Each players actions are a function of their past experiences in Discovery, and sadly I find many of these types of traders just haven't had the introduction to Disco/past interactions that open them up to pirate interaction.
A while back, I used to pirate /a lot/ with a particular approach of "RP or dai." For probably three or four months, when I pirated I would never ask for any money. Instead, I would go out of my way to throw the trader off guard and make an RP demand (demanding security codes for a particular base, or kidnapping them to a certain area etc). The results of this were pretty interesting.
It polarised the population of traders I encountered even more than usual. Some, presumably confused, would continue to ask me how much money I wanted... ending up in them getting destroyed. Some would play along with the RP only to begin shooting once they realised I wasn't going to go away within a few minutes (some of them died). Others were natural RPers, and seeing anything other than the usual approach signalled to them there was a potential "talkative" way out of death.
Others, more tellingly and importantly in my opinion, would begin with the "wat u want" RP only to suddenly realise the situation and launch into "Full super saiyan RP" mode and show what they were really capable of. Why did this happen? My opinion on the matter is that either, until that point and if they were new, they hadn't realised what RP could be done or were't confident enough to challenge the pirate on an RP level. Giving them a "walkthrough" to potential options and suddenly they all kinds of avenues were being explored. Those that were not new suddenly saw something more interesting to do than "dock, go to, dock" and without their credit stash being explicitly targeted probably didn't a direct threat to the last 30 mins/hours of trading activity. This isn't to say there wasn't a threat to their credits. They just didn't seem to realise it explicitly.
Of course, there were also our favourite - the silent runners. All I have to say is mercy has a time and place, but not in those moments.
Why am I bothering to write this? In my opinion, the RP being offered by both traders and pirates feeds off each other but whichever side of the encounter you are on at the time - spice things up for the other and take an approach to surprise them. Hit them with the unexpected and you may be surprised. Traders have their part to play, and of course it would be great to see them develop new styles of responding. But to pirates I say, we should embrace a mission of teasing the RP from the traders by creating incentives for them to roleplay their way out of situations. Sure, a monetary focus can still be held - but I find "teasing" an RP/talkative avenue of escape and then honouring it if the trader discovers and uses it means that the same player in future encounters is much more responsive.
