Are Hyper Relays increasing Piracy?

[ZeroAffex]

So I mostly decked out my entire Empire with Hyper Relays as I have found them to be quite good in speeding up travel, even in late game with the best hyper drives. However, I have been struggling with containing all the piracy on my trade routes.

My first step was to build Citadels with max hanger bays and max defense platforms thinking it would solve the issue. Unfortunately, it only decreased the piracy for that system and not the adjacent ones. My max piracy is in the 550-600 range and they are only taking down the piracy a meager 92. SO I then built massive corevette fleets with 800-900 piracy reduction. They are working but they need to stay inside the system for long periods to suppress the piracy. All the while, the other systems I am neglecting start ramping back up..

I am concerned that Hyper Relays aren't allowing my fleets enough time inside the system. Instead, they are speeding through them and the piracy levels just aren't dropping enough from their suppression values.

Is this a bug? Or do I need to remove Hyper Relays on my trade routes so my patrols linger in the systems longer adding more suppression? I'm getting annoyed that I am having to dump 1/3 of my naval capacity to corvette fleets and they aren't even fully suppressing the piracy. Not to mention I have devoted a ton of bastions with max hanger bays seemingly every 2-3 sectors on the routes. It's to the point where I am now colonizing new planets and am not even bothering with ramping up their trade value/building trade hubs because it just means more piracy, more starbases and more fleets I'll need to devote to it.

Just wondering if anyone else is having this issue and what they are doing about it. Before the introduction of Empire wide relays, I don't remember having such an issue with piracy like this. It feels like it's impossible to contain at this point unless I build a starbase or sit a massive corvette fleet in each system on a route. Thanks in advance for the tips & insight. Have a great weekend.

[Darklordnj]

Pretty sure you can build gateways and route trade routes through that. That would be my best answer. Otherwise you'll have to separate the corvettes into smaller fleets and station them in areas along the trade routes, as the relays are functioning as intended, at least in terms of how ships move through systems.

[BuildTheWall]

Once you get a decent gateway setup you can also project your trade projection from every starbase you own to every system you own that is six jumps from a gateway. You can easily have thousands of trade protection in all of your systems without using any ships.

[ZeroAffex]

I forgot to say that when I was trying to tackle piracy yesterday, I read somewhere on the internet that you could try re-routing trade however it was never disclosed on how to force trade to go through your Hyper Relays. I've clicked on the trade hub, did "reroute trade", unselected the place it was going to then remapping it elsewhere and it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Any idea on how to go about getting trade to use Hyper's? Do I need to have my stations daisy chain trade maybe? I think most of them are all routed to go to my capital planet. Maybe if I have each station routed to nearest next trade hub? I am not sure. Would be nice if there was a button I could just click to "route trade through Relays" or something..

Thanks for the help.

[Elitewrecker PT]

What you need to prevent piracy is to set gateways near your main spots of trade value and in your capital so the capital will collect them directly therefore avoiding routing your trade via unprotected routes.

[ZeroAffex]

I dont have access to Gateways though, just Hyper Relays xD

Regardless, I would think piracy should be very hard to achieve IF trade is going through the Relays. I just can't tell if it is or not lol.. And yeah, my fleets that are using the Relays aren't staying in the systems long enough to reduce Piracy. Kind of thinking i need to remove them but that would really suck and am not even sure you can..

[Elitewrecker PT]

Ye the trade probably isn't taking into account relays as a logical way to avoid piracy.
Even if they don't stay a long time in one go, if the fleet is patrolling, constantly moving back and forth the same systems, it should still be reducing the piracy on those systems in the brief moments they're there so over time the total piracy should be reduced.

[Cinnamoon_dragon]

Piracy has increased in the latest patch.. Usually it was enough to install just a few hangar components on the starbase to suppress piracy around. Now my entire starbase is made up of components to suppress piracy, ship in the system and it's still not enough.
Seems like the only way out is a gate in every system.

[darksteelhyren]

I'm confused why this discussion is happening. Hyper relay has no impact on trade or piracy.

If you're having Piracy issues, either build more starbases with 6 hangers (DPs provide no anti-piracy benefit that I'm aware of), or build a corvette fleet and have them patrol problematic lanes; yes they move faster through the systems, but they also return to the system proportionally sooner.

