To the pirates and those with less nice intend... I miss you

[Binski]

Regular traffic is pretty low, it basically becomes cruel to pirate what trade we have, but it still can be done at the right times and places. The more trade we have, the more it eases the impact of piracy. I see places like Vespucci and that story closing as a bit wasted. There could have been a super high value trade route to the planet that needed blockading. Long term siege events always drive traffic up, propel story, and give players real stuff to do.

And if the defense of Veracruz had been up to the faction (actions), had required a real siege and/or a pob siege, there would have been a lot of traffic surrounding it. Factions always need a real 'raison d'etre'!

---

The Further Exploits of Captain Antares (August 2015) │ (alt) JonasHudson
*Argo | Special Operative ID (Approved Request)* | Argo Compilation Video
################ *Proposed OF Challenge System* ################
############### The Book of Piracy (Piracy Tutorial) ###############
############### Binski Alamo (Youtube Channel) ###############

[Lemon]

As a former power trader, I always valued a good piracy interaction. It made the beer after a successful convoy all the much sweeter. Okay, I lie... anybody who knows me knows that I have a pre-convoy ceremonial "pop-splsh" to get the party started.

I quit running logistics (and Disco in a serious capacity) because as much as there are toxic traders, there are some toxic and annoying pirates. The same people log in right when I'm near the same place, demand the cheddah, and then log out. No RP, no real interaction. Just player watch and when they see a known trader, stop what they're doing to demand 10 mil. And then there's those who feel that pirating near battleships or in front of Manhattan is a genius idea. I guess that is slightly better than pirates stealing a max security prison... eh, off topic.

The glove fits both hands. But yes, to the unlawfuls such as Lochrath and the creative Molly's I have encountered in Bretonia, you're missed and were the true heroes that made trading have a little spice to it. Oh well, on to greener pastures.

It's just laziness/being busy really - making people sing songs, smoke weed while putting on a hypnotainment band and reading propaganda, officiate a wedding or call the queen a harlot takes effort and originality. Reason why I don't pirate in e.g. Gallia much is because when I do I want to be original - it's much more straightforward to fire up smuggling, fill PoBs or shoot up a battlezone and make money or reach an objective - it just takes a lot less effort to do other stuff or "pirate" as lawful as the laws act as your RP framework/guide than hunt people and come up with original pirating ways.

[Lemon]

And no, pirating isn't hard, just make 7 ships per account for easy swapping that covers your entire region and then be creative, kind and original so people don't avoid you and you will get crapton of interactions around the clock. There's just not many people willing to put in the effort, most of the time me Included, opportunity is out there however.

[Leo]

And no, pirating isn't hard, just make 7 ships per account for easy swapping that covers your entire region and then be creative, kind and original so people don't avoid you and you will get crapton of interactions around the clock. There's just not many people willing to put in the effort, most of the time me Included, opportunity is out there however.

While this is a good idea in theory, the only people that will willingly allow to be pirated by a good RP interaction are the long time players on the server or those with RP experience from other servers or games. I don't pirate much, but I've seen my fair share of interactions since I've been back in April and I can honestly say that the meaningful roleplay that I've experienced from other traders is a simple "Hello", "Hi", or nothing at all.

I have:

• Offered to escort traders with a "No" or nothing at all.
  
• I've offered to buy some of their cargo with a "No" or nothing at all.
  
• I've attempted to pirate on my only pirate vessel and they either ignore me and try to run or open fire on me after a /1 or /2 (sometimes not even doing a /1 or /2 and then when I attempt to educate them on the rules they ignore me or tell me to leave them alone -- and that's putting it nicely).

Basically, what I'm getting at is, while Pirates need to have some good RP instead of "50 MiL oR dAi", the traders shuffling cargo around need to have some good RP as well or else those Pirate players with good Roleplay chops don't much want to bother.

At least, this is from my point of view. Feel free to add your own if you disagree.

~Leo

---

You fear oblivion. Yet you forget. The universe remembers every atom of your being. Even dust hums your name in the dark.
Roleplay is dead. Long live Powertraders and PvP I guess.

[Reddy]

Ye olden times of pirates and fighting pirates are gone, all that's left are the memories. Was fun while it lasted

---

[Jayenbee]

See, myself and my friends tried to start up a group of Pirates. Tried being the keyword.

While we had some good interactions (most notably with Auxesia and a singular Junker), we struggled so damn hard to get any other interaction worth of note. Could we get interactions? Sure! House Militaries and LEMON of all people on his Hessian were more than happy to antagonise us, exploit our ID rules and try for easy blues. But that was and is the problem, everyone so damn thirsty for blues. The problem goes deeper than just pirates this, traders that. RP seems to be an after thought all so often, people defaulting to hurr durr left click makes glowy things and that guy go boom, give me good blue message, [WARMTH].

Micro-rant aside, I guess I could rouse the boys and see if I can't bring back some actual pirates. Depends if they have the stomach for it, following the recepton they've recieved previously. We had plans for this faction, maybe they'll finally see some love. Either way, I'll humour you, I'll log my pirates more often.

---

When contending with a monster, you'd be wise to give the devil his due.

[Lemon]

And no, pirating isn't hard, just make 7 ships per account for easy swapping that covers your entire region and then be creative, kind and original so people don't avoid you and you will get crapton of interactions around the clock. There's just not many people willing to put in the effort, most of the time me Included, opportunity is out there however.

While this is a good idea in theory, the only people that will willingly allow to be pirated by a good RP interaction are the long time players on the server or those with RP experience from other servers or games. I don't pirate much, but I've seen my fair share of interactions since I've been back in April and I can honestly say that the meaningful roleplay that I've experienced from other traders is a simple "Hello", "Hi", or nothing at all.

I have:

• Offered to escort traders with a "No" or nothing at all.
  
• I've offered to buy some of their cargo with a "No" or nothing at all.
  
• I've attempted to pirate on my only pirate vessel and they either ignore me and try to run or open fire on me after a /1 or /2 (sometimes not even doing a /1 or /2 and then when I attempt to educate them on the rules they ignore me or tell me to leave them alone -- and that's putting it nicely).

Basically, what I'm getting at is, while Pirates need to have some good RP instead of "50 MiL oR dAi", the traders shuffling cargo around need to have some good RP as well or else those Pirate players with good Roleplay chops don't much want to bother.

At least, this is from my point of view. Feel free to add your own if you disagree.

~Leo

This approach seems to work often - Money, RP Demand or Death - let them choose.

Spoiler

I also learned from Connor/Snoopy (former admin and a pirate that taught me how to do it) to just RP around cargo, even if it is just taking 5 units and the RPing around it like here

You also learn to appreciate people that play along, like us Sending 50,000,000 to a smuggler just by selling cargo and paying 200k.

Small demands also work pretty well - part of cargo, 200k to 3 mill demands etc.



Thing is, it does all take effort and creativity, along with often furious swapping of ships and figuring out flight paths to catch people in space and not on top of bases. It's just easier to do other stuff like chill in a place to get RP interactions, and I can't blame the pirates that go 5mill+ when they finally catch someone, they are the ones killing off the willingness of traders however.

[Couden]

The main problem of why traders tend not to pay because they lose nothing. That's all.

---

---

[UN]- The Unioners]

Challenge accepted.

---

[Backo]

It is hard to be a pirate when usually there is nobody to pirate at all.

---

Republic of the Sword and Sun