Piracy - interaction & the player base

[Kastor]

I tend to make passible profits pirating.
My procedure is pretty standard, only interdict pure haulers or ships with no shields
Demand 2-4 cargo cans (no scan, just a quick simple demand)
Wait till it's obvious they are running
Blow their hatch of with lasers
Say thanks as their cargo spills everywhere and they jump out

I have about a 70% success rate. Making a small clear demand helps a lot. Sure the profits can be really low (2 cans of biowaste) but it's a game of averages, most players haul something worth more than 4000 per can.

 

[SuBSynk]

I tend to make passible profits pirating.
My procedure is pretty standard, only interdict pure haulers or ships with no shields
Demand 2-4 cargo cans (no scan, just a quick simple demand)
Wait till it's obvious they are running
Blow their hatch of with lasers
Say thanks as their cargo spills everywhere and they jump out

I have about a 70% success rate. Making a small clear demand helps a lot. Sure the profits can be really low (2 cans of biowaste) but it's a game of averages, most players haul something worth more than 4000 per can.

Without a cargo scan i do not believe it is possible to be a true pirate, srry man but how do you know if they even holding anything?

Also you'll be blowing hatches off players that have no cargo...cargo scanner is needed to be a pirate.

 

[Derath]

SubSynk you should only lose money for about half of your integrity - on a good day you break even on a bad you'll lose 2-400k it isn't exactly viable but when money doesn't matter its pretty fun. I did get killed for a 10k bounty yesterday (didn't even get scanned for the real one) which set me back 7mil, which is fairly close to what i've made in piracy ever or at least 50% of it. So really python not viable :/ the old one was, but the old one wasn't slower than everything.

The player interaction is at its best really here, nobody else interacts and yes you get a lot of loggers/suicides etc but there are some really nice traders who happily submit and have a chat, and for the ones that don't get good at hatching / limpets its alot of fun even if its almost no reward

edit: You need to have a set of rules and stick to them, I always scan immediately upon arrival but It'd be better I think if i pasted a macro in that told them to cut engines and await piracy scan or something like that, I do believe the more you communicate the more successful you are.

 

[Tigga]

I have plenty of people chat as I pirate them. In general it's positive. It can be kinda annoying at times, as if they've dropped a good load, you can't really be chatting while scooping, as you're on a timer.

Chatting while bounty hunting is trickier or to bounty hunters is tricky. To actually kill a combat ship needs you to get close, so you're perma-boosting, and don't really have time for lengthy messages without compromising your position.

 

[SuBSynk]

SubSynk you should only lose money for about half of your integrity - on a good day you break even on a bad you'll lose 2-400k it isn't exactly viable but when money doesn't matter its pretty fun. I did get killed for a 10k bounty yesterday (didn't even get scanned for the real one) which set me back 7mil, which is fairly close to what i've made in piracy ever or at least 50% of it. So really python not viable :/ the old one was, but the old one wasn't slower than everything.

The player interaction is at its best really here, nobody else interacts and yes you get a lot of loggers/suicides etc but there are some really nice traders who happily submit and have a chat, and for the ones that don't get good at hatching / limpets its alot of fun even if its almost no reward

I agree that interaction is best on the forums and that is a sad state of affairs. I also didn't expect piracy to earn but rather to lose profits and that's fine too. However i did expect a little more interaction with a profession based around player interaction, seems i was wrong and players that bother to respond are very rare.

What amuses me is that fact that players hate on pirates when its clearly the profession with little to no profit & the main thing FD need to balance rewards wise. Many players hate pirates so much so that they feel they should gang up to kill pirates whenever they see them and this is slightly mad when you take into consideration that us pirates only do it for fun and to add to the Elite experience rather than actually make the profits we could be making with trading.

I was only pirating for this interaction and since it really doesn't seem to be the case ill have to wait for FD to sort out piracy so players have to actually respond rather than just run and FSD or accept the fact that Elite is really just a multiplayer game with little to no player interaction

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I have plenty of people chat as I pirate them. In general it's positive. It can be kinda annoying at times, as if they've dropped a good load, you can't really be chatting while scooping, as you're on a timer.

Chatting while bounty hunting is trickier or to bounty hunters is tricky. To actually kill a combat ship needs you to get close, so you're perma-boosting, and don't really have time for lengthy messages without compromising your position.

I try to chat to them but they mostly sit still and say nothing, combat log, ram you or other examples of NPC like behavior.

I have posted several examples of players that do respond above but over 2 months of daily pirating these examples are i'd say fewer than 10 out of 100's.

Here is a good example of some interaction.

http://www.twitch.tv/time_of_chaos/c/6107293

 

[Derath]

I agree that interaction is best on the forums and that is a sad state of affairs. I also didn't expect piracy to earn but rather to lose profits and that's fine too. However i did expect a little more interaction with a profession based around player interaction, seems i was wrong and players that bother to respond are very rare.

I was only pirating for this interaction and since it really doesn't seem to be the case ill have to wait for FD to sort out piracy so players have to actually respond rather than just run and FSD or accept the fact that Elite is really just a multiplayer game with little to no player interaction

I think sadly too many of them would rather lose 10 mil than 300k, thats why your interaction is missing :/. It does help when the traders know your name and how you are likely to respond but on the whole you are unlikely to get much interaction sorry sir i'm in a similar boat.

 

[Quineloe]

I think it's rich when pirates have a trade ranking of broker or entrepreneur..

 

[SuBSynk]

I think it's rich when pirates have a trade ranking of broker or entrepreneur..

