The Problem With Piracy

[Lord Caedus]

Regarding the bots: is it really that big of a problem? I know they exist, but surely a trader can't just keep avoiding a pirate every time, they'd waste time and lose money. Presumably even traders have real lives that they have to go back to, so logging off essentially cuts into your CSU. Another volume issue I suppose. At least there's an easy fix there with removing names, but what would be the consequences?

Fixing this issue wouldn't even be as difficult as everyone makes it out to be, because the Discord bots used by these people to track pirates are doing so off of the list shown on the forums, not the list shown in game. Seems to me that the incredibly simple fix is to just disable the list shown here entirely and see how that changes things. We can still have it show how many people are online, but there's honestly no need for it to show who or where.

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[Sayne]

I had a big long post made about this but scrapped it because most have already said what's on my mind. What it boils down to is this:

Player retention is at an all time low because roleplay, in most cases, is an afterthought by many in the community. Most avid RPers do so within their own cliques, rarely involving outside individuals unless agreed upon outside of roleplay.

What's worse, is you have names like "Donald.Jimmyson" and "Freelancer2004" flying around with nothing being done about it despite it being against the rules to have a character name as such. You might say, "Well report it then." Sure, or the admins could pull these players aside when they see it and inform them it needs to change instead. These names only add to the appearance that this isn't a Roleplay community to those first starting to play, so they assume they can do so as well and the problem just propagates.

The piracy problem won't be solved by changing the player list, adding more rules, or anything like that. It comes down to this being yet another symptom of a lack of focus on roleplay and instead in maximizing credit income. With Discovery, you either have Space Truck Simulator or Ace Combat Space Edition and nothing much inbetween.

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I've lost people who meant the world to me...and I'm still doing just fine.

I'm coming for everything they said I couldn't have.

[Mr.Harris]

The issue isn't the amount, its the fact the guy got pirated at all. It doesn't matter if you ask him for 10k or his discarded toenail clippings from underneath the co-pilot's seat, you still get put on a "log off before meeting" list that involves "Departing Player: Powahtraydah". It's almost ALWAYS the same. The less interaction they get, the better in their mind. And they make it so it's that miserable that no one wants to interact with them; A win-win from their perspective.

Address the Cause, not the Symptoms.

Makes sense to avoid pirate interactions with other players if they go crazy with the demands.
As i said:
Some people are going crazy when they can catch a barge and they asking for millions of credits mate. If you refuse to pay you will die.
That happens most of the time, cuz people know that you are need to start again from your start destiantion, plus buying the suff again
So you make a big loss.

Fixing this issue wouldn't even be as difficult as everyone makes it out to be, because the Discord bots used by these people to track pirates are doing so off of the list shown on the forums, not the list shown in game. Seems to me that the incredibly simple fix is to just disable the list shown here entirely and see how that changes things. We can still have it show how many people are online, but there's honestly no need for it to show who or where.

Devs need to get rid of the Systems. The playerlist needs to show regions instead of systems.
If you are in Texas: You shown up as Liberty in the region
Omega-11: Omegas
If you are cloaked: you show up as ???
and so on
i think you get what i mean

With that you can avoid shadowlogging(its also a problem here on discovery)
You are giving the traders not the opertunity to avoid other players/pirates
Darkbot needs also be updated @darkwind that you can set it to track systems, only regions( i am a trader btw, with a barge,)
And most of the pirates know where are the good traderoutes are, so they will find other players to pirate and the trader has to fear that a pirate is waiting for him at the next Tradelane/Jumpgate(i also dislike it when pirates are "camping", but if they dont go crazy with the demands, i am more than happy to get catched more often NGL, and its very hard to avoid other players with a barge, so yeah.

BUT(now some offtopic again):
If you want more players, you need to get rid of some players who are ACTUALLY playing.
they are the reasons why we got less players over the last 3 years.
And devs need to learn/focus to develop patches ONLY when they are 100% correctly(no bugs etc)
Yeah sounds stupid, i know,
But
Why implementing new stuff every patch?
Why not making the existing one even better?
Deep omega event was nice, but thats it
Now you need to grind to get a little bit of Osmidium(or whatever its called) and the IFF Bonus is also wrong, why sairs dont have a bouns on it? xD
Why we got the Longhorn????
To give players/traders a ship that can fight a cruiser/BC(iirc)??
Why?
you are a trader and not a battleship captain
RP SERVER
but it seems like disco is going more and more into pvp instead of RP.
i missed the good old days where you are able to take missions against npcs and earning some credits(missions up to 6m or more iirc, Patch 4.95 with XI and Munich)
Same for Battleships:
When you are flying them, it feels like you flying a fucking brick without be able to dodge incoming dmg(strafing etc)
You also dont have long range weapons( like World of warships) on a BS(and no4.5k isnt long range,the old Nightmare torp was long range)

Anyway

I had a big long post made about this but scrapped it because most have already said what's on my mind. What it boils down to is this:

Player retention is at an all time low because roleplay, in most cases, is an afterthought by many in the community. Most avid RPers do so within their own cliques, rarely involving outside individuals unless agreed upon outside of roleplay.

What's worse, is you have names like "Donald.Jimmyson" and "Freelancer2004" flying around with nothing being done about it despite it being against the rules to have a character name as such. You might say, "Well report it then." Sure, or the admins could pull these players aside when they see it and inform them it needs to change instead. These names only add to the appearance that this isn't a Roleplay community to those first starting to play, so they assume they can do so as well and the problem just propagates.

