I Need a Piracy-Finding Strategy!

[Orionator]

Okay, here's my procedure for finding piracy:

1. Follow link for either "Military Build Complete" or "Unrest" message in SitRep to planet. (If "Unrest" link skip to 4)

2. Check for construction of Planetary Shield. If it has been built, that is my flag for "Piracy garrison complete" (the shield gives a little extra piracy protection buffer if you build it after you eliminate piracy.)

3. If a planet shield is not constructed, close the Military Build Queue.

4. Open the Demographics display.

5. Switch to the Unrest tab.

6. Memorize Piracy status.

7. Open the Economics tab. This will automatically close Demographics.

8. Open the Military Build Queue.

9. Recall the Piracy status. If Piracy is still a problem, queue up a system ship, otherwise build a planetary shield.

Okay, surely a 9-step procedure means either I'm not doing something right or the UI was designed by the same disgruntled ex-IRS agent who penned the infamous "Paperwork Reduction Act Notice". Surely I must be missing something ...

To the MoO3 gurus: what are your strategies for determining whether or not you need more anti-piracy patrol craft and actually getting them into the build queues? Can you do it in fewer than 9 steps? Can you do it without allowing the AI access to the Military Build Queue?

Bonus question: Other than manual observation of every planet, how do you tell which systems have Piracy in them? Is there a Galaxy Map Hotkey (like "B" only for Piracy or some kind of System Status overlay which includes a marker for Piracy) that shows you, at a glance, which systems are beset by Pirates?

Is there a checkbox I'm not seeing on the Planets sort filter? Sorting by "Unrest" returns a very noisy answer.

I just know there's some magic Galaxy Map hotkey that, when you press it, causes a little skull-and-crossbones icon to appear over every star system you own which has piracy! I mean, it just makes too much sense for someone not to have thought of it ...

I've tried to find it, or something like it, but I'm drawing a blank here. Suggestions, anyone?

[RobNelson]

OK, you're going to hate this answer, but I never have much of a problem with piracy.

Why? What do I do that is missed by others, you ask? I design a system defense ship of size corvette, best tech, SR mission. The VR loves building these things, at least until the economy can support the Destroyers, Cruisers, etc (I design 1 ship every other size, once I get to cruiser they become IF and CV). (I also queue up 3 as soon as the colony is established - if you don't go too crazy, they should be built in time to prevent piracy.) That may or may not help, depending on your strat, but as a stock Nommo answer, this works for me, and as an added bonus, enemy fleets are met by an up-to-date, rock'em-sock'em system defense fleet. I have had a situation where the fleet was damaged to the point piracy was a problem, but since I lost the system, I had bigger problems to deal with (like getting it back :D ).

Actually, what you describe does seem to be the procedure, though I would tailor step 1 to be only the unrest message.

[DoubleSkulls]

My process

New colony immediately add 3 frigate system ship carriers to the MBQ. Carriers are generally cheaper than other combat types - also they tend to be useful even when outdated as "old" fighters still suck up PD fire, hopefully leaving my newer fighters untouched.

If you get an unrest problem then manually add a military or rec DEA to the planet.

[Beamup]

I keep a frigate-sized system ship with missiles and beams, designed to be relatively cheap, active at all times. All new colonies queue up 1 (for size < 5), 2 (for 4 < size < 9), or 3 (for size > 8) of these as their first builds.

Piracy solved, one easy step. Takes ~5 seconds per planet, total, for the entire game - and it's FAR more reliable than letting Roy decide when to build them. In my experience he doesn't seem to consider piracy when picking builds - he'll only build the cheap system ships if that's what he'd pick anyway.

[Azariel]

My strategy: i ignore it. :D

And it works fine for me. I set my development plans to have a recreation DEA at every planet, and also set a "unrest" devplan.
Also planetary defenses reduce piracy as they get build, and i like cheap ships for defense, so i'll get a few of them in every system.
Only on very rare occasions a system or two will have a piracy problem, that is mostly the case if i conquered several planets with a lot of population or i colonized a system with two or three big green1/sweet spot worlds.
In case a) i just build a few military and recreation DEA's after conquering, since i know what will happen, and by the time the viceroy removes those DEA's system defense will be up again.
In case b) i just use obsolete warships. I usually have enough of them, so i just deploy a squadron or flotilla (or two) and send them to the system. It's a better use for them than being cannon fodder.

