How to deal with the piracy in the late game ?

[Metztli]

I'm starting to get real problems dealing with the piracy modifier with mine "anti-piracy patrol fleets" because the trade value of certain choke points it's around 600-700 and a fleet of 15 corvettes it's around only -140 anti-piracy value (~1.5k fleet power). So am I doing something wrong ? Should I start destroying space stations and building new ones on these places or building some huge fleets on these points ?

 

[DreadLindwyrm]

Late game? Gateways.
Build gateways and trade will reroute through them.
Trade collection and Trade protection *may* reroute through them, I'm not sure if that happens in latest beta.

If it's particular choke points and you can separate out the trade again after the choke points to something manageable, you can also put a small station on those choke points and that should kill piracy in that system.

 

[Metztli]

Late game? Gateways.
Build gateways and trade will reroute through them.
Trade collection and Trade protection *may* reroute through them, I'm not sure if that happens in latest beta.

If it's particular choke points and you can separate out the trade again after the choke points to something manageable, you can also put a small station on those choke points and that should kill piracy in that system.

I don't have Gateways and don't think this will help me in my current situation as well.

 

[AlanC9]

Trade collection and Trade protection *may* reroute through them, I'm not sure if that happens in latest beta.

I think you might have to manually order the starbase to redraw its trade route after the gateway is online.

Before gateways, it's useful to construct a "starbase road"; meaning that your anchorage starbases are laid out along the primary trade routes. Ths will drastically reduce the possible piracy targets , and it's free since you need the anchorages anyway,

 

[Sayakus]

Put like 3 full hangar Starbase in area

 

[Talanic]

Remember. A starbase of any level always sets piracy in that specific system to zero. Systems near your capitol, where trade routes are getting too big to patrol, should contain said starbases. Build them as anchorages and you're good.

 

[Askorti]

Also you can create dedicated patrol corvettes with no modules and no weapons, which provide just as much pirate suppression but cost much less to build and maintain. Completely useless in case of war tho.

 

[AlanC9]

Put like 3 full hangar Starbase in area

That's an awful lot of potential fleet cap you're throwing away.

 

[Mastikator]

That's an awful lot of potential fleet cap you're throwing away.

Unless you use habitats and put fortresses on them...
A single habitat with 16 fortresses is worth 266 navy cap, put that on a bastion in a choke point and nobody will ever get through. Since discovering this I haven't needed to build a single anchorage and have not needed a single patrol fleet or even a gateway to deal with 3000+ trade going to my capitol.

 

[Metztli]

Unless you use habitats and put fortresses on them...
A single habitat with 16 fortresses is worth 266 navy cap, put that on a bastion in a choke point and nobody will ever get through. Since discovering this I haven't needed to build a single anchorage and have not needed a single patrol fleet or even a gateway to deal with 3000+ trade going to my capitol.

And how exactly you don't need patrol fleets ? There are multiple places around my territory with high trade value going on, so how only 1 habitat covers all of this ?

 

[Nessfno]

And how exactly you don't need patrol fleets ? There are multiple places around my territory with high trade value going on, so how only 1 habitat covers all of this ?

Because you use habitats for naval capacity, and regular starbases for piracy protection through hangars

 

[Mastikator]

And how exactly you don't need patrol fleets ? There are multiple places around my territory with high trade value going on, so how only 1 habitat covers all of this ?

The habitats cover all my navy cap needs. You get insane value for habitats if you use them as navy generators. You only need 4 of those bad boys to get a staggering 1000+ navy cap, you'd need 26 star fortress anchorages to duplicate that.

I got two or three shipyards and the rest are bastions, not a single anchorage. A bastion with 6 hangars will give 60 protection up to 6 jumps away. They overlap and stack a staggering 928 protection where I need it. I can route 3700 trade value through a system and never worry about patrols or pirates, AND the bastions also serve as speed bumps should an enemy fleet get behind my lines.

This is from an end game save where I wiped out all life and I do have 30 something captured anchorages but they still give less navy cap than 6 habitats. Yes 6 Habitats > 30 star fortress anchorages.
Those habitats still produce ~200 science in each category and ~40 trade value so they're not exactly dead weight.

Once you have taken void born and built your first habitat you should convert all your anchorages into bastions and never look back.

