There needs to be a limit on how much Pirates can demand....

[cmfalconer]

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So I'm pro cargo piracy, or set some I am for the introduction of a table where a pirate may request another pilot based on the value of the cargo and the player's desired level.
*snip*

Two things immediately jump out at me that's wrong with this statement. Note: I am N O T picking on you Anomander, but you brought them up most currently and I'm going to address it.

1: I'm not sure, but you seem to be talking about the level indicator on the HUD. This is NOT inRP information as far as I'm concerned. I don't go walking around the town, looking at people, and know their power level is over 9000 (!) or whatever, so how would you know by flying up to a ship how much said ship has in the bank? You wouldn't. It's a game mechanic thing at best and metagaming at worst (*gasp! the M word!), and shouldn't be used in any way to gauge how much to charge a trader/miner/character of whatever ilk.

2: If you set a maximum piracy level, no matter what it is, you will always be charged the maximum. Let me repeat that. You will [color=white]A L W A Y S be charged the maximum. Why would a pirate charge less, unless they're there for gits and shiggles? Many pirates genuinely like what they do, and what they do is make money. Why would they charge 500k, 1m, or even 3m when the maximum charge is say 10m? Every pirate you meet will charge 10m immediately, no negotiations or whatever.

"But, you could charge based on a percentage of total cargo worth. Say maybe 25% or 33% of what the cargo's worth"

I call BS. Firstly, a pirate may or may not have that kind of information handy. How would an unlawful pirate know off hand what the going price of luxury goods on Planet New London is going for? It's analogous to following stock-market prices for everything made every day. I personally don't know what IBM's going for at this second, nor do I currently care.

"But you can look up IBM on the internet and get an instantaneous answer"

Point conceded. But, this would mean the pirate would have to ask where the destination is and do some metagaming w/ FLCompanion or some other useful program, a calculator, and then type back the demand. Or, instead of destination prices, the commonly accepted practice becomes whatever the highest buy price for a commodity is used. Then, if you're hauling Luxury food, it doesn't matter that you're hauling to New London where it's worth about 75% of what it is at the best sell location, you'll still be charged the highest amount.

Oops! There's that highest price thing again. A trader/miner will always again be charged the maximum if even the percentage schema is adopted.

Pitfalls and peril await anyone looking to make a quick-fix rule-change to this dilemma. I've personally learned this from years spent here on disco and in this exact same argument (comes up ever 2-3 months or so).

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