Who are the pirates supposed to Pirate ?

[CMDR_Havok]

From what I understand Piracy is getting a much needed overhaul with the next update, and speaking as a bounty hunter I really hope that it encourages more pilots to take up a career as a space pirate, because that will give us bounty hunters some legitimate targets.

But my question is, if the improvements in piracy results in an upsurge in pirates (as I hope it does) then who exactly are the pirates supposed to pirate, given that almost all traders are already treading in solo ?

Will the possibility of 'real' pirates entice more traders into open. Or will it scare the few open traders into solo ?

 

[Ralph Rodriguez]

I used to pirate in a cobra, i made no money whatsoever, i did it for the fun of pulling over the very rare player trade ships and demanding their cargo. I amassed a considerable bounty on my head in the process, 3-4 million if i remember right. I always had bounty hunters looking to cash in, it was fun as hell trying to keep that bounty, and the bounty hunters had fun chasing me.

Then Frontier decided to kill that part of the game dead by making bounties last no more than 7 days to stop credit selling/farming - talk about smashing a peanut with a hammer. It killed player orientated bounty hunting, and to be honest, my motivation to pirate diminished, what's the point if nobody is going to chase me off?

As a result i barely play anymore. I have done trading, missions & exploring, but nothing comes close to player generated content, and before you say just go PVP, i see no fun in the min/max builds and the reward for just killing - my cobra was built for speed and purpose, she was weak, but so much fun!

I hope they can sort it out one day, but after 10 months or more, i'm certainly not holding my breath [sad]

 

[Craith]

It would get me back, if it also significantly reduces the amount of people "roleplaying" psychopaths (if they'd at least roleplayed it ... that would be a step in the right direction ... baby steps). As it is, it is not the pirates I fear, nor is it the risk of getting destroyed, it is the ratio between the enriching encounters (even if they cost me cargo, or even a ship), and the "other ones".

 

[ShimEnki]

Seeing that for traders, being pirated is very bad for business; unless traders get a real boost in mission payouts to haul then open will be functionally closed for business.

Traders playing in a nerfed payout setting as it is now and playing with CMDR pirates requires the joy of saying...spank me and hard. Who likes that anyways? Nevermind i dont want to know.

I also dont see how i would learn / gain anything from a pirate CMDR. I mean, flying in a Python with maneuverability of 2 has me a sitting duck and therefore I would learn or gain exactly what besides a 10 mill insurance deductible and mission rep loss with its fine. If flying in open meant hauling missions were seriously increased in payout and volume of missions id gladly enter open and role the dice...not as it is now tho...never.

What buffs are pirates getting?

 

[Monk]

You can pirate me. I fly my T9 in Open and always have some salty words for any rapscallion that interrupts my TOTALLY above board trading operations

Hopefully, the police response improvements in 2.1 make these encounters (in high sec areas anyway) at least a little fair. Putting the pressure clock on the pirate to liberate commodities as quickly as possible and giving the trader incentive to stick around for the cavalry and kill steal the bounty on that criminal.

 

[Marra Morgan]

What buffs are pirates getting?

Painite eyepatches.

 

[Ralph Rodriguez]

You can pirate me. I fly my T9 in Open and always have some salty words for any rapscallion that interrupts my TOTALLY above board trading operations .

I will be on the look out for screaming slaves and the smell of Benedictine brandy!

 

[Han Brannigan]

But my question is, if the improvements in piracy results in an upsurge in pirates (as I hope it does) then who exactly are the pirates supposed to pirate, given that almost all traders are already treading in solo ?

NPCs ?

 

[Ralph Rodriguez]

NPCs ?

Whilst pirating NPC's is viable, trying to scoop cargo strewn across 10km (yes i know you can hit the engines) is a pain in the ass, never mind the fact that security seems to turn up within 5 minutes in most systems. Ironically the only time my Python unloaded a T9 of all its gold was in front of a station!

Even pirating NPC's needs a massive overhaul....

