Pirate Marks

[Sachmo The Trumpet Player]

Playing my first go around as the Vaulters and loving the new Pirate system. Just had a mark put on me and had to rush to defend. It provides a new level of strategy and annoyance when dealing with factions like the Lumeris and others to sic Pirates on them.

[queenelise9830]

Originally posted by Sachmo The Trumpet Player:

Playing my first go around as the Vaulters and loving the new Pirate system. Just had a mark put on me and had to rush to defend. It provides a new level of strategy and annoyance when dealing with factions like the Lumeris and others to sic Pirates on them.

I wish the buffs for supporting Pirates were a little bigger, or the cost a bit less. As it is it's kind of a waste of Dust to support them, Vaulters get to teleport to and from their systems with their affinity, but they still shouldn't support them because they can force the non-aggression pact instead to save on Dust. The boosts that the Pirate fleets get from being supported simply does not justify the sheer amount of Dust it costs to support them in the first place...

[Doctor Proteus]

You like being annoyed?

The general consensus is that the Support option is badly balanced and a waste of money.

[queenelise9830]

Personally though, I feel the forced Pirate peace coupled with Pirate Gateways could be a fun gimmick as Vaulters, if you can find a Pirate system near an enemy system. Although, any smart player is going to start raiding Pirate bases in the area the second they know a Vaulter is nearby...

[Sublustris]

The cost is high, because otherwise it to easy to buy their support and immunity from their raids. If you want a tougher pirates - increase their difficulty in settings. If pirate upgrades will be too strong - people will again complain about them.
Basically, you can either sink dust and influence and use pirate diplomacy or ignore and play as before.

[Sachmo The Trumpet Player]

Originally posted by Evil_Lord_Proteus:

You like being annoyed?

The general consensus is that the Support option is badly balanced and a waste of money.

After playing a bunch of games against the AI, anything that makes them more of a challenge or adds a new wrinkle I'm all for.

[Doctor Proteus]

Originally posted by 0xFB »Sublustris«:

The cost is high, because otherwise it to easy to buy their support and immunity from their raids. If you want a tougher pirates - increase their difficulty in settings. If pirate upgrades will be too strong - people will again complain about them.
Basically, you can either sink dust and influence and use pirate diplomacy or ignore and play as before.

Point is though, it's pointless... that is not a sign of a well thought out game mechanic. If you're making enough money to be on good terms with them you then you could probably wipe them out millitarilly if you wanted to, either by hiring mercenaries or by building superior ships of your own, but it's usually the former and then the latter.

[Sublustris]

On a contrary, I find it beneficial if I can incite pirates on my opponents. Having Vaulter portals all over the galaxy thanks to pirate layers is also a fun part.

[Tikigod]

Wait... AI bother with the pirate options?

About 150 turns into a Vaulter session and so far Pirates have just been pointless fodder me and the AI just ignore and wipe out to grind Hero xp.

Saw my empire had 3 level 5 pirate bases around my border a while back, thought it might mean trouble as they were all at max ship deployment... but nope, pirates have had their nads cut off and are just XP grind fodder now.

[Doctor Proteus]

Originally posted by Tikigod:

Wait... AI bother with the pirate options?

About 150 turns into a Vaulter session and so far Pirates have just been pointless fodder me and the AI just ignore and wipe out to grind Hero xp.

Saw my empire had 3 level 5 pirate bases around my border a while back, thought it might mean trouble as they were all at max ship deployment... but nope, pirates have had their nads cut off and are just XP grind fodder now.

I'd rather they be fodder than the rampaging hell-machines they were before. But a re-balancing is deffinitely in order. They can't quite seem to strike a good balance, it's either one extreme or the other.

[Nemo, Forevermore]

On harder difficulties it seems like the AI constantly spams the Pirate Marks. The pirate diplomacy system really could use some tweaking.