[Nitram Draw]

My thoughts are this.
Pirates need colonies but they must be prevented from establishing a lot of them, otherwise they are just another empire.
Their colonies don't have the same function as a standard race. Pirates need to scrap, analyize, resupply, repair and build new ships. They don't need resource production, research or intel facilities as much. At least that is how I read the thread and from my own limited pirate experiance.
If pirates are not allowed a colony module the only way they can colonize is capturing ships.
Limiting colonies can only be done easily in a few ways, limit colonizing to home planet type and home atmosphere type. This effects all races though.
I would vote for SDD's on colony ships if nothing else was changed.
I would vote for no SDD's if Pirates were given a huge negative to happiness, you can have all the colonies you want but if they are rioting you get no benefit from them.