How can pirates work?
- Thread starter zozotroll
- Start date
zozotroll said:
First of all, great thread! I've read it for a bit now and am only now posting because I'm a tad intimidated by it. Subsequently, many experts have already debated this topic at length, but for this non-expert it really comes down to whether or not we want it to work. In my game piracy works about as well as it did/does here in the real world. Here are my point by point thoughts:
1) Many ships sure, but even more space. Even keeping ships in and near systems, the amount of space is huge. In comparison, lets look at the US right now, where space is much more limited and our ability to react quickly much more assured. Using our own Law Enforcement as an example, we've yet - to my knowledge - to eliminate drug smuggling/usage, speeding, murder or any other criminal act despite all of our resources and our best efforts. Now spread our infrastructure thin and our resources out across the length, width, and breadth of outerspace. How can our results actually get better in such an environment? I don't think it can or will.
2)How does the Imperium depend on Free Traders? The Imperium is so large and it deals in logistics of such an enormous scale and complexity, does it really care how things move as long as the Imperium gets its due? Even in getting its due, the Imperium must be used to delays and a certain percentage of loss from tracking errors, missed Jumps, and other disasters. To me, it would seem that individual systems depend on Free/Far Traders far more than the Imperium and that individual systems could also benefit by supporting piracy. Or, more importantly, believe they can benefit from supporting piracy.
3 and 4) Stealing ships is still a good idea, even if the vessel is damaged in the taking. Parts are expensive and so is fuel. Crew might be hostaged and cargo sold. On a system level, other resources might also bring enough wealth and/or status to make it all worth it locally to certain individuals. And really, to become a pirate is usually and individual decision is it not? And don't we all know people who are only too happy to make interesting choices in their lives? I certainly do.
5) Are bases really that hard to find or make? How much room do they take and how hard are they to set-up and pack up? My assumptions, and that's all they are, are quite different than yours.
Still and all a lovely discussion.
I think the biggest problem here is that people assume "pirates" means "people in custom-build small warships, operating out of a secret base, living off piracy full-time." Quite frankly, that view of piracy owes more to Disney than real history, except in a few limited and exceptional circumstances.
Most of the time, pirate ships were indistinguishable from armed merchant ships, because they were armed merchant ships. The rule of law stopped at the limits of territorial waters - defined as the range of a cannon-shot from the shore. If you encountered another ship at sea, you could exchange news with them, or watch them warily - or if they seemed smaller and weaker than you, you could run out the guns (or pull out your shields and axes) and order them to heave-to and hand over their cargo.
These part-time pirates didn't need secret bases - they docked for repairs in the same ports as all the other merchants did. ("Battle damage? We, er, ran into some pirates...") Selling their booty might be more of a problem, but fences for stolen goods and people willing to turn a blind eye when a man in the pub offers them a bargain have always been with us, and always will be.
Historically, this model lasted from ancient times through the Middle Ages, and gradually died out as states grew more organised - but rather than stamping out piracy entirely, they tried to regulate it by issuing licences and drawing an artificial distinction between pirates and 'privateers'. Eventually, even privateering had no place in the world, and it too became illegal.
The Imperium allows its member worlds to fight wars against each other. It allows megacorps to commission privateers and fight trade wars. It's hardly out of character for them to also turn a blind eye to piracy as well, as long as it doesn't get out of hand. It's just the free market in its rawest and most extreme form. If the pirates start raiding ships belonging to the Imperial nobility, then sure, the Navy will be called in to make an example or three... but otherwise, who cares?
Most of the time, pirate ships were indistinguishable from armed merchant ships, because they were armed merchant ships. The rule of law stopped at the limits of territorial waters - defined as the range of a cannon-shot from the shore. If you encountered another ship at sea, you could exchange news with them, or watch them warily - or if they seemed smaller and weaker than you, you could run out the guns (or pull out your shields and axes) and order them to heave-to and hand over their cargo.
These part-time pirates didn't need secret bases - they docked for repairs in the same ports as all the other merchants did. ("Battle damage? We, er, ran into some pirates...") Selling their booty might be more of a problem, but fences for stolen goods and people willing to turn a blind eye when a man in the pub offers them a bargain have always been with us, and always will be.
Historically, this model lasted from ancient times through the Middle Ages, and gradually died out as states grew more organised - but rather than stamping out piracy entirely, they tried to regulate it by issuing licences and drawing an artificial distinction between pirates and 'privateers'. Eventually, even privateering had no place in the world, and it too became illegal.
