How should one go about being a pirate?

[rolandthemad]

I am also very interested in this question. What is the design intent? If "Hidden" bases are not hidden, but can be knocked out by the slightest effort, what exactly is the point of them?

How is a pirate supposed to survive after initial empire expansion? Is the only answer to become an empire as well? This totally isn't what I had invisioned for my shady powerbrokers!

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns

I guess I had a different impression of what these bases were intended for then. I thought of them as secret hideouts that would rarely be discovered even when in the midst of a vast powerful empire that would help pirate factions survive and earn cash. But by the sounds of it you intentionally made them fragile and easy to kill. So what is the design intent for the bases? Are all pirates mid and late game intended to be played as empires with land armies and planets of their own? Are the bases intended for the early game only?

Once empires spread out into space, it will be impossible to gain enough control to build new bases due to land armies being present on most worlds, so will all pirate bases eventually be found and destroyed? Is that the designed intent? If so I guess focusing on getting just one planet up and running and then switching to land armies for further conquests should be the focus of pirate factions. Man I wasted soooo much money on failed base building lol.

Jim

[Bingeling]

Hidden bases have to be detectable, but not as easy to kill. I figure it is easier to defend your pirate empire if you got a few good colonies with space defenses and ground troops to rival an empire capital, you are not so easy to get rid of.

The game I have played in release had the normal rush of escorts to make your life hectic when trying to colonize. I did wait for some proper pirate action, though, and that never materialized. I figure the self destructing pirate stuff is one major reason why no pirates ever got strong.

[towerbooks3192]

I had a save file and I managed to colonize a planet since I got colony techs. So what is the difference between controlling and owning a colony as a pirate?I really want to shoot myself in one of my games because I think for 3 times I didn't know sending troops destroys your base so I saved 30k (which is hard to come up with as a pirate in early years) and then I sent some troops to raid. Much worse is that I know what would happen and did it 3 time!!

[Bingeling]

That thing sounds so buggy. Your raid should not damage your structures (or it should be impossible to raid that location). Hopefully that is fixed alongside the rest of the pirate problems...

[rolandthemad]

I bought this right out so excited about the idea of the expansion at the three day weekend. I guess I should've waited about 6 months after release like I normally do. That is usually how long it takes most games to get polished. [:-]

[Bingeling]

There is still a lot of fun to be had on empire side And maybe with pirate too, but that is more of a challenge, it seems.

[towerbooks3192]

One more thing I notice is the ship request screen. There are times it requests me to purchase ships over my current cash (not talking about hundreds difference but sometimes its about 3-5k difference) and when I open the suggestions it will display an actual amount which is far from the quoted number and sometimes it only displays zero (lets say it asked me to build 20k worth of ships and then when I open it, its going to display zero and not a single ship was requested).

[necaradan666]

Like this: YARRGh!

[Maruun]

Well Shadows is fun...but i am getting really irritated getting a hidden pirate base actually finally constructed.. Why you ask?

Every time i try to build one and pay 30k Credits for it...a single ENEMY pirate ships need to come by with a SINGLE assault pod to DESTROY my investment and he doesnt even need to succesfully raid the planet...

The other Pirates just know exactly when i try to start a piratebase come by with a escort send one pod down and a second later boom 30k gone.

2 Hours before it wasnt even a target by other pirates. Its more then frustrating i cant do anything about those ninjapodders. And it takes all the fun from it...several hours playing fighting against other pirates then finally able to build hidden piratebase ...ninjapodded no chance at all. Its not even "worth" it to lose everytime 30000 credits just to see them destroy it so easly. If they would succesfully raid that planet okay it would be something else...but seriuosly ONE POD?....Gnar i am pissed totally...

[Erik Rutins]

As I've mentioned on other threads, that's not working as intended. I've been doing some pirate testing since release and it's still quite playable if you focus on defending them, but the goal is not that they can be destroyed so easily.

Regards,

- Erik

[Maruun]

How the hell should i defend them? When a single Escort needs to shoot one god damn assault pod on the planet to destroy the hidden pirate base that i am trying to construct...What else should i build beside a space station, defending bases even entire fleets....
Hey i am not a freaking empire with a shitload of money i need to manage that money carefully and investing it in a 30k building is devestating when you lose it to something like that.

Its right now TOO easy...either you need to combine it to a intelligence mission to "find it" or destroy it, ot atleast make it so that they need to be successfull at that raid to destroy that building.

Right now its totally pointless...in 8 hours play i didnt get one single hidden piratebase setup and GOD i tried it....

