Pirates and Teladi ranking.

[greypanther]

Well I sort of accidently hurt a couple of Pirate stations, in a pitate sector and found I lost Teladi race rank, just about as fast as if I was attacking a Teladi station. ( Although I didn't seem to loose any to one I toasted in unknown space! )
Now I have several questions I hope someone can clarify for me.

1: Do you loose more rank if it takes more shots/missiles, or is it much of a muchness?
2: Am I right in saying there are several factions within the pirates?
3: If so can they be identified? ( Never noticed any identifying marks. )
4: Do you lose Teladi rank when you dismantle pirate ships?
5: If so, is it at the same speed as if you were hammering Teladi ships?

[A5PECT]

1: Do you loose more rank if it takes more shots/missiles, or is it much of a muchness?

Nope. Rank loss (and/or gain) only occurs upon the destruction of a particular asset. It doesn't matter if it takes 1000 shots or 1. The only thing the number of hits counts for is turning a ship/station hostile.

2: Am I right in saying there are several factions within the pirates?

Technically no... but they way they're set up emulates the behavior. As far as the game is concerned, "Pirate" is a race; every pirate is the same as every other pirate. But as a whole they operate a little differently compared to the other races. Basically, you can become friends with the pirates, but there will always be a few who hate you. There's nothing you can really do about the minority.

3: If so can they be identified? ( Never noticed any identifying marks. )

See above. A pirate is a pirate. Nothing more, nothing less.

4: Do you lose Teladi rank when you dismantle pirate ships?

You shouldn't actually lose rank for destroying pirate ships, but you don't gain reputation from killing pirates in Teladi space. Personally I've destroyed the pirate base that starts in Company Pride and the Teladi didn't get angry at me for it.

5: If so, is it at the same speed as if you were hammering Teladi ships?

See above. The Teladi tolerate pirates to a degree, but they're not necessarily friends.

[Catra]

1) Yes, the longer it takes, the more you lose.
2) There's just the yaki.
3) They're called the yaki.
4) Some say yes, some say no. I myself say yes because I lost teladi rep when I killed pirates in their space.
5) Most likely.

[greypanther]

Well, with one of the stations I lost two ranks before it popped!
I am sure I lost nothing when I popped the one in unknown space next to PTNI.

There are contradictions in the two answers.

[Bill Huntington]

The pirates are one race, yes. But there seems to be clans within it. Of course, the Yaki is one obvious clan, and their rep is even separate. But I've noticed that if I change a Pirate base from red to blue with a hack, a number of pirate ships will change the same way, even a few sectors away. And the same is true if the bases changes from blue to red. So it seems that these ships are a clan and are associated with a certain pirate base. So it seems that each pirate base has its own clan.

Again, there is still one pirate race, and the pirate ranking affects all of them. And there are still the occasional red pirates that come from the blue bases.

[Ripskar]

Individual ships may be associated with (owned by?) a particular pirate station so interacting with that station affects how they react to you.
If so it should be apparent from the ships info screen, or from the stations owned ships screen which are being affected.
However shooting at a pirate tends to turn them all red regardless, and there's always a few red ones around for your turrets to wreck hours of rep massage.

[deca.death]

1: Do you loose more rank if it takes more shots/missiles, or is it much of a muchness?
2: Am I right in saying there are several factions within the pirates?
3: If so can they be identified? ( Never noticed any identifying marks. )
4: Do you lose Teladi rank when you dismantle pirate ships?
5: If so, is it at the same speed as if you were hammering Teladi ships?

afaik you loose rank on termination of attacked asset, that is for certain. does length of encounter and number of shots fired also being taken into account i'm uncertain, but if they do it's not by much. sometimes i used to harass poor boarding target for very long time and i haven't noticed any extra rep penalty.

pirate faction is one but mechanic of their behavior is slightly different then with other races. i also noticed they are usually more localized i.e. connected to their homebases. if you befriend one base by hack and several missions you will starting to notice blue pirate ships flying around that base. i'm on good terms with most of pirates still, in certain locations like gaian star most of pirates stay red, although 80% ships and stations in rest of space are blue.

i do not believe hitting pirate ships in teladi space is sanctioned (it's not rewarded either). i killed hundreds of pirate ships in teladi space through my game beginning (in my fighter days when i was young and reckless : ) and i never noticed any rep hit. test for yourself, check your teladi rank before and after you kill pirate wing in their space.


EDIT
i forgot to mention: if uncertain you could identify owner of a station by first letter in it's designation (I standing for independent=pirate) so watch out - possibly you've actually destroyed *teladi* stations ; )

[Catra]

Where were the stations you destroyed?

[greypanther]

Thanks peeps. Some questions answered/confirmed, still others uncertain.

@ deca.death and Catra.
Before my attack ALL pirate stations were blue, majority of ships too. ( Much massaging! )
I offed one of the three in unknown next to PTNI with my Boreas, very quickly. I did not notice any affect on my Teladi rep.
So I went to the pirate sector south of loo mank ( Home of ibl forge ), and destroyed the two stations there, ( both pirate owned I assumed. ) One was a soyary, I forget the other. I have had many pirate missions from both, so semed safe to assume.
On both I had a loss of Teladi rep, it seemed to vary between the two.
Perhaps a mistake to assume the ownership. Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps both Teladi. Mmmm that would fit. * EDIT* It seemed a safe assumption at the time as one had become red to me. ( Perhaps caused by something else?

Anyway I have now gone back to an older save. At least until my thoughts are confirmed or denied.

* Furthrt edit * I didn't know that! Thanks deca.death. This is why I do love this game, even though it sometimes frustrates me! Such depth, always a new suprise! I do like to imerse myself too, so sometimes get lost in my 'character '!

[pjknibbs]

So I went to the pirate sector south of loo mank ( Home of ibl forge ), and destroyed the two stations there, ( both pirate owned I assumed. )

And that is where you made your mistake. Other than pirate bases, Anarchy Ports, IBL forges and some Mercenary Training Centres, there are *no* pirate owned stations at the start of a vanilla game--you can see who DOES own the station by looking at the first letter of its ID code; P for Paranid, T for Teladi, I for Pirates, etc.

(Note that it is possible for the player to accept a station build mission from a pirate, and the placed station will then be a pirate-owned station--this is the only way you'll ever get pirate-owned conventional stations in a vanilla game).

[jkflipflop98]

(Note that it is possible for the player to accept a station build mission from a pirate, and the placed station will then be a pirate-owned station--this is the only way you'll ever get pirate-owned conventional stations in a vanilla game).

That is some excellent info to know.