Piracy needs some love...

[VladtheImpaler]

Just a little. Here are some things that could use some attention. I was making ok money before wear and tear was introduced. Now I'm making bad money. Sometimes, I just break even and have to support myself with doing some smuggling.

This thread is not intended to discuss piracy vs griefing. Take that to the countless threads about that subject.

1: Hatch breaker limpets need to be loaded in the module like ammo. Not taking up precious cargo space. When a ship loses booty, I have to jettison my limpets to make room for the booty in my cargo hold. Then buy more limpets when I get back to station.

2: NPCs now barrel across a system, to another station, at incredible speeds and disappear. They used to slowly circle their destination as they bled speed to drop SC. Their meandering gave a pirate (or bounty hunter) time to interdict them. It wasn't a guaranteed interdiction, it took skill to get behind them without overshooting, all before they dropped out of SC. Now it's not even possible. They go zooming in head first and disappear out of SC.

3: Destroying the cargo hatch should cause all cargo to be dropped. Not just some of it. Also, if a hatch breaker limpet is successful, it should free all of the cargo.

4: I don't know if this is possible, but NPCs should drop better stuff more often. Right now, NPC drops are usually junk. This makes CMDRs the #1 target becuase they're usually carrying good stuff. Buffing the NPC drops would make piracy more profitable.

5: Right now, if I interdict a CMDR and they submit with zero throttle, they only have a very short FSD cool down. They can quickly jump away instead of waiting 40 seconds.

Let me know if I missed anything, guys. I'm not asking for pirates to make as much money as bounty hunters or traders. If it was too lucrative, we would have way too many pirates. But right now we need some love.

 

[Veldryn]

+1 for increasing piracy. This makes more juicy targets for us Bounty Hunters

 

[Wookie120]

A nicely thought out post. Not a fan of pirates mind you but everyone needs a hobby I reckon. I hope the Devs listen to you. I have noticed NPC ships moving through the systems at incredible speeds also. Maybe they have a nitros oxide(spelling?) boost system?

 

[Feldspar]

You should try pirating some NPC pirates:

1) Who wants competition?
2) Bounties are free money if you were going to shoot them anyway.
3) I recently fought off some pirates that were after my cargo and ended up flying in a cloud of meat, metals and rare artwork. If I hadn't been hauling for a contract I would probably have got the old scoop out myself.

 

[CloneWarrior85]

+1 for these suggestions

Let's hope FD listens

 

[adoredtv]

The biggest issue I have is that it's basically only worth it if you're pirating wanteds/pirates (mitigated somewhat by only pirating in anarchy systems, but that's less fun too). Smuggling is far too random also, a simple scan can kill your entire nights work.

That said, if your biggest fault in the game is lack of challenge, piracy is the best way to fix that currently.

 

[Robert Maynard]

1) It sounds like you need a bigger ship.
3) Not going to be popular with Lakon Type 9 pilots.
5) As designed - FSD cooldown has been the subject of at least one balancing pass already - it needs to work for both sides without guaranteeing one a successful outcome. It makes sort of sense that the delay is shorter if the pilot submits rather than gets forcibly interdicted.

 

[Julio Montega]

I agree with you OP.

There are some more things to improve regarding piracy though:
1. Please reduce the amount of contracts for stolen toxic waste we are pirates not a junkyard.

2. increase the diversity of contracts to steal stuff and the timeframe, since cargo is randomized.

3. If a player with stolen goods enters a system and gets interdicted, cargo scanned and fined
it would be immersive, for a nearby pirate base to receive the crime-transmission aswell,
due to hacking police frequencies and generating a specific contract for that commander within a set timeframe.
The higher the influence of the pirate party in the system, the more likely.

4. please increase the amount of goods dropped by larger transport ships,
like the lakon 7 or fed dropship, it often drops only 3 tons.... (seems to have been fixed as of lately)

5. create some more contracts, making the player attack transport and deal damage to the economy of a system
(currently cargo of ships, or destroyed ships, do not seem to impact the system at all, other than rep)

6.Pirate paintjobs

7. by increasing the influence of a pirate party in a system it is likely to impact the station they control aswell,
allowing them to upgrade the station with modules (repair, refuel, commodities) and such

8.try to increase the function of pirate bases in a system as a black market,
actualy trafficking illicit goods more frequently and having them on sale.

