I'm surprised I didn't find anything on this in a forum search, but I could certainly have been using keywords poorly.
In summary:
Pros:
- Another lever by which the player can increase faction standing with Pirates, if they so desire.
- A good way to incentivize actually role-playing a pirate rather than just making nice with the Pirates so they stop harassing the player while they're out exploring or visiting Pirate bases for commercial reasons
- Should pretty handily reduces the player's standing with major factions; Only further drives the player into the Pirate life
- Could be used to help characterize the 'heros' of major factions; The bounties posted are clearly there to address particularly tenacious, driven - AKA hated - Pirate-hunters. Perhaps if the player contacts the admiral on comms, they might say something defiant or arrogantly dismissive in reference to the bounty
Cons:
- Diminishes the contrast between Pirates and major factions. If Pirates can be approached with a similar gameplay loop as any major faction, perhaps that makes being one less novel?
- Decreases the economic challenge of being a Pirate. Could be considered a pro and/or a con, I suppose it depends on your perspective.
At any rate, I couldn't think of any good reason why pirates shouldn't be posting bounties on 'legitimate' admirals - other than they are inherently a cash-strapped lot, by-in-large. Given the limitations of their economy and their even greater tendency towards selfishness than the common man, it would make sense if their cash payouts were rather small compared to bounties posted by major factions. In contrast, perhaps the reputation gain could be substantially higher; After all, if you prove you can go toe-to-toe with a renowned pirate hunter and scatter their mighty fleets, you will more than prove your competence as well as your lawless cred. At any rate, should certainly tank the player's reputation with the pirate-hunter's faction, as well as substantially impact their reputation with
all major factions and to a lesser degree, Independents.
Alternatively, pirate bounties could award the player with a valuable ship, commensurate to the difficulty of the admiral they defeated. After all, while pirates may be lacking in cash, they certainly disable a great many ships...albeit in less than pristine condition, to put it mildly.
