I should have turned off Pirates completely. I had no idea how annoying they can be. They should be a boost to help gain XP for your ships and Heroes. On turn 70, I have 3 Pirates hanging around one system. They have a decent amount of ships in their fleets too. I wouldn't mind every once in a while a Pirate fleet popped up, but 3 at one time is extremely annoying.

I agree, the options for pirates should be overhauled. Perhaps options to adjust their strength and presence would help, so you decide on how powerful they are as well as how often they appear, because I don't want Pirates to be very strong, or common, I just want them to be a diversion, an occasional monkey wrench. I tried playing with Pirates a few times and they always ended up more powerful than everyone else early-mid game, especially since they can just magically upgrade their ships whenever a new technology is available.



Being able to make deals with them would also be nice, like a neutral faction, like you could pay protection money to make them leave you alone, which would make surviving them on higher difficulties more manageable.