Quote:A tax is given for protection, not some lazy piece of s*** who doesn't want to do crap to get money except be lazy.
Woah, woah..
We're talking about pirates, not bloody Robin Hood. A tax is whatever he says it is, 'cause he's threatening your life, you know?
.. If I tax someone nearby Mactan base in Magellan as my Hacker, and then he flies to Freeport 4 and gets taxed/destroyed by a Rogue or Outcast ally, then it isn't my problem.:P
Alot of traders blow right by hostile bases, fly into hostile systems, and alot of your traderoutes even require detouring into Guard systems.. Any sort of space travel is going to be dangerous, especially when you're flying a train that has millions of credits worth in goods onboard..
As for dying or paying. Well, I've paid the SA 25 million credits before to let me leave New York without conflict, and I hadn't done anything wrong other than enter the system as Lane Hacker. The character was new and hadn't even really committed any crimes yet, even. This is a roleplay server, it doesn't matter how much you're being taxed - when that ship explodes, roleplay-wise it's your character's life you've just lost. Sure, sometimes you might survive and be tractored by an ally, but remember that would rarely happen.
I don't think traders should be forced to pay absurd taxes, but honestly in my experiences more traders choose suicide than those who don't. Even when I ask for a small sum like 500k (which I do often) I get traders who run until they're dead, even when it's painfully obvious to everyone involved that escape is impossible.
It takes alot more effort to track and chase traders than it does to trade, and our profit margins aren't nearly as nice as yours generally.
Oh, and I don't use levels to determine how much I'll tax. I use cargohold size:
1000 units or less - 250K-750k, depending on the commodity's value
1000 to 2000 - 1 million
Anything above 2000 - 1.5-2 million
I don't think that's so unreasonable. What I will do however is tax you extra if you sneak by me and I've noticed you. If I tax you once in Magellan and then the next three times you manage to evade me on your route (but I see you and count the times you've entered the system) I will ask for extra. In many cases, you're being taxed not because the evil pirate wants to gain easy credits off of you, but rather because you've invaded his territory and he wants you gone (you'd think some of you would be smart enough to simply prolong your routes by a system or so just to avoid being taxed - not all of us actively pursue or intercept you, some of us have a static patrol zone that we stick too and you run into us, not the other way around).
