I totally agree with you.  I'd like to see pirates issuing multiple waves at once against different people, and not just suicide waves, but actively attacking and retreating against different targets.  Having different settings for pirate activity (heavy, light, normal, off) is something that would be nice, as well.

Pirates that run away as soon as bounty is depleted could be a problem, simply because in a scenario that is not 1v1, bounty usually does deplete before the pirates even reach their intended target.  Other changes would be required in conjunction to make that work.  However, the piracy system needs an overhaul anyways.

i think those are great ideas, but you shouldnt have to much control over pirates other than who can attack...

i mean thats the point of piracy right? Freedom.

How about commissioning privateers?

After conquering the pirate base(s), you get the ability to build cheap pirate ships (funded by booty)that can "suck" credits out of building while dealing damage? (even when no bounty is applied).

There are at least three aspects of the current pirates that might seem dubious:

-the pirate base is a fortress surrounded by gauss guns

-the pirates mount destructive terror raids relying on numbers not stealth, and do nothing in between raids

-trade ports are an effective early counter since the pirates spend time chasing the trade ships

It might be more piratical to have a base that was defended being being difficult to approach- perhaps a nebula that prevented the use of squadrons and an asteroid belt that the pirate ships were immune to.  Also, the pirate ships could use some kind of cloak or disguise.  They should be able to capture ships rather than be forced to destroy them- if trade ships were instead captured and refitted as pirate warships, there would be a drawback to using trade ports as a defence.  Pirates used to frighten trade ships into surrender rather than fight, it was the point of the black flag and the poor personal health care.

More than this, it might be an improvement to have the pirates linked more closely to the militias around independent planets, and to have a use for the ships that build up around the pirate base.  Perhaps the surplus ships could be sent to restock or supplement the militia and the pirates lurking near neutral extractors?  Once the neutral extractors bug is fixed and they are made noticeable to the AI, they might then have to be guarded after the initial capture.

A new pirate-only sub-cap ship or command cruiser might help, as the pirates lack subversion and sabotage abilities as well as stealth.   Or these abilities could be added to the existing pirate ships.  The pirate base might act as a rebel broadcaster, as well....

Oh yeah! Things like Pirate Behaviour and more options including some kind of thievery or something... that would be very awesome, yes indeed.

I hope they implement the idea of pirates affecting trade routes.

Pirates in real life don't go hells balls and attack a full fledged colony, they raid and pillage trade routes. There should be an option for people to hire them as privateers and reduce his trade income significantly. Then there might be a real incentive to wipe out the pirate base.

Furthermore, building any idea of planetary defenses + the lv. of culture along the trade route planets will mitigate this pirate drain on the trade significantly, so there can be even more incentive to get planetary defense and culture.

Lastly, what about at least 2 or three pirate factions? (non-playable of course) Each specializes in a catagory: 1) raiding trade 2) Pilliaging colonies 3) Attacking enemy ships. They would each be good at their speciality and e.g. type 2 pirate would have significantly more planetary bombardment ships in their attacks, and type 3 might even have a capital ship and more Kiodiaks but no planet bombarding capabilities. Hiring one type would have advantages/drawbacks of another.

Of course all pirates should have the potential to grow and eventually become a significant threat to finally give some incentive to wipe out the pirate bases. (Do they really need that many Gauss Guns around that?)

Pirates should sell you special cap ships Like the special heros in warcraft 3.  But you would need to send either scout or new type of frigate to their shipayrd.

Haha that's true!

maybe I'm crazy, but I don't see any option at all for turning off Pirates in the 'options' menu...

NONE has anythign to saya obut my buy pirate cap ships suggestion? Damn I thought it was a winner. I been nursing that baby since they took out the original KOL model.  It be sweet to be able to buy that from pirates.

Crikey...how hard have you actually searched to do this?

(From memory)

Click on single Player.

Click on New Game.

Choose map size etc.

Basically get to the bit where you are selecting the races, how many AI to have and what difficulty.

Now from this screen in the bottom left of that window is a button I think is called Game Options....click it.

In the top left is Locked Teams I think, and then I think below that is the Pirates On/Off button signified with the symbol of a skull.

If you are unable to do this from following these steps then let me know at what point it went wrong.

Edit:  There will still be a Pirate base, they just wont have attacks like they do normally, they just sit there smoking various space weeds.

The other possibility is that he's playing 1.0, before that Options button and the pirate toggle was added.