Profit from Piracy

[Michael Daemon]

Question to all the pirates out there, Is there any substantial profit from looting other ships (player or npc) or is it something people just do for fun?

[frank2351]

I'm not a pirat but might do it for fun later. I understand you earn much less than doing mining but it's potentially a fun gameplay. Probably also really depends where you pirat. There are certainly spots where there are ships with more valuable cargo than in other spots. Like high value mining hotspots.

[Agony_Aunt]

Its generally speaking not profitable pirating players.

NPCs can be very profitable.

Check out the ElitePirates subreddit for info on where to pirate and how to do it.

[frank2351]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Its generally speaking not profitable pirating players.

NPCs can be very profitable.

Check out the ElitePirates subreddit for info on where to pirate and how to do it.

Eh, i dunno. I really wanna try to snipe human player miners from some of them tripple overlapping hotspots. Can't be that hard to find them, right? They all run like lemmings to those 3 or 4 same places to mine their latest hot commodity, right?They'll be right there where the hotspots overlap. A nobrainer, really. I'd argue blowing up a medium or large miner who has been out for an hour or so could be pretty good bank so i'm pretty sure there are ways to get good piracy out of players too.
This should really be moving up in my bucketlist for things to do once i'm back in the bubble.

Best part about this: most pristine rings are in anarchy systems and miners who are sitting there mining are visible because of lasers and explosions and when you fly up to them they will be masslocked to the ring. Easy pickings really.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by frank2351:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Its generally speaking not profitable pirating players.

NPCs can be very profitable.

Check out the ElitePirates subreddit for info on where to pirate and how to do it.

Eh, i dunno. I really wanna try to snipe human player miners from some of them tripple overlapping hotspots. Can't be that hard to find them, right? They all run like lemmings to those 3 or 4 same places to mine their latest hot commodity, right?They'll be right there where the hotspots overlap. A nobrainer, really. I'd argue blowing up a medium or large miner who has been out for an hour or so could be pretty good bank so i'm pretty sure there are ways to get good piracy out of players too.
This should really be moving up in my bucketlist for things to do once i'm back in the bubble.

Best part about this: most pristine rings are in anarchy systems and miners who are sitting there mining are visible because of lasers and explosions and when you fly up to them they will be masslocked to the ring. Easy pickings really.

The problem with player piracy is how much you can demand before someone just does a self-destruct or fights back beceause its not worth it letting you have so much.

You have to spend a lot of time waiting for a suitable target to appear, interdict them, and either demand they stand down and release cargo or force the release of cargo... but equally, they might escape, they might log off, they might fight back, possibly even killing you.

But ok, you stop them. You demand cargo. How much can you really demand? 10% of their haul? 20%?

You'd earn more money doing almost anything else in the game.

Whereas NPC piracy, if you can disable the opponent, then you can take them for everything they have. On a type 9 this can be over 100t of LTDs. Highly profitable... if of course, you can find nice targets.

[luZk]

You can disable a player too, shoot his subtarget thrusters, shoot his subtarget fsd. He can repair by rebooting but you can shoot them again. Then deploy hatch breaker limpets and open up his cargohold.

You can litterally rob people without killing them if you choose and that is to me real piracy.

Piracy is not killing people in type6's, piracy is robbing them. (The code)

I think FD should make the punishment for killing people larger and the punishment for robbing people less. So both the robber and the robbed had insentive to make a deal and not having to end up in a shootout.

If you kill a hauler 75% of the cargo dies with it. If the player ejects the cargo you get 100%. If you rob him with hatchbreakers you get 75%

[frank2351]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Originally posted by frank2351:

Eh, i dunno. I really wanna try to snipe human player miners from some of them tripple overlapping hotspots. Can't be that hard to find them, right? They all run like lemmings to those 3 or 4 same places to mine their latest hot commodity, right?They'll be right there where the hotspots overlap. A nobrainer, really. I'd argue blowing up a medium or large miner who has been out for an hour or so could be pretty good bank so i'm pretty sure there are ways to get good piracy out of players too.
This should really be moving up in my bucketlist for things to do once i'm back in the bubble.

Best part about this: most pristine rings are in anarchy systems and miners who are sitting there mining are visible because of lasers and explosions and when you fly up to them they will be masslocked to the ring. Easy pickings really.

The problem with player piracy is how much you can demand before someone just does a self-destruct or fights back beceause its not worth it letting you have so much.

