[Anaz]

I was writing something up for a mini-campaign I was planing to do, and I decided on a bit of a story line, started to figure out how the player got into the situation, and then realized that I have no idea how people become pirates. I would appreciate to know how someone goes from pilot to pirate.

[Blue Lion]

Purchase eye patch, parrot and hook. Go "arrrrr" a lot. Baam, pirate....

[Anaz]

bad bl, stop spamming...

I'll just clarify for those of you on BL's intelectual level a freespace 2 era pirate

[LtNarol]

Originally posted by Blue Lion
Purchase eye patch, parrot and hook. Go "arrrrr" a lot. Baam, pirate....

what he said

seriously:

leave the GTVA
get on some transport to a colonized but developing system
make some friends
buy/steal any ship you can
terrorize the shipping lanes

[Blue Lion]

geez analazon, take a joke. You can still be a GTVA pilot and be a pirate. Just depends on who you're stealing from

[an0n]

Avast mateys!

You get to be a pirate by:
[list=a]

• Being the son/daughter of a pirate
• Being pushed too far by the beauracrats and deciding to circumvent the law
• Seeing how much money you can make smuggling slaves
• Crippling an enemy while in battle and instead of calling in the GTVA to arrest them you decide to board their ship, loot their holds and kill the crew. Then you get a taste for it.
• Being given an ultimatum by other pirates ("Join us or DIE!!!!")
• Doing something illegal and evading justice then having to turn to crime for income
• Inheritting an extremely powerful vessel and realising you can do what you like without fear of ever being arrested or destroyed

[/size]

Basically through: Greed, anarchism, fear, neccesity for cash or sheer love for violence.

[CP5670]

Personally, I think that the whole concept of pirates in FS2 campaigns is pretty far-fetched and unrealistic; you ever see such "pirates" in real life with heavy military equipment terrorizing the world? Full-scale rebellions from seceding elements of the GTVA navy are much more plausible in my opinion. Although such pirates do exist, they are not going to have the firepower to engage in combat with a military force.

[Anaz]

Originally posted by an0n
Avast mateys!

You get to be a pirate by:
[list=a]

• Being the son/daughter of a pirate
• Being pushed too far by the beauracrats and deciding to circumvent the law
• Seeing how much money you can make smuggling slaves
• Crippling an enemy while in battle and instead of calling in the GTVA to arrest them you decide to board their ship, loot their holds and kill the crew. Then you get a taste for it.
• Being given an ultimatum by other pirates ("Join us or DIE!!!!")
• Doing something illegal and evading justice then having to turn to crime for income
• Inheritting an extremely powerful vessel and realising you can do what you like without fear of ever being arrested or destroyed

[/size]

Basically through: Greed, anarchism, fear, neccesity for cash or sheer love for violence.

thank you! that makes of sense!!

oh and bl, I was responding to your joke with a joke, you just didn't get it

[Alikchi]

Is this about Capellan refugees?
I had a mini-campaign planned where a family of Capellan refugees, pissed off at the GTVA for losing the war, turned to piracy (started out small by stealing Valkyries from mothballs and such) and eventually became a kind of space mafia.

[LtNarol]

Originally posted by CP5670
Personally, I think that the whole concept of pirates in FS2 campaigns is pretty far-fetched and unrealistic; you ever see such "pirates" in real life with heavy military equipment terrorizing the world? Full-scale rebellions from seceding elements of the GTVA navy are much more plausible in my opinion. Although such pirates do exist, they are not going to have the firepower to engage in combat with a military force.

small pirate bands -can- steal military equipment and certainly mothballed cruisers

[CP5670]

Not the way they do in FS2 campaigns, though. They would have very outdated technology (think ML-16 in an era of shields), and remember that they are just pirates, so they cannot put forward a "higher cause" for people to die for that attracts followers to insurrections. Pirate gangs might hijack minor corporate freight transports at the most, but they would not be stupid enough to even try and interfere with military operations.

[karajorma]

Originally posted by CP5670
Personally, I think that the whole concept of pirates in FS2 campaigns is pretty far-fetched and unrealistic; you ever see such "pirates" in real life with heavy military equipment terrorizing the world? Full-scale rebellions from seceding elements of the GTVA navy are much more plausible in my opinion. Although such pirates do exist, they are not going to have the firepower to engage in combat with a military force.

