I was thinking about piracy... for example, the trader might earn millions on each route, and maximum earnings from a military mission are about half a million (not likely to be higher, cause missions are not likely to be harder).
Anyways, it seems that traders would lose much more if their cargo is destroyed then if they pay. Proposal is, to set maximum sums of money that pirates are allowed to demand. For example, 2 million for trains, 1 million for transports and below.
Why could it be good? Trader, when stopped, will no longer worry that pirate might strip him of all his belongings or kill him. On the other hand, this sum (2 million) is significantly more than mission reward and could allow to buy good deal of useful equipment. Benefitial for traders, since they don't lose cargo and earnings are more than loss. Beneficial for pirates, cause there's no profit from destroyed transport.
I'd say: "Here's my 2 Mil. A pleasure doing business with you. Have a nice day."
ELF Epopts usually ask for a "tithe" of 10% for Church Donations. However, a "cap" as suggested would be agreeable as well. Of course, there is the occasional generous type who insists on giving us more than asked.. sometimes much more. Are we really that loveable?
Protocol question: Are we considering a "hard" rule here, or a "gentleman pirate's" rule.
All the pirates I've seen don't rely on piracy at all for their income. They only do missions when they are bored or need to get an affiliation/rep completed. Everyone on this server trades with some sort of mostly nuetral trader and uses that to fund pirate/terrorist/lawful characters. Theres just no profit in piracy these days. Now, one COULD get into one of the medium sized transports like the Behemoth, put some good guns and a train dirupt on it and possibly make some cash, but its silly change compared to what you can get trading.
The good trade routes give 5 million per trip. Thats 5 million every 12 minutes or so. Thats a lot of money. 20 round trips on a route like that and presto you have a Battleship-1 to 2 hours of dedicated trading. So what if you have to give a little cargo or cash to the occasional pirate?
to sum it up: trading is too profitable, pirating is not profitable enough, battleships are too easy to purchase because of it.
Let me cut through the political jargon. Are you endorsing the proposed limits, or are you saying they're not really needed because of the reasons stated.
Several people have tried this, only ever asking 1 or 2 mil from a trader.
Unfortunately all we get now is a load of utter rubbish about how it's 'against their characters RP to pay pirates' and we're forced to blow them up.
The problem isn't pirates not demanding cargo, it's greedy traders refusing to pay a measly 2 mil.
Orrin: I'll admit I've used money off my trader to give a new character some start up money, usually enough to buy a ship and some weapons, after that each of my characters pay their own way.
It's the usual practice among most of the pirates I know to ask 2 million creds, though, the traders are the ones not cooperating do to the fact that they are almost immune to CDs.
Hence, most people don't carry CDs nor piracy is profitable as a profession.
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God? - from 'Nightfall' by I. Asimov The Outcasts consider Siniestre Nube a sacred place for several reasons. Early explorers discovered a jumphole within the depths of the cloud that leads to a strange world of ringed stars and strange craft. All ships in the burrial ground are placed facing that hole to honor the Alien Spirits. - An Outcast rumor
I don't think there should be a limit, per se, but a SMART pirate would never demand so much that the trader would be forced to fight instead of pony up the cash.
I have noticed a stunning lack of the traditional "give me money or I shoot" variety of pirate on this server. It's a bit disappointing, and takes a lot of the fun out of trading.:)On other servers I've have pirates demand money when I entered the system, even if they hadn't actually found me yet...
And the comment about CDs is spot on. If CDs can't be faster and/or harder to use CMs on, perhaps cruise speed needs to be slowed down a bit. This would also fix the so-called "problem" of capital ships running away from each other too easily.
Let me cut through the political jargon. Are you endorsing the proposed limits, or are you saying they're not really needed because of the reasons stated.
Sorry, only on third cup of java here...
My fault. I don't believe the proposed rules will do what Igiss intends, i.e. promote piracy for a richer RP environment on the server. My shpeal about trading being too profitable relates to what Marauder said. Getting hit by a pirate hardly costs a trader enough money to really be afraid of pirates. So you end up with traders just ignoring the pirate, getting blown up, and continuing as before. Further limiting the amount of money a pirate can demand will only aggrivate the imbalance.
I had forgotten the problem with Cruise disruptors too, thats a good point.
Well that sounds reasonable. It would be good to restrict it a bit.
But as many above me have said, pirating is not to profitable. In an hour of pirating you get about..... 15 mil or so. ( im guessing here ). But trading in an hour is about 150 mil or so.
But then again, pirating is not always for profit, its also to piss off traders....