 

[Lanatir]

I was worried this would be a 'we need more pvp' thread again. But actually most of the stuff the OP is asking for is reasonable. Except maybe the 'drop all cargo' thing. Maybe combine the hatch limpet with some form of cargo magnet to pull them all out?

 

[Connatic]

1) It sounds like you need a bigger ship.
...

Are there any ships that can even effectively Pirate bigger than the Cobra?

5) As designed - FSD cooldown has been the subject of at least one balancing pass already - it needs to work for both sides without guaranteeing one a successful outcome. It makes sort of sense that the delay is shorter if the pilot submits rather than gets forcibly interdicted.

I still think it needs tweaked. This is more for a PvP balance issue, but if submitting and reactivating jump is safer than fighting off the Interdiction in the first place, then something needs work.

8.try to increase the function of pirate bases in a system as a black market,
actualy trafficking illicit goods more frequently and having them on sale.

I think this is a part of the problem. Especially since the Pirate must spend time scooping up the cargo one by one, I feel stolen goods need to be slightly more profitable. What is it currently sold at? 50%? Increase the returns there could do wonders on it's own.

I really haven't done much Piracy yet, mostly because I'm not sure about what factions i want to support yet or what kind of support I can get from Pirate factions. The few times I tried because a mission asked me to, it didn't feel rewarding at all. Although one time I did find an NPC hauling a rare good which sold for quite a bit, that was pretty cool. As of right now, the only people worth Pirating are other players...but they are too smart or too stubborn to make it possible, along with game mechanics and Solo play not helping either. FDS balancing and useful Limpets are key to making Pirating of CMDRs worth it without having to resort to murder, while Black Market tweaks are needed to make NPC pirating more profitable.

This game needs a healthy Pirating system. It makes Trading exciting and gives Bounty Hunters something to do beyond camping Nav Beacons.

 

[adoredtv]

Yes I agree that limpets are basically fine as they are - what's more it's not that unusual to find limpets on another ship you are pirating. They are also cheap to buy so just load up before you go out if you find you need a lot.

Cargo scanning should be allowed during system drive, so that you know if it's worth interdicting them or not. Quite why we must waste 10 seconds scanning targets is another question. Note that I'm talking about NPC's here, haven't tried pirating other players yet.

The value of the "find x must be stolen" missions needs doubling.

Finally, if you are pirating an NPC that has no chance of beating you, they should run away with their lives after you start scooping your spoils. I want to be a pirate not a murderer, but they are forcing me to kill them as well.

 

[VladtheImpaler]

You should try pirating some NPC pirates:

1) Who wants competition?
2) Bounties are free money if you were going to shoot them anyway.
3) I recently fought off some pirates that were after my cargo and ended up flying in a cloud of meat, metals and rare artwork. If I hadn't been hauling for a contract I would probably have got the old scoop out myself.

I do. I hunt in fed sysytems and wanted NPCs are 1st priority, for the bounty and valuable cargo they carry!

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

I agree with you OP.

There are some more things to improve regarding piracy though:
1. Please reduce the amount of contracts for stolen toxic waste we are pirates not a junkyard.

2. increase the diversity of contracts to steal stuff and the timeframe, since cargo is randomized.

3. If a player with stolen goods enters a system and gets interdicted, cargo scanned and fined
it would be immersive, for a nearby pirate base to receive the crime-transmission aswell,
due to hacking police frequencies and generating a specific contract for that commander within a set timeframe.
The higher the influence of the pirate party in the system, the more likely.

4. please increase the amount of goods dropped by larger transport ships,
like the lakon 7 or fed dropship, it often drops only 3 tons.... (seems to have been fixed as of lately)

5. create some more contracts, making the player attack transport and deal damage to the economy of a system
(currently cargo of ships, or destroyed ships, do not seem to impact the system at all, other than rep)

6.Pirate paintjobs

7. by increasing the influence of a pirate party in a system it is likely to impact the station they control aswell,
allowing them to upgrade the station with modules (repair, refuel, commodities) and such

8.try to increase the function of pirate bases in a system as a black market,
actualy trafficking illicit goods more frequently and having them on sale.

Wow. That would be amazing!

