I hope you don't mind a newbe chiming in. I am a short time Discovery player, but a long time Role Player. My role playing experience crosses many venues, and many years.
There is one thing that makes a setting very exciting and intriguing to me. That is: Diversity.
I don't like a setting where every encounter is the same. I don't like cut out rules and formulas that players have to follow. What i do like is every encounter to be different. I love to role play, i love story, i love sticking in character and seeing how it works out. I have a character running trade. Sometimes, he flies away from a pirate with only a bruise to his bank account, and others he get's blown up. The difference for me is how I, and the other player, play out the situation.
If a pirate demands more then I can give, or willing to give, I either make him earn it, or make him take it. Not because I play a "greedy Merchant," but because I have goals in mind, things he is willing to fight and die for.
Some pirates are hard, and not easy to escape. others are happy that they got some of your money. That's life. there are a diverse group of people in here, and I'm happy for the variety.
I have just made a new character, who i play on grooming into a pirate. I want to see how that side goes. I don't know what kind of pirate he's going to be yet, but i do know that it will revolve around RP.
To comprehend a nectar requires sorest need. -Emily Dickinson-
that may be well and good for you, but when you are a pirate and EVERY single trader you get in a goes afterwards
"// im playing a stubborn old man" or
"// my character refuses to pay bc his mom died from pirates" or
"// my char is just really brave and a fighter"
well it just gets real old real fast. thats why my traders are more realistic, because i actually play the other side. they run first and try to get away, but once hit with a CD, its time to beg and give money. i just dont get how people rationalize the fact that they are being so unrealistic a character by attempting to run or engage the pirate at THAT point rather than paying. its ridiculous. your engines shut down, pirate inches from your thruster with EMP guns and SNAC ready, PAY UP!!!!
' Wrote:Also, it's in-RP for most of my chars to make traders drop their cargo. Why wouldn't my Unioner force a Republican to drop all of his cargo?
Does not mean you have to. One of those cases where RP and being a jerk are synonymous.
' Wrote:I remember pirating Mal for like 20 million in Kyushu with my Blood Dragon back in 4.82.
Twas fun. Now days, people think 2 million is bad. I lol at them.
Thought I'd add that in for ya'.
Have you been trading recently? It is "10milrdai", and yes, I think that is bad. My apologies, I do not view trading as some great RP trek that I wish to engage in. I find other things more enjoyable.
' Wrote:... There is one thing that makes a setting very exciting and intriguing to me. That is: Diversity.
I don't like a setting where every encounter is the same. I don't like cut out rules and formulas that players have to follow. What i do like is every encounter to be different. I love to role play, i love story, i love sticking in character and seeing how it works out. I have a character running trade. Sometimes, he flies away from a pirate with only a bruise to his bank account, and others he get's blown up. The difference for me is how I, and the other player, play out the situation ...
Yes I love role play as well. And I love diversity. Trouble is that lawfuls don't see it the same way. Every time you see the Navy, Police, Security Forces or whatever, you get the SAME blasted lines ... "time to die pirate."
' Wrote:Does not mean you have to. One of those cases where RP and being a jerk are synonymous.
Have you been trading recently? It is "10milrdai", and yes, I think that is bad. My apologies, I do not view trading as some great RP trek that I wish to engage in. I find other things more enjoyable.
So we are already at 10 million now? Shouldn't that be subject to 0.0 then? That's more than most runs pay. Right now I can only remember the MV-run earning you more. And of course, mining, but that can't be compared to the regular trader.
' Wrote:Go play the game, within the given limitations. That is how role play games are played. Not by trying to work around those limitations or whining about them.
' Wrote:And of course, mining, but that can't be compared to the regular trader.
Actually, mining and trading can be compared with each other, rather well in fact. The problem is pirates aren't savvy to the inner workings sometimes of what the systems actually entail. Details below.
In a Hegemon with a UAU 8 you have a maximum of 2730 cargo space. x2 that would be 5660, more than enough to fill a 5k transport. It takes me roughly 1/2 hour to fill a properly equipped Hegemon with Gold Ore (the default standard as it pays the most). To fill a 5k it takes roughly 50 minutes. Then, said 5k has to make the arduous trek through the Omegas and Rheinland to the high-sell-price point in Munich. If everything is 100% smooth, that round trip is about an hour. So we're at 110 minutes now. The 5k of ore sells for 81,000,000 credits, and it's technically pure profit.
