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It is possible to have a hotkey that will automatically pay the pirates? Unless you want that extra touch of stress. especially for all the noobs who will be crying "HOW DO I PAY THE PIRATES????"
I don't think how to use the /givemoney command is in the tutorial
I don't think how to use the /givemoney command is in the tutorial
Just tried out the new scallywaggers, and I am thinking along the lines of Obsidians suggestion. Perhaps a simplified chat command ('/reply "Dread Pirate R0g3rs" pay'), or even a new console command ("/pay") if the devs do not want to clutter up the key options with a pay toll hotkey.
(Perhaps this could be the birth of a new game mechanism, something that really should be suggested in another thread. Some kind of "agree" and "refuse" console command mechanism, used for all kinds of communication with NPCs in-flight, especially time-limited communication. Easily bound to hotkeys and very universal, instead of specific commands for just the new pirates. Pirate asks for money, "agree" or "refuse". Stranded trader wants protection until his wife arrives in her moth and salvages his ship, "agree" or "refuse". Serco Home Guard asking for volunteers to hold back an Akanese invasion, "refuse" and "laugh in scorn and settle down behind an asteroid to watch the show". Along those lines.)
Other than the communication aspects, the new pirates are lovely. Put up good resistance, culminating in where one of them jumped me and I was dutifully and characteristically ionized. More of this good stuff.
(Perhaps this could be the birth of a new game mechanism, something that really should be suggested in another thread. Some kind of "agree" and "refuse" console command mechanism, used for all kinds of communication with NPCs in-flight, especially time-limited communication. Easily bound to hotkeys and very universal, instead of specific commands for just the new pirates. Pirate asks for money, "agree" or "refuse". Stranded trader wants protection until his wife arrives in her moth and salvages his ship, "agree" or "refuse". Serco Home Guard asking for volunteers to hold back an Akanese invasion, "refuse" and "laugh in scorn and settle down behind an asteroid to watch the show". Along those lines.)
Other than the communication aspects, the new pirates are lovely. Put up good resistance, culminating in where one of them jumped me and I was dutifully and characteristically ionized. More of this good stuff.
Am I the only one that thinks the amount these guys demand is... well... pocketchange? Most player pirates charge upwards of 25,000. Why would anyone NOT pay these guys?!?
Would it be possible to make there demands based upon levels? For instance, a level 3 trade or less would get you what we have right now. Less than level 6 10k. Less than level 10 25k. Above that 50k. Or something there abouts.
There needs to be the feeling that these guys are actually making a living, and perhaps make it so someone trying to do a risky run with little capital is going to try and run the blockade.
As is I can see these guys becoming the new Ion storms.
Would it be possible to make there demands based upon levels? For instance, a level 3 trade or less would get you what we have right now. Less than level 6 10k. Less than level 10 25k. Above that 50k. Or something there abouts.
There needs to be the feeling that these guys are actually making a living, and perhaps make it so someone trying to do a risky run with little capital is going to try and run the blockade.
As is I can see these guys becoming the new Ion storms.
Worked fine for me... I actually kinda like the pirate vernacular.
yes paying pirates 50 times can get boring. I suggest a menu item to pay them with a click.
Is there xp reward for killing those pirates? if yes, how much? If now, why not?
I have been away from the game for some time (lack of money on my part, lack of variety of content on the game’s part) but I want this game to succeed and I have decided I can do my part in the forums. With that in mind, realize that I am making suggestions not having actually played in quite some time (since cap ships were introduced).
Here are my thoughts, though. Sounds like most of the complaints right now are tweaking issues: the find you no matter what, know when you’re coming, ask for silly amounts. My biggest worry is what Snax_28 said about these guys are the new ion storms. This could be solved by having pirates be much less common, but asking for much bigger amounts of money when you do encounter them. Also, Ion’s idea about accept/refuse hotkeys makes more sense than I can say.
Here’s my idea. Instead of having them swarm and multiply as you kill them, instead make five or six self-contained fleets of them, of various sizes. Each fleet would be centered around a mid-sized cap ship which has a pirate name (Black Pearl type stuff). This cap ship would have three to six heavy escorts and maybe a dozen light escorts. They would be really tough to beat like this, but would not immediately replace their losses. Maybe when the main cap ship is destroyed, the rest scatter and run, and “lay low” for a few days (realtime) and come back with renewed strength with a new cap ship (with a new name assigned by the server from a long list of pirate names). In addition, there could be a few scattered lone pirate ships with no friends. Also, since they’re pirates, they are cowards and only attack if they outnumber their prey 2 to 1, and run away if they are outnumbered at any point in a fight. Maybe this is a lot for the servers to handle, half a dozen fleets roaming around, but this would be really cool.
