[WMCoolmon]

How do we know the pirates weren't working for the rogue GTI, too?

(Not that I've completed ST; only played a few missions at the start from the Port, and wonder how in the world it got released as an official expansion?)

[Blitzerland]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
(Not that I've completed ST; only played a few missions at the start from the Port, and wonder how in the world it got released as an official expansion?)

Cheap, money-gouging executives at Interplay?

Executive: "Bah, I knew this 'Freespace' game would be a total flop! Why don't you fools ever listen to me?"

Lackey: "Sir, we've sold a million copies."

Executive: "Wow, really? Hey, we could make some more moola off this."

Lackey: "They want missions, sir."

Executive: "Not a problem. Release a dozen missions, package it with some random missions the community churned out, take credit for it, and profit!"

Lackey: "Brilliant, sir!"

Executive: "Hey, yeah, it is! Since Freespace sold so well in the first place, let's not even bother to market the sequel! Genius!"

Lackey: "May I kiss your holy shoes, master?"

[Pnakotus]

Thats quite right - given subspace travel, not only should there not be pirate targets (convoy in middle of nowhere) but help is only a jump away.  I was just playing Derelict, is all.

Luke is correct - none of this is a problem if there's a destroyer or taskgroup out there.  With pirates, there never is. In Derelict you could argue they have those supply depots all over the place - but they've still got suicidal bravery, and never simply think 'well we lost 8 fighters, this gets the 'too hard' stamp, lets go find another, easier target'.  Hence some crappy converted freighters, or pocket carriers, or something.  I think small plats would be pretty useful, although in-universe they seem to just use stationary ships for that.  A platform that was just the carrier segment of an Orion, perhaps?

[Axem]

I'm making a Pirate Campaign, so here are my thoughts on these scallywags.

In my campaign they're not pirates in the sense we know them. More like Mercenary/Crime Ring Empires or something. Looting is very tricky, the only places to get loot is near a Jump Node when ships are about to go through, or where they dump their cargo. So they build their own little empires in the wish they will someday rule over a system. How to make money? Offer to protect people, steal from other pirates, become a hitman, merc sort of thing.

But people would be quick to try and make sure they get to rule, not you. So you get low numbers (people willing to follow you) and high competition (people unwilling to follow anyone). This would pretty much confine pirate activity to things like clan wars. The GTVA could get involved, but as long as its just between them and not any civilians, let them duke it out and kill the weakened winner after. No one in their right mind would provoke the US Army, so directly attacking the GTVA or civilians is a no-no.

Then you can get into the more black area stuff. How do pirates get all their stuff? Black market, blackmail, bribery, that sort of thing. Know a terrible secret? Blackmail a captian to get some of his cargo. Smuggle illegal materials to make a quick buck. Pay off a ship chasing you.

So I guess you couldn't really have hijacking pirates because its much more difficult, so you have pirates that move on to other illegal activities instead.

[FireCrack]

Originally posted by karajorma

- The GTVA possesses some sort of instantanious communication system that at the very least works anywhere in the system and may or may not work anywhere else (The range of the GTVA's FTL system is never conclusively proved one way or the other).

In FS1 the beta aquilae comms relay relays a message from altair (the fisshi wuvvers) to whatever system was "behind" beta aquilae

[WMCoolmon]

Piracy *is* possible. The GTVA may not have the subspace tracking system in-system for some reason (political, economical, logistical, take your pic.)

During those times, the pirates can do whatever the hell they want.

We also don't know the limitations of the tracker. Maybe the GTVA has to have equipped ships within 20 klicks of the ship jumping out?

Not to mention that while the GTVA can have ships someplace almost instantly. The same goes for the pirates as well. So, the pirates send a vessel out to some rarely-used shipping route; send a distress call. The GTVA sends fighters to the location of the distress call just as the pirate vessel jumps out. Then it does the same thing; and the GTVA fighters have to follow.

If the pirates keep doing that (especially with two or more vessels) they force the GTVA to split its forces or go on a wild goose chase across the system. Sure, it can ignore the distress calls, but then what happens when a real one occurs?

And if there are two or more distress signals at the same time, the GTVA must choose one, or split its forces - making it easier for the pirates to dispatch whatever force the GTVA ends up sending.

Or perhaps the pirates distract the comm officer somehow, or manage to destroy the target's comm system before it gets a message off.

[Wanderer]

My own setting for FS universe might have potential for piracy. This is only a guideline (mainly for myself), FS2 setting background.

However with strong govenment and small universe (standard FS setting) piracy is almost hopeless. Perhaps something like hijacking or such might work (like: in subspace no one can hear you scream...).

There must be (well not necessarily must but...) some limitations for using subspace drives in proximity to large mass (like planet or moon or any such thing) otherwise why the escape capsules wouldn't simply jump away from the exploding ship rather than slowly float away from it. And if i remember correctly there some mentions about 'standard' (fighter) subspace drives being limited to gravity fields (no intersystem travels). So there could be a real reason not to use subspace drives in some such situation and these could be places for piracy.

[Wanderer]

The quick response would be very difficult if subspace jumps can only be used as 'straight-line' jumps (no manouvering in subspace) AND when there are no interfering major objects between to too close to these points (like planets, stars).

Usually in the game missions those subspace jumps happen to predetermined location and someone (like Command) has already calculated the all the needed jump coordinates and only transmits the needed ones to the player. So what if calculating coordinates to new locations would take a lot of time particularly if wanting to jump into some precise coordinates and not miss the target by some 50000 clicks.

These would both slow down the reaction times so much that pirate raids or the more military variant of them, the commerce raids, would be possible, and there would be real reason to provide escorts for convoys rather than relying in some GTVA fighterbase on the other side of the system..

EDIT: There would also be some real use for the navigation subsys other than decoration.

[Lukeskywalkie]

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Impossibly enough, that made a lot of sense