Arrrrrr, Matey!!! Piracy Problems

[unmerged(350868)]

I have played 12 games. In my last game I noticed an icon next to one of my starbases, and it was telling me it was not connected to my trade route. I then noticed this was true for every captured starbases. I felt stupid, as I assumed trade was all handled automatically, and was shocked when my income went up by about 1000.

Lesson learnt!

So in my latest game I conquered a crimnal syndicate, that had a few high trade value colonies all togeher, although some 14 jumps distant from my Capital. I totted up in my head the total trade value, and linked it up, and it was somewhat lower than I was expecting. So then I noticed the little routes had a piracy icon next to each system. Thats cool... an enitrely new mechanic that I had not known about, and I had much fun trying to route trade around my empire (I think I have just short of 50 colonies now). My trade stood at 1000. All was well in the galaxy.

Then a few short years later my income tanked. Having to reload the bloody game to an early save so I could compare what had happened (because the game needs some GRAPHS!!!)... I noticed my trade had halved, and was trending downward still. I noticed the priracy was climbing all along my primary trade route. Reading the wiki I need to set up patrol routes... But they dont seem to be doing an awful lot, and I cannot find many helpful articles, so I wonder if anyone has any ideas.

In the pictute, the ""Current Piracy" is still climbing, despite my fleet being in the system. I cannot work out the mechanics of why it is still rising. Do I need a bigger fleet?

It seems the other systems along that route are also rising fast and are at similar levels. Is that route completely unsalvageable?

How many fleets do people have for anti piracy?

I have a few Crusier and a Battleship fleet miles away from the route, as I has a recent warnging about someone getting close to opening the L Gates, and I have 3 of them in my territory. Bit worried about the Grays showing up as my fleet strength is barely 70k, so my resources are being directed that way.

Anyway... Cheers1

 

[LayZboy]

The best way to fight piracy at your current time is to place a gateway is each sector capital, allowing the home system to reach through and grab it.
Once you get even more infulence, add a gateway to each inhabited system and piracy will diappear.

 

[Wez_2021]

I have a few Crusier and a Battleship fleet miles away from the route

Of what relevance is this, I thought Corvettes are the only useful fleet ships for anti-piracy?

 

[Serenity84]

Build some small corvette fleets. You can see their piracy suppression on some tooltip. That allows you to judge what you need.

The other way to suppress piracy is what starbases. At least at relatively short jump ranges. Hangar modules are especially effective for that. And they also extend their suppression through gateways:

Trade - Stellaris Wiki

stellaris.paradoxwikis.com

You can combine that and use starbases where possible and cover areas between them with fleets

 

[unmerged(350868)]

Of what relevance is this, I thought Corvettes are the only useful fleet ships for anti-piracy?

Guess...

 

[unmerged(350868)]

I am researching Gateway Tech currently, but it will take a while to get it all set up.

Based on those numbers, how many corvettes (or what level of suppression) do I need?

I dont understand the numbers.

Current Piracy - base protection = piracy effect.

How does "piracy suppression" actually work?

 

[Serenity84]

This is with a UI mod it's basically the same in vanilla:

Those are the starting corvettes. As you can see each as a suppression of 10. The same as a starbase hangar module

 

[unmerged(350868)]

Yeah, but how does the suppression mechanic actually work? I understand each ship has a number. But I canot work out how that is applied. I need to know how many ships I need in each system to reduce the piracy number.

 

[Mastikator]

The more trade value goes through a system = the more piracy can accumulate (and faster).
The more piracy accumulates = the more trade value is stolen from you
The more trade protection you have the more piracy is suppressed, it gives automatic protection to a set amount of trade value
To remove actual piracy you need ships, preferably corvettes. And lots of them if you produce tons of piracy. Something like 50 should quickly annihilate piracy in whatever system they're in. They need to be in the system for a couple of days to kill the pirates, so set them to patrol the trade route.

get 50 corvettes. Make them patrol the trade route where trade is heavy.

 

[Serenity84]

But I canot work out how that is applied. I need to know how many ships I need in each system to reduce the piracy number.

You already figured that out yourself above. Effective piracy = current piracy - suppression. What else would it be?

Except you don't permanently station ships in every system, but set the fleet to patrol

 

[Wez_2021]

And lots of them if you produce tons of piracy. Something like 50 should quickly annihilate piracy in whatever system they're in.

Interesting, I thought more fleets with less Corvettes might work better, but you're saying bigger fleets is preferred, thx.

 

[Mastikator]

Interesting, I thought more fleets with less Corvettes might work better, but you're saying bigger fleets is preferred, thx.

1 corvette will eliminate 10 piracy. 1 battleship will only eliminate 4 piracy. You have 120 max piracy so technically a mere 13 corvettes will do the job, but 50 will do it in an instance so you can quickly eliminate all piracy along the whole trade route.

 

[unmerged(350868)]

You already figured that out yourself above. Effective piracy = current piracy - suppression. What else would it be?

Sorry to be a pain in the arse... but that cant be right.

