Traders, opinions from a pirate

[Thexare]

My responses, as a relative newbie to piracy, as well as an ex-trader...

1. Do they have crew? Does your ship have a single life-form on it? Who manages the helm, who is the cargo master?
People are driving around in 3k+ cargo ships and have little room for a couple of space ship crew...sad when there are thousands of young "Mr. Crushers" on planets all across Sirius.

Would you stick your crew in a metal box? Because that's about what the cargo hold amounts to, especially on Trains. Use the crew commodity if you want, but don't act like we have to in order to have crew in-RP.

Additionally, to Baconsoda...

If I explode in a fighter, my character has exploded, that is something I can live with. If I explode in something bigger than a Bomber, I lose my crew. Just like in a Stategy Game, I do whatever I can to defend the lives of my "Units". Spaceship Crew is one of those "Units."

I don't much like the thought of losing my crew either, but for a different reason - they're not faceless units in an RTS to me, everyone on the Cerulean had their own backstory and personality. Just like any of my other characters. And damn it, I'm not going to have that screwed up by some powergaming jackass shooting the "Spaceship Crew" commodity that will pop out of my ship if it blows up.

(actually, in an RTS, I'm more than willing to throw away entire squads as needed, heh)

2. So some crew, no food?
Goodness, we're HUNGRY! your crew is happy rich and loves their fish eggs? Give me some, I'll feel more obliged to take food from a trader than cargo, because I have a crew, they have family, we need to eat. (especially my woman, she can eat more than most, she's got a neck so thick she could eat a brick if it was made by frito-lay)

Not only food, pirates can be bribed with other things too. A few bars of gold or crates of diamonds could buy some of us off, they're probably much easier to fence than things like optronics and boxes of beryllium. Weapons are always useful, too, whether Light Arms or Black Market Munitions.

4. Complaints in space, "why don't you guys go and trade to make your money?"
I have enough money, I've had enough money, I do not do this for money, lately my cash has been going to banks to finance new recruits.

Emphasizing this. Sure, if I save up enough, I might set up a new fighter or help someone else start, but I'm not doing it for money. I'm doing it because I like being a thieving bastard. Most of the money's gonna end up going to ammo (Screamers aren't cheap) and repairs anyway.

5. Faction alignment, ID...etc.
Zoners, well, zoners seem even more popular than before, I give em a chance, and if I get "ur stupidd" or somewhat of the similar, bah, they get hit even more.

This is one of the perks of being a Buccaneer: we don't use Freeports. I've yet to catch any Zoners, though, so I haven't seen what excuse they'd try after that...