pirate demands (again)

[Geebus]

Looks like what's at the heart of the issue is that neither side wants to feel like they're wasting their stick time in Sirius, and I get that. Getting pirated at the end of a run blows. But so does hanging out in a trade lane for an hour with nothing to show for it but a cloud of NPC tears. Some of us seem to have an issue with the status quo. Personally, I don't have much anecdotal evidence to support either side, so we'll just do a thought experiment:

Trader Jim has valuable cargo. Pirate Dave stops him and makes a demand, either the cargo itself or an amount of credits equal to or higher than the amount of profit to be gained on the run.

A) Trader Jim has a few options: run, give in, negotiate, or die
-Since to run most probably in this case means to die and to give in essentially comes with the same price tag, Trader Jim has two real options: negotiate or die.
--Trader Jim should reasonably try to negotiate for less than the total profit on the run, his interest to do so increases as the amount of the demand decreases.

B) Pirate Dave has issued his demand and the target did not run. Logically, Dave can now let the trader go, engage in negotiation, or go weapons free
-From an economic perspective, letting the target go is the least profitable, therefore the least likely.
--Again speaking financially, the upsides to shooting the trader and demanding cargo are essentially the same - a full cargo hold. This is the result of any encounter that ends with violence.
---The most profitable option seems to be a demand of credits in any amount higher than the value of a cargo hold full of whatever commodity is being traded.

In short, there is a range of values bounded at the maximum by the total profit on Trader Jim's trade run and at the minimum by the theoretical value of a full hold in Pirate Dave's ship where it is in both player's interest to seek an arrangement. Operating outside of these parameters increases the likelihood of meta-gaming as it places the player's motivations at odds with those of the character. For the rest of this discourse, I'll refer to this range of values as the Negotiation Range.

There is no lowering the minimum of the Negotiation Range since it's based on the size of a pirate vessel's cargo hold. Artificially suppressing the maximum by capping the amount pirates can demand has the effect of narrowing that range to the point where success may be more or less impossible -- leading to situations where both parties feel undue pressure to enforce their needs by any means necessary, be they in RP or OORP.

What might be possible is raising the maximum to create more breathing room in the Negotiation Range. However since the minimum of that range is itself a function of credits per unit of cargo space, raising the value of commodities would be self-defeating by proportionately raising both minimum and maximum. The solution is then perhaps one that raises the value of commodities for appropriately outfitted traders while keeping it at its current level for all others, similar to the way that an appropriate mining outfit allows for a higher drop rate. Alternatively, a system that reimburses traders a flat rate based on distance between buying and selling points might have a similar effect without unbalancing the commodities market. Or maybe a trade-based event?

Basically, encouraging trade by somehow increasing the average value of each successful trade run without necessarily increasing the value of each successful traffic stop for the pirate would theoretically encourage more trading, which in turn creates higher-quality pirating. Anything that broadens the Negotiation Range is probably a good thing.

Anyway, this is just a humble proposal from a newbie. I thought I would offer my perspective and see if anything resonated with the community.

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