Piracy Piracy Division/Squadron Organization Brainstorm

[Thalstan]

I haven't brought it up with anyone from Rock Raiders or Yellowjackets yet, but would there be any interest on our end on running a PVP op running as an aggressor squadron? Be beneficial for everyone- we could sharpen our teeth on what a typical juicy target + escorts might look like, and Rock Raiders/Yellowjackets get some good experience on what a pirate raid might entail. No real stakes since everything's getting wiped every other week anyway.

Just spitballing, my new PC parts won't even get here until middle of next week.

I would be interested. i think it could be done several ways.

1) takeover of the ship on the ground
2) From a set start, work to intercept and force escorts/cargo ships to surrender or at least pay for safe passage (remember, the goal is to make money, not waste resources fighting and blowing stuff up)
3) working together (both groups traveling to one point, then quantuming to another, figure out what the Mantis can and can not do. Figure out how to best use it in game to lock ships down and to ensure it doesn't get destroyed easily.

These could be run by and against skeleton crews and fully crewed ships on both sides.

The haulers win if the cargo ship gets away, the pirates win if they can lock down the cargo ship or have the haulers cry uncle.

 

[Nightlane]

Yeah, the Cutty is a staple. I love her. Specifically, the Blue (so long as the cells can be removed). I just think that I'm waiting for the next "new and shiny" haha.

A blue without cells is not just a cutlass black? :-0

Can you imagine how common insurance fraud is going to be?

Oh no, my buddies alt account stole my Polaris and then sold it through another 3rd party to my buddy. Its flagged as a stolen ship but CIG have said you can pay for spoofed codes. Now you just submit a claim for a stolen Polaris and there you go.


Breaks the TOS for sure and CIG will naturally try and crack down on it but I dont see how they could really tell if you have unaffiliated alts and a few people willing to middlemen with no questions asked (which will most likely be the majority of stolen ship sales lol)

widespread insurance fraud would be massively inflationary for the in-game economy

CIG will go through a lot of trial and error before they get it under control

having a stable in-game economy is a make-or-break issue for CIG

I just hope there isn't fowl play. Say I steal a ship and then the owner claims I'm his friend to CIG and then my Completionist level account gets banned.

Or even in an innocent way where I'm borrowing someone's ship for an extended period and they forget so they claim it and I get banned because my friend claimed the ship when I had it.

Do not worry about insurance fraud:
* if it happens the legal owner of the ship will lose it (source: insurance faqs most probably the old one)
* stolen ships will not create inflation because they are marked as stolen and such they will have special threatment (bounty hunting, not able to visit legal places (most of UEE), etc)
* most probably we will keep the robbed ships with the previous limitations and with the option to “legitimize” them paying money (probably a quantity close to purchase the ship, but I suppose not so close as it have to be lucrative)
* take care using your alts to fraud: same IP

I know a dev talked about removing stole ships at logout... but that was “just an idea” because they were talking internally about it.

 

[Blind Owl]

A blue without cells is not just a cutlass black? :-0

With more armour! It costs more, ergo it must be better. Right?

 

[AntiSqueaker]

Here's hoping we get some more improvements for outlaw gameplay in upcoming patches. I realize that the current stuff is very much tier 0 gameplay, work in progress, yadda yadda yadda, but it seems weird that

A) The "no questions asked" drop off stations for illicit cargo at Grimhex don't accept stolen goods.

B) You can't sell stolen ships at the uncharted scrap/salvage yards.

C) Blowing up ships drops random cargo pinatas (at like 95% loss rate) which is not fun for both the pirate and the unfortunate victim.

D) With distortion cannons only doing less than a third of the damage they are supposed to in the PU (due to some synching issues apparently?) it's nigh impossible to actually disable and board a ship. We have these handheld cutting lasers that don't actually do anything. Poppa wants his Buccaneer loaded with that delicious S4 Salvation Distortion Scattergun that's in the game files. (also gimbal the S1 hardpoints on the wings because they have awful convergence and are impossible to hit anything with thanks CIG)

Also tractor tech coming in should be interesting combined with properly working distortion cannons- they are nullified or greatly reduced in effectiveness when shields are up, and distortion cannons have bar none the best shield damage in the game.... Would certainly make the front facing tractor beam on the Caterpillar (which I believe is something like a S3 utility hardpoint?) much more interesting

 

[AntiSqueaker]

Double posting because this is unrelated to my previous post and I didn't want to write a giant singular one for brevity's sake.

