After viewing a bug report on how a pirate was unable to sell his liberated cargo to the black marked (because it was marked up as haulage rather than stolen) It got me thinking.
At the moment pirates (real pirates) only really have the option of selling their cargo liberated from the hold of their poor victim.
But what if it is mission cargo e.g. haulage, presumably, the customer still wants his goods.
The intended customer could contact the pirate "Come on, do the right thing, we need that stuff to help our children..." & offers to pay a rather large ransom for it(or place a bounty on you if refused). The lovable rogue could also receive a counter offer from a rival faction, they will offer to pay off your bounty & provide an even bigger stipend - if you make it to them. You can, of course, ignore them both & sell to the black market in your chosen system, as normal...
There should also be some way to steal a ships data, both mission & exploration data (I know explorers aren't going to like it - but pirates should only be able to steal a portion of it & only if the explorer ship is not destroyed). Mission data would take the same form as above.
Exploration data would be a bit more difficult but, suffice to say, the explorer should still be credited for any discoveries made but the pirate that stole the data should get the monetary value for handing in the data, but not credited the exploration experience.
All of the above should hinge on whether or not the pirates prey was destroyed in the process (self destruct would not count). Unique cargo could be damaged in the explosion, data could be corrupted if the victim's ship is destroyed & the potential customer has no interest in either damaged cargo or corrupted data...
At the moment pirates (real pirates) only really have the option of selling their cargo liberated from the hold of their poor victim.
But what if it is mission cargo e.g. haulage, presumably, the customer still wants his goods.
The intended customer could contact the pirate "Come on, do the right thing, we need that stuff to help our children..." & offers to pay a rather large ransom for it(or place a bounty on you if refused). The lovable rogue could also receive a counter offer from a rival faction, they will offer to pay off your bounty & provide an even bigger stipend - if you make it to them. You can, of course, ignore them both & sell to the black market in your chosen system, as normal...
There should also be some way to steal a ships data, both mission & exploration data (I know explorers aren't going to like it - but pirates should only be able to steal a portion of it & only if the explorer ship is not destroyed). Mission data would take the same form as above.
Exploration data would be a bit more difficult but, suffice to say, the explorer should still be credited for any discoveries made but the pirate that stole the data should get the monetary value for handing in the data, but not credited the exploration experience.
All of the above should hinge on whether or not the pirates prey was destroyed in the process (self destruct would not count). Unique cargo could be damaged in the explosion, data could be corrupted if the victim's ship is destroyed & the potential customer has no interest in either damaged cargo or corrupted data...