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[Schwartz]

It's been mentioned before that late-game turns into a big pirate raid fleet grind if you have any aspirations of keeping the core worlds from decivilizing. Pirates just keep churning out these massive fleets, which are tied at least in part to the incidence of pirate bases as their staging ground. And currently, as the player squashes a base, a new one will pop up pretty much right away.

The # of these bases to exist can be set in the config.

"minPirateBases":2,
"maxPirateBases":3,

This is the default and it pertains to pirate bases that threaten NPCs. I always set the minimum to 1, but don't really notice a difference. Is this the right approach? Are there better measures to take? I don't want to erase the pirate threat entirely, but them coming around less often and meeting more of an even match with the faction defense fleets would be a start.

So I'm keeping this question broad. It could be solved through config changes, modding or even just particular playstyle tricks if you've got any.

[AxleMC131]

Do we know what happens if you set the minimum to 0?


Perhaps a configurable time delay between pirate bases dropping below the cap and them building a new one would work, with a reasonable default. Those settings could easily be accompanied by something like:

Code

...
"pirateBaseMonthsToSetup":3,   # Number of months it takes to build a new pirate base
...

That way (by default) if you romp through most or all of the pirate bases in existence in a short period of time, you have a couple of months of freedom before the pirates establish new bases, and can set it based on your preference for "aggressive pirates". I don't know if the timer would be how long it takes to make one base, or all of them, or if it's just the time between the player destroying the first base and X new bases appearing to then fill the cap again.

(And if there's already a specific time delay in place, perhaps what's being asked for is for that to be extended and/or configurable.)

[Mondaymonkey]

Do we know what happens if you set the minimum to 0?

Is that a rhetorical question?

[AxleMC131]

Do we know what happens if you set the minimum to 0?

Is that a rhetorical question?

No, genuinely curious. I haven't fiddled with anything in my settings.

[Mondaymonkey]

No, genuinely curious. I haven't fiddled with anything in my settings.

Then the answer is simple: nothing.

If "maxPirateBases">0 new bases will spawn in a month or two. If "maxPirateBases"=0 no base will spawn. It mean no pirate activity or bounties, or random raids. Also, you can set "noPirateRaidDays" to insanely huge value to prevent just random raids. Boring, tho'.

Player-related bases on the other hand will spawn regardless of any setting, but IIRC they attack only player.

[AxleMC131]

Ah. I think you may have misread.

Do we know what happens if you set the minimum to 0?

[Mondaymonkey]

No, I don't.

Then the answer is simple: nothing.

That is exactly what happen if "minPirateBases":0. NOTHING! At all.

[intrinsic_parity]

I think that would have some effect. If the minimum is more than zero, it forces there to always be a certain number of bases afaik, so if you destroy a base to put the total below the minimum, another spawns almost immediately. Setting to zero would presumably prevent that. I would guess it would not be noticeable in normal gameplay since the bases will not be immediately revealed and will likely not target the players colony.

[Schwartz]

That is exactly what happen if "minPirateBases":0. NOTHING! At all.

So you mean to say that the minimum applies as more than just a minimum? I set the min = 0 and max = 1 for testing purposes last night, and as far as I can tell it made already established pirate bases disappear. I don't know if it killed all of them or if there is one left over, as there should be. Also I noticed there's

"raidCooldownDays":1,

which I assume can be used to space out the raids a bit more. Unless this pertains to some other behavior.

I would guess it would not be noticeable in normal gameplay since the bases will not be immediately revealed and will likely not target the players colony.

It's very noticeable because of the rapid succession of pirate raids, and they depend on existing bases.

[Megas]

I think that would have some effect. If the minimum is more than zero, it forces there to always be a certain number of bases afaik, so if you destroy a base to put the total below the minimum, another spawns almost immediately. Setting to zero would presumably prevent that. I would guess it would not be noticeable in normal gameplay since the bases will not be immediately revealed and will likely not target the players colony.

Only as long as the core worlds are alive.  After player or pirates kill everyone in core, pirates will target the player aggressively and pirate activity is effectively a permanent condition on your colonies (because they respawn almost immediately after death).

Since others said pirates do not raid players if they are friendly, it seems the ideal endgame condition is to befriend pirates and kill all of core (or at least non-pirates) to eliminate babysitting problems (of defending core worlds from pirates and maintaining rep with core worlds).

[Mondaymonkey]

I set the min = 0 and max = 1 for testing purposes last night, and as far as I can tell it made already established pirate bases disappear.

max=1 causes disappear. I mean, there was more than 1 and some gone.

And yes, min is actually do something if increased. min=3 max=10 will give you lot of unforgettable feelings.

"raidCooldownDays":1,

That string is a delay related to player(and possibly AI) raiding a planet. If set to 0 - you can raid a planet as many time as you wanted without any waiting. Increasing will make you wait more. Does not directly related to pirate raid spawn frequency or else.

It's very noticeable because of the rapid succession of pirate raids, and they depend on existing bases.

It is not very noticeable actually. Pirate base can spawn next day the last was destroyed on min=0. It is very rare not to have any base longer than two month even if min=0. Some kind of random or unknown correlation. And the raid succession does not directly related to base quantity, rather to their size (stronger raids). So next string can actually help more:

"pirateBaseMinMonthsForNextTier":6,

However, last was not heavily tested. Rather theory.

[intrinsic_parity]

I think that would have some effect. If the minimum is more than zero, it forces there to always be a certain number of bases afaik, so if you destroy a base to put the total below the minimum, another spawns almost immediately. Setting to zero would presumably prevent that. I would guess it would not be noticeable in normal gameplay since the bases will not be immediately revealed and will likely not target the players colony.

Only as long as the core worlds are alive.  After player or pirates kill everyone in core, pirates will target the player aggressively and pirate activity is effectively a permanent condition on your colonies (because they respawn almost immediately after death).

I think that this is an extremely specific and unintended state of the game, but yeah, if you get that far it will definitely matter.

I would guess it would not be noticeable in normal gameplay since the bases will not be immediately revealed and will likely not target the players colony.

It's very noticeable because of the rapid succession of pirate raids, and they depend on existing bases.

I was talking about if you just dropped the minimum to zero and left everything else the same. If you change the maximum as well, then there will definitely be a big effect. The only way I could see changing the minimum by itself having a big effect is if a significant portion of the bases are spawned to maintain the minimum, as opposed to spawning randomly. If the random spawn rate is high enough, the number of bases shouldn't be dropping down super low all that regularly even without the minimum. I supposed that could happen if the player is bounty hunting a lot and killing all the bases as soon as the bounties appear. I haven't tested it though, just theorizing.

[Igncom1]

Is it possible to change what spawns? Rather then pirates could you spawn in a different faction with the same effect?

[Mondaymonkey]

Is it possible to change what spawns? Rather then pirates could you spawn in a different faction with the same effect?

I am pretty sure it is not. At least without java-coding-modding magic.

[AxleMC131]

That is exactly what happen if "minPirateBases":0. NOTHING! At all.

Ahhh, right, sorry I misunderstood. Fair enough.