To be fair you don't need either AI cores or an open free port, what with both having in world examples as to why they are very bad things to exist. (Breeding grounds for extremists and terrorists, and being literal examples of the violent and anti-human death machines from the first AI war.)
They just both so happen to be very profitable for the 'open minded player who doesn't really care so long as the money flows in. Other then that the hegemony are more then happy to have another law abiding colony or independent faction to trade with.
Almost makes me wish I could ask for them to establish a garrison or two for defence so I don't need to bother.
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As for the pirates, they are essentially fed by every part of the economy and their ties to the general independent civilian population are effectively indistinguishable. With pirates swelling and dissipating based on the sectors overall economy. Low stability but high income economies breed pirates, which is basically most of the sector. So I suppose if the pirates were proportional to the general economy in game, they could make more sense. As could or do panther cells to the presence of heavy industry and e-demons.
Breeding grounds for extremists and terroristsThey appear to be breeding grounds even if Free Port is off. Why do I get pirate activity even if I have the most closed port in the sector? If Free Port angers the factions, why don't they attack the Free Ports of Independents or Pirates, who are probably even worse defended than my colonies?
Well there have been major pirate invasions before in the lore, just never and nothing like what happens in game.
If anything how the pirates behave and how the luddic path behave should be switched. Lots of luddic 'crusades' against the faithless where as the pirates sit back and passively raid from their far flung fortresses/fiefdoms.
That would at least make more sense, you get the occasional pirate raids on low stability worlds, but as for actual attacks mighty LUDD comes a-knocking!
I don't get how a bunch of pirates can have the leadership or industrial organisation to field massive fleets. It seems that with pirates the lower your reputation score you have with them the bigger the fleet they'll send which doesn't make sense.Pirates as implemented are zombies except they do not moan for brains. They have infinite and overwhelming numbers, and they cannot be killed permanently. Best to treat them as the undead or demon horde and not think much about it.
If they mess with me I can't mess back because they'll mess harder and harder until I have nothing left. I feel like it's pointless to keep playing this game at this point.Not only that they mess back, but unlike Pathers, they can mess back immediately after you kill them. Pathers get disrupted for a year after you destroy a base targeting your world. Pirates can put pirate activity right back at your colony after the base you just killed respawns immediately.
Did you ever managed to observe pirates actually decivilize planets? I tried long runs but Core was completely fine. I even had to test if its possible to decivilize w/o glassing. Yes it was. However it needs to be more persistent than pirates actually are.Yes. One game, I completely ignored pirates attacking core systems because my colonies were at the far right edge of the sector, and I wanted to explore. After years of neglect and reports of pirates successfully raiding systems over and over again, Asharu decivilized.
I agree with most of this. The entire colony system is completely ridiculous the way it currently is IMO. The only thing I'm a bit iffy on, is the rebellion, seems a little over the top, but something similar would be a good idea none the less.
Hegemony feels the most heroic (or least evil) out of all of the factions. If anything, they feel like the stuck-up Lawful Stupid paladin stereotype. More control freak than anything.
Personally i think these pirate raids make a lot of sense and here is why:
they are being paid/supplied to fight a proxy war on behalf of the core world factions
Now that you are saying that, it is true that the part of "surrender your goods or die" is currently lacking, as it's actually "die and surrender your goods once they're half-pulverised in space".Pather fleets often demand tribute, and they act more like pirates than pirates. Starsector Pirates are the generic Chaotic Evil race.
This sums up my thought, I think. Lud-pathers work as tax collectors, and Pirate should be different from them. A CONTRADICTION!Now that you are saying that, it is true that the part of "surrender your goods or die" is currently lacking, as it's actually "die and surrender your goods once they're half-pulverised in space".Pather fleets often demand tribute, and they act more like pirates than pirates. Starsector Pirates are the generic Chaotic Evil race.
Now that you are saying that, it is true that the part of "surrender your goods or die" is currently lacking, as it's actually "die and surrender your goods once they're half-pulverised in space".
However the player is still most likely to always take the fight, even then that would be a nice way to deal with convoy raiding, i mean when you hear a cargo ship is full of volatiles your first reaction shouldn't be
"Let's blow it up and hope there is some left after that"
but rather
"Let's hijack it, either the faction wont want to put-up with a shortage and pay or we'll resell it elsewhere to either their enemy or the black market, however they'll probably dislike that even more"
As for the redacted, they're certainly the best suited as a menace for when colonies are established outside of the core worlds, that could be good enough of a reason(coupled with core rivals waiting for opportunities) as to why the main factions do not want to invest large amount of ressources into promising territory so easily.
Lastly, that's good citizen, theEmperorHegemony is proud of you.
Maybe have the ransomed ship mothballed and guaranteed to be recoverable or have it as a pristine derelict with the pirate fleet placed right on top of it in such a way that it is not recoverable without fighting. Oh and of course if you don't deliver the ship once you recover it the faction will send a bounty hunter to kick your arse.Now that you are saying that, it is true that the part of "surrender your goods or die" is currently lacking, as it's actually "die and surrender your goods once they're half-pulverised in space".
