I'm agreed with Archelon, pirating is probably the most difficult profession in FL. I have one RP character, becuase I can't be bother running more than that, but I'm a pirate and it's nothing short of frustrating.
I have to find the mark first in the system, get within 4K of them, scan them, order them to halt, ask for payment, at which point they'll have already ran docked at a station and logged off to avoid my levy. There's too many rules to pirating, but I can see why the rules exist, but it's a damn nuisance.
Well, its not too hard to pirate a trader these days if you know what your doing and the trader doesn't (hint hint mista:P). Also, just keep launching CDs and it works wonders. There is a bug which asserts itself when you jump into a system, whereby the CDs dont lock on until you target an NPC before you target a PC. This still catches me out:lol:
But the plethora of military vessels does get annoying, though I think i have solutions for that sometimes. You usually get a group of friends together, so when the SF or whoever log on and try to clean you out of the Ice field in Cambridge, you retreat to Omega 5, and your side suddenly has an extra gunboat and cruiser.
Its always the best way to go about your business when pirateing. Always have a contingency plan:D.
For clarification. You do not have to alert the target with a demand until you've done sufficient damage that makes it important for them to give up the goods. You need to scan for ID, but your demand can come just short of the target's destruction.
If the trader is flying a transport, the first thing I do is to look to the tag. If its white or red, I hit the trade button request and start shooting the trader. If the tag is green, then I scan the cargo to see if he is carrying a friendly ID. If the trader is not flying a transport but a freighter, I scan his cargo to see if he carries a neutral ID, because you known, some crying babies uses this ID for trading.
If Im alone, I dont hunt the trader for more than one jump. If Im grouped with someone, I can try two jumps, since with more people we can coordinate the attack separating the group, each one going in one direction. If theres no more traders in the system or in neighboring systems, I dock and log out.
surely you can still pirate npc's in a pirate cruiser though, who would mind?
I am having a lot of fun killing liberty cruisers and gunboats in my huntress and selling their captains and commanders to my corsair friends on crete..hehhehe.
' Wrote:You cant ask cargo, but if you shoot at any npc transport it drops cargo.
If I remember correctly, you gotta blow up their containers (which are just cosmetic for player ships), though you don't need to blow up their whole ship. They don't really drop it, unless you break their cargo hold open.
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