Trade reputations

[rodarin]

OK I know attacking certain targets raises and lowers your reputation with other factions. I also pretty much know which faction effects theothers.

Question is though on some of the independant ones. French Mississippi and British East India.

Will killing those negativley effect any of the AH accesses? I don't think so. I figured they just stopped your access to the Eurotraders for that particular faction.

Anyone know for sure how they work it. I tried my best to test in in beta but never got enough rep or lost enough rep to tell.

If all it does is stop the ability to do some turn ins then no big deal to me. Free traders have very few targets as it is. Running around finding privateers is already old after just a couple days.

If you know for certain please give a heads up.

[Narninian]

Related question: Is it correct if I want to Trade Sugar for Wine (In Tortunga)- I should Kill Merryman Orange Sail Pirates? (Where can I find those?). If I do hunt them will that negatively affect other factions?

[waterhouse]

Question is though on some of the independant ones. French Mississippi and British East India.

Those are the French European Trade Faction and the British European Trade Faction respectively.

It affects how much of each good they take you have to turn in for the Euro Trade missions.

[waterhouse]

Related question: Is it correct if I want to Trade Sugar for Wine (In Tortunga)- I should Kill Merryman Orange Sail Pirates? (Where can I find those?). If I do hunt them will that negatively affect other factions?

I am not sure. Technically the Euro trader at Tortuga is Dutch, not pirate.

[Narninian]

I am not sure. Technically the Euro trader at Tortuga is Dutch, not pirate.

ahh - so how do I improve faction with whoever I need to do improve trade rations on Refined sugar (in Tortuga)?

[waterhouse]

You could sink Mississippi Company or EIC ships, those will give you small amounts of +rep with the WIC (the Dutch faction). To stay in business with them however, you'd need to grind the appropriate pirate group or junk trader mission.

[rodarin]

So I guess theoretically you can hunt Trade UNION ships back and forth as long as you never dip below -500 on any one nation(then you can't use the Ahs of that nation) Because I don't see any benefit of getting more than that with any nation. Since the only "reward" you get is to enter and post on thier AH. Unless there is one and I missed it somewhere, or maybe one upcoming, but not sure what it would be.

If what you say is definately true then the independant ones are much more important.

Hunting Dutch ships gives rep wtith all 3, but wieghing the trade off for that faction will have to be determined I guess. I know they are the only one that takes rum as a trade in item. But will maybe be even better than hunting the seperate pirate factions since is envelops all of them.

So as long as you kill Dutch you can still use the pirate AH. (killing smugglers union ships would hurt that faction).

It made sense I just wasn't 100% sure.

[Narninian]

ahh - thanks for your answers - will check out the wiki to see what the appropriate pirate faction is to get Dutch faction increases.

[Narninian]

no luck there.. I guess I need to hunt rival trader factions and the kill the orange sail pirates to get those factions back up?

[Supe987]

Not sure been trying to gain french faction as a pirate myself and it seems stuck at -740 I have killed rival traders etc it seems kind of random when it rises not sure if it will rise past this point though.

And the trader missions just not sure how they work i got the French goblet one but have no idea where to look.

And not really sure if you n eed the junk loot quests to begin with do we need them to get the items or are the item drops random and who usually drops them?

[Montbrun]

Personally, I don't like to pick on the Dutch. Their AH is the "neutral" one where all nations can post goods.

[waterhouse]

for the junk trader missions, you have to use the random loot that drops when you sink ships or kill avatars. you don't need to have the mission.

It used to be that you needed to sink the enemy trader when they were close by to the port you wanted to gain faction with. For example, sinking a Spanish trader near Cayo de Marquis would increase your rep with the French Trade Union. This was before they made the changes to the rep so I don't know how valid it still is.

[Supe987]

ah it works sometimes just not sure on teh range if it's 50 mils it's harsh or there might be a limit or level limit as well not sure.

[waterhouse]

It might be 50 miles. 50 miles is also the range for ships to count towards contention.

[rodarin]

From what I see now the junk dealer quests are useless for Freetraders, since they only give rep to being able to look atthe Ah, which we get to do with a skill. Same as witht the transport quests. Although they do give exp when you do them, and the rewards money almost pays for the materials you pass in.

