Balancing of NPC piracy

[CaptainPugwash]

I would like to see some hatch breaker limpets engineered, dropping more than 10 units of cargo and with secondary effects.
One of them could be the ability to effectively stop a ship when its drives are at zero.
Now this would make me smile.

I initially thought you meant to stop a fleeing ship with them but if the ship has already lost its thrusters that could make sense, but you would be nullifying one of the few cases where player skill is in some small way rewarded.

 

[Suitret]

I initially thought you meant to stop a fleeing ship with them but if the ship has already lost its thrusters that could make sense, but you would be nullifying one of the few cases where player skill is in some small way rewarded.

True, maybe a compromise between the two could be achieved, I dunno.
Some form of skill based requisite to be present aswell... I'm out of ideas here... one thing I know for sure, i would be missing my bump stops a lot lol.

 

[dekot]

Force shells are the advanced bump stop

It's crazy to me how it took so long for the community to settle on force cannons and enforcers. Those options were there for years before force cannons for stopping ships became well known.

I think it shows just how small the pirating community is, people just don't care about it for some reason and neither does FD.

 

[khalismur]

Inertia transfer weapons are a bit better than bumping, but still far from an elegant solution, as would limpets, cables or a guardian tether be.
I'm not arguing against the OP's ideas of rebalancing piracy in general, that'd be great. Including changing spawns and maybe adding some of the new, valuable minerals instead of just the LTD in T6,7,9s.

Piracy could use a general revamp. Feels very much less polished as a "career" path than mining, trading or bounty hunting for example. In addition to rebalancing pay and ship spawns, pirates should have better tools for the job.

 

[LifesAJourney]

I think it shows just how small the pirating community is, people just don't care about it for some reason and neither does FD.

A huge majority of players seem to think in "moar credits, me want conda!" categories only, so piracy is not really their cup of tea.

Which means we, as a small group, need to talk about it even more.

Yesterday I had very limited time for piracy but I managed to find a Type-7 full of platinum and beryllium in a low security system. Unfortunately, she was wanted, the police arrived within a minute (no idea why, I switched off shouting crimes against me) and vaporized my prey.

 

[Viscera]

It is possible to bump stop ships with fa on.

I do it all the time, as I am unable to fly fa off.

I do not need any fancy weapons to assist.

What would be useful, is some sort of beacon limpit, that would allow me to locate a drifting ship that drops out of radar range (usually as its so cold when drives shot out), as they do when you have to deal with random other pirates, evade the cops, etc.

Also fix the wing bug that reboots drives when a wing mate drops in for a slice of the pie...

 

[LifesAJourney]

Once I switched to long range sensors, I virtually stopped losing prey ships while evading cops or fighting pirates.

 

[Viscera]

Once I switched to long range sensors, I virtually stopped losing prey ships while evading cops or fighting pirates.

I fit grade a, long range engineered on my pirate ships. They still drift out of sensor range, particularly when they are cold..

 

[LifesAJourney]

Well, no sensors have an infinte range. You must just not fly too far away. I have long range D-rated sensors on my Krait and if I manage to position myself correctly versus prey ship and police vessels, I can trick the latter and still have the idea where my prey is.

To be honest, to me it's one of the most challenging and satisfying parts of the piracy process. I like it so much I stopped pirating in anarchy systems. No police, no fun.

I'm weird, I know.

 

[Viscera]

Knocking out the enemy and drifting along cold, thus avoiding the cops is definately a technique that is hard to refine. I certainly need to go back and practice this more... So satisfying when it works... I really ought to start looking at engineering a fresh ship design for this... Colder running, quick reset shields, etc. Many little things that would help to look at.

 

[CaptainPugwash]

Knocking out the enemy and drifting along cold, thus avoiding the cops is definately a technique that is hard to refine. I certainly need to go back and practice this more... So satisfying when it works... I really ought to start looking at engineering a fresh ship design for this... Colder running, quick reset shields, etc. Many little things that would help to look at.

I have a challenger for that role

 

[Chaines]

I have a challenger for that role

I never tried this, I thought npc targeting was unaffected by heat and so that cold running was inefficient against them. Is it for pirating ?

 

[CaptainPugwash]

I never tried this, I thought npc targeting was unaffected by heat and so that cold running was inefficient against them. Is it for pirating ?

I have a hull tank challenger for avoiding the cops in non anarchies, and a hull tank drop ship for hunting in RESs. If I spam silent running on and off I can normally get the cargo in a haz res before anyone scans me.

 

[GraphiteGB]

Raiding installations with out getting bounty used to require silent running and heat sinks...
So yes if they cant see you to track you they cant fine you (line of sight still triggers)...
Same with ships out side stations Drop a heat sink no radar lock no fine...

 

[Chaines]

Well time to buy & engineer some new ships again, thank you guys

 

[LifesAJourney]

...and a hull tank drop ship for hunting in RESs...

How do you hunt in RES? I tried several times and my prey always gets vaporized by NPC pirates (who seem to be enormously stupid since they kill the miner ship instead or robbing her). Any hints on that?

 

[CaptainPugwash]

How do you hunt in RES? I tried several times and my prey always gets vaporized by NPC pirates (who seem to be enormously stupid since they kill the miner ship instead or robbing her). Any hints on that?

In a High RES I have had good results with the silent running dropship: find a slow T7/T9, disable it asap, if you're lucky it will drift into a rock and stop. Hatch break and collect (i use two class 5 collectors) as quick as poss while spamming silent running. I can collect about 70t and the cops/pirates don't usually bother me as they are fighting among themselves. In a Haz RES it's probably better to disable and then let the victim drift > 10 km away from the RES, giving a push if necessary, then you'll probably have to bump stop.

 

[Viscera]

How do you hunt in RES? I tried several times and my prey always gets vaporized by NPC pirates (who seem to be enormously stupid since they kill the miner ship instead or robbing her). Any hints on that?

Disable the mining ship, and push it away from the pirate spawns into clear space.

Or use cold running so they do not register the ship on their scanners, and come over for a look.

(pug beat me to it)

 

[CaptainPugwash]

In a High RES I have had good results with the silent running dropship: find a slow T7/T9, disable it asap, if you're lucky it will drift into a rock and stop. Hatch break and collect (i use two class 5 collectors) as quick as poss while spamming silent running. I can collect about 70t and the cops/pirates don't usually bother me as they are fighting among themselves. In a Haz RES it's probably better to disable and then let the victim drift > 10 km away from the RES, giving a push if necessary, then you'll probably have to bump stop.

It's also possible to push a miner against a rock and keep it pinned there while hatch breaking, without disabling thrusters/shields.

 

[LifesAJourney]

LOL!