1) Even in power play, you can land without much fuss at an enemy faction's outposts and stations.
Precisely my point, perhaps you did not fully understand my point. One can easily join a power and begin pirating any other area foreign to it, or even pirate in it with justification. Therefore restricting stations from pirate access doesn't seem to be appropriate when certain powers' undermining mechanic is actually piracy.
And if we want to discuss what is a "just" cause for piracy, I'll refer to the argument about morality earlier in this thread which you bowed out of.
1.1) How exactly do I mask my in-game identity? Again, until this mechanic actually exists in-game, it has no place here.
It's an abstract, passive concept. Also if a mechanic doesn't exist in game, it certainly has its place here. Unless you want to go through the suggestion section of the forum and many other locations and report every single post or reply to them telling their authors that their ideas have no place on this forum.
It makes sense for that there is an explanation of how ships are identified in the game, and masking an identity makes much sense. Also, the very alias we use for our name in game are usually never our real names. We don't know if we're playing by the side of a serial killer, a dog that knows how to use a keyboard, or a cat that dances across the keyboard.
2) So we agree that pirates risk and reward need to be upped? My concern is that the risk that pirates create for other players isn't equivalent to their own risk. While a pirate can quite easily "relieve" a T6 of about 2mil worth of cargo, the game poses no real counter-risk for the pirate. Piracy, if you will, is currently quite a risk-free way to impose danger on other players. Should pirates not also face such dangers?
We do, bounty hunters come after us.
Just as pirates are willing to band together and watch one another's back, traders can also call upon help for escort, bounty hunters can chase us in packs.
Just because people are unwilling to organize themselves and lose out on organization isn't a valid basis for arguing that there is no risk for organized people.
Did you know that equipping chaff/heat sink/shield/scbs will ensure the survival of almost any ship? If you argue that traders shouldn't equip modules that hinder their jump range and cargo space, then I frankly will reply that pirates then shouldn't equip cargo scanner, collector limpet, interdictor, hatch breaker limpet and so on.
Also, traders should always be aware of their surroundings, they have plenty of time to low-wake from super cruise and jump to another system if they feel insecure or think that they are about to be pirated.
There is, if anything, little risk for traders other than the risks traders impose on themselves by not equipping proper modules and be aware of their surroundings.
2.1) Piracy risk is objective I think. It can easily be compared to the risks that other players face.
The moment you mention "compared to" makes it subjective and relative. Also, you've probably noticed by now that everything is subjective to me.
For instance, for traders risk = losing millions worth of cargo (which may total their assets). For the pirate creating such risk, risk = insurance fee at most (a pirate going after a T6 holding 2mil worth of cargo might only have an insurance fee of 100k). The risks just don't add up to me.
The pirate also gets a wanted status which validates bounty hunter/retribution/targeted by player group.
2.2) Like I said, pirates present a lot of risk, thus should also be subject to a lot of risk. For the sake of argument, also, imagine this: an explorer spends weeks traversing the galaxy amassing a huge collection of data, and then died by flying into the sun. That's a big risk. So, do we agree that pirates should be subject to such high stakes of risk? Hours and hours of in-game efforts down the drain from 1 mistake?
If piracy made more credits, I would say we can use an increase in risk. I accept the argument of high risk and high reward is a valid balance, however, the latter is low to an unreasonable degree. Currently, the amount of reward, if anything, doesn't deserve any increase in risk of piracy.
2.3) Then I rephrase: pirates and players who pose as pirates to kill other players need higher risks.
Killing players should be punished by the system in game, yes. However, we do not want to punish it ridiculously to the degree that it makes players feel safe wherever they go. In the sense that if I tell a player "it's your cargo or your life" and the player knows my threat is all bark and no bite, there would be no purpose to even communicate with my prey to begin with.
