I once was in my Zoner Whale and, from O-49 to Pennsylvania, I got pirated 6 times...go figure...(4 out of 6 encounters were actually quite enjoyable, but still..)
' Wrote:We should subsidize the pirates more to increase their activity.
/me agrees 8-|
Piracy is either not profitable (well, I do it for the lulz, but a bit of profit wouldn't be bad) or you have to be really greedy and mean, in which case you get a lot of insults and Q_Q 8-||
Yes, you don't meet pirates. I searched for them yesterday, for 2 hours. I met not a single one.
Why?
Pretty easy!
The universe of Disco is huge. Trading opens many route options, much more than mining did.
Miner from Dublin went: Leeds-Magellan-California-NY Detroit, only if it was really bad they detoured to Cortez.
So pirates knew: Ah! This is the main line. Sit there and have fun.
The haulers knew: Ah, this is the main line. If I want to earn money and go low risk, don't go at prime time. OR (and that is IMG thinking): Ah, it is prime time. Let's try it because we can and it will be enormous fun.
Escorts knew where the dangerous part was and they knew some of the pirates, had dirty deals with them, informed the Navy, etc... roleplay!
=> Point is: There used to be almost guaranteed interaction in some regions because the mining mod clearly defined start and end points for ore runs. The routes were limited and could be kept under check by pirates.
Now things have become diffuse... no one knows where to be. Traders fly all kind of fancy stuff to all kind of fancy places, resulting in 4 players in [unimportant system X] and 3 in [unimportant system Y] with no interaction and no player-player meeting.
That's the problem.
It's not the pirate's guilt.
It's a structural problem when you take away hubs of roleplay and routes/points where game focusses.
I won#t deny: too much focus is bad. But no focus is worse because with the players dispersed like yesterday (at least where I was) results in exactly no roleplay happening.
Well, I don't know...I did a few routes in my USI yesterday and the day before that, and had quite a few encounters: a few indie pirates, 2 sails, HF (they actually escorted me:D), NLH and countless lawful encounters 8-|
As for the lulz...I smuggled H-fuel and Plutonium from Kusari (bandit)
I used to enjoy pirating with my Sabre or Falcy. But the problem doesn't lie entirely with the pirates. Nearly every trader I encounter these days are totally silent. It's often a case of find trader, greet trader, disrupt trader, make demand, catch up with trader, warn again, pew pew. It's boring when they don't talk to try to negotiate and I never make money from doing it. It's not like I ask for much, just 1 million or a request to drop cargo, depending on what I feel like.
If I go to Liberty for some pirating, it's not long before I get 2 indie cruisers coming after me then the Bounty Hunters come crawling out the woodwork to finish me off. So that isn't fun either. Kusari pirating ends in 9 KPTs with a few Hogos showing up, I like Bretonia so I don't pirate there. Rhineland is getting too quiet and too much of a chance of Corsairs appearing...
Out there are poor Outcast girls in desperate need! Please give just 10 million credits or whatever you can to the 'Katie wants a Battleship' fund today. Just pick up the comms and type "/givecash Katie.Katastrophie 10000000" now, thank you!
' Wrote:I used to enjoy pirating with my Sabre or Falcy. But the problem doesn't lie entirely with the pirates. Nearly every trader I encounter these days are totally silent.
Stop pirating traders that are being zerg-rushed by NPCs?
There is NO problem that can`t be solved by the use of high explosives.
' Wrote:Stop pirating traders that are being zerg-rushed by NPCs?
Ok Mister. Unless you have evidence to prove that accusation, I might take that as a personal insult.
Out there are poor Outcast girls in desperate need! Please give just 10 million credits or whatever you can to the 'Katie wants a Battleship' fund today. Just pick up the comms and type "/givecash Katie.Katastrophie 10000000" now, thank you!