The Imperium allows its member worlds to fight wars against each other. It allows megacorps to commission privateers and fight trade wars. It's hardly out of character for them to also turn a blind eye to piracy as well, as long as it doesn't get out of hand. It's just the free market in its rawest and most extreme form. If the pirates start raiding ships belonging to the Imperial nobility, then sure, the Navy will be called in to make an example or three... but otherwise, who cares?
Oddly enough, the Imperium does care. Piracy is one of the few things listed as illegal by the 3I
Which does seem odd, as tradewars, and out and out wars, merc operations and other sorts of mayhem are OK.
Most likely piracy as such is illegal because in the CT it was fun to chase pirates, and it was fun to be a pirate. And it was fun to be a merchant ducking pirates. So it didnt matter if it made sense that there where or where not pirates.
Since that time, however, the 3I has moved a bit more towards a place that makes more sense. Unfortunetly many of the things that dont make sense are not allowed to be changed. So it creaks along and I for one still play it.
Which does seem odd, as tradewars, and out and out wars, merc operations and other sorts of mayhem are OK.
Most likely piracy as such is illegal because in the CT it was fun to chase pirates, and it was fun to be a pirate. And it was fun to be a merchant ducking pirates. So it didnt matter if it made sense that there where or where not pirates.
Since that time, however, the 3I has moved a bit more towards a place that makes more sense. Unfortunetly many of the things that dont make sense are not allowed to be changed. So it creaks along and I for one still play it.
Talon Brightmane
Mongoose
My general take is that the term pirate may not be correct legally, but most people will not care. Even local governments may turn a blind eye to the legal arguements in favor of making an example. We see that in criminal cases today.
The word pirate evokes a certain mental image. That image can be used to a great deal of political effect.
The fact that piracy is illegal, may also due to a law held over from an earlier time when the Imperium did not claim all of space between worlds (such as after the collapse of the Rule of Man or at any point during the Civil War period after the First Frontier War. It may not *legally* be accurate anymore, but it still exist on the books.
The word pirate evokes a certain mental image. That image can be used to a great deal of political effect.
The fact that piracy is illegal, may also due to a law held over from an earlier time when the Imperium did not claim all of space between worlds (such as after the collapse of the Rule of Man or at any point during the Civil War period after the First Frontier War. It may not *legally* be accurate anymore, but it still exist on the books.
Omega Man said:
Jump somewhere in space(any random spot will do), construct base, haul some materials(since pirate group is likely having lots of armed freighters and generally cargo space for loot plenty of room for this) and done. Would take bit of a time due to number of week-long jumps but nothing too hard. Biggest problem is hauling enough fuel from some nearby gas giant to ensure base won't run out.
And since base would be located in deep space it's virtually impossible to detect. No star trek style FTL scanners here. Make sure outer hull of base appears to be just another batch of space so that even if by some random luck somebody happens to view that area in telescope(after years it take for light to travel) won't be any wiser.
That far future base is likely also modular for ease of disassembling so that it can be transfered elsewhere without too much of a trouble.
StephenT said:
Yup. Change the ID being transmitted and you are just one more merchant ship among others. If you have beefier guns then those could be hidden in pop-up turrets(handy for other reasons as well for pirates). About only time you couldn't pull this stunt is if you have attacked in that system since arrival as the attack would likely have been tracked(and therefore you would be known to be the attacker). However jump elsewhere(switching ID's on route) and they wouldn't be distinguish you from merchants.
Now if your J-drive gets disabled during the battle pirates could be in trouble. Switching ID's won't help when you are already locked and marked as pirate(or atleast as attacker) and local navy ships are likely heading toward you after you attack leaving not-so-long for repairs.
The two aren't necessarily synonymous. Lots of things are illegal in the real world, but the police don't really bother to enforce that law unless they want to come after you for some other reason, and this gives them an excuse.zozotroll said:
Besides, the Imperium is a 'rule of men, not laws' - it doesn't really matter what the law books say, it's up to the local Imperial noble whether to turn a blind eye, or ask the Navy to lend a hand.
Hate to tell you Phil, if the GM wants Pirates, then there are pirates!!! This is the great thing about roleplaying. You can do anything. This thread seemed to have started as a help for some GM's to get an idea on how to use pirates in their campaign. Then we had two pages of thread on the semantics.
