Fixing Piracy

[Jayce]

Completely Agree with you man.

One Advice from me.

Restrict Transports to mount only upto UAU8 armor so that transports are unable to mount creapy CAU7's or CAU8's and get to nearest station before bomber can even take it down or get backup from lawfuls.

If transports cannot equip CAU armors, which they have to earn money for by using said trade ship, they will be rarer in space. So far CAU armors on transports are rare.

And if you would want to force CAU off the transports, why not force AU8 on them by default then? Because if CAU armored trade ships are too hard, then unarmored ones are too easy.

To sum it up, your idea is bad and counter-productive.

What is the most fun for me in piracy is that it now is challenging and keeps a pirate concentrated and this is excellent. You cannot be always the victor as that creates no motivation for traders to continue on such path.

The piracy is damn good now. The era of 4.85 is long past, when you could destroy trade ships in less than 20k without risking anything yourself.

Ach, sweet memories of Hackers tormenting my IC ship and me unable to do anything about, being absolutely helpless and complying to all of their demands. Empowering trade ships was a good decision.

The one time I've ever agreed with one of your posts. GG.

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[sindroms]

My first reply to your post was rather rushed and unproductive and I apologize for that. I think I might as well sling my two cents here.

Back in the day, we had more pirates overall. When talking about piracy, I mean. It is not like today when, as you already said, most unlawfuls are people looking to shoot lawfuls in large groups. Sure, back then lane pirates were quite more common, but do you know what else was common back then?

The knowledge that you will rarely get paid, when the trader knows for a fact that you are not the only pirate on their trip. The pirate count issue back in the day was balanced by the fact that we had more people online overall, so the lawfuls found it fun to chase them around. That aside, the slow and graduate nerf of pirates is deliberate from a balance point of view, as there are simply not as many people around, and so the overall challenge and thrill of piracy needs to be achieved in a different manner. There are not as many lawfuls anymore to counter the pirate, so the average pirate needs to be kept on his toes in different ways. Harder to kill traders is just one of them.

Overall, as far as I remember back in the day, we were actually whining that Piracy lacks challenge. That it is way too easy to kill traders. That nobody bothers to roleplay with us, because there is no escape anyway, so why bother. The overall buff in transports was not only to give pirates new toys to play with, but also because it would instill at least some sense of security in the average trader, that they are closer to the playing field more or less.

Obviously, this cannot be said about 5kers, which are still easy to take out because, let's face it, it is how they were intended in the first place, but TSing TZing medium transports such as the Kamome makes me stop for a moment and consider if I should pirate this guy or will he have an excuse to rip my face off. That in by itself, the feeling that you might not be on top of the food chain is something that every pirate player needs to experience.

You are in a hostile place, surrounded by red and shot by npcs, the gate, the lanes. Back in those days, it made piracy mad and hectic and, most importantly, it wasn't for the average player. If you could pirate successfully and make a name for yourself, it was a thing. It was an achievement and we had plenty of people like that. Phate was one of them. I can 100% guarantee anyone from 84 remembers this guy.



Piracy as it is now is not broken. The rules have changed, but the challenge remains high and it is just how it should be. If you wanted to sit next to a lane in windowed mode and watch a show in the background, that is not what it is about. Never was. With the new scanners added, you must rethink your strategy. It is just something you need to do.

Right now there are not as many pirates around, because it is not as easy anymore. All of those "Give money. 2mil. now." have given up, leaving people, who want to prove that piracy can be done. Since it is a challenge now. And that is what it was originally supposed to be.

And speaking as a pirate, if a player can set up his trader in a way to evade me, not to mention use that ability to his best extent and effort, I can wholeheartedly say he has earned his right to keep his cargo and pocket unmolested.


My two cents.

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PSA: If you have been having stutter/FPS lag on Disco where it does not run as smoothly as other games, please look at the fix here: https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthrea...pid2306502
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[Curios]

Cumulative reason from all side reasons for piracy being dead is that the single-ship gameplay was wounded a lot over all the updates starting from the bomber special guns introduction. You can't just take out on VHF and have fun because you're too restricted in what can you do - in VHF you can't fight gunboats and above, you can't pirate, you can't fight against people who are coming into game with a group, etc. So there is simply no reason to come into the game if you have no partner to fly or you're risking just to be very displeased by the outcome of that move.

All the piracy back then in green grass time was basing on the fact that anyone could just come with VHF\Bomber\GB and get ass on the lane and pirate - transports were easy cakes so all the measures to get the trader CDed and rounded were repaying with ability to feel stronk and bad when traders falls down into your trap.

Now battletransports that somehow can be fast, have good firewpower, have huge cargo space are a tough fight for a lone unlawful and usually can just get to the nearest station. We were testing - a heavy trading ship can fly over 50-60 clicks under constant bomber fire - and it's w\o even bothering to shoot back. So you need to take even more serious guns to fight that well or to group up with other players. All of which of cause a trouble that stops people from bothering with that - easier to group up and look for lawfuls to pew or not to log into the game at all. (which is actually happening)

[Mímir]

While there is definitely some merit to stronger transports, I find it a bit silly that it is harder to pirate a convoy of 3 transports than it is pirating a transport with two VHF escorts, if VHF's are meant to be "space-superiority fighters".

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[sindroms]

You forget one thing.
We seem to think that the Pirate-Trader encounter starts when the trader and pirate meets.

Nope.

Trader and Pirate encounter starts from the moment when the Trader undocks from the planet with cargo. What happens later and the outcome of this encounter is up to them.



The fight between the pirate and the transport/escorts is just one of the results of said encounter itself.

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PSA: If you have been having stutter/FPS lag on Disco where it does not run as smoothly as other games, please look at the fix here: https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthrea...pid2306502
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[Curios]

Spazzi, you're correct. But that's the most interesting part - current balance is looking like it was done taking in mind the battle encounter of trading convoy against pirates with cruisers which is total damp. The trader's gameplay goal is to avoid being stopped by pirate - if that happes then he must be out of options but to pay or to die a quick death. That's what I liked in TRADING\SMUGGLING (not piracy, note that) before it was turned into alt-tab flights with little to no chance to run into pirate ambush.

[sindroms]

I don't agree there. Then it becomes one-sided, where the pirate has a 100% over the trader. Sure, I will say that a trader needs to be punished for not keeping his eyes open, but he should be given SOME chance to escape his problem.

And that is how it is right now. Just now the traders have a bit more help with the scanners, but that only means that the pirate needs to come up with an idea how to avoid being detected until the last moment.

Fields, gates, everything else. Look at your target, after you make sure it might be a trader and just pounce it where he cannot use the scanner to his own advantage. How bloody hard is it?




I will note, however, that jump trading is becoming a large problem now. Back in the day, it wasn't such a big deal, but now when we have large and active trading factions doing it, I cannot help but wish they had their jump barges taken away and be forced to actually use lanes like intended.

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PSA: If you have been having stutter/FPS lag on Disco where it does not run as smoothly as other games, please look at the fix here: https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthrea...pid2306502
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[Highland Laddie]

I will note, however, that jump trading is becoming a large problem now. Back in the day, it wasn't such a big deal, but now when we have large and active trading faction *cough*Republican* doing it, I cannot help but wish they had their jump barges taken away and be forced to actually use lanes like intended.

Fixed that for you.

[sindroms]

RS died, apparently.

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PSA: If you have been having stutter/FPS lag on Disco where it does not run as smoothly as other games, please look at the fix here: https://discoverygc.com/forums/showthrea...pid2306502
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[Highland Laddie]

Problem solved then, I guess.