Now it all seems well and good unless FLS adds in new loot or let's different Eurotrader accept diferent loot or offer different for their faction. Freetraders have very few things they can hunt. So it comes down to having to make some choices, be strong in 2 and hunt 2 or be semi gimped in all four and get no deductions. Also the pirates drop trash compared to the traders.

I guess you have to pick and chose which traders you want to deal with. As long as you don't kill the trade union ships (at least until you reach -500) it doesn't look like it really hurts you all that much to actually hunt these things.

[Envoy]

Incorrect, the skill you get allows you to look at AH listings globally.

However, if you do not have sufficent trade rep with a certain nation, freetrader or not, trade connections or not, you still won't be able to see that nations listings.

[andy52584]

Since the OPs origional question seemed to not be clearly answered, allow me to explain the differences in reputaions.

Reputation with the Trade Companies (WIC, EIC, TMC, HOT) affects your ability to trade with their European traders (if below -500, you cannot trade with them) and the efficency of the trade with them (better rep levels means less imput for the same output). Also, reputation with the Dutch West India Company specificly will affect your ability to use the AH in Oranjistad. Attacking any of the Trade Company ships, will decrease your rep with that company and increase it will all of the others. This makes attacking enemy Trade Companies a decent gridning option for FTs who want better exchange with their own country's Company. As a Frenchman I find myself regularly clearing areas of EIC and HOT ships (leaving the WIC alone since I may want to use the Dutch Euro Trader at some point).

Reputation with the Trade Unions affects your ability to use the AHs associated with that Union. Going below -500 will keep you from using that AH. Although I've never experienced it myself, I have seen it stated several times (including by a dev) that getting better relations with the Trade Unions can open up some additional quests at the higher levels. Attacking any national Trade Union ship (French, British, or Spanish) will decrease your rep with that Trade Union and increase it with the Smugglers Union (Pirate one). Conversly, attacing Smugglers Union ships will decrease with them and increase it with all the national Trade Unions.

There are far more ways to aquire Trade Union rep than Trade Company rep from what I have seen. As mentioned, there are junk dealer/fence quests, delivery quests (if you are a FT), and even several "normal" quests in various ports that increase Trade Union rep. Additionally, attacking certain "evil pirates" (those above lvl 30ish I think) will increase your rep with the Navy, Trade Union, and Trade Company of a single nation. For example, I belive it is the Hijos Verdederos that does this for Spain.

I hope this explainations helps a bit.

[rodarin]

Hmm, OK then doing trade union boats might not be too smart. But it makes sense to give missions for higher rep, because why offer quests that people "didn't need". Other than for some experience.

Also at a certain level some of those transport quests disappear, I did notice that. Some are still there, but I lost the options to do the copper, and coshineal transports. Not sure if they stop being available at +750 or not, but it would make the most sense. And I am sure some of the other ones disapear as well.

But yea, my educated guess was pretty much correct (excpet for the missions that open up). SO basically I will be hunting the French I guess. Dutch is a toss up, but if you lose rep with them, you'll lose access to the Orenstadt AH I would assume. Not that a ton of stuff gets put there but it is always possible I suppose.

Just have to hope that sometime down the road the French don't offer something weall need that is easilly traded for.

[Asmodeous]

Is there a chart somewhere that some kind soul made that lists what pirates make what groups happy? :/

Me.

[waterhouse]

Hijos Verdaderos Spanish
Varyags British
Merrymen Pirate
Unknown French
non-existent Dutch

[Asmodeous]

Hijos Verdaderos Spanish
Varyags British
Merrymen Pirate
Unknown French
non-existent Dutch

Merrymen go british. Dutch get happy from you killing anyone's East India Companies, I believe.

The important question is who makes the French happy? :/

Me.

[PekkaR]

The important question is who makes the French happy? :/

Me.

Haha. I think your way of signing your posts backfired there. :p

I'll be hunting you in the open sea then... Well, if I ever want to make the French happy.

