Pirate Shipyards?

They don't appear at the beginning of the game.  They are a galactic event now and appear after the notification about pirates.  However, they don't always appear then.  I'm not sure if there is a bug somewhere or not.  The GalacticEventDefs.xml in the Game directory in EXP2_Crusade directory has the code for their appearance.  The pirate notification can appear more than once in a game, and I think it is  possible that pirates can spawn each time there is a notification (if they actually do spawn), but I'm not sure.  I have had a game where I was notified about pirates several time but never saw any.  Also, I think the choice of Pirate Base frequency determines how many spawn.

I am working on a mod that makes the pirates more of a problem, so I have been trying to figure out all the details of how they work now.  I am closer to knowing, but I'm not there yet.

Oh I see... well that is problematic for me... I had previously replaced the pirate models and was trying to test such things now.

Have you figured out how to restore them to having bases at the beginning? 

Personally I was quite happy with having pirate bases, and having them start with a survey ship, it meant that they could occasionally gain a colony or construction ship and then you had annoying pirate worlds and bases to destroy.

I don't care for GCIII pirates. The are just a boring nuisance when I am expanding (yeah, I know that is what is intended). There is plenty of action in the AOW, particularly with the new and improved aggressive ai. I have played with pirates in other games and I will play with GCIII pirates when I can negotiate/bribe them as well as shoot it up with them.  

I have started two games with my mod and got the Pirate Notification without any pirate shipyards spawning.  I used the console and fow command to verify it.  I then started several games and used the console and "event SpawnPirates" command to spawn them on turn 1.  They spawned every time.  I don't know why they didn't spawn in the games without the command.  I still think there is bug that happens sometimes.

I haven't tried to do it in a mod, and I'm not sure if it will work.

If you want to guarantee they are there at the beginning of the game, do what I did.  Use the console to enter the "event SpawnPirates" command to get them to appear immediately.  Be sure to use the capital letters or it won't work.  Of course, don't use the quotes.  If you want more, use the command as many times as you want.

My mod fixes that.  I originally made it for pre-Crusade GalCiv3, and it did a good job of making the pirates more than a boring nuisance.  I finished a few weeks before Crusade and never bothered to release it.  It also improved the Space Monsters a little, made the Dread Lords a lot tougher and probably made the Mega Pirates even worse.

I'm still testing the pirate part of it in Crusade, but it seems to work when the pirates actually show up.

You won't be able to this with the pirates in my mod.  They are just a lot more troublesome.

This hasn't been my experience, pirate shipyards are on the map long before I see a warning of pirates.  And sometimes they don't spawn ships, just shipyards.  It's either very random or some bug causing these pirates to spawn and behave erratically.