(12-17-2013, 07:04 PM)Markus_Janus Wrote: Well I guess since he is a true pirate and wishes my empty transport captain to wire funds directly to his smart saver account at the local bank, he is out of luck and will have to continue on his way to the conclusion of his RP by killing me.
It is obvious at this point that I can not offer him some of my cargo to buy my way out, since I am empty and real pirates hardly ever accept booty as payment anyway since it would be harder for their accountant at tax time.
As I said previously I have tried an angle that would unfortunately take more than two lines of text for the pirate to be paid, it does not have a very good success ratio.
So that means he gets out of his RP quicker and I get to load up quicker.
Win/win I guess.
There has to be some balance. As a pirate, if it seems like there's little reason to rush off, longer RP is certainly more welcome. But it's up to the pirate, if he suspects he himself may fall in danger due to the encounter, he may demand some fast cash. And yes we all know we do our business via bank accounts. So if you drop a few lines of story thats fine, but you may also want to choose your battles. If you're in the middle of nowhere when you cross paths and know there's no one in the system, the pirate will probably be a little more relaxed and willing to lengthen the RP. But when you pirate in a populated area where an enemy ship could show up real fast, time is of the essence, which as much an inrp factor as oorp. Real pirates would probably want to be fast to avoid detection. It is a practical way of playing, and most pirates have had those run ins where you try to RP a bit and the trader takes advantage of your typing to try to flee. The pirate is pretty much forced to abandon communication in order not to lose the encounter at that point, as all they may get out of it is a kill, since by running the trader has indicated they will not pay, and could very well escape. So use common sense. Personally when I'm in a hurry, I say something like,
"Cut your engines and remain where you are,
this is a raid, and I mean to be quick, see?"
"so you have XX seconds to transfer 3 million shiny credits to me or I open fire!"
That's pretty cut and dry, and obvious that the pirate is not wanting a long encounter. Thats the way it goes. Just because they don't want to hang around vulnerable doesn't mean all hope for RP is lost, you can always go with something like
"sorry, my coil emissions are overloading my computer core processors, this will take a moment". This brings us back to the original point of the thread, if the trader at that point at least replies and acknowledges me, I'll give them the extra time to comply. If they wanna talk during that time, they can, and maybe i'll play along. But there will be times when a Pirate will draw a line and demand the payment be made or else, it doesnt take forever.
And the above is decent RP. I have paid about 3 pirates in my time. Two because they weren't being obnoxious and didn't ask for the world. (That, however, is getting very rare.) The other, well, his patter was so good I *had* to play along. The RP was *definitely* worth the 500k we settled on.
Lately, though, it's been 2milordie and a boatload of abuse if I decide to run or fight. No real incentive to try and RP.
(12-17-2013, 06:13 PM)Jack_Henderson Wrote: The standard interaction starts with a hastily typed
this is what made /setmsg useful.
Quote:Trader is just a catalyst for all the others to play around it because it's necessary activity. You HAVE to make money to buy stuff. Trader must be totally unable to defend himself against any pirates. In that case he'll have to play by pirate's rules or to rely on bunters\navy\escort. Trader is protected by the high profits and rules against the unreasonable demands.
In many cases the high profits you speak of don't necessarily cover the escort expenses. If I were part of a purely profit faction, I would have my buddies fly solaris cruisers in escort and most pirates I suspect won't be able to touch me.
However indie traders aren't offered the luxury of well armed escorts- the most you can hire on the spot is a measly scout and if he encounters a pirate at a choke point then you dock at the nearest station and log off, or wait for the (non-online) authorities to shoot the pirate
No atmosphere? GTFO.
The propeller is the greatest invention of all time.
(12-18-2013, 03:27 AM)Haste Wrote: I always like it when pirates demanding credits is considered "poor roleplay" and "not worth paying".
Pirates should tell you the story of their life, then ask you to tell them yours. After that, wire over a pitiful 500k. Amazing. Realistic. Good RP.
Come on, people. Pirates pirate. It's what they do. Any text out of them that isn't a demand is a bonus.
Quoted for truth. Chatting away at some tradelane with a random trader for half an hour is not good RP, it's stepping over everything that makes a pirate a pirate.
Both sides are just as guilty. I haven't traded for a long time now, but in the 3 years I've played here, all but I think 2 pirates that I've ever met actually gave me any sort of meaningful RP or even a reasonable demand. All of the rest were either Xmilordai, busy with someone else, or too fat to keep up with me to even get the demand out. Most of my pirate encounters have resulted in my escape, I think I've paid maybe 3 people in total. But most of the time the reason I escape is because the pirate is being an idiot.
Examples:
Someone once tried to pirate my SFC| Tagged BattleTransport in a single bomber whilst sat next to a pair of SFC| Assault Wing Gunboats.
Someone once tried to pirate the same BattleTransport whilst I was sat 200 metres away from the Fort Bush Fastdock waiting for my Convoy to catch up. Then QQ'd in PM about it.
