If you can calculate 1+1, you know why pirates MUST earn less than traders.

[BishopC]

Hi fellow pilot,

we all know trading can be mind numbingly boring, and pirating is exciting. That alone is more than enough reason for me from a game design standpoint, but the arithmetic reason is sound:

Pirates rob traders. Ergo the amount of money is (tradermoney - ( pirating = piratemoney ). The amount of money can not be negative here, so tradermoney must always be higher than piratemoney.
Asking for piratemoney = tradermoney is simply arithmetic nonsense (unless you ask for a 100% steal quota, and no, asking for that means "100% of pirating acts must be successful and traders earn nothing", crazy thought here ).



Is the relation in income okay? If we take a traders' income as 100%, how much should a pirate make of that?
Let's see, what does he bring to the table (not much)? What risk does he run (to be honest, not much)? How much fun is it (probably more than grinding)?
So I am just pulling a number out of my opinionated ..."head", since this is a child friendly forum, that number being ~5% and should not be more than 10% in an Asp (more cargo, masslock).

Gonna calculate some more, running out of time right now.

Have fun playing!

 

[sneakyfrog]

Hi fellow pilot,

we all know trading can be mind numbingly boring, and pirating is exciting. That alone is more than enough reason for me from a game design standpoint, but the arithmetic reason is sound:

Pirates rob traders. Ergo the amount of money is (tradermoney - ( pirating = piratemoney ). The amount of money can not be negative here, so tradermoney must always be higher than piratemoney.
Asking for piratemoney = tradermoney is simply arithmetic nonsense (unless you ask for a 100% steal quota, and no, asking for that means "100% of pirating acts must be successful and traders earn nothing", crazy thought here ).



Is the relation in income okay? If we take a traders' income as 100%, how much should a pirate make of that?
Let's see, what does he bring to the table (not much)? What risk does he run (to be honest, not much)? How much fun is it (probably more than grinding)?
So I am just pulling a number out of my opinionated ..."head", since this is a child friendly forum, that number being ~5% and should not be more than 10% in an Asp (more cargo, masslock).

Gonna calculate some more, running out of time right now.

Have fun playing!

So fighter pilots should have to trade to progress huh... what about non-pirates?

I wanted a game not a second job.

 

[Yokai]

It's a cold night in a Norwegian mountain forest. You're scared; the hunter has disappeared into the foreboding treeline some time ago. You hear ominous sounds of branches breaking. Suddenly out of the dark, the Hunter appears, face red, huffing. He's stops and and yells....

TROLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

(I see what you did there)

 

[Soda Popinski]

Pirates rob traders. Ergo the amount of money is (tradermoney - ( pirating = piratemoney ). The amount of money can not be negative here, so tradermoney must always be higher than piratemoney.

Please explain this equation better? There seems to be an extra "(" which is confusing me. Also, if there are fewer pirates than traders (which are mostly NPCs), then a few parasitic pirates should be able to make more money than the average trader. Clearly a 1:1 pirate to trader ratio would be unsustainable.

 

[Xaraman]

Well,

Maybe because most pirates can't calculate 1+1. Pirating doesn't make as much as trading. If a pirate were intelligent, they'd turn to trading.

I see pirates in game as the Pakleds of Elite (We need to things; things to make us go. No things? You go boom).

NOTE: My RP hat was on for that post. I'm not trying to specifically insult any specific person on this thread, just elite pirates in general

 

[Genus]

Asking for piratemoney = tradermoney is simply arithmetic nonsense (unless you ask for a 100% steal quota, and no, asking for that means "100% of pirating acts must be successful and traders earn nothing", crazy thought here

Too many chiefs, and not enough pirates.

 

[Enon]

No fighter pilots can enjoy both bounty hunting and conflict zones.
I can't speak for the OP but I think the forums have been over full of people playing the pirate roll and complaining that they have to use expensive ships and the running costs are high and profits low.
Add to that the poor reception they receive from people trading who are on the unfair side of both effort and ability to resist, and this kind of thought out responce is quite reasonable.
Those playing pirate seem to want it all, excitement, player interaction and profits over running costs.
It just can't be so in what is after all the laziest roll and least agreeable.

 

[Jetset]

Feel free to pirate me anytime but be prepared to meet 2.5M credits worth of beam lasers & 1M of cannons......plus missiles!


"Go ahead punk..make my day"

 

[Talarin]

Please explain this equation better? There seems to be an extra "(" which is confusing me. Also, if there are fewer pirates than traders (which are mostly NPCs), then a few parasitic pirates should be able to make more money than the average trader. Clearly a 1:1 pirate to trader ratio would be unsustainable.

This. But the game should be able to accommodate too many pirates being in a particular region, either through counter-measures (such as temporary enhancements to system security and/or a shedload of bounty hunters) or through a fall-off of the number of traders prepared to operate in such a hostile environment. I'm not convinced that the background sim can do that yet (although excessive piracy is discussed in the DDA).

