' Wrote:I hope some pirate will change through this post. Okay, you won?t get as much money as before, but the trader and miner won?t be this grumpy. Two Unioner caught my Trader outside of Frankfurt, demanding 2 Million for a haul of Mining Machinery, worth of 1,1 Mio. Why? I was prepared to fight, die or flee, but I could haggle them down to 1 Mio, although I thought that was too much.
As Pirate I tax every big transporter 500k-300k, the smaller ones 300k-200k and all Transporter below 1k Cargo get through for free. The tax doubles if they try to flee (I dont have unlimited disruptors and traveling back to the base cost time and money) and they can reduce the fee if they do a good RP. Important is, that I only tax transporter with cargo.
I dare all pirates to try this model for themselfs. They will notice, that they wont get as much money, but there wont be any bickering or useless fights. And if the trader tries to bargain (and he has a good reason to), then try to come clear with him. Remember, his loot is mostly useless for yourself, you can only get money if he gives it to you ^^
Now, how does this promote independent thought and innovation? I do not endorse this type of RP, and I do not appreciate it being pushed on me. This is not the type of pirate I would like to meet on my trader because then I don't have to make any type of decision. This decision has already been made for me: pay because the cost is minuscule and worthless. I want to be forced to Roleplay. I want to have to make a conscious Roleplay decision which involves risk.
The game is not fun when I mindlessly dock with Trade Lanes and type /givecash any.random.assortment $$$$$$. When I say this is a stale environment, I mean there is no intrigue, no necessity to drive innovation. There is no new RP to actually be had. There is only "Hello trader. Please give me $$$$$$" and then "Okay!". This is not fun to me. I don't want to see big numbers on my screen above my equipment. If I wanted to see inflated numbers, I would make a subscription to World of Warcraft. I want immersion. I want a game which entails something completely new and submissive everytime I play it. Charging pennies off my profit foes not incite this kind of feeling. Charging pennies from my pocket makes me leave an encounter thinking "Oh, that pirate was nice. He didn't steal anything. I won't think of him at all when I turn back." This encounter does not make me search for an escort to scout ahead for me. This encounter does not make me scream for the police to come and save me. This encounter does nothing for me, and very little for the pirate. I do not endorse it.
' Wrote:Come on really, 1million for each 1000 cargo? and you don't think thats on top?
What with the shocking trading prices these days?
Mercenaries here we go, the whole reason why people don't bother is because it then costs you them and the pirates.
Or it doesn't and you don't.
*Waits for someone to say "GREEDY TRADERS SHOULD PAY UP!!!!!*
Yes, greedy traders should pay up. If a decent trade run makes 6-10 million credits per stop, and I charge you five million when I see you, not only are you still making profit, but in some cases you make a generous profit. Not to mention that traders don't get pirated every run...
If you'd like a reason why people don't pay for Mercenaries, let me show you something simple called Game Theory.
Expectation = (Outcome(a) x Probability(a)) + (Outcome(b) x Probability(b)) + (Outcome x Probability) + ...
Now, your probability of paying an escort his fee is always 1. Every single time you hire an escort, you pay him. Now if a pirate charges 500k, and an escort charges 500k minimum, the probability of seeing a pirate doesn't even matter. There is no reason to ever hire an escort because you will always pay him the same amount as a pirate when there might not even be pirates.
Now, if pirates charge MORE than Escorts, there suddenly emerges a reason to get them, because your probability of a pirate winning decreases abruptly in an inverse relationship with your profits, which increase abruptly.
' Wrote:First Example: I met a trader in New Tokyo. He started in Liberty and got caught already from two other pirates, who bled him dry. The selling of his goods would have given him a win of 100k for the long journey (a 5k transporter ^^). He showed me the chatlog, I looked in the chat system, the pirates were there and I let him through without paying.
Second Example: A diamond-trader in Kyushu. He had a full cargo of Diamonds (3k) but no Money to pay me. where others would have shot at him, I told him to drop half of the cargo into the fog. I protected it until he came back. He payed me and got the other half back. He even got a discount because I wanted him to have a chance to upgrade his freighter someday.
Enough? ^^
This might be good RP for you, and if you enjoy it, keep doing it. No one is going to tell you to stop RPing the way you like. This is not my RP. I will never RP my pirates like this. Keep doing what you're doing if you enjoy it, but do not attempt to push this RP on me.
[8:32:45 PM] Dusty Lens: Oh no, let me get that. Hello? Oh it's my grandma. She says to be roleplay.
[12:49:19 AM] Elgatodiablo: You know its nice that you have all that proof and all, Bacon... but I just don't believe you.
' Wrote:Yes, greedy traders should pay up. If a decent trade run makes 6-10 million credits per stop, and I charge you five million when I see you, not only are you still making profit, but in some cases you make a generous profit. Not to mention that traders don't get pirated every run...
Have you even been playing this game lately? really?
You cannot move for pirates.
You see that's the wrong assumption everyone makes.
That a trader is only going to be pirated once per trip, that just isn't true.
You have to spend your entire time just trying to evade them.
' Wrote:Have you even been playing this game lately? really?
You cannot move for pirates.
You see that's the wrong assumption everyone makes.
That a trader is only going to be pirated once per trip, that just isn't true.
You have to spend your entire time just trying to evade them.
If you expect your probability of a pirate winning to be so high, why run that route? Why not find another route? There are many, many good routes which, though they do not make 35-40 million per hour, make more than enough money without any pirates on them. I am not making an assumption which is baseless, I am making an observation based on my experiences.
Even so, if your probability of meeting multiple pirates is so high, why not hire an escort to warn you about them so you pay 0 pirates? Your expected profit should, honestly, skyrocket.
Furthermore, pirates are there to steal your money, not hold your hand. In-RP, most do not take your needs into consideration. Do thugs robbing old women at knife point take the old women's feelings into account? Do bank robbers think about the consequences for the bank? No, of course not, and this is the role pirates play. They are robbing you at gunpoint. You are looking out for your profits just like they are looking out for theirs. I fail to see where they should be nice to you and charge you 1/40th of your average profit when there is still so much more that could be taken.
[8:32:45 PM] Dusty Lens: Oh no, let me get that. Hello? Oh it's my grandma. She says to be roleplay.
[12:49:19 AM] Elgatodiablo: You know its nice that you have all that proof and all, Bacon... but I just don't believe you.
The Smokeone ask maximum of two million credits when we spot 80+ rank traders with over 4000 cargo units.
Else, the standard is one million credits.
Sometimes we ask random traders if they prefer Cigars or Wine, if they answer Cigars we let them go. Has happened many times.
Small-time merchants (Usually players who fly freighters or small-transport vessels with a rank about below 50) who are also respectful get away without paying anything. Also a thing we do frequently.
If you have encountered anything else besides what I have written here, regarding piracy and the Smokeones, feel free to PM me.
Not saying anyone else should follow the guidelines I set forth because that would be in all honesty stupid to try tell other Pirates how they should run their business, but I'm just saying how we roll.
' Wrote:I used to have a Rogue Gunboat who was captained by an utmost gentleman and never asked more than a million, and that million was only ever asked if the target tried to run and failed or was a really large transport. Rates of 500,000 were more common.
I still had people run and I still had people shoot at me. Doesn't matter how much you ask. There are some traders that just never pay and take pride in the fact.
It pisses me off when traders bitch.
I have had two pirates, ever. The second for NPC piracy mainly.
I've logged over 9000 times the hours on traders, and can count the amount of times I've been pirated on one hand.
Perhaps two, I might have forgotten one or two.
Traders need to smarten up perhaps?