(12-17-2013, 07:04 PM)Markus_Janus Wrote: Well I guess since he is a true pirate and wishes my empty transport captain to wire funds directly to his smart saver account at the local bank, he is out of luck and will have to continue on his way to the conclusion of his RP by killing me.
It is obvious at this point that I can not offer him some of my cargo to buy my way out, since I am empty and real pirates hardly ever accept booty as payment anyway since it would be harder for their accountant at tax time.
As I said previously I have tried an angle that would unfortunately take more than two lines of text for the pirate to be paid, it does not have a very good success ratio.
So that means he gets out of his RP quicker and I get to load up quicker.
Win/win I guess.
There has to be some balance. As a pirate, if it seems like there's little reason to rush off, longer RP is certainly more welcome. But it's up to the pirate, if he suspects he himself may fall in danger due to the encounter, he may demand some fast cash. And yes we all know we do our business via bank accounts. So if you drop a few lines of story thats fine, but you may also want to choose your battles. If you're in the middle of nowhere when you cross paths and know there's no one in the system, the pirate will probably be a little more relaxed and willing to lengthen the RP. But when you pirate in a populated area where an enemy ship could show up real fast, time is of the essence, which as much an inrp factor as oorp. Real pirates would probably want to be fast to avoid detection. It is a practical way of playing, and most pirates have had those run ins where you try to RP a bit and the trader takes advantage of your typing to try to flee. The pirate is pretty much forced to abandon communication in order not to lose the encounter at that point, as all they may get out of it is a kill, since by running the trader has indicated they will not pay, and could very well escape. So use common sense. Personally when I'm in a hurry, I say something like,
"Cut your engines and remain where you are,
this is a raid, and I mean to be quick, see?"
"so you have XX seconds to transfer 3 million shiny credits to me or I open fire!"
That's pretty cut and dry, and obvious that the pirate is not wanting a long encounter. Thats the way it goes. Just because they don't want to hang around vulnerable doesn't mean all hope for RP is lost, you can always go with something like
"sorry, my coil emissions are overloading my computer core processors, this will take a moment". This brings us back to the original point of the thread, if the trader at that point at least replies and acknowledges me, I'll give them the extra time to comply. If they wanna talk during that time, they can, and maybe i'll play along. But there will be times when a Pirate will draw a line and demand the payment be made or else, it doesnt take forever.
of course as I have said a few times it goes both ways and there are pirates out there that it is a pleasure to be stopped by.
these are the ones I will not avoid and will be happy to part with some cargo/credits.
Cargo is always my payment of choice personally.
The true silent trader is not something I defend but is no more of a problem than the 10milordie pirate.
They both should be cracked down upon in my opinion.
(12-18-2013, 03:27 AM)Haste Wrote: I always like it when pirates demanding credits is considered "poor roleplay" and "not worth paying".
Pirates should tell you the story of their life, then ask you to tell them yours. After that, wire over a pitiful 500k. Amazing. Realistic. Good RP.
Come on, people. Pirates pirate. It's what they do. Any text out of them that isn't a demand is a bonus.
Very true but the same can be said about traders.
Their RP is to escape not mince words with people that will probably kill them/sell them into slavery if they do comply.
(12-18-2013, 04:19 AM)Markus_Janus Wrote: Very true but the same can be said about traders.
Their RP is to escape not mince words with people that will probably kill them/sell them into slavery if they do comply.
Anytbing else is just a bonus.
The problem with this is that pirates are rule-bound to RP.
Because of my wish to provide proper opening sentence I lost too many transports from my grasp. Now I usually go with "Halt your ship" until it stops and only then do I start the usual RP of my character.
(12-17-2013, 04:16 PM)Jack_Henderson Wrote: Food for thought: If you get a lot of silent traders / minimal rp, perhaps you can ask yourself: "Could it be that my rp is not good enough to earn any/much of a reaction?"
After 3 years, around 2000 hours on transports and many hundred pirate encounters, I can only say: "You are treated as you treat others".
"If you meet a jerk, you met a jerk. If everyone you meet is a jerk, you are the jerk."
I have been trading and pirating on this server for a very long time now.
Maybe it's because I avoid Liberty, but I don't run into to many pirates who are just out for blues, or traders who do nothing but run. The few pirates like that I've met, well, respawn, buy new cargo, head to a different area.
The traders that I meet who do nothing but run, don't actually bother me. I consider myself a very good pirate. That doesn't make it easy. You have to;
stop the trade ship
Not let the trader get away while you are typing
not get blown up by the "omygodwhy" swarms of NPCs
not get blown up by the battleship friend the trader called
Try to have some form of conversation with the trader
And still somehow decide what a reasonable demand is.
Make a demand
As a trader, I don't ask for the pirate's life story, and as a pirate, I don't want the trader to dawdle.
You have two conflicting motivations, in a high stress environment. It is just a game, and life will go on.
I do wish saying "kill me it's cheaper" was sanctionable though. These are multi-million credit starships. Saying that should automatically turn your ship into a starflea escape pod.
e; also, pirate with a transport, or a friend in a transport. Even the silent traders will net you a little bit of profit.
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