Best get used to it as you have to trade or do some other lucrative in game profession to be able to afford to pirate.

 

[Quineloe]

If that is the case why even bother playing a multiplayer game? For me personally its not all about pew pew but immersion and some interaction.

Might as-well go solo and pew pew NPC's ad infinitum. I play multiplayer games for interaction with other players.

Co-op multiplayer content?

Best get used to it as you have to trade or do some other lucrative in game profession to be able to afford to pirate.

Piracy is no more an expense as bounty hunting is. It's an expense for you because you fly the third biggest ship in the game to do it. There are a number of pirates using Asps and Cobras and are actually making good profit on piracy.

 

[SuBSynk]

Co-op multiplayer content?

Where people do not interact with each other? ...did you read the thread?

 

[Kotovsky]

I think it's rich when pirates have a trade ranking of broker or entrepreneur..

You should try to pirate in a sidey and then tell us how it's going then.

 

[anikaiful]

Well i don't care about profits i have over 100 mill in the bank a type 9 etc thats why i said interaction is far more important than a few tonnes of goods.

I have lost 45 mill while pirating due to wear and tear and repairs from interdiction though and that is a big issue which makes the profession redundant in its current state.

That's an issue no matter which way you look at it.

Yea, and for a crapton of others 10 million here, 975 million there, is no small business.

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Where people do not interact with each other? ...did you read the thread?

Forcibly interrupted - NEVER. You think anyone would want to stop and chat when they think you'll just blow them up anyway?

And to think they don't think so is flat STUPID.

 

[SuBSynk]

Piracy is no more an expense as bounty hunting is. It's an expense for you because you fly the third biggest ship in the game to do it. There are a number of pirates using Asps and Cobras and are actually making good profit on piracy.

If you really think that then you have not tried to play as a pirate. Costs/profit vs bounty hunting are not even remotely comparable. I could make more in an hour of bounty hunting vs a day as pirate

 

[Derath]

Piracy costs are vastly above bounty hunting costs, if were talking NPC's i've never even taken hull damage lol... though that almost applies for players too. I don't really know how subsynk has spent 45 mil on piracy though unless he dies a huge amount or keeps interdicting people at 30c

 

[Moriarte]

Best get used to it as you have to trade or do some other lucrative in game profession to be able to afford to pirate.

No, you don't HAVE to. It's just the path you chose. Path of least resistance. Ran out of money? A <---> B. That would be boring to me, and, frankly, I find it contradictory to the spirit of the pirate I have imprinted - lightly educated, loud, empty pockets all day long. Captain a cheap ship, cause that's all he can afford, the rest is, obviously, spent on booze, women and maintenance.

Yeah, probably holding a grudge against a few bounty hunters, but generally happy. Aimless.

 

[SuBSynk]

Yea, and for a crapton of others 10 million here, 975 million there, is no small business.

Your point?

You saying pirating should not make any profits? confused by this post.

I was stating that in order to pirate you need to make mass profit elsewhere to afford anything bigger than a cobra then pirate.

 

[Tigga]

If you really think that then you have not tried to play as a pirate. Costs/profit vs bounty hunting are not even remotely comparable. I could make more in an hour of bounty hunting vs a day as pirate

I can quite easily top 300k/hour pirating. Hitting Yembo on the first night, before the vigilantes turned up I was getting around 700-800k/hour. Yembo is now extremely variable, so you have to average over quite a period of time. I was up around 600-700k/hour two nights ago, but last night was closer to 300k/hour.

I don't make (much) money through any other path. Piracy is ~80-90% of my total income over the whole game. Hard to judge, as some piracy goes into trading income due to abandons.

EDIT: Some numbers
1) Black market income is ~39 million. All from piracy.
2) "Trading" income is ~20 million. I put about ~15 million of this due to piracy, with the rest due to hauling rares when shifting locations/random small-scale trading/rep grinding. I may be quite a bit off here in this guess. Trading may be as low as 2 millon, or as high as 10.
3) Combat income is ~3 million. ~2 million of this was from other CMDRs, not from NPCs.
4) Exploration income is ~3 million.

So by my calculations I have ~9 million non-player income, ~56 million player income.



How much do you make bounty farming?

 

[Sams]

You could try a different tactic which does result in MUCH more player interaction.

I have a fully decked out Python on my trade route so should any traders have pirate problems I bring her out. I message all the traders that I'm there to protect them and to let me know if they have any pirate problems. 90% reply and many friend me.

When there are player pirates interdicting I try to fly in an assist or interdict the pirate beforehand and warn them that this area is protected and to leave.

Seriously there is so much banter between me, the pirates and the traders that sometimes I'm sat there for ages typing to everyone. If you want serious role-play then find a busy trade route and protect the traders. Let them know you are there for them and you will have no end of interactions!

 

[Quineloe]

You should try to pirate in a sidey and then tell us how it's going then.

It's not exactly news that you don't need a Python to pirate.

Where people do not interact with each other? ...did you read the thread?

Piracy isn't co-op.

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If you really think that then you have not tried to play as a pirate. Costs/profit vs bounty hunting are not even remotely comparable. I could make more in an hour of bounty hunting vs a day as pirate

I am just talking profitable here, without quantifying it. We already know how the professions are rated in terms of profit per hour.

 

[QSL]

Mostly pirates are griefers. At least the majority of players think so or just like that. Mostly don't know, how to communicate, a lot got distressed while being attacked and forced to chat.
Not strange at all.
There were some chat for me in SC but not much.
People are buissy making millions. Like in real life)))) Another sort of work, not a game. =(