In regards to piracy

[mith]

Oh do me a lemon - get a room you two, there's clearly some serious sexual tension going on there.

Keep it on topic or take it elsewhere. I came back to the thread hoping that some comments might have been made on the subject, and find that in 6 posts the only worthwhile comment was an agreement that pirates shouldn't be limited in how much they can ask for.

So far, we have sort-of agreed the following:

Rule: Customs & Piracy
x.1 - Players may attack their target if the initial 'halt' command is repeatedly ignored, but may not destroy the target before an RP demand is made.

Most people seem to agree that the pirate should be allowed to open fire, the disagreement here seems to lie in what is reasonable. Like demands, I wouldn't have this as a hard and fast rule - I would recommend either using the PvP rule of half shields or entirely removing shields. That would mean the rule would read:

x.1 - Players may attack their target and drain their shields if the initial 'halt' command is repeatedly ignored but may not destroy the target or deal significant hull damage before and RP demand is made.

x.2 - Non compliance with x.1 can be assumed after the demand is repeated at least three times and the target has had a reasonable chance to respond.

I think it best that this remains as "reasonable" as opposed to a specific time constraint, as different encounters come with their own time constraints and it would render certain areas very difficult for traders and others very difficult for pirates. Admins can then decide in cases where someone feels hard done by one way or another if the time allotted was indeed "reasonable".

x.3 - If the player chooses to exercise their right to fire in x.1 the target may retaliate without engaging in RP.

Self explanatory. See PvP engagement rules if you don't understand why draining someone's shields would allow them to freely attack you.

x.4 - Players can only be stopped by the same individual once every three minutes.

Some people suggest doing this by cargo, but in truth this could be abused - an example would be a cargo collection from a station with only one exit (LD-14 for example, if a BMM pilot were to stay in RP they could not leave via the Edinburgh jump hole): The pirate could sit a few jumps down the lane and repeatedly pirate the individual without breaking the dock camping rules, and the trader would be helpless to avoid them. This would very much be classified as bad form and there is a valid argument that this should be covered by the pirate code, but that seems unnecessary - if we have a time constraint on this it allows the trader a window of opportunity to escape without preventing the possibility for the pirate of pursuing their target. As such, I would retain this in it's original form.

x.5 - If the target escapes without engaging in RP, the pirate/customs agent is exempt from x.4

Pretty simple - if you don't play by the rules, the pirate doesn't have to either. To clarify, this would mean that if the trader doesn't roleplay then the pirate can kill them again, and again, and again, and again...