Actually piracy still exists in the world today. In the South China Seas there are still people who board vessels to rob them. IIRC they do clash with the police from time to time but of course they avoid the military.
 I think FS2 pirates would be capable of attacking a light military target but only with heavy losses (which would mean that they wouldn`t do it unless the rewards were very high). They definately wouldn`t have any hope of attacking a heavily guarded target but they might stand a chance against a wing of fighters if they caught them off guard.

[Zarax]

Wanna see a MOD about piracy?
Just wait for Rise Of GCA!!!

[CP5670]

Actually piracy still exists in the world today. In the South China Seas there are still people who board vessels to rob them. IIRC they do clash with the police from time to time but of course they avoid the military.
I think FS2 pirates would be capable of attacking a light military target but only with heavy losses (which would mean that they wouldn`t do it unless the rewards were very high). They definately wouldn`t have any hope of attacking a heavily guarded target but they might stand a chance against a wing of fighters if they caught them off guard.

Exactly, so a military pilot probably would not come in contact with pirates during his missions. Since pirates are after money, they would not have much to gain from a military confrontation compared with the potential losses they would incur; they would probably go more for civilian corporate freighters.

[karajorma]

Yeah but unlike on Earth the military can leap in to help ships under attack from pirates almost instantly. The pirates would probably have lots of scraps with military ships which resulted in them running away.
 If the pirates saw an easy way to cripple the military in their system they probably would do it so that for a few days they could get away with murder.

[aldo_14]

There are still, AFAIK, mercenaries that fight in Afrcian wars, or act as bodyguards for rich & unscrupulus people, or for drugs barons in South America.

It's quite feasible an FS2 drugs baron could operate from, say, a small asteroid base, and have a hired band of ex pilots / refugees / mercs... after all, the last 2 wars would have left quite a few salvage opportunites, not to mention the decommissioned FS1 ships.

[Anaz]

Originally posted by karajorma
Yeah but unlike on Earth the military can leap in to help ships under attack from pirates almost instantly. The pirates would probably have lots of scraps with military ships which resulted in them running away.
 If the pirates saw an easy way to cripple the military in their system they probably would do it so that for a few days they could get away with murder.

yes, I am gonna have to make a way around that...

still though, sensor jammers and early warning sysems could make it so that the pirates could detect the military and leave

[Hippo]

Originally posted by CP5670
Personally, I think that the whole concept of pirates in FS2 campaigns is pretty far-fetched and unrealistic; you ever see such "pirates" in real life with heavy military equipment terrorizing the world? Full-scale rebellions from seceding elements of the GTVA navy are much more plausible in my opinion. Although such pirates do exist, they are not going to have the firepower to engage in combat with a military force.

I may be biased, being from the US, but AlQuadea?(I can't spell)

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by Hippo


I may be biased, being from the US, but AlQuadea...

...aren't pirates, but terrorists. Pirates commit crimes in the interst of making money. Terrorists are interested in committing crimes simply for the destruction those crimes cause, and the trouble this causes the people the terrorists are opposed to. The difference is a big one.

[penguin]

Piracy is alive and well (and has been since the beginning of Capital) anywhere the pirates can get away with it.  It used to be (XVIII century) the Carribbean, now it's the S. China sea.

It's a risk/reward thing now as ever; if there is stuff of sufficient value that the pirates can get, with an acceptably small risk of being killed or captured, it will happen.  Space has a lot of places to hide, too.

I see no reason why the trend would not continue into the FS2 era, unless[list=1]

• people become universally moral
• the GTVA becomes omnipotent and omnipresent
• there are no outlying colonies outside the reach of the GTVA, or without strong local police/militia

The piracy thing certainly has been done before in FS2 campaigns, but it is plausable.  As long as they don't have Orions.

I think pirates taking on the GTVA is reaching a little -- opium runners in the S. China sea would have trouble facing a modern navy.  A more reasonable approach would be to have the player in a local police force or militia, with more limited resources to combat the pirates.

Just my 2c as usual.