Pirates

They did get an upgrade with Diplomacy. Maybe 1.5 might have made them worse.

Well I have Rebellion, (and when I bought it came with the Diplomacy/Entrenchment expansions). It seems to have been an upgrade on that, because the first pirate raid completely paralyzed me the first time, and completely paralyzed the AI during the next game.

I personally think the pirates should only come with their modified cargo ships that steal trade income for the first few levels. I mean, they are pirates there to, well, pirate. Maybe at higher levels add in some pirate Cobalts, and maybe at level 4 raids have Gardas then save a couple of Kodiaks and Krosovs for the largest attacks.

I really think it's a bit ridiculous how the pirates have the best fleet into the midgame and how whoever gets that first raid on them is crippled (AI especially) or at the very least they're smart enough to defend their planet nearest the Pirate Base (at the time the raid launches). Although even defending the planet means your fleet isn't expanding early game (this is an even bigger problem on larger maps because the pirates are generally further away so take even longer to reach your planet).

An increase in the duration between raids may also help. But alas, I guess that's just about all of us deactivate the Pirates.

I agree.... It's been so long since I played that I assumed I was doing it wrong. (especially since forbidden worlds slows down colonisation and gives you more to invest in infrastructure wise) But the hard AI got absolutely stomped on.

I find this really strange because one website advises that the best way to learn to deal with a pirate raid is to boom economically at the beginning, ensure the AI gets the first pirate raid, and then see what it does to defend against it. 

I agree with your ideas WoeAin'tMe. It seems strange to deactivate the pirates completely, but I guess that is what I will have to do...

Pirate fleet sizes are based on how big your empire is, the initial first expansions in pirate fleet size happen rapidly but slow down towards the later expansions, focusing more on upgrades. The way I deal with pirates is to rush out 2 caps and their attendant ships, 1 trade port at the nearest planet to the pirate base and just sit there with 1 cap and defenses, while the 2nd cap and its ships focus on expansion. You can change around with this but the general guide is trade and refinery ships make pirates lose their minds. they just charge the little buggers and ignore everything else except for a handful of ships, making it free exp for me. 

Awesome thanks! The issue was the first raid fleet was sufficiently large enough to destroy my capital ship and its attendant fleet - admittedly I didn't have trade ships..