Thats a pretty good idea, and allows you to play with the fire borrowing the devils hands. having Pirate worlds and the like would be cool, on the outer rim planets or those with a low PQ. may be a good place to put agents on to get additional resourses and techs perhaps.

Either way if this kind of corruption would be alive in a galaxy, it opens up yet another chapter in Political and war tactics.

This game is only getting better.

Thu, launching the proverbial wolf into a rival's territory, causing rampage without having to declare war?

Who's to say that the pirate's might not use the ships you give them to attack you? Turnabout is fair play.

It seems dumb that pirates would attack an organized, advanced, and larger navy.

That's why they call them pirates. Actually, military might should be a partial deterrent to pirates but not totally because they use hit and run tactics. What’s not credible would be for them to have straight up battles with your top line fleets. They should do what pirates do best which is attack freighters and unprotected starbases.

They should do what pirates do best which is attack freighters and unprotected starbases.

Absolutely Mumble. Soft targets.

I guess that Brad has more important things to do than to write a new Pirates' AI.

As an advocate of pirates and as someone who feels that they really need to be integrated into this game in a better manner than they are right now, I will continue to keep the issue open

I like pirates too, matey. Arrghh

I guess that Brad has more important things to do than to write a new Pirates' AI.

No doubt this is true as well.

During the War of 1812, IIRC, pirates were a significant naval force around New Orleans. I think they were on the English side (because they paid them the most), but they were used against legit naval fleets.

This might really be something more akin to a privateer, which is a privately owned warship sanctioned by a government to prey upon enemy ships. These have the possibility of deniability. I think this would be a cool feature to add to the game, you could sponsor “privateers” to harass a potential enemy but not be required to declare all out war because they’re private citizens whose actions you have no “control” over. Just a thought.

The Altarian's are probably the most likely to sponsor privateers.

Because, for a supposedly good race, they sure do like to go to war. They are, in my games at least, the most likely to declare more wars during any single game than any of the others, Drengin included.

I had it in my game last night as well, and they were near one of my own planets.
So, yes, they could have been (no doubt were) under FOW.

The trouble is, Cari, that they don't really DO anything anymore.
While they used to be the scourge of the galaxy, now they are simply a cockroach to be stepped on.

The pirates of old were organized and deadly, just as pirates should be. I wish they could be brought back to at least something of their old selves.

The trouble is, Cari, that they don't really DO anything anymore. While they used to be the scourge of the galaxy, now they are simply a cockroach to be stepped on.

Second that one Cari. I haven't tried the Beta yet so I don't know what you have in store for us with the "mega event" but regardless, could you at least give a little hint as to whether or not the pirates are actually going to have some substance to them? Pretty, pretty please with a whole ton of motherboards on top.  
You know I love you, right? So come on, give us those swashbucklers we so badly want.  

Here's an excerpt from a recent post by Novaburst, called something like Impressions of B2:

"the new (?) mega event that spawns pirates all over the galaxy happened in all four, and seems to have taken the place instead of the Plague event in terms of, the frequency of the event. It happened in all four games, and it's a serious blow to the galaxy. Even the AI takes a serious dip in military ability as their ships are blown to pieces, and their Starbases destroyed one by one. Though, in the 4th game I did manage to finally return fire and get out of the strangle hold they had on me and my planets, and eventually the AI coped with most of them as well.

I noticed the Strength of the pirate ships scales in relation to when it happens, late game has more powerful pirates then earlier, so it seems to be based on some average tech lvl throughout the galaxy. It's a fairly potent event though, and perhaps a tiny itty bit too harsh, or maybe I need to micromanage better and stop sucking."

So, sounds like the pirates are working in the latest beta.

Pirates o the agony i been playing and got whacked up side the head by the pirates . They destroyed every base and outpost i built. After some looking at their ships i figured strategy was in order so i made some custom ships and managed to drive them from my corner of happy land but it was really hard they still have ships in other parts of the galaxy but the dregin and korath are evil so who cares if they agrovate them. I wasn't expecting the mega pirate attack   

This might really be something more akin to a privateer, which is a privately owned warship sanctioned by a government to prey upon enemy ships. These have the possibility of deniability. I think this would be a cool feature to add to the game, you could sponsor “privateers” to harass a potential enemy but not be required to declare all out war because they’re private citizens whose actions you have no “control” over. Just a thought.

So basically mercenaries. Are we talking about 'drawing inspiration' fro, the Total War series and having fleets pay cash for mercenary (privateer) ships to join them on the spot? Or some method of conjuring a new fleet of AI controlled ships that run off to fight your enemies on your behalf?

The latter sounds good but I imagine they would run off and get squashed by a big hostile fleet within about 5 minutes.

BTW the pirates fighting for the english mentioned earlier really were actual pirates. They were valuable for their local knowledge and the fact that the Royal Navy had most of its ships on the otherside of the Atalantic. But they really did say "yarr!" alot. 

I noticed that they went for my shipping lanes disrupting my economy first i was down to - 1200bc and my citizens were very upset with the way i was dealing with everything so i lowered the spending and tried to bribe some of my allies for some money. I traded plague cure and got some money then tried to stop them from attacking my outposts . I noticed they just wait for you to do anything after they wiped the floor with you . This was on easy settings and I had a time anyway I loosened their hold and started to rebuild my starbases and I have managed to build up a defense. Now i want to get an offense and get rid of them. It was fun though they were like terrorists of the galaxy tring hit and run but I put a missle in their soup. The game is getting interesting with the pirates no more will you set back and relax ,with the mega events you won't have time. Good job devs