On another note: Since you can't take the J-drives out of traveller it is fantasy for now. Most physicists I have talked to tell me that FLT is impossible as of now.
On another note: Since you can't take the J-drives out of traveller it is fantasy for now. Most physicists I have talked to tell me that FLT is impossible as of now.
tneva82 said:
Just how much does a class C starport cost? Or its equvilent anyway. And what about the constructuion crews and machenary needed to build it? Just kill them and hope nobody notices? And what about the crew of the base? Where do they come from and how do you pay them?
What you have suggested is do able, but why? And who? Desparate trillionaires attempting to stay afloat? Ship costs are so high, and a base even more so that anybody with the means to build either has no need to risk it all knocking of a few merchants a year.
Now if your players dont ask questions about background or think what it all involes, then this works just fine. But over the years I have seen many traveller groups that what a bit more depth to thier play, and have boggled the GM by pointing out how little sense some of these easy to do schemes make.
zozotroll said:
Who said it would be built by independent pirate wannabes? Organised criminals more like it. Those who have cash. It's not like that base can't be used for lots of criminal activity. As for crew...Well you could simply transport them to base and then back. As long as you keep them out of navigation files they can't pinpoint the location anyway so whom do they care. Assuming base isn't built by criminals in a first place in which case they have plenty of reasons to keep it quiet(heck they likely will be benefitting from the base themself).
Handy place to repair ships, dismantle captured ships, keep "hot" merchandise until buyer can be found, helping smuggling operations etc. Heck also serves as quiet place to be if you are looked for in every system and don't wish to dodge police everywhere for a while.
And what costs? Life support. Check. Fuel? Gas giants plenty. Fuel is essentially free in traveller universe if you wish. Just enter gas giant, fill it and go. Maintanance? Done by criminals so it's just bunch of working time and spare parts. Lot cheaper than when done in official base(you have to repair it anyway) in any case.
Base expensive yes but plenty of use for base and it's not like organised crime is short of cash.
cbrunish said:
Oh, I agree that lots of what goes into SF games makes them Science Fantasy.
However, as I noted, if the usual canon-ites out there noticed your claim that Traveller is Science Fantasy they would tear you to metaphorical threads ... its probably a good thing this is a thread on pirates and they aren't reading it ...
Or, well, you better hope they're not reading it ... :twisted:
Phil
Weird. It seems that piracy is doing pretty good on a planet named Terra. It seems that there are pirates off of the coast of Somila in the Indian Ocean doing pretty well in spite of the navies of America, NATO, Russia, and India. And thats only how many thousands of square miles of ocean compared to miles of 100 millions of space. Weird. 
Hmm - interesting thread. But there were several factors that I didn't see taken into account in some of the arguments for or against.
RE: Space is big - First of all, many of the counter-arguments to the "space is big" crowd point out the 100d limit as narrowing the possible travel lanes without taking some other factors into account, most particularly in-system travel, and the 100d limit of the star.
Take our solar system - the Sun's 100d limit is 87 million miles - meaning Earth sits just a mere 6 million miles outside the Sun's 100d limit. Any starship wishing to travel to Venus or Mercury must do some significant in-system travel time. If a system's primary planet is inside it's star's 100d limit, travel time increases, possibly significantly.
And some systems will have multiple inhabited worlds or trade routes between primary planets and asteroid belts/gas-giants, meaning there will be frequent in-system travel. Both factors significantly increase the number of tavel lanes that have to be patrolled, thus increasing piracy* potential.
RE: Risk vs reward
It's been pointed out that one good haul can pay a pirate's expenses for a year or more. That means two good hauls a year can make a pirate very profitable - even if their success rate is 1 in 50 or 1 in 100 attempts.
Therefore piracy attacks that are fought off or otherwise discouraged will be far more frequent than ones that succeed - less than 2% of pirate attacks will result in the loss of cargo or ship. But that's really all that's needed for a pirate to be "successful" - like current day scam artists, all it takes is the right victim for a big payday.
RE: Imperial ships are "everywhere":
Sure they are. But how many are in jump space at any given time? Take the 20,000 scout ships previously mentioned. If each one of those ships jumps only once a month, then at any given time 5,000 of them are in jump space, where they can't patrol anything. So instead of having 50 per system, you have 38 per system. The more frequent they jump, the fewer are available. That doesn't even begin to take into account maintence and shore leave schedules.
