Welcome to another one of my hypothetical arguments. This is not a suggestion if it was I'd post it stating so. This is merely a banter, remember that please.
Today's lovely topic is this.
What if Gunboats were no longer allowed to pirate?
Why?
I would speculate that gunboats and other capital craft would be used as a vanguard against military vessels attacking their pirate fleet and stations, not for the interdiction of traders and small police craft.
I can however understand them being used as a reinforcement measure when their allies are attacked or suffer a bodged pirate attempt.
This is my brief statement on it, I could go into more detail.
What are your thoughts?
Seems like the primary use for a pretty big proportion of unlawful gunboats is piracy.
I get the feeling pirate stations aren't alive because they have gunboats outside, but because they're in horrible places and no one can find them. (80 Years War being cited for bad conditions helping out fighters/bombers).
Gunboats aren't really defensive ships, they're offensive ones. And a big chunk of pirate factions offensives are aimed at corporations rather than governments in the main. Trading ships are getting bigger and better armoured, so pirates bring up their game also.
' Wrote:Seems like the primary use for a pretty big proportion of unlawful gunboats is piracy.
I get the feeling pirate stations aren't alive because they have gunboats outside, but because they're in horrible places and no one can find them. (80 Years War being cited for bad conditions helping out fighters/bombers).
Gunboats aren't really defensive ships, they're offensive ones. And a big chunk of pirate factions offensives are aimed at corporations rather than governments in the main. Trading ships are getting bigger and better armoured, so pirates bring up their game also.
It is my opinion that gunships and bombers are big enough to take on the bigger vessels, if bombers can take on a Battleship with help, I'm sure a Gunboat is not required for traders.
a VHF can take down a transport - doesn t mean we should disallow bombers from doing it. - in fact, pirates can and do pirate in ships of all sizes - from light fighters up to battleships. - they just don t do it when a players can see it, cause there are "rules" that have nothing to do with roleplay, mind.
pirates value life quite high - they know the value of a life well, being the ones that sell it and buy it from and to others. - and their own life is among the highest valued.
so - a pirate would like to know that a powerful capital ship shield is between him and the energybolt growing larger and larger in his view instead of a weaker fighter shield.
of course - gunboats are also "long range" vessels, being able to operate further from a friendly base, which are usually not too numerous for most pirates, cause ... for one, they don t have too many friends, for another, if they had many, - the lawfuls had more targets, too.
a fighter is a short range vessel - and for that... probably more suited for a defense role.
I'm not exactly sure if this is a gameplay argument or a lore argument.
But in lore, where there actually aren't really many gunboats, I'd guess it was a security thing. You can pirate in your gunboat knowing you're extremely unlikely to die. A lot of the unlawful movements are very small, especially the ones based fully around piracy. Whilst various donations mean they're not totally broke (although they are by no means rich of course), they can't afford to lose pilots and bombers by the bucketload when they come across an armed convoy.
In gameplay, a gunboat lets you RP when you pirate. This alone is reason enough.
' Wrote:a pirate would like to know that a powerful capital ship shield is between him and the energybolt growing larger and larger in his view instead of a weaker fighter shield.
I may not be a pirate, but this is essentially the reason I own a gunboat. Its small(er), Can't be killed in a few seconds if your not paying attention the same way a fighter can, and has a decent size shield. Perfect for what I do.
And I am sure a lot of pirates think this way too.
If gunboats could no longer pirate, gunboats would become the primary escort and police ships across Sirius.
Pirates would only be able to fly fighters and bombers, and (most) gunboats are designed to kill both of those with ease. I wouldnt argue though, my bounty hunter gunship would be that much more effective hunting marks if they werent flying big ships =P
Then nerf traders.
Right now, the police forces cant do anything, pirates are going to moan when you bring a bomber to take out their lolboat, saying it's OORP, which it slightly is, right now Light Fighter patrols are entirely useless vs pirates because in order to pirate, they have to be in a gunship/boat, and a few of them in bombers. I'm not talking total nerf, but does a transport really need 12 turrets worth of firepower? Six at the most maybe(And i fly a shire; And i love the firepower, yet i still will admit it's pointless it being so strong, it can solo average bombers, what is the point?), and when traders wont be able to take out VHF's, then you could ban gunboats with ease, in turn making police forces more usefull and level the playing field.
Id say , if gunboats werent allowed to pirate anymore , we would see a sudden spike of the use of bombers , leading to all lawfull capital ships beeing made useless, and every lawfull would be flying fighters from now on... Heh , that doesnt seem so bad really.
' Wrote:...right now Light Fighter patrols are entirely useless vs pirates because in order to pirate, they have to be in a gunship/boat, and a few of them in bombers.
Try telling that to the three gunboats and one cruiser I've seed killed by Banshee swarms.