So after not having tried piracy (or the game really) properly for a while I thought I'd spend a few hours playing the victim and then trying some piracy to try and see where piracy is now?
Being a victim
- Flying around in a Python (no bounty and no PP allegiance) in a CG system, I was interdicted once, by a wing of CMDRs... No coms, no scans, immediately fired upon. *sigh - Another topic!*
In short, I wasn't pirated once!? A reflection of how few CMDRs are possibly doing this role?
Being a pirate
Note: As soon as I interdict a CMDR I give clear instructions. And typically even a second warning is given etc before taking any action. I very very very very rarely ever destroy CMDRs.
What went well?:-
- The lack of combat logging was good. I only had one or two CMDRs who (possibly) logged on me during a lot of encounters. I'd say logging is not an issue from this experience!
What didnt go well?:-
- On two occassions my limpets were picking up cargo, but it was not appearing in my ship.
- The moment you fire upon a ship (CMDR), security ships seemed to be called. This meant if you're using hatch breakers, typically by the time you come to recover the cargo (possibly spready over a large area), you're soon under fire quite likely meaning you can only pick up a few tons of cargo. This seems to be fairly standard, and as this was in a medium security system, goodness knows what it's like in higher security system?
- The profit, or lack of, from pirating CMDRs is appalling. A lot of effort, time and risk, for so little return. I'm not even sure at times if I was even making a profit?
- Quite often after interdicting a CMDR, and coming under attack from security vessels, when I went to jumped to SC the game hanged such that I had to kill it.
And as I soon realised "attacking" a CMDR meant security vessels would almost certainly mechanically be on the way, this almost suggested to me the game was almost promoting that if the CMDR won't willingly drop cargo under just the threat of violence, don't bother hatch breaking cargo, instead blow them up, so next time they will drop it without a shot being fired. This seems wonky?!
What I'd be interested to hear about from other players?
Hatch Breakers through shields
Still uncertain about this. It now just seems too easy to get cargo? But with the problem that security ships arrive so mechanically, it just ends up being frustrating.
I'd like to hear what other people think about this current new mechanic. It's never sounded right to me, and I still think either shields should still have to be brought down, or at least say brought down to 1 ring? (ie: You can't fire/target a hatch breaker with the enemy having more than 1 ring?)
Hatch Breakers and Collector Limpets
If you're intent on trying to get 20-30t of cargo out of a bigger ship, I'm not sure how the game would allow you to do this? It seems hatch breakers are too slow/limited in ejecting cargo, and then you're faced with cargo strewn over a large area... quite possibly soon to be patrolled by security vessels. Possibly at least need - click
FSD Disruptor
This seems pointless for piracy? You can extract cargo and typically do significant damage with the time it takes a victim to jump.
Better to have something else in its place IMHO.
Security Forces turning up so quickly like clockwork
This is a two edged sword IMHO. Because FD seem to want mindless destruction in their game (with little/no real penalty), they need the game to police itself based on this lowest common denominator. ie: If I was being mindlessly attacked by another CMDR simply to be destroyed, I'd like security forces arriving soon to back me up.
HOWEVER, the problem is, if you're trying to pirate a CMDR, this mechanic is frustrating. In my case I'd not destroyed a single CMDR pirating, and yet security was turning up so quickly over and over, I was regularly collecting cargo I'd hatch breakered under (significant) fire... This needs to be made more random at the very least. And possible it's another reason why the response rate should be based on your "Criminal Reputation" (karm system)? ie: The more often you kill CMDRs over a given period, the more hassle the game gives you? Destroy more CMDRs, generally get more attention more quickly etc. Kill less CMDRs, get less attention - click
$$$$$$$
The lack of reward is not fun. If instead as a pirate with reputation I could get missions at the CG say to specifically steal CG related cargo, and to get some mission payouts, that would be nice! But currently it's a lot of effort, time, risk, for quite literally no payout pirating CMDRs. I could probably have done one legitimate trade run for the CG and made far more CRs and delivered far more cargo than in hour(s) of being a pirate.
In Summary
Pirating (not mindless destruction!), and being pirated (not mindless destruction!), has given me some of the best moments in two+ years of playing ED. Why? Because it's forcing CMDRs togethor in interesting ways. And there's not many interesting PvP mechanics to choose from TBH! Consider three encounters from just yesterday:-
- Having hatch breakered some cargo from a CMDR I was in the process of beginning to collector limpet it when the security forced turned up, so I was on a ticking clock until they opened fire etc.. and then another CMDRs turned up too... Slowly picking up 1000CR cargo has never been so tense
- I interdicted a CMDR, and asked them to drop 10T of cargo which they did. As soon as they did this an NPC ship arrived and while I was collector limpeting the NPC opened fire on my victim. As soon as I was finished, I helped the CMDR out...
- I interdicted a CMDR who was very slow in responding... So much when an NPC turned up and opened fire on him I thought what the hell, and while he was fighting the NPC, I hatch breakered him, collected the cargo... And left
But IMHO piracy is far from what it should and could be. It's been basically ignored for two years, and is unfortunately blemished/tarnished by its unwanted cousin, "mindless destruction". So I still believe Piracy need some TLC and depth added to promote constructive "good" piracy, while importantly at the same time, penalising (habitual) mindless destruction. At the very least I still think some of the issues above (such as security vessel response rates, hatch breakers/cargo collection) need some attention.
