PVP Pirating in Yembo

[TheDayman]

If I'm going to "spoil" a pirates fun, I'll do it the legitimate way, with ordnance heading downrange

I really can't see the point in "fitting a tradeship" without the ability to defend what it's carrying. The dedicated haulers that can't be made defensible last only as long as it takes for me to replace them with an equivalent-capacity multirole craft, with bigger teeth. Giving up a few cans of cargo per run for a better shield or a SCB will save you more in repair/replacement costs than you'll lose in missing profit.

If I'm interdicted I always submit to avoid damage and because there ARE "mindless killers" out there, I assume that's what's after me until I find out different. First action on dropping to normal space in an interdiction is to trigger a macro that deploys hardpoints, boosts and turns FA off. I usually won't even check whether it's a player or an AI after my hide, or exactly what they are flying until after that. First sign of incoming fire I'll "waste" a SCB charge because if you're running something with high enough alpha the new delay on them means if I don't do it that quickly I might not get the chance to use it anyway and I want to live long enough to return fire or escape if the aggressor is more than I can handle.

Pirate opens comms, I'll cease fire and negotiate for as long as he ALSO holds fire, and I'll keep any agreement made as long as he does.

This seems like good ol' fashioned common sense to me! Good post DaveB - have some rep.

 

[Quineloe]

If I'm going to "spoil" a pirates fun, I'll do it the legitimate way, with ordnance heading downrange

I really can't see the point in "fitting a tradeship" without the ability to defend what it's carrying. The dedicated haulers that can't be made defensible last only as long as it takes for me to replace them with an equivalent-capacity multirole craft, with bigger teeth. Giving up a few cans of cargo per run for a better shield or a SCB will save you more in repair/replacement costs than you'll lose in missing profit.

If I'm interdicted I always submit to avoid damage and because there ARE "mindless killers" out there, I assume that's what's after me until I find out different. First action on dropping to normal space in an interdiction is to trigger a macro that deploys hardpoints, boosts and turns FA off. I usually won't even check whether it's a player or an AI after my hide, or exactly what they are flying until after that. First sign of incoming fire I'll "waste" a SCB charge because if you're running something with high enough alpha the new delay on them means if I don't do it that quickly I might not get the chance to use it anyway and I want to live long enough to return fire or escape if the aggressor is more than I can handle.

Pirate opens comms, I'll cease fire and negotiate for as long as he ALSO holds fire, and I'll keep any agreement made as long as he does.

You'll honestly not going to get away from a Pirate who knows what he's doing when you're in a Lakon trader, no matter how you fit it. Shield is weak unless you fit the strongest there is, and even that is medicore - and you just sacrificed half your cargo hold.

 

[DaveB]

You'll honestly not going to get away from a Pirate who knows what he's doing when you're in a Lakon trader, no matter how you fit it. Shield is weak unless you fit the strongest there is, and even that is medicore - and you just sacrificed half your cargo hold.

Agreed, the Lakon traders fall into my category of "haulers that can't be made defensible" - the moment I could afford even a lightly-armed Asp, the type6 was gone. When I decide I want a bigger ship if I can't buy a Python outright a type7 will last only long enough to get me one. I doubt I'll bother flying a space cow at all. Maybe it would be different if I was laser-focused on grinding credits for bigger ships but that's not how I play.

 

[Britannkic]

5T? I was interdicted by a cobra MkIII who demanded I drop 32T! I offered 20t and he agreed!

I do a good deal you see. Honest as the day is long.... which on Yembo is 9 minutes

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Nice one, a pirate in disguise acting like a security force. The word maffia comes to mind

Nooooo no this is entrepreneuralship, profiting from the current economic conditions prevalent in this system

Pair of damn clipper pirates, jumped into one transaction whilst i was scooping and hassled the customer as i sped off to other business duties

 

[Daffan]

I'm watching both TGApples and SkafsgaardPG (not their cmdr names dear mods), twitching their piracy at Yembo right now, it's pretty amazing how well piracy and counter piracy seems to be working out so far. This honestly is better than I've ever seen in an online game that attempted to have traders vs pirates vs police mechanics in it, and it's not relying on crutch NPCs like Excel With Graphics at all.

Once all the bugs and issues are worked out, the bones of this part of the game are close to perfect.

Only because it's early.

1) As a pker you cant stop anyone escaping unless your in a fast(er) ship, so your limited to only fighting ships slower

2) solo exists for trading, more are moving over

3) it's actually impossible to die for me. because noone can go faster than my ship, therefore nobody can actually close the gap and finish me if i decide to run.