Also how do you have 500+ trade flowing through a system distant enough that your capital isn't collecting it before owning a gateway? ....Wait, your home planet has a starbase with 6 trade ports, right?

[ZeroAffex]

Originally posted by darksteelhyren:

I'm confused why this discussion is happening. Hyper relay has no impact on trade or piracy.

If you're having Piracy issues, either build more starbases with 6 hangers (DPs provide no anti-piracy benefit that I'm aware of), or build a corvette fleet and have them patrol problematic lanes; yes they move faster through the systems, but they also return to the system proportionally sooner.

Also how do you have 500+ trade flowing through a system distant enough that your capital isn't collecting it before owning a gateway? ....Wait, your home planet has a starbase with 6 trade ports, right?

I have Citadels around 90K with hangers/DP's and its only decreasing Piracy by 92.00 yet I have over 600+ Piracy. I mean just adjacent to a Bastion has Max Piracy. The reductions they offer are trivial at this point. The only benefit right now is that they Suppress piracy in the System they are built. I have already devoted at least 1/3-2/4's of my entire Starbase capacity to Piracy suppression.

Corvettes are the best way but again, they aren't lingering in systems enough to reduce Max piracy to 0 aka Suppressing Piracy in the system. I already have 4 800-900 Piracy Suppressing Corvette fleets on a Single route and it's doing very little. I took a screen shot but I have all the fleets running on this route, plus 3 Bastions decked out with hanger bays/DP's and it's only reducing amount by 92.00 so literally the systems right next to my Bastions are experiencing Max Piracy which is nuts..

Thing about Gateways, is I don't have the technology. My place in the galaxy didn't have any Gateways to reverse enigineer. Only have a Wormhole in my system. I didn't even get L-Gates (which am happy about tbh). All I have are massive Hyper Relays spread across and yeah, my Piracy was much better until I hooked up the Relays that's all I know. Seems they made the Piracy worse because fleets aren't staying in long enough. It's at the point where I'll need to devote 90% of my Naval Capacity to Corvettes and park a 800-900 Anti-Piracy fleet in each system along a given route. Seems totally busted rn..

[ZeroAffex]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2810852772

Just an example. I have 3 Bastions with Hangerbays/DPs with a max of 3 systems apart from nearest next Bastion and Piracy is still over 550+. In fact in the image, that amount is from a system right outside of "Macrosoft" which is a Hangerbay/DP Citadel. I also have my fleets on this particular stretch but they aren't in the said systems long enough to make a difference I don't think. It's like I'll need to build a Starbase in every single Sector or place a Fleet in every single sector. I don't remember it being this bad and it seemed to ramp up when I make the Relays all over my map.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2810855800

Just to see the overall look of my Empire and the amount of Relays I got going on.

https://i.imgur.com/xj38R9I.png

Have two primary routes, on the left of my Empire I have a single fleet of 800'ish piracy suppression and butt load of Bastions and on the right I have 3 fleets of 800'ish piracy suppressiion, again with butt load of Bastions.

Edit1001: Anyways am out of ideas on how to tackle this without devoting most of my naval capacity/starbases to countering the piracy. I think at this point am just going to live with it and get pirate spawns and lose 40-50% of my total trade value. Nothing really seems to work aside from parking big fleets or building starbases. Unless I am missing something I think this needs to be patched. Pretty unrealistic how bad Piracy is rn. lol

[BuildTheWall]

Just disconnect some of your starbases from your trade network till you get gateways.

[SnuffSaid]

I noticed this in my most recent game, piracy was close to 1000 on some routes which was just insurmountable, in the end I just lived with it. Maybe that's intended, that piracy is now something you just have to accept rather than something you can click and forget.

[BuildTheWall]

It's not insurmountable, if you get gates you will have just as much trade protection easily.

[SnuffSaid]

Originally posted by BuildTheWall:

It's not insurmountable, if you get gates you will have just as much trade protection easily.

I'm pretty sure, positive in fact, that Paradox solution to piracy isn't to build a gate in practically every other system in your galaxy spanning empire.

[BuildTheWall]

You don't need a gate in every system. If you have some strong border citadels, and you put gates on your border, all of your citadels will project all of their protection to anything within 6 jumps of a gate. That's really not many more gates than you were already going to have for mobility.