Pirates cannot die due to bombardment?

Sound idea! make them impossible to target automatically so they wouldn't waste shots from the superweapons, but still able to be hit manually for when you want to storm the fort!

That'd just give the human player an advantage.

Maybe tie the ability in with their ships. Once their ships in the gravity well are destroyed, the planet can be bombed.

How about a starbase solution?  Give the pirates an 8-point starbase with an auxiliary government compartment?  That way you could still bomb them to pieces, but you'd have to invade them if you wanted them to perish.

That's actually a sound idea, because I would like the pirates to stick around abit longer. they make the midgame a bit more interresting.

A late game pirate starbase would be.. well.. christ.

I'm good with that idea, so long as it doesn't move about.

If this is done it must be so the pirate bases cannot be targeted by super weapons otherwise the AI will sit and bomb the pirate base continually and since it wont be lost the AI will never use its SW's on the human player.

Or make it so they AI will not target the pirate base at all with SW's.

General inability I think.. Otherwise you just give the human player an advantage.

I'm for an NPC starbase similar, but better than what we've got in 7DS.

Pirates are already immune to death by bombardment because pirates stay bombed all the time. Yarr!

Might as well give them a titan while you're at it.

Just take away the ability to bombard the pirate base it is a base after all not a planet.

Not really the same thing. Using the pirates can be an effective strategy in multi-star systems.

The easiest solution would probably be to give the pirates a starbase with the upgrade that prevents loss due to bombardment. (Easy being relative, as it would be quite a bit of work for me.) 

I for one wouldn't mind. Good idea strayth.

C'mon Yarlen, you didn't need that time anyway!

This would be a good idea - as long as you prevent the AI from auto targeting and wasting shots.  I like the pirate staying in the game late - and they still need cap ships like on the mods.  

So basically, this thread is really complaining about one other thing...THOSE STUPID CANNONS! T_T

Why not give the "Pirate Starbase" an innate anti-bombardment ability?

I looked at the relevant entity file and it seemed to have 2 levels. I assume the first level is to make the upgrade available and the second activates it. If

upgradeBoolPropertyCount 2
    upgradeBoolProperty "CanPreventEnemyColonize"
    upgradeBoolProperty "CanPreventPlanetLossByBombing"

is moved from level 2 to 1, would the ability become innate?

On second thought, why not give the anti-bombardment ability to the pirate missile turret?

EDIT: Grammar