No room in Avorion for Privateers?

[Thundercraft]

pri·va·teer

 

noun, historical

 

    1. an armed ship owned and officered by private individuals holding a government commission and authorized for use in war, especially in the capture of enemy merchant shipping.

 

Wikipedia on Privateer

A privateer was a private person or ship that engaged in maritime warfare under a commission. The commission, also known as a letter of marque, empowered the person to carry on all forms of hostility permissible at sea by the usages of war, including attacking foreign vessels during wartime and taking them as prizes...

 

In essence, some nations literally gave a license to certain ships to commit piracy on the merchant vessels of enemy nations.

 

Privateering, or being a mercenary gun-for-hire, was more or less the basis for Wing Commander: Privateer, which was a pretty good space sim for it's day. You play the role of a mercenary who does missions for the Confederation... and/or other factions. And you get paid for it.

 

I am disappointed that Privateering is very strongly discouraged in Avorion by the game's mechanics. Specifically, whenever I destroy a 'merchant' (i.e., a non-combat vessel), I get a warning message about destroying a non-combat ship:

 

You destroyed a civil ship. Relations to all witnessing factions worsened. (!)

Relations to The Zlou States worsened by 30629.

 

 

To borrow from another thread:

 

5- Finally, I do get on one hand, why killing civil ships drops relations to all witnessing factions, but, at the same time, those same factions would do exactly the same...  send their combat ships and take those civil ships out. If they are enemies to them, they shouldn't be annoyed for me destroying them. just saying... :p

I got a reputation drop for killing a civy ship.

The factions whose relation with me dropped were at that time shooting at said ship.

LOGIC

 

I mean... really?! I understand that the faction who owns or has close ties with said merchants would be upset - and rightfully so. But why would a faction frown upon this behavior if they are mortal enemies of that merchant's faction?

 

Instead of severely hurting my reputation, my reputation with them should increase. Indeed, they should give me a reward for hurting the economy and supply lines of their enemy.

 

For that matter, there should be missions available that has us attack a freighter belonging to an enemy faction. It shouldn't pay nearly as much as for attacking pirates. But maybe it's protected by an escort or something. And not all mercenaries or independents (like the player) would be willing to dirty their hands or ruin their reputation with this faction.

 

Also:

 

2- We could have s glimpse of how factions relate to each other, specially on those factions where we are regarded as allies.  If they look at you as an ally, why not share their diplomatic stance towards other factions? after all, you could help out.

 

Having a window to view each faction's relationship with each other would be very useful, IMO. It also adds more depth to the game.

[koonschi]

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

That's an old thread you found there, and the issue has been resolved. If a witnessing faction participated in the destruction of a civil vessel, you won't lose relations to that faction.

 

That said, I think it would be a good idea to include privateering. It's not like I don't want to encourage it, it's just not in yet, at least not as a separate mission or explicit mechanic.