Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[vcuaoiwk]

In an attempt to crank up the difficulty I gradually began playing only pirate runs for my last couple playthroughs and have come across a few items what may or may not be intentional. However, this has led me to wondering and asking the following:

1. The downsides to playing as a pirate are pretty obvious and include:
(1a) most factions will attack you on sight, (1b) trading is limited since you almost always have to go into "stealth" mode, (1c) diplomacy is limited (in this case you basically have to fight your own battles and everyone hates you).

2. However, these cons have almost always fit into my general playstyle as I don't care about how other factions feel about me and I generally exclusively do black market trades (and hence always need to have my transponder off).

3. The pros of pirate life are actually tremendous but not as obvious. These include the following: (3a) the Hegemony does NOT and will not do AI inspections. That alone makes up for just about every con listed. (3b) In my playthroughs, the amount of factions trying to actually invade pirate holdings are minimal. This is in comparison to if I was playing my own faction or if the faction I'm a member of is at war with with someone else. (3c) Factions can't declare war against pirates? I dont know if this is hard coded but I have yet to see someone declare war against pirates, I'm assuming this option isnt even available since "Pirates" are technically not a faction but a general classification? Again, the system seems to treat pirates as a separate special case because things like diplomacy are not eligible.

4. With the above in mind, it seems like Pirates have a tremendous edge over just about every other faction in mind. Obviously this doesn't take into account the random pirate bases that spawn and become targets of raids/base strikes, but those temporary bases are irrelevant anyway.

5. I think the purpose of this post/thread is to ask if other players have a similar viewpoint on pirates? However, I'm also curious to see if this can be modded out to change the parameters of pirate life but that would be a separate post under "modding".

Thoughts? Opinions? Would love to hear from you guys.

[Megas]

If I want to kill all of the core worlds, then eventually, I want to be non-hostile with all of the zombie factions (pirates being one of them) to avoid their raids.

For me, the big problem with non-hostile pirates is I cannot beat up named bounties of any kind for money and ships, or to defend core worlds from pirate raids when I want core worlds alive (so I can raid the core worlds for blueprints without waiting as long for stability to recover).  I look for named bounties when I do not feel like fighting Ordos.

[BigBrainEnergy]

I think it's because players are expected to deal with pirates, so the main factions aren't allowed to do anything because that would remove content meant for the player.

[vcuaoiwk]

If I want to kill all of the core worlds, then eventually, I want to be non-hostile with all of the zombie factions (pirates being one of them) to avoid their raids.

For me, the big problem with non-hostile pirates is I cannot beat up named bounties of any kind for money and ships, or to defend core worlds from pirate raids when I want core worlds alive (so I can raid the core worlds for blueprints without waiting as long for stability to recover).  I look for named bounties when I do not feel like fighting Ordos.

I guess that's a difference in playstyle: I find that knowing everyone wants to kill me is the same as being non-hostile with everyone. I also wait until pirate raids soften up a core world buy destroying their stations before I go raiding for blueprints (it makes it easier for me since 1/2 of the work is already done).

I think it's because players are expected to deal with pirates, so the main factions aren't allowed to do anything because that would remove content meant for the player.

Thats part of what I'm pointing out. Playing as "pirates" is list as "hard" but in reality pirate life enjoys way more perks than any other play style. I'm all for creating more challenging gameplay and more content but I also prefer balance and hence I think there is a pretty overpowered playstyle when a player is part of the pirate faction.

[BigBrainEnergy]

Thats part of what I'm pointing out. Playing as "pirates" is list as "hard" but in reality pirate life enjoys way more perks than any other play style. I'm all for creating more challenging gameplay and more content but I also prefer balance and hence I think there is a pretty overpowered playstyle when a player is part of the pirate faction.

Well, playing pirate isn't vanilla, so there may be only so much modders can do about it. I don't know if removing these advantages from pirates requires rebranding them as a normal faction. At the very least, playing as pirates is going to require a lot of adjusting for most players especially in the early game. Listing it as "hard" is probably fair.

[vcuaoiwk]

That's a fair point.

Well, playing pirate isn't vanilla

Oh really? Christ, I havent played an unmodded version since like 2017 so I was literally writing that thread with the assumption that the base game included that option.

[Histidine]

A lot of the stuff described (like invasions) is from Nexerelin mod.

Pirates don't normally get invaded in Nex (otherwise the regular factions would gang up on them real quick), although by default if pirates conquer a non-pirate faction the non-pirate factions can take it back.
If you want to make a pirate playthrough more 'interesting', you can toggle allowPirateInvasions in exerelin_config.json; this should also enable diplomacy events with pirates.

(3a) the Hegemony does NOT and will not do AI inspections. That alone makes up for just about every con listed.

Are you taking governorship of pirate colonies (rather than founding your own, with the light blue player color)? Hegemony never inspects governed colonies of any faction for technical reasons, but directly held player colonies should still be inspected with a pirate commission (or at least I see no attempt to prevent this in the code).

[vcuaoiwk]

If you want to make a pirate playthrough more 'interesting', you can toggle allowPirateInvasions in exerelin_config.json; this should also enable diplomacy events with pirates.

Ooooo thanks for that tip! That is going to make it a bit more fun!

Are you taking governorship of pirate colonies (rather than founding your own, with the light blue player color)? Hegemony never inspects governed colonies of any faction for technical reasons, but directly held player colonies should still be inspected with a pirate commission (or at least I see no attempt to prevent this in the code).

Well, I generally found the colony and then transfer ownership to pirates and then purchase the colony back. I use this particular method so that it feel more like I'm part of the pirate faction rather than just a vassal state. It also gives me more incentive to not simply resign my commission when things don't go as planned.