Pirating traders is semi-ok. But anything else is a real wild draw in this game right now. Goodluck claiming those 20 million bounties

Claiming bounties and playing police only works against bad players. All the good players already worked out this fact and never die.

 

[bonsek]

Pirates, bounty hunters, traders are all part of the community.

Why would anyone participate in a community event if they are going to log off at the first sign of danger?

Combat loging is just pure lameness. The OP tries to pirate in a meaningful way, some like to shoot first (which I don't blame them as the FSD cooling starts ticking) and some know how to do macros.

I understand some have been burnt by station campers that were exploiting the system and have resorted to pulling the cable. And that has spilled over in more meaningful encounters, which is sad.

But really pulling the cable is not a legitimate play style and it ruins the game for everyone.

When you press open you agree that you can be bounty hunted or pirated by real people and not bots. You don't like it, you can always join a PvE group.

Don't ruin the game to the rest of us that like to play different roles and wants to play in a meaningful way.

Btw, I am not a pirate but I am on OP's side on this.

 

[Hayta]

They could just make it so that if there is a station/outpost (that ship can dock) in a system you have to dock inorder to log off, otherwise your ship should stay wherever it is.

 

[Kastor]

@OP, don't use hatchbreakers, just use subtargeting to shot their cargo hatch with your lasers till it's down to 50% and starts throwing stuff out, it's a lot faster. Don't bother cargo scaning but make a quick demand "Drop 4 cargo" tends to work. Speed is everything.

 

[Quineloe]

2) solo exists for trading, more are moving over
.

I would like to see your source on this.

Pirating traders is semi-ok. But anything else is a real wild draw in this game right now. Goodluck claiming those 20 million bounties

The Bounty on Derath has been claimed yesterday. Yes, someone walked away with almost 30 million credits.

 

[thebjoern]

Open play should be just that: Open

Like in the real world, there are good guys, bad guys, and all sorts of shades in between. A pirate is a bad guy, clearly, and as such you expect him to do bad things, such as shoot you on sight, with no warning. Of course there are some "gentleman pirates" out there too, but don't count on the one interdicting you to be one of them. Choose your routes wisely, be prepared, not just greedy to bring the most cargo that's possible for your ship.

But please do remember that this game is still in an early stage, I think it still needs:
- stop all of those exploits and come up with a better system for combat logging (like the suggestions above)
- solid teamplay support, so that traders can have escorts, pirates can hunt in groups etc
- police forces in a system react to the number of recent killings and step up their efforts if a lot is happening (*)
- it shouldn't be that easy for criminals to lose their wanted status, or the cost should at least be significantly higher. Maybe keep an "Offender" status somewhere, and for repeat-offenders it gets even more expensive?
- still think there should be a way to transfer money between players (allow extortion (yes that should be part of the game too), but also paying people for services, helping your newbie friends etc)
- better local communication means in a system (which would also allow someone calling for help etc)
- distress signals, where other people can listen in for them too and home in on them with some sort of scanner (like the wake scanner)

(*) a more "global police approach" would be cool too, where they could ask for support from neighbour systems (which means those systems will have less then), and like I mentioned in another post where the economy of a system has an effect on it's security too: Nobody does missions for the system or brings goods, means the economy gets worse, the budget for police gets lower, ie less police there.

 

[Troa Barton]

I'm not really a fan of piracy, it varies because I like the gentlemen pirates that aren't out to kill but hate it because of psychopaths that just want to gut people for playing in open.
That said combat logging is more causality because of the latter. Murder fines increase combat logging decreases.
however combat logging reflexively is just cowardice, as far as a penalty goes if someone logs out after being fired upon within a refreshing amount of time then their cargo hatch should pop. Pirate gets some booty trader avoids a potential psycho.
win win.

 

[Space Pirate]

I didn't play at all today. But, I will probably just help with the community event to attempt to build up some credits and leave the pirating for later. Maybe when wings comes out I will do it.

 

[Chalky]

Thing is with Yembo, you can bring in 'Any' metal.
Surely most traders are not really doing this for the profit, but the quickest amount delivered to complete the goal. So why haul Palladium especially as you have to travel a lot further to obtain it?
I was in Yembo last night and I just filled up with Cobalt from the nearest system that supplied it (1 jump). It's the cheapest metal, gets my delivered tonnes up as much as any other metal and I don't lose as much money if I get interdicted. Then it's a quick jump back to fill up again.

