The art of playing a "pirate "

[Mrdoomed]

I hope a mod dont move this because I want this to NOT BE a rant on how other people want pirates to be but rather a place where the very few of us who play the traditional pirate role tell the devs our likes ,dislikes and how things are changing.

As a player who tries to play as close as the game will let me to a real pirate my preferred ship BEFORE no cooldown teleports was the privateer and the suprise. Both ships of course built to be as fast as possible and to carry as many ready to fight and board sailors.

Since i can no longer use well timed and thought out teleports to avoid players on patrol ive moved to using a suprise and now a connie both still built the same.

I also now have lineships to try and chase off the dozen or so players who would teleport from port to port now.

For the most part ive had no problems using the in game mechanics to build and play just like a pirate. I do play in a clan of a few people but like pirates we tend to hunt alone or in groups of two.

So far none of that has really changed since like true pirates we hunt cargo merchants and targets of opportunity such as undercrewed ships.

We do not do port battles or fleet battles because there is no gain in it for us but as the game has progressed it has become harder and harder to loot and live and we are being forced into using pirate ports to build buildings in order to build competitive ships.

This last patch has been a pure nightmare for us. Mostly because we can not find anyone but the rare sighting of a trade ship ,outside of the Bahamas regions, so we do not have anything to do since pirates dont play the trade game.

The other problems we are now having is since pirates would wait to find the easiest target and now with ai fleets as far as the eyes can see in the only places outside newb area you can find a player.

The few times we can grab a trade ship its a race to get the captured ship off the map before forts or fleets sink it.

Even the players hunting us do not like it because they know if they catch us , along with 22 ai warships, there is no way we will stay and fight.

When me and my friends joined pirated from the first day we thought they would be pirates and not what they are now BUT we had no problems still making it as pirates.

I haven't seen any real definitive hints on what is going to happen but i do know it is now becoming very very hard to be a pirate pirate. I know a few pirates have said its still all fine but i haven't seen this as true and hethwill that i used to watch on twitch all the time hasnt streamed since this last patch so i can see how he is doing it.

I would like to see the pirates like ANN and.... Ann and the like to start documentation on how something is working for or against true piracy in this game.

Thanks for helping pirates try and exist as pirates in this game and please mods dont move this to one of the i hate pirates threads.

Edited October 29, 2016 by Mrdoomed

[Neverdead Ned]

I think you may be looking for people in the wrong spots.  I suggest you change your hunting grounds and you'll find more success.  I often find myself thinking as I'm sailing some of my loads of valuable cargo, "this spot would be great place to ambush someone like me!".

[Mrdoomed]

I think you may be looking for people in the wrong spots. I suggest you change your hunting grounds and you'll find more success. I often find myself thinking as I'm sailing some of my loads of valuable cargo, "this spot would be great place to ambush someone like me!".

I want this to be more about what you find helpful or hurtful to being a pirate and how you can use the game in whatever state it is in towards that goal.

Im on a server with only 200 people and the bulk of them are in the new newb area so the odds of me running into anyone in the rest of the carrebean is slim. Thats why where to find players isnt important.

Maybe saying HOW you find them or ambush them but not just saying look elsewhere.

[Atreides]

In PVP1 ( I know, I know) Pirates are a lurking threat you need to watch out for on trade runs, or when alone.  The triangle of Savanna La Mar, Pedro Cay and Carlise is especially tense for lone trader.  Coves or small islands just outside freeports with a ship hiding right at the edge of shore.  Look at the map and see small increases of hostility, because that might be a player out "fishing" for AI traders.  I caught a pirate with a trade brig in the Belize area, ran him down and tagged him, once battle started his sails were shredded to 57% before I fired a shot.  We both said hi and he surrendered as soon as I chained his sails once.  I was "fishing" deep in Spanish area for AI or player traders and had the same done to me by a pirate.

 

Just a few ideas, I am sure ppl will think of others.

[Strake]

Interesting because Pagan Pete has many of the same complaints in his current thread. I am a trader, crafter and occasional PVPer playing for the US on the EuroPVP1 server. I can understand your's and Pete's complaints about the difficulty in finding good trader targets. The US east coast is currently so infested with Swedes, Danes, French and big pirate clans, it would be suicide for a trader to sail very far from the forts and fleets. Whats a trader to do - find other less dangerous trade routes to buy materials thats what, also travel during low server-pop times. 

 

The traders are still out there - I see them when I'm looking for stuff. Pirates looking for us need to be more flexible and creative and patient in their search strategies. Think like a scared trader, and you might stumble across a few.

[Neverdead Ned]

I think you need to look at where people are most likely to be sailing their traders and in most cases it's likely to be between a place where something like rare fine woods are being produced to the nearest freeport to be sent on through the delivery system.  It's kinda like following the trail of army ants carrying a leaf back to its nest.  Sometimes it'll be receiving deliveries of exotic valuable goods through a freeport and shipping them on to a capital by trader.  Freeports have become little transfer nodes, even more so than they were before.  If I were a pirate, I'd look for a freeport that isn't so busy that it brings immediate warship responses from the odd predation and one with enough distance from capitals and production ports that you can find little hidy holes to lurk in and wait for prey and have them too far from any ports to get away from you once you're spotted.  There are so many places like this that it almost makes me want to turn pirate (the real kind, not the fake nation builder, server bully types)!      Happy hunting!

Edited October 29, 2016 by Stroopwafel

[Rhodry Heidenrich]

Trader hunting on PvP2 has become kind of like trying to find a Spaniard who isn't someone's alt...

[Bach]

Let me try and answer up what Doomed is asking.

I mainly hunt traders. The first part of the puzzle is finding them.

Helpful things:

New Trader Tool with sort for resources

Minimize good teleportation to just free cities to free city

Cargo sizes increased while merchant ship holds decreased

Rare ship building materials

Less abundant resources

To a lesser degree the new global hostility screen

Minimized number of outposts (10)

Smuggling

NOT helpful things:

Large amounts of NPC fleets

Shore batteries

Large Indiamen with large (4th rate) fleet ships

Players producing goods in allied ports

Shipyards in every port

National traders with smuggler flag on

ROE circles allow for revenge fleet to surround