PIRACY
Want it kill some innocent traders but dont know where to begin? Well
this page will give you the basics for starting your own piracy
operation.
Choosing the right system for piracy
Before you start piracy you must choose a system (or cluster of
systems) to do it in. While the core systems have the best ships
to target for piracy they usually have the strongest police, on the
other hand frontier worlds out on the galactic rim have a more
lacklustre police force, they have few ships carrying less valuable
cargo. I prefer systems that are fairly close to core systems but
far enough away to not have the strongest police force.
Finding Targets
A little known but very handy fact is that you can target incomming
hyperspace clouds via the "System orbital map" (two icons along from
the red telephone). Use the right mouse button to drag the map around a
bit and you will soon notice little free floating dots that dont have
any orbit tied to them.
To target these dots press "T" and then click on them, this will have
you targetting them with the green navigation target. If you want
to find out more information switch to the red fighting target and the
hyperspace cloud analyser will tell you a bit more about the mass of
the incomming ship.
Picking the right target
When picking the right target you must consider a number of
things:
The first and most important thing is whether your ship is capbable of
destroying the victim, there is no point going after a ship if you are
going to be the one comming out worst. When you target a
hyperspace cloud you only get information on the mass of the ship but
usually this is enough to make an educated guess on the type of ship
that is comming through. If you see a ship with thousands of tons
of mass and your only flying a Cobra, then its a pretty good bet you
wont be able to beat them.
The second thing you must consider is whether it is worthwhile to
attack the ship. A number of small ships come into the system
every day but they hold little cargo and have the potential to do
considerable damage to your ship. Its not worthwhile going after
a Cobra Mk 1 if you are large pirate.
Other things to consider are the left over capacity of your ship, it
would be a shame to destroy a ship that had hundreds of tons of
precious metals when you only had 50 tons space. Also you must
consider the distance to the hyperspace cloud. If the cloud is
too far away the ship you are after will be half way to the starbase by
the time you catch up to it. The closer to the starbase you are
the higher the chance of the police catching you.
In my large pirate ship I prefer targets such as the one above. The
Skeet is a medium sized ship capable of holding a decent cargo but it
is not overly large and is slow to manuver, making it a good target for
battle.
Engaging the Target
Once you have decided on a target you must now engage it in
battle. Try and reach the hyperspace cloud before the ship has
come through. Use use progressively lower modes of stardreamer untill
the target shows up. You must be quick! Once the target shows up
attack! If you are quick everything will be over before the victim even
knew what was happening.
Often you cant reach the victim before they have entered the system, in
this case you must give chase. Never chase a ship too long as you will
come close to a starbase and the wrath of the police.
When you are chasing a victim, to prevent you from just flying back and
fowards past the ship once it has come near it, send it a "Surrender or
Die" message, this will put the ship into "attacking mode" similar to
what happens when a pirate attacks you, this way you can have a good
ole space battle.
Collecting the booty
Once the ship is destroyed, pick the most valuable booty and scoop it
up using your cargo scoops. Often you might want to leave some cheaper
items alone, such as metal alloys, water etc. Once you have
collected as much cargo as you can hold, fly back to the local starbase
and sell it all. Make any repairs on your ship that may be
necessary and start the whole process again.
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