F1 change for Pirates/Traders

[Stoertebecker]

Some words from an old, retired pirate...
*Puts on Bandana, parrot and sabre*

The main problem with pirates is (and has *ever* been on any FL server I played on) that most pirates don't realize what piracy in FL is about.
Basically, as a pirate you have to be somewhat selfless. Yes, that's right. Your job is to make life for other players a little more interesting.
If a Trader gets a rush of adrenaline just by seeing you sitting at some important juncture, and decides to search for alternative routes....*THEN* you are doing a good job.

Likewise, if you catch a trader, you need to interact with him.
Some old farts may remember that in my old pirate days, I even adopted a (admitted very goofy) act of typing when flying in my pirate char.
"Aarrrr...me hearty....hand me over a 100k gold dublons or be sunk to the bottom of space..."

A lot of people needed some time to realize what I actually wanted- which I admit was part of the fun of it
But many many players caught up the hint, and I bet I got more tax payments than many other pirates. Simply because I actually gave back something to the victims, even if it was just a goofy pirate act.

And once people realize that- things can happen. Some may remember the shield run- even as solo pirate, I managed to inflict that much damage there to get one clan to pay me the record tax sum of 100 Million credits to leave -all- their traders alone. (this was before the 200k tax limit).
What no one else back then knew: The leader of that clan and me even had a little side deal, my part was to keep a little preasure on his folks, so they don't get bored.
You see- it was a win-win situation, and that's what piracy should be about.

Arrr...now me have to set sail..

Cheers

Becker

[Strail]

Players really should read the above post.

Without going over old ground, there is no reason for the trader to interact with a pirate when the pirate offers no gameplay for them, hence the problems with pirates & traders in game.

I am working on a plugin for the pirates to make the tax a more intuitive in-game function for them and the player they are taxing, in the meantime, I'm going to look at [R] and [X] tagged characters to see if I can adapt some meaning into the RP element. I would rather have one or two [X] tagged characters on the server playing the role of pirates than a ton of players who really have no reason to have an [X] tag or no interest in being pirates.

[X] and [R] need to have a reason to have that tag, not just cause its cool to have it.

[Ghosty]

most players, like me being a 'bad guy' in BL at the moment my personal reason is if i see a navy and hes packing 100 missiles i really cant be assed to put the effort in.

The pirites cant be assed because its not lazyness on their part its the traders. everyone traded 1 route at 1 stage and the navy totally sunk that route with missile spammers to stop smuggling and sinked the [X] RP to the ground in the process...

at the end of the day we are all welcome our veiws and i dont intend to argue with anyone over it, im just stating what i think.

[Strail]

Thing is.....everybody agrees that at the moment it doesnt work.

[Babieca]

I If one player choice fighting instead paying, and he is killed all the time, well, that is part of the game.

If one clan choice a RP that says "this clan dont pay taxes" they wont pay. And everybody should respect that. They would fight so if you dont like then dont fight them

Piracy always was about "Pay or fight" there is not any rule that say: If you are less skilled then dont fight because then you lose IoI.

You can force players to choice, and Strail did it with the F1 change. But you should never force players to pay.

[Retribution]

Another fact of pirates atm is they wont tax thier friends

So if a pirates on the Evil side for example all the evil clans are exempt.

In fact when I took my pirate char out and asked people in the group i was in for tax I was slapped in the face with

"who is this nub?, where did you find this idiot"

The simple fact of the matter is when my pirate ship comes out I tax anyone i clap eyes on, my own clan m8s other pirates anyone and everyone. Not a case of

"Oh i know all you lot so I wont tax you and only kill my natural ( clan ) enemies."

I could count the pirates on the void on one hand - heres yet another reason why that is so.

[Maverick]

Hey guys how about forming a semi-clan (without the forum/site obligations, just an ingame group of pirates), something like a Guild, made up of just pirates, but only the ones who are known or willing to play the RP as it should be done? This guild should be exempt from any no-multiclanning rules in other clans so that every player, no matter what clan he would be in, would be able to join. There should be a number of behavior rules or codes of conduct or honor or something (maybe called the 'Unified Pirates Code' or does that sound cheesy lol) so that it won't result in just a bunch of lunatics messing around. The pirate RP should be followed to its true spirit by its members. RP and thus Fun should be the main goal and always come first, then the rest like amount of tax. There would also have to be some people 'in charge' (for lack of a better word - I'm not really goaling at real leaders, more coördinators) checking up on the members of the guild if they would be playing the RP like it should.

This way we might be able to form a steady group of good roleplay players, all with the ambition to breath some life into the [X] RP again, and with the willingness to display some decent RP - which also means the ingame RP language usage, as Stoertebecker showed us.

Dunno, just a brainwave.  :-?

[mwolf]

My opinion for all this
It is good thing but I think  that all this could be easier if Pirate have a pirate license and some kind of pirate CD so if I shoot you you are asked automatically for  tax of 200k with poup up dialog with Yes or No,  and if you do not want to do that and F1 then you loose 10 mil and cargo ..., if you die you die and loose cargo and perhaps 200 k , if you start your engine you can be killed, this is easier

and I relay do not need to be an R if I just want to kill someone, it is Violent game an shooting game...

my 2 dinars  ;)

[Babieca]

ahh the old CD idea. Dont like the idea of the 200k if you die. Die or pay but not both IoI. You die you lose cargo, you pay you are free. But I can imagine a lot of unfair situations with this cd

[mwolf]

well I know it is old idea imagine that is like you just receive message for you to pay 200 k (just like dop cargo for npc) and nothing else, and it can be use only once in 1 hour  for char you want to tax, and also it could be fixed if he/se hit F1 then you loose 10 mill and cargo, but if you want to run it is up to you if you can , that is all

[Watchwolf]

I'm not certain if this particular change has anything to do with this, but I have been experiencing a very strange thing that is really starting to get on my nerves...

I'm working on NPCs for rep... I kill a bunch then F1 out, return and they're back. Cool. Works fine... (pardon the pun) most of the time.

BUT...

When I mess up and F1 out when there's a hostile NPC around,  I am fined 10,000,000

[quote="Strail";p="192016"]The F1 fine has been increased to 10m credits.

Who this does not effect

Any player fighting NPCs

[/quote]

Can this be fixed?

[Maverick]

Yeah I noticed the same thing and it got on my nerves too. Lost 50m already. And as Strail's quote shows, it shouldn't affect players fighting NPC's. As you can see I posted twice about it, and haven't gotten an answer yet...  :-??

[Proboscis]

I would very much appreciate a Pirate "RULE of conduct" thread on the forum, discussing pirate do´s and dont´s..
The pirates I have encountered so far still use the "tax200k"-comment whenever I pass. I´ve tried to type a snappy comeback, but usually the encounter don´t seem to have time/enthusiasm to engage in RP-comment-spit-fight. Much to my disappointment since my mouth is bigger than my skills  :D
All in all.. Tax me ...please!

[Mokum]

One issue with that idea, Prob.
It is not a RP server, it's a shooter server. You can put up RP rules all the way up to yinyang, there's always gonna be players thinking 'funk that'.

I'm still considering to create a section about roleplay in sort-of a Newbie Guide / Dummy Guide. But to write it down for information is one, to expect players to act accordingly is another thing entirely, considering the nature of this game (and Void). In the Dummy Guide, it would just explain to new players in Void what they may expect in the game. In no way I would want to put it down as 'do this, or else..'. Wouldn't work any way  ;)