Alaric Faelen
Black Rebel Rifter Club
76
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Posted - 2012.05.28 21:05:00 -
[1] - Quote
Piracy is indeed fairly broken as a game mechanic. To begin with, piracy is really just a matter of semantics. Except for FW folks, you are always a pirate to your target. Regardless of what ever 'cause' you fight for, all that PvP is just the same as what 'pirates' do. Ransoms are pretty much the only functional difference- indeed low sec guns will fire on someone calling themselves an anti-pirate the same as they will for me and my Black Rebel friends. Only FW really qualifies as fighting for a legitimate national military. Everyone else is a pirate or hired gun- all random PvP is a form of piracy.
It goes to the issues of low sec. Generally, in Eve the closer something is to a RL counterpart, the better it works. Like a large fleet with specific roles being filled works remarkably like a RL battle fleet- and it works well. But piracy in Eve doesn't reflect it's RL counter part very well- the Age of Sail.
In short, we have no way to intercept passing (preferably soft targets) traffic in low sec, except to camp gates which requires large ships to absorb gate fire- where most pirates favor small, hit and run type ships.Our other option is camping a static plex, which means usually no one runs the plex and only comes to fight- not exactly 'piracy' in any meaningful sense. The truth is, we do mostly arranged duels because we're PvP enthusiasts. Piracy is a pretext for enjoying PvP.
In the grand scheme of null being a resource producing area, and high sec being the market areas, then low sec should be that dangerous passage between the two where pirates lurk and can halt unescorted traffic.
I think bubbles should work in low and not null- to reflect the local authority of your sov -claiming alliance in null, and the lack of security on the long low sec route to empire space to sell those wares. That would put more requirement to actually escort those resources to market rather than just blast thru low sec fearing little other than the rare gate camp. It would allow 'pirates' to act like pirates rather than just PvP enthusiasts, which is probably a more accurate description of most pirates.
We suffer from the negative connotation of the term 'pirate' without actually doing hardly anything differently than everyone else. Whether you shoot people to collect kill mails or moon goo, it's all functionally the same. If anything, our ransoming of ships and pods is more civilized than anyone else, who are almost universally NBSI.
Sorry to burst the bubble on piracy in Eve. But it's nothing like non-pirates seem to think. |