Here's a good rule of thumb: Keep your cruisers and above away from transports.
The rules protecting traders from caps may change in the future, the argument as to the better or worse will fill this forum to the brim I'm sure, but in the meantime... They're protected. Unlawfuls get sanctioned for even hinting they're using them to pirate or aid in a piracy. Lawfuls get sanctioned for assisting in blowing them up.
' Wrote:This gives you the opportunity to do two things:
Interdict your capital ship between the victim and the cute and fuzzy pirate, so that he's now shooting you, and not the transport - because then if he brings your shield down below 50% (and is stupid enough to do that) you can then merrily blast him to hell and back. (Take pictures!)
That's one. The second is that it gives you the chance to RP with the pirate while you're doing the first, warning him off and about all the bad and dire things that will happen to him when the rest of your navy gets here. You, of course, have to provide first aid and comfort to the poor victim. Which also sets him up for a 6.10 violation, because sticking around to continue plundering while a battleship is sitting right there in front of him is the sign of someone seeking a blue message, NOT someone acting in roleplay as a pirate out for a buck. (Again, take pictures.)
You on your own as a non-official cap cannot blast the pirate out of space without something else happening, though. (Unless, of course, he's dumb enough to be pirating in your Guard system - then you're free to do whatever you want to him.)
' Wrote:Rule Lawyering at it's finest.
' Wrote:Interfering in a fight in such a way to abuse rules that protect certain game mechanics can and will result in a sanction. I would caution extreme wariness in executing any such rule-violation/workaround.
Okay, guys, now you have me confused. How is it rules lawyering? I personally do NOT recommend and I do advise against doing any kind of escort missions with big cap ships - that's what gunboats, bombers, and fighters are for.
But if someone finds themselves in a position where a PTrans is suddenly pirating a transport right in front of a battleship - and is completely ignoring the battleship (which he should NOT be doing - he should be running away with his tail between his legs because there is suddenly overwhelming firepower in his face) - the battleship has only one option.
He can't open fire to defend the transport until or unless his own shield has been reduced by 50%. That's part and parcel of the rules. So what is the battleship pilot supposed to do? Sit there and watch the act of piracy go on right in front of him? The only thing he can do is run physical interference by putting his ship between harms way (the guns of the PTrans) and the victim.
That is perfectly within the role-play of a military naval commander, and is no rule workaround - it's simply a strategy that pirates hate to see. He's not interfering with a fight - he's just doing his job. And we've certainly seen in the past what happens sometimes when there is a cap ship engaging pirates in gunboats and a transport is nearby ... too bad that friendly fire isn't.
I'm simply saying that the military cap ship does not have to sit there with his thumb up his butt and watch some pirate push for a blue message when the sheer presence of the cap in the first place should be making the pirate run in terror.
This also reminds me of the occassion when there was a group of pirates - I think it was 3 of them - in bombers and they had a PTrans backing them up and supplying them with bots and bats. They complained when the Navy pilots came along and blew all of them up for pirating. Sorry, but you takes your chances when something like that happens.
(11-21-2013, 12:53 PM)Jihadjoe Wrote: Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.
My opinion is that any ship actively being used for piracy should be fair game. If said same ship was being used for smuggling or trading then it should fall under the protection of current rules. The counter is, of course, to have more gunboats and smaller out patrolling. This does have the added benefit of reducing cap spam.
We have this same discussion on other servers, and we have the same problem of agreeing on a suitable change so we're in the same dilemma. Personally I agree that pirates in freighters and transports should have more common sense than to pirate in front of any lawful, no matter if they're in a capitol ship or not. On the other hand, I really don't want to see every ship on any server being a cap ship.
In the end, after weighing both ends of this debate, I believe the rules are better as they currently are. While we always will have to deal with those that use the rules to go against common sense, we can always counter that by docking our battleships and launching our bombers to teach said lolwutter that they're not safe after all.