So there’s a lot of chatter about how much people are looking forward to being pirates now SC, but I’m wondering just how badly I’m screwed if I just want to be an honest joe merchant. Consider the following. Joe Merchant takes a mission to haul cargo in his hull c. Takes a high level mission that he qualifies for due to his high reputation with the quest giver. Pays some sort of deposit on the cargo, hires a couple players as escorts and sets out. Meanwile Sparky McPiratepants, a known and wanted pirate, hears about this juicy cargo and plans to hit it. Now Sparky doesn’t want to lose his own ship in a fight so he “steals” a heavily armed gunship from a non pirate buddy, gathers up some friends and sets out. A space ace battle takes place and Sparky McPiratepants steals the cargo and kills Joe Merchant because ... reasons. He runs to the nearest lawless area and pawns the cargo, banks a load of UEC and eventually ends up captured for a bounty and spends a fun afternoon fighting his way out of prison. Joe Merchant on the other hand wakes up in hospital minus an arm, reputation in tatters for losing the cargo. Heres the itemization... Joe Merchant $$$ - cost of cargo $$$ - cost of ship $$$ - cost of custom components $$$ - cost of paying escorts $$$ - cost of npc crew $$$ - cost for replacing arm $$$ - cost for placing bounty on pirate $$$ - hit to reputation with quest giver Sparky McPiratepants: Ship : free “stolen” from non pirate buddy escorts: free Paid with share of booty getting captured: no problem. Part of the pirate game. Escape from prison sounds fun. Reputation: pirate rep only gets better. So, with all the forum chatter I see about how excited people are to play Pirates in Space... I mean Star Citizen, I honestly want to know what’s the upside for people that just want to be good guys and live in the ‘Verse? Am I only there to be “content” for pirate players? From the info we have so far, it looks like very little downside for pirates while their victim are screwed financially. =================================================================================== [update after reading responses] thanks to everyone who offered constructive responses, but I felt I needed to clarify my position a little bit... #1... I don't have an issue with PVP #2... If I take a high risk mission, I expect high risks #3... I don't actually mind being attacked by other players What I want is for the risk on both sides to be equivalent. (EQUIVALENT! that means not sending the merchant to the poor house AND not being too strict on the pirate) In my example above and from everything I've seen on SC site, the risk equation is heavily weighted in favor of pirates. The victim is out a lot of cash and the pirate is out a couple hours of time if he gets captured and has to pay a fine. What would satisfy me? If I report a guy for piracy, the UEE takes out a bounty. If the pirate is caught, his fine is equal to 75% of the cost of cargo and equipment lost. That fine is paid to the victim to cover some of his losses (NOT 100%). The victim can then pay off the cost of lost cargo to recover some of his reputation with the client, buy back some lost equipment, etc. Note: he's not getting back 100% of his losses because he assumes some risk too. "Not fair!" you say, "what about the poor pirate!" Well, if the pirate player can avoid capture by bounty hunters for a set period of time, say a real world week, then the fine drops off and he keeps his ill gotten gains. Just so we're clear, I'd gladly be "content" for pirates if I knew they risked as much as I did. From everything I've read or seen on various CIG shows, that isn't the case.