Piracy in Disco

[Nevearo]

I've got a gripe with some of the pirates in the Disco community. My problem isn't piracy, I enjoy being pirated. My problem is the situational awareness of the pirates.
This breaks down into three groups.

*g1*
The first group are the base pirates. These pirates sit at a base, usually with an ID hostile to the faction of the base. This isn't nessessarily a bad thing, but often times these pirates won't be hostile to the base they are sitting at. An example of this would be an Outcast sitting 300m from Gas Miner Naha and not be getting shot. NPCs hostile to the base do not demand cargo from any player passing through this area, they are too busy raiding it. Those friendly to the bases sometimes do, but I suspect this is due to the restrictions of the system. This is proven by the lore surrounding freeports. You don't fight at freeports for a reason. Sure it is easy to ignore NPC guns, but at least pretend you have respect for them, or get them firing on you. Piracy around bases is not the way to go, and trade lane piracy is just as easy. Trade lanes go down easily to both guns and cruise missiles. Finally, For the love of goodness, DON'T TAUNT THE PLAYERS WHO DOCK AT THE BASE TO GET AWAY FROM YOU! Seriously, if you are using this "technique" to pirate, don't even think of trying to give another player grief for doing the logical thing and taking cover in the base you aren't hostile to.
*g2*
The second group are Jumpgate pirates. I HATE you guys. Sitting at a jumpgate if you are hostile to any of the traders passing through breaks the gate. Try it sometime with your friends. NPC escorts will lock the gate down for you. This is pure laziness. If you must pirate at a jumpgate, please move 2k out from the gate. If you don't want to give your targets a chance to escape, then kill a tradelane instead, don't abuse faulty game mechanics to do it. I personally don't ever pay pirates that do this, or even Roleplay with such people. This is not the right way to pirate. Don't do it.
*g3*
The third group aren't bad in the sense the other two are, but are a minor gripe of mine.
You see, when you stop a trader, usually he pays, right? But what if he has crappy shields and some NPCs want in on the action?
Three Wild can destroy a Gas Miners Guild Transport suprisingly easy. The same transport has a max thrusting speed of 140, so these same wild can keep up with said transport fairly easy. Two wild have it a little more difficult, but while you are firing your "warning" shots to keep the shields drained to show how big and bad you are, these same wild are shooting at said transport. If a trader says "I'll pay you, just get these wild off me", outcast or not, if you honestly expect to get paid, get the NPCs off the trader. The traders do not have the kind of firepower you have, expecially if you are in a gunboat, and you restricting them from moving is basically telling them that even if they pay you, you will be killed. There is no incentive for the trader to pay anymore, since you are using NPCs to do your dirty work. What is more, this same incident can be RPed as you attempting to infect them, if the npcs involved are the wild.
This problem is very common when you are sitting near bases, Jumpgates, and Jumpholes. A good pirate should be able to intercept a trader even 5k out from any of these, and such a distance gives traders the chance to shake those nasty NPCs. If you absolutly refuse to do that, Don't sit up the tail pipe of a trader, colliding any time he changes direction or speed in his attempt to deal with the NPC threat himself, And back the heck off and cut your demands and threats until the trader has dealt with the hostiles. if you CDed him once when he tried to get away, you will be able to do it again. Just cool your heels and let the trader deal with the threats, or else your threat of "2milordai" becomes "2milanddai."

Just so you know, my reactions to the three "groups" of problem pirates are thus:
g1) 1st time, a Roleplay Warning, 2nd time, a OOC warning, third time, screenshots but no action. Fourth time, more screenshots and a sanction report. (If they are hostile to the base, I generally leave it alone and RP the same as if it were deep space every time. It still annoys me, but as long as they are being shot at, not as much.)
g2) These pirates do not get paid by me. They do not get RP from me. If they catch me, I wait a few seconds, Jettison my cargo, and then destroy it to prevent them from making anything off me. Sometimes I will tell them what my problem is with them, but often I will just be silent to them. If they complain in any way, shape, or form about my silence to them or my refusal to talk to them, they get added to my ignore list.
g3)I loose all respect for the pirate in question. Any actions I take with a pirate I have no respect for occur for you.

Really, the bottom line is, know what is around you when you are pirating, and how it will affect the people you are pirating. The chances of the average trader are already low enough that you shouldn't be abusing game mechanics to make the pirating easier. And please, consider that you might not be the only thing in your general area of space which is a large threat to the trader.