No Pirates in X4?

[snyderm]

I have been playing X4 for about 8 hours now, and I don't see much life at all in my game.

For instance, there are no pirate gangs. The system I am in sometimes generates the "drop your cargo" dialog discussions, but its always caused by one kestrel. He seems to think he can pick on frigates in a kestrel.

I see an occasional Xenon N or a Khaak ship, but there really isn't anything going on in the universe.

Has anyone ever seen a pirate gang in their game?

[LameFox]

SCA seem to be pirates, but most of the time their ships have other faction prefixes. Which is kind of irritating and I'm trying to figure out if it's intentional.

[WildAce]

it might be intentional, i mean i dont know if its smart to advertise your a pirate. i have not been looking for them tho still just sort of wandering around lol

[LameFox]

I mean, I can see why it would be in there, but losing faction rep with a faction they don't really belong to seems to be going a bit far.

[Vinyx]

If you're familiar with the ... "boron scientist" plot quest, when you bring an extra ship to the location with the required wares, i had about 30 ships try to pirate it, most of them were Teladi patrols... the heck? They're blue at +0, but ALL turn red when they see "something interesting in my cargo" I like how the whole Teladi faction turns criminal for a 900cr cargo.

[Tomonor]

I think you guys are getting it wrong. Some of the factions are pretty much pirate affiliated, so think of them as a big clan.

It was easy to simulate pirates in the X3 games, since they only belonged in a single faction. But these pirates are more detailed this time. You have to make your mind up if you want to be friendly with them or attack them on sight.

[Recon777]

Yeah that was pretty funny. Like if you pirates want some antimatter cells so badly, go buy some.

[Axeface]

There are pirates all over the place but I dont think you are immediately hostile to their 'faction' and some I have scanned were actually masquerading as another faction... I scanned a 'Argon Federation' Discoverer with a teladi pilot and once I scanned it it turned out to be 'Scale Plate Pact' (blatently a pirate 'faction').

This is a step in the right direction, 'red' 'enemies' is just a stupid concept.

[Tomonor]

There are pirates all over the place but I dont think you are immediately hostile to their 'faction' and some I have scanned were actually masquerading as another faction... I scanned a 'Argon Federation' Discoverer with a teladi pilot and once I scanned it it turned out to be 'Scale Plate Pact' (blatently a pirate 'faction').

This is a step in the right direction, 'red' 'enemies' is just a stupid concept.

Haha, exactly. Gotta expose them first.

Although, I'm going to miss their pimped out ships.

[mrc0de]

There are pirates all over the place but I dont think you are immediately hostile to their 'faction' and some I have scanned were actually masquerading as another faction... I scanned a 'Argon Federation' Discoverer with a teladi pilot and once I scanned it it turned out to be 'Scale Plate Pact' (blatently a pirate 'faction').

This is a step in the right direction, 'red' 'enemies' is just a stupid concept.

I got pretty used to the 'red enemies' thing due to X3 exposure...
...but what you describe is much more intriguing.

[Axeface]

There are pirates all over the place but I dont think you are immediately hostile to their 'faction' and some I have scanned were actually masquerading as another faction... I scanned a 'Argon Federation' Discoverer with a teladi pilot and once I scanned it it turned out to be 'Scale Plate Pact' (blatently a pirate 'faction').

This is a step in the right direction, 'red' 'enemies' is just a stupid concept.

I got pretty used to the 'red enemies' thing due to X3 exposure...
...but what you describe is much more intriguing.

We are all used to 'red enemies' because of most games, its a trope just like the 'health bar'. Do people in real life have a 'health bar'? As game design matures we'll see less of this stuff and much more nuanced mechanics that make much more real-world sense.
If Malcom Reynolds ship was in X4 what would it show up as?

[aka1nas]

The "undercover" pirates that you can scan and unmask was in X3 as well.

[Axeface]

The "undercover" pirates that you can scan and unmask was in X3 as well.

Yes but they were specifically npcs that purchased illegal goods. 'Npc buys 'X' at station' = 'Pirate and hostile if scanned'.... gamey, not nuanced enough.

[fcth]

My first autotrader promptly got killed by an SCA Behemoth (a destroyer). I'm a bit annoyed actually, I had it set to escape, and it should have been easily fast enough (though it was a bit damaged from an earlier pirate attack).

[LycheeNut]

The "undercover" pirates that you can scan and unmask was in X3 as well.

Yes but they were specifically npcs that purchased illegal goods. 'Npc buys 'X' at station' = 'Pirate and hostile if scanned'.... gamey, not nuanced enough.

Actually Axeface is correct, pirates actually were able to masquerade as other factions, this was in addition to civilians buying and selling illegal goods and turning 'hostile' upon scan. It was less common because the pirate economy was often killed pretty quick. However this was only the case as far as I know in X3AP not sure about Terran Conflict.

[mr.WHO]

Wait, you guys mean that "covert pirate" system from X-BTF and X2 is back?

In X3 overt pirate make sence because there are whole regions of anarchy where they can operate (aka Pirate alley).
However in X-Rebirth this was stupid because overt pirates got huted down by secutiry force very easy.

[Archaeosis]

It still doesn't seem to work terribly well - if I fight back against an attacking pirate I usually get station security deployed against me, even by standard Argon stations. So something isn't working properly.

[mr.WHO]

Maybe you need a police licence to be able to kill pirates?

[LameFox]

Interesting thought though: if that's how NPC pirates work, can player pirates do it too? Or do we just become the one 'registered' pirate in the universe?

[Wou]

I just entered sector Scale Plate Green, hoping some for good old pirate sector (seeing as one of the pirate "races" names themselves from it) but no. It's full of Xenon and junk. Huh.