I shuffled my ships around and got the Scoundrel Pack (how long has that been a thing, game pack with LTI for under 1000?) which has a Caterpillar, Mercury, Cutlass (which I upgraded to a Buccaneer, since I still have my OG Digital Pirate Pack), Hawk, and 2 Dragonflies.

Hopefully there is some good smuggling and other naughty work to be done in a Mercury, but since it's included in the "totally not a pirate" pack I would assume that is the intent by CIG. Beautiful looking ship but it looks so out of place compared to the Caterpillar and Cutlass lol.

Only thing missing to make me happy is my Corsair, but that should be coming back on sale in November. Might use the Hawk as an upgrade for the Corsair but IDK- I like the idea of the 6 guns and EMP on a light fighter frame like that.

Corsair cause I gotta "explore" peoples cargo holds obviously.

The more I think about the more confident I am that I don't really wanna have a giant ship- too much hassle and responsibility for my taste. I'll just crash on someones Kraken and pitch in for repair/rearm costs. Which brings up an interesting point- how is loot and payout distribution going to work in regards to different ships in a fleet? On one hand I don't want to bring a super expensive ship like an Eclipse or Caterpillar while someone else brings an Arrow and we split the profits 50/50- because my ship is going to require a lot more upkeep. But on the other, I don't want to be rolling around in my Cutlass busting my ass to protect someone in an 890J or something because they had to bust out the big guns and get barely enough to break even.

Maybe subtract all the repair and maintenance costs from the gross payout, and then divvy it up from there I guess? Seems better than nothing.

 

[Nightlane]

The more I think about the more confident I am that I don't really wanna have a giant ship- too much hassle and responsibility for my taste. I'll just crash on someones Kraken and pitch in for repair/rearm costs. Which brings up an interesting point- how is loot and payout distribution going to work in regards to different ships in a fleet? On one hand I don't want to bring a super expensive ship like an Eclipse or Caterpillar while someone else brings an Arrow and we split the profits 50/50- because my ship is going to require a lot more upkeep. But on the other, I don't want to be rolling around in my Cutlass busting my ass to protect someone in an 890J or something because they had to bust out the big guns and get barely enough to break even.

Maybe subtract all the repair and maintenance costs from the gross payout, and then divvy it up from there I guess? Seems better than nothing.

Just let CIG do it's magic ^^

 

[Stevetank]

Double posting because this is unrelated to my previous post and I didn't want to write a giant singular one for brevity's sake.

I shuffled my ships around and got the Scoundrel Pack (how long has that been a thing, game pack with LTI for under 1000?) which has a Caterpillar, Mercury, Cutlass (which I upgraded to a Buccaneer, since I still have my OG Digital Pirate Pack), Hawk, and 2 Dragonflies.

Hopefully there is some good smuggling and other naughty work to be done in a Mercury, but since it's included in the "totally not a pirate" pack I would assume that is the intent by CIG. Beautiful looking ship but it looks so out of place compared to the Caterpillar and Cutlass lol.

Only thing missing to make me happy is my Corsair, but that should be coming back on sale in November. Might use the Hawk as an upgrade for the Corsair but IDK- I like the idea of the 6 guns and EMP on a light fighter frame like that.

Corsair cause I gotta "explore" peoples cargo holds obviously.

The more I think about the more confident I am that I don't really wanna have a giant ship- too much hassle and responsibility for my taste. I'll just crash on someones Kraken and pitch in for repair/rearm costs. Which brings up an interesting point- how is loot and payout distribution going to work in regards to different ships in a fleet? On one hand I don't want to bring a super expensive ship like an Eclipse or Caterpillar while someone else brings an Arrow and we split the profits 50/50- because my ship is going to require a lot more upkeep. But on the other, I don't want to be rolling around in my Cutlass busting my ass to protect someone in an 890J or something because they had to bust out the big guns and get barely enough to break even.

