I think the proposed pirating idea is fine under the rules and in roleplay, but for example.. Pirating both sides of a jump gate would probably be not. Since when the trader emerges he'll be blasted immediately, with hardly any chance to respond/check group numbers.
I think from a rules point of view, your second man would have to stop firing if the trader agreed to pay. This is the case where two (or more) pirates are in the same place so there's no reason that I can see why it wouldn't apply to your idea.
No longer active online due to a dwindling amount of non-PvP (trading, pirating, mining, etc.) fun in the new version.
A way to do it would be to respond to your buddy's demand, in system chat, while you're waiting down the TL.
I'm not comfortable with the grouped/unit thing. Yes, if you're in the same system, sure. But there've been players who've gotten sanctioned because they were grouped with pirating players while in a cap ship. They were there but didn't actually fire or say anything. But they were grouped with the pirating vessels. Hmm, we'll have to mull this one over, methinks.
(don't know if any of that made sense...only on my second cup o' coffee)
I understand your views Caylith, but surely if they operate on one tradelane it should be okay?
The Lane Hackers often have different members stationed in different areas when pirating. We don't necessarily rely on the first Hacker's demands, but it's similar to this method.
Thats a good idea. First guy could be a polite kind of pirate (like Bundschuh) merely negotiating and posing no real threat, while the other one is dumb muscle, doing what his not-so-dumb friends tells him to. Yay! I want to be a dumb muscle!
i think it must be presented as a very clear situation. only when there is NO doubt that these pirates are working as a team, they should be allowed to stage such an ambush. - and i mean it must be clear from the point of view of the ambushed player, not the pirates.
that involves indeed system chat - or - and thats better ... in local chat ( but its disabled atm ) - of course, adding a ship bigger than a gunboat ( even if its not interfering ) should not be allowed. - ignoring it is metagaming - and the point of not having a cruiser or bigger is that its too expensive to have these ships deployed for pirating ( at least for the simple act of "daily" piracy routine ).
to be safe and leave little room to misinterprete the situation, i d suggest to have both members of the group in scanner range ( like one or two lane sections, i think one section is 5000 meters? ) - then it should be clear that both pirates are one unit.
asking for a tax, but not pursuing the trader when he attempts to escape - but then opening fire instantly when he leaves a lane can and will cause misinterpretation of the situation, - especially when the second pirate will "finish the job, no matter what".
' Wrote:asking for a tax, but not pursuing the trader when he attempts to escape - but then opening fire instantly when he leaves a lane can and will cause misinterpretation of the situation, - especially when the second pirate will "finish the job, no matter what".
I was thinking that the second person would say something like "you should have paid the man", then start shooting... he would of course stop if the trader agrees to pay. Thats just common courtesy.
I was also thinking of disrupting the TL halfway instead of waiting for them to come out the other end, that way traders who pay the first person wouldn't have to stop for the second.