allow using cruiser to do piracy...

[Panzer]

Traders and gunboats are the best-balanced ships in the mod. I wouldn't change them at all.

Remove refills? Please...


Cruisers allowed to pirate? Big no. That would lead to Battlecruiser piracy.

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[pipsqueak]

NO & Hell NO.


Wow so they call in a Cruiser on you ? why dont you call in a BS to kill that ?
you can not pirate in a crusier but I dont see any rule about a cruiser attacking another cruiser.

Trust me man, traders are fragile.
Espacially advanced train. You got a CD, they can not run then.
:yahoo: You are funny.

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[cgaWolf]

I voted no on both issues, and i'm on the receiving end of the capshipbat most of the time.

I upgraded from fighter to bomber to do my pirating, mostly because i'm a newb and haven't yet figured out a way to be a threat to an advanced train, when all i pack are a couple of class 9 guns.
From the trader side, if the pirate isn't a threat, there's 0 reason to not run as far as i'm concerned, so it's my duty to 'convince' traders to stop with varying means of polite suggestions to ripping of their shields before they know what hit them. That means being close enough to scan the trader prior to ripping him apart, doing it fast enough before he jumps out of CD range, and then actually being a threat & hoping he doesn't shoot back. Granted, i have as of yet no clue how to do it solo without a bomber, but i'll get there eventually. It's easy stopping an unescorted trader in that situation. If he brings an escort, not so much, but that's what he brought the escort for...

Short version: If i can pirate a train+bot/bat, by myself, in a noncap, i can reasonably expect everyone else to be able to do it too. They stand no chance against a pirate in first place, unless you're badly positioned or badly armed.



On to capships:

That whole pirating thing has 2 consequences i could experience so far:
1) nothing at all happens, and i tax traders all the live long day without a single one of them ever thinking about bringing backup or deterrence (which may be due to my *sometimes* very reasonable demands, as i will opt for them to drop my cargospace worth of niobium if i catch them on the return trip to New Berlin, as opposed to taxing X millions; but seeing as some traders pay 2 million (their offer, not my demand), i cant figure out why they keep comming without escort)
2) I get smacked in the face with anything from a gunboat (which i'm willing to try and take on in a bomber, but seeing that i'm a sucky pilot, is usually involves me running away because i hate ejecting, and having to bother the trash collectors to tow my ships carcass back to kyoto so i can get it fixed up again), to a backed-up destroyer or battlecruiser - which is overkill by the most forgiving of standards, and out of line anywhere in Sigma-13 except maybe the Honshu JG itself, as far as i'm concerned (fighter wing, ok; destroyer, not so much).

I just don't think that bringing a destroyer yourself as a pirate is the right answer in dealing with the problem.
Now, at least the destroyer was a Kusari Navy Ship, and had escort - so i'm not too bothered about the incident in S-13 (again, single incident vs. larger view of the problem), they had reason to guard their borders, and it wasn't a single PvP-wh....addict with an oversized ship; i couldn't have beaten them if they had flown 3 light fighters; and lastly, a destroyer with backup is orders of magnitude more believable than a single capship flying around in enemy space, etcetc...
BUT they were in Sigma-13 and then chasing me through Chugoku & Tau-63, that's something i have an issue with. Just because they bring the capships so they can, doesn't mean they should, unless there's some massive operation going on to weed NovaPG out of Tau that i'm not aware of (i'm not NovaPG, and i don't follow their messagedump, so i wouldn't know).

I don't see what options i have against ships of that size other than capshipping myself or running away, but i still don't think pirate capshipping is the answer to the problem. I'd rather prefer sensible ammounts of force being brought in against a single pirate, than dispatching a whole battlefleet, for someone who on that day successfully pirated... oooo 150 niobium [granted, they didn't know that, and the day before traders seemd to be willing to pay 2 mill before i even suggested they drop niobium]?
There would need to be a high double digit million bounty on my head to justify that force (and then it wouldn't be police/navy forces); or proof of me having assassinated some high official of the Kusari government.

Unless there's a 3 or 4 BDs & GCs active at the same time (granted, that was the case yesterday), we're boned as soon as someone shows up with even a gunboat? It takes me 3 hours of trading to get a cruiser, maybe a day to finance a battleship, so the time investment isn't what's stopping me.
I'm not asking to be left alone to do my pirating, i'm asking to be given a fighting chance without having a pocket destroyer parked somewhere closeby, or facing you with 6 on 1 odds because we're flying crapships vs. your capship. Bombers & fighters, and you're bringing an optimized destroyer with weapongroups mapped out & ooRP armament? Pffff... I'm maybe a newb, but at least i restrain myself.

As to pirating in groups: Yeah, i'd love to, but i'm new to the server, still snoping around & trying to get the feel for the land, figure out which player faction will KoS me without warning (instant disadvantage in... hmm, every single encounter up till now), as opposed to talk me into a standoff. Testing the waters, not part of any faction, and not sure i want to be yet, and a .. dubious state of RP because i still haven't figured out what character(s) i want to play - i have enough RP issues as such, without being smacked with a capship as opposition every single time there actually is opposition (ok, two exceptions in 2 weeks of playing, one being a standoff with a GMG tagged patrol; and one being one of the corsairs blowing me out of the sky - both incidents in S-13 near Naha); and that's when i'm in my home system or pocking my head into adjacent ZoI systems to scout the situation there.



//Ookami