quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:
Historically though pirates have not really been a legitamate force. They have always preyed on weak enemies and run from fights against actual military forces.
The idea has a lot of merit as a role play race though. They can be a tool of a powerful empire against an another empire. One that you don't want to attack directly.
I think they would be great in a medium to large size game where you have strong empires facing off in a "cold war" type situation. One where you want to cause your enemy problems without actually openly fighting them.
The problem may be finding players to play a race where they really have no chance of winning, only of influencing the game and having fun role playing.
Geoschmo
Convergence! The "adapted" AI required to operate pirates would be almost identical to the AI needed to operate space monsters. Think about how both would behave... seeking out planets and making raids, hiding in convenient storms/asteroid fields (if this can be made possible in the hardcode -- right now it isn't). The only difference is that one would be 'ships' and the other 'monsters'. 'Space Monsters' and 'Pirates' could both be added to the game at minimal programming over-head. A two-for-one deal!
As a bonus, there could be another option besides "random" pirates operated by the game. There could be an intelligence operation that lets you
create a pirate force targetted at a specific empire. It would probably have to be established in a specific system and only be able to affect that system and possibly adjacent systems. You would have to spend resources, pay a "maintenance cost" to keep them around once they were created. This way ALL layers could "play pirates" without giving up their ability to win the game.
This would be a great way around the problem of treaty restrictions and the unconditional identification of the source of any attack. In RL it is often possible to carry out a raid without giving away who launched it. But not in SE.
A definite disadvantage to the simple "sides" in the current game design. Being able to harrass someone whom you have 'allied' with just because they are too big to attack right now (or because you are in another war already) would be really handy.
Further intelligence operations to subvert a pirate group or just discover who created it might be good options.
Now, the question is should the pirate ships be directly controllable by the player who created the pirate force? Or should they be an AI 'client' that only obeys orders 'most of the time' like a real bunch of pirates? I prefer the latter. Pirates don't strike me as exemplars of military discipline.
[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 27 August 2001).]