Who are the pirates supposed to Pirate ?

But if they do that, they would admit that the driving vision was hopeful thinking instead of thought through plan.
I fear ego prevents people there from doing what has to be done, they are too married to thought of PvP to let go.

Once more I dig out comparison to UO. Developers were much in love with PvP that they did everything but get rid of it when they tried to "fix" the game. It required intervention from EA which put in charge guy with task "Fix it or kill it" and with no personal attachment to PvP.

So I fear that FD will remain stuck in the vision of PvP everywhere where players can meet, and that will eventually be the downfall of this game. Though as positive note, competitors appears stubborn enough to want to commit exact same failure with their competing brand. Though with possibility of modded private servers. I have put my hopes on those private ones for now...

I think you attribute malic or specific intent, where a lack of understanding is probably more likely. The developer is so buried in what it's doing, that it just hasn't really connected the dots. One can only hope and help them connect the dots. The occasional disconnects between what the developer thinks is a cool plan and what the community is responding with, can be a bit jarring at times.

I do think they genuinely want to build a cool game. So there is still hope. 2.1 in some ways suggests there's a bit of a shift.
 
Last edited:
Why would you possibly need a cargo scanner?

Trader ship, in CG, heading towards CG Goal = Profit

Trader ship at end point of trade route = Profit

The easy way to check if they say they have nothing, disable them, cut it out of them.
If anything falls out, send them to rebuy for being a naughty liar liar pants on fire.

Majinvash
The Voice of Open

For the record, what kind of demands to you make? Some pirates apparently accept nothing less than "all the cargo, abandoned only" and go for a kill if the trader has the audacity to jettison only the 20 tons that should already fill the pirate's cargo bay...
 
I fly exclusively in Open, it adds to the fun by having the thrill of possibly meeting a real player, what will the interaction be, will it be civil, will it end with one of us at the rebuy screen or will it be mutually beneficial in some way.

I have been pirated once, well I say pirated, it didn't end well for the pirate, but it started well and I was happy to submit to the demands. He was in a Dropship, I was in a Python bristling with weaponry and a reasonable pilot at the helm. I figured, the guy had the stones and had made the effort, so I would go along with it. It all started civil enough, although the one word "Cargo" was a little abrupt. I had stopped all engines, not deployed hardpoints and not scanned him. I typed, that he was welcome to scan me and seek restitution but I only had about a third of a full load on me. He started cargo scanning and then must have accidentally switched fire groups, because suddenly he let go off a quick slap with a beam laser. Now, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and he caused no damage so I let him be for a second, then he said "you are worthless to me, die"............so I killed him to death.

Now the thing is, I enjoyed the interaction and I would be happy to be pirated occasionally by somebody who does it right. Unfortunately, the good ol' pirates like Majinvash who do it the right way are getting fewer out there and most of the "pirates" now are just out to kill for no reason other than lulz. It's sad really and I feel sorry for them having such a dull life that they are keyboard warriors in their spare time where nobody can really get to them.

I will stay in open and hope that piracy makes a bit of a comeback, I don't want to lose my cargo every time I fly, but every now and again........no worries!
 

Majinvash

Banned
For the record, what kind of demands to you make? Some pirates apparently accept nothing less than "all the cargo, abandoned only" and go for a kill if the trader has the audacity to jettison only the 20 tons that should already fill the pirate's cargo bay...

Standard bound hail is

"Hi, You are being robbed by The Code. Stop and wait for instructions. Run and I shoot"

I have 96 Tonnes of space in my cargo hold and 4 active limpets.

So depending on ship, usually 60-100 tonnes.

Abandoned is preferred and I will give them a second chance to comply.

If I am bored I might accept illegal but jumping two systems over from Cemiess for a black market is such a chore and lower payout.

Majinvash
The Voice of Open
 
I have (about 8 months ago) met a pirate wing. I tried to run they shot me, I dumped cargo, the stopped shooting. Unfortunately by that time the Thrusters where already at 0%. One of them even wrote me if you need hepl come back - alas I couldn't as I was drifting at 300+ away from them ( I could not even answer bc I was out of local range to quickly). I resigned to having to blow myself up looked for the self destruct and found the repair button. It repaired my thrusters back to 1%. I limped tro the nearest station and sold the rest of my cargo.
That was good.
 
If piracy is to become a more viable trade, NPCs need to be the preferred prey somehow. Something needs to be done to make piracy against NPCs more lucrative, because you can't force players into Open and players who interdict other players strictly to kill are too common.
 
the NPC part needs an overhaul in terms of the cargo they carry, or we need a different way to interact with them to get that cargo.


Scanners in supercruise would help, as a vast majority of your time is spent scanning T7's full of limpets and hydrogen fuel and having to interdict > in > out takes like 5m everytime with nothing to show for it (and resets the system traffic)


I hear you on that! It's why i went on to develop the catch them as they leave the station tactic, as i could scrap the whole interdication mechanic and save an awful lot of time, but it became dull and repetative and for very little reward.
 
I will stay in open and hope that piracy makes a bit of a comeback, I don't want to lose my cargo every time I fly, but every now and again........no worries!

This. In a nutshell. I fly in open because ultimate that's what the developer intended and prefer seeing other commanders roaming about. I can live with being jumped occasionally by a pirate if there's a bit of fun to be had.

But people being happy to play along with pirates, given the experiences with more common goon squad antics means we're a bit of a minority now. Many have seen the rebuy screen enough to just go solo/ private group and stay there.
 
Last edited:
If piracy is to become a more viable trade, NPCs need to be the preferred prey somehow. Something needs to be done to make piracy against NPCs more lucrative, because you can't force players into Open and players who interdict other players strictly to kill are too common.

I agree. Give proper pirates something to fill their time with in-between player attacks and also some additional income by spawning special "armored van" type of NPCs which carry high-value items like Painite or rare commodities. Make them part of a mission if you will, where players are given the coordinates to track down / ambush said NPCs.
 
Unfortunately enticing traders and other non-combat players back into open is very difficult if FD are to stick to their line of keeping 'all modes equal'. Anything FD do now to directly encourage open trading will be met with skepticism/hostility from quite a lot of traders who would likely complain about solo/group being treated as second class modes.

Hopefully the upcoming crime system changes + fighter launching and new weapon types will tempt traders back to open. There's nothing else FD can do short of changing profit margins or offering incentives or bonuses - but I don't think they'll go there, personally I wish they would.
 
So state of the game is that all the people that said a year ago that a wing of Pythons against a Type-7 isnt griefing are now complaining about having no victims?

Poor snowflakes.

Reap what you sowed.

It would only be griefing if they were following him around killing him repeatedly, is that what happened?
 
So state of the game is that all the people that said a year ago that a wing of Pythons against a Type-7 isnt griefing are now complaining about having no victims?

Poor snowflakes.

Reap what you sowed.

Exactly.

I fail to see why traders should feel the need to fly in open, especially when the people asking for it are a bunch of thugs flying combat builds complaining there are a lack of weak traders to act as targets for their seal-clubbing escapades.
 
It would only be griefing if they were following him around killing him repeatedly, is that what happened?

It is not about the griefing per se. It is about the message that got delivered by a bunch of PKers.

What businessman would accept higher risk for the same payout?
 
Back
Top Bottom