[triller]

Originally posted by Azariel
My strategy: i ignore it. :D

And it works fine for me. I set my development plans to have a recreation DEA at every planet, and also set a "unrest" devplan.

What's in your "unrest" DP?
I have one for "newly conquered" with Gov/Mil/Rec.
Also MBQ gets Planetary Shield/Basic Systems/Sys Def ship (locked). This gets the first two improvements and then builds the System boats. Have to keep track that you don't get too many though. MBQ is one of the few things I micro.

[Azariel]

My unrest plan is usually military,recreation,planetary defense and i tend to put military and or recreation at least once in all planets, often in the plan for big and green planets too.
This can't prevent all piracy issues, it's not micro enough, but if any problem occurs i just deploy a few obsolete ships and don't think about it anymore.
These two combined make piracy a minor problem for me.

[Nolondil]

Different strategies for different situations. I almost always queue up the planet defense installations as the first thing to be built. This both makes the colony more survivable if any 'surprise' guests appear and helps reduce piracy. If I get an 'unrest' message on a colony I check it for the reasons and if it's piracy I either send some obsolete starships (if it's close to a Mob center) to patrol until system ships can be built or if it's remote (colony ship sent out well beyond current borders) I put some ground forces down to control the unrest and hope the system ships can be built before the piracy does much economic damage. (Erm, can piracy do serious economic damage? I suppose it slows immigration anyway.)

[Ron_Lugge]

Originally posted by Azariel
[B]In case a) i just build a few military and recreation DEA's after conquering, since i know what will happen, and by the time the viceroy removes those DEA's system defense will be up again.

VR doesn't remove DEAs - unless he's been going through, and up-rooting my efforts at getting good colonies... (*NOT* likely - my pure industry planets were left untouched when I started playing. Now that I know better, my industry / research combo regions aren't touched)

[BoydofZINJ]

my basic anti piracy strategy is... when ships... fleets become out dated... i throw them into the rear areas and either seperate them or leave them over critical planets. I am not a big fan of system ships. I like to see warp ships and being able to move them around is well worth the tactical advantage of having warp drives.

Also i sometimes, early, build very cheap light cruisers and frigates with almost no tech 0 no weapons and 0 shields... seems to work. A mostly barren hull with life support scares away the pirates.

[Beamup]

Originally posted by Ron_Lugge
VR doesn't remove DEAs

Actually he will, given long enough and DEAs of sufficiently different desirability. It's slow, but it definitely does happen.

[DavidByron]

To the MoO3 gurus: what are your strategies for determining whether or not you need more anti-piracy patrol craft and actually getting them into the build queues?

Well here's the micrommanaged view....

Go to the plabets tab and sort by name of system. Switch the data view to "military" so you can see what orbitals are available. You can then see the details of each system in turn fairly easily.

I go through it to check that I have piracy dealt with -- at least in terms of future builds -- and also to put system outposts in the queue.

I see how many planets in the system are not outposted and put a build in for that many on the planet/s which I control. I count the size of the planets in the system and divide by 4 - which is the size of my standard frigate orbital anti-pirate - and build that many orbitals (minus however many I've already built as displayed).

onus question: Other than manual observation of every planet, how do you tell which systems have Piracy in them?

Well I just check them all every time but I usually play only up to about turn 75-125 at the moment, so if I was playing longer I'd take advantage of the star renaming facility as a tool of micromanagement.

Rename all the systems where you dealt with Piracy to "P" plus their original name --- or whatever character takes your fancy but put it first. Then when you sort by system name all the systems you've dealt with collect together and are easy to skip over. I'd recoment that technique for other stages of development if they are distinct.

Eg change the name of the system when you first get a planet in it and you will sort all your controlled systems. The only issue is that these stages of development would have to be distinct stages at the system level. Eg stage "A" meand you control at least one planet, stage "B" might mean you have built sufficient orbitals and outposts to fill out the system.