Also, I’m confused (it’s probably something simple) but is the “Liberation” mission to kill pirates or non-pirates? There shouldn’t be a mission where you’re a pirate, it should just be worthwhile to pirate by itself. There should definitely be faction reward for killing pirates, and high-paying missions to eliminate pirates, aimed at seeking out specific fleets (pay dependent on size and notoriety of the fleet).
I know, I’m demanding and long-winded (if I post, be prepared for an essay), but these are my thoughts. Basically, if there were a dynamic economy, and real payoff for pirating (ie player-owned cap ships with lots of money and cargo), then pirating will happen naturally, without any server having to manage it.
Here are my thoughts, though. Sounds like most of the complaints right now are tweaking issues: the find you no matter what, know when you’re coming, ask for silly amounts. My biggest worry is what Snax_28 said about these guys are the new ion storms. This could be solved by having pirates be much less common, but asking for much bigger amounts of money when you do encounter them. Also, Ion’s idea about accept/refuse hotkeys makes more sense than I can say.
Here’s my idea. Instead of having them swarm and multiply as you kill them, instead make five or six self-contained fleets of them, of various sizes. Each fleet would be centered around a mid-sized cap ship which has a pirate name (Black Pearl type stuff). This cap ship would have three to six heavy escorts and maybe a dozen light escorts. They would be really tough to beat like this, but would not immediately replace their losses. Maybe when the main cap ship is destroyed, the rest scatter and run, and “lay low” for a few days (realtime) and come back with renewed strength with a new cap ship (with a new name assigned by the server from a long list of pirate names). In addition, there could be a few scattered lone pirate ships with no friends. Also, since they’re pirates, they are cowards and only attack if they outnumber their prey 2 to 1, and run away if they are outnumbered at any point in a fight. Maybe this is a lot for the servers to handle, half a dozen fleets roaming around, but this would be really cool.
Also, I’m confused (it’s probably something simple) but is the “Liberation” mission to kill pirates or non-pirates? There shouldn’t be a mission where you’re a pirate, it should just be worthwhile to pirate by itself. There should definitely be faction reward for killing pirates, and high-paying missions to eliminate pirates, aimed at seeking out specific fleets (pay dependent on size and notoriety of the fleet).
I know, I’m demanding and long-winded (if I post, be prepared for an essay), but these are my thoughts. Basically, if there were a dynamic economy, and real payoff for pirating (ie player-owned cap ships with lots of money and cargo), then pirating will happen naturally, without any server having to manage it.
A pirate fleet would be pretty awesome, but I think the devs are just aiming for functionality at the moment. But that could be something really cool to build up to in the future. A pirate fleet that roams around, staying hidden but preying on traders and convoys.
As for the current pirates, as opposed to being very common and easy to pay off, what if they were more of a rare (but not too rare) occurence, but demanded larger sums of money and were near impossible to get away from.
This would aim for a more exciting feel IMO. As opposed to "Oh, pirates again, 3rd time in a row, I'll pay them 25k and continue on my way." It may create more of a "Son of a- Pirates! I can't afford to pay them 100k, it's time to fight or flee!"
Thus, hopefully, being ambushed by pirates becomes more rare and exciting instead of becomming the new ion storm, common, boring and monotonous.
As for the current pirates, as opposed to being very common and easy to pay off, what if they were more of a rare (but not too rare) occurence, but demanded larger sums of money and were near impossible to get away from.
This would aim for a more exciting feel IMO. As opposed to "Oh, pirates again, 3rd time in a row, I'll pay them 25k and continue on my way." It may create more of a "Son of a- Pirates! I can't afford to pay them 100k, it's time to fight or flee!"
Thus, hopefully, being ambushed by pirates becomes more rare and exciting instead of becomming the new ion storm, common, boring and monotonous.
Greetings,
Thanks for all the testing and reports! Barring a disaster, I'll be releasing what I've got tonight. There are still some rough edges, but they beat the hell out of the unbots.
