Piracy Privateer

Blind Owl

Hallucinogenic Owl
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Nov 27, 2015
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BlindOwl
Looks fun! I haven't read them. The author had his books splashed up on my Facebook page now on several occasions and they at least look like they're worth having. I am due for some fiction sometime soon so I may get it and load it into my phone. I have not done that yet but when I replace the current phone with a plus size, will be time. Seems much better than loading in the kinds of games that fit in a phone--something to pass the time standing in line, etc..
I haven't been finding the time recently to read like I used to. Unfortunate really. I do love reading.
 

Crichten

Admiral
May 23, 2017
194
785
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Im_batman
Crichten writes one post and suddenly we go from 57 to 67.

I don't think we will have trouble finding folks to pira. . .em. . .sail with.

Well I'm glad that I can be of such influence so early on in my membership of such an illustrious (Cough) organisation.

Ohh and as for a name... or tag line or something... Can we have Squirrel Hunters...

You know how you might be sitting there mining away to pass the time twiddling your thumbs then all of a sudden some Spanish Galleon goes plodding by at which point you forget what you were doing and go "OHH SQUIRREL!!" and go chasing after it....

Youtube/MEME to follow.

View: https://youtu.be/fy-CBs0XNlM?t=44s
 
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Blind Owl

Hallucinogenic Owl
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Nov 27, 2015
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BlindOwl
Hey kids. Lets talk.
Lets about sex baby/ lets talk about you and me. roles in our little grey world of Privateering. I'm starting to flesh out my own personal thoughts and ideas when it comes to ships and their uses, and as many of your know, I like talking about it. As such, I'm looking at my love, Privateering, first. I see a few different roles that need to be filled when it comes to our tradecraft. We need;
-detection
-interdiction
-disabling
-boarding
-hauling
-over-watch

Now, there may be many things I'm missing, and there may be many other schools of thought. I'd like to hear them.

And then I'd like to hear what ships you think/prefer for accomplishing each and every one of those missions.

For me, it's like this;
-detection: Terrapin, DUR, Tracker
-interdiction: Buccaneer, Hurricane, any fast combat ship
-disabling: Buccaneer, Cutlass, Sentinel (maybe) any ship with distortion weapons
-boarding: Redeemer, Hoplite, Cutlass
-hauling: Caterpillar, BMM, any other cargo ship you want to use.
-over-watch: Any combat ships (interdiction ships)

What say you, my dear TESTies?
 
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Shadow Reaper

Space Marshal
Jun 3, 2016
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Shadow Reaper
IMHO, to start there will be at least 2 kinds of activities--either you have scouted a target and go after it, or you go out looking for targets of opportunity. Until we know better, my guess is the most effective means for both these are to fly wings of Vanguard together. At least one Sentinel to mask what the group is, one Warden to respawn players in situ who are killed in a boarding action, and several Hoplites and Harbingers depending upon how many people are available. By composing all Vanguards, you have no short range ships limiting possibilities for egress and exit, so maximize your target options.

I do think there is a lot more to this and Privateering will require some boring activities. Scouting targets is not exciting work. And we have not talked about mission scamming yet. If you know that a Vanguard and a Sabre show up at the end of the ant-pirate planetary boarding mission, and you can load an EMP generator into your Lancer, you can drop the two when they are hovering a mere twenty feet in the air onto the ground before you, blow their canopies with breaching charges and score more than $500 in ships, from a single mission. That's just two people. Imagine if you and a friend can score a Vanguard or Sabre every time you fly that mission. We need to find out if that kind of thing is possible.
 

Stevetank

Lead Aurora Theorycrafter
Donor
Jun 3, 2016
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Stevetank
I can do scouting. I don't mind looking around for targets. I have a wide variety of ships, including a Crucible which may be able to hide in plain sight since it's a dull and non threatening ship.

I also like hauling, so any job that requires looting will be ok by me. I can show up with a boarding team on my Crucible or Caterpillar and go at it.

I don't think that we need long range, just long enough range so that we aren't spending more time refueling than looting / stealing. I can always scout in a Gemini to act as a refueling base for our ships that we want to give a little more range.

