A Pirates Joice

[julyy]

I know the game has his goal in achieving a high rank, like the original elite does.

But I find it almost unbalanced. Cause if I decide to be a pirate, theres no chance to survive, because no station would let you in, and the other pirates kill you either.

I would like to have this changed, there should be a way to make money in a pirates life. At least a few pirate station should be there in a galaxy to have a home, I cant play this game on the good side. Also other pirates shouldn´t attack when they see that you are one of them.

Please, give a pirate a chance to live his oolite live in freedom.

sincerely
julyy

[Killer Wolf]

they had pirate bases in the "X" games, and i think it's a pretty logical idea. they would, i'd think appear in the less stable systems only, and you should be able to dock and trade w/ them - since they're hunted people and can't go elsewhere, you should get very good premiums on your cargo, BUT....to balance it out, there should be a 10% chance that they'll rip you off and take your cargo w/out paying

[julyy]

Sure! That Way!

But what i missed in X was this point, that you couldn´t really decide to join the other side, because the game wasn´t playable then. This should be possible now in Oolite! My Dream.

[TGHC]

But I find it almost unbalanced. Cause If I decide to be a pirate, theres no chance to survive, because no station would let you in, and the other pirates kill you either.

I would like to have this changed, there should be a way to make money in a pirates life.

<snip>

Please, give a pirate a chance to live his oolite live in freedom.

Not quite sure where you are coming from here.

If you decide to be a pirate/bounty hunter, you can attack and plunder at will, and keep your status "clean", just don't shoot at anyone if cops are around, or when you are near a Coriolis station. Even if your status becomes "fugitive" you can still dock manually at a station. Anyway if you decide to become a murderous plunderer of innocents, you should expect the authorities to be a little upset.

Pirates will attack you regardless of your status, you need to equip your ship anyway, with the best offensive and defensive kit you can get if you want to take the blighters on. If you don't have the wherewithall to fight back, you can cut and run with the fuel injectors, (sunskimming/fuel scooping is useful on long journeys), so surviving is not difficult at all.

As an early strategy you should concentrate on trading up and equiping yourself with a mean machine, so that you can travel around fearlessly.

As I see it you have complete freedom to roam around doing whatever you wish, being as aggressive or wimpy as you wish, providing you are willing and prepared to accept the consequences of your actions, seems very balanced to me!

[DaddyHoggy]

Doc Nil - creator of Pirate coves and Pirates Traps/ambushes (never remember correct name) is quite keen that you should be able to save at non-main-stations (suffering the same issue of trying to load a pilot who has a ship frm a newly removed oxp, if you save at a Hoopy (for example) and then remove the Hoopy Casinos oxp) - that way you would feel more "pirate like" and may never dock at a real station due to your illegality.

I have to say I'm firmly in agreement.

If enough of us shout for long enough some of the clever fiddlers-of-code will hear our plays and mod it so you can save anywhere you dock...

[Arexack_Heretic]

Isn't it always possible to dock manually despite being fugitive?
I thought it was.

[Killer Wolf]

yeah, he said that.

"If you decide to be a pirate/bounty hunter, you can attack and plunder at will, and keep your status "clean", "
?? i thought shooting up a Clean ship immediately turned you Offender, and killing , Fugitive?

[LittleBear]

Fireing on a police ship makes you a fugitive.

Killing a clean ship will make you an offender, but ONLY if the Cops see you do it!

I tend to go to a corportate state with an half-full hold and head towards the planet. Once I find a Trader I ID lock him and wait for Cops to disappear off the scanner.

[Captain Hesperus]

I often get 'jumped' by BoyRacers, little b@st@rds, so when I go for them, I wait til the Cops are off scanner, pop a few shots to get them firing back, them run back to the cops and keep an eye on the BoyRacer. They inevitably shoot at me in the cops sight, get 'Offender' statuses and then I can legally kick seven bells out of them WITH a Viper escort!

Captain Hesperus
"Vipers do have a use, after all!"

[TGHC]

I often get 'jumped' by BoyRacers, little b@st@rds, so when I go for them, I wait til the Cops are off scanner, pop a few shots to get them firing back, them run back to the cops and keep an eye on the BoyRacer. They inevitably shoot at me in the cops sight, get 'Offender' statuses and then I can legally kick seven bells out of them WITH a Viper escort!

Now that is downright sneaky! but an excellent strategy.

[Dr. Nil]

Doc Nil - creator of Pirate coves and Pirates Traps/ambushes (never remember correct name) is quite keen that you should be able to save at non-main-stations (suffering the same issue of trying to load a pilot who has a ship frm a newly removed oxp, if you save at a Hoopy (for example) and then remove the Hoopy Casinos oxp) - that way you would feel more "pirate like" and may never dock at a real station due to your illegality.

I have to say I'm firmly in agreement.

If enough of us shout for long enough some of the clever fiddlers-of-code will hear our plays and mod it so you can save anywhere you dock...

Yes. Saving at other stations than the main ones would be a really really nice thing to have - even if it would make piracy more believable and encourage such behavior

I just wanted to clarify that those oxps you mention are not made by me

[DaddyHoggy]

I just wanted to clarify that those oxps you mention are not made by me

Ah. Oh well, nicely themed little 'flavour' oxp's therefore I naturally assumed they were yours!

Apologies to original author(s)!

[Wiggy]

Pirates are pirates. Just because you are a pirate too, it doesn't mean that other pirates won't try to rip you off, too!

The reall problem with saving a game at pirate coves is that currently there is only a percentage chance that a rock hermit will appear in a given system, so next time you load, what happens if the hermit isn't there?
I think this would mean quite a big change to the code.

Currently, I think that piracy is the best way of making money. Way better than trading - because it's all profit, not just the margin!

[Dr. Nil]

It still doesn't make sense to me that if any green just out of Lave pilot can buy cheap equipment to accurately scan the legal status of other ships, that Cal-Gop stations don't have that. And if they do, it really makes no sense, that they let fugitives dock stations without impounding their ship, shredding their pilot's license and sending them to prison for a very long time.

Having stations that always appear in the same systems isn't hard at all. And if there was a key like <save enabled> those who make randomly appearing stations should just choose not to include it or set it to false.

I've been looking for piracy to become a believable option for players since Elite. Oolite could become the first Elite game I'm aware of to offer that option. As things stand now, player pirates must really be stretching their imagination every time they dock a station packed with police chased by Vipers trying to kill them, and at most is fined and given a minor slap on the wrist. Docking a Gal-Cop station as a fugitive should IMO result in a game over.


Real world parallel: You rob and kill a person and is chased by cops trying to gun you down, but you succeed in making it to the nearest police station where you get a ticket and have your criminal record wiped clean.

[DaddyHoggy]

Right with you on this one doc!

If you've got the Tionsla Graveyard installed there's always a second station and yet you can't save your game there - the argument has always been that you might uninstall the oxp - well yes - but you can do that with oxp ships - you can buy them and them remove the oxp - the game just doesn't let you load that pilot up.

So, why couldn't the game code be "nudged" to do a check when a pilot is loaded to see if he's saved at a main station - if he's not and he's at a Rock Hermit (for example) then generate a Rock Hermit and then populate the rest of the system as normal.

Could we all ask Dajt nicely as he seems to have his arms deepest into the code at the moment.

Any thoughts Dajt?