[Asmodeous]

Haha. I think your way of signing your posts backfired there. :p

I'll be hunting you in the open sea then... Well, if I ever want to make the French happy.

That's because I'm part of the Bretheren. :p

Me. ;)

[waterhouse]

Merrymen go british. Dutch get happy from you killing anyone's East India Companies, I believe.

The important question is who makes the French happy? :/

Me.

So are the Varyags for the Pirates then?

I'll ask one of our squads to go sink some pirates and take screen shot of the rep :).

[icbatsnata]

Hijos Verdaderos - Spanish
Varyags - Brethren/Smugglers
Merrymen or Lost Ironsides - British
???? - French


I just checked these because I'm looking for a less grind-tacular way of gaining French. Outside of the starter area pirates giving Navy rep, I didn't find any.

It looks like the Devs goofed somewhere since the Brits have two Pirate factions which raise their rep; I'm guessing one of those is supposed to be French.

[karkh]

The pirates you need to hunt for each faction are actually given in level 35 quests from each capitol, and one in Oranjestad telling you who they want dead as well.

I have been nagging a LONG time to get the devs to fix the french rep givers, they are not spawning anywhere. The pirates you are looking for is La Confrérie Libre. If you like I can post a screenshot of the questgiver dialog asking for them.

Oh about hunting WIC and so on, it needs to be stated that if you kill one you gain a little rep with the others and loose a LOT of rep with the one you killed, so it would be very hard to juggle that to be able to keep rep with all of them.

I would reccomend that instead you stick to killing pirates other than brethren, because you can only gain rep when killing them, not loose any.

Edit: adding that screenshot. I know it says the quest gives navy rep, but the killing of the pirates gives some rep to all factions in that nation, and the other quests correspond with the "orange sail pirates" mentioned earlier in this thread.

[rodarin]

You gain 25% of level and lose whatever level you killed. SO if you kill a level 32 WIC, you lose 32 rep with them, and gain 8 with all the others, or any of the other factions. I did it steady for 3 days. Still a little short of the 1500, and I think there is more after that considering I am at about 1230 or so and the bar has along way to go to turn all blue.

As far as how much killing the pirates give, I haven't bothered killing any pirates, so I can't be sure. But I would assume it is the same 25%, but you obviously don't lose any faction with the pirates. I might kill a cuple pirates tonight for the hell of it to see how they distribute.

[karkh]

I would just like to add that as of today I can use the spanish auctions with my pirate. It took me about a day and a half to get the 270 or so rep I needed when killing Hijos Verdaderos, and as side effects I was able to access the spanish eurotrader long before being finished, and the spanish navy patrols no longer attack me.

[waterhouse]

I would just like to add that as of today I can use the spanish auctions with my pirate. It took me about a day and a half to get the 270 or so rep I needed when killing Hijos Verdaderos, and as side effects I was able to access the spanish eurotrader long before being finished, and the spanish navy patrols no longer attack me.

karkh, does that make you a privateer for the Spanish fleet :yar:?

[karkh]

karkh, does that make you a privateer for the Spanish fleet :yar:?
Not realy. I need a kitten picture here:
"I'm in ur AHs steelin ur goodies"

[rodarin]

Not realy. I need a kitten picture here:
"I'm in ur AHs steelin ur goodies"

We don't have any.

[karkh]

We don't have any.

Nope.


Not any more.:D

[bpdlr]

There's also a quest in Tortuga from the Knights Templar to kill Merrymen. Does that mean Merrymen give pirate, british and templar? Or is this bugged?

[PedroAsani]

http://www.potbswiki.com/index.php?title=Orange_Sail_Pirates

Page lists the reuptations gained by the Orange Sail Pirates. So far no word on the Dutch.

[Asmodeous]

Wow. That page is missing 1/3 of them and has a few just wrong.

And those ones that raise french standing? Never seen them.

I just sailed a gamut around the entire world finding every pirate I could and tracking their reps because I couldn't find anything useful, and those don't seem to exist.

Seems the best method to raise everyone's TU faction is to park yourself somewhere to kill Merrymen pirates and British Trade Union ships. The Merrymen will counteract the unhappy caused by killing BTUs and the BTUs will make STU and FTU happy.