However the player is still most likely to always take the fight, even then that would be a nice way to deal with convoy raiding, i mean when you hear a cargo ship is full of volatiles your first reaction shouldn't be
"Let's blow it up and hope there is some left after that"
but rather
"Let's hijack it, either the faction wont want to put-up with a shortage and pay or we'll resell it elsewhere to either their enemy or the black market, however they'll probably dislike that even more"
As for the redacted, they're certainly the best suited as a menace for when colonies are established outside of the core worlds, that could be good enough of a reason(coupled with core rivals waiting for opportunities) as to why the main factions do not want to invest large amount of ressources into promising territory so easily.
Lastly, that's good citizen, theEmperorHegemony is proud of you.
Kinda like the Ludds will let you go if you pay?
Yes, that should be a thing. There should be several ways to deal with pirates - fight, give some cargo, pay credits, try to run.
It will help new players that get jumped/ambushed. Plus it makes sense.
And speaking of "stealing a ship to ransom it later" - why not add that as a mission type? Retrieve a stolen ship.
But it's questionable how that would work without boarding.
Maybe have the ransomed ship mothballed and guaranteed to be recoverable or have it as a pristine derelict with the pirate fleet placed right on top of it in such a way that it is not recoverable without fighting. Oh and of course if you don't deliver the ship once you recover it the faction will send a bounty hunter to kick your arse.How are mothballed ships handled on the battle layer? They obviously can't enter battle but they probably aren't allowed to retreat either. You'd basically be able to loot the ship after battle for free, unless it self destructs of course.
Now that you are saying that, it is true that the part of "surrender your goods or die" is currently lacking, as it's actually "die and surrender your goods once they're half-pulverised in space".
You are not taking into account the fact that one of the best goods are harvested organs and its highly unlikely that crew will voluntarily surrender them.
You are not taking into account the fact that one of the best goods are harvested organs and its highly unlikely that crew will voluntarily surrender them.
All you need is a bit of persuasion, a hammer and a cutter, anyways it's not like i didn't contemplate the cost of a crewman compared to that of a "processed" crewman, when do we get "that" kind of industry?
I still say we should get back boarding...trough the use of boarding torpedoes/shuttles (a weapon? Special ability or a ship? As a special fighter wing?). You'll have to overload the ship or somehow tie up the point defense, or else the boarding craft would be ripped to shreads.A interesting thought, really. It once come to my mind several months ago, but that may be a little amusing, ::) to tie a bunch of marines and sent out? It sounds crazy in this Sector.
Not only that they mess back, but unlike Pathers, they can mess back immediately after you kill them. Pathers get disrupted for a year after you destroy a base targeting your world. Pirates can put pirate activity right back at your colony after the base you just killed respawns immediately.
This is what I mean when I say that just because pirates have the same name (as in pirate faction) it shouldn't mean that they're all on the same side. If one of your systems is being raided the game should specify which pirate commander/captain is raiding you and where their base is and if you knock it out that shouldn't send every pirate in the sector after you.The demon pirate zombies are not all after you because you cleaned out the last infestation (pirate base), they are after you - and everybody else - because that is what they do, which is afflict and raid everybody now and then and (eventually) decivilize worlds if you do not fight them.
I might be rambling but why do PIRATES, of all things, create mega deathballs to attack colonies? Pirates, in my view, are mostly desperate people with no where to turn; much like in the tutorial, they are miners down on their luck, mercs with outstanding debts that turn to banditry to resolve it, or done by opportunistic criminals who think they can get away with it. These type of people do not tend to field large fleets or have the resources for such fleets, nor do they have the industry to sustain it. ...*snip*
No thank you. There is no need for the complication and contradictions in boarding mechanics.
The fourth contradiction is that the ship is always recoverable
If boarding was a thing, you would expect ships to be able to render themselves unrecoverable. Even in WW2, crews of tanks and ships would often destroy their vehicles with explosives in case of capture. If capturing ships was an actual tactic, you would expect your ships to have countermeasures against being captured, rather than being passive. Too often boarding mechanics are from the perspective of an active attacker against a passive defender, which is understandable because only the player can recover ships.This is what we had for boarding from 0.6a to 0.7.2a, and it was horrible (to the point that one or two posters got banned for... highly emotional posts). Only 37.5% chance of success for hard docking military ships. For remote assault, it was less than 10% and required twice as many marines - not viable. For hard dock, some of the failures simply made the ship inoperable, and the other failures the ship exploded and damaged or destroyed boarding ships.
Anyways, historically speaking, boarding rarely happened against large ship of the line, as they were simply too large to be boarded. Boarding was not a military tactic in major battles and only really happened during the age of sail against ships which were small or slow enough to be boarded.
To be fair, nobody but you is doing that and it's not sensible to design for it.Are you sure? I guess I could be an anomaly that I try not to cheat (although I gleefully abuse exploits). Most munchkins would probably outright cheat (like third-party maphacks or duping in Diablo). It is not a sensible design, which puzzles me why add anti-scum technique if all it did was extend the grinding time required (and still be the fastest legit way) to get a rare ship? Not that it matters since that nonsense is history.
If boarding was a thing, you would expect ships to be able to render themselves unrecoverable. Even in WW2, crews of tanks and ships would often destroy their vehicles with explosives in case of capture. If capturing ships was an actual tactic, you would expect your ships to have countermeasures against being captured, rather than being passive. Too often boarding mechanics are from the perspective of an active attacker against a passive defender, which is understandable because only the player can recover ships.
Anyways, historically speaking, boarding rarely happened against large ship of the line, as they were simply too large to be boarded. Boarding was not a military tactic in major battles and only really happened during the age of sail against ships which were small or slow enough to be boarded.