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[Twogs]

Hey everyone


So I started a game as a smuggler. And I must admit: It's fun!
Didn't fought a single battle so far, made a small fortune out of Black Market trade (mostly with legal goods actually) and missions. On a good way to have pirates as friends.

But now the thing is, how do you really "expand" as a pirate/smuggler/whatever.
It's hard to get new ships as you can't just buy them, black markets not always have the ships you wanted.
You can't grow to big to fast because everyone hates you (if you play it right at least ^^)
Finding trade ships without to much escort/other fleets nearby
Questions upon questions.


Does anyone else live a life as a pirate/smuggler? What do you do normally? What ships do you use? And so on

[SpacePoliticianAndaZealot]

If you have the know-how, I'd recommend doing some procurement contracts from the pirates.

If everyone hates you, then I presume pirates are no longer hostile towards you/very close to the -50 mark? Pirates ignoring you is a welcome bonus 

It is much easier to keep your fleet small. Having 3-4 Cerberi is great. The only thing you really want to expang is your account balance. Not only will you be able to do some more risky (profit-wise) runs, but you can buy a few combat ships and stow them away when you eventually decide to raid a few small merchant convoys.

When you do so, I recommend the Magec and Hybrasil systems. Since there is not much point in doing otherwise I'll assume you have Technology specced decently - Navigation skill will give you an edge while lurking through the nebulae/asteroid belts.
Also, the Guayota's disk (huge dust ring around the star) is an excellent spot to practice evading patrols, ambushing, and getting the feel for sensor ranges in general.

One cool little thing is that if you navigate to an asteroid your fleet will "stick" onto it, allowing you to drift around while not moving at all - your sensor profile will be close to naught.

My glory smuggling days were during the previous game version, zooming around with a fleet of combat freighters at burn speed 12-13ish and making hundreds of thousands off trade disruptions and food shortages. Since economy and pricing has gotten quite complicated, I primarily do small-medium procurement contracts.

Cheers 

[Blaze]

I've been playing as a pirate too, I just don't want to bother with all the investigations garbage.

What you should do is butter up the independents. Notion in Askonia has a great military market.

I think the key to being a pirate is adaptability, you won't always get what you want, you just have to make do with what you have. Up until now I've never really bothered with things like the cerberus or hermes, but with the addition of officers, you can throw them onto whatever ship and turn it into a completely viable warship. Except maybe the (D) variants, those are still garbage; hopefully Tiandong updates soon so I can use their converter.

[StarSchulz]

when you look at a fleet you can generally get an idea of what it is hauling - the supplies and heavy machinery fleets are probably the best to raid. it might take some effort to take out 3 atlas and the escort, but those things leave behind thousands of supplies and heavy machinery! tons of money there

[Megas]

In my game, I am a pirate... for the Hegemony.  When everyone else hates you, I can act as a pirate to my enemies by killing them and/or smuggling things in-and-out of their markets.  So far, trading (and doing missions delivering) harvested organs has been my most profitable activity, but the places where I can get most of them easily are in Askonia or Hybrasil, deep in enemy territory.

Remember, a pirate and a privateer are effectively indistinguishable in Starsector, except for who your friends are.

[Flying Birdy]

You can put together a fighter - carrier fleet fairly easily as a pirate. Granted its not as strong as the conventional set-ups, but its still powerful enough to take care of most convoys. The thunder fighter carries harpoon missles which melts straight through frigates.

There's some rare ships that will show up in the black market and open market. The key is to look for non-defective variants of destroyers as you're trading. Defectives are, in my opinion, worthless. It takes a lot of luck to put together a decent fleet of destroyers. My personal favorite has been the sunderer, though the non-defective variants are incredibly hard to find (buy it immediately if you find it). The Sunderer, equipped by a tachyon lance, can basically take down cruisers with ease. A clean hit from a tachyon lance will kill 3/4 of a frigate.

There are no real late-game options if you restrict yourself to purely the black markets. But, if you're only really going after convoys like me, then you really don't need capital ships. Just make sure you remain as at most suspicious/inhospitable to factions. This way, the relations will automatically improve back up by 15 every once in a while.

[Toranet]

 Played once as a pure pirate in 0.7a, everyone exept pirates hated me hard, but as long as you got the omnifactory mod it is not too hard to get ships and weapons, you just need to aquire it once and than get enough money to buy it at a higher price than the usual market.
 I have totaly disrupted trade in jungala system and was smuggling stuffs from it ant than selling it to other blackmarkets where created disruption too. Takes ages to make but 400% income makes sence as long as there is no more food shortage/dissruption to be made. In previous update I was friendly with everyone while buying 8000-10000 food from lud church for 15 creds each(20 with tax so no need in black market realy) and than selling it to planet with food shortage that needs 100 food to be satisfied with 300-400 each(200-250 with tarrifs, with 1000% income I dont realy care )... Well, the golden age of traders and mega exploits is gone untill next update where it will be available again, less massive though but still profitable I hope.

[Twogs]

What the point at which pirates stop attacking you on sight? I'm at -19 and they still attack me, even though they have a "neutral" stance

[Flying Birdy]

What you should do is butter up the independents. Notion in Askonia has a great military market.

Anyone knows whats in the independents military market? Is there capital ships?

What the point at which pirates stop attacking you on sight? I'm at -19 and they still attack me, even though they have a "neutral" stance

I don't think they ever do stop. They're pirates after all.

[Grievous69]

What you should do is butter up the independents. Notion in Askonia has a great military market.

Anyone knows whats in the independents military market? Is there capital ships?

Yes, I found Conquests and Onslaughts so far.

[StarSchulz]

The independent military market pretty much sells everything, i wish i had the money at the time but they once had a paragon there.

[Twogs]

What the point at which pirates stop attacking you on sight? I'm at -19 and they still attack me, even though they have a "neutral" stance

I don't think they ever do stop. They're pirates after all.

Is this sure? If so, this would make a true pirate game not possible

[Nimaniel]

What the point at which pirates stop attacking you on sight? I'm at -19 and they still attack me, even though they have a "neutral" stance

I can't be 100% sure but.. I believe the only case where pirates will attack you after they become non-hostile is when you do a mission. Some missions will trigger a scripted pirate fleet to chase you and demand that you surrender the mission cargo. In this scenario your best chance is to hit emergency burn to dodge the encounter (lead their fleet into a detachment that will lock them in combat while you complete the mission).

I have not been attacked by pirates since I became inhospitable (relation -49 an up?).. except for the case described above. (And I have a 25 ship fleet now with over 1M$ banked.. so they have had plenty of opportunities).

On a similar note, does anyone know if you can become friendly with the Path? Will they stop attacking you if you becomes friends with the Church?