Pirates - unreasonable price

[Senshi]

Well, I'm still rather new to the server, but nevertheless I traded my way from Rhino to a Mastodon by now. Took long enough.

Still, during all that time, I was blasted out of the sky by pirates exactly ONCE. And that was because I was trying to run, even after verbally submitting to them. Not the smartest or most honorable move, I know.

When flying Rhino&Camara, most pirates didn't bother to demand anything at all and just let me move along or did some small-time RPing with representative demands.
After stocking up to a Mammoth, I became a valid target, not a single pirate would let that slip. Simultaneously, I didn't mind that at all, as all encounters were covered in decent RP (fitting the circumstances). If the skies were clear and no danger of lawfuls to interfere, all pirates were open to some decent RP. While these encounters could take a good 5-15min, in the end the demanded price was more than reasonable. So I get good value RP and can leave with a reasonable "tax" paid. Worth every penny. Also, most pirates apply a variable tax rate in my experience. The more cooperative you are, the less you actually have to pay. Always firing up cruise engines? Tax increase. Being rude? Tax increase. Excessive and unplausible whining? Tax increase. Quick response to engine-halt-demand? Tax decrease. Quick acceptation of money demand? Tax decrease. Plausible reasons why demand is too high (No/Poor cargo, startup trader, whatever)? Tax decrease.
Only in cases where the pirates were already troubled by indie lawfuls they tended to be short on words and rather triggerhappy. Understandable.

I only had about two runs that were unprofitable because of this, but that was simply due to bad luck, being pirated multiple times along the route.

And to be honest, with some experience how to handle your vessel and how to spot lane pirates, you easily can get away from most of them. I like to select the next few lanes manually even while I'm being warped by them. Do I target a disrupted one, I immediatly put my finger on the shortcut to "Free Flight", and once I get a confirmation of a human player ahead in the next milliseconds I immediatly leave the lane and go to full reserve. Simple, yet effective. In worst cases I drop out at distances of about 4-5k of the pirates. Still allows for a comfortable turn-around and cruise-away.
Medium transports even pack quite a punch against average pirates, as already stated. Heavier ones (like the Mastodon) don't know what punch means, but can travel 30k under fire easily before their hull breaches (if AU is installed), simply because they have such ridiculous high armor points, allowing them to get away or in distance to a stations' defense systems or wait for the called lawful support.

Combine that with a good route preparation and you are safe in most cases. How is the current pirate activity? Can you get reports from traders that are already on that route? What does the "Ch(e)at-Window" have to say? If the route seems hot, just hire an escort. They are not expensive, considering that you easily generate 10 mil per good run and escorts usually are only paid partly in advance. So if they "fail" to protect you, your losses are even smaller. I usually let them scout ahead and if there are reports of trouble, I just stay clear. If he is able to finish them, I'll gladly pay them (usually even a bonus), if not, meh, bad luck, gotta take an alternative route.

Well, I write too much. In short: Piracy on Discovery is on an incredibly high standard. Of course there are some who shame the stand of the pirates, but gladly most of them are poor fighters too. "Good" pirates are confident enough to be open to quality RP and don't actually need the money.