If you don't meet any pirates, your "pure profit" is actually about 245 credits / second. Really not bad. And that is also the most generous estimates possible, usually it's around 200-220 depending on disrupts and other encounters. Now trading can net you around the same credits per second, usually around 220-235 for the BEST routes. I can average between 30 and 35 million an hour on the DSE routes I take (really rather good).
The problem involved between mining and trading, is that a pirate will likely see a transport full of ore, and assume that said hauler is making gobs of cash super-quick. When in actuality, said hauler is NOT making gobs of cash quickly, but roughly at the same credits per second as a regular trader. A trader can expect to be dinged for between 2-4 million as pirates know that profits on any one leg are between 3 and 8 million, and fairplay is nice at times. But when a hauler carrying ore comes along, pirates assume they're going to make 60-80 million on that leg, and think they can take 10 million.
Now this doesn't take into account that the hauler probably bought that ore off of a miner. Usually a sale can be for 70% value, so the hauler is only making 30% of that 80million, or 24 million. Taking into account return-trip goods that can be hauled back, the hauler can expect to make around 30-35 million credits in the hour-long round-trip haul.
Hmm...30-35 million hauling ore, 30-35 million trading goods. So where does the 0.0 "rule" come in? The misplaced conception that the GCME (Great Cooperative Mining Experiment) creates a glut of easy credits in the community is really a fallacy, as shown above. But the perceived notion of "easy credits" being had by traffickers of ore has caused massive inflation in the pirating amounts over the lifetime of the GCME and the Mining Mod. It's something that most goods traders have learned to live with and made a part of their negotiating repertoire. A 10 million credit demand, some negotiation, and either free-floating atoms result from the trigger-happy less-than-stellar pirates, or a negotiated price and a "on your way" by the more laudable ones.
I see pirates rather making demands per trip. From what I am aware the times of not being pirated for 24 hours are over. Hence a regular trader will be pirated more often than an ore transport (at least until he learns not to get caught). And if such a trip only makes like 5-7 million you would lose quite some money when paying the demanded 10 million I was referring to. So in that case I see the pirate guilty of PvP-abuse since he states a demand the trader -has- to refuse, which results in a dead trader.
If the pirate asks for merely 2-4 million as you stated, sure, there's no problem with it.
' Wrote:Go play the game, within the given limitations. That is how role play games are played. Not by trying to work around those limitations or whining about them.
' Wrote:I see pirates rather making demands per trip. From what I am aware the times of not being pirated for 24 hours are over. Hence a regular trader will be pirated more often than an ore transport (at least until he learns not to get caught). And if such a trip only makes like 5-7 million you would lose quite some money when paying the demanded 10 million I was referring to. So in that case I see the pirate guilty of PvP-abuse since he states a demand the trader -has- to refuse, which results in a dead trader.
If the pirate asks for merely 2-4 million as you stated, sure, there's no problem with it.
Saying pirates can only pirate an individual trader once per 24 hours is like saying a trader can only move cargo along a particular trade route once per 24 hours. It doesn't make sense and is not a realistic expectation. If pirates were limited to pirating a trader once per 24 hours then there would be no pirates. In my time zone, I'm lucky to run across maybe 6 traders during my online time. After that my day is done. And IF ... IF ... that trader paid me, I'd have to charge a lot more than what I charge now to make it worth my while. Imagine me pirating 6 traders in a 24 hour period and then I gotta log out because there's nothing else to do except get blown up by some bounty hunter or merc. And if I got my usual 500k demand ... wow ... 3 million credits in 24 hours. And these traders and miners can make 10's of millions in a single trip. Sounds like trader abuse to me.
Come on Ceoran, its your job as a trader to find routes that are profitable. If you continuously take the best paying routes, you're GONNA get pirated. And you're not gonna make a profit. Find alternate routes ... find better times to be online with your trader. Heck, I don't see very many traders on when I'm on. All I see are hunters, mercs, navy and other lawfuls looking to cash in on my pirate ship. You'd probably be safe while I'm online because I'd be swarmed and beaten down before I could utter, "well hello there trader."