' Wrote:1. If I am pirating & stop a freighter (Usually "Halt & name of ship") & the freighter does not stop, I know I Can CD him & pound them to a pulp ( leaving a sliver of hull) & make my demand. Question is, what if they dont stop after being CD'd? Say I make 2 more attempts at demanding cargo or money, keep them cd'd & they still try to escape, is it then ok to destroy them?
2. Ok, I am out pirating, say the "Halt so & so" they hit cruise & haul tail.. I have not fired a shot & they make it out of CD range, am I allowed to engage cruise to catch them?
3. my favorite & happens more frequently lately, I catch a ship coming through my trap. Say "Halt Whats ya face" I get "no speak English" as a response... Ok, usually I let them go lately for fear of a sanction, but it has gotten to the point every third person uses the "No speaky engrish!" line What would be the proper etiquet for this situation?
4. How long do you give a trader you successfully stopped to pay or drop cargo before letting them have the business end of your long irons? Myself i give them 15 to 20 seconds to at least get the trade window open UNLESS they role playing which I will give them all day as I love to see a good role played out encounter. But have had a few say " give me a minute" then SHAZAM! they either try to run ( at which point & CD & torp em into dust) OR 3 fighters show up to save their bacon. SO, if after max of 30 seconds & they have not opened a trade window, can I rip em a new one?
1) Make a demand. Only after a demand (2 mil or die) can you kill them. Otherwise it's sanctionable.
2) If you haven't fired a CD at them you can engage cruise because you haven't engaged in PVP. If you have opened fire and they hit cruise first then they are fleeing, and since they hit it first you are allowed to re-engage.
3) Make your demand. If they don't pay, kill them.
4) 20 seconds. Type it out in your demands. "20 seconds to respond x". If they don't, SN them. You're a pirate. You make the demands. You're not meant to be patient.
' Wrote:Wow. I finally got through this whole thread, and ... wow.
Xoria: Nice try, but I think the point was missed a bit. It happens.
Baltar: I've never encountered the Black.Pearl, but I look forward to it.
Both: Misunderstandings from what I read. pitfalls of this medium, inflection isn't well-given.
Now, I've never pirated, but I've been pirated...and attempted to...a lot. So I have a few observations that I'd like to share.
-Saying "Halt" when you're over 5k away, or not even on radar, makes me laugh at you. Please. If you can't pull me out of cruise, I'm not going to do your job for you. And Captain Berger will tell you that in RP.
-Somewhere in here was something to the effect of "If I say 'halt' and you don't stop, I'm going to kill you." Really? Extrapolated, this pretty much means I can cruise into any system with my Gunboat (as it's the biggest thing you can "pirate" in), say "Halt!" in system chat, and blow up everyone that moves, whether they're on radar at the time or not. ?
-You bet your sweet @$$ that I'm going to try and get away from you. Cruise engines trying to spool up, Turrets blazing, full steam ahead to the next trade-lane/dock. I prefer a pirate who asks 1st, CD's and then asks, Starts shooting and asks a final time. I figure after three strikes, you're out, and I accept that as a trader. If I know i'm not going anywhere, I'll acknowledge it. At that time, if the pirate wishes to take my money, cha-ching for him/her. If, however, the pirate wishes to blow me up...he's going to get a few mouthfuls of turretfire for his trouble, whether I go down or he does. A running fire-fight is one of the more exciting things I've been involved in.
What I am saying is that these encounters are two-way streets, and if they're going to happen, let them happen correctly. A Pirate should make an effort, but a trader should as well. "Fine, just kill me" is NOT a proper response to "2mil or die". Use your big-boy words and RP, traders, and this sort of thread could be a thing of the past.
On the matter of blowing up a trader and having them say "you can't kill me for 4 hours when they come back through", that's wrong. Isn't it thta the TRADER cannot come back in-system they were killed in unless the player leaves. Also, if the trader is dumb enough to come back into the same system...tax that SOB again, and again, and again. And if they don't pay, blow them up again, and again, and again.
Well if a demand must be made before a kill shot, then it really corners a pirate to say "2 mill or die". Exspecially if they know you cant kill them till you make a demand and, then on the OTHER side of the coin know that you cant effectively RP pirateing if they have no fear of running before the demand is made.
So, now it looks like all the checks must be placed in the boxes before, RP is even a possibility.
I think some folk get the spirit and the letter of the rules mixed up and it is impossible to write the spirit of something into a document.
