Why is the community population declining?

[Croft]

Personally I'd set the pirate ID to hostile with everything but zoners and junkers to reflect their independent nature and limit or remove cap ships from piracy.

Sure, the day they make Zoners and Freelancers hostile to everything "to reflect their independent nature" Cap ships pirating isn't a problem, you'd be far more screwed against two bombers, only difference is that you might have a chance of getting the feeling of success by knocking out their shields or something insignificant like that.

Taking my words out of context is a poor way to reflect your disagreements, you know full well the limitations of zoner and freelancer ID in regards to unlawful actions.

No matter what you face as a solo transport you are always outgunned having larger ships pirate you is an escalation of that and prime example of my own reluctance to play. There is a degree of hypocrisy in the way this is handled. Take House wars for example, if one side is being overwhelmed they complain bitterly and usually something is agreed upon to balance the majority of fights. The same thing happens to me in a transport, yet if I voice my complaint I get told to "use an escort, space is dangerous" and other versions of dismissal.
Very rarely do you see an agreement to show fairness to the trader, even the rules for making demands are incredibly vague "No excessive demands" what about "No demand may exceed 75% of the cargo's buy value" or a basis of piracy I normally see "Demands may not be determined by ship price" hell even "Pirates must vary their demands if their target is willing to haggle."

Besides, indie pirates aren't the problem - players that pirate in a negative or oorp way are. You'll find these players amongst junkers, corsairs, outcasts, rogues and so on too, its foolish to blame an ID and an IFF.

Perhaps you should read my post again, I will embolden the relevant section.

However I do come across those pesky indy pirates (untagged or just pirate ID'd) who simply refuse to accept any form of RP, they won't haggle or deal issuing the same "X mill or we'll open fire." Those kind of pirates are fine in moderation, space is dangerous after all but when you're facing the same thing constantly it simply isn't fun. Why log on when all I'm going to get is a glorified answering machine with guns?

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Jimmy The Rat | Croft's Feedback | The Rat Pack