 

[Connatic]

Cargo scanning should be allowed during system drive, so that you know if it's worth interdicting them or not. Quite why we must waste 10 seconds scanning targets is another question. Note that I'm talking about NPC's here, haven't tried pirating other players yet.

Why did they decide not to allow K-Warrent or Cargo scanning in super cruise? Sure it makes dealing with NPCs more challenging, but I'm sure CMDRs would appreciate not being Interdicted when they have no bounty or loot to offer.

 

[Julio Montega]

Why did they decide not to allow K-Warrent or Cargo scanning in super cruise? Sure it makes dealing with NPCs more challenging, but I'm sure CMDRs would appreciate not being Interdicted when they have no bounty or loot to offer.[/COLOR]

I do not even understand why any sane engineer decided to put a scanner on an exo-mount,
being easily shot down, rather than be an internal sensor-upgrade.

If we now move on with the current mechanics to have the scan in SC, the target will have 10 seconds to move closer to a safe harbour.
I wouldn't like that, but i would love to see the expensive hard n software actually do something on it's own,
while you do the initial scan.

 

[starjump]

Is this a suggestion post or discussion? Would be nice in the suggestion section otherwise. If not only cause suggestions go there, but also because this section (chit chat) runs so fast that your thread will be buried pretty quick.
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Also, yeah i agree. More love for piracy is needed (although im not one - yet). I even stumbled upon something new today. Went to Lave and wanted to do missions there and get rep from alliance/independent. Took a typical bounty hunty mission like i always did in Fed systems and now it said "kill 4 traders". Bit confused i went out as usual killing wanteds, but they didnt count. So from there being little information on this i thought "oh... I have to take a pirates role now maybe and kill innocent traders?". Still dont know really lol. Maybe its "wanted traders"... No info and i have no idea. Will test tomorrow again and see what happens. I might become a pirate faster than i planned.

 

[Red Hermit]

The reason you see so many piracy missions requiring toxic waste is because there was a change after beta where those mission types only apply to goods which are illegal in the station where you pick up the mission, and generally the only good that is banned at anarchy stations is toxic waste. Piracy missions are currently far more time consuming than other missions types and just aren't worth it. One change that would really help is if they changed piracy missions to work more like smuggling missions where the type of good you need has a much higher chance of appearing in random encounters or in the cargo holds of npc traders. It's very difficult to help out anarchy factions at the moment.

 

[Dabba]

5: Right now, if I interdict a CMDR and they submit with zero throttle, they only have a very short FSD cool down. They can quickly jump away instead of waiting 40 seconds.

The key to this is understanding the mechanic of mass disruption. If you are pirating you need to be in a ship of comparable or greater mass in order to disrupt their frameshift drive.

If you're pirating in an eagle or a viper your targets are haulers, and you should have very little problem pulling them out of hyperspace and preventing them from engaging their FSD in time.

If your target is a Type 6 or 7 youre going to need a Cobra minimum, and more likely an ASP, otherwise you don't have the mass to disrupt their FSD.

If your target is a Type 9 you're going to need a Python or a Conda, otherwise you don't have the mass to disrupt their FSD.

If you are trying to pirate a Type 7 with a Viper you're essentially trying to hold up an armored truck with a water gun. Its not going to work, and it shouldn't.

 

[Tigga]

Some of the ideas in the OP are good, some are bad. Dropping all cargo from a limpit would be far too easy, for example, as A grade limits seem to be fairly effective already.

My main beef is the cargo size always being 1t. You simply can't scoop fast enough to get more than ~30t, and if the cargo is spread out (ie. hatch busted rather than dumped) 30t is pretty hard.

 

[VladtheImpaler]

Some of the ideas in the OP are good, some are bad. Dropping all cargo from a limpit would be far too easy, for example, as A grade limits seem to be fairly effective already.

My main beef is the cargo size always being 1t. You simply can't scoop fast enough to get more than ~30t, and if the cargo is spread out (ie. hatch busted rather than dumped) 30t is pretty hard.

But only some cargo comes out. You have to be successful with a few limpets to get all of the cargo.

 

[adoredtv]

Why do you need *all* of the cargo from one ship? It's ok to go and pirate another ship afterwards but if limpets made a target drop all their cargo they'd be OP as hell and hated in multiplayer.