Newbie question about pirates

[rikkitikki]

Hi, all! I'm in my first game and not very far along (year 2020) so totally new to everything and happy to learn as I go, except for one thing I want to know right now. I want to get rid of the annoying pirate base near my home system and while the wiki talks about capturing or destroying bases I can't find out how you actually DO that. Can it be done with a squadron of Corvettes or do I need bigger ships (don't have that tech yet). I saw a post here that talked about bombardment but how does one bombard? Or do I need to buy troops and get boots on the ground? Do I need some sort of troop carrier ship for that? If I have to wait for the tech to do it that's fine, but would like to know ahead of time exactly what game units or components I should be waiting for or researching. Thanks!

[Elitewrecker PT]

Pirate bases are just a small space station that you destroy by normal combat. So, grab half a dozen corvettes, more to be safe, go there and destroy it.

[ArcticISAF]

Pirate bases are fairly simple in nature. If you've already cleared out the pirate fleet, 4-5 corvettes is more than enough for the base. If it still has the pirate fleet, you can go with 6-7 corvettes.Just right click to attack, and they'll blow it up, giving you a small bit of minerals/energy.

PS - You can use less corvettes - just more likely to lose a ship with less (which can be perfectly acceptable).

[rikkitikki]

Oh! OK. I attacked with my Corvettes before but only had 3 of them. Thanks!!

[rikkitikki]

Oh, thanks, Arctic. The right-click was HUGE, else I would have just circled around getting shot at like last time!

[Elitewrecker PT]

Military ships should engage automatically when they're engaged regardless if you specifically told them to attack.
There seems to be a rare bug where fleets won't return fire for some reason though (never had it myself).

[ArcticISAF]

Oh no prob. Your ships should automatically get into battle when they get in range of the station. Then they should go towards the station and start firing at it (and circling around it).

When in doubt, fleet power is a decent estimate towards if you can beat them or not. Although I'll mention it's just an approximation - so specialized fleets can be better against enemy fleets than what their fleet power reveals. So a 400 vs 300 fleet power fleet stands a decent chance of winning - but could be countered by weapons/defence layout (don't worry about this too much).

For now, just worry about having the best equipment on your ships, and having a decent number of them. (I'd recommend missiles on corvettes for the current game).

[rikkitikki]

Thanks for everyone's easy and clear guidance! Just blew the pirate base outta the sky with 6 corvettes! As for weaponry, yes, I've been learning about the whole rock-paper-scissors thing but have trouble understanding some of the references people use (energy v. kinetic weapons), and knowing what I"m doing with the ship designer isn't completely intuitive to me. But for now I'll just go with your basic suggestions. Thanks again, all!

[Rootin']

Originally posted by rikkitikki:

Thanks for everyone's easy and clear guidance! Just blew the pirate base outta the sky with 6 corvettes! As for weaponry, yes, I've been learning about the whole rock-paper-scissors thing but have trouble understanding some of the references people use (energy v. kinetic weapons), and knowing what I"m doing with the ship designer isn't completely intuitive to me. But for now I'll just go with your basic suggestions. Thanks again, all!

For a brief explination on energy vs. kinetic weapons, they refer to the general interactions between the weapons and enemy ships. Energy weapons, such as lasers, beams, and disruptors, are all considered energy weapons. They tend to deal more damage to enemy armor. Kinetic weapons, such as the gauss cannon, autocannon, and kinetic battery, deal more damage to enemy shields.

When you start the game, you will already have access to two weapons for your ships. Red lasers and mass drivers. The red laser is your energy weapon, and deals 50% more damage to enemy armor. The mass driver deals 50% more damage to enemy shields.
I'm no expert in design strategy, but I often focus more on kinetic weapons in my ship designs, in order to tear down enemy shields that AI and other players often prioritze getting as a high as possible.

[rikkitikki]

Thanks, Brimstone! Very useful!

[Chastity the Celibate]

You can see your Piracy risk by clicking your flag in the top left corner.

[rikkitikki]

Great! Didn't notice that before. THX!