Beat approach dealing with Pirates

I wouldn't consider myself a pro but I'll try to help you nut it out.

I personally think that the pirates are rather useful. Compared to the cost (both in ships and needed infrastructure) of invading, or raiding opponents they really are a good quality, if fickle ally. You can really p!ss off your opponent, soften up his frontier planets for a full scale invasion, or keep an ally on the defensive if you're feeling that sneaky. Just keep an eye on the bounty every 15 mins and the investment should more than pay for itself.

On the other hand, being that close to your homeworld there is, as you stated quite a risk. If someone manages to get a raid on your empire it could be a real pain. If you have a large fleet, and a decent empire the damage could hypothetically, be limited to a pain but not be crippling.

Comes down to how the game is going, if rival empires are getting edgy then annihilate the pirates and send the fleet to the (new) front, otherwise reduce it to an enlarged garrison fleet and send the rest off on the assumption that you can keep your rivals higher on the bounty list.

As I said, I like having them around, free stronghold, free ships, and a small investment every 15 mins.

In any games, i would think having a pirates is good for the following reason (note that i only play against AI)

1: Able to pay them to attack other players (i like playing TEC and so, i would have tonnes of gold to drown the pirates to attack someone). Good for keeping others busy

2: if you have a pirate base in the path and assuming that is the only path to your territory. You will see the AI not attempting to treapass the pirate base to you. So, in a way, they are a good deterrent.

3: Ultimately, they are good spot for your cap ships to gain some experiences.

Hope this helps

I turned pirates to 'inactive' after my first game and never looked back.  I found them super-annoying.

AI will not go through the pirate base, even if they are inactive. If they did, they would suffer quite a bit of damage before reaching your planets.

If you're playing AI, I would just put tons of turrets/hangars in the world bordering the pirate base in the direction of your homeworld. It won't cost that much and you will still have the pirates for your own use. Most real pros probably won't respond to this because pirates are essentially useless against a human opponent. I actually hardly ever use them against an AI either, but that's mostly because I like to get my footholds and expand slowly. If that's what you're doing as well, then the entraces to your territory probably has good static defenses, so you won't need to worry about eliminating the base directly.

I disagree

With GalaxyForge I created a few maps with pirate bases as chokepoints and only connenctions between the opponents. In random small maps that also happened a few times. The AI (hard or unfair, latest patches) actually attacked the pirate base and destroyed it to get to me.

They'll only attack them if they are choke point.  That case is the exception to the rule.

Typically pirates are actually a benefit to whoever they attack later on in the game.  With adequate defenses, they become free experience for your units, and can actually help make your capital ships stronger.  This is particularly true for Advent which can research an experience boosting upgrade late game, and they can easily get level 6 abilities this way.

Glad I asked! I have 5 dreadnants (spelling lol), 3 other type of battleships, I max at my fleet at level 6 on tree, I need to expand one more time. Bounty on my head is around 1800, I put him at 2100! I didnt know the pirates would talk to me. Is that what the HIRE Black Market crew is for? Doh!

Someone said something about getting new ships and stronghold from pirates, how is that? I already attacked their base twice with frigates and siege weapons. I will go in this time with 2 dreads and a battleship fleet of 40 ships, take it out cause it is preventing the AI from reaching me and visa versa. He attempted a few times and was destroyed. He isn't to far away, I have all of the planets on one end of the map, he seems to have the rest. I will own 14 once the pirates base is gone. I asked this question wondering if that gets rid of pirate for good or not. They raid 4 planets every 15 mins, my fear is what if the AI does take out his base while they are attacking, I will be short to cover my planets.

Thanks for all the great help, this game is so damn good! Having this vertigo issue kills my time to play, after 1-2 hrs I am sick as a dog. Switch to timid graphic movement games like Civ IV.

Only 5 players on my website, better to ask questions here. Cheers!

