A Bit Of A...Shift...

[Juan_Arquero]

Regarding the main topic of this thread: The balance between pirates and traders has been heavily disrupted by uber CDs that have effectively nerfed the CMs. The CDs obviously need to have their speed lowered.

If you're views held true, Eppy, The Queen Mary II modern cruise liner would have Depth Charges, Missile defence and a few good ol' shell guns to kick the crap out of people with. Or howabout the Massive SuperTankers you see? They should have orbital bombardment cannons, the way they're going these days.

a small gunboat with a few Torpedo's could easily take out a Cruise Liner or Supertanker these days, but they don't because the:

A) Shipping lanes are secure
B) The political fallout would be massive

If I saw, as a pirate in space only loosely controlled by the autorities, a massive ship containing riches to last me 10 years, 'course I'd go ahead and say "Your money or your life".

Real world examples don't always work to make effective comparisons with Freelancer. However, if you're going to use real world examples to make a point, you need to get your facts right. You claim that "Shipping lanes are secure," but that's not true. Piracy is alive and well in the real world in 2007. In fact, a cruise ship was attacked by pirates near Somalia in 2005. Here are links to some news reports regarding that incident from CNN, CBS News and USA Today.

The pirates used two small (25'), fast motorboats with 4-5 pirates per boat and attacked with machine guns and an RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade). They didn't have anything near the size of a gunboat. Note that the CBS News article says "Piracy along the Somalia coast is common several ships a month are attacked or hijacked, with valuables stolen and crews held for ransom." Interestingly, the USA Today article mentions that the cruise ship crew defended their ship with a sonic weapon.

If you want to know more about modern-day piracy, take a look at these articles by CNN, Wikipedia and BBC. Asia and Africa seem to be the major locations for modern-day piracy, especially near Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, India, Vietnam, Somalia and Madagascar.

Regarding your claim that "The political fallout would be massive," I think you're wrong there. I haven't found any political fallout regarding the cruise ship attack, as Somalia has no government. Iran and Syria have been major supporters of terrorism for decades. How much political fallout have you seen them endure? Not much. Planet Earth in 2007 is a pretty chaotic planet.:crazy: