Welp, we just got ANOTHER big nerf to piracy... When will the least profitable profession get love?

on top of that: trading not the most profitable profession -> no traders -> pirates cry again...
Nobody (that I don't have on ignore) is asking for trading to be nerfed. But claiming piracy isn't dangerous because the traders that are pirated aren't a threat is exactly the kind of bogus analysis that got 777 on ignore in the first place, so dunno...
 
Trading gives the most profit, but the least fun
Pirating gives the most fun, but the least profit
Bounty hunting is moderate fun, with moderate profit.
Mining...well...I just don't know.

That is how I see it, anyway... seems to line up for me, and I am just fine with that balance. It would seem to me (a trader, soon to be pirate), that the distance, and therefore value of a rare good, should be the exact same regardless of whether it was just purchased, dropped, scanned, scooped, or whatever. The pirate should have to steal rare cargo near it's home station.. then fly the 120LY to sell it. (or steal it far away from it's home, and reap the benefits) The hard part of rares trading isn't flying the 100+ LYs, it's waiting at the stations to collect a decent quantity of rares. If a pirate is able to gather up 20 or 30 tons of rares without having to wait around at the stations... I say that is still a win. Traveling to sell? I wouldn't' call that a big deal.
 
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Brilliant. Now a pirate can either mass lock players with a heavy ship, or use an Asp to travel far enough to sell the rares, but never both at the same time.

EDIT: but I think stolen rares should simply sell at half the buying price, no more.
 
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I'd assumed that this is the way its always worked if not it was definitely broken and exploitable - not seeing the problem really, surely the pirate just has to interdict someone making their first jump into the cluster and so has rares from the "other" cluster.
 
What does the pirate risk by attacking defenseless traders? As the pirate YOU pick the target, so you CHOOSE the risk. Pirates are the bottom feeding scum of the universe, deal with it.

Time and effort, or is that too complicated for you to figure out? Traders trade for an hour and make 1 - 6 million. Pirates pirate for an hour and make 100k - 300k. Time value of money. It's simple economics.
 

Ozric

Volunteer Moderator
I have absolutely no idea what would give you that impression.

You can be interested in the game being balanced and every occupation being viable without being a pirate.

Also, you can be a pirate on top of being a trader, a miner, a smuggler, a bounty hunter (I swear) and en explorer.
Well, that's a lie: your profession can only be a trader, the rest are part time hobbies to break up the boredom and get some pocket change.

No indeed and every one who wants the best for the game would be interested in it being balanced, maybe it's just a personal thing but I wouldn't feel comfortable claiming to know how much money Pirates make compared to other professions if I wasn't one, especially when the only one with an almost guaranteed income is trading.
 
Nobody (that I don't have on ignore) is asking for trading to be nerfed. But claiming piracy isn't dangerous because the traders that are pirated aren't a threat is exactly the kind of bogus analysis that got 777 on ignore in the first place, so dunno...

Well, i don't have first hand experiance of the danger of piracy, so i won't comment on that.
I agree that piracy against NPC doesn't exist and that piracy against human players doesn't work as it should be.
But the OP had another point: Piracy is a very appealing profession for many players. And that's exactly why it will never work. Too many traders are needed to "feed" a single pirate. There aren't enough traders for the foodchain to work (even if solo mode wouldn't exist).
If there is too little prey, the predators have to suffer.
And if the prey gets ripped apart too often, it will leave or (in terms of ED) adapt to some other profession.
PC pirating will never work. You can't force people into enjoying the role of a victim.
 
No indeed and every one who wants the best for the game would be interested in it being balanced, maybe it's just a personal thing but I wouldn't feel comfortable claiming to know how much money Pirates make compared to other professions if I wasn't one, especially when the only one with an almost guaranteed income is trading.

I watched hours upon hours of pirate streams, so I have a pretty rough idea of how much they can make on a good day, on a bad day and on average.

Well, i don't have first hand experiance of the danger of piracy, so i won't comment on that.
I agree that piracy against NPC doesn't exist and that piracy against human players doesn't work as it should be.
But the OP had another point: Piracy is a very appealing profession for many players. And that's exactly why it will never work. Too many traders are needed to "feed" a single pirate. There aren't enough traders for the foodchain to work (even if solo mode wouldn't exist).
If there is too little prey, the predators have to suffer.
And if the prey gets ripped apart too often, it will leave or (in terms of ED) adapt to some other profession.
PC pirating will never work. You can't force people into enjoying the role of a victim.

It worked perfectly well until now. There are enough traders to prey upon. If there is too little prey, the pirates turn on each other. This isn't like RVR games where you're hardlocked into your role. If bounty hunters don't take care of pirates, other pirates will.
 
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- not seeing the problem really, surely the pirate just has to interdict someone making their first jump into the cluster and so has rares from the "other" cluster.

I don't have any valuable "distant" rares when I arrive at a system in the Lave cluster (or the Fujin cluster). I've sold them at some nearby quiet system that most people haven't heard of.

It would work with people doing a "rares grand tour" though.
 
I watched hours upon hours of pirate streams, so I have a pretty rough idea of how much they can make on a good day, on a bad day and on average.



It worked perfectly well until now. There are enough traders to prey upon. If there is too little prey, the pirates turn on each other. This isn't like RVR games where you're hardlocked into your role. If bounty hunters don't take care of pirates, other pirates will.

