' Wrote:Jynx did state that in gameplay terms it's different, but in RP, you have to pay and feed the crew, get more fuel for a bigger ship, etc. In roleplay, fighters and bombers are cheaper, otherwise the house military would just be flying big ships and not even worry about bombers and fighters.

EDIT: And I have to say, demanding small amounts does not necessarily mean you're RPing more. Do you want to get payed and eat? Well, you need to demand enough to do that, and make a profit, if you're pirating for money.

' Wrote:Pirate Transport eats other transports for breakfast. For morning tea it snacks on Light Fighters whose pilots broke their strafe keys, and lunch consists of the odd VHF. Dinner would be the delectable Gunboats, all high and mighty and not noticing their powerplant drain/dps ratio. Supper might be a bomber that missed an afternoon SNAC.

' Wrote:And don't get me started on the Armored Transport. Its a light gunship for 2 mil, 3.5 if you count full kit. Eats fighters like you wouldn't believe, and can put the hurt on anyone that doesn't have dedicated shieldbusters

' Wrote:Transports do a wicked amount of damage, and their gun firing arcs usually aren't as carefully adjusted as Gunboat ones are. They have shields almost as effective as GB shields (to fighters, anyway) and they have the weirdest hitboxes you'll ever see. Plus, if push comes to shove, they can mount capital ship armor upgrades and it takes no less than four CDs on average to hit a train once... and they're back at cruise after ten seconds.

' Wrote:The things are like turtles with laser turrets. They don't move very fast unless you run out of CDs, but with anything smaller than a VHF (or a Loki), you can't kill them before they've completed their route. Even dropping the shields gets messy for LFs- remember that they have dinky powerplants, using guns designed for VHFs

' Wrote:GBs even have to watch their tread sometimes- energy is a real issue, unless you're kitted for anti-fighter... in which case have fun beating up something just as resilient as you are.
To be fair to transports, those bombers are a right pain, and their hullbusters will sometimes be able to drop your shields in time for a nice SNAC to the face. That's probably the toughest matchup, unless they have Inferno + SNAC; in which case you just run. Hardest part of being a transport pilot is "When do I run, when do I fight, when do I deal?" I have never had more trouble soloing with multiple opponents than with a transport; gunboats do plenty of burst damage to make fighters want to shield camp, and with missiles you can solo a fair score of untrained opponents. Fighters can just not joust and have a fair time, and bombers vs a pile of gunboats just means stay on your toes and hope they don't have missiles. Transports don't have burst damage, and they don't have missiles (thank God); they have decent dps that can knock out one guy.

' Wrote:Interesting considering all we ever see of lawfuls is juggernauts, battleships, battle cruisers, cruisers, destroyers, gunboats and bombers. Just be thankful pirates are not allowed to fly the big ships. Not to mention that lawfuls outnumber pirates.
I suppose you'd rather we fly LF's (that's Light Fighters) ... like the starflea? I fail to understand your argument. And Police ID's ARE found on gunboats. I've seen quite a few of em. But then ... the police don't normally deal with pirates. Pirates are usually dealt with by the navy or by bounty hunters. Those guys fly battle cruisers and such.

Look at it this way. If a pirate flew the equivalent of a liberator (LF) when he pirated ... the transport's guns would cut through him like a hot knife through butter. Pirates don't fight the police. Pirates hunt traders ... and many traders fly the Container Transport and such. The CT has 12 class 7 turrets. I've been in an HF attempting to pirate a CT. I didn't last long.

Pirates use what it takes to get the job done and what it take to survive the onslaught of capships out to kill them. I've argued that bounty hunters should be limited to gunboats ... I barely survived the forum backlash from those bounty hunters.
Sorry to come on so strong ... but these discussions are repeated nearly every two months. Pirates are the most battered group in the forums. Stick around a while and you'll see complaints about pirates usually come from traders that don't like being pirated. Pirates tend to avoid confrontations with the police and the military ... usually because the police and military outgun them.

Its a matter of survival and effectiveness. We're not looking to get into a fight with you.

' Wrote:I encourage you to hunt down any players named XA-First.Last

Those are our trainees, doing their 8 hour pre-flight. They'll be in a Hawk or a 'Blazer.

Feel free to enjoy their attempts to terrorize you.

That aside, I'm not sure at all what this thread is about. Is the OP annoyed that he's not beset upon more often by fighters of the non bomber persuasion? I know our XA groups generally cap out at two bombers and fill up thereafter with fighters to handle the increasing predilection of the local law to fly fighters and bounty hunters ignoring caps so they can qualify for payout on bounty boards.

But for a single pilot, chasing your 100k transport down in an Griffin with widows doesn't sound like a constructive way to spend an afternoon. Have enough trouble taking care of unruly charges with a bomber before they can dock.

' Wrote:Light fighters are really only good for two things in combat: Killing VHFs/bombers (which is often slow going, unless the LF makes good use of missiles and shield busters), and carrying around a CD launcher so their VHF/bomber friends can mount mini-razors or Supernovas and kill things faster.

LFs couldn't even effectively solo-pirate a freighter, much less a transport. I have heard of it happening, but that's only when the transport pilot decides to play along.

Quote:i should had made this clear in my earilier posts. i don't expect pirates to use LF to pirate, but then again i don't expect them to use a bomber or a GB.

' Wrote:Wel, I pirate quite successfully in my Greyhound Heavy Fighter. But if traders won't stop for a Gunboat, why are they gonna stop for a HF or a LF? That's what the mentality is all about. And it doesn't matter if you're flying a Rogue Gunboat or a Hyena Light Fighter, the lawful cap ships will mob you all the same. Difference is, you have more chance of fighting off the lawfuls, hence the pirates' need for Bombers and Gunboats.