You have to spend a lot of time waiting for a suitable target to appear, interdict them, and either demand they stand down and release cargo or force the release of cargo... but equally, they might escape, they might log off, they might fight back, possibly even killing you.

But ok, you stop them. You demand cargo. How much can you really demand? 10% of their haul? 20%?

You'd earn more money doing almost anything else in the game.

Whereas NPC piracy, if you can disable the opponent, then you can take them for everything they have. On a type 9 this can be over 100t of LTDs. Highly profitable... if of course, you can find nice targets.

Ok, now explain to me how a masslocked ship with only light shields and only mining lasers on it will kill or escape me?

You obviously don't do it for the credits. This is for fun. The waiting and finding the target is part of it. Like i said: how hard can it be to find a miner when everyone and their mom sit in tripple hotspots? You know how rare and small these locations are, right? Miners share lists of the best spots among themselves. Easy to find the locations.

They are masslocked and ill equiped for a fight. It's "drop all your cargo or lose the ship too" on the chat and they will have to hand it over. You could demand half of what they have to make it easier for them because if you want all they certainly gonna fight even if they don't stand a chance.

Again: they sit masslocked with only mining lasers on their ships to fight back. You have to be a really bad pirat to have them kill you or escape you.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

You have to spend a lot of time waiting for a suitable target to appear, interdict them, and either demand they stand down and release cargo or force the release of cargo...

Or you can skip on waiting and interdicting by just going to the mining spot and demanding some cargo from a ship that is busy mining there. Just like those NPC pirates do. Miners probably will gladly spare 3-5 LTDs from their cargo hold, not to be dead, or not to combat-log and then have to go to a station to sell their current unfinished load.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

You have to spend a lot of time waiting for a suitable target to appear, interdict them, and either demand they stand down and release cargo or force the release of cargo...

Or you can skip on waiting and interdicting by just going to the mining spot and demanding some cargo from a ship that is busy mining there. Just like those NPC pirates do. Miners probably will gladly spare 3-5 LTDs from their cargo hold, not to be dead, or not to combat-log and then have to go to a station to sell their current unfinished load.

Do people actually mine at hotspots still? I thought the meta was to drop out at a point between overlapping hotspots. If so, you're never going to find anyone.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Do people actually mine at hotspots still? I thought the meta was to drop out at a point between overlapping hotspots. If so, you're never going to find anyone.

It sounds like an interesting thing to try. :)

[luZk]

I think the small hotspots has a ~290km from center range, based only on my own experiences.

[Jack left town]

Originally posted by Michael Daemon:

Question to all the pirates out there, Is there any substantial profit from looting other ships (player or npc) or is it something people just do for fun?

Low temperature diamonds sell real well. Stolen go for less than legit ones.
Maia sometimes has piracy missions for meta-alloys, noice payout.
PVP piracy is colloquially known as ALT + F4

Smuggling and piracy could use some gameplay additions, but in the big FDev Elite Playerbase Dictionary "Pirate" seems to be synonymous with "murderhobo ganker", so you ain't getting that.

[Daddy O]

The problem with being a pirate is that sooner or later you will get scanned by the authorities, either flying about or entering a base.

In ED, the cops don't pull you over...they just open fire. And there is usually three or four of them, so the ending is quite predictable.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Daddy O:

The problem with being a pirate is that sooner or later you will get scanned by the authorities, either flying about or entering a base.

Easy to fix. Interstellar Factors contact after 2 hours of playing. The kill bounty is what, 5,000 Cr? One LTD will cover it, and will still leave a lot of credits in your bank.

As about being scanned - it's pretty easy not to get scanned, when you have reached the point of pirating other players. You have to be relatively good at combat, to be intimidating enough, to pressure another player into paying you. And at that point you can easily enter stations at 250-300m/s speed, that more or less guarantees not to be successfully scanned.

[luZk]

You dont even have to go fast, just go resolute and maybe go silent if you get the ship beeing scanned. Also combine it with dropping heatsinks and you should be safe. I do contraband and criminal passengers all the time.

You just have to pass the mailslot forcefield.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by luZk:

You dont even have to go fast, just go resolute and maybe go silent if you get the ship beeing scanned. Also combine it with dropping heatsinks and you should be safe.

Not necessary. If the security ship is near from you, no silent running or heatsinks will save you from the scan. Entering the station does. So you have to do it before they finish the scan, even if they were close enough to you to begin it. For that you have to fly fast.