Pirating as a primary source of income?

[RParade]

I've used piracy as a main source of income before.

If you charge 500k to 2 million, you can make money pretty quickly. If you charge less and remain polite, many traders will literally go out of their way to pay you, especially if you promise to give them protection from other pirates. When I pirate I usually do it for RP purposes, but for awhile I used it as a main source of income when I realized I had made 70 million credits in 2 days.

It's a careful balance. If you want your piracy career to be meaningful and rewarding then you'll need to give the traders incentive to feed the fire. If you fire at traders randomly with a boring "Halt or die" then you'll find that most will avoid you like plague. Honestly, if a player is doing OOC things (like ignoring tradelanes) to avoid you, then you're probably being a jerk and should reconsider your strategies.

It also helps if you do a Non Aggression Pact. Ask the trader to pay you 15 million to leave him alone for 7 days. That works out well sometimes, so long as you promise to protect them from other pirates in your zone of influence.