The piracy problem won't be solved by changing the player list, adding more rules, or anything like that. It comes down to this being yet another symptom of a lack of focus on roleplay and instead in maximizing credit income. With Discovery, you either have Space Truck Simulator or Ace Combat Space Edition and nothing much inbetween.

i agree and disagree with you mate:
Changing the playerlist WILL help, cuz it makes the game more immersive(realistic) and gives a thrill( i am playing on another fl server and it works there, trading feels completly different there)
That devs could also pull these players aside and telling them what wrong instead of reporting everything( we are not playing repotlancer, do we?)

Devs need to do:
Changing the Playerlist to Regions instead of showing systems.
Get rid of players who are harrassing other players(i know a lot of people who stopped playing cuz this players are still allowed on disco
Focus more on the actual content(balancing etc) instead of bringing out new stuff every patch or revive old content/systems)
Sit down and think about why discovery no longer has 200 players per day.....

[R.P.Curator]

@Mr.Harris
You talk a lot for a player who:
- uses the same player list to avoid interaction with pirates or lawfuls
- uses "friends" in the system to scout ahead and notify him of pirates / lawfuls so he can avoid or just dock
- Now this one is great: in system chat, ooRP insults and threatens pirates / lawfuls when he gets caught or destroyed
Thats a lot of hipocrisy when you actively do EVERYTHING in your power to avoid interaction or when interaction occurs you go ooRP.

Yours truly,
Fred.

[Sayne]

I had a big long post made about this but scrapped it because most have already said what's on my mind. What it boils down to is this:

Player retention is at an all time low because roleplay, in most cases, is an afterthought by many in the community. Most avid RPers do so within their own cliques, rarely involving outside individuals unless agreed upon outside of roleplay.

What's worse, is you have names like "Donald.Jimmyson" and "Freelancer2004" flying around with nothing being done about it despite it being against the rules to have a character name as such. You might say, "Well report it then." Sure, or the admins could pull these players aside when they see it and inform them it needs to change instead. These names only add to the appearance that this isn't a Roleplay community to those first starting to play, so they assume they can do so as well and the problem just propagates.

The piracy problem won't be solved by changing the player list, adding more rules, or anything like that. It comes down to this being yet another symptom of a lack of focus on roleplay and instead in maximizing credit income. With Discovery, you either have Space Truck Simulator or Ace Combat Space Edition and nothing much inbetween.

i agree and disagree with you mate:
Changing the playerlist WILL help, cuz it makes the game more immersive(realistic) and gives a thrill( i am playing on another fl server and it works there, trading feels completly different there)
That devs could also pull these players aside and telling them what wrong instead of reporting everything( we are not playing repotlancer, do we?)

Devs need to do:
Changing the Playerlist to Regions instead of showing systems.
Get rid of players who are harrassing other players(i know a lot of people who stopped playing cuz this players are still allowed on disco
Focus more on the actual content(balancing etc) instead of bringing out new stuff every patch or revive old content/systems)
Sit down and think about why discovery no longer has 200 players per day.....

Alright, sure. Let's say we change the player list to region or omit player locations all together. Now, you almost never see any one. Pirating is now even more difficult to accomplish because you don't know where others are. Sure, this makes it so that silent powertraders can't skirt a pirate waiting ahead of them, but it makes finding the traders annoying for the pirate.

Oh, and let's say that you actually do find a trader as a pirate. The same exact thing happens as it does now. They noRP engage, run away, and then hurl OORP insults at you as they fly away or after they die. So what did you accomplish with this change?

Nothing. You just made it harder for pirates to find traders and increased the likelihood of never finding another player when playing.

I (sort of) get the reasoning behind wanting to do this, but in practice it won't solve anything but make things worse.

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I've lost people who meant the world to me...and I'm still doing just fine.

I'm coming for everything they said I couldn't have.

[Vlad]

Traders won't get killed if they pay what a pirate demands. That's until alien/wild log and kill the trader without demanding anything. That gives the trader no chance to survive. Can you change that, please?

[_WOLF_]

It's just that the nicknames of the players are visible only in the radar range, and on the maps, only that of the player, without identification. Or, the specific system and sector are not specified, for example, Vova, Liberty sector. And in which system let them look for themselves. This is implemented on the Revivalist server.

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[Nika]

Traders won't get killed if they pay what a pirate demands. That's until alien/wild log and kill the trader without demanding anything. That gives the trader no chance to survive. Can you change that, please?

That doesn't need to be changed. Omicrons are meant to be dangerous, don't go there if you can't handle that.

[A Magpie]

Traders won't get killed if they pay what a pirate demands. That's until alien/wild log and kill the trader without demanding anything. That gives the trader no chance to survive. Can you change that, please?

I had about six ways of phrasing “the things actively inimical to human life are going to be as hostile to your transport as they are a battleship”. Then I remembered that pretty much every time I saw players actually using those “kill traders without a demand” ID lines, they were wanting to prove a point that “space is dangerous” and encourage traders to use the totally existent escorts that will log at dead hour, or at all without a discord ping, or use medium transports instead of 5kers to get away from the interaction faster.

Overall, demanding “die” immediately is mechanically the “best” way to pirate, at the cost of making the game unfun for the person on the other side.

[TheSauron]

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One MD Admiral