 

[Derath]

Whilst pirating NPC's is viable, trying to scoop cargo strewn across 10km (yes i know you can hit the engines) is a pain in the ass, never mind the fact that security seems to turn up within 5 minutes in most systems. Ironically the only time my Python unloaded a T9 of all its gold was in front of a station!

Even pirating NPC's needs a massive overhaul....

They stop if you kill the powerplant now, its viable but i'd say 1/10 NPC's have cargo worth taking and as far as I've been able to tell it isn't associated with system type, system type / security / economy etc just dictate what the 9/10 are carrying, which is always useless Aquifiers/rutile/grain/tea etc

I'm still giving learning new stuff but so far i've not hit on any real improvements its a very slow, low earning profession at the moment.

 

[anikaiful]

But my question is, if the improvements in piracy results in an upsurge in pirates (as I hope it does) then who exactly are the pirates supposed to pirate, given that almost all traders are already treading in solo ?

Will the possibility of 'real' pirates entice more traders into open. Or will it scare the few open traders into solo ?

Well, there's no real incentive at all for any "trader" to play in open - especially as due various reasons most traders expect that "interdiction = rebuy", regardless of what they do.

 

[Derath]

the NPC part needs an overhaul in terms of the cargo they carry, or we need a different way to interact with them to get that cargo.

Scanners in supercruise would help, as a vast majority of your time is spent scanning T7's full of limpets and hydrogen fuel and having to interdict > in > out takes like 5m everytime with nothing to show for it (and resets the system traffic)

And that is the 2nd thing, system traffic needs more freighters, if it didn't reset every single time you went in and out if you were by yourself it'd be ok but you have to wait everytime just for the system to repop.

 

[Hexcaliber]

I gave up on the prospects of meaningful player bounty hunting back in closed beta, it is in a worse state than player piracy; the game simply does not have the tools (yet) to create the kind of experience I was hoping for.

Add npc's issuing mission contracts on top pirates in a region, more extensive lists available on the BB, tools for tracking and hunting down targets, bounty hunting permits that mean you do not pick up silly fines yourself, then you are talking.

 

[kofeyh]

I gave up on the prospects of meaningful player bounty hunting back in closed beta, it is in a worse state than player piracy; the game simply does not have the tools (yet) to create the kind of experience I was hoping for.

Add npc's issuing mission contracts on top pirates in a region, more extensive lists available on the BB, tools for tracking and hunting down targets, then you are talking.

Primarily because it sounded really cool but frontier had no idea how to add any kind of method to make straight up kill everything gank fests way less viable the piracy. I mean there are all manner of genuine big scale PVP battle royales that are epic and amazing.

But mostly it's just trade ships with low survivability being kicked over for shiggles.

Most traders (particularly the CG runners) have left open because the ratio of killers, versus actual pirates, was a bit comical. And not in a good way. Of course a percentage happily admit they live to kill everything. Most "pretend" to play pirates. It's just a bit obvious where your "piracy" is occurring in a heavily armed combat ship with no scanners, no cargo racks and the opening of negotiation is the victim looking at a rebuy screen.

If there were real financial advantages to be in open, to offset the risks; and the balance where pirates are actual pirates rather than trigger happy gank squads., then maybe. But I think it's probably a bit late. Damage is done.

The automatic assumption now is that open is an endless kill-fest, and unless that genuinely balances out a bit, I don't really think folks will come back. The precedent is set.

Also, frankly, it makes me so sad when I am streaming some open server trading or exploring or a bit of the pew pew and virtually every new viewer comments on open being terrible and just not worth it. It's really been something frontier have just not really got a handle on very well. Bit of head in sand maybe. Don't really know.

Frontier should probably just accept the horse has bolted, work towards a more dynamic and enjoyable open experience, to help foster and maintain the remaining player base, and put a proper PVE mode in for those who just won't be coming back.

There are so many ways to improve bounty hunting, piracy (which does seem to be being addressed in 2.1 a bit) and better defensive options (it's gotta be a bit of a give and take here) that could be done. Frontier just have to decide to do it.

Because maybe when things are a little more meaningful in open, and people have the choice, folks might figure it's worth a look again.

