You can't be Pirate in X4, only Corsair

[mr.WHO]

Well can't you be friends with one faction and get all the blueprints you want from them? If there's a particular blueprint you like , stay friends with that faction?

Well, can't you read the OP and the whole point of this topic?

[Socratatus]

Well can't you be friends with one faction and get all the blueprints you want from them? If there's a particular blueprint you like , stay friends with that faction?

Well, can't you read the OP and the whole point of this topic?

Ok, I get it. I won't rock the boat. I leave it to you then.

[sh1pman]

There needs to be a mechanism to get wharf, dock, ship and equipment blueprints independently from major factions. How about adding them as rewards for random SCA quests? Maybe find the quest giver via scanning first, same as black marketeers. Sounds like an easy thing to add, you can’t ruin your reputation with SCA anyway.

[Greenhorn]

With all the pirate games I've played.Its definition is like this.

Corsair is also a Privateer= legal pirates -They represent a single nation,with papers from there nation, commissiond ,to attack another enemy nation.

Buccaneers= Is a specific group of pirates,living on a island and launch attacks in Caribbean sea only territories..

Marauder pirates= They move about in roving Fashion,looking for plunder .There very picky, on what they attack.i believe.

Pirates= Are criminals,they do not work with any country or nation,They are sea robbers .pillaging towns and all merchant vessales.

[NightmareNight91]

Or we could just let people have fun and get access to vital blueprints via reverse engineering or some quest line. Whatever anyone's definition of a pirate is doesn't really matter as this is a sci-fi game, just make something up and use your imagination. There is no logical reason a faction such as VIG RIP or YAK or even BUC/TEM would not have the blueprint for ship building facilities as they HAVE ship building facilities of there own. I shouldn't have to buddy up to one of the major factions just to get these.

[Manu82]

There needs to be a mechanism to get wharf, dock, ship and equipment blueprints independently from major factions. How about adding them as rewards for random SCA quests? Maybe find the quest giver via scanning first, same as black marketeers. Sounds like an easy thing to add, you can’t ruin your reputation with SCA anyway.

Actually a brilliant idea!
It could work like that:
- You have to scan com signals like for the other illegal quests.
- The quest giver is looking for a specific component he wants to examine for the blueprint
- You have to fly around and scan ships to find one with that component installed and capture/board that ship
- You have to deliver the ship to the quest giver with the required component being intact (you can't keep it, there has to be some price)
- After some time (eg after he sent the ship somewhere to be dissamembled, like the sca or the yaki base) he contacts you and shares the bp with you instead of paying for that mission.

There also could be nice quest chains for build modules. I mean the HQ (in this case the old wharf) in x3 was locked behind a chain as well right? So why not here instead of having to grind rep with factions?

[jmrc]

Having a pirate shipyard or EquipDock fixed somewhere in space is not "realistic". Any major faction decent AI would send a fleet and destroy it.

I think pirate factions should have a few "shipyard" ships that roam pirate space and "vanish" if an enemy XL gets near. These would provide upgrades for all classes of ships with the proper blueprints. Obviously, blueprints would have to be acquired through deconstruction of ships: leave the ship in the mobile shipyard and after a while it will have the blueprint available for a certain cost.

Another mechanic that is missing in ToA is the ability to have pirate fleets whose aim is to capture other ships and bring them to pirate space for selling, deconstruction, upgrading, etc. This is a complex mechanic, where the AI would have to control the ships to shoot but not destroy and then perform the boarding operation and finally escort them back. The mechanic would also allow for a simple attack and the acquisition of the ejected wares.

It would also be fundamental to have "pirate" anomalies in many sectors, that would provide a quick teleport to pirate space, preventing the need to cross many hostile sectors. Only pirate faction ships would be able to scan and find them.

Without these kinds of specific mechanics, the ToA DLC is really just an addon with just a bit more content. I had too high expectations perhaps...

[darkstar12]

Having a pirate shipyard or EquipDock fixed somewhere in space is not "realistic". Any major faction decent AI would send a fleet and destroy it.

Space is really vast, it is very realistic for Pirates to have holdouts and potentially the ability to build wharves to fix their ships. It was done during the "golden age of Piracy" after all.
And of course there is the Teladi to consider who sell to everyone. And see nothing wrong with Piracy as a profession.

[jmrc]

Space is really vast, it is very realistic for Pirates to have holdouts and potentially the ability to build wharves to fix their ships. It was done during the "golden age of Piracy" after all.
And of course there is the Teladi to consider who sell to everyone. And see nothing wrong with Piracy as a profession.

If you play as a military/trading org, you can form a fleet and destroy any fixed stations of the VIG, RIP, YAK, SCA and BUC. Either the game would need to cheat by respawning a full shipyard or wharf in an endless cycle or you'll end up with no pirates around, which shouldn't be possible. Same with the Xenon, BTW.
OTOH, if you play as pirate you need to do the Boso mission and the vanilla base to get the Teleports and the hacking skills and equipment mods, which defeats the whole purpose of being a pirate player.
The mobile shipyard/wharf would provide the necessary blueprints for pirate stuff as well as the skills and mods from the Boso base.

[S!rAssassin]

Should be aux can change ship’s equipment, not only repair? Will be mobile maintenance base for pirates in this case.

[jmrc]

Should be aux can change ship’s equipment, not only repair? Will be mobile maintenance base for pirates in this case.