To go back to my original question:

Its:

Current Piracy 73 - *base protection* 7 = piracy effect 66

So, In this case piracy 66. My piracy suppression due to the fleet in system is 104, which is 50% higher than the piracy number. But Piracy is stil rising, albiet at a much lower rate.

There are about 9 systems have a similar level of piracy along the route, so I am trying to understand the threshold of ships required to make the number start to drop. I dont believe I have the fleet capacity to make enough corvettes to purge this route at the same time as building my anti Gray Tempest fleet.

I have tried to read up on it, but cant find any explanation of how the pircay suppression number is applied to the piracy number.

Sorry if I did not explain it very well in my ealier posts.

 

[unmerged(350868)]

1 corvette will eliminate 10 piracy.

1 corvette creates 10 piracy suppression, but I do not think this is applied as a direct minus to piracy (or that is not what it is doing in my game).

Or is it the "Max Piracy" is is applied to... not the current piracy. Maybe that is where I am going wrong

 

[Zagreb 887]

Sorry to be a pain in the arse... but that cant be right.

To go back to my original question:

View attachment 765315

Its:

Current Piracy 73 - *base protection* 7 = piracy effect 66

So, In this case piracy 66. My piracy suppression due to the fleet in system is 104, which is 50% higher than the piracy number. But Piracy is stil rising, albiet at a much lower rate.

There are about 9 systems have a similar level of piracy along the route, so I am trying to understand the threshold of ships required to make the number start to drop. I dont believe I have the fleet capacity to make enough corvettes to purge this route at the same time as building my anti Gray Tempest fleet.

I have tried to read up on it, but cant find any explanation of how the pircay suppression number is applied to the piracy number.

Sorry if I did not explain it very well in my ealier posts.

An anti piracy fleet need some time in the system to eradicate the piracy from it. Your values of 104 won't expunge instantly the piracy level.

As it's said above, best solution for piracy is to build gateway to protect ypur trade

 

[unmerged(350868)]

The 104 number has slowed the rate of increase. The number is creeping up at exactly the same rate and has been for over a year. I need more than 104 in that system to reduce piracy.

I know the gateways are the way to go, but I am trying to understand the mechanics in the meantime. Hopefully in future games I can plan around this

 

[Mastikator]

1 corvette creates 10 piracy suppression, but I do not think this is applied as a direct minus to piracy (or that is not what it is doing in my game).

Or is it the "Max Piracy" is is applied to... not the current piracy. Maybe that is where I am going wrong

Piracy suppression eliminates current piracy. It comes back slowly after the fleet leaves the system

 

[SirBlackAxe]

If the tooltip is to be believed, you need as much piracy suppression as trade value. Which in this case would be just over 480, so 49 corvettes.

Alternatively, since max piracy is is 1/4th of trade value, if you have just over 120 protection from nearby starbases piracy will still climb to its max value but won't have any effect - you'll still get the full trade value from the route. Two Star Fortresses (24 protection each) with 4 hangar bays (10 protection) each will get you to 128 protection as long as they're both with 4 hyperlane jumps; adding more hangars increases both the protection and the range of that protection.

 

[unmerged(350868)]

If the tooltip is to be believed, you need as much piracy suppression as trade value. Which in this case would be just over 480, so 49 corvettes.

Alternatively, since max piracy is is 1/4th of trade value, if you have just over 120 protection from nearby starbases piracy will still climb to its max value but won't have any effect - you'll still get the full trade value from the route. Two Star Fortresses (24 protection each) with 4 hangar bays (10 protection) each will get you to 128 protection as long as they're both with 4 hyperlane jumps; adding more hangars increases both the protection and the range of that protection.

The tool tip is wrong about trade value (I forogt to mention that in my OP). I have been trying to work it out, and based on what Martikator said. I think it is the Max Piracy figure ( I have no idea on the logic behind that). So if your fleet is bigger than Max Piracy, it will start to reduce actual piracy. Anything smaller just decreases its rate of increase.

I have never used my starbases for anything other than naval anchorages and shipyards. I think anything else is a waste, unless it is an unprotected choke point away from your main fleet. I am not sure whether the gain in trade would offset the additional fleet costs from the loss of naval yards.

Incidentally... I have built 35 additional corvettes, and grouped them together with my other fleet, and gone system to system, and cleared out the pirates. It seems the rate of increase is a lot slower that a huge fleet. Not sure if there is an economy of scale going on there, or a linear increase... but it did the trick. I think it was probably because it sarted in such a bad state. I was patroling my fleets and it was having almost no effect. Also my base protection just jumped up to 17. Not sure why it jumped by 10... Think it was a resoloution maybe... Bloody Council formation has been pushed down *again*... I want my shiny GDF!!!

Anyway... Thanks everyone for your help. I just worked it out as my gateways are being finsihed...

 

[Farbros]

As people suggested, you can build a gateway there, or I prefer to simply add some defence platforms to the outpost in the system (without upgrading the station itself).