Pirate gameplay?

[Hobbit]

Ive been playing as a bounty hunter/defender of the innocent on my first playthough, and I was wondering how the game supports being a greedy pirate that attacks traders and miners. ive seen the pirate bases on the map wondered if you can use those if you go against the militia? also, does it affect the story very much?

[Zidders 'Rockin' Bard' Roofurry]

You can be a pirate. It tweaks the main story a bit but for the most part it has a greater effect on what kind of side missions you take. There is no major 'pirate' storyline.

[Bomoo]

Well, you do have reputation with the pirate factions, so it would stand to reason that if you got it up to neutral or higher, you could dock at their bases and buy their ships. Worked much the same way in Freelancer, which this game is a very close evolution of.

[Shifter]

I am currently neutral with both the militia and the 'red devil cartel' and I can confirm you can dock at cartel stations and they do have at least one unique pirate ship you can purchase that I've seen so far. I do believe they also have weapon and equipment options that differ from other stations. Can't really recall any specific examples right now but I know they sell ramming deflectors which arent unique to pirate stations but do seem to be rare among other stations. There are also militia stations that have a militia icon (blue military stripes) and I also believe they have different options for ships and weapons/equipment than other stations but I cant recall if they have anything unique or not.

**EDIT**
So apparently the pirates and militia each have 2 unique ships you can only get from their stations.

[JDCollie]

The Guild also has some unique ships once you have high enough ranking with them.

[Kexlar]

Militia missions = beat up on Red Devils
Red Devil Missions = beat up on militia.

There are a lot of militia missions available than Red Devil missions. So , if you have to drop a few militia points to gain Red Devil points it's a plus and easy to bounce back from. I lost 50 militia points on accident and got them all back in only two missions.

[Hobbit]

Thanks for the info, i think im going to stay as a militia ally in this playthrough and then be a pirate in the next. Love this game!