really no viable means to make serious money with the average gamers time investment. I work full time, and when I get time to play I vary between trading and npc bounty hunting. I wouldn't even consider pirating as I can see before I even try that it's gonna be frustrating and in the end mostly fruitless. It's a shame, as with more varied things to do I may spend a little more time at the helm, but right now I can get a little too bored too quickly with trading or bounty hunting. I did do some exploration for a while, but that became a little dull too, maybe with the discovered by thingy in the game now I may pick up a cobra and go on a little exploration mission.
 
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