If both sides avoid making the worst mistakes, these situations can become better.
I fly battletransports, with high CAU armors (usually CAU 8) to have a pewpew option when I do not like the situation.
However I nearly always try to rp and I gladly pay good pirates, do what they want and/or spend quality time rping.
There are however lines that make me go into: "ye, f u. Die" mode.
This is my list of don'ts:
> Pirate: "30 seconds to pay... 25...."
If pirates count, I shoot them, preferrably while they are typing. They want my time, they have to give me theirs. Typetrapped + 10 Charons. Lovely.
> "There is nothing to talk about".
> "No chatter, pay up"
> ...
There always is. It's an interaction between characters/poeple/players. And "rp with guns is also rp" may be true, but it is a rather weak and boring form of rp in most piracy situations.
> Cargo demands IF the pirate doesn't have a transport vessel present
> "Drop all cargo"
I only comply to cargo demands if there is a transport present. And even if, I only hand over the amount that the pirate can carry. I never hand over all cargo because gameplaywise this makes no sense (stuck mid-route, no cargo; It's easier to start at the start again). The sentence "A friend will pick it up" is a lie in (conservative guess) 80+ percent, and an excuse to be a duck. I never believe it. Actually this line was fake in 100 % of the situations I cared enough to check, but I know some pirates/factions that actually ask for transports, so I go for 80+ %.
Generally: be interested in the interaction, please!
I understand that pirates to not want to listen to the story of their victims' lives. Fine. But if they do not want to allow for some conversation that fits the situation, they deserve nothing more than Charons to the hull or a boring chase to the next safe place.
Ahhh... finally posted in a pirate-trader thread again.
Feels like... 2012.