' Wrote:I generally pirate in a Lane Hacker Gunship. Why? Because I like flying it?... Well, yes, but there's more. Its so I can dish out the damage necessary to drop a transport's shield while dodging fire from the local battle cruiser sporting nothing but Solaris turrets and manage to get my money or take that transport out and survive.

... That's a true story, too. I was pirating a Mammoth or BW Transport, I don't remember, when a Liberty BC showed up... Finished the guy off (he wasn't paying) while being firing on. Then cruised outta there.

Edit; I think if I had more time to pirate, I would fly a Pirate Transport...

' Wrote:I started out pirating in HF's and VHF's when I first started here. They don't work well. The usual scenario is I demand tribute ... they see what I'm flying and respond with "lolz" or maybe "you're kidding right?" Then the fly off laughing. Ok ... so the next time I find them I've upgraded to a gunboat and suddenly they take me seriously.

@ Baconsoda: True pirating in a gunboat is a bit slow and time consuming. But I enjoy chasing the reluctant trader down. I love to see the looks on their faces when I show up 5 or 6 systems later and cut them off before they get to their destination. Yeah ... the docking ring in sight ... and they're toast. Piracy for me involves patience. The stubborn traders that continually run get my attention more often than those that are willing to play along. I mean really ... is 500k too much to ask when you make 10 times that on a single run?

And I like to fly the Rogue GB ... why ... because its the only ship in all of Disco that actually looks like a pirate vessel.

' Wrote:@ Virus: I had a similar experience. I was pirating a CT when a Battlestar (BSG tagged) came along ... in the Honshu system. I maintained constant fire on the CT while keeping the CT physically between myself and the guns on the Battlestar. The Battlestar had to keep his guns silent to avoid hitting the CT. I lost shields multiple times and was running low on bats/bots when I finally was able to whittle the CT into nothing. And I broke to cruise with the CT's remnants before the Battlestar could deal a final blow. I had about 2 or 3 blocks of hull remaining ... but I got my target.

Quote:i gota make a navy char now, get him into a good VHF, then look around and duel some high end transports i gots to see if this is true.

' Wrote:You forget, sometimes, that there is more to pirating than money. Most of my characters have more on their mind than money. In fact, only one of my pirates thinks about money as his primary concern. When I go outside, I want to see more than just money bags floating around, I want to see my enemy, so I can smite them and their big transport ship.

Of course I am patient, that is the name of the game with pirating, however, I like to get my target. I like to see them want to drop their cargo because they can't kill me or escape me, especially when they didn't talk one bit. Call me sadistic, but pirating is the only time when I want to win. Normal fights, go ahead, kill me, I don't care. My internet is too slow for me to be a great fighter anyway, but in when I pirate, watch your buttocks, because I'm out to win, buddy, and I don't really care how much money you're losing, because I'm either a pirate or a terrorist, and either way, you're mine. :sleep:

EDIT:
I do believe that someone has yet to answer what might've been a rhetorical question on your part. Well, basically, they're anyone who demands something of monetary value from someone else, be them Traders, Miners, Police, Freelancers, Mercenaries, or whatever else you want to throw in there. Though most people would say "If you want something other than money, you aren't a pirate." they might find themselves quite mistaken.

Look for example at the Landwirtrechtbewegung. We pirate, yes, but do we want to? Heavens, no, we don't. In all honesty, if not for the Rheichstag branding us as outlaws, we'd probably be helping those Rheinlanders. If not for the Rheichstag branding us outlaws, we'd probably be part the Rheinland Military. Hard to believe that we don't want to pirate, huh?

What about the Farmer's Alliance? I know you've run into us before. We don't want money at all. All the money we need is given to us by Samura. We just want Kusari to be left to the Kusari. Do we really want to take people's cargo? Not really, but we are forced to in order to get our point across.

Pirates don't always want money as their sole goal, but sometimes, they do need it, and so they have to stoop to low actions to get it. Is that their fault? I don't like to think so, but surely, they are still not simply greed-ridden filth-bags.

' Wrote:my pirate ( clover ) is flying a bomber. - why? - cause it is the most efficient ships for piracy.

- it is cheap
- it is small
- it is probably cheaper and easier to maintain than a gunboat
- it packs the punch to take down a transport without too much pain

and
- transports FEAR a bomber

i have tried flying a VHF - and when i was flying a VHF, some transports entered some sort of sportive attitude before RP. they were not at all intimidated by the fighter ( some with good reason, cause i somewhat tried without success to take them down when they denied to pay ).

so thats when i changed back to a bomber. - the supernova is not very balanced.. but its a fearsome weapon. - and every transport captain knows that it won t take more than 2 shots to destroy ANY transport, no matter of its armour - and it requires hardly any skill to hit with it.

thats all points that speak for the bomberclass.

a gunboat can do the same - but is not as cost efficient as a bomber ( in RP ... in reality, its cheaper cause you won t have repair costs every now and then, due to the much stronger shields )

VHF do well - in packs, but not when you re a lone pirate.... light fighters are a challenge, but impractical - only when you seek a david vs. goliath fight.

' Wrote:I was wondering about somewhat the same thing today, only in real life. I couldn't figure out why bandits trying to rob a heavy fortified van transporting valuables always use cars, heavy vans or even trucks. Why can't they just use a bicycle instead?

/sarcasm
Come on seriously? Usually you pirate in groups of 4 max. 4 lf's are barely able to do damage, let alone survive defensive fire.