Sick of hearing "Piracy is too hard and yields poor profits"... what's new?

[Hitsuke]

I am honestly sick of hearing people complain about Piracy not yielding profits on par with other professions. Well guess what folks!?!?! That's Piracy in general for you...

There's just too many people playing ED that seem to think Piracy is some glamorous and fun venture that should be super easy and yield high profits per hour compared to other sources of income. Quite simply, Piracy should be a last resort. It's the kind of thing you resort to doing after you lose your life savings in a casino, or the kind of thing you do when you accidentally become wanted across the entire Milkyway galaxy.

A lot of the people complaining, come across as teenagers who've just inherited Daddy's money and want to go and do something exciting and dangerous: "Hey Giles, should we use my inheritance to buy a big ship and become pirates? That sounds like fun right?"... "Yaa that sounds like fun Tarquin... let's become pirates and like... have parrots and stuff yeah?". Think 'Made in Chelsea' in space.

Piracy IS and SHOULD be a hard existence... in fact, besides a few annoying game mechanics (Interdiction submission etc) it is currently way too easy to pirate traders out of their cargo with little consequence. There's literally NO drawbacks to piracy right now apart from the income, because if traders comply with your demands, you don't even get a bounty or any kind of negative reputation effect...

I hope FDev make Piracy as hard as it should be, let's see how much it hurts when you can't even enter systems without being shot at, because you're a renowned Pirate.

 

[Yabba Addict]

Right, so it's my last resort? I have no moola, so I have to pirate? OK, no probs, lemme just setup my uber sidey and see who I can get to drop, fear my 2 fixed pulse lazorz

 

[EddyRockSteady]

Amen.

In addition, Pirates should be actively hunted and terminated by System Security Police, all the time. They should stick to the shadows, utilizing stealth mechanics to stalk and ambush their prey, thereafter retreating to the relative safety of their hideouts deep in an asteroid field in deep space somewhere where even the police fear to tread, or even better, cannot find due to the hideout being cleverly concealed from prying eyes.

Instead, what do we have now?

Groups of tens or hundreds of 'Pirates' in well-known systems strutting about like peacocks, selling vouchers for safe travel.....LOL. That's not pirating: That's sanctioned extortion.

Oh well, each to their own.

 

[WiseDuck]

I'm honestly tired of other people complaining about complainers.

 

[lolanon]

I'm honestly tired of other people complaining about complainers.

Ironic

 

[uberdude]

Anyway!

If you''re a pirate that pirates NPCs then yes I think something should be done to change that aspect of the game. But i have no sympathy for Pirates that go after players. I hope a thargoid jumps in from no where m.

 

[WiseDuck]

Ironic

Kind of the point

 

[Yabba Addict]

Anyway!

If you''re a pirate that pirates NPCs then yes I think something should be done to change that aspect of the game. But i have no sympathy for Pirates that go after players. I hope a thargoid jumps in from no where m.

So what you're saying is all pirates should be moved to solo or the mobius group. Nice.

 

[drpaul]

I am honestly sick of hearing people complain about Piracy not yielding profits on par with other professions. Well guess what folks!?!?! That's Piracy in general for you...

There's just too many people playing ED that seem to think Piracy is some glamorous and fun venture that should be super easy and yield high profits per hour compared to other sources of income. Quite simply, Piracy should be a last resort. It's the kind of thing you resort to doing after you lose your life savings in a casino, or the kind of thing you do when you accidentally become wanted across the entire Milkyway galaxy.

A lot of the people complaining, come across as teenagers who've just inherited Daddy's money and want to go and do something exciting and dangerous: "Hey Giles, should we use my inheritance to buy a big ship and become pirates? That sounds like fun right?"... "Yaa that sounds like fun Tarquin... let's become pirates and like... have parrots and stuff yeah?". Think 'Made in Chelsea' in space.

Piracy IS and SHOULD be a hard existence... in fact, besides a few annoying game mechanics (Interdiction submission etc) it is currently way too easy to pirate traders out of their cargo with little consequence. There's literally NO drawbacks to piracy right now apart from the income, because if traders comply with your demands, you don't even get a bounty or any kind of negative reputation effect...

I hope FDev make Piracy as hard as it should be, let's see how much it hurts when you can't even enter systems without being shot at, because you're a renowned Pirate.

While in general I'm sympathetic to your point of view, I also would hope ED could accommodate a large number of different types of players. The problem I see with pirate players is it may be great fun for them but not so great for their victims. Further, any mechanic that allows piracy can be abused to allow griefing. The best approach I can see is that trying to pirate a CMDR should be a LOT harder and with more consequence than the typical trader. Part of the fiction of the ED Universe is that the PC's represent a special cadre of pilots. So FD should promote development of a system that makes pirating NPCs fun but not that makes it easy to go after fellow players who don't enjoy it so much and will end up being driven into solo or group.

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So what you're saying is all pirates should be moved to solo or the mobius group. Nice.

That isn't what he wrote at all.

 

[Yabba Addict]

That isn't what he wrote at all.

Nope, what he wrote was just because pirates want to interact with real people rather than ai he doesn't care how hard it is for them to play. Which means no piracy in open, if things keep on going like this. Which also means the profession WILL die, ai pirating is such a crapshoot on whether they'll have anything worth it in their hold or not. CMDRs on the other hand usually go where the money is. The traders have got some really nice advantages too, but we never hear the end of it. Interdiction submission, then charging the drive after how many seconds? Unscannable wakes in SC, making it alot harder to follow in warp. Actually scrap that, the WHOLE frameshift wake scanner is broken. Masslock not being applicable to jumping to another system. Point defence taking out limpets. But no, let's just not learn game mechanics, not learn how to defend ourselves with a bit of research, it's alot easier to moan here.

