I've seen quite a bit of talk about problems of there being players who want piracy to be a legitimate play-style and players who don't want to be constantly attacked by pirates while trading
I'm not sure if this has been suggested before (or maybe its already planned but I didn't notice), but perhaps there could be bonuses for making deliveries to places where significant player piracy is taking place.
Let's say if a lot of player piracy and/or player killing is going on in an area. That area, possibly a station or system, could be temporarily labelled as "high-risk". This warning is given to everyone so that they can avoid the area if they want to.
On the other hand, while the area is "high-risk", traders making delivering goods to and from the area receive a sort of "hazard bonus" to partly make up for the increased risk of being shot at.
Hopefully this would have a few positive effects:
-Areas where pirates are around will be labelled as such so traders who do not want that risk at all can avoid them and be less likely to run into pirates.
-More "thrill seeking" traders will know where to go for more tense "high-risk high-reward" routes.
-Pirates get more targets that see piracy as an acceptable risk for the potential payoff, which mean less complaining and trying to balance the game against piracy to satisfy everyone.
I suppose in coordinated groups may be able to exploit such a mechanic to some extent, but I don't think it would be any worse than any of the other ways coordinated groups would inevitably be able to exploit the game anyway.
I'm not sure if this has been suggested before (or maybe its already planned but I didn't notice), but perhaps there could be bonuses for making deliveries to places where significant player piracy is taking place.
Let's say if a lot of player piracy and/or player killing is going on in an area. That area, possibly a station or system, could be temporarily labelled as "high-risk". This warning is given to everyone so that they can avoid the area if they want to.
On the other hand, while the area is "high-risk", traders making delivering goods to and from the area receive a sort of "hazard bonus" to partly make up for the increased risk of being shot at.
Hopefully this would have a few positive effects:
-Areas where pirates are around will be labelled as such so traders who do not want that risk at all can avoid them and be less likely to run into pirates.
-More "thrill seeking" traders will know where to go for more tense "high-risk high-reward" routes.
-Pirates get more targets that see piracy as an acceptable risk for the potential payoff, which mean less complaining and trying to balance the game against piracy to satisfy everyone.
I suppose in coordinated groups may be able to exploit such a mechanic to some extent, but I don't think it would be any worse than any of the other ways coordinated groups would inevitably be able to exploit the game anyway.