Tank's skills:
FPS: 8/10
Fighter pilot: 5/10
Looting: 9/10
Meta tactics: 6/10
Reliability: 10/10

Total score: 38/50 (76%)
25%=drunk
50%=average
75%=good
99%=epic
 
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Shadow Reaper

Space Marshal
Jun 3, 2016
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Shadow Reaper
I have lots of responses here, but I would be treading into proprietary stuff we should not be talking about openly. I will note though that I have looked at a credit system, where players earn and spend crew credits by crewing ships for others or having them crew their own. I think these credits also need to be earned by scouting, and captains who organize a mission should get the "captain's share". Basically it is a setup where each player is highly motivated by a rewards system, so if you find a great target people can fly against over and over, you earn crew credits every time someone flies that mission. So basically you reward people for their efforts and especially for the results of their efforts. This should ensure that people scout often and find the juicy targets.
 

Stevetank

Lead Aurora Theorycrafter
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Jun 3, 2016
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Stevetank
Highly motivated? Sounds fun.

I know that we can't talk about detailed plans here but just know that if you want something done, I'm you ultimate support guy. I can get ships, resources, general intel, and I have an eye for AI. I'm no spy, so I may not be able to get some intel that we would want, but no one prepares for a mission like Stevetank does.

I can lead a small group of people on a task. I enjoy training new people, so if you want a skill taught to our groups, teach me first so that I can teach others.

:)
 

Blind Owl

Hallucinogenic Owl
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Nov 27, 2015
20,862
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BlindOwl
IMHO, to start there will be at least 2 kinds of activities--either you have scouted a target and go after it, or you go out looking for targets of opportunity. Until we know better, my guess is the most effective means for both these are to fly wings of Vanguard together. At least one Sentinel to mask what the group is, one Warden to respawn players in situ who are killed in a boarding action, and several Hoplites and Harbingers depending upon how many people are available. By composing all Vanguards, you have no short range ships limiting possibilities for egress and exit, so maximize your target options.

I do think there is a lot more to this and Privateering will require some boring activities. Scouting targets is not exciting work. And we have not talked about mission scamming yet. If you know that a Vanguard and a Sabre show up at the end of the ant-pirate planetary boarding mission, and you can load an EMP generator into your Lancer, you can drop the two when they are hovering a mere twenty feet in the air onto the ground before you, blow their canopies with breaching charges and score more than $500 in ships, from a single mission. That's just two people. Imagine if you and a friend can score a Vanguard or Sabre every time you fly that mission. We need to find out if that kind of thing is possible.
Man, if that was a thing, and we could EMP those ships, that'd be a money maker for sure. Haha. Good thinking. I wonder if we'll be able to permanently steal NPC ships. God I hope so.

I'm really interested to see what the scope of the Sentinel will be. If it does have the ability to mask approaches, hide friendlies, that will make it one of the single most useful ships in the game. Also, the Harbinger and the Sentinel still show as having beds, so they should also work as spawn points. I say should because I wouldn't be surprised if spawn points were restricted to medical facilities, in which case a Red, Carrack, etc may be needed. Or a Cat with a medical module, assuming we get one.
I can do scouting. I don't mind looking around for targets. I have a wide variety of ships, including a Crucible which may be able to hide in plain sight since it's a dull and non threatening ship.

I also like hauling, so any job that requires looting will be ok by me. I can show up with a boarding team on my Crucible or Caterpillar and go at it.

I don't think that we need long range, just long enough range so that we aren't spending more time refueling than looting / stealing. I can always scout in a Gemini to act as a refueling base for our ships that we want to give a little more range.

Tank's skills:
FPS: 8/10
Fighter pilot: 5/10
Looting: 9/10
Meta tactics: 6/10
Reliability: 10/10

Total score: 38/50 (76%)
25%=drunk
50%=average
75%=good
99%=epic
SteveSupportTank.
I have lots of responses here, but I would be treading into proprietary stuff we should not be talking about openly. I will note though that I have looked at a credit system, where players earn and spend crew credits by crewing ships for others or having them crew their own. I think these credits also need to be earned by scouting, and captains who organize a mission should get the "captain's share". Basically it is a setup where each player is highly motivated by a rewards system, so if you find a great target people can fly against over and over, you earn crew credits every time someone flies that mission. So basically you reward people for their efforts and especially for the results of their efforts. This should ensure that people scout often and find the juicy targets.
We should start a private conversation amongst a few of us to discuss further and in-depth some of our ideas. We've already brainstormed quite a few, and I for one am excited to start practicing some of them.
Highly motivated? Sounds fun.

