Pirate

There are fifteen AI controlled empires. They always take an enemy stance toward other empires. Players are not permitted to become members of AI controlled empires.

These empires are often called pirates, due to their lack of substantial city developments and their hostility toward other empires.

Pirate Ship Encounters

Pirate ships plunder the spacecraft that are outside of ADIZ with online avatars on board.

Encounter Trigger

Pirate ship encounters are triggered by the presence of a spacecraft in the area of a pirate base. To trigger an encounter, a spacecraft must be outside any ADIZ and an avatar who is online must be aboard. Ships and stations can trigger pirate ship encounters.

Probability of pirate encounters is influenced by factors in a system.

Probability increases in systems that have been explored by multiple empires.
Probability increases a lot in systems that contain a pirate base.
Probability decreases a lot when a pirate encounter occurs and it slowly rises over time.

Conditions.

Pirate encounters are only triggered by spacecraft outside any ADIZ.
Pirates will not pursue spacecraft into an ADIZ. They will break off their pursuit if their prey enters an ADIZ.
Pirates will not pursue spacecraft into the atmosphere zone of a world.

Encounter Strength

The type of spacecraft is determined by the pirate empire. Each pirate empire has its own spacecraft blueprints. Pirate spacecraft blueprints are not published in the exchange.

The number of pirate ships that spawn in a pack is limited by the mass of the avatar's spacecraft. The mass of attacking pirate ships will not exceed the mass of the avatar's spacecraft, unless only one pirate ship is attacking. Pack size ranges from one to three pirate ships.

Pirate ships will be members of a pirate empire. Pirate empires are enemy to all other empires, including other pirate empires. Pirate empires of higher difficulty tend to have bigger and better equipped spacecraft.

Plunder

Pirate ships may decide to plunder the victim spacecraft that triggered the pirate encounter. The pirate commander issues a plunder order to do this.

AI crew treats the plunder order a lot like an attack order. They attempt to maneuver their ship close to the target vessel and they attack the target vessel. When executing a plunder order, the crew stops attacking when the target vessel's current order becomes a Stand Down order.

Once the victim stands down, the pirate officer transfers as much cargo, passengers and money from the victim ship to the pirate ship as possible. The Cargo (F5) window enables cargo to be transferred from any ship nearby that is executing a stand down order, for this reason.

Players can issue a Plunder order to their own crew for the same behavior. The crew attacks the plunder target until it stands down. The officer in command loots the victim ship when they stand down.

AI officers who have the con, including your own, may decide to stand down when their ship is damaged by an attacking ship that is executing a plunder order. Their willingness to stand down increases as the damage to their ship increases. Their rank influences their probability of standing down, with low ranking officers slightly more likely to surrender than high ranking officers. Officers will not stand down while their posture is berserk.

Pirate officers never stand down.

Pirate Cities and Bases

Pirate empires claim worlds and build military bases. Each pirate empire builds its bases using its own unique building blueprints. Pirate bases get bigger and tougher as the difficulty of the empire increases. Once a pirate base is established, pirate ships operate from there to harass and plunder spacecraft in their area.

Broker shipments may be plundered when they originate near a pirate base. Broker shipments may also be plundered when they are delivered near a pirate base. Plundered broker shipments are reported in the event log of the sending or receiving city, depending on where the shipment is plundered.

Pirate empires sometimes control cities but they do not build them. They do not capture cities overtly. They may acquire cities that players surrender to them.

Pirate emperors always accept surrendered cities. City surrender must be accepted by the receiving empire. Cities can be discarded easily by surrendering them to pirate empires.

Tips and Tricks

A few tips to avoid or deal with pirates.

Build an airport radar or military radar before trying to use a spacecraft for the first time. This will ensure you have a safe zone to prevent the pirates spawning and keep them a distance from your worlds.
Enter the atmosphere of a world to evade them. They will not pursue a target into the atmosphere of a world.
If pirates are determined to plunder your ship and you have no other options, let them. Issue a stand down order and wait. If you have no crew, you must issue the order then configure the ship to stand down yourself. The pirates will take what they want and leave you unharmed. They don't take crew.
If you are about to be plundered, transfer the ship's fund to your personal account.

Pirate Empires

There are fifteen pirate empires in Hazeron. They originate from the backstory of Gravity Well.

Pirate empires are most common in their home galaxy. They become less common as the distance from their home galaxy increases, to varying degrees based upon the empire. This results in a distribution of pirate empires throughout the universe that varies with each galaxy. Not all pirate empires are present in every galaxy. Some galaxies have more pirates than others.

Difficulty level of pirate empires is based on the vertical position of their home galaxy in the universe map. The least difficult pirate empires originate at the bottom of the universe map. The most difficult pirate empires originate at the top of the universe map. Difficulty level affects the size and capability of their spacecraft and bases.