A pirates life for me...

[Suicide Junkie]

Things to discuss & maybe add:
- Pirate UPC (bordello)
- new ship hulls
Ideas on specifics anybody?

- Capture-capable fighters?

Perhaps the Pirates should not get any ship-building capability? Just build fighters & retrofit enemy vehicles.
I'll see if I can set a fighter-type hull to go through wormholes for the Pirates.
[edit] Nope Maybe just a really small ship size will do. Better yet, I'll try making mobile satellite Then wonder if they'll go through warp points? Nope. Oh well.[/edit]

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quote:

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I removed the no colonizer restriction but always play pirate games with only colonize home planet and breathable atmosphere. If you choose rock/none or ice/CO2 you don't find many places to build. I also play with maintenance, 5%.

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I think you'll find that with mastery of the capture process, you'll find that planets are really easy to come by, and you'll be able to pull ahead in tech even in large galaxies.

There are two ways to go about capturing.
A) I just wanna new ship for my fleet.
B) I need technology.

Step 1) Shoot until the shields are down.
Step 2) Look for a self-destruct.
2.1) There is no self-destruct. Move in and capture.
2.2) There is a self-destruct. Goto step 3)

3 A) I just wanna ship, so pound the enemy ship to dust, but leave it with 10% hull strength left.
4 A) If the self-destruct is still there, blow the ship away, otherwise capture it.
5 A) Using the repair ship & Spaceyard Ships in your fleet, retrofit & repair. If you don't have the tech, repair the engines & send it to a planet to be rebuilt.
6 A) Rejoin the fleet & capture another ship.

3 B) I want the tech! So, shoot one weapon at a time, and try to use your smallest damage weapons only. In between shots, check for a Self-destruct.
4 B) As soon as the Self-destruct is gone, pounce & capture.
5 B) Using the Space Yard ship in your fleet, analyse the ship right away. (you won't be able to repair tech you don't have, then deconstruct & learn it )

Tips:
-Colony ships rarely have shields or SDDs. Capture them whole, until someone mods the AI to put SDDs on 'em. *hint hint*
-Against Crystal armor, use a shield depleter, then capture the ship with the armor intact. SDDs will prevent this after 50- 70 turns.
-Get Shield Depleters & eventually, null-space weapons. Lucky shots can destroy the SDD, leaving lots of technological goodies intact.
-Always use overwhelming force. Never fight a fair battle. If you don't outnumber and outgun the enemy 3 to 1, you'll probably lose more than you gain.
-Don't Fight Large Fleets. Even if you greatly outnumber the enemy, you will still take casualties.
-Bring a minelayer with your capture fleet. Deploy mines to protect you while you repair your prizes & prepare to move out.
-Use troops to capture mineral miner worlds! Even one Mineral world can bring you untold riches. Put 1000 mines and fighters in orbit of this place!

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 01 April 2001).]

[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 01 April 2001).]

[WhiteHojo]

SJ - you have done one hell of a job on the little pirate idea. I finally have a break w/my work and I hope to be able to try out the "Pirate Mod" this week. Your changes look promissing and w/all the positive feedback I think you've got a winner on your hands.

good job...



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Character is best defined as that which you do when you believe nobody is watching.

[Lemmy]

quote:

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Originally posted by suicide_junkie:

-Colony ships rarely have shields or SDDs. Capture them whole, until someone mods the AI to put SDDs on 'em. *hint hint*

[/b]

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uhm....and kill all those millions of innocent people on board??

[Suicide Junkie]

Blow up a few million of my people, or let them be captured by pirates to work in slave labour camps & double the size of the pirate empire? Hmmm.

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Thanks, WhiteHojo.
I still need all the ideas I can get. I'm looking on ways to slow down the expansion of the Pirates' colonies in the middle game. They really should be using space stations deep in enemy territory to stage raids, not just having planets all over
If somebody could get the Pirate AIs to put SDDs on the colony ships, then the pirates could get colonies fairly easily until turn 60 or 80, when the SDDs come out. Then you will be hard-pressed to capture colony ships intact & will have to use more troops & bases.

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Question for anybody who's played the Pirate Mod (and even those who haven't):
Should the Pirates be encouraged to use Fighters more, and have much fewer capital ships?
Ie. if the Pirates have low-to-normal maintenance, then they will not be able to support many "Ships" Perhaps roughly one ship per planet. Then, we would give the Pirates many advanced, very large Fighter hulls, so that they can Capture ships and fight decently without maintenance.

