Any (anti) pirate advice?

[Halpog]

does terraforming realy have any kind of impact on sectors and factions ?

Yes it does. At least the wiki shows how the colour of the planet changes ...
(and something about prices, NPC Fleets, crew on stations, reputation, pilot&marine training, and profitsss)

hmm ok , seems like i realy have to try the terraforming stuff than, never did so far

[zakaluka]

If your empire is big enough that pirate notifications become a hassle just set the default response to comply, then disable the notifications. It may not be very satisfying but it's by far the easiest solution.
Your ships don't drop all their cargo when they comply, just a small part, so the cost is negligible compared to losing a high skill pilot and having to replace the ship or outfitting every trader with an escort capable of taking on a destroyer.

The most important part is the peace of mind though, the cost is worth it just for that.
You can still give your patrols fire override orders to shoot SCA & BUC on sight, but not only will your traders be out of the line of fire, you'll also finally be able to enjoy the game instead of having to respond to a piracy notification every few minutes.

That approach sticks in my throat, but may well be the best approach, so thank you for the suggestion.

A minor variation on this.... if you are willing to invest in boas, they are fast enough to outrun almost everything, and armed enough to kill whatever is fast enough to interdict them.
I realize the boa is much more costly and possibly less efficient than a demeter, but there you have it

so, you can set your default response to "escape" and you'll rarely lose any. When your empire becomes big enough, the extra investment is worth it to reduce how many interventions you need to make.

[blackphoenixx]

A minor variation on this.... if you are willing to invest in boas, they are fast enough to outrun almost everything, and armed enough to kill whatever is fast enough to interdict them.
I realize the boa is much more costly and possibly less efficient than a demeter, but there you have it

so, you can set your default response to "escape" and you'll rarely lose any. When your empire becomes big enough, the extra investment is worth it to reduce how many interventions you need to make.

The issue with that approach is that you still have to do interventions sometimes. You still have to take a look every time a Boa gets harassed, just to make sure.
Until 5 minutes later the same pirate goes after another transport and you have to check again.

With comply and notifications off you can just ignore pirates entirely, use the slower, cheaper and more efficient transports to make up the minor loss and then forget about pirates even existing until you need a new destroyer.
The only thing it costs you is your pride.

I also did some testing on what KextV8 said and set up a bunch of Guillemot Sentinels as autotraders and i can confirm they don't get harassed by pirates at all no matter what they carry.
So those are good for low volume high value goods like advanced electronics where complying with pirates would hurt, but at about half the throughput of your average S trader you'll need a lot of them to replace your entire trading fleet, especially when it comes to bulk goods like hull parts or all those intermediates where complying simply doesn't cost you much and you're probably overproducing anyway.

Still i've set up a bunch of those Guillemots permanently now to keep the NPC shipyards supplied with advanced electronics and weapon components (which they don't need a lot of, just a steady trickle) and they've been doing a great job at that with zero pirate attacks, so it has at least situational value.

[jlehtone]

I also did some testing on what KextV8 said and set up a bunch of Guillemot Sentinels as autotraders and i can confirm they don't get harassed by pirates at all no matter what they carry.

How about the Prometheus (although they are harder to get)?

[blackphoenixx]

I also did some testing on what KextV8 said and set up a bunch of Guillemot Sentinels as autotraders and i can confirm they don't get harassed by pirates at all no matter what they carry.

How about the Prometheus (although they are harder to get)?

I haven't tested it but they're classed as transports so i doubt it. The Guillemot works because it's a scout, not a trading ship.

Of course a decently equipped Prometheus eats Minotaurs for breakfast, but unfortunately you can't tell them to attack those and flee from destroyers.
Unless Use Judgement does that? I'm not actually sure but trusting the Ai's judgement generally doesn't work out too well for me.

Another one i haven't yet tested is the Mirage illegal ware concealment mod. I know it stops my looters from being harassed by police so there's at least a chance it'll work on pirates, but i haven't gotten around to using it on traders yet.