Okay, I agree with both sides here.. Yes, if you say halt or 'stay where you are' or 'cut your engines' or any of the other variants, and they keep trying to go in cruise 3 times, just blow them to hell and be done with it.....
But demand their cargo first.
It takes all of 3 seconds to do, less if you set up a preset message for this type of situation. CDs stop cruise for 5 seconds, and cruise takes another 7 seconds on transports to start, then another 2-3 before they reach 350ms. And even then, unless they have CMs you have a good 4 seconds before they are too far away to get them.. That means if you CD them, from that point you have at least 18 seconds to type 'Drop your cargo' before blowing them to kingdom come. If they are silent, you aren't required to make a creative demand like you normally would.. When on my Kiretsu I put some thought into my demands if the player shows he is also willing to RP. Those that sit quietly and wait for a demand usually get something, but it won't be great. Those that just go straight back to cruise get a CD, drop your cargo, then I shoot them to a speck of hull and tell them one last time to halt. If they don't, they're dead 5 seconds later.
When I say "Halt", it's not for lolfire on the ship few seconds after, it's for starting a Role Play...
So it's better to "2milordai" than asking "Halt" first then start talking to the trader why we want to pirat him ?
I have often a story to tell before pirating, I don't look after money, I look after RP between a pirate and a trader. And depending on how the trader answer me, the price I ask change.
This rule is made more for lolpirat than pirat with real RP, IMO.
I just LOVE a good piracy here n there.
(hats off to The.Joker, some of the most creative, engaging, and worthwhile piracy I've seen to date!)
But only when it's RP driven.
Seems like these days, it's Ego driven. Alot.
lets compare...
ROLEPLAY DRIVEN -
"Halt!"
*silence, cruise engines being lit, CD fired*
"I said Halt! Youre being pirated (or some variant thereof)!"
*more silence, more cruise engines, more CD's*
[here, the pirate actually TAKES THE TIME TO ISSUE DEMANDS, because the RP is more important than 'winnning', cause ego's got no part in it...]
"Oh, you'd best stop and cough up some change, or i'll vent you into space through a small hole in your hull, then drag your ship's husk back and make a paperweight out of it(or some variant thereof)!"
*more cruise engines, no CD's*
"Bah! Worm! you're not worth my time you spinelss git. go home and change your wet pants now, or learn english (or some variant thereof)."
-Rp is served, everyone who wanted to take part in the RP, has.
EGO DRIVEN -
"Halt!"
*silence, cruise engines being lit, CD fired*
"I said Halt! Youre being pirated (or some variant thereof)!"
*more silence, more cruise engines, more CD's*
[here, the non-RP pirate's ego has been bruised because he's not being paid attention to, so he opens fire like a child having a tantrum]
BOOM! Bluemessage of superiority, everyone look how awesome I am!
-Ego served, Rp is right out the window, pirate goes and looks in the mirror, admiring his/her looks and returns to the computer, knowing that he actually IS a god in his little world. Next victim please...
Now, I know , I know, next point you're making, and getting ready to reply with is, "its a roleplay server Finn!", but I looked. and nowhere did it say that it is REQUIRED that you engage in EVERY idiot's personal roleplay, and in the end thats what piracy is. Private roleplay, initiated by one or a few people, usually with very little or no warning.
To have the EGO large enough to think that your roleplay is not only required, but punishable by death is , well, no better than thugism, and avarice.
Cmon people, pirate with some wit (like Joker..) or go home.
And if you let the 'how DARE he?!' reaction go, I think you'll find your shoulders loosen up a bit, the corners of your mouth slide up a bit, and you can experience something that seems to have been nerfed along with bomber weapons, tolerance.
I will feel sympathy here when I meet more pirates willing to engage in roleplay and negotiation*. Most I've come across aren't in the slightest interested, and seemingly speak worse english than all these traders I hear people moan about.
I often have a wonderful little story about my kids back on Leeds and the cargo I'm hauling to pay for their dental and other trifling ditties - most pirates I meet aren't interested in this, and despite the fact that I've already submitted to their initial demand to halt will do the bare minimum required to allow them to pew pew at a ship that cannot realistically fight back - sure I can cause them some pain and maybe drive them off (or even kill if I get very lucky or they're very bad), but enjoyably fight I cannot.
What's needed to address in my opinion is a lengthening of the cruise disruption time. Once you've killed someone's cruise engines I think it should be 20 seconds before you can reactivate them. This gives ample time to all parties involved to get the roleplay started.
*I should note I've met a few pirates in the southern Omegas who are great roleplayers and more than happy to banter and negotiate and another who wasn't willing to negotiate but at least was doing so for RP reasons (I was carrying military vehicles to Bretonia) but that the vast majority of pirate encounters go this way:
"Halt"
<I cut engines>
"State your business pirate, my tea's growing cold"
"x mill now or die"
"My good man, that's far too much for a humble trader such as I. Perhaps I could offer you a cut of my cargo? A smaller donation to your no doubt worthwhile cause?"
"x mill. 10 secs or die"
"9...8...7"
"Tally-ho, then"
<I restart engines and open fire>
There seems to be a consensus that "Halt" is a good way to start pirating someone. If your cruising between trade-lanes and 5 ships are within 10k of you, but nothing within 5k and you haven't been CD'd; why would you assume that the "Halt" is being directed at you? "Halt + name/part of name" surely, so that actually have a clue that it's you that's been spoken to.
Quote:There seems to be a consensus that "Halt" is a good way to start pirating someone. If your cruising between trade-lanes and 5 ships are within 10k of you, but nothing within 5k and you haven't been CD'd; why would you assume that the "Halt" is being directed at you? "Halt + name/part of name" surely, so that actually have a clue that it's you that's been spoken to.
Nothing within 5k? You *would* ignore the pirate's demands and continue on your way. A good roleplaying trader would throw a few friendly insults their way first of course, or make some comments about manning the turrets and so on.
Even if the trader can escape you better invest effort in roleplay than in your ego even it's hard sometimes.
For such cases i have prepared some messages as already mentioned.
This way i can stay focus on disrupting the engines or bring down the shields while doing some rp.
Sindroms is right on the spot here.
Some people don't want to make a demand right away. They don't want to be pumpkin and honeybunny from Pulp Fiction. Some want to be slick, and they demand an response from the trader.
Trader staying silent isn't in roleplay at all. If you ask me, one that requests a sanction against a lack of RP, but lacks it himself is a frikkin hypocrite. That's the problem right there.
If a trader is a roleplayer, the situation will surely go like this.
"Stop right there!"
"Ahh, a pirate! mayday mayday!"
"noone can help you here, now hand over 2 million before i blast you into oblivion"
See, the demand is right there after the trader roleplays.
Now, we all know how to non-rp act. but let's see how does rp guy act when confronted by demand right away.
"Hold on and pay 2mil"
"[bah another 2mil or die guy] ... Fine..."
You just killed a possible chance of this:
<p> //hey man, that was sweet rp, first trader in many
<p> //no sweat, I like rp too, thats why I always rp with my pirate
<p> //sweet you got the pirate too?
<p> Yeah man, a Molly! (Notice the lack of // as players realize they have something in common)
<p> Sweet I always wanted to pirate up there
<p> Well why don't you make a new char and I'll give you my skype contact, we'll fly there together. There's this [MR]Clan you can join they're all great at piracy and pvp vs BAF
<p> Whoa sweet
If a Trader doesnt stop he is not willing to Roleplay with you.
I think giving a Notice that you are blowing him up is fair enough for the Pirate, the Trader had his chance.
"Who is it doing this synthetic type of alpha beta psychedelic funkin'?"