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[Grievous69]

This video has some pretty good suggestions and ideas, one of which I will explain here.

Spoiler

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Mr. BigBrain talks about pirates and why are they so crazy about killing you. You can mow through their fleets but they just don't give a damn, they'll keep throwing themselves in the woodchipper. So why not have some mechanic where when you destroy enough of their forces, you get a transmission from them asking if you'll let them go for a couple of credits. So like reverse of Pathers, you pay them to bugger off, and pirates give you money for giving them mercy. It makes sense for them as a faction, they currently operate like some angry swarm trying to devour anything, not caring for their behinds.

[BaBosa]

The pirate's behaviour is almost certainly due to them being originally designed as the standard enemy whereas Pathers were made later and given a place in the game. and Alex hasn't gotten around to giving pirates a personality because there needs to be some sort of standard enemy.
Making them more likely to retreat would be good. Making them pay the player would be difficult balancing to make it work for newbies while not being cheesy for better players.

[BigBrainEnergy]

Hey that guy seems familiar

But yeah, right now you're just meant to accept that pirates only retreat after most of their ships have been mowed down. They're the "standard badguy" that it's morally acceptable to put down for fun and profit, but we already have derelicts and [redacted] filling that role. Sure, those fleets don't enter civilized space but do we really need the core worlds to be infested with fleets that are barely 1 step away from being a death cult? You could at least have them offer to pay you for mercy in the screen before initiating a pursuit, as well as reducing the threshold before they turn tail and run from a normal battle. It makes sense that other faction fleets don't do this when they're the standing armies of major factions, but for pirates something like this feels more appropriate.

[Siffrin]

It would be interesting if pirates would just back off from a fight if you deal enough damage to them even if they are technically still stronger since it's no longer worth the risk of further losses just to kill you.

[SCC]

I think the way I would approach it is I would make pirates' first action be extorting you, instead of trying to kill you. Especially when they insult you along the way. If you are too weak, you have to take the humiliation. If you are strong enough, you are encouraged not just by the potential loot from defeating them, but also by making it personal with those insults.

[Killer of Fate]

you can already just pay the pirates to leave you alone, and they say it's "protection money".