Pirate Attack state, what is it?

[Kneejo]

Hey all. I manage the BGS for a player faction and one of our systems has Pirate Attack state. I googled and searched the forums but can't find any information on this state.

What does it do? How do we get out of this state? Is it neccesary to get out of this state?
The game says to do bounty hunting and relevant missions. But no missions look relevant.

Any information on this is much appreciated.

 

[Lateralus]

One thing it definitely does is increase certain commodity prices by about x4. Void opals usually sell for 1.4- 1.6 million credits per unit with a pirate attack state. Other minerals and metals sell for loads more than normal too.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I noticed pirate activity USSs with varying degrees of threat levels (good for mat farming by the way).

Assume you're supposed to combat the many wanted ships that spawn in those, although I can't remember a progress bar etc. popping up so it's hard to tell what the requirements are to impact the BGS.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Assume you're supposed to combat the many wanted ships that spawn in those, although I can't remember a progress bar etc. popping up so it's hard to tell what the requirements are to impact the BGS.

Yeah, they act more like RES sites than CZs.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

What does it do? How do we get out of this state? Is it neccesary to get out of this state?

As Lateralus says, the main known effect of it is on trade prices, where it applies a 2.2x price multiplier to Void Opals and some decent ones to many of the other precious gems. (The really high prices are when stacked with Investment and Civil Liberty, both of which also double Void Opal prices)

Extra pirates in supercruise have also been reported, but this is probably a fairly subtle effect most of the time.

Generally the state seems to go away on its own after a few ticks, and doesn't appear to do any significant harm while it's in place. As the observed states have generally been of short duration in both low-traffic and high-traffic systems, it's really not clear if there's anything you can do to shorten or lengthen it.

Theories on what causes the state to appear are not well-evidenced at this stage. Based on what hasn't been ruled out by the evidence my current theory is "random, but slightly biased towards higher-traffic systems" ... but there could easily be a more specific mechanism that we don't have the data to detect.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Theories on what causes the state to appear are not well-evidenced at this stage. Based on what hasn't been ruled out by the evidence my current theory is "random, but slightly biased towards higher-traffic systems" ... but there could easily be a more specific mechanism that we don't have the data to detect.

Of the three I've specifically visited, one was Sol(!) and the other two were Deciat and Wyrd, both Engineer systems.

 

[Jmanis]

I bugreported it pre-current-issue-tracker. Who knows if it's even being looked at though.

The description says there's meant to be missions/scenarios to complete. I've never seen them ever. A few random "Weapons Fire" USS don't count to me. Specifically, there are no missions, so that's bugged IMO.

For what it's worth, if you don't deal with it (I don't know what the conditions are) it tanks the faction's security

EDIT: Oh, and coz it's being discussed, that's from a very low-traffic system.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

For what it's worth, if you don't deal with it (I don't know what the conditions are) it tanks the faction's security

I've not seen this happen, so either it's incredibly easy to deal with accidentally, or it generally doesn't push it down enough to cross a boundary.

 

[Kneejo]

The security level of the system hasn't changed.

Thanks for the replies. Much appreciated!

 

[Krash]

Do you see an increase in pirate assassination missions and massacre missions being offered?

 

[Drelthar]

Do you see an increase in pirate assassination missions and massacre missions being offered?

The thing with this is, these missions are always in different systems to the one you take the mission from....

It would make a lot of sense for them not to be in different systems during this state, but that's just the way it is.

Perhaps nearby systems have lots of pirate assasination/massacre missions that target the one underpirate attack during this time?

 

[Jmanis]

Do you see an increase in pirate assassination missions and massacre missions being offered?

More than the 20-odd I can get from a single faction in a None state? Nope.

 

[Cmdr Aeries Hunter]

From my own experience the system I flipped had a pirate attack state right after I won the civil war, and the economy was in boom and heading toward civil liberty. To get rid of it just go to a res sight or nav beacon and kill lots of wanted ships. Can't say this is 100% how it works but that is what I experienced in my system. It's also a low population system with just 15,000.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

AFAIK only two things happen :

• System Security level drops one notch (if the default is Medium or High)
• Commodity Prices get their adjustment and combined with Civil Liberty and Investment you get the max. possible prices for Void Opals

Never seen a single "Pirate Activity detected - Thread X"" USS in V3.4 so far, seems they're entirely gone.
So the "Pirates have entered the area" appears notional. Should probably read "Additional Void Opal bulk Traders have entered the area" instead.

 

[Schmack]

The thing with this is, these missions are always in different systems to the one you take the mission from....

It would make a lot of sense for them not to be in different systems during this state, but that's just the way it is.

Perhaps nearby systems have lots of pirate assasination/massacre missions that target the one underpirate attack during this time?

After I took my Corvette to Selene Jean to pin a BP and engineer HRPs, I looked all around the region for pirate missions for her system because I saw some pirate activity, but there were no notable missions to be had. Same in Deciat, saw tons of pirate USS, hit several but wanted missions so looked in adjacent systems. Nothing.

Best is to find a CNB and look at a close adjacent system to see if they want some pirates snuffed out in that system. The leaders will all jump in around the same time if you stack kill missions, begin shooting each other and the little hornets will attack them. You just need to get in a shot here and there. After you finish those pirate leader missions, some of the hornets, of the same pirate faction (oddly enough, no honor among thieves), will be weakened a bit. You can pop several pretty quick to buffer your bulk kill missions. I was making about 100m per run last night doing this. Now and then you get a message to ask in another system for the whereabouts of those pirates, but I ignore those until I have everything else done, go cash those in, grab a few more then go after the stragglers.

 

[FrogsFriend]

Only anecdotal but I've seen a big increase in Assassinate Pirate Leader missions in systems that don't normally have many, while in a Pirate Attack state. I completed a lot of those missions on the first day and the Pirate Attack state disappeared the next. It may just be very easy to overcome with bounties and/or relevant missions.

 

[Schmack]

Only anecdotal but I've seen a big increase in Assassinate Pirate Leader missions in systems that don't normally have many, while in a Pirate Attack state. I completed a lot of those missions on the first day and the Pirate Attack state disappeared the next. It may just be very easy to overcome with bounties and/or relevant missions.

Same. The missions dried up for me, but are now coming back (full circle it seems). When the pirate missions fade, there's a nice VO ring just outside the station and some decent haulage once allied in the region.

 

[Wylie]

Late to the party here, I know. But just wanted to add that I'm looking at a system with a tiny population (2,500) that was Elated/Investment/Civil Liberties for a long time (seeing if I could get the population to move). A Pirate Attack popped. Happiness dropped to "Happy", tons of mining missions/no pirate assassination or massacre missions, System security is at Low (cannot recall if it was Medium before or not). I will try to do some rez/nav beacon hunting later and see if that has an effect on the pirate attack state.

 

[Wylie]

Late to the party here, I know. But just wanted to add that I'm looking at a system with a tiny population (2,500) that was Elated/Investment/Civil Liberties for a long time (seeing if I could get the population to move). A Pirate Attack popped. Happiness dropped to "Happy", tons of mining missions/no pirate assassination or massacre missions, System security is at Low (cannot recall if it was Medium before or not). I will try to do some rez/nav beacon hunting later and see if that has an effect on the pirate attack state.

Pirate attack lasted 3 days. Rez site and nav beacon hunting seemed to have no effect (though the number of 'Wanted' ships did seem to peter out toward the end). Happiness ticked back up from "Happy" to "Elated" upon the end of the pirate attack. No other changes noted.

 

[Ezren]

I'm guessing Alabama?