…There's nothing that can be done about that. A trader isn't going to give up cargo to a pirate that's not willing to get his hands dirty if they refuse.
…
There should be a way to take cargo by force without the trader being cooperative. I guess that's what hatch breaker limpets are for and from what I've read they don't work or are not effective enough.
Ideally - in my opinion - piracy would work something like this:
- pirate interdicts trader
- pirate does a fast cargo scan - this would reduce the time and give the pirate more time to "work"
- pirate shoots down shields - with a shield disrupter (only destroys shields without making damage to the hull as the pirate doesn't want to destroy the cargo he wants)
- pirate uses drone to destroy cargo hatch and to steal X t of cargo for X t more cargo he would have to launch an other drone. Higher class drones can be programmed to select what cargo to steal if different cargo types are available. Hatch drone prevents the trader from jumping into SC or HC.
- while this happens the trader tries to counter the pirate by flight maneuvers or maybe special repair drones to be able to jump away
- pirate can scoop up the cargo he got using the drone really fast - with working cargo drones
- security forces come and attack the pirate - timing is essential for this to fast and the pirate can't work, to slow and the trader feels at a disadvantage. This would limit the amount of cargo the pirate can steal.
Problems: Weapons specially designed for shield destruction will probably have a big impact on PvP fights and would have to be carefully balanced. Weapons that prevent SC and HC jumps are very problematic in PvP fights and would have to be balanced or get a good method to counter them. Both weapons should only work for piracy.
NPC pirates do the same thing. NPC traders have better cargo. This would make PvE piracy an option and pirate CMDRs would get a source of income without having to attack other players. It would make trading in Solo more risky and remove the (perceived) advantage of trading in Solo and it would make piracy in Solo an option.
Consequences for killing a non-wanted CMDR should be very, very serve - no insurance, very high bounties, not being able to dock at outposts and stations in that jurisdiction… Reward for piracy (done right) should be higher.
Optional: Just like rare commodity trading piracy could be something that is only viable for CMDRs in smaller ships and without enough money for other things. There need to be other things for pirates to do with big ships and a lot of money. Maybe a system of "letter of marque" - that could be something for Power Play.