 

[Traven Mayhem]

NPC pirating.

are you kidding me?

people in this game need to get a backbone, seriously. a little PVP never killed anybody, lol.

if you don't like pirates, organize with some bounty hunters and go hunt them.

FD needs to give pirates a bit of love. changing the rare drop mechanic in 1.2 is a serious nerf as that was one of the only ways a pirate could make any half decent money (and at that it's still only a fraction of what you can make trading) .. With that chance it may fully kill the profession as pirates will have no choice but to 'grind money' on the side via trading -- most of the pirates i know would rather just quit the game.

elite with nothing but PVE traders in it will have a very, very short lifespan as most people will bore of it after a few weeks -- esp the xbox crowd when it comes -- they want pvp and lots of it. arena's don't count.

 

[TeRRoRiTe]

Many wannabee pirates seem not made for the pirate life. I'm sure we'll see this complaint appear even more in Star Citizen. But, for now, just get used to it: we're not playing EVE with its lootpiñatas, abundant metagaming and lack of consequences.

 

[ChubbyBunneh]

And now we see the true motive. If it was really about the money 'pirates' would have no problem with simply adjusting NPC cargos to carry more expensive goods. But the the 'pirates' must insist on getting paid more for taking from other players. Therefore what they really seek is making other players miserable. And they want to get paid as much as traders do while griefing them.

0% sympathy. I hope all traders move to solo, or Mobius, or use their massive earnings to fly around in groups of 4 Federal Corvettes.

 

[Quineloe]

your signature says bounty hunter.

Are you really?

Or are you a bounty farmer, sitting at a Nav point?

You should realize that currently only players can be hunted, and if there are no player pirates - as you think is a great thing for some reason - you can't be a bounty hunter.

 

[Yabba Addict]

And now we see the true motive. If it was really about the money 'pirates' would have no problem with simply adjusting NPC cargos to carry more expensive goods. But the the 'pirates' must insist on getting paid more for taking from other players. Therefore what they really seek is making other players miserable. And they want to get paid as much as traders do while griefing them.

0% sympathy. I hope all traders move to solo, or Mobius, or use their massive earnings to fly around in groups of 4 Federal Corvettes.

Where did ANYONE object to NPC cargo being more expensive? And as for making players miserable, I trade, I've been pirated and this game is the better for it!

 

[Darkium]

With marked goods in 1.2 you won't even be able to either scoop or sell most cargo. I don't target players in specific when I pirate, but there's really no money to be made there after you paid off ammo and expenses, it's just for fun.

Anyway, when I pirate or kill random people, I rack up the bounty and then let a friend claim the bounty and clear my name.

 

[Quineloe]

With marked goods in 1.2 you won't even be able to either scoop or sell most cargo. I don't target players in specific when I pirate, but there's really no money to be made there after you paid off ammo and expenses, it's just for fun.

Anyway, when I pirate or kill random people, I rack up the bounty and then let a friend claim the bounty and clear my name.

You using the free sidewinder for that, too?

 

[EddyRockSteady]

..... changing the rare drop mechanic in 1.2 is a serious nerf....

Are you serious? Please tell me you're not serious as the alternative is, well.......LOL

I mean cm'on: Player #1 must travel 160LY for a decent profit. Player #2 steals the cargo from Player #1. All good and fine, let's say that's OK as it's been properly pirated. Player #2 now cries crocodile tears because like Player #1, he must now travel the same distance to profit as Player #1 would have had to do?

Seriously?

Tell you what, the fact that Player #2 could travel exactly 0LY and still profit is a gross exploit as a start. How on earth can one even begin to justify that? And for people to intentionally exploit the mechanic and profit from it?

Unacceptable.

No, by no stretch of the imagination can that even begin to be viewed as a nerf. A solution to a particularly nasty exploit, yes. A nerf, most definitely not.

That said, why not just travel the 160LY and profit legitimately like the rest of us after you have coaxed the rares from a trader?

 

[drpaul]

NPC pirating.

are you kidding me?

people in this game need to get a backbone, seriously. a little PVP never killed anybody, lol.

if you don't like pirates, organize with some bounty hunters and go hunt them.

FD needs to give pirates a bit of love. changing the rare drop mechanic in 1.2 is a serious nerf as that was one of the only ways a pirate could make any half decent money (and at that it's still only a fraction of what you can make trading) .. With that chance it may fully kill the profession as pirates will have no choice but to 'grind money' on the side via trading -- most of the pirates i know would rather just quit the game.

elite with nothing but PVE traders in it will have a very, very short lifespan as most people will bore of it after a few weeks -- esp the xbox crowd when it comes -- they want pvp and lots of it. arena's don't count.

Well, I'm sure FD will track the number of players in solo versus open and make their decisions based on adjustments knowing that critical information.

But this is the bottom line difference. Pirates apparently require other players to be happy. Nobody else in the game requires pirates to enjoy it.

 

[uberdude]

And now we see the true motive. If it was really about the money 'pirates' would have no problem with simply adjusting NPC cargos to carry more expensive goods. But the the 'pirates' must insist on getting paid more for taking from other players. Therefore what they really seek is making other players miserable. And they want to get paid as much as traders do while griefing them.

0% sympathy. I hope all traders move to solo, or Mobius, or use their massive earnings to fly around in groups of 4 Federal Corvettes.

+Rep for you. This is exactly what im doing. Been trading in solo for awhile and thought, well i have a clipper i'll try trading in open and see about being sociable. This game doesn't do Sociable at the moment. Instead I've been met with nothing but grief and silliness. I'm too close to having an Anaconda to have any desire to be bothered by clowns that want something for nothing.

solo mode until my anaconda is kitted and then I'll go open to maybe start being sociable and finding a group to tag along with.