~Kitsune @ Game Fanatics Vault

Fox,

I believe as far as "talking" with pirates, it's through credits only.  The black market is handy (although i suck at starting an economy until late game and i'm still learning, so i could be wrong).  With the black market, you can just buy/sell any metal/crystals you might need.  However, another cool thing is that you can undercut the black market's going price for goods.  So if the AI is selling at 480 per 100 crystal, and someone else is selling a ton of metal to buy much needed crystal, you could then in turn undercut the crystal you're selling to the black market by a certain percentile, in which case you would make out like a bandit (err, pirate) in terms of credits.  You can see the market by going to the Black Market and looking at the squiggly lines in the middle.  The higher the line = the higher the demand (as in, there isn't much going around in the solar system/galaxy at that time).  The lower the line = the lower the demand.  Eventually, as AI and other players flood the market with their excess stuff (i always end up with a TON of metal, and with a total of 4-5 crystal extractors), the market will crash and you won't get much for selling it up ther.e

I read a post last week when i bought the game, that they would send in a few ships, take and cap the pirate base, then leave....and the turrets wouldn't attack the base, but they would attack anyone flying in there (even you, so just be careful).  While i haven't tried this myself, that's pretty awesome...a pre-fortified city...you just have to not die while attempting to take it.

Hey thanks a lot Nebulocity, this is the best information yet, helped me understand a slew of things that were darn right confusing to understand. Wait, I must know you from Galciv, you called me Fox

I am damn close to having my fleet large enough to invade the pirate base, you are right it is premade and heavily forified with turrents, more then usual, and 4 crystals and 1 metal asteriod if I saw it right. Lol I didn't stick around long, my fleet of 20 ships limped home.

I am beta testing like 5 Mods for some friends for Civ IV, taking up my own personal time to play Sins. Though my vertigo for some strange reason acts up when I play, I force myself to keep going, I swear this is the best game ever made. It has so much depth to it, like Galciv easy to pick up and play, takes forever to master for some.

I will be adding a few more Mods and Maps to my site tonight, then it is game time for Sins only. Stop in at my website bro, maybe when we both get experience we can co-op a mulitplayer game against AI if that is possible.

Pirate bases never have resource asteroids (unless you're using some mod), so you must have been mistaken about that.  Destroying the pirate base means pirate raiders cannot deploy from that gravity well.  If there are no more pirate bases, then pirate raids will stop for good.  Colonizing a pirate base is useful, since it has bonus tax income.  As well, it starts with 6000 hp without need for any upgrades.  Most enemies will simply ignore it because it takes too long to bombard.

As for destroying them, your best approach is to bring in some carriers with bombers.  The only pirate unit that can even attack a bomber squad is the flak frigate, and it doesn't do a very good job (it's better against fighters).  As well, most of the pirate defenders are heavy cruisers, which are very weak to bombers.  Doesn't hurt that bombers also clean up those turrets very quickly.  You can easily take a pirate base with just 2 or 3 carrier cruisers (mostly bombers), a capital ship, and a few frigates.  Keep the carriers away from trouble; they have lots of hit points, but you don't want to lose them.

There is only one way to "take over" pirate units and make them under your control.  The Advent rapture class capital ship has the domination ability, taking permanent control of an enemy frigate.  However, because pirates do not have shields and most of the Advent faction's best abilities enhance or restore shields, this makes using domination against pirates a novelty that isn't really useful.

Pirate bases, active or inactive, are a great place to level your Cap(s). If you need that level 6 ability before you attack your opponent, this is the place to go. Just make sure you don't waste any ships doing so as it would be just an awful waste. Bombers + Support Cruisers should do the trick.

To do this, you need to be TEC (or have a helpful TEC human ally (the AI doesn't know what to do)) with a Novalith cannon or two. Fire at the pirate base, and rush with your colony capital ship (Akkan for TEC, Progenator for Advent and Evacuator for Vasari.) Capture and then retreat. All of a sudden you have your own base with a lot of pirate ships and turrets to defend it. However, the pirates will still attack you, and destroy your constructors, so it's not a perfect plan. To ramp up the number of ships to defend the pirate base before you capture it, put bounty on a destroyed enemy who has an ally still active. Allied victory means that they are never fully gone untill all of their team has been eliminated. Since the pirates can't raid anywhere, they stay at the base. Fantastic plan if there's only two ways out of a star, the other one of which you have fully locked down!

Well,

I took out my first pirate base. I am playing against 3 AI, one is an allie.  They are locked. Had to do that as I needed to learn how to play the game, research etc. A large map, 3 systems.