So fighter pilots should have to trade to progress huh... what about non-pirates?

Not what he said in the slightest. Try again...

 

[Calico Jack]

1+1?

Sorry matey, gonna have to help me with the maths here - given that I fall somewhere on the piratical spectrum I can only count in eights (and pieces thereof).

 

[Genus]

Those playing pirate seem to want it all, excitement, player interaction and profits over running costs.
It just can't be so in what is after all the laziest roll and least agreeable.

So true, have some rep. I like bounty hunting, tried mining and it was okay for a while, and trade a lot. I like to think i trade to put something into the game and so i can afford to have expensive fun in other areas.

I see no reason to think anyone else should consider themselves exempt from the effort in, fun out formula in game as it stands. If that formula changes, its foolish to expect it not to change for everyone, not just one role at a time.

 

[firstname_lastname]

Feel free to pirate me anytime but be prepared to meet 2.5M credits worth of beam lasers & 1M of cannons......plus missiles!


"Go ahead punk..make my day"

Expensive guns does not a big man make.

 

[LeetNoob]

While I don't really like the people who pirate in this game, as they seem to want it all without grinding like everyone else has to, and target other players for their hard earned cash, it's part of the gameplay.
FD has put pirating in the game as a valid option, so they should make it at least a bit more profitable. What about NPC's trucking around (maybe with escorts) with some very high value cargo that you can't purchase in stations.
This would allow pirating to be more profitable and maybe discourage picking on human targets with smaller ships.
Of course if you just want PvP because it's more fun, that's a fair choice.
Im just thinking out load. Maybe even allow other players to play as these escorts, get paid for it as a mission you can take.

 

[bassman]

What about NPC's trucking around (maybe with escorts) with some very high value cargo that you can't purchase in stations.
This would allow pirating to be more profitable and maybe discourage picking on human targets with smaller ships.
Of course if you just want PvP because it's more fun, that's a fair choice.
Im just thinking out load. Maybe even allow other players to play as these escorts, get paid for it as a mission you can take.

All good ideas, you could have these escorted fleets taking set routes at set time (at least for a while) say departing every hour or two so both pirates and escorts can get organised and theres a good change of seeing some action. Of course you would need persistent NPCs hint hint FD.

 

[Jetset]

Expensive guns does not a big man make.

They do when I know how to use them

 

[Lobstris]

In all previous versions of the game trading supported the other activities. The larger ships made exponentially money than other activities in the previous two games. Why change now?
.
And haven't some people in society always 'wanted it all without the grind' - hence why people still go for the crime option. Trouble is 1) pirating and smuggling are non-profitable die to the fines imposed on an authority scan, but murder is cheap because bounties for murder are too low and easily cleared.

 

[LeetNoob]

The fine for murder should be double the cost of the ship and it's upgrades you destroyed.

 

[Rall]

In all previous versions of the game trading supported the other activities. The larger ships made exponentially money than other activities in the previous two games. Why change now?
.
And haven't some people in society always 'wanted it all without the grind' - hence why people still go for the crime option. Trouble is 1) pirating and smuggling are non-profitable die to the fines imposed on an authority scan, but murder is cheap because bounties for murder are too low and easily cleared.

I'm personally not a pirate. I agrree crime should pay in ED.

Piracy and smuggling should be highly profitable, the most profitable thing to do in the game. But it should also be exceedingly dangerous, the risk and rewards for both should be very high.

Make piracy profitable, introduce fast acting Cargo drones to gather up that stolen loot fast and be able to hawk it a market prices in anarchy systems.

For smugglers, illegal goods should have a massive price premiums in system they're prohibited.

The risk should also scale. Long lasting or permanent bounties. Wanted Dead or Alive missions on system bulletin boards. Being actively pursued by NPCs Sec, and bounty hunters.

Get notorious enough and the even navies will come looking. Reach Dread Pirate status where even the galaxies elite start to take notice, then you may even have a Capital ship jump in to make your day.

I pretty sure the criminal players would love this, living on a knife edge but raking in millions running guns and drugs or robbing traders. Scarface in space.

Currently there's little risk and even less reward.

 

[Mr_Zeno]

It's a cold night in a Norwegian mountain forest. You're scared; the hunter has disappeared into the foreboding treeline some time ago. You hear ominous sounds of branches breaking. Suddenly out of the dark, the Hunter appears, face red, huffing. He's stops and and yells....

TROLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

(I see what you did there)

I remember seeing that film too, would have made an interesting tv series.

 

[Rall]

The fine for murder should be double the cost of the ship and it's upgrades you destroyed.

As long a rewards match the risks. You should be able to rob a big trader for most of it's cargo, not the 15 tonnes that is laboriously scooped up before the canistors time out.