Pirates seems quite broken...

[Arcurus]

I made a game where i set pirates to full power at game start and did not make peace at all (except to one).

They attacked few ships and stations but did nearly destroy anything even if there where tons of pirate ships around.

Mainly they where busy raiding the colony which they nearly got anything out of it...

Also making peace with them seems quite broken, since they wont if they think they are superior and you defended against them (attacked their ships according to them).

Here are some suggestions how this can be fixed:

Make raiding much much faster and efficient:
Raiders in --> few seconds fight raiders out with the resources.
If recently raided next raid could give less resources.

Dont lower the diplomatic rating if you defend your stations / colonies against pirates. Quite opposite make them more willing to come to an agreement if you successfully defend against them.

Consider for the price of protection how much this race likes your race, how big your economy is and how big the pirate strength is vs your streng and how many damage the pirates made vs you against the pirates (the more ships they lost compared to the ships you lost the cheaper the protection should be).

That said let the pirates still focus on raiding, since strong pirates could easily destroy everything which would be quite frustrating... maybe give bases much more time before they are completely destroyed to give pirates and others further incentives to raid instead destroying and make it super hard to capture bases...

[gravyten]

In the original game pirates would charge higher prices the bigger your economy. You could also hire pirates to do missions like smuggle goods you need or attack enemies. They could also put pirates bases on your planets and increase corruption. They are also playable

Hopefully they develop pirates like in the original game. The game is still being developed

[Arcurus]

In the original game pirates would charge higher prices the bigger your economy. ...
Hopefully they develop pirates like in the original game. The game is still being developed

Yea, played also the original... pirates where quite more balanced there...
Not so sure if the price of protection was based on your economy, i only could remember that it very much depended how the pirate fraction likes you. If you had not fightend with them the protection was very very cheap and kept cheap all the time...

Better would be to set the price of protection to some % of your economy which adapts if your economy grows...