Then, in the late game, You might have a Pirate fleet enter your system, with a single PD-heavy dreadnaught, one Minesweeper LC and one Carrier full of Pirate fighters & a con-yard.

We may need to give a maintenance-free "Pirate Outpost" base hull, so that the pirates can build secret Scrapper bases left and right without worrying about bankruptcy.

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Does anybody know if the Crystalline Solar Generator's ability works on components? It isn't tied to a planet, but to the # of stars, just like the Solar Panels. We may have been sitting on the key to Nomadic races all along.

[Nitram Draw]

You have created a great mod.
My ideas for the perfect Pirate mod would be, in addition to your mod:
Only allowed to colonize tiny planets.
Not allowed any of the standard facilities, specifically resource, shipyard, intel or research.
Have more special facilities in the pirate motif that give resources, intel etc. but not be as good as the standard ones.
Be able to capture and ransom population.
Definately have special fighters.
More Pirate specific components, for additional flavor.
The only ones that can't be done, I think, are the restriction on the planet size and ransom. Maybe MM would consider adding planet size as an option along with atmosphere type and planet type but that may be asking a lot. Don't know how ransom would work.
I think Pirates should very rarely be able to stand up to a fleet. They should almost be forced to pick on individual or small Groups of ships.
The challenge I have found with Pirates is to try to win in an unconventional manner, which I have been very poor at but it is great fun trying.

[This message has been edited by Nitram Draw (edited 02 April 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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Not allowed any of the standard facilities, [such as] research.

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Poll:
Who would like to see pirates with no research ability, other than from captured ships & planets?

A) Leave it alone
B) Severly restrict research (just like resources)
C) No research for Pirates!
D) No research, and get rid of the resource gathering slave labour camps too!
E) None of the above


[This message has been edited by suicide_junkie (edited 02 April 2001).]

[Marty Ward]

B

[dogscoff]

(My first post on this thread but I have read every single post)


<Light bulb>
Idea: Going back to a previous post on a different thread...

Make a government/police facility which is available to everyone except pirates (They're not very good at law and order=-).

This facility is cheap but essential, beacuse it keeps order within the system it is placed in. It is also destroyed if the planet is taken over by troops. Any planet in a system without a friendly government facility will inevitably fall to rioting and revolt within say, 7 turns. Pirates can then conquer and colonise as many planets as they like, but they can't hang on to them. They can only get a few turns' worth of mining / research out of the planet before they have to strip it/ ransom (ie trade) it and leave.
</Light Bulb>

<Light bulb II>
Another idea:
When the map / scenario editor comes out maybe it would be possible to mod pirate / nomad homeworlds to explode after a certain number of turns, so that they are forced to take to a space-borne way of life.
</Light bulb II>


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There is an exception to every rule. Including this one.

[This message has been edited by dogscoff (edited 03 April 2001).]

[Lemmy]

quote:

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Originally posted by dogscoff:

<Light bulb II>
Another idea:
When the map / scenario editor comes out maybe it would be possible to mod pirate / nomad homeworlds to explode after a certain number of turns, so that they are forced to take to a space-borne way of life.
</Light bulb II>

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that's a good one!!
let them set things up for a few turns and then BOOM!! hehe....



[This message has been edited by LemmyM (edited 03 April 2001).]

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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Make a government/police facility which is available to everyone except pirates (They're not very good at law and order=-).

This facility is cheap but essential, beacuse it keeps order within the system it is placed in. It is also destroyed if the planet is taken over by troops. Any planet in a system without a friendly government facility will inevitably fall to rioting and revolt within say, 7 turns. Pirates can then conquer and colonise as many planets as they like, but they can't hang on to them. They can only get a few turns' worth of mining / research out of the planet before they have to strip it/ ransom (ie trade) it and leave.

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I don't know if you can set things up so a planet will riot on its own automatically, yet not do that with a facility.
An easier way to implement the first parts of that would be to make a new troop size:
Name: Police squad.
Size: 2 kt.
Cost: 10 Minerals

Then you could make the AI pump out say 50 of them in one or two turns, and they would ensure the population is jubilant, Plus, they would provide more hitpoints for ground combat, giving the militia more time to fight back!

I already use Police units, but a major part of their cost is the built-in hull price (100 minerals). A 2kt unit with 10 mineral base cost +20 kt cockpit means I can build around 100 a turn, and even though they have only 1 ECM, or one armor, they can dodge shots or absorb them for quite a few combat turns. Even if the militia dies first, the police can usually hold out for reinforcements from the new militia next turn.

And they keep the population from rioting at the same time!