' Wrote:3. Don't dock on an unlawful base at the start of a system with pirates in it
If you're going through a system which either has pirates in it (hey, we all look at the player list) or is a common pirate haunt, then contrary to belief it is not a good idea to dock on a pirate-aligned base at the start of that system. Sure, if the pirates kill you then you can respawn in the same system and try to get through to the other end of your trade run in order to go somewhere else (assuming you use a trade run with more than two stops of course). However, the pirates can demand tax from you again and again. If you get killed again, you respawn at their base again.
Within a couple of cycles of this, the pirates will be right outside waiting for you and your only period of life will be the short period of 'post-launch control' required by the dock killing rule. You then either have a choice between going to do something else until the pirates go offline, and repeating the respawn-die-respawn to infinity. Believe me when I say that you will get bored of the latter before the pirates do. We have a name for people who try this - supernova practise.
That would get the pirates involved sanctioned and/or banned. Read the rules, if you kill someone and they respawn in the same system you MUST allow them to leave unhindered. That goes for traders, opposing forces, anyone.
Second, I don't see many pirates who actually RP. "2 mil or die"? I choose death, it'll cost me much less than that to refill my hold after I respawn. However, if the demand is actually reasonable and, what I consider, in role play, then I'll have a little fun and end up paying in the end. Many of the encounters that pirates complain about is their own fault for not being reasonable.
If you see any of my traders, Fantasma and Independence are my primary traders, and you are about to demand 2 mil then you may as well hit the guns. I will never ever pay that much. Especially considering you're, most likely, not the only pirate along the route aiming to demand as much.
Every time I pirate I only demand 100k. I'm not trying to earn a living as a pirate to buy the next best ship, I'm out there to role play. I don't even care if it's a 5k ship, all I'll ever demand is 100k. AND I'm not rude either. I say please and thank you at every encounter. Remember that Pirates being bad is what they do, not always who they are. They have family they're trying to feed, not an empire to build.