Me.

[rodarin]

Wow. That page is missing 1/3 of them and has a few just wrong.

And those ones that raise french standing? Never seen them.

I just sailed a gamut around the entire world finding every pirate I could and tracking their reps because I couldn't find anything useful, and those don't seem to exist.

Seems the best method to raise everyone's TU faction is to park yourself somewhere to kill Merrymen pirates and British Trade Union ships. The Merrymen will counteract the unhappy caused by killing BTUs and the BTUs will make STU and FTU happy.

Me.

Its a 4-1 ratio so sonner or later you'll reach a threshold

[The_Virus]

Not realy. I need a kitten picture here:
"I'm in ur AHs steelin ur goodies"

Rofl, I'm doing the same thing. Great minds think a like :)

Those Hijos Verdaderos throw down the points fast, took me about a day and a half also to be able to rob those spanish AH's ;)

[waterhouse]

Rofl, I'm doing the same thing. Great minds think a like :)

Those Hijos Verdaderos throw down the points fast, took me about a day and a half also to be able to rob those spanish AH's ;)

And there's so many of them also, I think the Devs did it on purpose. Let everyone buy from the Spanish and protect the French :p.

[rodarin]

And there's so many of them also, I think the Devs did it on purpose. Let everyone buy from the Spanish and protect the French :p.

French actually have the cheapest prices. Spain has volume but France has value.

Ship provisions were 4000-4500 in French cities when they were still selling for 7000-7500 eevrywhere else. As an example.

[Asmodeous]

Well, this is now going to cause me to make another thread.

Pirates need a Smuggler class that has the Speed skills of the Privateer and the Smuggling skills of a Freetrader and the Skullduggery of a pirate.

Nothing offensive, just defense, speed, and taxes.

Primarily, Pirates need a class that starts off able to trade everywhere with the proper skill, just like the Freetraders, because this is nonsense.

There is no way to gain French Trade Union status.

You get none from killing other Trade Unions, you get none from any sort of pirates out there. (Samidien give French navy but do not give French Trade Union). Which means if you're a pirate and want to trade in a French port you have no option but to use entirely Vendor Trash to be able to do it.

FLS either needs to give us a pirate that raises French Trade Union Faction (Care to make Samidien do it?) or give us a Smuggler class. What purpose do we even have of alts right now anyway? I mean, really. . .

Me.

[The_Virus]

I have been behind this idea since day one.
Honestly, I don't know of a reason why it has not been implemented yet.
I haven't seen one negative post about it.
Which I'm sure will change now that I have said that ;)

[rodarin]

Well not having the right pirates in the game or not enough of them is just another glaring examples as to how FLS has dropped the ball on things that actually do matter in the gameplay itself. We can argue and debate the economy all we want, it is semi-theoretical. But not having NPCs in the game that are required to do something in the overall gameplay environment is a joke. DEFINATELY somethign that should have been fixed in Beta. People can defend FLS with all the "no other games were released perfect" ******** all they want to, but when NPCs and targets are missing that should be in the game there is no excuse.

[The_Virus]

Well, now that we have brought it up again. Hopefully it will get their attention to get to this topic. I'm sure it has been on the backburner / to do list among the other fixes.

Rodarin, I know you have been here for a while. From my perspective when there has been a problem with the game, and we have brought it up in the forums. It usually hasn't taken long to get an answer from the dev's on the situation or a fix. Yes, sometimes we have had to bring it up more then once, but honestly compared to any other game coming out, that is pretty impressive.

I haven't seen many (if any) Developers from other games openly come on forums and ask for comments and suggestions from the community for game play development, aside from FLS. That is very impressive in my observations.

Can we get a post here from the Dev's on the status of available pirates for Trade Reputation for the French? Like a tentative time frame as to when they will be in game?

[rodarin]

Well, now that we have brought it up again. Hopefully it will get their attention to get to this topic. I'm sure it has been on the backburner / to do list among the other fixes.

