letter of marque

I like it. Historically sound, as pirates were often courted by governments to do their dirty work for them. Although the idea would need pirates to already exist in the galaxy, imo. In the galaxies I've played, pirates rarely last long enough to do much harm once they appear. There would need to be a secluded "pirate base" of some sort that could act as a sort of homeworld/spawnpoint for them. Basically a place that wouldn't appear unless your ship were right on top of it. Otherwise, it would be a simple matter of find the pirate ships and destroy them, then wipe out their homeworld/base. Contacting them to court their allegiance would be another matter.

It is a cool idea, though.

Well, maybe without controlling them, but they should leave your fleets and planets alone. On the other hand, shit happens

I am thinking..


A minor race with incredible millitary production, Some speed and sensor bonuses coupled together with a good starting technology level and one single class 6-8 world.


Oh, And they are aggressive.

I like the sound of it. Would be interesting for those that dont want to take the direct smash mouth route.

Sounds like a job for the Korx!

That is an interesting idea. A fleet of huge ships suddenly changing loyalties to become pirates in the middle of your main rivals shipping lanes could be a real inconvenience for them.

Could the AI handle this?

another point on this option; make it possible that yours as well as other races ships can go ruogh when left in "deep Space" too long, or left adrift, ect.

another point on this option; make it possible that yours as well as other races ships can go ruogh when left in "deep Space" too long, or left adrift, ect.

the ai dealing with this would be pretty hard though cause now u have to have it check each and every ship it has to c if it will rebell the next turn and that will take awhile

Just do things the Civ way and have pirate ships spawn randomly over time, and at a relatively steady rate. Hooray for space barbarians!

well, the idea i was putting forth was not defections in your ranks but voluntarily turning ships over to criminals. preferably when they are far from your planets the code for making the pirates would take all of 10 minutes to emplement, but making the ai have the option of cutting loose pirates in your rear areas would take a bit of time. and it prob should have allignment consequences to be consistent with the current theme of the game.

for it to be 'privateer' rather than straight pirates would take alot more work to code, definatly something for an expansion rather than a patch. but that should give you some immunity from attack from your own ships, and maybe some income from merchants they attack as well

well, the idea i was putting forth was not defections in your ranks but voluntarily turning ships over to criminals. preferably when they are far from your planets the code for making the pirates would take all of 10 minutes to emplement, but making the ai have the option of cutting loose pirates in your rear areas would take a bit of time. and it prob should have allignment consequences to be consistent with the current theme of the game. for it to be 'privateer' rather than straight pirates would take alot more work to code, definatly something for an expansion rather than a patch. but that should give you some immunity from attack from your own ships, and maybe some income from merchants they attack as well

What's wrong with Good/Neutral/Evil aligned pirates? I guess then they realy are privateers, if they are "hired" by a government.

I think the privateer idea is pretty good.

A fleet of huge ships suddenly changing loyalties to become pirates in the middle of your main rivals shipping lanes could be a real inconvenience for them

Course, I have always been in favor of bringing back the social disorder espionage tactic. The more you put into it the better chance of exactly this type of thing happening. Fleets, ships, planets, all part of general chaos and anarchy that comes from social unrest... which should be something a less than friendly (stab your buddy in the back) type of empire just might do to another.

After all, haven't the Drath been using the Korx and other races like this for centuries?

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large

nice idea, and the price for paying people to go to war is way too much.