I know that we can't talk about detailed plans here but just know that if you want something done, I'm you ultimate support guy. I can get ships, resources, general intel, and I have an eye for AI. I'm no spy, so I may not be able to get some intel that we would want, but no one prepares for a mission like Stevetank does.

I can lead a small group of people on a task. I enjoy training new people, so if you want a skill taught to our groups, teach me first so that I can teach others.

:slight_smile:
I will gladly take on the scouting role/information gathering role as well. Espionage. Spying. Etc. I'm starting to lean that way, and am thinking more and more about ships that will accommodate this.
 

Shadow Reaper

Space Marshal
Jun 3, 2016
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Shadow Reaper
Man, if that was a thing, and we could EMP those ships, that'd be a money maker for sure. . .

I'm really interested to see what the scope of the Sentinel will be. If it does have the ability to mask approaches, hide friendlies, that will make it one of the single most useful ships in the game. Also, the Harbinger and the Sentinel still show as having beds, so they should also work as spawn points.
That would make sense, since they are all long range and the issue for CIG is that if your ship is not equipped with a bed, you can't sleep in it. Also means you can't log off and leave the ship where it was, but instead get moved back to whatever port is your base.

I am recommending only long range craft because one key to success is to be able to hunt across a very wide area, find a target among as many systems as possible, plan to pounce across several systems, take the booty and disappear before anyone knows what happened. No one yet has a feel for the range issue in game but I am convinced it is going to be a crucial issue. I think long range is going to be a huge benefit on par with high speed.

Normally groups travel at the speed of its slowest member. Vanguard are pretty fast, and that speed is immediately sacrificed if paired with slower ships. That's not a great idea, IMHO. For example, an all Vanguard party can catch and capture pirate Cutlasses. You can't do that if you are partnered with a Lancer, Tally, etc. Also Vanguard have a good missile loadout and the fastest missile lock system in game. That means there are options to hit and even disable at great range. Certainly for big targets like the StarG, it is easy to envision standing off at 6 km and hammering the shields with chin-mounted M7A until the shields drop, then launching spikes, and then returning to shooting and targeting just the turrets. By the time the missiles land the turrets would be gone ad the fat pigeon is waiting to be plucked.

It looks like there will be two different ways to attack ships--speed and stealth. Speed is going to require the long range much more than the stealth approach, IMHO.

We should start a private conversation amongst a few of us to discuss further and in-depth some of our ideas. We've already brainstormed quite a few, and I for one am excited to start practicing some of them.
I don't have time this week but maybe next week. I'll let you know. Is a very busy time right now, but it would be fun to get stuff started. At the least we could put together a communications mechanism and let people know we are organizing. At present there are 68 people interested, and this forum only allows us to write 10 at a time, so obviously we need another mechanism. Will be a pain just to collect everyone.
 

Blind Owl

Hallucinogenic Owl
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Nov 27, 2015
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BlindOwl
I don't have time this week but maybe next week. I'll let you know. Is a very busy time right now, but it would be fun to get stuff started. At the least we could put together a communications mechanism and let people know we are organizing. At present there are 68 people interested, and this forum only allows us to write 10 at a time, so obviously we need another mechanism. Will be a pain just to collect everyone.
Sounds good. I'm rather busy myself, being summer and having a toddler, so I can appreciate time allocation. I rarely play these days, and will devote time when I can find it.

As for a platform, maybe a private discord room, or even spectrum may do, depending on how many people can be involved in a conversation, Etc.
 
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Graptor

Space Marshal
Jul 21, 2016
210
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Graptor
I'm game for this too. It sounds like good times! I'll bring the beer and whiskey. :)

I've only got my starter ship thus far, been renting other ships for practice. I'd get a kick out of flying as support. Defending the bigger ships if necessary. And flying guard while boarding parties take the loot. I haven't done much FPS yet, so shooting a rifle and not hitting my own dudes would be a challenge, so no boarding party for me (yet).
 
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