The pirates in beta 1 were an absolute pain in the ass. They did get stronger as the bounty increased. They got strong enough to wipe out the AI. Imagine a pir8 fleet of over 100 ships showing up at your capitol, because you had a 500k+ bounty, Thats all the AI did in beta 1 was spam bounty's (see early beta 1 post about overpowered pir8's).

Right now they are just right. A savage nuisance that have a bad habit of attacking you right when you attack the AI Even better when they show up to attack the same world the AI is attacking.

If you send a scout into the star's gravity well (put it on 'hold' attack mode) you can watch and see which way they go. They won't attach if you aren't in the fight path.

pek

Well I am fairly new to this game, but have played many of these types before. I am only going to post my 2 cents about pirates.

1. I like the 'idea' of pirates, and think they should have pirates in the game.
2. But these are not pirates! These are mercenaries that have unlimited forces. How can 'pirates' have such large military forces?
3. Pirates should just be forces that are on the edge of a system (not in the middle). They should be pretty much after your supply lines, not after a trained military force. That would be like Blackbeard going after the Royal Navy.. come on!
4. A pirate force should have a limit on how many ships they can have, and have to actually build them like everyone else.

Now if you want a mercenary army in the game then fine, but it should be another AI, that is actually chosen like player 2 etc.. The mercenary army is up for the highest bidder, and you can have contracts with them. And they won't attack you and your enemy unless they have no current contract. But the so called pirates in this game attack me more than my enemy, and I have a large bounty placed on them, and they usually don't even have one placed on me.. that is just lame!

So as pirates are in this game.. i will keep them turned off from now on. They are like having to deal with 2 AI's instead of just 1. If I want to fight 2 computers I will set it up like that.

This is just my opinion! If you like pirates then good for you. And I am sure there are people that liked Star Wars: Empire at War - Forces of Corruption too

Too open for abuse, though.

Consider the following set-up.

PirateBase-----MyPlanet-----EnemyPlanet.

So I sic the pirates on the EnemyPlanet - but have a capship sitting at MyPlanet. While the Pirates slowly amble by, I pick them off and level up my capital ship - and they DON'T ATTACK ME BACK. Then I let a few escape and follow them into the EnemyPlanet with my fleet. Result: relatively free experience for me, and a distracted enemy that I am more likely to roll up, without any real work on my part except a bit of bounty manipulation.

-- Retro