[Erik Rutins]

They are too easy to destroy, but in post-release testing I've had no problem getting them built and completed. It's best to pick an independent planet that is not right near another pirate faction and focus on defending that one. Make sure you keep a fleet there and keep an eye on it. I understand you've tried and you're frustrated but it is quite possible. I've made it all the way through to Criminal Network in my post-release testing.

With that said, the ease with which they are destroyed is NOT intended and is effectively a bug. It's a design problem due to a change we made fairly late in development that got past us. Apologies for that, but a fix is already in the works.

Regards,

- Erik

[Maruun]

So you are telling me a space station near it a fleet near it doesnt help... and i need to constanly look at that colony for the next two ingame years or longer to get build? You cant be serious, i have fun as pirat, that planet is not even near any other pirates. Like i said it wasnt even a target by other pirates, i was from the beginning the only pirat for that planet until the point i tried to build that pirate base.

THE ONLY PIRAT, that was there, the moment i tried to build a pirate base.

Because that damn colony was so remote i had good hope for it to get a piratebase on it for the first time...nope ninjapodded. Right now it sounds like i need the entire budget of a midlevel empire to protect a single colony against ninjapodding...

Why even bothering with it then? That budget i couzld use for far more and better things then wasting it and loosing it so easly

For 30k credits i could build easly 20 freighters for smuggeling i dont thing that that hidden pirate base would give me that kind of income

[Raap]

It depends, really. Pirate bases( or rather control, but you really do need the bases to have real control) can give ridiculous income on larger planets. I had 83% control over a neutral 6billion colony and made over 120K a year from that alone.

[Erik Rutins]

No, of course those things help. I'm saying there's a bug now, which is the real source of your frustration, but if you manage your defense you can get these facilities built and protected. I'm not saying your feedback is invalid, just offering advice that there is hope and a fix is in the works.

Regards,

- Erik

[Maruun]

It depends, if youg et it even build, but the amount of money i lost just to build it on one planet or trying to is ridiculus...

On a side note i had a "bug" with the construction ships when i send them to build space ports. If they get "interupted" because of enemys and aftey they have escaped and the danger is over they will NOT continue on the old station they were working on even when it was not attacked/destroyed. They will happily start constructing a new base at the same point and will take the cost for it with them..

Lost again much money because of that.
Work around: When they have started building the station, set them on "repair" the construction so they wont start that same project over and over and you have in the end 1 station and 5 unfinished stations...


Edit: Okay Erik then thank you and a little apologize from me, i am a bit on the edge right now

[rolandthemad]

It would be helpful if you explained exactly how you managed to do this instead of saying 'just focus on defending'. I have parked rather large fleets over colonies before just to have an escort come in and drop one pod on it like the other poster said.

Some have suggested to just sit on the planet and actually focus all your attention on it as this is the only way to make it happen. Have to be ready to give orders to take out ever ship that comes in the moment you see them and hope it doesn't drop a pod before you notice/your fleets can react. Well... thats not very fun.

[necaradan666]

I'm not sure it even has to be an enemy.. I'm pretty sure I accidentally raided the planet immediately after paying 30,000 creds to build a base there, instantly destroying it

[rolandthemad]

This just happened to me again.. *ragequit*

[Erik Rutins]

In analyzing how I've played this since being aware of the issue, I tend to do the following.

1. Steal the territory maps of other nearby pirate factions. Choose an independent world that is not one of the closer ones to their bases.
2. Position a resupply ship or build a mining base in the same system as that independent for quick and easy refueling.
3. Devote 4-5 ships, usually frigates or destroyers with both long and short range weapons, to (initially) raiding that independent and staying in its local space until I have 100% control.
4. Build the facility. Then keep those ships at the independent, just "move to" its gravity well and they'll float along with it.
5. Make sure the engagement stance for those ships means that they will attack anything hostile coming into the system. Do not have truces with pirate factions that are operating near that world.
6. I keep an eye on the system from the galaxy map while I do other things to make sure no unusual ship icons have showed up there. Whenever I get an alert that something is happening in that system, I pause and take a look. So I am micro-managing a bit, because sometimes the AI reacts a bit more slowly than I can and I want to make sure those ships are dealt with before they get to the planet.
7. If you have long range sensors, parking a base or ships with long range sensors there will also give you much more warning.
8. If you are playing a playstyle that takes longer to build facilities or has facilities costing more, this will be harder to accomplish.

I tried that again this morning and was able to complete a pirate base and fortress without interruption. In any case, we are already in the process of undoing the change that broke the base resiliency and we're taking the opportunity to make them a bit more interesting as well. Those fixes and improvements should be in the next update.

Regards,

- Erik