Invincible players

[Camtheman Of Freelancer4Ever]

All I remember when getting pirated is "I will make more money than that pirate will in his ENTIRE life"

Besides, Escorts actually do help defending Traderships, *glares at battleship escorts*

[Rudo]

you need a better place to pirate. try bretonia. less lol traders.

My favorite response I got when I'd nailed a trader was "//Don't you know I help the Mollys? Look up this story on the rp forum blahblahblah". Of course, this was in Bretonia.

I just rolled my eyes and let him go, I don't need a tearful post and reprecussions from official factions on my independent stress-reliever pirate. I never looked up that story -- who has time for that sort of thing? Plus there ought to be some in-game RP to accompany it. A Bowex shipper moving engine components through jumpholes in Leeds isn't helping the Mollys except by his own foolishness.

My point there is that traders can and often will take offense to being hit. Trading often funds their other characters and thus you're hitting them hard across their entire account. A more reasonable demand from the pirate, or a contingency to account for being pirated now and then in a trading faction (Trader in question pays, friends pass him a few credits to soften the financial blow) makes things a lot smoother.


That said, traders are far from invincible. The wrong cargo brought in sight of the wrong faction? A lot of hassle right there. Being in the wrong faction when stumbling into an unlawful gate/lane blockade? You're in a lot of trouble.

Junker players, traders especially, often have this 'I'm untouchable" mentality which quickly degrades into seeing the awful truth when flying into a Xeno bomber wing. (I support this, thins out the herd some.)


EDIT: This is the most pointless and over-edited post I've ever made. I don't know where I was going with all this. Too much coffee today, I think.

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[Dusty Lens]

I have to admit that I'm not altogether sure what the point of this thread is. It appears that the OP is of a mind that he'd like to put a few more tradevessels to the sword for fun and profit as opposed to being forced to interact through the system of demand and ransom?

Here's some tips from myself on how to act like a baby terrorist for fun and profit. I will humbly submit the claim that I've a mediocre level of experience in the subject.

1) If you wish to put a little exchange into it: Demand that they drop all of their cargo. Traders hate that with clear and obvious reasons. There's almost no practical reason to do so outside of an RP desire to maintain your vessel and preserve the life of your crew. Though of course crews are invulnerable (lololol) and your ship will magically reform back at home, so why bother dropping your cargo in the middle of nowhere when you can either make it to your port of call or, at the worst, end up back at the beginning?

2)

6.19 Pirates have a right to deal as much damage as they see fit before or after demanding money from a trader ship, but killing trader ship before demanding money or cargo is not allowed.

Now this is an important one. The 'ol blue message of doom isn't -necessary- for the aspiring terrorist. Whenever I encounter a trader running dry and I've no RP demands to levy that come readily to mind, or if I simply want to sow some fear I'll simply open fire with a howl and a cackle until their once proud ship is a flaming wreck desperately screaming out cries for mercy.

Then let them wander off to recall with no great joy their last encounter with a Xeno.

Now, some might look at the above and think to couple it with:

5.2 If a player is attacked*, he has a right to defend himself regardless of who is attacking. There are no restrictions for self-defense.

To which I would dare say nay nay. If I were to open fire on the vessel in the above example and it returned in kind, I would not destroy it sans a demand. I have a right to defend myself, but claiming that your back was put against a wall and you just -had- to fire off that last deadly supernova to escape a fight that you started is a bit slimy.

Remember that demands can extend beyond credits and cargo. If I stop a trader and demand that he broadcast a system wide message of support for the Xeno movement or be put to the blade I have made a demand. If he fails to comply I am perfectly within my rights to destroy him.

Traders are only as invulnerable as your imagination is limited. They're delicious playtoys that considerate players drop into your lap to make dance and sing for your own pleasure, always treat them as such and don't be overly afraid of banging them against the wall a time or two if they don't measure up.

Above all else do your business with purpose and aims. The afor mentioned Xenos have our background and desires handed to us on a silver platter. If you're going to be a fellow who tends towards terrorizing as opposed to plundering ensure that you give the practice a great deal of thought and consideration. To do otherwise is to hop on the fast track towards sanction and gripesville. If you do it right, however, people might whisper your name in the welcome threads as a warning to newbies and Jinx will make you a pretty ship.

On that note, Jinx, where's my own terrorist ship? *puppy eyes*

[sivran]

Come to think of it I've never been shot down by a pirate. Came close once, but survived. (The pirate in fact demanded more than what I -had- in that case!)

I've had some fun both running from and chattin with (and eventually paying) pirates. There was the time I donated to feed the poor hungry kids of Buffalo.. those poor kids! How could I turn my back on them? Then there was the time I played one pirate against the other, and ran off in the ensuing confusion... and the time I stalled a Junker pirate until he tipped his hand, his itchy trigger finger proving he didn't have the firepower to take me on... :D

To the pirates, I say make whatever demand you want, but bear in mind... if you demand exorbitant amounts, you're not only less likely to be paid, but much less likely to see me again. And I'll run if I see even the slightest chance.

OTOH, gimme some RP to relieve my boredom, tax fairly, and I may actually seek you out -- or at least, continue on my route even knowing you're in my path.

Quid pro quo, ya know?

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Brought to you by Sivran The Newb
I've suffered RSI in my right hand and am now even more useless in PVP. I now fly with a trackball!
\CS\Helkos - Teh cyborg Newb, formerly Sivran the Clueless Freelancer, gets pwned in PVP.
SmallTimeTrader - Teh Trader Newb, under new management!
Oracle|Randy - Randall Lamar, Teh Pacifist, Oracle-follower Newb (at least I don't have to worry about PVP on this char!
Texan_Twang - Texan Bounty Hunter, flies a Bomber, rarely played. Almost wish I could move him to another account and sell him.

