Devs: One thing that always bugs me about Pirates in Scifi Space games- Killing everything.

A Polite Request.

from GalCiv3 Forums

I`ve tried several strategic space games and Pirates always do the same thing when attacking other ships, planets or factions... Kill everything.

What`s the point of piracy, people?

It`s to get RICH, not die and fighting means they might die. Pirates want to do things the easiest way for the cash/prizes. You approach your victim and hope he will give you his stuff first then you leave, depending on what kind of pirate they are and how strong.

So here`s how it should go..

1. Pirate approaches ship or planet.

2. First demands any cash or good stuff or "Die!"

3. If the Player refuses- It attacks.

4. If the Player trades cash or whatever stuff he has (even including his own ships as barter with civilians being returned to home planet) for lives and the Pirate goes away.

5. Pirate might still attack depending on personality or strength and a random modifier (attacking because they can with next to no loss). . However most smart pirates should just leave if they get what they want, because attacking even when getting their way means that everyone would just fight in the end.

6. Pirate gets greedier if you keep appeasing them.

7. Possibility to pay pirates extra to leave you alone AND attack a rival faction?

 

Just how I think pirates should work. Tired of seeing them jus attack everything. There`s one exception to these space games pirates- Elite/Dangerous (though not a strategy game) actually has the Pirate negotiate with you first before deciding whether to attack or not which is really nice.

 

35,931 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Yes, the pirates in this game and most others is usually not very well done.

Programming proper pirates has always seemed to be a hard thing to do. Sins of a Solar Empire did a decent job as well where you could bribe them not to attack you and when they did attack they would also steal from you as well. On the other hand, the pirate AI had no proper risk concept put in and would never retreat when up against a good force.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Distant Worlds: Universe has pirates that act pretty much like requested.

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Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

in pre-Crusade, pirates prompted me to build at least a small standing military, to deal with the threat.  I do believe that pirates in Crusade are under-powered (same with the space-monsters). 

Scaling up their military threat, though, does not sound good to me, unless they could, maybe, interrupt trade routes, or demand tribute from under-protected ships/planets.

In other words, I agree with most of the above posts.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

In Europe before modern English even existed in it's proto form northern ships would predate on coastal villages.  You can call these people Vikings if you want.  Someone got the brilliant idea to just pay these people off.  The thinking was they were going to get the stuff anyway if it's just given away no one gets killed.  This lead to an INCREASE in attacks as the word got around that getting stuff from those people was easier and had a much lower risk.

I'd like to think that "appeasement" strategies are well known to be the worst possible way to deal with pirates and that the pirates don't even ask to be bribed any more.  Come to think of it though, it did take a few years for everyone to relearn that lesson with the Somali pirates so realistically I'd say if pirates are a new thing then appeasement would be an option but if, as in this game, it is a long running fact of life then I'd say all (official) ships (of an empire) just fight to the death.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

the way I look at it... Pirates =/= Firefly Reavers...

 

Though I just realized that this would make an awesome awesome  mega event...      "A dread lord device has activated turning the crews of every non-orbiting ship in space mad...

Vor would be "immune" so they would not lose any ships...  but their ships could be attacked....

These ships would then go out and attack anythign and everything  including themselves... (would have to program something like "attack closest ship"  No nationality....)

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Interesting responses, but Pirates really should make a demand first and if the Player gives in, then the Pirates goes away. If the Player doesn`t give in, he attacks. It doesn`t make sense to just attack unless it`s been established that the Player always refuses.

 

 

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Maybe in pirate battles your ships get disabled at 0 health instead of destroyed, and if you lose the battle then your ships merge with pirate fleet. Pirate fleet could slowly snowball into a big fleet.

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Pirate interactions should take notice of ideology- they would interact with good, evil and pragmatic in different ways, both in the "bribe" stage and "attack" stage. Can't really see any non-stupid pirates asking the Deregin for a bribe to not be attacked... A bold set might just raid the Deregin if opportunity presents, but negotiate with them? Not going to work out well.

 

I do like the idea of disabled ships and possible capture during a pirate fight. Actually, as a player I would hate it, so that means I'd like it as game purchaser.

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Distant worlds pirates are great. You can hire them to defend your assets from enemies and other pirates. No one blames you for anything they do. I love it. All in all a pretty good game

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Franco, reply 9

Distant worlds pirates are great. You can hire them to defend your assets from enemies and other pirates. No one blames you for anything they do. I love it. All in all a pretty good game
End of Franco's quote

 

I should check this game. Would like to see it in Civ 3 though.

Reply #11 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I'm sure they're looting as they destroy stuff.  I'm also sure starbases and military ships would self-destruct if they were 

Distant worlds makes pirates into civilizations of their own.  It's cool and it gives you some strategic options, but the increased interactivity means you spend a lot of time early-game dealing with pirates.  That works really well in Distant Worlds because planet management is much simpler.  GalCiv has this early-game buildup phase where you're spending a lot of time interacting with your planets, directing research, etc.  I think the constant pirate raids and extortion are fun in DW, which lets you get into the military/"diplomacy" action almost right away.  I don't think they would be fun in GalCiv.  They'd be a distraction from that initial pre-first-contact empire-building.  I think GalCiv pirates are better as they are: occasional dangers to your outer colonies, and ways to create dangerous geography in the early game for the player to later go tame.

Just my opinion though.