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Author Topic: Pirates should extort the Player  (Read 1029 times)

BigBeans

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Pirates should extort the Player
« on: April 30, 2020, 03:41:28 PM »

So, this suggestion was actually heavily inspired/ripped off from the Cabal interactions from Ship and Weapons pack as well as the fact you can pay a Tithe to Luddic Path fleets to be left alone.
Basically have it so that when a Pirate fleet intercepts the player fleet they try too open comm's with the player. If the player accepts they then demand one of a number of things: Either all of the players cargo, a large percentage of their credits, Blueprints, Supplies or one of the players better ships. The player could either accept and the pirate fleet would leave them alone for a little while (and if they took one of the players ships that would be added to the pirate fleet) or if the player declines it goes to combat as usual.

The way I see it it solves two things. Makes the Pirates feel more like pirates and less like generic enemies. And second of all it allows an early game player to escape from a Large Pirate fleet without having to fight a retreat battle where they might lose their entire fleet, though of course the Player still has too give up something precious to them be it credits, a nice ship or cargo.

Even better if the Pirates could extort non-military npc fleets such as traders and scavengers as well.

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Speeda325

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Re: Pirates should extort the Player
« Reply #1 on: April 30, 2020, 04:40:19 PM »

yes
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Goumindong

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Re: Pirates should extort the Player
« Reply #2 on: April 30, 2020, 08:08:41 PM »

This is definitely a good idea. Though its worth noting that you can dump cargo to get a pirate to bail on chasing you (if the cargo is large/valuable enough to be worth checking out) You can also use this method to bait pirates to come close to you by going dark in an asteroid field and dumping cargo to get them to investigate. Though cargo will disappear pretty quick if you don't stabilize its orbit
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AxleMC131

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Re: Pirates should extort the Player
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2020, 10:30:28 PM »

I think this has been suggested before, and it's certainly worth a resurgence. I agree, I'd love to see the pirates do more than just try to kill everything they see - they might be on the wrong side of the law, but they're still (surely) humans with logical brains and the sense to not waste precious resources if there's a simpler way to get what they want. It adds both flavour to the universe and versatility for the player.

(Also @BigBeans: Cabal are from Underworld, not SWP. ;) )
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CrashToDesktop

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Re: Pirates should extort the Player
« Reply #4 on: April 30, 2020, 10:40:21 PM »

I could swear that the last time I played, you could open comms with Pirates and - if you're carrying anything valuable - they can ask for it.  It might be restricted to transportation contracts though, can't remember the finer points.
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AxleMC131

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Re: Pirates should extort the Player
« Reply #5 on: April 30, 2020, 10:42:14 PM »

I could swear that the last time I played, you could open comms with Pirates and - if you're carrying anything valuable - they can ask for it.  It might be restricted to transportation contracts though, can't remember the finer points.

That occurs as a special encounter if you're shipping goods for a contract. It's possible a mod also added the function, I seem to recall it being a thing from somewhere at some point, but for regular pirate fleets it's definitely not vanilla.
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Daynen

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Re: Pirates should extort the Player
« Reply #6 on: May 01, 2020, 03:51:09 AM »

This is one thing that really kills "pirates" for me in a space game: pirates who just shoot to kill.  Pirates aren't ostensibly there to risk their fleet in a slugfest; they want to make off with the goods for as little combat as possible.  It's what sets them apart from simple marauders.  SS definitely needs a bit more dimension in this department.  An open minded pirate might even be convinced to make a deal or take a job if you're convincing enough; not all pirates are bloodthirsty savages.  This sort of wacky misadventure is currently impossible in SS but would add loads of possibilities.
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DatonKallandor

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Re: Pirates should extort the Player
« Reply #7 on: May 01, 2020, 06:00:33 AM »

A lot of games with pirates should look at Void Destroyer 2's implementation, cause those are the best pirates in any game I know of. Fun to interact with, logical in the world and symmetrical mechanics so they work both as antagonists and for player pirates, using the same mechanics.
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