Maybe subtract all the repair and maintenance costs from the gross payout, and then divvy it up from there I guess? Seems better than nothing.

Just tell me where you want the Kraken

I can handle the labor of moving a Kraken base around in space and planets. Repair crews standing by.

 

[Blind Owl]

Just tell me where you want the Kraken

I can handle the labor of moving a Kraken base around in space and planets. Repair crews standing by.

I'll be parked in your krack. Er, in your Kraken

 

[Nightlane]

NPCs will have lotsof stuff we can acquire.

What about vanduul ships? can be captured and used?

hmmm, robbed ships are tagged as robbed... but what about it's components?

Just tell me where you want the Kraken

I can handle the labor of moving a Kraken base around in space and planets. Repair crews standing by.

Where... and how many!

 

[AntiSqueaker]

If the carrier's rockin, don't come a knockin'

 

[Bambooza]

What about vanduul ships? can be captured and used?

hmmm, robbed ships are tagged as robbed... but what about it's components?


Where... and how many!

No clue on the vanduul ships. They have been mostly tight-lipped and originally they made it seem like it wasn't going to be an option as the ships are not scaled for human-sized pilots and the modules will not be compatible with our ships.

 

[AntiSqueaker]

Eons ago they mentioned you could salvage Vanduul ships but I think that was in regard to components and stuff.

Surely some components have to be usable with a little space duct tape and creative engineering- weapons go pew pew at least. And the Banu openly trade with the Vanduul, so they might have or know how to make some converters so you could use salvaged Vanduul tech.

Or if nothing else, UEE would probably have an open bounty for kills on Vanduul ships, and might even offer letters of marque, who knows?

 

[Nightlane]

Just sitting here, waiting for the ultimate pirate ship to be released. What would that be? I have no idea, but I imagine it'd look like the Black Pearl, and have grappling cannons.

Or maybe just the Cat with grappling cannons. And real cannons.

Fuck, I just want cannons. Broadside cannons.

There is a possibility that CIG develops a broadside cannons module for the Caterpillar. A dev mentioned it in an official video, just he said something like "tasty broadside cannons module" while taking about the caterpillar, but with other words, he did not used "tasty" ;-)

It's probably the Kraken to be honest.
...
7/9 turrets can shoot on the same broadside. The twin S8 cannons fire port, starbord, and straight ahead.

What about the Murderer variant? is going to be something or just CIG trolling us?

The humble Cutlass is still probably the best bang for your buck: good weapon and missile potential, decent to good handling, modest cargo bay. Tractor beam included as well afaik when the techs in.

Both the caterpillar and cutlass have broadside doors, right? Get a ton of drunken idiots with railguns inside and let them get fun firing things out of the "window" ;)

Free if you steal it ;)

Until you pay the crew :-p

I haven't brought it up with anyone from Rock Raiders or Yellowjackets yet, but would there be any interest on our end on running a PVP op running as an aggressor squadron? Be beneficial for everyone- we could sharpen our teeth on what a typical juicy target + escorts might look like, and Rock Raiders/Yellowjackets get some good experience on what a pirate raid might entail. No real stakes since everything's getting wiped every other week anyway.
Just spitballing, my new PC parts won't even get here until middle of next week.

And rock raiders need someone to clean the mining fields from competitors...

Yeah, scamming the insurance is less "teehee we got a free ship" and more "oh lord if I get caught doing this again they'll ban me from the game for a month"

Only a month? I remember saying they would quit the original ship from the original account or something like that.

I just hope there isn't fowl play. Say I steal a ship and then the owner claims I'm his friend to CIG and then my Completionist level account gets banned.

Or even in an innocent way where I'm borrowing someone's ship for an extended period and they forget so they claim it and I get banned because my friend claimed the ship when I had it.

