Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Ayreos

I have experienced the same. No matter how many pirates i befriend and pay to do so, no one ends up attacking the enemy pirate bases. And with good reason! I have "found" a number of powerful abandoned ships, among which a cruiser and a devastating capital ship. Banded them with two carriers and various escorts, then sent them to a pirate spaceport a system away from my homeworld: total defeat. That, after flattening and enslaving two neighboring empires with a smaller fleet. Meanwhile, constant raids by multiple pirate empires, my fleets rushing around back and forth, utter micromanagement chaos. I found myself having no choice but to remove a few pirate empires with the editor, not because they were very dangerous, but because the constant attacks and occasional lost mining bases were an unbearable spam to constantly deal with.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Thrake

I bought the game recently and so far so good, but for one thing: pirates. I just don't understand how I'm meant to deal with them.

In my first games, I avoided any deals with them. I did through money to local bullies to be safe but that was it. Admitedly, throwing money felt too easy, so I stopped that in next attempts and experienced the first escalates in violence; more destruction means more expensive bribes, more raids,... I did get spanked more than enough but it felt more interesting than a cheap bribe to get out of troubles, especially since AI Empires look quite pacifist on average.

Then, I found out that only pirates "protecting" me would accept defense missions. I thought it would make it even more interesting with aan added layer of diplomacy and treachery, so I tried being in good terms with a local mercenary group to combine our efforts to fight off the local rabbles. After several attemps, I'm quite disapointed. Defense missions look a bit weird. AI accepts, sometimes there are no ships for a while, sometimes they disapear, the colony is under attack while no ship is around. Then AI sends some more ships and get paids in the end. It helps I guess, though I was expecting at least a continued protection. Attack missions are always accepted, but AI almost never seem to actually send a fleet, even with "highly contested" missions. So, they don't get paid, but the job is never done either while one might expect at least an attempt (yet there were interesting possibilities, as timing another attack to take back a station while pirate fight one another). I tried setting up an attack 5 times on a row on the very same base, each time accepted by different pirate factions yet not a single attack has been sent.

Overall, pirates are really an interesting concept, but I'm not sure wether I'm missing something about them, or wether it is the AI that might not be artificial enough (take my money and loot the bloody base of your sworn rival!!!), and perhaps not intelligent enough as well.

So, am I missing something? Any hints on how to effectively interact with pirates?

quote:

ORIGINAL: loki100

quote:

ORIGINAL: Thrake

I bought the game recently and so far so good, but for one thing: pirates. I just don't understand how I'm meant to deal with them.

In my first games, I avoided any deals with them. I did through money to local bullies to be safe but that was it. Admitedly, throwing money felt too easy, so I stopped that in next attempts and experienced the first escalates in violence; more destruction means more expensive bribes, more raids,... I did get spanked more than enough but it felt more interesting than a cheap bribe to get out of troubles, especially since AI Empires look quite pacifist on average.

Then, I found out that only pirates "protecting" me would accept defense missions. I thought it would make it even more interesting with aan added layer of diplomacy and treachery, so I tried being in good terms with a local mercenary group to combine our efforts to fight off the local rabbles. After several attemps, I'm quite disapointed. Defense missions look a bit weird. AI accepts, sometimes there are no ships for a while, sometimes they disapear, the colony is under attack while no ship is around. Then AI sends some more ships and get paids in the end. It helps I guess, though I was expecting at least a continued protection. Attack missions are always accepted, but AI almost never seem to actually send a fleet, even with "highly contested" missions. So, they don't get paid, but the job is never done either while one might expect at least an attempt (yet there were interesting possibilities, as timing another attack to take back a station while pirate fight one another). I tried setting up an attack 5 times on a row on the very same base, each time accepted by different pirate factions yet not a single attack has been sent.

Overall, pirates are really an interesting concept, but I'm not sure wether I'm missing something about them, or wether it is the AI that might not be artificial enough (take my money and loot the bloody base of your sworn rival!!!), and perhaps not intelligent enough as well.

So, am I missing something? Any hints on how to effectively interact with pirates?

in general, like internet trolls and gremlins, don't feed the pirates.

Now you will early game have to pay at least one, maybe more, faction to leave you alone long enough to become established. But don't pay them for info or missions, they will turn your cash into ships and cause you more trouble.

Once you have a decently protected homeworld, the first hyper drive (so you can motor around your own star system) and a reasonable fleet (say 6-8), start stopping your protection payments. You should be strong enough to fend them off even if they plague you as you expand. Once you get a couple of ancient capital ships to add to your own fleet go hunting them.

Blowing up their bases is both fun and good for your reputation.

I like them as they are in the game, there are a major source of irritation and interaction in the early game phase before you have your own empire established and are feuding with other empires.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ShadowB

Yes, I basically pay them off at first, and once I'm strong enough, I start fighting back. And basically the only information I pay for is contact with other empires, for situational awareness purposes.

A question, however: when a protection agreement is in effect, does that mean you give the pirate clan green light to build installations on your planets? Maybe it was just a coincidence, but early on in my current game, I had a few colonies "infected" with pirate facilities, and they happened to belong to the only group of pirates I was still in good terms with.