Being a victim
- Flying around in a Python (no bounty and no PP allegiance) in a CG system, I was interdicted once, by a wing of CMDRs... No coms, no scans, immediately fired upon. *sigh - Another topic!*
In short, I wasn't pirated once!? A reflection of how few CMDRs are possibly doing this role?
Being a pirate
Note: As soon as I interdict a CMDR I give clear instructions. And typically even a second warning is given etc before taking any action. I very very very very rarely ever destroy CMDRs.
What went well?:-
- The lack of combat logging was good. I only had one or two CMDRs who (possibly) logged on me during a lot of encounters. I'd say logging is not an issue from this experience!
What didnt go well?:-
- On two occassions my limpets were picking up cargo, but it was not appearing in my ship.
- The moment you fire upon a ship (CMDR), security ships seemed to be called. This meant if you're using hatch breakers, typically by the time you come to recover the cargo (possibly spready over a large area), you're soon under fire quite likely meaning you can only pick up a few tons of cargo. This seems to be fairly standard, and as this was in a medium security system, goodness knows what it's like in higher security system?
- The profit, or lack of, from pirating CMDRs is appalling. A lot of effort, time and risk, for so little return. I'm not even sure at times if I was even making a profit?
- Quite often after interdicting a CMDR, and coming under attack from security vessels, when I went to jumped to SC the game hanged such that I had to kill it.
And as I soon realised "attacking" a CMDR meant security vessels would almost certainly mechanically be on the way, this almost suggested to me the game was almost promoting that if the CMDR won't willingly drop cargo under just the threat of violence, don't bother hatch breaking cargo, instead blow them up, so next time they will drop it without a shot being fired. This seems wonky?!
What I'd be interested to hear about from other players?
Hatch Breakers through shields
Still uncertain about this. It now just seems too easy to get cargo? But with the problem that security ships arrive so mechanically, it just ends up being frustrating.
I'd like to hear what other people think about this current new mechanic. It's never sounded right to me, and I still think either shields should still have to be brought down, or at least say brought down to 1 ring? (ie: You can't fire/target a hatch breaker with the enemy having more than 1 ring?)
Hatch Breakers and Collector Limpets
If you're intent on trying to get 20-30t of cargo out of a bigger ship, I'm not sure how the game would allow you to do this? It seems hatch breakers are too slow/limited in ejecting cargo, and then you're faced with cargo strewn over a large area... quite possibly soon to be patrolled by security vessels. Possibly at least need - click
FSD Disruptor
This seems pointless for piracy? You can extract cargo and typically do significant damage with the time it takes a victim to jump.
Better to have something else in its place IMHO.
Security Forces turning up so quickly like clockwork
This is a two edged sword IMHO. Because FD seem to want mindless destruction in their game (with little/no real penalty), they need the game to police itself based on this lowest common denominator. ie: If I was being mindlessly attacked by another CMDR simply to be destroyed, I'd like security forces arriving soon to back me up.
HOWEVER, the problem is, if you're trying to pirate a CMDR, this mechanic is frustrating. In my case I'd not destroyed a single CMDR pirating, and yet security was turning up so quickly over and over, I was regularly collecting cargo I'd hatch breakered under (significant) fire... This needs to be made more random at the very least. And possible it's another reason why the response rate should be based on your "Criminal Reputation" (karm system)? ie: The more often you kill CMDRs over a given period, the more hassle the game gives you? Destroy more CMDRs, generally get more attention more quickly etc. Kill less CMDRs, get less attention - click
$$$$$$$
The lack of reward is not fun. If instead as a pirate with reputation I could get missions at the CG say to specifically steal CG related cargo, and to get some mission payouts, that would be nice! But currently it's a lot of effort, time, risk, for quite literally no payout pirating CMDRs. I could probably have done one legitimate trade run for the CG and made far more CRs and delivered far more cargo than in hour(s) of being a pirate.
In Summary
Pirating (not mindless destruction!), and being pirated (not mindless destruction!), has given me some of the best moments in two+ years of playing ED. Why? Because it's forcing CMDRs togethor in interesting ways. And there's not many interesting PvP mechanics to choose from TBH! Consider three encounters from just yesterday:-
- Having hatch breakered some cargo from a CMDR I was in the process of beginning to collector limpet it when the security forced turned up, so I was on a ticking clock until they opened fire etc.. and then another CMDRs turned up too... Slowly picking up 1000CR cargo has never been so tense
- I interdicted a CMDR, and asked them to drop 10T of cargo which they did. As soon as they did this an NPC ship arrived and while I was collector limpeting the NPC opened fire on my victim. As soon as I was finished, I helped the CMDR out...
- I interdicted a CMDR who was very slow in responding... So much when an NPC turned up and opened fire on him I thought what the hell, and while he was fighting the NPC, I hatch breakered him, collected the cargo... And left
But IMHO piracy is far from what it should and could be. It's been basically ignored for two years, and is unfortunately blemished/tarnished by its unwanted cousin, "mindless destruction". So I still believe Piracy need some TLC and depth added to promote constructive "good" piracy, while importantly at the same time, penalising (habitual) mindless destruction. At the very least I still think some of the issues above (such as security vessel response rates, hatch breakers/cargo collection) need some attention.
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