Why so few pirates?

[The Cantrian]

So, i've been thinking about this question for quite some time, playing quite a few characters in coastal towns. It's so easy to attack a coastal town, you dock, you attack everybody standing around, you pick up everything you can and undock. What could be easier? You could even enter a few buildings if they're open, and steal stuff.

Please, can anybody tell me why this doesn't happen more frequently?

[Seeker]

The feeling I get when my chars are near or in coastal towns is that there are too many pirates. However, most of them are fairly amateur and wont go to the extremes of attacking full populated towns. It's safer to just attack the smaller ones.

[CrashBlizz]

I've got a pirate charcter but she every time she enters a town she gets scared and paranoid and leaves almost stright away.

She'll do it at some point though.....

[Dee]

Why are you encouraging piracy?

Although, you might have just given me some thoughts

[SekoETC]

I got a pirate but seriously, you can't get far with a longboat, especially if there's more than one person and some loot aboard. Try running away from someone when your boat travels like a pixel in an hour... For that he's keeping low profile until he can get a crowbar made and then it's time to snatch a faster boat.

[Snake]

My pirate murdered the owner of the project and gained the sloop

[Torkess_theCommie]

I should try that some time

[AoM]

Piracy has happened a LOT, especially back in ye olde days when the world was young. There may have been a drop-off in recent times due to game mechanic changes, but there was a period in cantr that it would be appropriate to call the Age of Piracy.

Probably comes just after the Age of Sea Exploration and just before the Age of Being Able to See Boats Off Your Coast...

[Doug R.]

Few pirates? I want to live where you are. The places my charries are are infested with pirates. We just had two separate attacks in the last week in one location.

[scarlet_claret]

Heh heh heh I think I know what city you're talking about, Doug.

One of my pirate characters is stuck on the boat with a sleepy leader who holds the only key. *sigh* Yep, they've basically been floating around in circles...

No Pillaging = No Fun

[deadboy]

Yup, I know where Doug is talking about as well...... I wonder if we'll ever manage to catch the first guy Ok I won't say any more

[N-Aldwitch]

Umm, having a couple of pirate characters I'll explain to you why this is completely inpractical.

1) You get tired. Once you're tired, the people eventually dock to your ship after the attack, you can't fight, you're doomed.
2) Unless you have several people, it's hard to kill in one wave. Once you start docking again you can't do that again. They'll know its you.
3) The more places you raid, the more people will cheat and RP somehow that 'Oh, that ship looks suspicious'.

Etc, there are more but I have a work meeting in a few minutes.

[CrashBlizz]

There are other ways rather than the 'dock, smash and grab'.

Have a little imagination

[Blackdeath]

I think it'd be interesting to have theives...not the lowlife ones who go through any unlocked door and grab and run, but a sophisticated one. the only problem with that and pirates is that its alot of work. You're definitely going to need a crowbar, a good weapon, and transportation *the fatser (and more expsnsive) the better. Plus it nearly impossible to be a pirate solo, and it can be so troublesome getting a crew together. First off you need to find the people who are willing to do piracy, and you need them to be active.

[CrashBlizz]

The problem with most pirate crews is they tend to stab each other in the back normally through fear of being stabed in the back.