I was reading the thread over here, and was going to respond there but it seemed like my response could go into a suggestion on improving pirates.



Now these opinions are purely based on my first ever play of the game, but the pirates really surprised me.



I quite like that they are nearly invisible- in terms of being 'realistic' it fits well with the idea of pirates - however what I did find that they are far too unbalanced, especially early in the game. As such, here are some pirate suggestions:



* Pirate fleet scaling - Pirates shouldn't be as powerful as they are so early in the game - I was easily coming across 1500 strength fleets when I was flying with around 500-600. I think pirates should scale at the same rate or slower than the rate of the races around them. It's realistic to suggest that as they encounter races (player and AI) they steal or gain tech from them, but integrate at a slower rate because they don't have the resources of being an empire.



* Pirates should not be able to take over systems - only blockade and raid systems. At the end of a blockade, your system should remain intact but with a random penalty such as a destroyed enhancement, building - or stolen resources.



* Pirates should have outposts, usually on poorer grade planets or asteroids, that provide them bonuses if battles happen near by. When a player finds the output it can be attacked and destroyed - this stops pirates spawning near by (think Civ barbarians here)



* Pirates should be bribable - The should be contactable when a fleet enters the system, they can ask for a ransom to stop and leave the system - you might be able to even pay them to move on and attack another races system nearby?



* Pirate Ships - this one is more cosmetic, but rather than one ship type I'd like to see pirates have a mix of all available race ships, modified on the skin to look more rough-and-ready, like they have been captured - 'cut-and-shut' fixed up. Would add more realism to them being scavengers, rather than a unique race.

tanepiper wrote:


* Pirates should be bribable - The should be contactable when a fleet enters the system, they can ask for a ransom to stop and leave the system - you might be able to even pay them to move on and attack another races system nearby?

Sounds for me more like mercenaries than pirates.

Pirates are mean and should annoy you. Otherwise they are no pirates. And if you make them less powerful they wouldn't be a serious threat anymore.

tanepiper wrote:
* Pirates should be bribable - The should be contactable when a fleet enters the system, they can ask for a ransom to stop and leave the system - you might be able to even pay them to move on and attack another races system nearby?

Ah, giving buccaneers a letter of marque to go and harass your neighbours - I like the idea!



But I too think that they should not be made weaker, and removing their ability to take over a system would also weaken them too much.

i think pirates are fine, just put a scout on nearby systems so they dont spawn. pirates solved.

Fyi, the 'Pirates' are just a name group, just like 'terrorists' they include many groups and organizations.



So taking over systems is quite justified.



And the added stealth from their color on the strategic map is just groovy.

They can take over systems??? oO They never tried that in my games and they weren't too strong either, are you guys playing with pirate level 1 or 2 (0 = no pirates)?

Dropfish wrote:
They can take over systems??? oO They never tried that in my games and they weren't too strong either, are you guys playing with pirate level 1 or 2 (0 = no pirates)?

I have seen pirates operating small empires made from the frontier outposts of many species (A good choice for a future warmonger to hone their skills)



But I would love to see natural pirate states and the possibility of these 'rogue' nations becoming legitimate empires (And the possibility of player empires turning into these during civil wars and even game defeat.)



I feel they would add a great deal of fodder nations for economic and military competition before the players deal with each other, and would add a good reason to go for diplomacy and war early in the game for creating vassals, protectorates, federations and the like.



Space might be empty, but there is lots to do!

Igncom1 wrote:
I have seen pirates operating small empires made from the frontier outposts of many species

Amazing stuff!!

Igncom1 wrote:
I have seen pirates operating small empires made from the frontier outposts of many species (A good choice for a future warmonger to hone their skills)



But I would love to see natural pirate states and the possibility of these 'rogue' nations becoming legitimate empires (And the possibility of player empires turning into these during civil wars and even game defeat.)



I feel they would add a great deal of fodder nations for economic and military competition before the players deal with each other, and would add a good reason to go for diplomacy and war early in the game for creating vassals, protectorates, federations and the like.



Space might be empty, but there is lots to do!

I couldn't agree more, there's so much potential in the game for the pirates. The Devs have said that they don't want to make the pirates a separate faction and I can understand that, but it would be cool if the pirates were an incoherent lot with separate enclaves and acting independently from one another - so not a pirate faction but rather individual systems which "go pirate" and have to be pacified or otherwise dealt with (hired perhaps to do one's dirty work?)...

n18991c wrote:
I couldn't agree more, there's so much potential in the game for the pirates. The Devs have said that they don't want to make the pirates a separate faction and I can understand that, but it would be cool if the pirates were an incoherent lot with separate enclaves and acting independently from one another - so not a pirate faction but rather individual systems which "go pirate" and have to be pacified or otherwise dealt with (hired perhaps to do one's dirty work?)...

Hire pirates? YARRRRRRRRRRR - Good idea, yes please

Awesome idea! I actually like the suggestion by n18991c - where the pirates aren't a unified group but several smaller groups which work independently from the "greater whole"



Maybe you could drop a suggestion in my earlier thread about pirates, perhaps add an interactive event to them????

Link is here: /#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/12521-suggestion-escalating-events



I used pirates as an example but this thread has heaps of awesome ideas for a pirate themed event xD