Rodarin, I know you have been here for a while. From my perspective when there has been a problem with the game, and we have brought it up in the forums. It usually hasn't taken long to get an answer from the dev's on the situation or a fix. Yes, sometimes we have had to bring it up more then once, but honestly compared to any other game coming out, that is pretty impressive.

I haven't seen many (if any) Developers from other games openly come on forums and ask for comments and suggestions from the community for game play development, aside from FLS. That is very impressive in my observations.

Can we get a post here from the Dev's on the status of available pirates for Trade Reputation for the French? Like a tentative time frame as to when they will be in game?


That was during beta, now the game has gone llive they don't even announce their presence in game anymore. Although I did file a bug report and actually got an answer...a PM from a GM asking me if I was still stuck. Now that is double edged, had I still been stuck I wouldn't have been there :). But at least they are in fact there, (not sure how much). So they are around if you have a problem I guess.

Other than Danica moving topics around I haven't seen much FLS interaction here lately.

Hey, if I dodn't like the game and see potential I would care so much. I just play it and wait for the next one to come out. Or go back to WOW or LOTRO. (or err um Vanguard)

[Pigeon]

note to self read the forums rather than chasing around the map trying to find french trade reputation.

We really do need a pirate or target for this as getting a full collection of the right junk enough times is a big big grind!

[rodarin]

French Trade Union is weak. Maybe that is the reason for thenm not focusing on it so much right now. Marble is the only thing they take that you can't pass in elsewhere, and marble is ridiculously high in price, and not a good loot drop. If you are french it doesn't help I guess, but pick another faction and hunt it, you'll get the rudimnentary rep with France and the other 2 as well. All a personal preferance I guess. I have just been grinding the Mississippi Co ships and letting my French go down in flames.

[andy52584]

French Trade Union is weak. Maybe that is the reason for thenm not focusing on it so much right now. Marble is the only thing they take that you can't pass in elsewhere, and marble is ridiculously high in price, and not a good loot drop. If you are french it doesn't help I guess, but pick another faction and hunt it, you'll get the rudimnentary rep with France and the other 2 as well. All a personal preferance I guess. I have just been grinding the Mississippi Co ships and letting my French go down in flames.

What you are talking about is French Mississippi Company rep, not French Trade Union rep. It is actually possible to gain rep with TMC through grinding. Just grind on all the other Trade Companies (East India, West India, House of Trade). However, even as a French FT who has no real need to improve my French Trade Union rep, I agree that they need to impliment the "evil pirates" that can be killed for it. If for no other reason than that those same pirates will provide TMC rep which I do have a desire to improve.

[rodarin]

Well from what I have gathered is all that trade union rep gives you is the oppurtunity to do more quests that give you more rep. Not any kind of discounts anywhere. People give the junk dealers thousands of dubloons worth of items for nothing. Unless of course you aren't able to initially look at the AHs of other countries. Which for a national is no problem, make a FT alt.

Pirates on the other hand have a problem. but then again they are pirates, they shouldn't be too concerned withthe AHs to begin with.

That is why I am on this server and not with my normal guild on Blackbeard playing a pirate. Because I like the manufactoring/economic side of games.

[PekkaR]

Pirates on the other hand have a problem. but then again they are pirates, they shouldn't be too concerned withthe AHs to begin with.

Strong economy is our aim as pirates too. :yar:

[karkh]

Well from what I have gathered is all that trade union rep gives you is the oppurtunity to do more quests that give you more rep. Not any kind of discounts anywhere. People give the junk dealers thousands of dubloons worth of items for nothing. Unless of course you aren't able to initially look at the AHs of other countries. Which for a national is no problem, make a FT alt.

The rep gain from the handins are pitiful anyway compared to effort involved. Even if you collect them over the course of doing other things, completing your sets and then sailing to the appropriate port is fairly futile in comparison to grinding some pirates.

When the level cap goes, I will probably level to 50 on the pirates alone, then start messing with quests. Should put me in a good rep position as piratical raider of AHs.

[Asmodeous]

Well from what I have gathered is all that trade union rep gives you is the oppurtunity to do more quests that give you more rep. Not any kind of discounts anywhere. People give the junk dealers thousands of dubloons worth of items for nothing. Unless of course you aren't able to initially look at the AHs of other countries. Which for a national is no problem, make a FT alt.

