Be a Pirate, enjoy the game more

[Locklave]

Space is just a pointless waste of time creating extra loading screens and delays... Unless you play as a pirate.

I played a couple hundred hours the way Todd wants us to play and I can say it's crap. I made a new game and decided to dive into Piracy head first. Ahead in this read will be that path and what I experience. It is a radically different game and a more full feeling game.

1. Rush the constellation quest to free myself. Thanks Sarah I needs some time to think about it, forever in fact.

2. Rushed committing crimes, stole some mugs from Terrabrew. I love coffee so this is the act of evil I feel the most guilty over. Terrabrew know that I swear never to hurt you again.

3. Get scouted by SysDef for my daring mug thefts. Clearly only the most hardened criminals would attempt such a crime. Refuse their "offer" and get SysDef attacking me on site forever as a result, because that's normal and not criminal of them.

4. Head to Mars. Get scouted by a young looking guy in the main hallway and follow the quest chain as I damn well please because the judgmental kidnappers at SysDef can't complain now. No stealth unless I want to.

Lastly take actual Piracy missions from the board. While doing them notice you start paying attention to what ships are around you, what faction they are, what side they will take. Start looking at ships when you aren't on a Piracy missions too. Notice that fat merchant ship with no escort that you would have never even looked at as a normal player. All that becomes real content suddenly, not just another loading screen.

Since I started playing like this I've become aware of the fighting abilities of ships I would never have fought before, they aren't just background set pieces to me. Every jump I make I find myself looking for possible good target or ships to capture that I never would have considered before because they were neutral.

People have rightly said that joining the pirates costs you 1/3 of the Points of Interest. These points get boring because of how many times you see them so who cares. Space however is the one set piece you are forced to interact with, I gladly trade 1/3 of the PoI for space being interesting.

It's also really nice to just find pirates at a PoI and enjoy ultra chill looting sometimes.

Side note for those that love Outposts. You get tons of Outpost building supplies from Piracy including possible drops for top tier industrial components.

[Cutlass Jack]

Yup I saved going pirate for my second playthrough. But I let Sysdef catch me smuggling instead. Coffee Cup theft is too highbrow for me. I strung Constellation along just enough to be able to get my own ship, which I properly pirated from Spacers.

Going pirate does make much of doing the actual Constellation missions later a literal walk. Barrett being held by pirates? Walk right in and get him. Same with the many of the other ones.

[Locklave]

Originally posted by Cutlass Jack:

Yup I saved going pirate for my second playthrough. But I let Sysdef catch me smuggling instead. Coffee Cup theft is too highbrow for me. I strung Constellation along just enough to be able to get my own ship, which I properly pirated from Spacers.

Going pirate does make much of doing the actual Constellation missions later a literal walk. Barrett being held by pirates? Walk right in and get him. Same with the many of the other ones.

Ya, some of the Pirates are afraid to talk to me because of the mug thing. Even I feel like a monster for that. Blowing up a school ship is one thing but stealing Terrabrew mugs is... well you know.

To be fair those quests are cake walks anyways and it's kinda cool that you can just walk in the front door unchallenged. It feels badass. I wish these lame Companions reacted to it more, but that would require better writing and considerations taken for more then one playstyle. Like Sarah says "they aren't going to just let us walk in, we need to be ready for a tough fight" and just wave at the them and they wave back and say "the boss is inside if you want to talk" lol.

I know their is some acknowledgement of you being a pirate from Barret and you get new dialog options with the pirate but it's not fleshed out. I think Sarah would have things to say, since she can't shut up about all my, in her opinion, bad choices.

Stuff like that sounds wonderful in my head and it feels like a wasted opportunity.

[Cutlass Jack]

Originally posted by Locklave:

Ya, some of the Pirates are afraid to talk to me because of the mug thing. Even I feel like a monster for that. Blowing up a school ship is one thing but stealing Terrabrew mugs is... well you know.

Its true. Me and the lads call you 'TerrorBrew' behind your back.

Sarah does have some commentary on the Pirate questline. I made her dress like Crimson fleet and dragged her along on all the quests. But she doesn't say much on it outside of the line.

[tkwoods]

Originally posted by Cutlass Jack:

Yup I saved going pirate for my second playthrough. But I let Sysdef catch me smuggling instead. Coffee Cup theft is too highbrow for me. I strung Constellation along just enough to be able to get my own ship, which I properly pirated from Spacers.

