Where are all the space pirates at?

[Mesina2]

After watching 17 Blorg stream episode, I noticed that there are no pirates occurring ever since episode 1( or was it episode 2?).

It feels disappointing there are no pirates to worry about, especially since this LP is rushed to show everything possible instead of trying to micromanage efficiently. So it leads me to believe pirates are only serve as tutorial scripted instead of something you'll have to worry about through the game.

Is this because it's save file with early build so it bugs out without any pirates spawning or it's just gonna be on released game with pirates not appearing beyond only one scripted event?

 

[beckermt]

I would suspect that pirates only spawn as a threat to smaller nations, to provide a bit of a stumbling block and give you a reason to have a fleet early on.

 

[abaddondespoiler]

I think, they should be a constant threat. Especially for larger nations with huge amounts of unhappy population

 

[Turin the Mad]

Yarrr, we be knockin' yer airlocks for yer liverwurst and 'shrooms, Yarrr.

 

[Admiral Howe]

Oh please, not pirates. Can we skip this trope for at least a while?

 

[abaddondespoiler]

Oh please, not pirates. Can we skip this trope for at least a while?

NO! WE NEED PIRATES AND SOL! RIOT!

 

[barny]

I would suspect that pirates only spawn as a threat to smaller nations, to provide a bit of a stumbling block and give you a reason to have a fleet early on.

Seems likely

 

[QueenoftheIsles]

Oh please, not pirates. Can we skip this trope for at least a while?

Space Pirates are non-negotiable! Yarrr!

 

[RELee]

I be a-wanting to be a pirate nation, matey. We need the stealth and the boarding pods, aye!

 

[Belty]

By chance are you confusing pirate with the "Rogue Trader"?

 

[Asiak]

There have been at least one pirate station sighting that I definitely remember.

There might have been one other sighting but I only vaguely remember that one. They are there though.

We should really reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaly be thankful that there don't seem to be nearly as many pirates as Distant Worlds had.

I loved that game, and you could change it, but it had to many pirates. Sometimes I just felt like they were everywhere, sometimes unrealistically. The sheer number of them lessened the emptiness of the void. And unlike Paradox with that one event window, Distant Worlds made no attempt to explain how your recently space faring race is already out there pirating you.

 

[RELee]

made no attempt to explain how your recently space faring race is already out there pirating you.

We be calling it "opportunistic capitalism".

 

[GC13]

We should really reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaly be thankful that there don't seem to be nearly as many pirates as Distant Worlds had.

I loved that game, and you could change it, but it had to many pirates. Sometimes I just felt like they were everywhere, sometimes unrealistically. The sheer number of them lessened the emptiness of the void.

The pirates were so numerous and so powerful in Distant Worlds because of reasons explained in the backstory: these were the few factions who managed to retain spaceflight technology after everything went sideways. They're supposed to be oppressively powerful in the early game.

However, I don't want that for Stellaris. EU4 took pirates out, for very good reason (they're just a tedious micromanagement task). In a game like Stellaris, the only time you'd realistically have a problem with pirates (when your empire and navy are weak for a very long time) you'd be getting torn apart by other empires.

 

[Molikroth]

There have been at least one pirate station sighting that I definitely remember.

There might have been one other sighting but I only vaguely remember that one. They are there though.

We should really reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaly be thankful that there don't seem to be nearly as many pirates as Distant Worlds had.

I loved that game, and you could change it, but it had to many pirates. Sometimes I just felt like they were everywhere, sometimes unrealistically. The sheer number of them lessened the emptiness of the void. And unlike Paradox with that one event window, Distant Worlds made no attempt to explain how your recently space faring race is already out there pirating you.

In Distant Worlds, the game's lore is that you're not discovering FTL for the first time, rather you are rediscovering it after a massive war against an extra-galactic invader. So the pirates are just the survivors of your race that happened to still have working starships

 

[Quget]

Would you become a pirate if an empire is stable and will utterly destroy you if you start pirating ?
No.

For a small weak planetary empire I would understand that there are pirates.

 

[Asiak]

The pirates were so numerous and so powerful in Distant Worlds because of reasons explained in the
backstory: these were the few factions who managed to retain spaceflight technology after everything went sideways. They're supposed to be oppressively powerful in the early game.

However, I don't want that for Stellaris. EU4 took pirates out, for very good reason (they're just a tedious micromanagement task). In a game like Stellaris, the only time you'd realistically have a problem with pirates (when your empire and navy are weak for a very long time) you'd be getting torn apart by other empires.

In Distant Worlds, the game's lore is that you're not discovering FTL for the first time, rather you are rediscovering it after a massive war against an extra-galactic invader. So the pirates are just the survivors of your race that happened to still have working starships

You're both right I forgot about the lore.

They were indeed, imo it directly blocked the other parts of the game, the exploration, the colonization, interacting with actual empires.

 

[BrokenSky]

Hopefully Space piracy will be bigger once trade becomes a thing.

 

[REDDQ]

Moar space pirates!

 

[The_Red_Star]

After watching 17 Blorg stream episode, I noticed that there are no pirates occurring ever since episode 1( or was it episode 2?).

It feels disappointing there are no pirates to worry about, especially since this LP is rushed to show everything possible instead of trying to micromanage efficiently. So it leads me to believe pirates are only serve as tutorial scripted instead of something you'll have to worry about through the game.

Is this because it's save file with early build so it bugs out without any pirates spawning or it's just gonna be on released game with pirates not appearing beyond only one scripted event?

Samus Aran obviously killed them all.

 

[schultz]

So the pirates in DW just sat around for hundreds of years, floating in space, and waiting for a civilization to achieve FTL technology so they could get back into business?

That seems kind of forced. I turned pirates off in DW because they were a pain in the ass, and detracted from the game.

I've got no problem with small bands of opportunistic pirates sniping at unescorted merchants in frontier, poorly developed, or high unrest systems, and draining from trade income. Raiding and possibly capturing mining stations is okay too. And that's it.

Anything on a larger scale, such as huge fleets being required to deal with them, or pirates capturing entire planets, is just way too out there for me.

Privateering is another matter entirely. Privateers have access to the ship construction infrastructure. Give them letters of Marque during wartime, and let them go forth and profit.