Pirate Base/ Fotress upgrade

That would be nice to see them using a small mix-mash of other races equipment in addition to their pirate vessels. With the higher threat ratings of the pirates using more quality equipment rathen then just more junker ships. (It'd be nice to see the pirates using a 1st level cap ship or two at the sever threat level)

Exactly - consider the amount of money being funded to them they should be a bit more then a nusance.  A sever pirate strike should be able to do heavy damage to planets that have no starbase and no fleet on it.  with only a few caps and lot s of support they should be able to damage a lot of the assets that have been built but would only desimate the planet if you never answer the call.

what the hell sounds good because I happen to like sending them after the enemy

with all the creds that is coming there way bounty wise why not have them have better tech and some that has been stolen from the other fractions

and as for their base well as is I can with a small fleet take out the defenses so Why not make it harder they are there to make others life hell after all

Must agree with the issue here, pirates in "severe" are nothing more than target pratice on a fully defended planet (mid/late game thats normal), dont even need ships there to defend the planet -.- there is no point when there should be. Make them have capital ships, or better yet, give the pirates a few ships that their only purpose is to "steal" enemy ships and/or tecnology/weapons/shields and integrade them on their on fleet/ships, but this needs maybe a hell load of work. Give them cap ships or making them a real threat late game, where we FEAR an atack instead of wanting one for XP

Beefing up the pirate base with a heavily fortified starbase and a couple high level cap ships would make the assault on the palce more then a simple hit and clean operation.

Another nice change would be to perhaps make the pirate base itself be worth x amount of resources (or guaranteed to have an artifact on thier planet) when you destroy it. The longer it stays around for the more resources it's worth. (but the more powerful they become) It would give some incentive to taking down the pirates beyond ridding oneself of a nusiance/source of endless xp

One way would be to make the Pirate base some sort of half-planet/half-starbase, as it actually is (visually at least ^^) a base built into an astroid. (And asteroids counts as planets in SoaSE so...)

So therefore (these could be upgraded as the threat levels increase as well) it would be nice to see that the base itself had some defensive or offensive capabilities, such as hangars, weaponry, etc. etc. As said, these capabilites could increase as the threat level grows.

Also, as mentioned earlier, developing pirates would be awesome to see, pirates that get better and better equipment (I prefer unique equipment instead of just exact copies of the other races' ships. Modified versions of these could be sweet though, but it should be real piratey.)

And another suggestion could be that when a player captures the pirate base, he/she could construct one pirate capital ship (leftover by the pirates, they didn't have time to launch it before their station was captured, or it wasn't fully constructed or whatever, you get the point :)) and get some frigates/cruisers as well. This can also add room for some tech tree upgrades only appliable to captured pirate ships (this may also apply to other capturable entities, such as ship graveyards and whatnot - the ship graveyard concept is seen in some mods, for example), and so pirates with their bases and their conquering can become a strategic option worth pursuing for players who can use it right.

Just a few thoughts on the matter

Also; as suggested earlier in the thread - they could nearly become a player of their own (in terms of offensive and defensive capabilities, not system capturing and such) as players pay them a huge heap of money to get them to attack an enemy of the paying party. However, pirates are backstabbers, so who knows, it may backfire... This is an interesting concept as well, to be sure. Hope to see something new about the pirates in the future

I would like them to have a hybrid of all 3 races' techs with respect to SB's as it would show how, maybe, they purchased the techs on the black market.

I think the home base, at least, should have a few capital ships protecting it. It's too easy to wipe out as it stands, with the ability to build starbases and all.

Considering defenses are getting increased in this mod, they will need to do something to keep pirates relevent. I'd create a new severity level with a much stronger pirate force when several starbases get on the map (or total defenses reach a certain level). Giving them LRM's might also help...

Improving pirates ability to disrupt trade would be a start.  Also tradeships shouldn't make pirates look like headless chickens.

Goa: The Pirate Cutlass (iirc? the laser-storm ship) is the pirate LRM ship, they just forgot the 'long' part.

Well, they are still pirates, and as such they would probably fit the weapons to suit their needs better. (More brute force is one of the current pirate "trademarks" in SoaSE, no shields etc.)
The pirate units could be based on existing vessels, but modified for pirate use (new paintjobs obviously, other weaponry, optimizations in different fields, stealth etc. etc.), imho this sounds pretty nifty Resemblance to current TEC/Advent/Vasari tech, but with outlaw tech modifications.

similar to the expansion of EAW: Forces of Corruption

i was thinking, that maybe, it would be interesting if pirates could take possesion of a planet they destroyed themselves.. increased income for them and extra ship productivity and power (a bit).. like if they take a advent planet their ships have weak shields installed.. if vasari; better armor, if TEC; better weapons... maybe even acces to their own version of a capital ship..

Their behavior dont change much, they just get more bite.

And if they do take a planet, it automatically repel all cultures around it. (crime and stuff)

All very good ideas and maybe this is something that can be added into the 2nd or 3rd micro-exp.  It would be nice to see the pirates become more relevant in the late game play.  Even in the early game play.

Right now, I welcome the other players sending the pirates against me int he early game.  I can take the entire fleet that they send out with a single Cap and level that cap up like crazy.  And in later game play, my planetary Defenses are so built up that the pirate attack doesn't really matter any more.

Plus, if I am on the other side of the system from the pirates, by the time the pirates travel through all of the other planets to get to one of mine.  Half or more of their fleet is wiped out.  Maybe have a way for them to be able jump straight to the star and then navigate to the player that they are attacking.  Unless their base is right next to the star.

I would love to see Pirates as a playable faction! The idea floating around on this thread of them having a mishmash of technology and ships from the other 3 factions is intriguing.

I guess their economy would be based on the bounty given to them by other players, and also on resources that they they would raid from trade ships. Maybe they could get much reduced black market rates.

Arrrrgh!