Piracy 101

[maclypse]

Demands & Profits

This is a rather hotly debated part, that's usually divided into two camps:

1 Pirates are idiots. They demand too much money; I'm better off dead.
2 Traders are idiots. It's bad rp to say "kill me" just because they don't want to pay.

Traders want to make money, as much as possible, as quickly as possible. If pirates make it impossible to do so - you are not having fun. This is a game - we are supposed to have fun! The very largest traders have 5000 tons cargo, which can end up in 4-8 million in profits, depending on the route they use. If the pirate demands a sum that equals your entire profit or more, it may be cheaper to just die and buy more cargo, than to pay. At this point, the majority of traders will either let you kill them, or try to run, which usually means you kill them. This is all a numbers game - and a very OOC reason to do things. On a roleplaying server, such behaviour is often attacked, but like I said: It's a game; we are here to have fun. How can that NOT be a part of the equation?

Pirates want to make money, as much as possible, as quickly as possible. Sounds familiar? This means the majority of pirates we encounter try to rip the trader off for as much as he possibly can - completely ignoring how it'll impact the trader's gameplay. When using the "standard demands" on this server, I find that a lot of people refuse to pay, and try a number of ways to avoid it, from running, to various variants of "shoot me already". As a pirate, it's fun to chase a target. It's also fun to get money. It's NOT fun to see traders commit suicide and leave you with nothing. Being a roleplaying server, the usual argument is this: Surviving suicide, and relying on the ensurance to replace your ship just doesn't hold as a roleplay reason. There's no way an insurance company would replace a 180 million credit ship, because you refused to pay 2 million. I agree. It makes no RP sense at all - but you know what? If you want to make this much money - you are in the wrong business to begin with. You should be trading. You can't seriously expect the traders to work non-stop for 3 hours, just so you can take it all away with 5 one-minute highjackings. Piracy is not a good way to become rich fast. Get used to it.

The simple truth is that we are all responsible, traders AND pirates - but the pirate is the one who makes the demands. As a trader, saying "shoot me" is a lousy way to RP, and you have to do better. As a pirate, you determine whether the trader will have a profit or not and in the end: will the trader have fun or not? Ultimately, it's usually the pirate's fault when the trader suicides - even if he has more support for his RP than the trader does.

My trader runs a route that comes out at just under 4 million per run. No pirate has EVER demanded less than 2 million, even though the purchase price is below that. Needless to say, I spend a lot of time avoiding pirates, and running away from pirates. It gets worse. I've been ransomed for 2 million with an empty cargo hold. More than once. I've been ransomed for 2 million in a 500-cargo ship! I've been ransomed for 2 million, while flying fighter with navy ID! That had to be the worst "pirate" behaviour ever. No pirate would do that... They would run at the very sight of me, into the nearest nebula, and find a softer target.

I'm pretty sure many pirates overtax on purpose, becuase they like to chase traders that try to escape. While I appreciate their desire to have fun and do what they like - they have to realise that they are ruining the fun for the trader. This is not a good way to conduct piracy if we want this to be fun for everyone. If this is your game - create a cop, and chase smugglers! Smugglers want this; they like to be chased. It's their hobby! Hey, I know - I bring cardamine into New York on my smuggler! I wish they chased me more!

Think about that. Smugglers want to run. Traders want to make money. Cop or robber? Are you chosing the right side?

My personal rule: let the trader keep at least half his profit. Usually, I let them keep a lot more, well over 75%. How much do you need anyway to pay for missiles and counter measures? If you are saving for a battleship, start a trader - not a pirate. As a pirate, you also don't need expensive capital ships, so what do you need piles of money for? It seems to be standard to charge a transport 2 million on this server. I usually demand 500k. I make a lot more money than I need this way.



The Fuzz

Cops, navy, bounty hunters, escorts... they are all out to get you! Trying to ransom them is pointless (and a very bad excuse to initiate pvp). Learning to escape them is very important for a pirate. Thankfully, we got a lot of tools at our disposal.

Before I start on the tricks of escape, and like to point this out again: If your first reflex is to attack, not flee - you have chosen the wrong ID. You should be looking at other IDs, such as bounty hunters, house navy and police, and filling up their ranks. Right.

Step one to avoid the police is to make sure they don't get close. Run, and run fast - before they can catch you. Head off into the nearest nebula, asteroid field or lane. Hide. Vanish. Leave the system.

If you do end up in a dangerous situation despite this, your very first tool are the trade lanes. On your way into a tradelane, dump a mine just before you enter it. You'll zip off at a million miles per hour, and the mine will blow the gate behind you. Anyone in persuit in the lane just lost 7000 meters on you. On your way out of the lane - blow the last gate; anyone in persuit, will fall out another 3000 meters short.

Remember that capital ships, and gunboats have a pretty low thruster speed. It's against the rules to use cruise engines to catch a faster-thrusting ship. If you fly a fighter, and a gunboat gives chase - thrust out of range and get yourself into a lane.

Cruise disruptors are good not only for stopping traders; they stop cops too. One lovely trick if you have a cop chasing you at relative short range in cruise speed, is to cut your engines, swing your nose about and fire disruptors at the persuer, while you drift backwards at 350 meters/second. He'll drop out of cruise, can't reactivate for a while - and you gain distance. If you are drifting towards a lane or jump hole - keep drifting and escape throught he lane. Otherwise, turn your nose around again and activate your cruise engines. You won't gain a lot of distance this way, but you will get some, as you can start charging your engines right away, while he remains disrupted.

Needless to say - don't go anywhere without carrying a full load of counter-measures and cruise disruptors. You can make do with 10-20 mines easy, so no need to fill up completely on those.

Just as the pirates shouldn't be hanging around Manhattan, cops shouldn't be hanging around pirate bases. Assuming your persuer is a half-decent role player - it's usually enough to escape into a nebula or close to a pirate base while outside his scan range, to make him announce "target lost".



Thank you, come again

If you want to make money in the long run, you need to catch a lot of traders and sooner or later, you will have to re-capture players you've 'jacked before. If they bother to change route when you appear, or even log off - you make less money, or even none. So how do you go about making them come back for more?

You have to be fun and interesting for a start, every time. A good reputation goes a long way. The more resonable your demands are, the less likely the trader is to bother avoiding you. If he'll lose more money on wasting time with wormholes, than he will by getting highjacked - then why run? This is a very good reason to NOT fall into the "2 million trap".

Do you seriously think you can push a trader for every penny you dare, while acting a rude bully, and not offering any new or interesting roleplay - that the trader will just let you catch him again? No. They will move to different routes, change their current routes, hire escorts, run... They will do anything to make sure you get nothing. Trust me on this - I have a trader too. There are a few pirates that will simply make me log off when I see them along my route. I'm not here to be angry, abused and frustrated.

Be resonable, creative, different and exciting. It's not always easy, and not all traders are interested in active RP at the moment you catch them. Just make sure you are!



mac