So within the update is was pleased to see this game on what i consider is a significantly better path. I have only minor grips, and some small performance issues thus far. There was one new feature that caught my eye. Within the market you can now buy pirate ships of all variants, should they random their way onto the market, such as the picture below. When reviewing the fitting possibilities for these ships, some of them seem very strong if given to competent hands. Notice the below cruiser has two heavy mounts, this could be a serious threat. I was disappointed to find that i cannot edit the ship i wish to buy. I was wondering, will we in future be able to edit these ships? We bloody well should, assuming you want people to be buying them. 

Beyond that, all up a rather good update so far, i look forward to the future, you have renewed my hope.

There are several advantages to mercenaries: they are created instantly (rather than with a single turn delay), and they can form privateer fleets. As such, they kinda need a downside and that downside is that you cannot upgrade or customise them, because otherwise the privateer fleets would be 3stronk

But in their current state, they are too weak to be effective. They need to scale with the game by allowing you to kit them out. That would make them a viable option to use at all stages of the game.

Maybe if there were an additional research option to upgrade ships in the next tech era, at enormous cost. 

IT would be nice to also sell ships on this market.

It would be very nice if this leads to an actual capture mechanic, either during combat or from capturing a world with ships not in fleets.

HaxtonFale wrote:

There are several advantages to mercenaries: they are created instantly (rather than with a single turn delay), and they can form privateer fleets. As such, they kinda need a downside and that downside is that you cannot upgrade or customise them, because otherwise the privateer fleets would be 3stronk

On top of this, having a set strength to a privateer ship means that the ship has an expiration date, which pushes you to use your ships as opposed to hoarding them. On top of that, having these ship designs on top of yours in your ship design screen means that there'll be a huge amount of clutter in there, something we're keen to avoid.

That's the current design and we'd like you guys to try it out for a bit. We might change it if down the line you feel that this is still detrimental to the use of privateers as a whole.

MorallyGray wrote:

Question, Frog. If ships can be given a neutral appearance, thus allowing you to mind game people, but yet having those ships as only a minor annoyance by tier two, and only mass spamable to effectiveness by tier 3, would you think the current system is acceptable for it to be valued by players? I do feel that the ability to edit these ships would solve all issues with the system. Currently, i find the system to be obviously incomplete, it is EA after all. At this point, the money you blow on the craft is not justifiable, the fittings are not justifiable, and the overall strength is not justifiable beyond tier 2. Without the ablity to fit them as you please, they will be ruled out as a gimmick, novelty, or perhaps annoyingly used to burn opposing fleets attack moves. There is a lot of potential with this system that i think would be disgustingly ignored given a lack of editing. I wouldn't underestimate a player's ability to be resourceful in matters such as these where people can have editable ships. Ultimately, there are only two reasons why people would buy these. A; there is a hull type they like on market, and B; if they wish to engage in some mind games. Beyond that, if those reasons are not satisfied, this will be pushed to the side, very earily on, and forgotten quickly. Not to mention that a player needs to expend a research to obtain this, where a player could opt for a better, more customisable choice.

As a player that would love to mind game my friends at the time of release, allowing someone to purchase a hull that they fit once at the time of purchase, then having those specific ships naturally become redundant with the duration of play as people unlock better tech, should be your goal here.

I would be more keen to see mercenaries scale with some sort of overall tech level of the galaxy, rather than giving a player an option to retrofit to their optimal build. Otherwise this might stop being "mind games" and start being "griefing" when you're constantly under attack by an unknown player who keeps buying out mercs and fitting them with their top of the line modules.

But yes, I generally agree that towards mid-game there's little point in buying mercenaries other than making a privateer army fleet because a quest asks you to capture a city system of your ally on whom you do not wish to declare war.

In a game such as this, griefing is inevitable, the entire mechanic of influence is griefing. We should not look at in those lights, as players that are stronger than weaker players, could simply acheive the same goals with already established mechanics. So we can either add a update to adress the more mind game aspect of this system, or we could let it fade into novelty.

MorallyGray wrote:

In a game such as this, griefing is inevitable, the entire mechanic of influence is griefing. We should not look at in those lights, as players that are stronger than weaker players, could simply acheive the same goals with already established mechanics. So we can either add a update to adress the more mind game aspect of this system, or we could let it fade into novelty.

Influence by itself is not griefing, it's just the way some things are implemented tend to go into griefing. Privateer fleets are not a bad idea in its own right, but there should be some consideration in place - otherwise you're just constructing mechanics that bolster the strong and hinder the weak.