Maybe we will need to save the video of our adventures, maybe stream them. Just in case, and for laughs :-)

Insurance fraud will be fought hard. They have already pretty much said you won't be able to keep that stolen ship, but instead will have several options. Most of the consequences will only start once it's reported stolen by having a claim filed.

You can log out in the bed, but the game may not despawn the ship. If someone finds it (PC or NPC), you might end up tossed in jail as you sleep, or just shot in the head depending on who you stole it from. Hint, don't accidentally steal the godfather's 890...
You can go for a joyride, then abandon it when you are done.
You can sell it no questions asked to certain connected used ship salespeople. You will not get anywhere near full price for the vehicle
You can strip it for parts, but those parts will have serial numbers on them, so they will be listed as stolen and you won't get full value. You will probably get close to full value on the scrap if chewed up by a reclaimer, but there is always a chance a marked component will make it through the shredder/crusher and you could end up busted unless you can prove its a legitimate salvage find.
You can take it to a specialist hand have them fix the title for you. This will cost "almost as much as buying the ship from a dealer" according to Chris Roberts. The good news is that you can now insure it, and it will remain yours. It won't inherit LTI though, even if the ship had it in the first place.

Most people will chose one of the first three options as it gives the best bang for the buck. Once thieves find out which is more profitable for a specific ship, expect them to almost always use that method. Most people will not use the last method as it actually costs them money. It's the only way to keep the ship you stole long term.

Uhh, stolen ships behavior are just conjectures. Most probably they will log off normally while it is not in a legality enforcement pad or hangar. They said already that there would be ways to "legalize" them as well. (probably paying a big part of the cost of the ship). Anyway they are or were studying it so maybe they change their minds.

 

[Blind Owl]

There is a possibility that CIG develops a broadside cannons module for the Caterpillar. A dev mentioned it in an official video, just he said something like "tasty broadside cannons module" while taking about the caterpillar, but with other words, he did not used "tasty" ;-)

He day we have this is the day I rebuy a Cat. Give me my versatility dammit!!

 

[Ryonin Shonin]

If I could ask for any interested Testes to offer a hand with an idea. A concept i have been trying to work out could use some more input.

I need some help building and managing an outpost. I have 2 estate claims i plan to use. I think that 8x16km would be a decent size area for most races. The property could grow if other people contribute. I do not have a pioneer to build the habs...

I would like the attraction to be races of a more dangerous nature. Maybe a planet with dangerous lifeforms. Ground races and air.

It could be large mutual effort with lots of angles. Lots of jobs and roles to fill. Services to provide and gambling!

It's not an original concept, but i still like the idea.

Thoughts?

 

[AntiSqueaker]

Make a pirate base, park someones Kraken Privateer there and go to town raiding?

 

[Ryonin Shonin]

That sounds reasonable. I feel a large part of the galaxies wealth will be not in UEE space. Which would mean the facility could need 24/7 security to make sure it's not pillaged. Or it could be in UEE space but I feel that would make it less interesting. Maybe TEST as a whole will be able to carve out our own system to occupy.

 

[AntiSqueaker]

Plus UEE probably wouldn't be too happy about all the blatant piracy and illegal stuff happening on a land claim in their turf. I don't think you need a land claim for non-UEE space anyway, since the land claim basically just, well claims the land and the UEE checks off on it's yours.

If we have enough people then a base would pretty much be self-managing to an extent. Even non-piracy people will need a place to hang, refuel, repair, sell goodies, etc.

 

[Cherokeedog]

Indeed, land claims seem to only make sense in UEE space. As for the whole playground idea, I'd say if you give people a reason to come or stop by the place, by providing handy services in an area without infrastructure, everything else will start to happen (races and other stuff). I'd say you should take initiative for making the outpost happen (services included), but make it an org business. TEST is huge, so someone will always be there to handle stuff.

 

[Radegast74]

Hey, coming in late and haven't read all 24 previous pages...

Have we played around with the RSI Mantis at all? Ideas could be to hang out between 2 planets on a trade route, and intercept either drug runners or players with bounties on their heads.

Or, we could go after people at drug labs and keep them from jumping...