"Give me or I'll blow you up"
*proceeds to get blown up because he has cargo racks while the other player is full defense modules.
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Now, truth to be told, if you try to pirate a ship which is full of defense modules and has no cargo racks, you might have other problems...
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That being said: yes, it's true that piracy currently is not really worth it. There's a number of issues here. But for the one being pirated just telling the pirate to blow him up, that's on the community. When the game was new, there were enough traders who dropped cargo. But pirates proceeded to still destroy those ships. But why drop cargo, if that just means that your still get destroyed and the attacker even getting rewarded for it?
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Also, by now requesting the target to drop cargo is very much outdated. Hit the target with hatch breakers, they by now bypass shields. Then just grab what you can get. All the oh-so-terrible human interaction is minimized. I find this amusing. It seems like NPC pirates, just by having a few random scripted sentences, are way ahead in terms of interaction and communication to many players.
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Despite that, it's true that more money can be earned the legal way than as a pirate. Historically speaking, that's even fine. Generally pirates were not rich people. There's very few examples where people willingly chose to be a pirate. Usually pirates were outcasts, who just had no other way to make their living any more.
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The problem is in terms of game design. It's a whole career path, which according to most feedback is not worth it. Although I don't know if that's still true. There are "high value targets" around by now. Structures and megaships can be hacked and stolen from. I never pursued one of those paths, so I can't tell how lucrative these activities are.
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But next to profit, I dare to ask: how much fun are they? After all, the best money makers in the game are not exactly interesting. If you enjoy this kind of gameplay, going for it despite lower profits sure is a reasonable choice.
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