The Pirate Galleon is a new and powerful capital ship created to serve as the centerpiece around which the expanded Pirate faction can operate.
Based on the hull of a stolen Akkan Battlecruiser, the Pirates have made considerable modifications, transforming this normally lightly armed support vessel into a terrifying improvised battleship. A pair of jury-rigged, overcharged Gauss Cannons adorn the bow, giving the vessel a significant punch against opposing capital ships. Massive box launchers house unique Heavy Torpedoes capable of dealing significant damage to any titan or starbase. A large array of Medium Autocannons and PD Autocannons keep the ship safe from attack by smaller foes. While lacking shields, the Galleon’s hull is reinforced and clad in extremely thick armor. Finally, extra engines ensure that it remains a surprisingly fast ship in spite of its unwieldy additions.
Beyond its weapons, the Pirate Lord has a full suite of potent abilities. These abilities have their leveling structured in the same way as the Command Ships from the Reinforcements DLC, maximizing customizability and value all the way from ship level 1 to ship level 10.
Pillage: Sends an elite Pirate Pillaging Team to a target structure or starbase to deal hull damage and generate credit income. Pillage also grants unique buffs to the Pirate Galleon based on which type of structure is boarded. All of these buffs can be acquired at the same time with enough pillaging!
Armed structures give the Galleon a short rate of fire bonus for its weapons.
Culture structures allow the Galleon to generate culture for a decent amount of time as the crew sets up a Pirate Radio station using the pilfered comms gear.
Extractors will grant a one-off reward of the resource type that extractor normally harvests (Metal or Crystal).
Exotic Refineries can be pilfered for treasure in the form of Andvar.
Research structures allow the Galleon to generate research speed based on the type of research structure pillaged (Civilian or Military).
Twin Ion Bolt: Charged Ion Bolts fired from the improvised Gauss Cannons on the ship's bow can disable enemy ships for a short time, interrupting abilities, and helping to prevent the escape of prospective prey. Although the disable is short lived, even Titans can be struck down by this ability.
Redline Navigation: During the refit of the Galleon, the Pirates installed a massive jury-rigged Phase Drive in place of one of the Akkan's habitation domes. Together with an overclocked nav computer and no small degree of bravery, this allows the Galleon and all surrounding ships to evade the clutches of a Phase Jump Inhibitor. This will result in some minor hull damage... But it's all worth it to the Pirates!
Mag Blast Torpedo Salvo: The ultimate ability of the Galleon leverages its massive torpedo pods to launch a large salvo of custom Mag Blast Torpedoes. These debilitating weapons can strip the shields of an entire fleet should they reach their target, forcing the enemy to fight like a Pirate! Yarr!
Even more terrifying than any one capability of this vessel are the reports that the Pirates have more than one of them in their possession!
Several have been spotted lurking around Pirate Bases, while the occasional enterprising Galleon captain has been known to work for the TEC Primacy faction. Further reports of these fearsome vessels roaming the spaceways and attacking planets remain unsubstantiated, but a wise admiral should be prepared for anything.
Fortunately, should a prepared admiral manage to defeat a Galleon, the craven captains of these vessels have been known to surrender rather than risk death…
As befitting an update themed around Pirates, we have also reworked the Capture mechanic in the game to a new, more robust and dynamic system. We have replaced the simple capture timer with a new points system that allows for capture tug-of-war. Each ship now has its own capture weight that determines how much it can contribute to capturing an object, with larger ships contributing more. Capture circles now respect the capture weight of every ship within them, which means it is possible to directly contest an enemy or ally's attempt to capture a derelict or wreck, or speed up your own capture by bringing multiple capture capable ships into play.
To make further use of this, we have also implemented two new types of capture behavior in addition to the existing behavior (Capture and Collect).
Always Capturable: An object with this behavior can be captured and then be immediately recaptured by other players. This is the ideal behavior for neutral support structures, but not especially realistic for an armed unit…
Capture on Surrender: A unit with this behavior will surrender instead of becoming Crippled, becoming capturable only while in this state of surrender. Should they switch sides, they will have a brief “No Surrender” period in which they will refuse to surrender again. A surrendered unit can also be convinced to rethink their surrender if their ship is repaired back to a combat worthy state. Surrendered units will not be auto-attacked by your units, but if you would rather rid the galaxy of cowardly scum you are still free to order an attack against a surrendered ship and destroy it permanently.
