In regards to piracy

[Baltar]

By your own admission a pirates RP is to make himself rich. If a pirate leaves a trader (me) with no profit on my route that he pirates, I will simply cease using that route. Thus the pirate cannot pirate me; thus he does not become rich. Meaning, if you don't leave me some profit you ARE being OoRP. So you essentially disagreed with the the idea and this agreed with it. Please make up your mind.

Splitting hairs ... there's always traders on that route. And when the traders move to a new route ... the pirates follow. Pirates don't hang around where there's no profit. They go where the traders go.

If you know about economics ... the government is like a pirate. They take lots of money from you every year but leave you enough to live on and make more so they can take more. A pirate knows you need to maintain a profit margin in order to continue going back and forth. The more you go back and forth the more the pirate makes.

I'm not in conflict with myself ... but you apparently don't get it. My particular character is more about getting profits from the rich to give to the poor (who are oppressed by big mega corporations). I know its difficult for you to grasp ... but at least I've got more role play than the typical trader who's not role playing a corporate trader. Most typical traders are only building up enough cash to trade their transports in for a battleship or some other capship to go pew pew with.

How would you know what the trader can afford? Just because he makes more than Joe Blow doesn't mean he can afford to pay more than Joe Blow; perhaps he is in debt to someone? Don't assume you know how the trader spends his cash. That is powergaming.

Well ... if we could get a mod to the server that turns off the ability for us to see what level a character is we'd have a hard time figuring out what you can afford. But as it is ... I can see what level you are and ... ahem ... judging by the size of your ship (amount of cargo space) and the expensive equipment you have mounted ... I'm pretty sure I can guess at what you can afford. If you fly a Tanker ... my guess is you can afford 10 mil. If you fly a Dromedary ... I'm guessing you might be able to afford 250k ... maybe more. Its really not that difficult to determine what to demand. And if a trader says he cannot afford it ... well ... guess I'll just demand 100% of the cargo ... and don't care whether I've got room for it or not. I'll destroy what I can't haul or I'll call in some buddies.

As to his debt ... not my problem. Guess he'll have to work a bit harder. Powergaming would also include the trader refusing to role play. I can think of many instances where a Liner with "Passengers" as cargo flies by and the guy says he can't afford 2 mil. Gimme a break ... role play would tell me that each of those 2500 passengers can afford to open their wallets (and I bet many of them are rich tourists). Not to mention the jewelry and other items of value that can be taken from those passengers. Passengers are not like other bits of cargo.

If I am making 10mil on the leg of the route you just pirated me on, sure I don't mind coughing up 1mil to ensure my survival. Problem in your little rant? Right here.

I'm not the one ranting ... you are. I'm just telling you how things are. And I don't usually demand much. For the most part I only ask 500k because I know I've got a better chance getting paid than if I demanded more.

Congrats if you make 10 mil on a leg ... that means about 20 mil on a round trip. Sorry ... but if you say that I'm supposed to know how much things cost ... well ... then I know you can afford it. But if you move along to a new route ... guess what ... chances are I DON'T know what you bought the stuff for.

Problem with your rant is ... you make too many assumptions about what a pirate knows and what a pirate is willing to accept. A pirate's primary source of income is you ... the trader. That's his career ... piracy. There is no other source of income. If he had some other source of income, why would he need to pirate?

So you are mad because a trader refuses to pay 1mil because you think he is making 10mil on said run. While just prior to this you said this:

How would you know if I am making 10mil on this run? You don't know how much it cost me to get the cargo so you wouldn't know my profit margin. Thus why would you get mad if you demanded 1mil and I offered 500k? You don't know what my profit is (by your own admission). Its called RP; I am going to negotiate with you until I decide I have to pay or I am going to die, or some other condition is met.

I NEVER said I was mad. Where do you get this me being mad bit? Again ... you're making assumptions here.

And I'm beginning to think you just like to argue regardless of what I say. Listen ... you're micro-role playing here. You're going into detail that nobody really cares about. You're just trying to justify your not wanting to pay. Hear it all the time.

Bottom line ... if you wanna role play that you can't afford it, fine ... but if the pirate doesn't buy your "I'm poor" bit ... you can't really blame him. We get all kinds of excuses as to why a trader cannot pay. We've been lied to way too many times and we've come accustomed to being lied to ... so ... when we get the "I can't afford that" ... we're likely to shrug and say "don't care ... pay it or drop all your cargo." One of two things are gonna happen ... 1) we get paid (in cargo or credits) and you go on your merry way ... or 2) your ship explodes and we gather up whatever cargo didn't get destroyed in the explosion.

As for the re-pirating just after I pay you. I honestly like the out of sensor range idea; but believe it hard to enforce. I believe any rule on this matter would be hard to enforce and open to abuse by many methods. Honestly it is up to the player to not be an ass about it. Be intresting to read some ideas as people form them though.

Making a new rule for EVERY micro-event that comes up doesn't work ... it only makes people mad.

I've been role playing a pirate for at least 2 or 3 years now. I've seen all kinds of idiocy. The most annoying are the traders that NEVER speak, continually hit cruise as soon as they're stopped, rush the jump holes (even though they go through hostile space) and then whine on the forums because the pirates are annoying them on their routes. I'd say we got a 25% chance of running across a trader who's actually willing to role play with us. All too often we just get silence or screaming about "leave me alone" ... "kill me its cheaper" ... and other ridiculous comments. We'd get the F1'ing traders (which is why we now have the F1 rule). So you'll have to understand where I'm coming from here to get why I'm a bit negative toward traders ... ESPECIALLY when these traders go to the forums and complain about pirates and try to force pirates into some nerfed role play. Traders are typically the one's calling for new rules to contain pirates. Don't hear a lot of pirates in the forums creating a tread about "In regards to trading." Please note here that THIS thread is "In regards to piracy."