Unless you are doing this for the profit?

and we do need Pirates, as it adds the excitement to game.

 

[Sazon]

If a moderately outfitted T9 with 5M Cr. of cargo was encountered, the insurance excess and cargo would amount to c. 10M Cr.. Currently, a hold full of commodities at c. 12,500/t for the pirate would equate to a c.2.5M loss for the trader. If in-space player-to-player credit transactions were implemented, the difference in demand would, in all probability, be quite significant - would the extortionist in this scenario settle for less than 50% of the sum that the trader stands to lose in the event of ship loss? That's 5M Cr. in credits against 2.5M Cr. worth (for 200t dropped) of cargo that would sell on the black market for 1.25M Cr.. Combined with no risk in trying to dock to sell the booty, this provides more advantages for the pirate.

I love this answer. I admit that, since I am a bounty hunter more than pirate, I was playing devil's advocate. I think there is no moral difference between the two - they are both a form of extortion. Having said that, I can see the point about the difference and not making transfer possible is a good way of managing the extremes for the purposes of gameplay.

My last word is: If you interdict me I will give you my entire cargo of lead and lasers! I will not scan you. I will not wait for you to make requests and I will not make requests. I will not care if you are clean. I will fire first and I will fire last!

 

[thebjoern]

I love this answer. I admit that, since I am a bounty hunter more than pirate, I was playing devil's advocate. I think there is no moral difference between the two - they are both a form of extortion. Having said that, I can see the point about the difference and not making transfer possible is a good way of managing the extremes for the purposes of gameplay.

My last word is: If you interdict me I will give you my entire cargo of lead and lasers! I will not scan you. I will not wait for you to make requests and I will not make requests. I will not care if you are clean. I will fire first and I will fire last!

That's the spirit... I am not a pirate, but I would love to encounter you

 

[Cmdr Moritz]

It always makes me smile when I read about how traders will defend themselves under piracy. For me, it really indicates their lack of pvp experience

 

[IceyJones]

the 15 sec timer is a joke......
most traders quit this way, as soon they are interdicted......it takes 5-10 seconds for the interdiction to be complete......and 5 seconds later they disappear already!

its frustrating

and even if someone does that in midfight.......starting from a specific ship size, 15 seconds are not enough to kill anyway......had several condas and pythons (player killers) disappear under my laser and rail blasts, exactly 15 seconds after their shields dropped.....

i count this also as combat log......

 

[SuBSynk]

Yea i hear you OP, not only is pirating the worst profit in game and pirates given lots of hate for choosing it as a profession but now we have groups of players thinking its fun to gang bang pirates whenever they dare show their faces in systems. Its almost like they don't want piracy to exist in the game...

 

[Demiga]

Yea i hear you OP, not only is pirating the worst profit in game and pirates given lots of hate for choosing it as a profession but now we have groups of players thinking its fun to gang bang pirates whenever they dare show their faces in systems. Its almost like they don't want piracy to exist in the game...

But thats the point...ever hear of a posse? Especially back in old times, a posse was formed when outlaws grew notorious enough. Bounty hunters usually joined that group as well. So players joining in groups to gang bang pirates in systems sounds completely normal to me and even fun. If it continues enough, eventually pirates will start forming their own groups. I would love to see a 3v3 or 4v4 battle.

IDK if anyone else played it, but Earth and Beyond. One of my fav space sim mmorpgs. They had a wonderful mechanic that allowed you to group up and jump together from system to system. Explorers formed groups and charged fees to safely navigate the dangerous areas. When the group was formed, whoever the group leader is would control the jump of the entire group. Mind you anyone could retake control and leave the group if they wanted as well. Im not saying that specific mechanic is needed, but if they allowed groups to somewhat jump together, it could make for some really interesting encounters - just like others have mentioned, pay a heavily armed escort to 'jump' with them each step of the way

 

[Quineloe]

Yea i hear you OP, not only is pirating the worst profit in game and pirates given lots of hate for choosing it as a profession but now we have groups of players thinking its fun to gang bang pirates whenever they dare show their faces in systems. Its almost like they don't want piracy to exist in the game...

No, it's not the worst profit in game. You simply traded to a fully fitted Python, and then thought you could be boss pirate now and now you're surprised it's not working out for you. You are not a pirate, you're a trader with a piracy hobby. I really wish you'd stop claiming this over and over when there are in fact many pirates making good money on your "hobby"