There is plenty of discussion in the forums about Love/Hate of the pirates. What I want to talk about is specifically the Pirate’s Economy. The devs have mad a big deal about how the AI does not cheat. But what about the pirate AI. Does it need money from the bounties to build ships? Do they get a cut from any black market transactions? How do they seem to start with so many ships?
It would make sense to me that the pirates need to make money to build ships. Yes, the pirates were here long before any of us came to try to subjugate the system. So that can explain how they start with so many ships. But if they are loosing ships every time they go chasing a bounty, then that bounty better be worth enough to more then pay for those lost ships. If not the pirates should retreat at the first sine of a capital ship that could actually slaughter their fleets. I’m Ok with the pirates going out on suicide missions so long as the monetary reward is big enough to warrant the risk. Especially if the corrupt "Admiral Black Beards" of the pirate consortiums don’t give a crap about human life, even their own captains.
So my question to the devs, now that the game is actually out, is "How does this all work?" Could you please break it down for us? If the pirates get a cut out of the black market I’ll be much more careful about how much I use it