When I get pirated, I'm usually the one who is RP'ing. A lot of pirates I meet only say 'halt' and then '3 mil' and nothing else, at all. There are ofcourse plenty of exceptions, but it's still quite sad.
For pirates: NEVER say "2 mil or die". I mean really, with all the OTHER things that you could possibly say, about 90% of them are better than that. Put some effort into RPing your piracy, please.
For traders: pay up. Your life and your ship are more valuable than your cargo. If this was "real" then pirates would demand sums of 20mil or more and they would get them, because losing a 100mil+ ship and cargo and possibly your life is not worth it. If the pirate is being entirely unreasonable and demanding a ton of money (relative to your rank and your current ship) then tell them, politely, in private OOC chat. But DO NOT say something like "I have no money to pay you" or "All my money is in debts" or something silly.
To both sides; don't be an ass to pirates/traders just because when you are on the other side, you are treated poorly. Despite our best efforts, we have a lot of crappy traders/pirates on the server that will not improve no matter how much you try to convince them to. Don't stoop to their level or take it out on other players because of it.
Personal opinion time: As both a pirate and a trader, I have experienced more badly-played traders than badly-played pirates. And I play my trader FAR more than my pirate. I have NEVER had a good RP interaction with a trader, and 95% of my trader encounters, they get blown up because they say stupid things like "I don't care, blow me up, I won't pay." When I'm playing my trader, I do one of two things: try to run, or pay up. Sometimes my running is successful. More often than not though, they catch me. And I RP a bit, then pay up. And I am by no means very rich, but I still give them what they ask for, because in-RP, a couple million credits is nothing against the cost of the ship, the cargo, and the lives of my character and the crew. And I have yet to be blown up by a pirate.
This has been a great thread to read as I am a new trader - I'll share a couple of recent experiences:
On a trade run from Dublin to Manhattan last night, three Lane Hackers jumped me just past the California jump gate and did a fine job in pirating me - I was surrounded by three ships and it was pretty nerve racking - "well, well, well, what do we have here?" - it was brilliant and there demand was very appropriate to my ship and level.
Then I got jumped outside the docking ring at Manhattan by pirates who couldn't make up their mind what they wanted and started shooting instead....that wasn't so much fun and left me planet bound and frustrated.
What I find unreasonable is pirates demanding to drop ALL my cargo, now Xeno's I can understand it. But come on, all of the cargo especially on long hauls. Also, I am more likely to pay if they put some effort into it and dont gang fest 1 lane like yesterday. 3 Gunboats, 2 bombers and 1 fighter all pirated me at the same time.
I pirated people today, not for money, no(not unless they tried to run, then i started demanding money, and even then, only a 100k) I was pirating for JOKES, thats right, all you had to do was tell me a joke, or heck even say you didn't know any and i let you by.
ONE out of 10 people i stopped, was actually being civil about it, he said he didnt know any, i let him go, then i run into a train who decided hed rather shoot me then say a joke, and an armoured transport as well. Seriously, is a joke too much to ask for? Another gem is a sanction threat, oh yeah, you shot my shields down to half and it's my fault im firing back /me facepalms, is the average RP of traders dropping here?
So yes traders, if a pirate stops you and asks you for something, go along with it, dont start blasting back, chances are that supernova is really goint to leave you hurting....