Okay, there's a problem at the moment in that grey space doesn't really feel dangerous. Yeah there are pirates, but one doesn't run across them often except in Sedina B8. I propose that NPC Pirate squads (with Corvus affiliation obviously) spawn at random grey space wormholes in a similar way that ion storms do now. They would fly Vultures (that in terms of capabilities would be a threat but not overpowered like the strike force is.)

These pirates would attack anyone that doesn't have at least admired status with Corvus. This would make grey space a lot more scary, at least until one got Corvus admire (and that would not be easy, with how difficult doing trade runs for them would become.)

Any thoughts?

Sounds good to me. I actually would give the squads something like Orion XGX's and then make them faster than normal strike forces. Make it so that a behemoth that runs into them would have a VERY tough time with it.

They should also follow people back to their home stations, the pirates would be KOS with all strike forces, so when you jump in, the strike force comes to your aid and starts dealing with them.

Then perhaps if one pirate ship is destroyed, they flee.

I'd love to see this. Just a note though that IMO Vultures don't make a very good pirate ship by themselves, as they have low cargo capacity. I think a NPC pirate wing should consist of 1 or 2 Vultures & a Marauder. If they kill you, the Marauder will grab any cargo you had & take it back to Odia M-14.

And have them able to be bribed, so players will be able to use a "/givemoney %target% 10000" bind to stay relatively safe. Make it so the amount of credits you give determines the chance they'll stop attacking - 100 credits or less = 1% chance they'll leave; 1000 credits = 10%, 5000 credits = 50%, 10000 credits or above = 99% chance (there should always be at least a little chance they'll say "Why, thank you for that money! I think I'll forcefully take your cargo, too!")

Also creates a possibility for anti-pirate patrol missions.

Anything of this nature, that involves something with a PvE direction, would be WONDERFUL. See also prior suggestions (forget by whom) RE NPC incursions into opposing faction space.

APPPROVED!

Dr. Lecter

One thing I'd like to see a lot more of, is combining PvE & PvP. Like in the current Border Patrol mission, the objective is to kill either bots of the enemy nation (PvE), OR to kill any players of the enemy nation who are in the patrolled sector (PvP).

I think it'd be fairly easy to do something similar with these suggested NPC Pirates - players with good enough Corvus standing would be safe from the NPC Pirates, but could be considered as valid targets in an anti-pirate patrol mission. So if I take an anti-pirate patrol mission to patrol the Bractus-Pelatus WH, I can complete the mission by either killing 3 NPC Pirates, or 3 players with good Corvus standing, or any combination of both.

Only problem with the border patrol mission is that it doesn't renew on its own. I wish it would just increment like a combat mission.

Yeah, that'd be nice. It would also be more fun if more players on both sides did it at the same time.

[stamp of approval]

I like this idea with IA controlled pirates vults ( or anything else than the "actual bots" that would be fun and would really place a "fear climat" in grey space (danm grey is pretty nice space to fly now...)

ho shape don't forget im KOS for you ok?

heheheheh
cya....

I want corvus pirates! And they should ignore your standing, too. But they should be a team - maybe two vultures and one atlas to pick up any cargo that you drop. If you drop your cargo, they will head to that and let you go. That would be awsome.

[approval]

suggested several times myself. Please add, should not be too hard, just take the coding for the strike force, dim it down a bit and sent them out searching.

me sees them become a big of ahindrance as ion storms are already

that's the point though, grey space, which is suppost to be pirate space, is empty, there is nothing there to make you scared. PC pirates are far and few between. There needs to be more NPC pirates in game. More NPC everything IMO, and not just in atlases but in all different types of ships. Working as teams to defeat players. Not a hive mind like the bots are, a bit more organized.

Absolutely, johnhawl218. Pirates fear nation space due to strike forces, and the honest trader should fear grey space due to pirates.

i would love to see more NPCs. Especialy pirates. there just aren't enough players curently to have a soly player based game. The universe is still too empty.

I know everyone hates EQ references but think of it this way. If every zone in EQ had no mosters in them, people would not play the game. Sure a lot of people do quests in eq, but that's because they put all there time into the quest system, but they have just as much content strictly on the available mosters roaming around that even if you never did a quest you still would have a lot of fun killing random monsters.

And…

The farther from a starting city you go the more dangerous the zones get and the harder the monsters are to defeat.

SO…

As I see it, VO needs to make each system, that's farther away from starting systems, get more npc's and they need to be stronger and more dangerous as you go farther out, until you reach grey and then it's pirate strike forces attacking you until you get the needed faciton. Though grey station zones need to remain NFZ simply so that you CAN actually take missions and dock without the SF after you, but SF's can still be launched if the NFZ is violated.

Should have small packs of 3-5, complemets of 2 Merc Mauds and 3 Vulturiouses. They are great at attacks but not for long chases, which is how grey should feel. Long chases is left up to the player pirates.

Me dreams:

I'm hanging out with the corvus crew in B8. Suddenly, the subspace transponder lights up. The 5 digit user code is familiar, TGFT.

Our engines heat up, and we track him as he approaches the wormhole. The strike force takes him head on, I wait.

They'll chase, I'll finish.

I could see this. I think in my 6.5 months of playing, I've only ONCE had problems due to piracy in grey space. However, back when I didn't have UIT standing (not my fault!) and wanted to earn Axia standing, it was really scary/panic-y flying around in my behemoth, waiting for the strike force to jump in. SOMETHING like this should exist in grey space, though more pirate oriented (like has been suggested).

However, if you can drop your cargo and they let you go, a) wouldn't this severely complicate the programming? and b) What keeps you from dropping one unit of something and that triggering them to let you go.

simple, they only stop chasing you wnen there cargo holds are full, If a vulture can hold 5 and there are about 3 that's 15cu's and if Mauds can hold like 20+ that's a lot of cargo, perhaps a cutoff point somewhere inbetween, or even half of whatever your caring and they stop.

Why not have the pirate squadron consist of two corvus vulturii and one corvus maud? That would give two attack ships and one to carry stolen cargos, all done in pretty corvus motif :)

Can they have remote controlled chase bots. Maybe 2 or 3 s e a k e r s

:D