 

[Metztli]

The habitats cover all my navy cap needs. You get insane value for habitats if you use them as navy generators. You only need 4 of those bad boys to get a staggering 1000+ navy cap, you'd need 26 star fortress anchorages to duplicate that.

I got two or three shipyards and the rest are bastions, not a single anchorage. A bastion with 6 hangars will give 60 protection up to 6 jumps away. They overlap and stack a staggering 928 protection where I need it. I can route 3700 trade value through a system and never worry about patrols or pirates, AND the bastions also serve as speed bumps should an enemy fleet get behind my lines.

This is from an end game save where I wiped out all life and I do have 30 something captured anchorages but they still give less navy cap than 6 habitats. Yes 6 Habitats > 30 star fortress anchorages.
Those habitats still produce ~200 science in each category and ~40 trade value so they're not exactly dead weight.

Once you have taken void born and built your first habitat you should convert all your anchorages into bastions and never look back.

So I should remove all of starbases who I don't need or are with low trade value and build them on the trade route together with the habitats and then convert them to bastions with hangars ? I guess leaving some shipyards is still a good idea ?

 

[Mastikator]

So I should remove all of starbases who I don't need or are with low trade value and build them on the trade route together with the habitats and then convert them to bastions with hangars ? I guess leaving some shipyards is still a good idea ?

IMO it's always best to put bastions in one of two places
1) choke points
2) systems with planets (where most of your trade value will be generated)

6 jumps in all directions is a lot, so those choke point bastions will still give a lot overlapping of trade value protection.

The reason you want bastions where you have planets is to have a deep space blacksite which will give the planet(s) +5 stability

Habitats with fortresses can go in either of these places, either next to a planet where it will benefit from the blacksite or on a choke point where it will be an impassible barrier.

Edit- whether removing a starbase is a good idea depends on your economy, converting an anchorage into a bastion may be good enough if they are in a position to give trade protection where it's needed.

 

[Metztli]

IMO it's always best to put bastions in one of two places
1) choke points
2) systems with planets (where most of your trade value will be generated)

6 jumps in all directions is a lot, so those choke point bastions will still give a lot overlapping of trade value protection.

The reason you want bastions where you have planets is to have a deep space blacksite which will give the planet(s) +5 stability

Habitats with fortresses can go in either of these places, either next to a planet where it will benefit from the blacksite or on a choke point where it will be an impassible barrier.

Edit- whether removing a starbase is a good idea depends on your economy, converting an anchorage into a bastion may be good enough if they are in a position to give trade protection where it's needed.

How high of a trade value I should be looking for ? What's the numbers you use ? Is 40 trade value a lot or not ? I'm struggling to decide what shipyards/tradehubs I should scrap because I'm near the starbase capacity so creating new bastions/fortresses is not an option before making place for them.

 

[trojan1234]

I deal with piracy by A) building gateway at capital and at best planet in region (1-2 sectors) and sending trade through gateway B) if I cannot use gateway, building bastion on the trade route plus sending patrol fleets C) if the above cannot solve, move capital to the center of trade network.

I think you already discussed A & B but if you still having problem of piracy try consider moving capital. Having capital at the end of long trade route will increase trade value through route than having capital at the center of trade networks.

 

[Xaelyn]

Once I hit around 2000 total trade it became impossible to manage. Hanger bays quickly went from incredible to worthless, as the portion of trade they protect gets exponentially smaller.
Even 300 odd unarmed corvettes were barely able to put a dent in it, and surely cost me far more than they made.

Then I got gateway construction and now 90% of my trade is collected directly by my capital starbase, and there's not a pirate to be seen.

 

[Theter]

Remember that you cannot have piracy on an upgraded outpost. Sometimes its best just to line up the starports on the main trade route, thus removing the need to put any bastion. For the rest, yeah there's is still gateways.

 

[AlanC9]

Unless you use habitats and put fortresses on them...
A single habitat with 16 fortresses is worth 266 navy cap, put that on a bastion in a choke point and nobody will ever get through. Since discovering this I haven't needed to build a single anchorage and have not needed a single patrol fleet or even a gateway to deal with 3000+ trade going to my capitol.

Interesting. I don't have that DLC. Sounds like that's just as well.

 

[KingAlamar]

I don't have Gateways and don't think this will help me in my current situation as well.

Gateways solved my piracy problem as soon as I could start spamming them in my original Mega Corp game. Until then I had pretty much the same issue you're describing.