.
Things I fixed based on bug reports and suggestions:
-There should never be more than 15 in a sector now
-They wont guard 2 odd sectors that crept in- sedina f7 and one of the stations in odia (responsible for roguelazer's report I assume)
-They wait 5 seconds after getting the warp-in trigger before messaging you
-They won't not fight back under any circumstances (just paid/station-sector)
-The amounts they ask for should always be even to the hundreds
-If you kill lots of pirates in a short period of time, they'll stop spawning new ones for a while (they're in a one-at-a-time queue normally, but now they'll just not replace them if it gets too expensive)
-Fixes for various following/attacking problems
-Raised the bribe amounts - I intend to have the mission attempt to find the optimal bribe based on results - supply and demand essentially- the commodity being safe-passage.
.
Things that we *will* address, but not for tonight's release:
-Psychic bots - right now the mission code has no idea how far away from you an npc was when you warped, so it's not easy to limit them to the same capability as players. We will do this- maybe for next friday.
-Givemoney interface - We'd definitely like to do something here- we're still figuring out exactly what. In the meantime, name completion does work- you just have to start their name with '*'.
.
Reports/Suggestions that I couldn't reproduce/didn't understand:
-Tumblemonster: if you dont pay when a pirate asks you, only that one attacks. If you attack them, they will gang up, but if you run, only one will chase you. If you then go into another guarded wh sector, another chaser will be added, but as long as you dont shoot them, you'll get at most 1 additional attacker per jump. If you have them all jump on you as soon as you don't pay as you seemed to be reporting, that's a bug and I want to hear about it.
-Roguelaser+: They're unaligned because it makes story-sense (corvus doesnt officially condone piracy), and also because it makes them red on everyone's radar. They aren't indiscriminately hostile like the currently unaligned pirates, though.
-Professor-Chaos: The liberation mission is about 'liberating' cargo. Acquisition is about collecting it (coming very soon), and liquidation is posted for particularly annoying pirate-killers. I will definitely add pirate-killer missions too, very soon. At some point we'll likely make these missions available only by talking to pirates or some such. I like the fleet thing- I might do something along those lines at some point. For now, the pirate mission (which the pirate-npcs are taking too) is already twice as complex as any other mission, so I'm going to make sure it works as is before making it even more intricate.
Thanks again, all! I hope you'll have as much fun with the new pirates as I had writing them, and I hope you'll forgive the rough edges for a bit while we get the pieces in place to smooth them.
Thanks for all the testing and reports! Barring a disaster, I'll be releasing what I've got tonight. There are still some rough edges, but they beat the hell out of the unbots.
.
Things I fixed based on bug reports and suggestions:
-There should never be more than 15 in a sector now
-They wont guard 2 odd sectors that crept in- sedina f7 and one of the stations in odia (responsible for roguelazer's report I assume)
-They wait 5 seconds after getting the warp-in trigger before messaging you
-They won't not fight back under any circumstances (just paid/station-sector)
-The amounts they ask for should always be even to the hundreds
-If you kill lots of pirates in a short period of time, they'll stop spawning new ones for a while (they're in a one-at-a-time queue normally, but now they'll just not replace them if it gets too expensive)
-Fixes for various following/attacking problems
-Raised the bribe amounts - I intend to have the mission attempt to find the optimal bribe based on results - supply and demand essentially- the commodity being safe-passage.
.
Things that we *will* address, but not for tonight's release:
-Psychic bots - right now the mission code has no idea how far away from you an npc was when you warped, so it's not easy to limit them to the same capability as players. We will do this- maybe for next friday.
-Givemoney interface - We'd definitely like to do something here- we're still figuring out exactly what. In the meantime, name completion does work- you just have to start their name with '*'.
.
Reports/Suggestions that I couldn't reproduce/didn't understand:
-Tumblemonster: if you dont pay when a pirate asks you, only that one attacks. If you attack them, they will gang up, but if you run, only one will chase you. If you then go into another guarded wh sector, another chaser will be added, but as long as you dont shoot them, you'll get at most 1 additional attacker per jump. If you have them all jump on you as soon as you don't pay as you seemed to be reporting, that's a bug and I want to hear about it.
