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Author Topic: "Friendly" Pirate Raiders attacking player  (Read 2401 times)

Sy

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"Friendly" Pirate Raiders attacking player
« on: November 21, 2015, 01:37:46 PM »

not sure if this can be considered a bug, but it's something i think shouldn't happen:

i'm currently Welcoming (26 / 100) with Pirates, yet had a Pirate Raider fleet intercept me and demand some of my cargo. i think those Raiders are a neat addition, having a powerful fleet but allowing the player to give up some of their stuff to avoid a battle.
but them going after me despite supposedly being my allies is a serious problem. if i refuse to hand over my goods, they will force a battle -- and are even joined by other nearby Pirate fleets! even if i just try to disengage, some of their squishy frigates and fighters will be killed by my retreating ai controlled ships, which instantly drops my standing with the Pirate faction down to Hostile (-53 / 100).

some inter-faction conflicts wouldn't be at all surprising among Pirates, and might actually be expected. after all, the one defining factor that all Pirates share is their willingness to kill and steal to get what they want. but if they attack me, i shouldn't suddenly be considered an enemy to all Pirates just for defending myself.
currently, i have no choice but to comply with their demands if i want to be a Pirate myself (or, rather, i would if it wasn't for the Console Commands mod <3).

bunch of screenshots:
Spoiler



[close]


somewhat related: i also feel it's currently way too difficult to gain reputation with the Pirate faction, since they never offer any bounties themselves, and many of the system-wide bounties as well as all of the target specific bounties (that i've seen so far) that are offered by other factions are actually against Pirates. so even if i hunt with disabled Transponder, doing bounties for other factions is a very bad idea if i try to establish a better standing with Pirates.

i've been doing as many of their missions as i can find, support them in battles against Independents or Luddics and do quite a bit of trading at their markets and smuggling at non-pirate markets, but it's been sloooow. for clarification, the only reason i was able to make it to Welcoming at all is because i actually used the console to set my standing to Favorable (10 / 100) right at the start of the campaign.
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nomadic_leader

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Re: "Friendly" Pirate Raiders attacking player
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2015, 02:32:08 PM »

Oops this is not the suggestion forum

Is there no honour among theives? I'm disappointed too that it's still like this in the latest version. If the pirates are a faction, then they should act like one. Otherwise how could they survive by shooting each other? If they're meant to be a 'loose confederation' then you could simulate that by having much fewer/lighter rep penalties/bonuses for attacking or doing nice things with pirates, since there's no strong central authority to decree anyone a friend or enemy.

If you look at any "pirate" group in history they were just states with various degrees of permissiveness, not actual anarchic groups. But if you want each pirate fleet to literally be a one man operation with allegiance to nobody, then they shouldn't have a faction at all, but just be a fleet in dark mode all the time trying to catch whomever they can including each other. Afterwards they then turn their transponder back on and blend back into whatever faction they came from.

Or each pirate planet has to be a separate faction thats sorta allied. The way it is now is conceptually disconcerting.
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Sy

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Re: "Friendly" Pirate Raiders attacking player
« Reply #2 on: November 25, 2015, 02:51:48 PM »

in case anyone else looks in here with the same concern, Alex said in the Patch Notes thread he's aware of the issue:
Yep, saw the post and made a note, but hadn't had a chance to respond. This one's definitely a bug.

although i do actually kinda hope he just removes the reputation penalty for defending against those Raiders, rather than simply making them not go after an allied player. i think some in-fighting fits the pirate-theme, and the Raiders make hyperspace travel a little more interesting.
« Last Edit: November 25, 2015, 02:55:51 PM by Sy »
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