What is the deal with Cadar Pirates?

[iamtherevenant]

I am playing on hard as an Explorer. Starting Faction is Clan Javat.
I am trying to make nice with all the factions and I have (well had) a trade permit with the Cadar working towards a Rank 1 military level.
I am doing a contract for them and all I have in my hold is water and fuel, and I get hammered by 3 different Cadar pirates on the way to the destination.

Cadar is only in a Spy battle with the De Valtos, and Clan Javat is in a solar war with the De Valtos...are they just trying to earn points with the De Valtos? I have Neutral or better rep with all the factions, even the Cadar still.

[Tenebrous Pirate]

Pirates fly around pretty much everywhere, and attack anyone that doesn't have a trade permit with their faction, no matter what goods you have in your hold.

[Fenikso]

The trade permit should keep you safe from the faction's pirates. They should just ignore you. If you have lost it you will need a new one with Cadar faction.

I personally use another approach called "Shoot first" . You can also use standard Cadar greeting (aka The Hypersonic Hunter Killer Space Torpedo) to deal with them as they should understand it well ;D.

[iamtherevenant]

I did have a trade permit, that is what was confusing me...but I might have lost it for some reason before that. I am thinking it may be karma. With my character on normal level I am at -16000+ rep with Cadar...It's my stress relief character.

[slayernz]

Woohoo ... I've never had -16,000 RP for any faction - even though I routinely target Steel Song as my "kill of the day" charity. Mind you, I am constantly starting new games as old games become too routine, so maybe I should just persevere and strive for the -20k club with SS

It definitely is random as to pirate encounters, and yes, having a Trade Permit SHOULD ward them away. I have found from time to time, a pirate ignores the permit, but as Fenikso says - if you have the opportunity, shoot first, pick up the pieces later. I'm sure you know that if you want to do that approach, you need to have 3 things.
1) You need to have good pilot/tactic skills (see Funikso, I didn't say you need Stealth ).

2) It certainly helps to have a ship with good engines/weapons. Javat Cutter is a brilliant starter ship - or the honor ships (Honor of Thulun is one of the only reasons why I consider being nice to Thulun)

3) Make sure that your target pirate is not allied with any faction that you call a friend. Attacking (but not destroying or enslaving) pirates has no effect on the faction that pirate belongs to, but does have an impact on allied faction RP.

[12coryt]

Pirates make me angry. I try to ignore them as much as possible, but it's always nice to hop on board and see what they have sometimes.

[absimiliard]

I love pirates.

No rep loss opportunity for xp, free cargo, free crew, free reloads on torpedoes, and the only cost its the risk to life and limb.

Pure awesomeness.

Do check for alliances before shooting though.

-abs

[iamtherevenant]

I am beginning to think that maybe this game doesn't like this particular character.
I lost all my rep with Javat, and that is my starting faction. All I did was fly a few AU away to stash my goods. Not sure how I lose 100+ rep from 1 exploration then maybe 5 AU with no encounters to my cache. (I constantly check conflicts and my faction rep to see how things affect it. So I honestly don't know what happened) Oh well, it's all for fun.

slayernz
Yeah, I have had that character forever and it became even more fun when I upgraded.
All those credits and now I have a bunch of new ships and upgrades to buy.
But I digress. It's just fun blockading Cadar worlds and blasting any Cadar ship that pops up on my radar.


P.S.
while I am thinking about it if anyone can answer.
Is Level 18 the highest rank you can get for any faction?
Or is that the max on Normal?

[noesis]

I believe Military Rank of 18 for a faction is the highest rank you can achieve regardless of difficulty.

[Cory Trese]

Military Rank 18 is the maximum Rank in ST RPG.

Military Rank 12 is the maximum non-binding Rank in ST RPG. Once you exceed Rank 12 any transgression will result in substantial rep and rank loss.

[Fenikso]

Sept 2, 2011 11:37:54 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Military Rank 12 is the maximum non-binding Rank in ST RPG.

That's great to know. I was wandering why I lose rank so easily on rank 18 when it never happened to me before.

[iamtherevenant]

Yes it is.
Thanks, you guys are awesome at answering my questions.

And if I may, beg one more question.
I have only been able to do it once or twice before, but: when you have the mechanic and you land in the wilds, sometimes the fix/repair button will pop up. What items do you need in your inventory to fix the sails? I assumes metals, crystals and prolly chemicals...but I have only seen it pop up once or twice before.

[Fenikso]

Sept 1, 2011 16:23:15 GMT -5 iamtherevenant said:

I am at -16000+ rep with Cadar...

And I thought that my -7000 is a lot. Well, I have some catching up to do .

Sept 1, 2011 17:12:45 GMT -5 slayernz said:

1) You need to have good pilot/tactic skills (see Funikso, I didn't say you need Stealth ).

Be careful with that stuff. There comes an army of frustrated players sending "Slayernz said you need no Stealth and I have died" e-mails to Cory ;D. But I have to admit that I have played [Tactics / Pilot / Explorer] Explorer and it was a great fun. Until he met the Aliens on level 17.

[iamtherevenant]

No matter what type of character I play, pilot tactics and stealth are the first things I raise, then warrior strength and intimidation, then their primary skills - like exploration.

I really don't like flying around space with a big sign that says "Please shoot at me"

[Cory Trese]

iamtherevenant -- I have a very similar play pattern. Pilot helps fuel economy and combat, Stealth helps avoid hostile encounters. Warrior is key for fighting off Bounty Hunters and Intimidation comes back to boost fuel economy once Pilot starts to lag behind the primary skill.

On higher difficulty fuel economy is a big issue and so are repeat hostile encounters. Until you can raise Warrior and Tactics enough to deal with them, Stealth helps and Intimidation has a major fuel economy boost outside of orbital operations.

I would say Pilot is more important for anyone doing SURV instead of BLOCK (which uses Intim) but those are, like you said, the "primary skills."