-Roguelaser+: They're unaligned because it makes story-sense (corvus doesnt officially condone piracy), and also because it makes them red on everyone's radar. They aren't indiscriminately hostile like the currently unaligned pirates, though.
-Professor-Chaos: The liberation mission is about 'liberating' cargo. Acquisition is about collecting it (coming very soon), and liquidation is posted for particularly annoying pirate-killers. I will definitely add pirate-killer missions too, very soon. At some point we'll likely make these missions available only by talking to pirates or some such. I like the fleet thing- I might do something along those lines at some point. For now, the pirate mission (which the pirate-npcs are taking too) is already twice as complex as any other mission, so I'm going to make sure it works as is before making it even more intricate.
Thanks again, all! I hope you'll have as much fun with the new pirates as I had writing them, and I hope you'll forgive the rough edges for a bit while we get the pieces in place to smooth them.
Cool!
PS: That note atributed to me was not by me. I don't get it either.
PS: That note atributed to me was not by me. I don't get it either.
Downloading the update now...
great update!
what about balance?
you have successfully filled grey space with pirates. but is there some bot strikeforce that can sweep through grey intent on killing these bots?
they dont need to dock at a station. just moves from edras to helios trying to kill as many unbot's as it can before it parishes.
give it a 15 min window between the last death of a unbot strikeforce member and the regeneration of the whole team.
this just brings balance back to these sectors.
you have successfully filled grey space with pirates. but is there some bot strikeforce that can sweep through grey intent on killing these bots?
they dont need to dock at a station. just moves from edras to helios trying to kill as many unbot's as it can before it parishes.
give it a 15 min window between the last death of a unbot strikeforce member and the regeneration of the whole team.
this just brings balance back to these sectors.
Ok tested pirate bots in this update.
I attacked one camping Latos o-12. His buddies 3 of them there immediately tried to gank me. As i started killing them, as soon as 1 died a new one jumped in and joined their gank party. I dunno if I counted them good but after I killed initial 5, new ones started jumping 2 at a time, so after I killed approx 16 of them they kept coming and there were 10 bots ganking me still untill I boomed.
During my fight with them several npc convoys jumped in sector but none of pirate bots turned to attack them, they all kept ganking me.
Maybe its a bit too much.
I attacked one camping Latos o-12. His buddies 3 of them there immediately tried to gank me. As i started killing them, as soon as 1 died a new one jumped in and joined their gank party. I dunno if I counted them good but after I killed initial 5, new ones started jumping 2 at a time, so after I killed approx 16 of them they kept coming and there were 10 bots ganking me still untill I boomed.
During my fight with them several npc convoys jumped in sector but none of pirate bots turned to attack them, they all kept ganking me.
Maybe its a bit too much.
Hmm, yeah. I still think that it should be possible to fight off the pirates. Maybe if they waited longer in between spawning.
15 per sector?! Wholly Coww. That seems like a lot.
I think I found an interesting behavoir of the un'rates.
Let's say there are two un'rates in sector, as well as two humans. Human A and Un'rate A begin fighting. Human B and Un'rate B begin fighting. Human A shifts target to Un'rate B, and Human B shifts target to Un'rate A. Un'rate A still attacks Human A, and Un'rat B still attacks Human B. This makes both un'rates really easy to kill for the humans.
I *think* I saw a similar scenerio.
If this can actually happen, I know this has to be extremely difficult to "fix".
That said, if an un'rate is attacked by two humans, I do think it should split it's focus, at least from a dodging perspective.
Let's say there are two un'rates in sector, as well as two humans. Human A and Un'rate A begin fighting. Human B and Un'rate B begin fighting. Human A shifts target to Un'rate B, and Human B shifts target to Un'rate A. Un'rate A still attacks Human A, and Un'rat B still attacks Human B. This makes both un'rates really easy to kill for the humans.
I *think* I saw a similar scenerio.
If this can actually happen, I know this has to be extremely difficult to "fix".
That said, if an un'rate is attacked by two humans, I do think it should split it's focus, at least from a dodging perspective.
I just logged in and entered B8 (my favorite place) and there are a total of 26 unaligned pirate bots in sector. Yes 26 unaligned pirate bots !!!!
15 is over kill 26 is ridicules
JB
15 is over kill 26 is ridicules
JB
Is it just my imagination, or have the piebots taken a vacation?
No, they are rarer now, but you can find them