[Stucuk]

Have you ever attempted piracy? I've taken a turn or two at it in an assortment of ships, ranging from Bloodhound to Slipstream, and "without effort" doesn't even come close to being accurate (more obvious in the smaller ships, admittedly).

Yeh i have done piracy before. Tho i never did the whole Single ship thing. I have only pirated in groups (Like all pirates should if they don't want to die to the police). Most traders give in to demands of pirates without any hassle (Espeicaly if your not just by yourself). Pirates can generaly get away with pirating quite a few ships before any police arrive and make quite a few million for hardly any time on the server and no real risk to themselfs. Granted it depends on the location, but with 4.84 anyway there were jumpholes you could camp outside waiting for traders to jump in, outside of the normal jumplanes, so you were garenteed to have hardly any trouble.

You've obviously never pirated before, and let me tell you, it isn't easy. I spent 4 hours the other day pirating and made 2 million. I was in NY of all places. And no, asking for 2 million isn't a lot of money, because that's what the Freelancer Universe seems fit. Oh well, 2 million this and that. It could be very well 2mil.

For one thing NY isn't a clever place to pirate. Unless you have a ship thats a higher class than a Fighter then your most likley going to die. A better place with far less risk is the tradelane in California which leads to the NY Jumpgate. Police don't fly in California all the time like they do in NY. So you can generaly get away with pirating for a while before some trader calls the police (And if your smart you would be able to run before the police got near enough to shoot you). 4 Hours and 2 Million is a very bad take for a pirate who is trying to get money (And not caring about RP). In 4.84 (I havn't pirated in 4.85 so i can't give any examples) you could get traders using the New Berlin Jump hole to one of the Sigmas (Can't remember which one eather 13 or 19) where there was alot of trader traffic, if you asked for 1 million from each then it wouldn't take long to reach more than 2 million after 10-30 minutes.

Try thinking of a new currency with conversion, not to mention 800 years of inflation. 2mil could be pocket change.

I could get 6688 Ship Hull Platings for 2 million. I don't see how you can call that pocket change. 2 Million IS ALOT of money in the Freelancer universe.

What every single pirating group needs is a cargoship. That way, you can demand cargo. In RP, better profits, etc.

Thats most likley what pirates would do if FL was RL. But as players know there holds can't carry much and they can't always have a friend online with a cargoship they just ask for money insted.

Of course, in this new economy, you're going to have trouble selling anything for above 100 credits a unit.

It shouldn't matter if based on the Mods Economy you can't make a decent profit off the cargo. Most pirates would use alot of what they stole from traders as well as sell some of it. If you pirate a trader carrying food for example, most of that would proberly goto the pirates themselfs. But people who pirate don't seem to take that kind of RP into consideration and just want money so they can get a nice new shiny ship.

"Let all my pirate brothers go hungry, i don't want to help feed them by liberating food from transports, i want my nice new shiny ship!"

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[Thexare]

Yeh i have done piracy before. Tho i never did the whole Single ship thing. I have only pirated in groups (Like all pirates should if they don't want to die to the police). Most traders give in to demands of pirates without any hassle (Espeicaly if your not just by yourself). Pirates can generaly get away with pirating quite a few ships before any police arrive and make quite a few million for hardly any time on the server and no real risk to themselfs.

Yes... if they're in groups. Which they can't always count on.

Traders can easily trade alone, and if they're even remotely competent they can pretty easily avoid a lot of pirates too. A few might catch you here and there, but unless you're a corporate trader (which, despite the best efforts of whoever finalized the IDs, are still screwed compared to independent and freelancer traders, thanks to all the wars) you can switch routes when you're robbed and not have to deal with any further piracy.

That by itself should be enough to say trading's easier, if you ask me.

[Stucuk]

Traders can easily trade alone, and if they're even remotely competent they can pretty easily avoid a lot of pirates too. A few might catch you here and there, but unless you're a corporate trader (which, despite the best efforts of whoever finalized the IDs, are still screwed compared to independent and freelancer traders, thanks to all the wars) you can switch routes when you're robbed and not have to deal with any further piracy.

That by itself should be enough to say trading's easier, if you ask me.

Even if a few traders switch routes, most will still do it as long as they can still make money off the run even with a pirate taking something. The War makes it even easyer for pirates as traders are limited to where they can travel so there is far less lucrative routes a trader can take without Rhineland/Kusari/Bretona/Liberty shooting them for crossing a border. Most traders don't even try to run, they just let the pirates pirate them. If you camp the right tradlanes/jumpholes then you can make a decent bit of money with minimal effort (With the only effort being to shoot a trade lane).

Basicaly if you pirate outside the house systems with the most patrols (I.E NY, New Berlin, Etc) and pick a route you know traders have to go through to get to there target you are garenteed to make a decent profit on average (Depends on how meny people are on the server).

For example without traveling through a jumphole in texas to get to California(Which most don't do) you can't get to Cortez without going through the NY-California Junpgate and going down the tradelane(Hence a good spot to pirate people). Without the war then people could go a very long route (Which would be too much hassle even without the war) but with the war people have limited routes they can take. So as long as you pick a good spot your bound to get traders.

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[Jihadjoe]

Veygaar... Never do that again. Ever.

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