Pirates on the other hand have a problem. but then again they are pirates, they shouldn't be too concerned withthe AHs to begin with.

That is why I am on this server and not with my normal guild on Blackbeard playing a pirate. Because I like the manufactoring/economic side of games.

Since day one I have been collecting every single hand-in drop gotten from everyone in my entire society. I have managed to lower my FTU standings from -750 to -726. It's not sufficient.

Not concerned with AHs? Are you joking? This is why a smuggler is a good thing to have (even though we never will, which is sad), is because I can make a product, sell it to the nationals, take it back, then sell it to them again (or if it's a ship, use it against them), effectively giving me their money and the product I sold.

How is that not something pirates would be concerned with?

Me.

[rodarin]

Since day one I have been collecting every single hand-in drop gotten from everyone in my entire society. I have managed to lower my FTU standings from -750 to -726. It's not sufficient.

Not concerned with AHs? Are you joking? This is why a smuggler is a good thing to have (even though we never will, which is sad), is because I can make a product, sell it to the nationals, take it back, then sell it to them again (or if it's a ship, use it against them), effectively giving me their money and the product I sold.

How is that not something pirates would be concerned with?

Me.


Read what I said. If you are a priate then sure getting access may help. But usually some freetrader will beat you to all the bargains if they are constantly serfing the Ahs and scooping up anything at or below their buy price point.

But as a pirate you should be more worried about sinking a nations ships and causing contention so you can raid them. Those things cause a lot more economic disrutption than buying 2 or 3 items and then trying to repost them for a higher price. All you did then was spend your money and hope they get bought or someone doesn't come back in and repost for the same price you paid for them, thus undercutting you anyway.

[Asmodeous]

Read what I said. If you are a priate then sure getting access may help. But usually some freetrader will beat you to all the bargains if they are constantly serfing the Ahs and scooping up anything at or below their buy price point.

Read what I said. I'm not looking to buy from them, I'm looking to sell to them.

Think about this. I build a ship in a shipyard, which is relatively worthless to a pirate for the most part, why buy what they can steal? I sell it in, say, Grenville. Naval Officer Bob buys it in Grenville, I get his money. We then steal the ship from him. Now we have both his money and his ship. Or say I sell them some Brass. Then raid their hauler moving it to where they want it and take the Brass back. Then repeat the process. . .

This is what I said, and has absolutely nothing to do with what you said as a reply.

But as a pirate you should be more worried about sinking a nations ships and causing contention so you can raid them. Those things cause a lot more economic disrutption than buying 2 or 3 items and then trying to repost them for a higher price. All you did then was spend your money and hope they get bought or someone doesn't come back in and repost for the same price you paid for them, thus undercutting you anyway.

Which still has absolutely jack with what I'm talking about anyway. I don't want to buy from them. I'm not looking to buy and repost. I'm looking to build my crap, smuggle it in, sell it to them, then sink them (thusly causing contention) and take the crap I sold them back by force, then sell it to them again.

This should be glaringly obvious of a concept to every pirate.

If it's not, you're not a very creative pirate. :|

Me.

[rodarin]

OK, maybe I misunderstood or misread what you said. But even so undercutting nataionals on boats is going to be very difficult. Not to mention that by selling cheap boats to nationals might be counterproductive, since high ship prices are what scare people from PvP in the first place. Cheap ships means fodder to fight with.

But this is getting a little off topic.

I played pirate all through beta, and I did everything I could to work the AHs and figure out how to effect nationals econimcally. My playing a national now on a seperate server thanmy regular guild pretty much answers the question of what I found out.

[Fahrenheit]

There is no way to gain French Trade Union status.

You'd be surprised how few merchants want to deal with the sort of people who kill them and take their goods.

Pirate scum have no business dealing with civilized people. My only regret is that I will not live to see the day when the last pirate is on the bottom of the ocean.

[beer]

You'd be surprised how few merchants want to deal with the sort of people who kill them and take their goods.