And space is still big - think about how many police cars it takes to patrol the average sized US city - even if you consider the fact that an individual space ship can patrol significantly more volume than a single police car, when you consider how much more volume there is to be covered, and the covereage is pretty pathetic.
Like local police, how many of those Imperial ships are right where they need to be at the right time? Even if there is an Imperial presence within a system doesn't mean that piracy can't happen there - it just means it's more unlikely. Do a google search for "robbed across street from police station" - amazing how many stories come up.
RE: Pirate intelligence networks
It really doesn't take much for a single pirate ship to develop it's own "intelligence" network. A few greased palms among cargo brokers and bar tenders at most starports, and the pirate captain has his info. Most of these guys are going to be giving the info to just about anyone who pays up or possibly just to anyone who wants to listen, meaning many pirates - and adventurers like the PCs - are probably using the same "network", probably not even knowing who else is receiving the info.
It doesn't take an organized network of spies and intelligence gathering to get the info desired.
RE: Pirate bases
IMO, 99% of pirates (and pirate attacks) will be ones of opportunity - a less than ethical starship operator who happens upon a situation where he can prey on another merchant and reasonably expect to get away with it.
However unlikely they are, pirate bases are still a possibility - particularly in those empty reaches of space where no one goes. It does't take a lot of resources to cobble together a workable base - you don't have to hire crew and haul too many resources out to build something from scratch - all you really have to do is weld together a few star ships (derelict or not) that you bring out. These type of bases will not be pretty, and they surely won't be safe, but they will have something that is very desirable to the criminal element - they aren't easy to find unless you know they are there.
I would surmise though, that the majority of these type of bases would serve smuggler's and fences primarily, while supporting actual pirates would be merely incidental.
Other Thoughts:
A common view of piracy seems to be boarding and looting another ship, akin to the way it was in the 16-18th centuries. However, a look at modern day piracy compared to that shows piracy can evolve - today it's about seizing and holding a ship for ransom. Pirates of the Third Imperium could, and probably do have even more evolved methods, most of them probably more akin to hijacking and train robbery than good ol' fashioned piracy.
Misc thoughts along this vein are things like launch a nuke out to proximity of the victim, and threaten to set it off unless they dump their cargo, or the Firefly plot of putting an inside man on the ship to take it where you want it to go.
Like I mentioned above, IMO 99% of pirate attacks will be ones of opportunity - the merchant who's most likely a smuggler as well coming across an opportunity he can't pass up - either by chance, or because one of his contacts passed him some info that gives him an advantage. Most pirate attacks will be on outbound trips, just inside the 100d limit, where the pirate has learned not only what the victim is carrying, but their likely jump trajectories, etc, so they can be "lying" in wait.
The "pro" pirates will in more likelyhood operate more along the lines of hijackers - some how arrange for the ship to "misjump" to coordinates of their choice, and deal with the ship at their own leisure. They will be very few and far between, and most will be more in the vien of megacorp "black ops" engaging in trade war tactics.
*Piracy - for the sake of brevity, I'm using the generic term of piracy to refer to a ship being forcibly taken and/or looted. While it technically may be "highway robbery" or even "disrupting interstellar commerce" in the legal definitions of the Third Imperium, as far as fans of space opera are concerned, it's piracy, and piracy is what I will call it.
RE: Space is big - First of all, many of the counter-arguments to the "space is big" crowd point out the 100d limit as narrowing the possible travel lanes without taking some other factors into account, most particularly in-system travel, and the 100d limit of the star.
Take our solar system - the Sun's 100d limit is 87 million miles - meaning Earth sits just a mere 6 million miles outside the Sun's 100d limit. Any starship wishing to travel to Venus or Mercury must do some significant in-system travel time. If a system's primary planet is inside it's star's 100d limit, travel time increases, possibly significantly.
And some systems will have multiple inhabited worlds or trade routes between primary planets and asteroid belts/gas-giants, meaning there will be frequent in-system travel. Both factors significantly increase the number of tavel lanes that have to be patrolled, thus increasing piracy* potential.
RE: Risk vs reward
It's been pointed out that one good haul can pay a pirate's expenses for a year or more. That means two good hauls a year can make a pirate very profitable - even if their success rate is 1 in 50 or 1 in 100 attempts.