[RANDAL7]

An AU-saving tip: piracy supression is based on total hull sizes in the system, not on firepower. I don't think they have to be armed at all, although I usually give my SD boats one gun just in case. I design a frigate hull with one laser and use it all through the game for pirates with no problems. There was a thread where somebody tested this a long time ago. If I remember right, you need a certain ratio of hull sizes in the system to settled planetary regions in the system to stop piracy.

[Ron_Lugge]

Originally posted by RANDAL7
An AU-saving tip: piracy supression is based on total hull sizes in the system, not on firepower. I don't think they have to be armed at all, although I usually give my SD boats one gun just in case. I design a frigate hull with one laser and use it all through the game for pirates with no problems. There was a thread where somebody tested this a long time ago. If I remember right, you need a certain ratio of hull sizes in the system to settled planetary regions in the system to stop piracy.

My belief is that piracy is generated 1 point per region populated, and each hull size counters 1 piracy point ( e. g. a lancer is 1 and frigate 4). Shields and defense bases I don't know about.

[Beamup]

There was a thread a while back that tracked down and quantified piracy unrest (among others).

Here it is. (http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=290680)

[Orionator]

All of your piracy mitigation strategies are very good, but I wasn't really looking for a way to mitigate piracy, I was really looking for a way to DETECT it.

Renaming systems doesn't work -- Piracy is directly proportional to factors which increase over time, therefore one cannot say that any given system is dealt with permanently unless one uses massive overkill.

DavidByron's answer came close, but his method (list planets with Details set to "Military" and do the piracy calculation in your head) doesn't work because the "Military" detail doesn't show system ships.

Do orbitals count against piracy? One could simply build orbitals in lieu of system ships and DavidByron's strategy would work ... if you don't mind doing the piracy calculation in your head.

[DavidByron]

Orbitals work unless you make them colony, outpost or troop orbitals. I use a standard frigate orbital with nothing on it. I think the cost is 183. It's the cheapest anti-pirate solution.

Piracy is directly proportional to factors which increase over time, therefore one cannot say that any given system is dealt with permanently unless one uses massive overkill.

I tend to create colonies very quickly. If you don't then I guess you can just check every system in case you colonised another planet. It's not like you have to do it every turn. One in ten would be sufficient.

[Da_Blade]

Like davidByron said: queue up 3 frigate orbitals/system ships on any new planet and pircay is never a problem again. Since piracy is dependant on each inhabited region in a system, and the max size of any planet is 12, three frigates suffices. DB uses empty frigate orbitals, i tend to use point defense orbitals lately, they even add a bit of defense too.

[Orionator]

Hmm, 3 frigates per planet isn't exactly "massive overkill" ... I think I can handle that.

Thanks for the tips!

[RobHunt]

Originally posted by Da_Blade
Like davidByron said: queue up 3 frigate orbitals/system ships on any new planet and pircay is never a problem again. Since piracy is dependant on each inhabited region in a system, and the max size of any planet is 12, three frigates suffices. DB uses empty frigate orbitals, i tend to use point defense orbitals lately, they even add a bit of defense too.

I'm sorry to ask this, but Da_Blade... are you sure? I had been under the impression that you needed one ship hull point per POPULATION point, not one per inhabited region.... Which, of course, is a MUCH bigger number.... as some green worlds will have room for some 79 population points...

[DavidByron]

We're sure.

[Ron_Lugge]

Originally posted by RobHunt
I'm sorry to ask this, but Da_Blade... are you sure? I had been under the impression that you needed one ship hull point per POPULATION point, not one per inhabited region.... Which, of course, is a MUCH bigger number.... as some green worlds will have room for some 79 population points...

I've always heard per region...

[balragh]

Originally posted by RobHunt
Which, of course, is a MUCH bigger number.... as some green worlds will have room for some 79 population points...

now why do i get the feeling you rarely play the gasbags? :D

[RobHunt]

Originally posted by balragh
now why do i get the feeling you rarely play the gasbags? :D

OK. 79... or 149... or more.

Happy now?