braver or more stupid?

i think credits should be refunded if you make a losing bid... it just gets too expensive sometimes

interesting story. i was just playing a map against 4 hard AI, and one vasari AI expanded into a large neutral system, which happened to be where the pirate base was.

once i started kicking ass, everyone was putting bounty on me, it got up to like 20,000 credits at one stage, because even though i lost the bid every time ( i didnt even try to fight it) the pirates would not come out and attack me.

like most pirate bases, they were set up adjacent to the star, i sent scouts to both the base and star, and found the pirates were still alive and the vasari AI had done nothing to stop the pirates coming out to get me.

i have no idea what was wrong.... just a weird story i guess

Gikane, I like the idea of being able to become an "ally" (to whatever extent you could consider pirates an ally).

I believe a lot of possibilities could open up if pirates were no longer called pirates and simply called "Mercenaries." I would get rid of the bidding wars as they are right now.  You should also be able to give the mercenaries orders like you can AI allies, though with a price of course.  Opponents can then bid against the order to convince the mercs to stay neutral and not take the order.  If the order stands, then the mercs will become temporary allies with the player who gave the order and will help them out.  It would be great to pincer attack an enemy planet with the aid of mercenaries, or have them safeguard a planet while your big fleet goes marauding.  And as Gikane suggested, allow players to develop a good report with the mercenaries that can lead to discounts or, if the mercs really like them, even spontaneously help them out (or if the player gives the mercs unreasonable orders that result in lots of casualties for mercs, the mercs will charge more for their services).

The way I see it, set prices for mercs to attack a planet, support a fleet, or defend an area for, say, 15 minutes, then another price for 30 and then 45 minutes.  All players should be able to see what player the mercs are currently carrying out orders for as well as the diplomatic standing that each player has with the mercs.

While my experiences are mostly limited to single player, I think it could also serve to be interesting in multiplayer because it would allow players who go econ and "feed" to have another way to help their allies.

On an entirely separate note, I would love Ironclad to develop unique ships for the mercenaries rather than TEC counterparts, but this is certainly on the bottom of priorities should Ironclad implement any of the above suggestions.

Your suggestion for pirates to conduct mayhem than rather large strikes is a good idea.  What if pirates could appear suddenly in gravity wells like the Insurgency research can--small strikes to wreak havoc where players aren't expecting them.  If pirates enter a gravity well in this way, they would prioritize destruction of trade ports, refineries, and extractors first rather than military structures or research labs (leave that to the big guns of the mercs).

EDIT:  The combination of pirates and mercs would really add depth to the underworld aspect of the game.  Hell, players could even hire mercs to wipe out the pirate base if they wanted to, and players can place bids on the mercs for pirates to carry out raids on.  Players should be able to disable pirates and mercs exclusively of each other.

As I posted in an earlier thread on the same topic, I wouldn't mind seeing pirates essentially reworked completely from "reliably purchased suicide attackers" to "unreliable, greedy buggers in small ships masquerading as civvies, but raiding convoys and the like".   Seemed more suitable for criminals to be raiding refineries, trade ships and the like, rather than trying to engage actual interstellar-empire-class navies in head-on battles.

That said, the current way is much more straightforward to code than a custom  AI radically different from anything else in the game.  And adding imperfect spotting where ships aren't always ID'd as what they really are would also be a radical departure from what we have, so I can fully understand them never going in that direction.  Even small steps towards making them more interesting late-game and more consistent with expected behavior should be useful.

If we were adding mercenaries, you'd expect them to have somewhat greater willingness to actually stand and fight, but the history of mercenary loyalty has had its blemishes; if they're dead, the amount of money you offered them isn't necessarily as good a deal.  Unflagged operations using mercenaries would be interesting, perhaps; false-flagged even more so, heh... but could you really trust them to keep your deal a secret?

As for bids, they're never 'lost', per se; they just accumulate until they're claimed.  Doesn't have to be the pirates who collect the bounty, just anybody who is neither the victim nor the person who placed the bounty, IIRC.