enemy shipyards

[Betelgeuse]

Every major sovereign should have there own shipyard that occationally makes ships for themselves. Most would just gate out but some could form groups to attack the player and the other sovereigns.

[Yugi]

Heh, this sounds pretty good.
It would finally explain where all these enemy ships are coming from.

I think there should be a Commonwealth shipyard(s) in St. K's, and probably scattered throughout pre- and post-St. K's. Would probably also be the place where you buy new ships.
Same goes for enemy shipyards (pirate shipyard in Charon, etc), especially if this reputation system is introduced sometime.

[goat not sheep]

Now that wouldn't be fun... watching commonwealth attack the pirates... but I would LOVE to see a pirate shipyard! It would add a lot of story and would make it very fun to kill! Hmm... ferian shipyard?

[Karl]

Good idea. Even adding a couple different shipyards would be cool.... something that can produce ships other then the stargates, would explain "Where are those endless streams of ships coming from?", and would make for a good trading partner as they'd be hungry for ores, alloys, and other ship components. They should be rare, though.

_____

edit: A pirate shipyard? That's the one thing that doesn't make sense! Pirates steal their ships. (That's how "pirates" are supposed to work, anyway.) A pirate repair demo would be nice, though... and should have all sorts of interesting scavanged items.

[Yugi]

Well, the Ferians spawn at the hives, so they pretty much already have a shipyard.

[goat not sheep]

A pirate shipyard? That's the one thing that doesn't make sense! Pirates steal their ships. A pirate repair demo would be nice, though... and should have all sorts of interesting scavanged items.

Who in the rightful mind pilots a corsair, or a Viking that the pirates steal from? They have to produce them somewhere, no?

[Karl]

If they produced their own stuff they wouldn't be "pirates". They'd be, at the least, a pirate subgroup of a larger nation.

Though I guess since they have their own exclusive ship-types already they aren't very "piratey" to begin with. Hmm...

Unless... a nation of pirates?

[Blinzler]

I agree that the pirates must have their own shipyard somewhere to produce their own little ships and modify and tinker with them.
I'd personally like to see their ship (graphics) looking more like (heavily) modified regular ships of other factions and all kinds of those. They shouldn't really have their own type of ships.
Bringing out the geek in me - for comparison in Star Wars in Corellia with their Junk-Ships (roughly translated, never read it in english). Those were horrible ships made up of parts from other ships. They might be good, they might blow any second - you never really knew what you had in front of you. And seeing how horrible these constructions were only the worst scum of the scum flew them. That's pretty much how they were described. Sounds pretty much like the idea of pirates to me. They can't really go anywhere else and live and survive by salvaging and looting their victims.

[TedStudley]

you could also have the ability to hijack ships while they are still in the shipyard!

[Yugi]

If they produced their own stuff they wouldn't be "pirates". They'd be, at the least, a pirate subgroup of a larger nation.

Though I guess since they have their own exclusive ship-types already they aren't very "piratey" to begin with. Hmm...

Unless... a nation of pirates?

There already is a nation of pirates - look at the description:

Charon Pirates [augmented humans]: A loosely organized group of pirates/privateers that prey on commercial vessels. Individual groups have a high degree of autonomy but they pay tribute to the larger organization.

[Karl]

Actually, that sounds like the Mob.

But it doesn't sound like a true nation. I doubt that they have pirate settlements with little pirate kids going to pirate school.


Re: A pirate shipyard

Assume that the Chiron Pirates are a large shadowy criminal organization as per the description--a space mafia. They have the ability to raid ships, smuggle illegal items, and generally "kick civilization in the kneecaps" when they're not looking. But... the authorities will be after them, and like it or not, they simply don't have the power to take on the Colonial army head on. (That is the nature of criminal organizatons.) So they have to play cat and mouse.

Now, when you're in that situation, putting your resources into a large, conspicuous, undisguisable undertaking like a shipyard would be suicide. A stationary criminal base--and one of such massive strategic importance--is a giant target, and the authories would inevitably track it down and destroy it.

So, a pirate shipyard? I just don't buy it. But... if they had a mobile shipbuilding facility, that would be cool, and I could see that as being agile enough to keep the authorities off balance and thus plausibly exist within the logic of the game universe.

[Blinzler]

@karl

then explain to me why the black market and their production facilities (lab) are happily existing, unbothered by authorities?

I got a couple of possible explanations:
a) The authoroties are simple too busy with bigger problems (mainly - war) at their hand and neither have resources nor man-power to effectively deal with the pirates and find/ smoke out their bases

b) the pirates themselves have very cleverly hidden their bases, making them very hard to detect. Likely target at hand here - somewhere in an ateroid belt, a small moon or something.

c) the pirates posses some means of cloaking technology/ jamming devices to avoid getting caught.

d) the pirates are much better organized then it seems and have their own spies in the hierachie of the commonwealth. Those give them necessary information to avoid any nasty surprises and feed them infos on lucrative targets.

e) they are simply equipped with small but mobile bases.

All the above can of course be combined, so there's plenty of explanations if your willing to look for one

[goat not sheep]

Well...i believe the pirate steals items... i don't see any pirates piloting ronins or centorians, not ingame. It all depends on George, anyways, as he is the creator of both the game AND the timeline.

[Karl]

then explain to me why the black market and their production facilities (lab) are happily existing, unbothered by authorities?

I was thinking about that when I posted, but I figured that I had said enough for one post so I left it out. I think you give alot of good possibilities in your response, though.

The black markets SHOULD be hard to find. It would be nice to see them cloaked and/or radar jammed. Some might be hidden in nebulas for natural radar cover, and others might be buried in a zone of pollution where no one in their right mind would go... but the underworld knows a safe path through the pollution. And some might even be disguised as something else... a hotel, an ice farm, or even an asteriod, and you don't find out the truth until you dock.

[Betelgeuse]

it seems more along the lines of city states in game. The commonwealth is more of an alliance. Most space is not owned by anyone kind of like the ocean. Plus there is the issue of where it seems that the commonwealth is barely hanging on.
Plus it seems they are an oligarchy (select corporations) with a lot of corruption.