Unless your hauling heavy minerals, the behemoth is way too hard for pirates to catch up to. Because not only do they need to catch up to the ship, but they need to take out its 42,000 points of armor as well. For now, behemoths can go practically anywhere with no fear of reprisal from pirates simply because the behomoth is too hard a target. I think reducing its max speed to 185 or 180, OR reducings its turbo acceleration is needed.

See: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/9441

You need to realize that everything in the game can't be done alone. It is possible to take out the Behemoth, you just need to develop some sort of tactic.

I'm not even trying to take their cargo, I'm just having trouble taking out serco behemoths that are in gray space. While yes, with heavy minerals you need a large boost, the expensive cargo like luxury goods are really light.

People complained that I wasn't using enough strategy. Whatever. A solo pilot ought to be able to take out an enemy behemoth.

I even dared them to prove me wrong. so I loaded up on 120 luxury goods, TOLD them where I was jumping from. They couldn't get me.

The boost on the behemoth is INSANE. That coupled with its equally insane armor makes it a very very hard target to take out. If your in a fighter ship, and you're waiting at a wormhole when a behem jumps through, it should not be so difficult to destroy the ship.

As it is now, Enemy traders can move within hostile space with little or no fear of reprisal.

That's exactly the point. You Shouldn't be able to kill a Moth on your own. It cannot fight back, so the best alternative is to run away, and it is very good at running away.
If the idea of teaming up to take someone down is completely alien to you, I can see where the frustration comes from. Humor me. Get four or so friends and ambush a Moth.

Waiting at wormholes is boring enough. Now I need to have 4 people waiting? Also the behemoth has 2 large slots, its not exactly unarmed.

Limiting its max speed to 170 would make it much easier to catch up to, while only slightly increasing the time it takes to deliver cargo.

Yeah the Behemoth is fine. Rockets are perfect against the Moth since the moth wont be able to maneuver out of the way fast enough.

Also as it was said before... Stop thinking that every ship can hold their own against any other ship in 1vs1.

The big ships take a lot of work to actually deal damage to these smaller more agile ships and usually we take insane amounts of damage before managing to kill a small ship if we are lucky enough. There may be some occasional balance issues but the fact that there is no way for the Moth to actually combat a ship I dont feel it should be easy to kill.

Rockets do not catch up to it quickly enough. It accelerates much faster then other heavy ships like the hornet or ragnarok.

Limiting the boost to 170 would mean that no one would ever use it. That speed of boost is so low that most ships can catch up, which makes it a sitting duck. A ship that is much bigger than your own should not be extremely easy to destroy, as you are suggesting.
Also, you're complaining about the acceleration speed and your suggestion is to decrease top speed.

It doesnt accelerate too fast. Rockets WILL catch up, and you CAN take one out solo. I was there the night you were advertising, and as far as I know, no pirates even tried to take you out. And the two weapons ports on it are far from effective offensively, the are for defense.

I am a solo pirate when I do pirate, and I took a moth out, i didnt use rockets either, but not because they cant catch up, thankfully rockets do launch at platforms speed + rocket speed...

...And would spin a moth so bad it knows its been hit =D

You can take one out solo, its just extremely hard. Which I like, since if you actually manage to kill one, the payoff is enormous.

The Moth is perfect.

Why on earth should you be able to take one out alone? Can you take out an oil tanker with a speedboat?

tish thats pretty crude man.
take it down please

[edited : resolved]
On topic :

The behemoth is perfect. hard to take down solo, but that'll just encourage multiplayer team tactics, which is great.

Sorry, crudity/insensitivity was not what I intended. It has been removed.

Basically what I meant to imply was that while a small ship could damage a Behemoth heavily, it would take more than one to completely sink it.

The hornet and ragnarok are not made to be high-speed interceptors and therefore it should be difficult for them to catch a Moth. Ships are finally falling into there niches. I like it.

I think we all forgot one little thing... It's the turning point between classes. This ship is the in-between for even larger ships than itself. If it was possible to take down solo with a light fighter.... what would be the point? More than one fighter SHOULD be needed when your trying to take down a ship in a higher ship class than your own.

You don't attack a tank with a scooter!

/givemoney Devs 2c

i think the last reply touched on something important:

the size of the behemoth is its advantage. your not supposed to be able to destroy it easily. thats why it was designed how its designed. its big on purpose. you kindof have to deal with that. remember this is the ULTIMATE (as far as we know) trading ship, so the idea is that you SHOULD be able to bring it around with a certain level of impunity. if it had some basic error like poor engines, it wouldnt be the best there is.

its why all those dinosaur herbavores were so huge. one veloceraptor couldnt kill (or eat, for that matter) one brontosaurus on its own.

Even your average T-rex had trouble...

Lets just get rid of nation spaces. Since traders can now travel through enemy territory with impunity, why bother designating anything as serco or itani space? A ship DESIGNED to fight aught to be able to dispatch any trader ship if the fighter ship has the initiative.