My ally is in my system, so between the two of us, the solar system is ours.

Nice.

Now we are using the star jump off point as our staging area. From here...... well we will see tonight!!!

So to answer the original question, get rid of the pirates in your system. Yhey are just a pain in the backside.

Aaah, I didnt know you could do that with Sins Fitzy, thanks a lot. I do the same thing with Civilization IV, play at higher difficulty with one race as an ally to learn the game and how to play at higher levels. I been out of the general gaming world so long due to WoW. I love that game still *holds up game God crosses*

I must have been mistaken about the asteroids, but the pirates with my opponent right near one of my planets that is a long distance from my main plant. Alligence is falling fast, I got a report that hostile rebels will take over the planet shortly. I have 2 large fleets I moved in to be prepared. lol now I am concerned the rebels will take over part or all of my fleet.

What a great game, but I am lost right now, real hard to keep my income going, resources are hard to come by with the size of my fleet. I need to capture a new planet, one of them has rebels another is my opponent, then the pirates with access routes to all my planets. I quit for a bit to eat, but I am going right back at it, win or lose this game I must master.

From what I am reading there are several approaches to dealing with everything in the game. Main thing for me, to know my weapons and what way to go on the research tree. Thanks a lot all of you been a great help.

I finally have a few members at my website playing, though no one knows much at all.

~Kitsune @ Game Fanatics Vault

What does one do about Alligence of a planet declining? It is right near the Pirate base, 2-3 planets away is my oponent, I am clueless what to do about the planet. I have 2 large fleets sitting there waiting for the uprising against me lol

Build culture centres. The enemy clearly has stronger culture then you, so in the meantime, station your cap ships near that planet as they push back enemy culture.

There are three ways to combat declining allegiance:

1: Capital Ships will repel enemy culture (when phase lanes change to the color your opponent is). Station a capital ship or two in the Gravity well around a planet enemy culture is threatening to take over and it will repel the culture.

2: Your Own Culture. Build a Broadcast Center (if you are TEC which I assume you are) at a nearby planet since you can't build one at the pirate base )no logistics capacity), eventually the phase lanes around the planet will turn your color. Once it reaches another planet that you control, the allegiance of that planet will start to increase. This is most useful in that it will increase the amount of resources that planet will give you.

3) Declining allegiance is caused by enemy versions of Broadcast Centers. Destroying these will cause enemy culture to slowly retreat. The more of these structures you or you're opponent have, the faster and stronger the culture will spread. Capital ships can only repel so much and are not a permanent solution (especially if they are needed in combat elsewhere). You should also note that Advent have the strongest culture and get the most from that culture.

If your planets allegiance reaches zero, don't worry, there won't be any "Rebel Fleet", and the planet won't fall into enemy hands. It simply returns to a neutral state like before you colonized it. You can recolonize it, but only after pushing back enemy culture through the methods above. Planets strongly influenced by enemy culture will not be colonizable for you or your allies. Best to remove the structures before you start bombarding an enemy planet to provide time for the culture to be repeled by your capital ships.

I noted that the board cast towers did that. Okay I didn't know that either, okay I am looking for a manual you guys couldnt have learned this just by playing, did you?

I appreciate all the help, I will add some of these tips to our Game Fanatic Wiki once I get to updating it. haha

~Kitsune @ Game Fanatics Vault

Best thing to do with pirates is ignore them. Unless you happen to need XP then visit the base for some XP, then move on.  Pirates are not your enemy, the toehr players/AI are. Pirates are a distraction that only works if you pay attention to it.

IMHO the best thing to do with pirates is to but a starbase at their choke point and park a cap ship beside.  No pirate raid can survive an upgraded sb, and all the xp goes to your cap.  Your caps will level up in no time.  Then when you have all the cap ships you want expereinced, then colonize the base as it is an extremely profitable rock to have.

I agree with Astax : the tax bonus is nice but destroying a pirate base took a lot of time you could use to attack your foes. Personally, i ignore pirates or build a few hangar and turrets to keep them away from bombing my planet. Pirates are useful early game as they can keep your ennemy busy whereas you expand or allow you to attack an ennemy weakened by a pirate raid. Later, they are just food for you newly built caps.