AKA, Yarlen lost to the pirates.

agreed

Give them stronger abilities that affect economic strength of the planet they are invading. Mostly increase the pillage ability, add in a ship with embargo, and have ships with timed explosives. The higher the bounty the more of these ability ships attack a planet. This way they don't become too much of a military threat, but they do what they are intended to do, harass enemy economic processes.

Reduce the current military buffs by ... half?

lol, well said,

lets hope the armad... peace envoys will be victorious...

btw, thank you, thank you, thank you, the simple fact that you listened to us is the reason you are the best company on this planet! (well, mine anyway!) Been playing sins for 2 years now and no end in sight...

sounds good to me, so long as they arent running around with ships doing 100+ damage, 4k+hp and 40+ armor.

I like the power of the mighty pirates as is. That said, I think they are OP as I feel I could just spend a little bit of money on a few pirate raids on a short succession and obliterate an enemy by proxy. I just have refrained from that abuse.

Settable levels for pirate strength would be nice to have.

In terms of deeper game changes, I think the pirates could have a relationship level much like any other faction. This would affect the pirate strength in case the player is attacked, and also how much the bounty costs. A player with good relationship could have the bounty slashed by up to 50%, meaning that for every 250 spent on bounty, only 125 counts. If the player in good relations with the pirates places a bounty, then it would be more effective.

Having culture spreading there would also boost relations. Since in most games the pirates have a single gravwell, the position of being close to the pirates would also have advantages because of the ease to spread culture to them.

In my game, if you've been in #sins had pirates with a fleet strength of over 500 ships. Each one had 2-4k hp and the average weapon damage power was something like 181. 

Not even a maxed researched fleet of an EMPIRE can take on that. Even with a starbase as support!

What technology are these pirates investing in and why don't the TEC, Advent and Vasari have access to such power?

Seems the Pirates are capable of having the financial clout and influence to be an empire themselves...amazing so many pirates can live on that tiny asteroid base.

How about three (well four) settings for pirates, leaving the choice to the player? pirates off, easy, normal and hard. could also call them "wimpy, realistic and overpowered". Hint: overpowered refers to current settings. I'm glad this is being reviewed though!

Cap their upper armor and HP and give them a KOL battleship in exchange.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 

Leave them ALONE! there too hard, and thats a good thing , or that needs chaning is the range of the seige frigs that is all

Wheres Captain Jack Sparrow when you need him?

sigh, pirates

Couple ideas that may or may not have already been mentioned:

• Pirate strengh should correlate with bounty offered (big bounty, big fleet and vice versa)
• Increase pirate strength through numbers and reasonable upgrades (i.e. no 6k hp); this also allows for more epic battles

And have pirates stance be 'cease fire' to all factions but the one being attacked. Likewise, any faction without a 'cutlass icon' would be as on a cease fire with the pirates. To attack them you'd have to 'declare war' by clicking on a 'fight the pirates' icon at the pirate screen. So, if ou are not the target, leave them alone, unless you are helping an ally. 

Explicitly attacking the pirates would also have 2 side effects: They would hold a grudge against you, so the next bounty round will have 20% more effectiveness against you, and the one after that 10%. Second, a pirate fleet always has a specific target. By helping that target shrug off the pirates, even if he didn't ask for it, would give a positive relationship bonus. 

If each pirate fleet can be considered 'independent', so as to not fight all pirate fleets at once,  the 'fight the pirates' button could be at the right side of each empire on the bounty screen (the cutlass icon itself perhaps), so you can pick your fights.

And your ships get the experience.