State of NPC Pirates in 2020?

[DragonEye501]

Took a break from the game and just curious if pirate behavior has improved at all. I like how pirates disguise themselves and ambush targets. Though they usually just get themselves killed partly because they seem to always travel alone. They just never seem to be a real threat or nuisance. Of course it could just look that way because the pirate mechanics make them pretty hard to keep track of.

[DragonEye501]

Also curious because they’ve started teasing Yaki which has gotten me all excited and if yaki end up using the same mechanics it could be kinda a mess. :/

[Tanvaras]

SCA dont do much still in X4.... They still have a single L ship masked as another faction until you scan them, the usual tak eout weapons and Board+Cap or destroy them. There is currently not much else to do with pirates in X4 (without using mods) hopefully coming DLC might change this with Yaki faction coming.... we can only hope!

** I would love SCA to be expanded and have a player start available (for vanilla play) to have a true pirate game. SCA just feel like a wasted opportunity.

[DragonEye501]

There is currently not much else to do with pirates in X4 (without using mods)

Are there currently mods that enhance pirates?

[Falcrack]

There is currently not much else to do with pirates in X4 (without using mods)

Are there currently mods that enhance pirates?

https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/491

[mr.WHO]

Who knows, maybe along the Yaki, they improve/overhaul the pirates and pirate gameplay in 4.0?

[dtpsprt]

The Split DLC added another "Pirate" Faction the FAF that use Split Ships and their Destroyer can singlehandedly destroy Stations or small Fleets. Very difficult to capture too since it has experienced Marines on board (not impossible though). And their relationship is dynamic (can go really bad or good...) Also, in the process of the plots (main game, no DLC needed) another semi pirate faction appears, dynamic too.
SCA are a small nuisance...

Otherwise there is a mod that allows Dynamic Relations with SCA.

[atavistuk]

Pirates Pirate.

I am always getting a Marauder Phoenix wander over to one of my stations, hax the storage and send a couple of cargo drones to grab as much as they can before wandering away.

Sometimes I even cap them, and give them silly names like "Pilfered Riches"

[ephemeron]

Sometimes I even cap them, and give them silly names like "Pilfered Riches"

I've been having a lot of fun naming the destroyers I take from SCA. At the moment I have the "Marque and Reprisal", "Cost of Doing Business", "Punitive Damages", and a Phoenix Sentinel that I haven't decided what to call yet.

(This is my first game of X4 and I haven't bought the DLC yet, though it's very likely that I'll get it all sooner or later. I do appreciate how the fixed SCA rep models a loosely-organized faction where one pirate will happily sell me blueprints while another hacks my station or tries to shake down my freighter -- I think that works better than the way pirates worked in X3R/TC/AP.)

[NightmareNight91]

A pirate shipyard that sells random ships at different times to simulate them capturing ships and selling some of them would be cool, or to see them actually board something using pods just like a player does would be even cooler.

[LameFox]

I've often wished that NPCs would try boarding. Would need some tweaking though. I think currently a ship's turrets don't properly get the memo that they aren't meant to kill the target, rendering roles besides 'maintain distance' irrelevant. But if they fixed that it would be interesting to see NPCs attempt it here and there.

[Falcrack]

I've often wished that NPCs would try boarding. Would need some tweaking though. I think currently a ship's turrets don't properly get the memo that they aren't meant to kill the target, rendering roles besides 'maintain distance' irrelevant. But if they fixed that it would be interesting to see NPCs attempt it here and there.

Agreed. Would probably take some work on the part of Egosoft to get the AI for boarding ops working right. But I think it would be well worth the effort.

[terodil]

I've often wished that NPCs would try boarding. Would need some tweaking though.

A valid wish/request which certainly has merit. But as long as the current issues with pirates are not acknowledged, let alone resolved, I'm strongly opposed to adding new functionality that messes with player assets even more (and, if the current state of piracy is to be extrapolated, damages player agency even more).

Currently, pirates have a 100% success rate while hacking player stations, with the player having no reliable options available to repel/deter hacking attempts. Unless you luck out and personally spot a pirate flying towards your station and manage to get IS before the hack succeeds, you can kiss your goods good-bye. All the credits you invested in protective fleets, defense modules/stations etc? Waste of effort, as far as piracy is concerned. Your 'guard' fleets rather accomodatingly guide the pirates to your nearest station, satellites or defense stations can spare no time because they're watching Netflix, the station manager is too busy picking their nose to spot the dozens of crates floating around their office, and cargo drones would rather finish another round of blackjack than pick up the stuff before it despawns. It's a weak consolation then if the pirate gets blown to smithereens after it has emptied the station's stores, because the next Behemoth will surely spawn out of thin air shortly after and hack another of your stations. It's a nightmare especially if you build decentrally and/or like planning supply chains -- and it's not a gameplay challenge if you do not give your players options to respond to a systemic threat in a systematic fashion.

[LameFox]

As much as I want them to expand piracy, I think that is also an issue with the options they've taken from us since X3. For instance, we can no longer tell our assets to consider a faction (like SCA) hostile. This means that a rep-locked faction like SCA is basically impervious to our patrols, even in player-owned sectors where our police would unmask them. If that option still existed, we could automate removing their ships in our territory.

[dtpsprt]

As much as I want them to expand piracy, I think that is also an issue with the options they've taken from us since X3. For instance, we can no longer tell our assets to consider a faction (like SCA) hostile. This means that a rep-locked faction like SCA is basically impervious to our patrols, even in player-owned sectors where our police would unmask them. If that option still existed, we could automate removing their ships in our territory.

I think that the option to designate a faction as hostile is coming along with V4.0. Now, as far as "our territory" is concerned, since nobody pays plot fees in the player's sector, what kind of our territory are we talking about? But, this is another discussion that has been recursively coming... (Hope they'll do this with V4.0 as with the enemy designation)...

[LameFox]

I was referring to the police behaviour in player owned sectors, since presumably if they were set hostile unmasking them would get them killed.

[terodil]

I very much look forward to proper IFF settings. In this context though, I don't see how it's going to help: if IFF cannot see through the pirates' false flag while they masquerade as another faction, it's useless for this purpose. If it can, pirates lose a lot of their appeal and become just another faction... although I would mind that less since that's pretty much how pirates operated in X3, and while I occasionally found them annoying, I never felt helpless (and they did feel 'real', despite spawning out of thin air and despite not being able to masquerade as other factions).

Mind you, I do like pirates for their flavour and storytelling potential, and I, too, would rather see this aspect expanded than reduced (pirate game start? yes please). But we do need something to counter this threat, to not feel helpless. Add a decloaking module to ships or stations, or to satellites. Or at least give stations (and ships, if they do go for boarding as suggested in OP) ways to call for help before they get hacked/taken over so we can at least respond in a somewhat systematic fashion. What I don't want is another random sinkhole where the game simply takes away your stuff, doesn't tell you about it (at all, or only after the fact) and doesn't even give you the tools to recover (part of) your losses.

[dtpsprt]

I very much look forward to proper IFF settings. In this context though, I don't see how it's going to help: if IFF cannot see through the pirates' false flag while they masquerade as another faction, it's useless for this purpose.

At lreast right now, if hey are scanned their true identity is revealed either by the player or the other factions. So, a player "police" in a sector that he owns would show their colours which are designated as hostile by the player and they get shot at. Right now even if your police sees that they are SCA they do nothing because their reputation is locked on -5.