[Suicide Junkie]

I don't know about the colonies.

I'm thinking that pirates should not be expanding by colonizing planets, but by building scrap yard/ retrofit bases in the outlying systems.

Then you just take your ships to scrap for funds or retro for more capture ability.

If pirates start colonizing, then research gets too high & resource production gets high & then they can build their own ships with more advanced tech.

I would like a pirate race that has no need for planets after the first year or so.