Pirate spawn fix: Make them "afraid" of trade stations and planets

[nightwalker_007]

According the the game docs, pirates aren't supposed to attack near trade stations, yet they do, an will continue to pursue you even if you're behind the station glass. I, and others that I have introduced to the game, have found pirates attacking new pirate right at the spawn station before they have even constructed a new ship--and then find themselves re-spawning only to be blown to bits again. In the case of my cousin, he didn't pick the game up again after that experience on his first 10 minutes of gameplay.

My proposal is an adjustment to the pirate logic: Pirates will not cross within two sectors of a planet or trade station. Once the pirate bumps or passes within two sectors, they immediately reverse their velocity and back out into their allowed zone, and, optionally cancel purist. It actually is a good idea for pirates to avoid planets in general as not all ships are designed to leave the gravity well of a planet anyway.

In making plants more useful and save-havens from pirates, I propose gimping planets to avoid them being used as easy mining sites. Change planets so that they can only be mined by the astronauts salvage beam, or altered by a build block. Ship-based salvage beams should have no effect on planets.

 

[nightwalker_007]

We've got a bug: #T2921

The fact pirates can, and do, chase players around what should be protected trade stations, is, in fact, a bug.

 

[Lord_Greyscale]

Yes, it is certainly a "lore vs. gameplay" cock-up.

That said, the real bug is that sectors -1,-1,-1 through 4,4,4 (the whole cube of 'em) aren't set in the game's existing "peace" and "protect" modes by default.
For those unaware, Peace means pirates cannot spawn in such a sector, and Protect means shots/missiles/beams cannot cause harm. (they can push/pull though)

That, and that pirate stations can still spawn in the sectors directly adjacent to 2,2,2. (epically bad when it is a piratebase ALPHA, with it's newb-deleter missiles.)

 

[nightwalker_007]

It's a shame this hasn't been addressed yet. This is a huge issue for getting new players into the game. I know I've had several single player games I've had to restart because of pirates spawning near me. In fact, even with pirate spawning turned off, I have a test game for designing new ships which is now surrounded by pirates.

 

[MacThule]

It's a shame this hasn't been addressed yet. This is a huge issue for getting new players into the game. I know I've had several single player games I've had to restart because of pirates spawning near me. In fact, even with pirate spawning turned off, I have a test game for designing new ships which is now surrounded by pirates.

I think you are in luck.

The next major round of improvements slated for the game is a major overhaul to the galaxy - distribution of resources, stars, planets, gorgeous new planets and more.

It's the perfect time for this, and I am definitely of the opinion that there should be a substantial buffer of safe and protected sectors around spawn. Possibly even the entire spawn system (so noobs can do a little mining and generally ease into the game before exploring the other 99.99% of the galaxy which isn't protected) as long as no one can build player stations there.

The region of space around spawn needs some modest but reliable economic opportunities, interesting features to explore, and a sense of safety (that will quickly become boring and stifling for players as they learn the game, driving them to strike out and explore).