Therefore piracy attacks that are fought off or otherwise discouraged will be far more frequent than ones that succeed - less than 2% of pirate attacks will result in the loss of cargo or ship. But that's really all that's needed for a pirate to be "successful" - like current day scam artists, all it takes is the right victim for a big payday.
RE: Imperial ships are "everywhere":
Sure they are. But how many are in jump space at any given time? Take the 20,000 scout ships previously mentioned. If each one of those ships jumps only once a month, then at any given time 5,000 of them are in jump space, where they can't patrol anything. So instead of having 50 per system, you have 38 per system. The more frequent they jump, the fewer are available. That doesn't even begin to take into account maintence and shore leave schedules.
And space is still big - think about how many police cars it takes to patrol the average sized US city - even if you consider the fact that an individual space ship can patrol significantly more volume than a single police car, when you consider how much more volume there is to be covered, and the covereage is pretty pathetic.
Like local police, how many of those Imperial ships are right where they need to be at the right time? Even if there is an Imperial presence within a system doesn't mean that piracy can't happen there - it just means it's more unlikely. Do a google search for "robbed across street from police station" - amazing how many stories come up.
RE: Pirate intelligence networks
It really doesn't take much for a single pirate ship to develop it's own "intelligence" network. A few greased palms among cargo brokers and bar tenders at most starports, and the pirate captain has his info. Most of these guys are going to be giving the info to just about anyone who pays up or possibly just to anyone who wants to listen, meaning many pirates - and adventurers like the PCs - are probably using the same "network", probably not even knowing who else is receiving the info.
It doesn't take an organized network of spies and intelligence gathering to get the info desired.
RE: Pirate bases
IMO, 99% of pirates (and pirate attacks) will be ones of opportunity - a less than ethical starship operator who happens upon a situation where he can prey on another merchant and reasonably expect to get away with it.
However unlikely they are, pirate bases are still a possibility - particularly in those empty reaches of space where no one goes. It does't take a lot of resources to cobble together a workable base - you don't have to hire crew and haul too many resources out to build something from scratch - all you really have to do is weld together a few star ships (derelict or not) that you bring out. These type of bases will not be pretty, and they surely won't be safe, but they will have something that is very desirable to the criminal element - they aren't easy to find unless you know they are there.
I would surmise though, that the majority of these type of bases would serve smuggler's and fences primarily, while supporting actual pirates would be merely incidental.
Other Thoughts:
A common view of piracy seems to be boarding and looting another ship, akin to the way it was in the 16-18th centuries. However, a look at modern day piracy compared to that shows piracy can evolve - today it's about seizing and holding a ship for ransom. Pirates of the Third Imperium could, and probably do have even more evolved methods, most of them probably more akin to hijacking and train robbery than good ol' fashioned piracy.
Misc thoughts along this vein are things like launch a nuke out to proximity of the victim, and threaten to set it off unless they dump their cargo, or the Firefly plot of putting an inside man on the ship to take it where you want it to go.
Like I mentioned above, IMO 99% of pirate attacks will be ones of opportunity - the merchant who's most likely a smuggler as well coming across an opportunity he can't pass up - either by chance, or because one of his contacts passed him some info that gives him an advantage. Most pirate attacks will be on outbound trips, just inside the 100d limit, where the pirate has learned not only what the victim is carrying, but their likely jump trajectories, etc, so they can be "lying" in wait.
The "pro" pirates will in more likelyhood operate more along the lines of hijackers - some how arrange for the ship to "misjump" to coordinates of their choice, and deal with the ship at their own leisure. They will be very few and far between, and most will be more in the vien of megacorp "black ops" engaging in trade war tactics.
*Piracy - for the sake of brevity, I'm using the generic term of piracy to refer to a ship being forcibly taken and/or looted. While it technically may be "highway robbery" or even "disrupting interstellar commerce" in the legal definitions of the Third Imperium, as far as fans of space opera are concerned, it's piracy, and piracy is what I will call it.
1) I see you. The 100 diameter jump limit is not all that far. Back yard enthusiasts with telescopes could detect a pirate ship just hanging out waiting for the random freighter to arrive. My point is that 'Space Control' would notice someone just hanging out doing nothing. Yes, there can be asteroids, planets, and other phenomenon to hide behind but any system worth it's beens will either have eyes out to see when ships travel into these blind spots or will have satellites or patrols that can make sure an enemy fleet is not coming in on the blind spot. Also, any ship spotted that does not have a legit transponder would immediately be investigated.
