| GIMMIE YARR STAFF | |
|---|---|
| [ job_image ] Pirate |
Access: Pirate Additional Access: Any place a block of X4 will open! Difficulty: Hard Supervisors: The Pirate Captain Duties:Listen to 1700s sea shanties, steal everything valuable, rattle your bones Guides: This page |
So, those station-lubbers don't wanna give us our cut huh? Well, I guess we'll just go over there and take it!
There's a low chance of the pirate event occurring during a game. The station receives a demand from the pirates for 80% of the cargo points present when the event triggers. If the crew cough up the money via the command consoles (typically in the Bridge), nothing happens.
If the crew refuses or stays silent, however, a ship of pirates spawns somewhere in space. If there aren't enough ghosts that initially ready up to become pirates, then the pirate ship still spawns, along with sleepers that ghosts can late-join into. (wouldn't make sense for the crew to be rewarded for not paying the ransom, huh?) They can then pilot their ship to a location next to the station, and board.
The goal of the pirates is to loot the station of anything valuable. The minimum target is 50000 credits, with the figure scaling with the relative prosperity of the crew. Generally, in order of importance, this means breaking into the vault and siphoning the station's credits, as well as all of their mined materials, killing people and looting the money from their IDs, and finally just carrying anything not bolted to the ground back to your ship.
There are currently five types of pirate crews, divided into the categories normal and dangerous:
Your run of the mill motley crew of Nanotrasen and Syndicate deserters, civilian renegades, and all-around scoundrels. The human pirate crew consists of two pirates, led by a single captain (who gets slightly better gear). They get a modestly equipped ship, which comes along with a small armory, but its really nothing to be impressed about. They generally carry around energy scimitars, laser guns, and a small selection of explosives. The first thing typically on their agenda is C4-ing into the armory, in order to acquire enough weaponry to take the crew on a prolonged fight.
Silverscales are pressure-proof lizardmen who are slightly hardier do not need to breathe, however they are NOT temperature proof and will freeze after prolonged exposure to space! When in danger, they can harden up into a silver statue, which'll require you to spear to death rather than baton to death! They'll most likely use it to get the jump on you, however. They have a modest set of equipment, e-swords and regal mosins not-mosins.
What they lack in armor, weapons or anything resembling a proper ship, they make up for by having double the manpower of any other pirate crew. Playing them is not dissimilar to being a fugitive, but this time, they have free rein to murder as they please.
A gang of mutant Ethereals packed into a hollowed-out bluespace asteroid, hellbent on demonstrating what happens to your brain on bluespace crystals.
They have the same space resistances as Silverscales, with the added bonus of having an innate Bluespace Prophecy brain trauma to offset their weakness to brute damage. Their ship, while lacking in turrets, comes equipped with a suite of mining tools; leftover bluespace crystals, PKA pressure kits, jump boots and even a bluespace launchpad! This equipment and physiology is especially effective when combined with a hit-and-run playstyle..
It should be noted that PKA pressure kits stack with two allowing you to put out enough damage to put traditional guns to shame.
Yarr harr harr! The skeleton pirates now command THE FLYING DUTCHMAN, complete with ghastly inhabitants! The ship is armed with several cannons, which can be loaded with various cannonballs, found onboard the ship. Once 15u of gunpowder are put into the cannon, and exposed to a fiery device (anything that can light a cigarette will work, from cheap lighters to plasma cutters), the gun will fire, with considerable impact.
Oh yeah, did I note, you're completely immune to temperature, pressure, radiation, disease and embedded items, on top of not needing to eat or breathe and having no blood. The other lowly pirates might need EVA suits, but not you! This enables you to break into the station from unusual locations, and keep up a brisk pace in space, whilst the landlubbers have to don bulky hardsuits. That's not to say that life as a skeleton is all flowers and sunshine. Your biggest downside is your complete inability to process chemicals, meaning that much of the medicine that you can loot from the station is completely useless. Thankfully, you can drink milk to heal. Remember to take some from the fridge onboard your ship, and if you've ran out, to loot the station's kitchen. If you've really ran out, there's typically a cow within the station's garden that you can milk, and barring that, you can order milk (or cows) via cargo. (but jeez, what a waste of your hard-earned credits...) Take care to differentiate between space milk and soy milk, however!
While they are human like the standard rogues, ex-pharmacists have a wide array of biohazards at their disposal, enough to make them rival even a small nuclear operative force.
In addition to the above, the ship is also equipped with full chemistry and virology labs, and even a working cryotube! With such a wide array of equipment, it is recommended that you experiment to get the most out of your bioweapon arsenal.
Specializing in ship combat, these pirates are at their strongest on the station, and their weakest in space.
Overall, their arsenal shines in ranged combat, coming equipped with autorifles, pistols, breaching shotguns, and other nonlethal incapacitation methods like telescoping batons and a grenade launcher with flashbangs and smoke bombs.
Defensively, they come with tactical vests and a ship heavily defended by ballistic turrets, though excessive reliance on the ship is inadvisable.
The data siphon is an optional means of looting the station. When turned on, this heap of machinery automatically starts siphoning credits from cargo, tech levels from the RnD network, and also creates a "hostile environment", preventing the cargo and emergency shuttle from entering or leaving. Meanwhile, it also locks RnD and supply consoles from being accessed altogether, so science can't research new technologies and cargo can't order stuff.
However, the data siphon also broadcasts a GPS signal ("Nautical Signal"), alerts the entire crew when it's been turned on, and can't be turned back off once activated. If you choose to use it, the entire station will be able to find your ship, and they'll be coming to destroy the siphon, so be ready for a fight if you turn it on!