Pirates Attack Way Too Much--Incredibly Annoying

Thats what they are supposed to be, annoying

And you can easily influence them to attack others, thats what bounty is for.

They don't attack enough for my liking....

They are also incredibly predictable. They will bee line for your territory from their spawn point. Soon as it says they are inbound put a carrier or 2 in the system and bulk up that regions defenses. As has been stated before they can also be easily influenced to go elsewhere. If you really really dont like them you could always turn them off as well. I suppose there would be no harm in programming a scale into the options menu. I personally would love for them to be really strong with capitol ships and base defenses. What would you recommend to the devs that would solve this issue? How can they make it more to your liking?

In which system? Generally, there are more than one they can attack -- on some maps, as many as 3 or 4!

I SECOND this motion! Added NPC pressure would really make this game rock!
Thats what the bounty is for to redirect the pirate agressions to the target of your choice.. OH Wait you don't want to spend any money on that just on your Super Cap fleet.
/Sarcasm and joking off

In most my games the pirates are incredibly predictable. Hell even if they werent, all you have to do is leave a scout ship at the crossroads. As long as you position it out of the natural lines of drift for the inbound pirates they wont ever attack them. I think people have made the case over and over that defenses are the way to go. A figher bay and a few turrets is enough to hold them off for a while. I feel they definately serve their function as a nuisance quite well. They are by design a pain in the ass.
I do not however believe in the "lrn2fun" argument which states it has to be fun cause I like it. I think being able to adjust and tweak them wouldnt be out of line at all. After all, since when were more options a bad thing? Some people like the immersion of having pirates, just not the ravaging horde of doom. Myself? More ravaging hordes please!

I like the attacking pirates, level up the capital ships with ease.

With proper planetary defense setups, and some small garrison fleets (like parking an Akkan or Dunov in a key system) the pir8's are a cakewalk, and as said earlier easy levels for cap ships.

Use bounty's to slow down the pirate attacks on you. When you hear the pir8 raid warning check to see who has the higher bounty. If it is you, then you are guaranteed to be hit. Spam some bounty on your opponent.

DO NOT change the pirate behavior! It is fine as it is now, and sometimes the rats are more of a challenge than the AI. It is especially fun when they attack the same planet the AI attacks. The AI will run away. The pirates stay, and fight

The pirates are a savage nuisance as they should be.

I just had an eppifany , what if once you put a bounty on an enemy player, you also had the option to mark certain planets/asteroids where you'd like the pirates to go? Or specify that you want them to disrupt enemy trade routes?

Right now it seems 9/10 times they just keep attacking the same planet/asteroid over and over...

epi fanny?

Epiphany.

Anyway, I have seen the constant Pirate raids that the OP mentions, but I've also seen dry periods. I'd hazard a guess that it's dependent on the amount of bounty on the players.
The higher the bounty the more frequent the raids.

GAH! should have been epiphany... Firefox spell checker , you have betrayed meeeeeee

Pirates go where the money is, just make sure that the bounty is larger on some one else.

I like the idea of being able to point the pirates to specific planets to attack.

Okay, well I guess part of my problem was that it was my first game. I didn't realize you could pay the bounty to have them attack someone else. That should help a lot.

you should have the ability to bribe the pirates... hire them like mercenaries... for a set period of time you get a certain number of their ships that will obey your orders.


Upon the end of that contract those ships if any remain... return to the pirate base before going weapons free against your forces.

exactly, in my first game yesterday they actually went past my ally's 12 gauss turrets and two hangars AND past an attacking enemy fleet (so the pirates jumped to my ally's planet) just to attack me and they also ignored my nicely defended arctic colony to go to my undefended homeworld. I completely missed that possibility so I got quite beating. against the ai they attack the same location all the time though.

so bottom line: like them, like their strengh and the way their arrival is announced and that you can deflect them. maybe have the pirates have some hate level towards players so that they don't always go for the one with highest bounty, cause that makes it a bit too predictable. also have them explore more diverse routes, so that they don't always attack the same place. that may be had as there aren't always routes avaible, but hey.

