What a great bunch of suggestions! Rep and all.
One way to make piracy more exciting would be to make sure that some of the "piracy" upgrades only available on smaller ship types, thereby creating a situation where using the top end ships to pirate would become far less attractive and levelling the playing field, so that there could be some really touch and go chases between traders and pirates where pure skill would play a large part.
It would also be fun to have an option to dump goods one ton at a time, thereby leaving the pirate with a tough choice between stopping and picking up the goodies floating in space, or gambling on pulling the ship he/she was chasing up (-:
And what about including the odd booby-trapped container? Scoop one of those and pow!
(-:
ahhh of course the exploding palladium trick foiled again!
id like to see a small ship equivocal to the python and clipper but in a smaller less expensive package.
lots of power overhead with high speed and an augmented mass lock value.
Essentially a faster more manuverable asp with a couple more utility slots.
The asp makes a good cheap pirate ship due to its abundant internals and mass lock value but it lacks the speed and bite really needed to take on the larger ships, or to plunder another day when a clipper shows up.
Perhaps this is an area the new ships will cover but as it stands now the cheapest pirate ship that has enough capacity speed and bite to be effective is the clipper or FDL.
the asp can be very effective as can the dropship but again the asp lacks bite to take on the armored traders and the dropship isn't exactly cheap and relies on destroying or disabling before the target picks up too much speed. And all of these ships are multimillion credit ships.
the only way to make the smaller super cheap ships like the cobra into an effective pirate ship are utilities to make it more effective without driving up the price or needing a new platform.
I love the idea's you have posted here. Repped.
Honestly, Cash sinks one and all, they all have a common theme. Whether or not people think that a certain "cash sink" is a good idea doesnt matter.
What we need is Options. Options for versatility. Options for creativity. Options for Uniqueness.
I believe that they are moving in the right direction by adding weapons/modules specific to certain powers. I want to see another player and wonder (sometimes in fear) as to what power he is associated with. I want to wonder if this CMDR has an affiliation with a faction that provides a module/weapon that will help/hurt me. When he deploys his hardpoints, I want to wonder if he has something I have never seen before....
What we want is more variations of CMDRs along with the actual content. Cash sinks dont have to be these giant affairs that take hundreds of millions to complete/build/acquire. They can be as simple as the ideas Troa has suggested.
Now, if FDev can just expand upon all of this...
It really makes this an exciting time for the game. They have opened the door to many new possibilities, lets just hope the fan base, in general, can continue to Hold that door open...
Thank you
options are really lacking in the game at the moment, there are only a few ships that are worth keeping for their use and a complete lack in the outfitting department.
there are only a handful of things to do and certian ships excell at these while leaving the rest behind.
Take the type 6 as an example of this, it's a stepping stone ship that once you get an asp it is obsolete you sell it. Other than nostalgias sake there are better tools for the job you aren't going to keep it. The type 6 and a number of other ships need to have a reason to exsist after you've outgrown them by staying relevant they are themselves a cash sink. A ship worth keeping in your stable.
again in terms of piracy if more people would actually fly their old type 6's pirates would have more targets even when that player could afford 5 condas you might see them in that little shoebox.
so to make that shoebox relevant again there needs to be an outlet for it to be used. Smuggling in a type 6 would be a reason to keep it and to use it. Cheap to lose in the gamble of smuggling, low heat signature, great jump range and a decent cargo capacity. Again remember that in my idea of smuggling the the buy in for these items is extremely expensive. Losing a type 6 full of black market wares would be equivalent to losing a combat python.
with that you breathe new life into the ships like the hauler, the adder, and the type 6 ships previously forgotten while at the same time adding consequence and meaningful cash sinks.
Again relating to the topic at hand piracy, you need to have an ecosystem in place before it becomes a PVP fest not acts of piracy. Which is basically what it is now, the current ecosystem is pirates attack the newbies, the newbies go into solo, the newbies come back as bounty hunters or pirates in clippers, pythons and FDL's.
There needs to be another cycle of trading ships to give credence to piracy. Some ships like the type 7 or 9 need to stay more relevant as well. Smuggling is one thing but that won't really temp anyone into flying a type 7 again. Salvage needs a place in elite especially as it's a space simulator and I think that's the type 7's calling. Looking into and melting down shipwrecks for components, loot, metals, polymers, and scrap. Having a large cargo hold to stay at it long enough to make credits on terms with other professions. Exploration in human controlled space.
the type 9 on the other hand has little incentive to stay in your garage after you have an anaconda. I still own and use one because in very specific situations it can bring in a little more money than my conda. But that shouldn't be the case, it shouldn't be a little better than an anaconda at trading it should be a lot better. The conda is heavily shielded and armored, bristling with guns, has a superior jump range which offsets its lower cargo capacity. The type 9 falls to the wayside because it has zero defensive capabilities, and only makes a marginal profit over the much better anaconda. If you want to see more type 9's in open you need to make it a ship worth using. In this case it's not a ship who's profession is no longer there it's a ship who is incapable of succeeding at its profession enough to justify its use. It wouldn't be that much of a change allow it to equip a class 7 FSD and give it more utility slots to augment its only defensive strategy of survival not speed or firepower but simply shield strength. Then there would be a reason for the bigger pirate ships besides dealing with bounty hunters or other pirates. You would need them to succefully pirate the traders ace in the hole, the invincible type 9 not the solo dwelling piñata we have now.
making piracy more viable and more fun requires a food chain in order to continue. I also agree that NPC traders should behave in the same way that PC's do and actually have wares worth stealing. Again this would take some heat off of players but it would also allow newer players to get into it in ships that don't require millions to effectively accomplish the task.
i too am hoping that the better FSD drives earned through affiliation along with other modules from other powers is not just a pipe dream. They really have a chance to make the game more interesting for longer by doing that. Hopefully though it doesn't stop there maybe even faction boosted versions of ships with slightly better stats like a python with better handling, or a type 9 with less mass and a higher shield value.