Going pirate does make much of doing the actual Constellation missions later a literal walk. Barrett being held by pirates? Walk right in and get him. Same with the many of the other ones.

Here we have proof that player choices make big differences in the progression of the game. Yet we still have the occasional troll that claims otherwise, but they are getting fewer these days. LOL.

I did one play through where I chose the Crimson Fleet over SysDef. My current play through is more solo and in the middle, I got a very nice ship and love space battles, only problem is auto turrets kill them to quickly.

But yes being a pirate does make things different.

[jerrypocalypse]

I was really excited about the piracy stuff ony first run, and while I had a fun time with it, I was extremely saddened that I hit the bug where smuggling missions don't appear on the Crimson Fleet boards.

[⛥ Binli die Schreckliche ⛥]

Originally posted by Cutlass Jack:

Yup I saved going pirate for my second
Going pirate does make much of doing the actual Constellation missions later a literal walk. Barrett being held by pirates? Walk right in and get him. Same with the many of the other ones.

Good to know. I decided to side with the fleet on my current playthrough and I haven't done any quests for Constellation so far.

Originally posted by Locklave:

Ya, some of the Pirates are afraid to talk to me because of the mug thing. Even I feel like a monster for that. Blowing up a school ship is one thing but stealing Terrabrew mugs is... well you know.

I don't judge you, I'm a well-known plushie thief.

[PocketYoda]

You lose half the games enemies when you go pirate..

[Locklave]

Originally posted by Cutlass Jack:

Its true. Me and the lads call you 'TerrorBrew' behind your back.

Sarah does have some commentary on the Pirate questline. I made her dress like Crimson fleet and dragged her along on all the quests. But she doesn't say much on it outside of the line.

LOL.

Dressing her as a pirate is genius, I'm stealing that great idea.

[Locklave]

Originally posted by PocketYoda:

You lose half the games enemies when you go pirate..

You lose 1/3 of PoI only, you gain all of space and SysDef replaces Fleet as your enemy in space, you also get to fight ships from every faction.

PoI get boring way faster then space battles.

[PocketYoda]

Originally posted by Locklave:

Originally posted by PocketYoda:

You lose half the games enemies when you go pirate..

You lose 1/3 of PoI only, you gain all of space and SysDef replaces Fleet as your enemy in space, you also get to fight ships from every faction.

PoI get boring way faster then space battles.

Disagree, being a good guy is way more fun. I just turned on crimson fleet and i feel good.

[Locklave]

Originally posted by PocketYoda:

Disagree, being a good guy is way more fun. I just turned on crimson fleet and i feel good.

Sarah Disliked that.

[zpc]

Originally posted by Locklave:

Be a Pirate, enjoy the game more

Guess that labels you Muggy, the First.

I'll try to incorporate some of your ... ideas in one of my next playthroughs. Thanks for the post, had a good time reading it

[Locklave]

Originally posted by zpc:

Originally posted by Locklave:

Be a Pirate, enjoy the game more

Guess that labels you Muggy, the First. :lunar2019grinningpig:

I'll try to incorporate some of your ... ideas in one of my next playthroughs. Thanks for the post, had a good time reading it

You are most welcome. If you come up with something fun using it please feel free to share it.

[Chaz]

Originally posted by ⛥ Binli die Schreckliche ⛥:

Originally posted by Cutlass Jack:

Yup I saved going pirate for my second
Going pirate does make much of doing the actual Constellation missions later a literal walk. Barrett being held by pirates? Walk right in and get him. Same with the many of the other ones.

Good to know. I decided to side with the fleet on my current playthrough and I haven't done any quests for Constellation so far.

Originally posted by Locklave:

Ya, some of the Pirates are afraid to talk to me because of the mug thing. Even I feel like a monster for that. Blowing up a school ship is one thing but stealing Terrabrew mugs is... well you know.

I don't judge you, I'm a well-known plushie thief.

Wait.. What - taking the plushies is wrong? Oh hell er... don't look in my safe then please. It's a bit like toys are us in there.

[zpc]

Originally posted by Chaz:

Originally posted by ⛥ Binli die Schreckliche ⛥:

Good to know. I decided to side with the fleet on my current playthrough and I haven't done any quests for Constellation so far.


I don't judge you, I'm a well-known plushie thief.

Wait.. What - taking the plushies is wrong? Oh hell er... don't look in my safe then please. It's a bit like toys are us in there.

You never wondered why Sarah is constantly yelling at you? There you have it. ;)