Something like that. I was thinking about a new type of ship: Motherbase or Mobile Haven, that combines shipyard, wharf, equip dock, Boso's station. The story could even be different, with Boso joining the pirates after his rescue from the Split.

[NemesisBosseret]

Maybe have a pirate aux ship/ builder ship that can only build limited pirate faction stations like astroid bases that act as a s/m warf, or maybe it can deploy to a shipyard that can only be used for reverse engineering and equipment changes. Aka it uses tons of drones and takes a long time and it converts the ship its trying to reverse engineer into a pirate version of the ship. I think pirates shouldn't be able to build faction ships but maybe pirate versions of them with weakness and strengths that make them not as good as faction but they have the ability to loot multiple cargo types like the yaki version of the nemesis. This way there is a balance and the ship is not fixed but mobile. Also add a trigger that once you take over a ship the owner faction Ai trys to prioritize building a replacement ship, maybe cheat and give 50% rss as an insurance payment for the Ai to build it. Make a mission string to get this ship as a player and maybe add more missions to upgrade it so it can defend itself and limit the ship to just one per player/ pirate faction, so you can possible capture a few more.

[apm0SPE]

With all the pirate games I've played.Its definition is like this.

Corsair is also a Privateer= legal pirates -They represent a single nation,with papers from there nation, commissiond ,to attack another enemy nation.

Buccaneers= Is a specific group of pirates,living on a island and launch attacks in Caribbean sea only territories..

Marauder pirates= They move about in roving Fashion,looking for plunder .There very picky, on what they attack.i believe.

Pirates= Are criminals,they do not work with any country or nation,They are sea robbers .pillaging towns and all merchant vessales.

Thanks for posting this. As a non-native speaker I cant really distinguish those words.

[KextV8]

Yes you can. But much like real life, many options are closed to you if you choose such a life.

[Nanook]

Having a pirate shipyard or EquipDock fixed somewhere in space is not "realistic". Any major faction decent AI would send a fleet and destroy it....

Actually, that is very 'realistic', in the game's sense. What happens when a faction's shipyard gets destroyed? Why, it gets rebuilt somewhere else, and you have to find it. Same would be true of a pirate base. I don't know why you think it would have to be "fixed somewhere in space."

[Tomonor]

Reverse engineering and extensive hacking (maybe with ROV drones) should be a thing again.

[spankahontis]

I agree, I feel dissapointed with Tides of Avarice and trading Protecyon is pointless when you have to wait everytime for an anomaly to be charged by the Tide.
I argued the lack of being a pirate. got allot of critique when I pointed out the inability to be an independant Pirate because you can't get Marines very easy unless you've got the Tides of Avarice and are friends with the Vigor Syndicate.

Personally,
I miss the asthetics of XRebirth when it comes to the Reavers and their Pirate Bases, just ship junk that's glued together to form a base because that's all they have at their disposal in DeVries.
I miss that look of desperation, cut throat pirates raiding ships and stations to take back to their junkyards. Plus areas far from civilization where Pirates Hide their cheap and nasty bases, they look like abandonned Ships, but are actually Pirate Bases hiding from the Major Factions.

I'd also love to see in the future, Mobile Ships that serve as Wharfs-on-the-go that can serve as trade posts for Pirates on the move.. They steal, they trade there, the Mobile Wharf produces more Pirate Ships with the resources stolen.
Pirates need to raid and them return to the shadows with their loot.

Love to also see boarding operations for NPC Factions as well, rather than it being just the player faction that can steal ships.. Makes me feel alone when I'm not challenged, where everyone has marines on their ships and I'm the only one that's stealing them.

Actually, that is very 'realistic', in the game's sense. What happens when a faction's shipyard gets destroyed? Why, it gets rebuilt somewhere else, and you have to find it. Same would be true of a pirate base. I don't know why you think it would have to be "fixed somewhere in space."

I think they need a mix of both, where you have the likes of Vigor who flaunt their power in their sectors, smaller Pirate Factions who don't have their power need to stay hidden or on the move to avoid enemy ships/Bounty Hunters etc. It could lead to some pretty interesting missions?

[Smart_Bomb]

This was a huge part of me wanting to make my expansion suggestion cuz I wanted to feel like I started from nothing and build an multi-functioning organization separate from the normal joyride of vanilla.

[Belphegor2_3]

Well.
When I recall stories of pirates, they did not possess ship building industries. They were basically alone, hunted, unless they were linked to some organization able to sell/buy from them.
As it is a sandbox, I expect X4 allows this sort of situation, and this is exactly what this game does.
One thing could be done : if you have a HQ and a research capacity, maybe you could have a research to build cloacking modules, to hide your ship as a ship of a specific faction and thus be able to trade with it. But in no way you should be able to buy blueprints that way. An police should have a chance to get through the hide in a control.

Reverse engineering is not a taboo for me as long as it is very expansive.
Pirate life has to be difficult.

PS: it is not because you work part time for a faction that you are a corsair. You may just be a mercenary for hire.

[S!rAssassin]

If pirates able to build pirate bases, they should be able to build maintenance modules. Without maintenance - they are dead. No can survive without repairs. No need to complicate, just give them maintenance modules with some equipment blueprints, that they are purchased in black market. Player should also have ability to purchase some blueprints for higher price in black market.
No production modules, just maintenance.