So. What's the deal with this? Is it intentional that the vanilla game pirating mechanic - dropping a tradelane - is generally not feasible for lone pirates? Hell, even two pirates might fail to kill a decently armored 5Ker if "half a lane" is the distance they have to do it in (what's that, 10-15k on average? Good luck killing a Cap8 Shetland in that time).
Gate piracy is apparently something the developers 'frown upon' or would like to keep players from doing (see: the now rolled back changes to Gate weaponry). Lane piracy is generally very difficult / near-impossible, with only a few feasible locations (Shikoku comes to mind as the most well-known one).
The newest addition to the wealthy trader's options, Battleship Scanners, pretty much deny lane piracy regardless of the pirate group's size. It isn't very difficult to cancel out of a lane and head back somewhere safe when you're warned about potential pirates at a 25k (!) range.
Slowly but surely, piracy has been made more and more difficult. I've been pirated - unsuccessfully at that - a total of one times since .87. There's a reason for this. This reason is that balancing, in regards to piracy, is out of whack.
Discuss, or something.
(12-14-2013, 10:05 PM)Haste Wrote: [ -> ]Slowly but surely, piracy has been made more and more difficult.
You know me as someone who mostly plays unlawfuls.
I say, about bloody time.
You know how we always tell traders to get escorts?
Yeah, now how about you get a pirate buddy to help you with the DPM and snatch up a gate.
I play a lawful (and plenty of unlawfuls, to be fair) in the most active house of the game. LPI. That faction's activity, given it doesn't exactly fight wars, relies almost entirely on there being pirates to hunt.
There aren't many pirates left. This means that very rarely, I have reason to log.
Piracy in the way that the game meant for it: by the lanes, is more or less impossible now. I don't see how that can be a good thing.
Edit:
And I'm sadistic enough to actually find being pirated enjoyable (sometimes). I'd love to fly escort as well, and right now that's just an incredible waste of time as there are just no pirates.
Traders got buffed in a few ways, hopefully when a couple plug ins are finished Battleship Scanners will be impossible to use on ships other than Battleships, so that should rule that out.
But lane piracy... I mean it seems to be a pretty reliable way of catching guys. I guess people are trying to make group piracy more attractive than solo piracy now. I dunno honestly. I like the new transport guns at least, and their speed makes them able to outrun gunboats... so pirate gunboats kind of turn into more of a ship to cover pirate fighters and bombers from lawfuls than actual pirating ships.
I am tired.
(12-14-2013, 10:12 PM)kikatsu Wrote: [ -> ]But lane piracy... I mean it seems to be a pretty reliable way of catching guys.
More or less. The issue is that trade ships are generally so sturdy (for battle transports, the buffed guns help a lot, too) that they simply don't die if they decide not to pay.
There are a few ways around this: I've been told transports are the go-to pirating ships now, and nova'ing off thrusters likely works just fine, too. Of course, smaller transports like the Firefly will just never get hit by a Nova, ruling out that option.
The new BS scanners are a problem in their current state, if you ask me. You shouldn't be able to "buy" invincibility against lane piracy just like that.
(12-14-2013, 10:18 PM)Haste Wrote: [ -> ]Of course, smaller transports like the Firefly will just never get hit by a Nova, ruling out that option.
Nova-Ram. Risky but rewarding
As someone who only plays lawful, even I agree that lane pricy needs a buff. I have been pirated a grand total of ZERO times scene I came back. This is absolutely depressing.
Even worse, unlawfuls are just turning into PvP factions most of the time now. Like, in Liberty I'm seeing nothing but Rogues etc. who are going out of there way to get the biggest ships to blow the most things up. Playing an unlawful faction shouldn't just be about that.
Lythrilux is pretty much right. I mean most of the time I am in Rheinland, whenever I hear about pirates somewhere it is just a group of Brigand gunboats with sometimes a Hessian one that just seem like they are fishing for combat, when that happens I just feel like ignoring them really, they offer very little worth in terms of interaction when people are just showing up for pews.
And people wonder why police factions are dying out