Pirate scum have no business dealing with civilized people. My only regret is that I will not live to see the day when the last pirate is on the bottom of the ocean.

How can you say such horrible things!!!! :(

Pppirates are just people too, with feelings sniffle
*turns around to leave*

Ahhhh who am kidding *swings around* DIE YOU MERCHANT sack of bones!!!!!!!!!!! *SMELL GUN POWDER IN THE AIR*

[garborg]

Which means if you're a pirate and want to trade in a French port you have no option but to use entirely Vendor Trash to be able to do it.

FLS either needs to give us a pirate that raises French Trade Union Faction (Care to make Samidien do it?) or give us a Smuggler class. What purpose do we even have of alts right now anyway? I mean, really. . .

Me.

Merrymen Pirates. Are the ones you want. They are like Hijos for spain, and Ironside for English. I now have access to Spain's AH as pirate from grinding Hijos.

[rodarin]

Well FYI +1500 isn't enough to gain the 2nd level of reputation. Must be 2500 I guess. Has anyone actually gotten to the second level? if it is 2000 I will work on it, but if it is 2500 I don't know if it is worth the time for the little bit you save.

[Case Armitage]

I believe as pirates we need something to help us move (smuggle) goods from region to region, something along the lines of the FT skill Trade connections, I mean every NO and PT can easily have a FT alt , Pirates have no way of getting this trade experience. I already posted my thoughts here:
http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?p=67150#post67150
And I don't feel what I'm asking is beyond reason or unbalancing it would actually help broaden the market but we would still have to work very hard at getting and keeping a decent rep with other nations.

[Supe987]

Was there ever anymore info on this are is killing the orange pirates still way the way to go to get trade union faction.

I did see the French pirates for a whole day a while back i think they vanished agian.

[valkiria]

Well not having the right pirates in the game or not enough of them is just another glaring examples as to how FLS has dropped the ball on things that actually do matter in the gameplay itself. We can argue and debate the economy all we want, it is semi-theoretical. But not having NPCs in the game that are required to do something in the overall gameplay environment is a joke. DEFINATELY somethign that should have been fixed in Beta. People can defend FLS with all the "no other games were released perfect" ******** all they want to, but when NPCs and targets are missing that should be in the game there is no excuse.


Personally, playing a FreeTrader I have always been cautious to who I attack as far as NPCs.

Since sinking ships gives good experience, I have also found it a good way to level up.

My problem ? Since I can only (or mostly) attack Pirates because of Reputation issues as described in this thread I have often found myself with lack of proper targets as compared to my level. I either find too tough or too weak.

It seems to me that finding the range fitting to my current level (20ish) is quite lacking.

By the way, I just learned from this thread that attacking Smugglers' ships may cut out from the Pirates Auction House. I had no idea (and have been attacking smugglers' ships). I now need to work on improving my reputation back up with them.

[andy52584]

Personally, playing a FreeTrader I have always been cautious to who I attack as far as NPCs.

Since sinking ships gives good experience, I have also found it a good way to level up.

My problem ? Since I can only (or mostly) attack Pirates because of Reputation issues as described in this thread I have often found myself with lack of proper targets as compared to my level. I either find too tough or too weak.

It seems to me that finding the range fitting to my current level (20ish) is quite lacking.

By the way, I just learned from this thread that attacking Smugglers' ships may cut out from the Pirates Auction House. I had no idea (and have been attacking smugglers' ships). I now need to work on improving my reputation back up with them.

From about level 20-25ish you will find plenty of "evil pirates" (non-Brethren, so no rep loss) to kill with the Samedians off the coast of Louisiana or the Corsairs of the Main off the northern coast of South America. I went grinding on these guys for quite a while during open beta and they were excelent for leveling up. If you're looking for a bit more of a challenege you can go hunting solo Hijos, Merrymen, or Varygas that are in their lower 30s. So long as I didnt take on groups of them I was able to handle these guys fine in a Dromedary (level 20 ship). Additionally, hunting Varygas and Merrymen will begin to improve your repuation with the Smuggler's Union which you mentioned you may need to work on. :)