So, now for effiecent piracy 2 million NOW!.
Failure to stop = death.
Trade ships are a tad too safe, they can hire escorts mount good turrets, are not targetable by criusers, and now cant be killed until a demand is RPed. while chaseing a player group who is very apt to run and do all manner of actions with so little requirements.
Well Traders are starting to feel the bite of the way this goes down. Now most pirates are stopping traders in groups of 2 or more. One to make the demand and RP the others to keep the trader from running away from the party. And instead of the "2mil or die" traders are having to pay a mil or two for each pirate in the group.
I have found that most traders who are stopped by a fighter who does all the talking usually pay up with a Gunboat sitting in their face just itching for the kill order. By the same token as a trader i make a reasonable effort to get away and if i can't then i pay the pirate and try to get in some RP. Sorry but i am one of those who don't type and fight at the same time.
I will say i have noticed a great improvement in the RP on both sides since this thread started. There are far fewer "2mil or die" pew pew pew types pirating and a lot less traders that stop open a trade window pay and leave without a word. Groups like the Eagles and the tg have made pirating and trading a lot more RP friendly.
The threat of death is the biggest tool for stopping traders.
Let pirates act like pirate for Disco's sake. It seems ooRP to make a demand from some one you know is about to get away only so you can blast them.
This is embrassing the mechanics more tightly than the realism.
With out this it is easier to pirate gunboats than trade ships. At least then they stand to lose system access for not complying.
I'll keep trying but I wont be pirateing as much thats for sure. I'll have to find new ways to engage new players. When pirateing is the biggest window to new encounters there is.
So...you can't shoot till you demand cash, and you can't make a decent demand more complex than "cash or die" without them stopping. If they don't stop you can't do anything because you've got to make a demand before you shoot, which you can't do because he won't stop.
Added to the difficulty, typing macros are deemed as "illegal mods" by the admins, so they're not the answer. It's also impossible to type and hold tab at the same time, in order to make demands while afterburning after a retreating trader.
You don't make things easy, do you?
I'd also like to point out there are no "corners" in freelancer, to ram a trader into. Space extend in all directions. What you're actually saying is that, if a tradeship has someone on it's tail and is cruise disrupted, it should consider itself caught, while it's cruise engines are down. That's putting an awful lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the trader, whilst a pirate has no means of dealing with a Trader that won't play along, particularly since taking action might lead to the aforementioned Trader getting out the ban-hammer you've just given them.
I've never killed a trader that wouldn't stop before making a financial demand, but I'll sure-as-hell fire as many warning shots down their throats as to make them see my point of view.
Incidentally, money is the only commodity mentioned here. Don't I have a right to demand cargo aswell?
Quote:You can, however, demand insane amounts of things (for instance, cargo AND credits) just for the purpose of killing him.
Quote:No, pirates cannot.
You will find the rotting remains of those who have, littered amongst the sanction threads.
It may not be the easiest thing for a trader to prove in their rule violation report, but some have, and the pirate was sanctioned for it.
Pirates are not terrorists, and those who behave like it suffer for it far more than their victims do.
.. Uh?
Since when is this against the rules? I've just finished browsing over the rules and I don't see this covered anywhere.
.. You're saying that if I try to demand an absurd amount of credits from a trader I dislike with the sole intentions of getting him to refuse so that I can kill him, that I can get sanctioned..?
Since when has this been a rule? If I want to demand that a trader pays me 25 million, why can't I..?
I see some problems still didn't change.
That's okay, as long as people are discussing them there's a hope.
Pirates need to approach this problem by a step by step solutions.
Lets start from number one
1. You have to make a money demand and give appropirate time before you can kill the trader. Ammount can't be sick and timing has to be enough so he can reply.
(how was this solved so far by most) - Stop and pay 2 mil [name here].
And it was seen as.. lame. Mostly you feel like you're ripping part of your soul when you're writing it because lets face it, you want rp from trader and you're doing the non rp thing. But its a safety reason and you have to.
(how can this be solved from now on)
- Shoot the damn trader. Shoot him hard, and shoot him heavy. Shoot him until he uses bots and starts saying things like "sanction", "screenshot" and other silly things. Don't kill the guy, ofcourse. Just damage him alot.
You have his full attention now, no matter that he's whining. He's not hitting cruise. Now ask your demand. Let him repair. Think about puppies and shiny sodas and then see his response. If he's still annoying, after he pays you, shoot him down to 10% hull again. He'll be off in no time.