 

[Majinvash]

Most "pretend" to play pirates. It's a bit obvious when they don't even have a cargo scanner.

Why would you possibly need a cargo scanner?

Trader ship, in CG, heading towards CG Goal = Profit

Trader ship at end point of trade route = Profit

The easy way to check if they say they have nothing, disable them, cut it out of them.
If anything falls out, send them to rebuy for being a naughty liar liar pants on fire.

Majinvash
The Voice of Open

 

[Tiwaz]

Primarily because it sounded really cool but frontier had no idea how to add any kind of method to make straight up kill everything more viable the piracy.

Most traders have left open because the ratio of killers, versus pirates, was a bit comical. And not in a good way. Of course a percentage happily admit they live to kill everything. Most "pretend" to play pirates. It's a bit obvious when they don't even have a cargo scanner.

If there were real financial advantages to be in open, to offset the risks; and the balance where pirates are actual pirates rather than trigger happy gank squads., then maybe. But I think it's probably a bit late. Damage is done.

The automatic assumption now is that open is an endless kill-fest, and unless that genuinely balances out a bit, I don't really think folks will come back.

Frontier should probably just accept the horse has bolted, work towards a more dynamic and enjoyable open experience, and put a proper PVE mode in for those who just don't want none, unless your clipper got some.

But if they do that, they would admit that the driving vision was hopeful thinking instead of thought through plan.
I fear ego prevents people there from doing what has to be done, they are too married to thought of PvP to let go.

Once more I dig out comparison to UO. Developers were much in love with PvP that they did everything but get rid of it when they tried to "fix" the game. It required intervention from EA which put in charge guy with task "Fix it or kill it" and with no personal attachment to PvP.

So I fear that FD will remain stuck in the vision of PvP everywhere where players can meet, and that will eventually be the downfall of this game. Though as positive note, competitors appears stubborn enough to want to commit exact same failure with their competing brand. Though with possibility of modded private servers. I have put my hopes on those private ones for now...

 

[kofeyh]

Why would you possibly need a cargo scanner?

Trader ship, in CG, heading towards CG Goal = Profit

Trader ship at end point of trade route = Profit

The easy way to check if they say they have nothing, disable them, cut it out of them.
If anything falls out, send them to rebuy for being a naughty liar liar pants on fire.

Majinvash
The Voice of Open

Exactly. Which is why I have now changed the phrasing. It wasn't sound logic. In short yes some pirates are going to just open fire to extract the cargo if it's a high probability but that's not really going to be warmly received by all.

 

[Han Brannigan]

Whilst pirating NPC's is viable, trying to scoop cargo strewn across 10km (yes i know you can hit the engines) is a pain in the ass,
Even pirating NPC's needs a massive overhaul....

Agreed both NPC pirates and Pirating NPCs are where I am most disatisfied with the game so far ...

 

[Philip Coutts]

I've never met a pirate in game, it makes me sad. I'd quite like to be robbed by a proper pirate as I think it would add hugely to the ED experience.

 

[Weps]

Primarily because it sounded really cool but frontier had no idea how to add any kind of method to make straight up kill everything gank fests way less viable the piracy. [...]

If there were real financial advantages to be in open, to offset the risks; and the balance where pirates are actual pirates rather than trigger happy gank squads., then maybe. But I think it's probably a bit late. Damage is done.

The automatic assumption now is that open is an endless kill-fest, and unless that genuinely balances out a bit, I don't really think folks will come back. The precedent is set.

Pretty much my thoughts right now. FDEV have refused time and again to punish murder severely, for the reason that they want criminality to be a viable path in the game. They also refused to add mechanics which would help lone player types (NPC wings for example) in favor of mechanics which indirectly harm them (PC wings, multicrew). In doing so, they have in fact removed the livelihood of players going for a believable crime career.

There are very few real pirates in Open. What we actually have are Robigo grinding Rail-de-Lance HRP silent running death squads with no cargo space. And they will be using these new tools intended for pirating to further their death squad agenda.