one the hate thing: yes, unfair if you are the one picked on for no particular reason, so maybe let factors influence it such as number of trade ships (pirates want to plunder after all), general wealth in ressources or general military strengh (hey, after all you are a menace to them and they should take that into account).

lastly, I may be too stupid, but for new players a quick destription of pirate ships functions would help, so you can better prioritise targets.

one more option: lets say you have a lot of money, its a free for all game and your fleet slots are all full. it could be interesting to give some money to the pirates and they start building a capship or some other strong ship (and are of course grateful and not attack you unless massive bounty is on your head at which point you wont do it anyways). not sure how realistic or useful it is, but ideas are ideas.

One thing ive noticed is they go after any border world that has the least defenses, ive actually taken to keeping a world with less turrets then any other world and putting a rotating capital ships there. Enough turrets to kill them quickly, but not enough to have them go elsewhere. By border worlds, i mean of your territory, not yours+allies.

Also, ive noticed, and i belive its been stated elsewhere that pirates ignore everything that is no their way to their target planet/area. They will still attack if your in range, but thats only if you get close to them while they are jumping in/out of an area. Hence the reason they ignored your allies defences.

Personally, once the initial slow game is over i love pirates, buy your Cap ships to level 4 then use pirates to level them up, or just save your money and use pirates to levle them up. It would be great if the power of a raid fleet gets larger the higher the bounty. Ive had a 27k$ bounty on my head and not even a single pillager was sent in the fleet.

I don't get attacked by pirates, I just make sure the Bounty on my head is not the highest. If the bounty on me is the highest, I just add a little more bounty on my "Allies" so they can terrorize them.

exactly. the only "problem" is that bounty gets spent. so if you have 500 on your head and put 750 on anothers' then the pirates go there and that bounty is earned. if he then spends another 500 you have do spend over 1000 to outbid him and so on.

so this went on and on and when in the early game I had 2700 against me I just didn't have the credits any more. I (or rather we, my allies helped) avoided about three or four attacks, but at some point you cant spend that much money any more.

but I sort of like it, so don't change that aspect. its good making it increasingly difficult to avaid those raids and you do get expercience, so not entirely a bad thing.

I think the Pirates are just right the way they are. They are vastly improved over Beta 2. It would be great for new players to have teh option of turning them off since there is so much for the new player to get used to anyway, then add the pirates back in after you have a handle of the basic game seems reasonable. Would want to miss out on the pirate booty though.

Since it makes balance much more difficult.



Good, 'cause so do I!

So do I!

Wait... it was my suggestion , no wonder its so good!

Two problems I have with the pirates that no one seems to have mentioned - first of all, it adds a bit of a coin toss as to who gets raided first, and this puts whoever gets raided first at a pretty big disadvantage, especially as early as they come sometimes. You either have to try and spend money to redirect them off you, or you have to invest in defenses instead of maybe building up your fleet or getting a tradeport or something. One good way to stop this would be to have the pirates divide their fleet, or send the same size fleet against each player if no one has a bounty. That would make it feel more fair to me.

Also, sometimes the pirates can be a pain in the rear even when they *aren't* attacking you. I have more trouble with them in enemy systems than I do my own, because they still have a tendancy to attack my ships instead of my enemy. They even do this sometimes when I don't have *any* bounty on me. I can see pirates attacking anybody with a bounty even if my bounty is less, but they shouldn't attack anybody with no bounty. Pirates are in it for the money after all.

I have a question about z pirates. when it says RAID LAUNCHED does it say at who ? because for me thats all I see which makes me pull my fleets back in defense only to find that they dont attack me. am i missing somthing ? im currently playing a game right now against two M comps in which i dont have any bounty on my head yet it says impending pirate raid but i never see any. After building up a fleet I sent it to find the pirates and found them I did massed at their base but no where else. Ideas?