A way to stop pirates?

[BlackAlpha]

Is there a way to stop pirates or slow them down somehow?

I keep destroying all their bases as fast as possible but it seems they simply respawn as soon as I blow them up. I'm getting tired of it because I keep getting warnings about my mining stations and constructors getting attacked.

I'm playing with a huge galaxy, so covering every inch of the galaxy is impossible, but I did try the following:

1. I tried buying lots of escorts and frigates, but the AI is unable to use them effectively. The AI actually wastes away the escorts/frigates purpose by flying them from one safe planet to the next, the escorting happens during FTL travel; you know, when they cannot get attacked or react to a nearby attack. Now, this wouldn't be bad if it was like real life, where a show of force would have an effect. But here, it just means they are wasting away my money by flying around and looking pretty. So I scrapped that idea and tried something else.

2. I tried increasing the taskforce/fleet ratio, which works a little bit better because most ships are put into task forces, which means they don't end up flying through empty space nonstop. But the problem is that task forces only reinforce close to the system they are positioned in. This is a big issue in a large galaxy because most attacks happen just outside of their defending range. The problem is that you cannot overwrite their range because the AI stubbornly undoes your change. So again, most of the time, the ships end up just sitting there, wasting away my money and looking pretty.

I have now given up on attacking the pirates because it's a lot of micromanagement and it seems pointless. But I feel like I'm missing something very obvious here that allows you to stop the pirates. So, what am I missing?

[Theluin]

There are several ways to do that, but my favourite (because it requires very little micromanagement and is pretty effective) is doing 2 things (The second point is optional but I highly recommend it):
1. Adding 2 fighter bays to the designs for mining stations. The fighters get automatically upgraded as you advance in tech so you don't have to scrap the station to upgrade weapons.
2. Building quite a lot of escorts and/or frigates (by a lot I mean a couple of hundred) The fighters will usually manage to destroy/force to flee pirate escorts and frigates and your escorts/frigates will take care of pirate destroyers/cruisers and the occasional stray ardilus or kaltor.

[nelmsm1]

I've the best way is to set the slider to "very few" when setting up the game.

[shinobu]

Well, you could pay them... [:)]

[jpwrunyan]

Two fighter bays on all your mining bases... I loled.

"sir, would you like a mining component with your fighter garrison?"

[Blueberry]

Once you have explored all the systems around and within your empires' borders, you can que construction ships to build mining bases at all those fuel source locations including gas clouds. Clean up a system, keep a patrol force at the location until a constructor arrives and does its thing. The more locations you have secured with a gas mining station, the less spawning points the pirates are left with. Understandably, the option is both time consuming and a bit annoying. However, peace and quiet from having no pirates in your proximity ensures your military pays its undivided attention to those annoying neighbours.

Alternatively, you can always equip any mining stations with several shields and blasters for starters. Additional maintenance costs won't hurt that much. [:)]

[jpwrunyan]

It boils down to this: playing with pirates is like play whack-a-mole. If you like playing whack-a-mole, play with pirates. If you dont, dont.
Some people state that they like pirate so that they can do evil things and still recover their reputation. I dislike such exploits. I like pirates because of the added pressure it creates to have some fleet and escorts. But I hate it when later it becomes whack-a-mole and constant attack message spam. So I ultimately turn them off.

I wish the game simply spawned pirates over a course of time instead of having some static number of pirates constant in the galaxy. Then once you destroy the base, that is one less pirate faction for at least x number of years. This would make it possible to purge them entirely if you are determined. Alas, moles it is.

[tjhkkr]

I like pirates because of the challenge myself.

And I do not add fighter components, but I do arm my gas/mining stations and strengthen their shields... if you have a fair number of frigates and so on, not a lot, but the shields and weapons keep the pirates at bay long enough for the warships to come in for the kill. I have thought about adding hyper-disrupt to the stations as well so they cannot slip away after the warships arrive.

[ASHBERY76]

You either stop them by turning them off in the game settings or making the whole galaxy empire territory.Any other method and that means the pirate concept is not working.

[jpwrunyan]

I also agree with ashbery76.

Pirates are not working.

[BlackAlpha]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I'll try out your suggestions.

