I think that this relfects a larger problem with the pirate system. Namely: at present I find it fades quickly to irrelevancy following the initial phazes of the game. I doubt you would be wishing pirates on yourself in the early stages where it is tough enough fending off the incursions of a competitve AI (that is to say, an unfair AI) -- but from about the 30 minute mark onwards I find myself in the same boat: not only not caring who gets assaulted by the pirates, but hoping that I find them at my door.
This problem can be easily addressed with two fixes that would make 'active' pirates a lot more interesting:
- I don't know when the change was implemented, but I do know that in one of the patches (or was this an entrenchment change?) the connection between the amount of money spent on pirates and their severity was either toned severely or totally nullified. I do know that I used to very much notice a direct link between cash spent on bounty and pirate severity, while it presently seems not to be connected at all -- and no matter how much money is spent in the early stages it is either low/guarded; in the later stages it is either high or severe.. even if nothing has been spent. Not only does this system not make sense, it makes one of the most interesting (potentially, formally....) features of the game almost totally useless.
- Beyond the spending problem, the pirates also have become less relevent for other reasons, particularly in Entrenchment. While this does make some sense -- it is called Entrenchment after all, and one would think that would have some affect on the pirates -- for the most part I find myself asking how it could be that while all these factions are adapting and generating new technologies, the pirates seem capable only of stasis. A few fixes come to my mind that I would love to hear feedback on - I recognize that basically only number one can be addressed in entrenchment, all others would be perfect fits for next expansion.
I. Give the pirates, particularly at later levels, more 'UMPH!' "Severe" should mean "Severe" -- not a pleasant, experience-rewarding, and non-threatening cake-walk. To accomplish this, the afforementioned connection between bounty spent and pirate fleets dispatched should be direct and apparent. Maybe in the pirate window somewhere, there could be shown the fleet that is bound to be dispatched, and that way people can see both what they are (or are not) paying for and also make the pirates seem more threatening, even if only psychologically. This system would make pirates more fun, threatening, and relevant, as people would feel more pressured to bid, and with a more direct to expenditures and force, give them more reason to. (also, a 'final count-down' timer would be nice -- I can't imagine I am the only one that HATES the lucky last-second bidding.. this would also encourage people to bid to higher-margins of seperation from their rival bidders..)
II. Second, and perhaps more important for Entrenchment: give the pirates some torp-cruisers in the higher levels of severity. maybe even just 1 at low and two more for each of the subsequent levels (or 1 for every 500 spent, if the above income-tieing system were implemented). This would seem a logical change, for after all, why are the pirates performing these suicide-runs against SB's without any apparent desire to adapt?
III. This is my final, but I think maybe most exciting idea -- and surely only suited to one of the expansions. A new (or maybe 2-3 new) pirate-exclusive unit(s) that would possess abilities, both passive and active, that would make them both more threatening and more 'pirate-like'. At present, the only unique behavior they demonstrate (outside of the suicide-assaults) that seperates them from normal AI is their pursuit of trade/refinery ships. This is a nice touch, but a little slight. One unit (an engineering/boarding ship?) could dock with tactical structures to take them over (say, after 1 minute of 'boarding raid' or so); if anyone knows the old game (that I thought was excellent and I see a lot of in Sins), Star Trek Armada, this would be similar to the federation's "Iwo Jima" class starship. Another unit could similiarly attempt to land on the planet's surface to spread discord among the populace - slowly lowering cultural alliegance and maybe even killing off population slowly over time -- BETTER FIGHT THEM PIRATES OFF QUICK!; another varient on this unit's theme would be a stationary 'broadcast ship', whose heavily-armoured (but weaponless) presence would slowly degrade planetary alliegance/steal income. FINALLY, a pirate-specific capital ship would be awesome, and perhaps one of the most fascinating steps forward toward rehabilitating the use of the word 'Severe' in the context of pirates. Somehow (telekinetic pirate tech?), the experience gained by the pirate cap ship is returned to its next reincarnation in the next wave, allowing it to get better over time. I can think of all kinds of pirate-specific techs that would be neat to see used against me or my enemies: an embargo-like attribute seems to make sense for it, some kind of pirate-repair cloud would also help the poor suckers out (whose lack of defensive repair techs is a large part of their suckiness in the late game).
I know I have suggested a lot. But this is something I am really interested in having re-vamped, and I think fits perfectly into the diplomacy expansion. Making relevant the pirates as a neutral faction certainly adds a lot of nuance and interesting complexity to the game's structure, and seeing them play a much bigger, more complex, and evolving role would be phenomenal. Make the pirates more complex, and every game will become more difficult (something I know a lot of people are hankering for who find the Unfair slightly less challenging than the name suggests) and enjoyable. Hell, maybe they should even be able to build new, more sophisticated bases on the ashes of successfully assaulted worlds.
Anyways, lots of suggestions -- now I am looking forward to everyone's input! THERE BE TREASURE IN THEM IDEAS, MAITTIES!