2) Catch me if you can. What are the odds that you jump in right on top of the pirate? If you notice anything out of the ordinary, like a ship vectoring in on you instead of heading in or out of the system, you just hit max thrust and go straight toward the system transmitting that you are being chased. Even if the pirate is faster than you, the system forces are probably fast too. Even if the pirate catches you, disables you, boards you, and starts transferring cargo, they now have local forces bearing down on them and they are now within the 100 diameter range and can't jump.
3) Nothing of value. Drop some of your cargo into space and target it with your weapons. Do this several times and radio the pirates that you will destroy all the cargo before you let them get it. Why not, if the pirates get it or you destroy it, you are out the cargo but if you have nothing worthwhile the pirates probably wont risk boarding. If they are after the ship you can set it to self destruct or start sabotaging it (maybe in a way that you would be able to fix it but they would have trouble figuring it out).
4) Hide and go seek. It's your ship and you know all the good hiding spots so that a boarding party would have a hard time finding you. They may not have the time to go room to room looking. The local forces are on their way.
5) Digging in. I won't go through the details but setting up defenses and hit and run defense is hard to overcome. There are present day examples of well organized and equipped militaries having little success taking out weaker rebel forces.
6) The best defense. While the pirates are trying to board you, who is defending their ship? Abandon ship, take a space walk and try to take their ship!
Just my view, but pirates operate mostly in low tech sectors without bases and with little in the way of local forces (low population, poor, or some such). To me, it is much more common to find the pirates off the main shipping lines, like around a secondary world of a system. A good option is hiding around an unpatrolled gas giant waiting for ships to refuel.
Why hire skilled crew to operate a ship? Why have the expensive upkeep and repairs of a ship? It is probably easier to just steal a cargo out of a warehouse before or after it is shipped.
Firefly does not have jump. You have to travel through the black of space. In Traveller you are usually much closer to a possible deterrent to piracy.
2) Catch me if you can. What are the odds that you jump in right on top of the pirate? If you notice anything out of the ordinary, like a ship vectoring in on you instead of heading in or out of the system, you just hit max thrust and go straight toward the system transmitting that you are being chased. Even if the pirate is faster than you, the system forces are probably fast too. Even if the pirate catches you, disables you, boards you, and starts transferring cargo, they now have local forces bearing down on them and they are now within the 100 diameter range and can't jump.
3) Nothing of value. Drop some of your cargo into space and target it with your weapons. Do this several times and radio the pirates that you will destroy all the cargo before you let them get it. Why not, if the pirates get it or you destroy it, you are out the cargo but if you have nothing worthwhile the pirates probably wont risk boarding. If they are after the ship you can set it to self destruct or start sabotaging it (maybe in a way that you would be able to fix it but they would have trouble figuring it out).
4) Hide and go seek. It's your ship and you know all the good hiding spots so that a boarding party would have a hard time finding you. They may not have the time to go room to room looking. The local forces are on their way.
5) Digging in. I won't go through the details but setting up defenses and hit and run defense is hard to overcome. There are present day examples of well organized and equipped militaries having little success taking out weaker rebel forces.
6) The best defense. While the pirates are trying to board you, who is defending their ship? Abandon ship, take a space walk and try to take their ship!
Just my view, but pirates operate mostly in low tech sectors without bases and with little in the way of local forces (low population, poor, or some such). To me, it is much more common to find the pirates off the main shipping lines, like around a secondary world of a system. A good option is hiding around an unpatrolled gas giant waiting for ships to refuel.
Why hire skilled crew to operate a ship? Why have the expensive upkeep and repairs of a ship? It is probably easier to just steal a cargo out of a warehouse before or after it is shipped.
Firefly does not have jump. You have to travel through the black of space. In Traveller you are usually much closer to a possible deterrent to piracy.
lurker - you seem to be assuming that most pirates would be lying in wait for incoming ships. Given all the difficulties you described, I would surmise that most pirate attacks would be on outbound trips, where the pirates have gained enough info on departing ships to pick out one that they could match vectors to.
I would also say that the majority of "failed" pirate attacks would be simply a matter of failing to match vectors - and the victims and authorities might not ever even know that an attack was in progress.
I would also say that the majority of "failed" pirate attacks would be simply a matter of failing to match vectors - and the victims and authorities might not ever even know that an attack was in progress.