I find this whole pirate thing a bit funny because I feel like I'm, nonstop, waging a full out war against the pirates. Compared to the wars against the other races, this war is on a whole different level. It forces me to apply the full strenght of my entire armada. I'm waging this war on many different fronts. But don't see that as a weakness, I have enough resources to wage such a war tenfold. Also consider the fact that I'm raking in one victory after another, there are no defeats, only victories. And yet, whatever I do, it has no effect whatsoever, and the war is neverending. That's why this game feature feels out of place to me and I think I'll simply turn off the pirates the next game I play.

[ASHBERY76]

It only takes 4 destroyers to wipe out pirate bases.And small defence fleets guarding sectors.It is not hard.

I like the system buy maybe respamming pirates bases needs to be toned down.

[tjhkkr]

ORIGINAL: ASHBERY76
It only takes 4 destroyers to wipe out pirate bases.And small defence fleets guarding sectors. It is not hard.
I like the system buy maybe respamming pirates bases needs to be toned down.

I do not want it toned down, BUT maybe it could be controlled by economic factors... a struggling economy, more pirates...
Is this NOT how the Somali pirates came into existence?

[KnighHawk]

If you build or place something that has long range scanners in the area where the will stop re-spawning in said area. At least they do in .7; ie a starbase or a monitoring station.

[Anonymous]

[Deleted by Admins]

[jpwrunyan]

Very few is still too many for me. Later they turn into obnoxious spam. Actually, the guy who said "just pay them" is also someone I agree with. I wouldnt mind paying them except that extorsion becomes yet more spam. If there was an option to simply pay indefinately until cancelled, i would do it. Pirate alliances work this way right? Meh, next time maybe i will try allying with them instead. This might solve all the issues I currently have (ie spam).

[Jerkface]

ORIGINAL: jpwrunyan

Very few is still too many for me. Later they turn into obnoxious spam. Actually, the guy who said "just pay them" is also someone I agree with. I wouldnt mind paying them except that extorsion becomes yet more spam. If there was an option to simply pay indefinately until cancelled, i would do it. Pirate alliances work this way right? Meh, next time maybe i will try allying with them instead. This might solve all the issues I currently have (ie spam).

The problem with alliances (which is the most spam-free convenient) is the pirates will attack random people and you get a reputation hit.

[jpwrunyan]

Yes, but in the late game, when the spam is worst, I usually dont care about reputation. My enemies hate me, my alliances are firm. Would pirate alliances really compromise my free trade agreements? I will find out.

Anyway, if you are playing a warrior race, surely the rep hit is meaningless, dont you think?

Also, just having an alliance doesnt mean you cant break it and destroy a pirate base for a rep boost does it?

This may be gaming the system, and generally I dont like that. But as I said, the main goal is to reduce spam.

[Chet Guiles]

The biggest pirate issue I have is mining station attacks. I weaponize my mining and gas mining stations with weapons up to the level of a frigate, and provide extra shields and power. It's more expensive, but short of a full out multiship attack, they can fend off pirates quite well. Manually upgrade as technology changes, then allow automatic retrofit. Don't automate design or it'll downgrade to wimp level.

The other issue is exploration ships that stumble on a nest of pirates. I always arm my exploration ships (manual design and retrofit) so that they have a good chance of fighting off two or three pirates at a time. Upgrade them as time and technology permits. They get a bit expensive and you might sacrifice some subwarp speed and turning ability for the mass of weapons and extra shields, but it's worth the peace of mind. My Conquistador Class Exploration ship has cruiser-level weapons (or better) and shields. The further you are exploring from home the more you want your exploration ships protected. The range of escorts is not as good as that of my improved explorers, so self-protection works best.

Once you have technology it's fun to add long range scanners to exploration ships -- that'll spot pirates at a safe distance to permit escape if that's desired. Usually by that time I have enough armament to attack rather than flee.

Then use your fleets to attack and destroy pirate bases once they've been found.

[ASHBERY76]

I just tested pirates with average distance in the options and you hardly see them.I usually play with them nearby.I actaully think it is too quiet now.

Are people moaning about whack-a-mole using pirates distance in the options?