Ooookay, let's review.
Problem: the pirates all act like Osama bin Laden is their Chief Pirate. (Someone 'shop a tricorn hat into that picture, please).
Soloution: Divide "Pirates" into three or four sub-factions.
Pirates: Attack at random, only using beefy Arcovas (late-game, give them Phase Jump Inhibitor Immunity). They go after the person with the least defended trade empire, that is, trade ships and orbital refinery ships - and basically behave as pirates ought to. They prey on the resource lines, but they turn tail and flat-out run when they see real military resistance, as pirates should. They will only fight to the death if they blunder into a system with a phase inhibitor.
Bounty Hunters: They attack solely for the bounty on your head, and come in a good mix of Cobalts, Javelis, and Kodiaks. Will pick off military vessels if they think they can, but again, prey primarily on defenseless trade ships. Will fight to the death if they calculate a chance of victory, but will run from overwhelming odds. (Unless again, if caught in a phase jump inhibitor.)
Insurgents: Their goal is to free worlds from your tyranny, whether or not you're especially tyrannical. As idealists, they're prepared to fight to the death in the hope of inspiring others to take up arms for the cause, and they aim to bombard planets -
and then colonize them. Come to the show in Cobalts, Javelis, Kodiak and Perichan, and the bombardment frigate whose name escapes me at the moment, as well as colonizers.
Terrorists: Death and destruction is their only (tangible) goal. Enormous fleets of cobalts and bombardment frigates, with the only goal being to scour as much of your civilization from the map as possible before they die.
Now, I should note that I believe these should not spawn from the ether, certainly not in numbers that make me say "I
have to capture their infrastructure, it's better than mine!" Pirates need a place to spend their plunder, bounty hunters need something to do with thier winnings, terrorists and insurgents need somewhere to train.
So, somewhere out there, should be a "Pirate Cove", "Rogue Headhunter's Headquarters", "Insurency Breeding Grounds" and "Terrorist Training Camp". All attacks of the stated type should originate from these locations, and destroying the location should remove their threat - at least until a new one is built. At no point should these ever be built in a system that can be seen by a player, so as the empires expand and conquer, the threats posed by pirates, bounty hunters, revoloutionaries and terrorists should be lessened. But of course, where would we be without them?
That's where the other empires come in. They can build their own versions:
Privateer's Cove, Bounty Hunter's Guild, Revoloutionary Support Center, and... Well, maybe we don't want players enabling terrorists, so I'll let someone else come up with what to call these things.
The neat thing about spawning these is that they're basically fire-and-forget weapons against the other players. You've spent a lot (and I do mean a
lot; talking numbers like 10K credits, 4K metals and 2K Crystals) of resources to set these places up, and from there it's pure profit. Pirates and Bounty Hunters will (grudingly) return a portion of the booty they earn to you as taxes, and if the Revoloutionaries succeed, the planet becomes yours!
Of course, it's not all good: they will present a huge drain on the system holding them, maybe even reducing it's output by up to 85%. (And of course, they can't be built around dead asteroids.) And scuttling the base? Oh ho, you know what the differene between a privateer and a pirate is, don't you?
That's right. A letter of marque, which you have just revoked. Get ready for the pain, bubba.
