LOL I tried being a pirate and it's just boring. Not enough human players. I bought a bomber, outfitted it with SNACs, torpedoes, pirate ID and all that stuff, and chose a nondescript player name. I then hid at a supposedly busy jumpgate (the one between NY and CO) for over an hour. Not a single transport came by. In fact, no player of any sort came by. So I went back to Rochester base and have since forgotten about that character.
If I had spent that hour trading in one of my transports I would be 25 million richer. Crime sometimes pays, but not in Discovery.
There's little to no point in pirating for money. I've yet to meet someone who pirates because they actually want credits. Pirating in this game is mainly about the RP you can get from it. You could try joining a pirate faction like the Alcatraz Rogues to see how other players go about pirating.
(07-29-2018, 10:31 PM)jm02130 Wrote: LOL I tried being a pirate and it's just boring. Not enough human players. I bought a bomber, outfitted it with SNACs, torpedoes, pirate ID and all that stuff, and chose a nondescript player name. I then hid at a supposedly busy jumpgate (the one between NY and CO) for over an hour. Not a single transport came by. In fact, no player of any sort came by. So I went back to Rochester base and have since forgotten about that character.
If I had spent that hour trading in one of my transports I would be 25 million richer. Crime sometimes pays, but not in Discovery.
The server has 'tides' as I like to call it, with regards to player population. You might have just been at it during a low tide/low player count time of day.
I literally lived and only logged for piracy for years. The game is like a complex version of chess. The point of piracy (other than for literal cargo or credits) is the 'check mate', that being, exactly what happened to you as described in your first post. Escape is not impossible, but a pirate can get you at a place far enough away from bases, and stay close enough to you to disrupt your engines (no matter how good you are with your flare, if a pirate is close enough, or in front of you, you aren't likely to escape a CD from under 2000m), then they 'have' you (check mate). At that point, you can either pay, run, or fight. I pirated just for the check mate. Sometimes when I had someone, I'd just let them go, like throwing back a fish. But the exercise of the action does take a bit of work and patience, and that's where the value of it comes from. As you mentioned, it can be a long wait for an opportunity to pirate, which is why most pirates don't easily let a trader get away. The point of the lane systems being as they are, is to make those routes vulnerable, setting the stage for a battlefield.
Honestly after I had flown ever class of ship, had bases come and go, made billions, had all the equipment and cargo I ever wanted, all that's really left to enjoy is your interaction experiences. Piracy is literally hunting, like sport hunting. It really is about getting the upper hand. Every experience is unique, and that's where real fun comes in. Flying an expensive ship is great, but I had way more fun in a 4million credit ship by going for experiences more so than stuff, after a certain point anyways. Its rarely ever 'personal' and more about proving you can pull it off successfully. That's why we don't really pirate to make credits to build characters, but rather as small tokens that represent a 'victory' or achievement. 99% of pirates (of any kind) will give you a fair chance to pay your way out without losing what you have. its true, if your cargo is not valuable, you only lose time and the ability to return to that system. If your cargo is worth 70 million because you're flying a 5000 cargo hold ship, you may not want to lose it since it took a while to get. Something to think about for traders when confronted by a pirate.
The California-New York and New London-Cambridge jump gates are the busiest I know. I pirated at the NL-Cam one, and often got various transports, sometimes with ore, going from Dublin to Rheinland, or from Rheinland to Southampton or Canterbury, I think. Ore is very profitable, so you can ask for more credits from them. Even better if you have a pirate transport, you'll be able to loot the cargo if they don't want to give you money.
I think that the California-New York jumpgate is also good. It's where most things that go from Liberty to Bretonia go. Perhaps the Manchester-New London one isn't bad either, but I've seen more traffic from Rheinland.
Idk about other Houses, though. I mainly play in Bretonia, both as lawful and unlawful.
NY to PA is also quite busy. As for looting cargo, I guess you need a transport or a gunboat, not a bomber. It might be fun to join a group but I'm a freelancer at heart.
I can understand why, if you've made billions, trading loses its appeal. I have one character whose mission is to loot every wreck in the game. That keeps me interested for now, especially since the few NPCs that pose any threat are in remote systems inhabited by Nomads or the Wild.
Piracy is just to add flavour to overall Disco experience. It can hardly make any decent money on regular basis with the exception of hitting hotspots during events as at such opportunities you can make a living via monetary extortion.
(07-30-2018, 04:33 AM)jm02130 Wrote: NY to PA is also quite busy. As for looting cargo, I guess you need a transport or a gunboat, not a bomber. It might be fun to join a group but I'm a freelancer at heart.
I can understand why, if you've made billions, trading loses its appeal. I have one character whose mission is to loot every wreck in the game. That keeps me interested for now, especially since the few NPCs that pose any threat are in remote systems inhabited by Nomads or the Wild.
If you pirate in a Bomber, a friend in a Transport is worth their weight in Ore. And if you are a trader and you come across a pirate surveying the wreckage of some other poor sod, offer to buy the loot he's sitting on, it could save your life, and you get a decent RP experience out of it, possibly.
You can't realy pirate in one ship , if you want to pirate , build several pirate ships and deploy them on different bases in most busy systems . Then you log in any ship and just watch player list and see where is lot of players , or to see who is possible trader ship/s , predict their course , log in ship that is closest to place you THINK trader will go and ambush him .
It is matter of luck and knowledge of trade rutes, every good pirate also have to be good trader , kinda "if you want to catch your prey , put your self in prey shues" logic .
For example , you see BMM tagged ship in London , then after a few minutes , you see him in Cambridge, so as good trader , I am 70 % sure he is full of gold ore and he goes for Berlin, so I log my Hessian ship and I have enough time to go to Berlin or Stuttgart and welcome him . If I wait till he comes to Omega , I am more sure he goes to Berlin, but I have less time to intercept him .
Piracy is my only source of income, besides borrowing cash from @Kyoi and scrapping transports to engineless camera ships. Tbh, I have no problems finding prey and I like a little fun 5 mill ery now and then.
(07-23-2018, 04:13 PM)jm02130 Wrote: my large train, a ship I never would have purchased had I known it was a magnet for pirates and bored policemen. It's a pig with no defensive capability. It's good for short trips in friendly territory only.
NO
Long range scanner.
When u see a name which is static in the lane or isn't approaching at very high speeds drop out of the lane. From then on Cruise away and preferable attempt to ascend or descend below or above the plain of the system.
From here you can cruise to either a JH, Jumpgate or a different route altogether.
Also. If you enter formation, sometimes lanes stop working for you when you try to use them solo.