It already is pretty hard as it is now. After the last reset I haven't traded a single widget. The only way I raised my score and money was through pirating and botting. Even after two months of playing I was unable to reach at least one million credits. This is only using a tri-tachyon Valkyrie btw. So I'm not getting easy kills with the sunflare/gauss combo everyone seems to use.

Because of ship and weapon balance issues, life for a pirate is very easy right now. Heavy ships need to have more speed or better weapons to counteract that. It's also way too easy for a sunflare or gauss fighter to get kills. Therefore I believe that once these weapons have been tweaked to be of equal lethality as tachyons/gravitons, we'll see pirates barely getting by just as I did.

badf00d, that's very good, and then some. I think that the only way to stop pirates, or at least to start trading up, is to make more systems that are friendly and have friendly defbots that patrol. If we can get that, the only way pirates can stay working is if they attack in large groups.

Maybe 'copy' sector nine, 3 times and add that as a 3th 'home sector'. (with the defbots and stuff)

What also could be done, are 'nation specific stations' in a sector, only one nation can dock in them, and they are protected by normal defbots (and just like when defending the flag, they have a max distance; but this time that is more like 1 km away from the station or so.)

Nation specific stations sound okay, but when the rep system comes around they will be obsolete. Stations should have defenses, and/or you should have to contact the station before landing. The land key can be selected at prefs, and this way you won't get all the way to the station only to find you can't land at it.

Also, when will stations be made destructable? :)

Untill such time as a reputation system. The piracy problem will remain, and there won't be much you can do about it. Except Convoy.

If you've got 3-4 mauds backed up by 4-5 valks, that represents a pretty good anti pirate force. Course, getting that many people to join you is a problem.

Or, if you've got 2-3 rags backed up by 1 or 2 valks, you've got an excellent anti-pirate force. Very few pirates attack in large numbers, and very few single pirates can stand up to large numbers of attackers.

Also remember, I think station defenses are planned. So no longer will pirates be able to camp the docks and ram traders as they come out. More intelligent AI defenses, both in home sectors and maybe some neutral ones, will be available later on. The current ones that can boost infinitely and have frigate buster guns are merely placeholders from what I understand.

I think a weapons arming system would be cool. (Yeah, it's a little late in the game for suggestions like these, but what the hell, eh?) For example, a pilot will be fired upon if he or she is within a certain area near the station with weapons armed. Also, a weapons indicator could show up when a ship is targeted. If gizmos are planned, maybe there could be some ultra-shady super illegal "lie device" that could show that weapons are unarmed, when in fact the attacker is ready to shoot. Such devices would be largely ineffective against station scanners, so there is always a refuge.

Also, the reputation system will probably have a huge impact on pirating. Who knows, maybe pirates with different techniques could keep some reputation. For example, a "pirate" who goes around blasting every trade ship he sees and stealing the cargo is gonna be in deep crap with a lot of people with very powerful guns. A pirate that issues a warning statement first and declares hostility may be less successful, but he will keep some reputation and will be badgered less by authorities and trader's-rights/anti-pirate guilds. I still like pirates, though.