If this is the case (which i again can't tell), then there was a lot of whining for nothing in the past few months about pirating not working, not profitable, a waste of time.
And now it's just this single change?
 
Cpt.America said:
It would seem to me (a trader, soon to be pirate), that the distance, and therefore value of a rare good, should be the exact same regardless of whether it was just purchased, dropped, scanned, scooped, or whatever. The pirate should have to steal rare cargo near it's home station.. then fly the 120LY to sell it. (or steal it far away from it's home, and reap the benefits) The hard part of rares trading isn't flying the 100+ LYs, it's waiting at the stations to collect a decent quantity of rares. If a pirate is able to gather up 20 or 30 tons of rares without having to wait around at the stations... I say that is still a win. Traveling to sell? I wouldn't' call that a big deal.

Exactly.

An obvious bug fixed and now Pirates moan that they have to travel like the rest of us to profit?

Priceless hahahahhaha :D
 
They aren't defenseless in the least. They have an instant getaway button, or didn't you know that?

You mean log off or SOLO? even in solo they have to deal with interdiction's while in a slow badly defended freighter. Unless you start pirating in a Lakon or Hauler I can't say you have a hard job.. rubbish money, but not hard. If they log off, well I don't understand why they went open in the first place.

I play purely in Open, every pirate I meet is in a Python or ASP, not exactly struggling with firepower.. So not a hard career at all, pick the weakest opponent and demand goods
 
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If this is the case (which i again can't tell), then there was a lot of whining for nothing in the past few months about pirating not working, not profitable, a waste of time.
And now it's just this single change?
If you were to dig through these threads, you'll find multiple posts by pirate players who strongly disagree with anyone who claims piracy "doesn't work at all".
 
Time and effort, or is that too complicated for you to figure out? Traders trade for an hour and make 1 - 6 million. Pirates pirate for an hour and make 100k - 300k. Time value of money. It's simple economics.

While on the other hand, traders are at risks to lose up to... well it would be 20M for me (rebuy + cargo). And pirates are at risks of losing... their targets, and their time. And their efforts, ok.

What I'm trying to say I guess is it does sound foolish to compare traders and pirates on the basis of income. I mean, if you are honestly and truly concerned about time value of money, you buy a T7 and space truck. It's that simple.

Now I agree that pirates seem like quite low on the profit side. In fact, everything does, besides space trucking with a good route. But I don't think making (sorry, for a lack of a better term) "foolish" comparaison will help carrying your point.

This whole topic however is weird because it lies on the premiss that a recent exploit fixing is nerfing pirate revenues. Which is basically saying that pirates have been exploiting a bug to make cash. Not the best way to present the case... Or maybe you're also talking about marked containers, tbh I read this topic and I'm still unsure about what you're all discussing, nor that there is an actual discussion going on (besides the fact that pirates do no get enough cash).
 
You mean log off or SOLO?

Nope, try again. And ED has yet to do anything to address it. There's another legitimate win button.

To top things off, a Cobra, which has a bigger hull mass than a Type 6, can't even masslock a Type 6. If you have a Cobra or smaller, you're forced more often than not to pirate players who are armed in smaller ships that can easily fight back.
 
Jeeze.......this Piracy thing is just poison to this game and to the forum/community..........
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For me, it boils down to "Fairness"..............he makes more trading, he has it easier pirating.....blah blah blah.......when it comes down to a "Put your dukes up" moment.......If I have my hands tied behind my back, I am not interested. PvP? I am all for it.........Mugger vs Victim? Really?........Its just not going to work.......not until , that moment where you "put your dukes up" and it is FAIR.............
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Can you imagine a game of Quake where the Expert gets the Rail Gun and Rocket Launcher, and the new guy gets the Grenades and a Knife?................once you get past that, we may be getting somewhere..........
 
Nope, try again. And ED has yet to do anything to address it. There's another legitimate win button.

To top things off, a Cobra, which has a bigger hull mass than a Type 6, can't even masslock a Type 6. If you have a Cobra or smaller, you're forced more often than not to pirate players who are armed in smaller ships that can easily fight back.

Well I don't really care so I'm not playing your little game... Feel free to moan about how hard your virtual life is.. Oh and a little Asp can mass lock my 1000T+ Type-9, don't hear me b'n like a little girl.. I've lost in excess of 50 million to pirates, that's just how it goes..

Funny that no pirates pull me outa SC when I'm hauling 400T of gold in a Conda..
 
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Piracy should be a rare business/career........a few Flash Hearts and their Black Pearls cruising the SkyWays creating famous havoc wherever they go........as it goes, every Yahoo that wants to mug people is a "Pirate" in this game.......and if it happened in the real world like this, like around Somalia, you would see Governments, in force.....laying waste to losers in their motor boats.........
..
Piracy seems to boil down to every system is an anarchy system..............as if the Royal Navy would tolerate it in the Thames Estuary......

Tell that to npcs. Also to braben.
 
Well I don't really care so I'm not playing your little game... Feel free to moan about how hard your virtual life is..

I'm sorry you are incapable of figuring it out. I'm not about to spell it out for you either but--since you can't figure it out, or don't know, it just shows how unqualified you are to talk about this whole subject. Find another thread to troll, please.
 
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