We've had the "pirating in bombers" discussion before. As a trader I don't like it.... but lets be honest, with pirating in a capship against the rules, what choice is there but a bomber? A VHF? Class 8 shield with 100,000 hp and 120,000 armour, the trader would laugh at you.
The main problem using bombers as pirating, as pointed out is the RP. There's only 2 bomber models available, one of which is build by Rheinland Military. And I get the impression not many people like the Taiidan. So you better have your story straight;)
Koolmoo, of course you are free to demand whatever sum you like. I personally would not like to see an artificial cap put on piracy. Buuuut be careful not to throw out the baby with the bathwater, as it were. If you demand such high sums that no one wants to pay, then either... 1)They find a different route and you lose your income; 2)They don't give a sh*t, let themselves be killed and you lose your income; 3)They dock camp and you lose your income; 4)No one bothers trading any more and you lose your income. The choice is yours mate:P
In fact the [Brotherhood]'s charter specifically places limits on how much we can demand from traders, and I bet other factions do it too.
As I recall, a while ago someone playing a Unioner basically wanted to be a terrorist, but the ID didn't allow it. So he got around it by demanding some astronomical sum (like $100m), and he started shooting before the trader could even refuse. But that was a special case.
My deux centimes....
EDIT: I forgot (5)They hire wingmen to whup your a$$ and you lose your income.
*Cough* that was me too. And the basic principle is still the same, I am a terrorist.
See, it really is the only way to make money, unless you use a gunboat. And unless you happen to belong to a faction that has a gunboat, its pretty much WAY out of roleplay to use the damn things. So, a bomber is the next logical choice. And, I do pirate in areas where the cops can come and kill me. I killed 3 KNF today. If you want to restrict pirating to no-bombers, you'd better make it no-gunboats too. And at that point we'd all better just hang up our guns, becuase mounting 3 colodas just to have some efficiency against a trader is silly. OR, we could all mount novas on our fighters, and watch them cruise away, scot free.
If you pay off a pirate, they shouldn't be going after you for at least the next 24 hours, possibly longer. @ 10mil/24 hours, you'd still be making profit. Of you can die once every 40 mins as the pirate moves back into that system/route, and lose much more money. Its silly to ask for 2-4mil, as the repairs from fighing the cops/traders/escorts, radiation damage, and more B&B/missles/mines would leave you in the red.
Personally, I would welcome someone hiring escorts, its not really too entertaining to swoop on some train, demand money, have him pretend to pay while frantically cruising, then eventually try to kill me with those puny transport guns. TRADING IS SUPPOSED TO BE HAZARDOUS! If you think its unfair for me to pirate in a bomber, wait till I get a Gunboat. You ain't seen nothing yet.
Quote:... TRADING IS SUPPOSED TO BE HAZARDOUS! If you think its unfair for me to pirate in a bomber, wait till I get a Gunboat. You ain't seen nothing yet.
Vlad mate I thought you were a terrorist, not a pirate.... BTW I find your siggy ironic, "Unioners for the people", considering you specifically target poor working civilians:P
Anyway I'll say again.... if you demand too much money from a trader then you're just shooting yourself in the foot. IMO "too much" means more than twice the profit they'd make on that particular run. Look it doesn't matter whether the pirate or terrorist or w/e feels he can recover his running costs from a single job.... the trader could care less if you can buy enough missiles. Its a case of, if the trader feels a run is not profitable coz they're gonna get bushwhacked for every penny, then they are gonna change routes or give up. Then everybody loses.
(besides which... $10m /24 hours running costs?! You're supposed to fire those missiles, not eat them:D)
I agree with X-Vlad. Pirating is extremly hard to do, and even if you have a GB, traders will still just laugh and try and fly away. I demanded 5 mil from Sunburst today and he just laughed and talked back to me in a very un-rp-like manner. Its dissapointing most pirates don't really have a chance.
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