It goes both ways

[tedhebert]

Playing Teach Tonga...

The Pirate/Blackbeard ability is all very fine, you can attack anyone with your naval units... BUT !!!

It goes both ways... Anyone can also attack your naval units, even if not at war with them... and they do and they will... IPs AND Civs, even if you're friendly with them... especially if you're actually at war with another civ, just to annoy you !

You know what ? It IS pretty annoying... there's just no safe place

This is fun

EDIT: ON top of that, there's really a change in how the AI civs use sanctions... I have Trung Trac as a neighbor, and she's been spamming Hinder military production and one I've never seen, hinders my science by 10%... I took her capital city as retaliation, but as soon as we made peace she restarted, even if I
did a reconciliation... she's really annoying too

 

[AriochIV]

Yes, I was going to post the same thing... being able to capture hostile barbarian ships is initially very useful, but having ALL your ships be pirates means that all those neutral or friendly ships will keep attacking you even after they become friendly, as will all the other empires, so you'll have a large fleet of damaged ships constantly running from pursuers, and costing you a fortune in upkeep while not doing much other than increasing the size of your wounded pirate fleet.

So I guess by Exploration Age you may have amassed such a large fleet that after the reset you will just dominate the seas... I guess it's an "interesting" twist on gameplay, but it resembles nothing from real history.

 

[Tuvok694]

I have Trung Trac as a neighbor, and she's been spamming Hinder military production

Same thing in my first game after the patch: Sanctions from Trung Trac almost every two or three turns. I don't even know why she has so much influence.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Wow, that will have a huge effect on the Exploration meta. No safe place for my ships; no more ignoring the ships of a neutral AI, passing by.

Every privateer is essentially / potentially a unit from a hostile IP. Whoa ...

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Playing Teach Tonga...

The Pirate/Blackbeard ability is all very fine, you can attack anyone with your naval units... BUT !!!

It goes both ways... Anyone can also attack your naval units, even if not at war with them... and they do and they will... IPs AND Civs, even if you're friendly with them... especially if you're actually at war with another civ, just to annoy you !

You know what ? It IS pretty annoying... there's just no safe place

This is fun

EDIT: ON top of that, there's really a change in how the AI civs use sanctions... I have Trung Trac as a neighbor, and she's been spamming Hinder military production and one I've never seen, hinders my science by 10%... I took her capital city as retaliation, but as soon as we made peace she restarted, even if I
did a reconciliation... she's really annoying too

It is tricky for sure. I ended up balancing it out by hiding my pirate ships inside Buccaneers. The AI doesn't attack them unless you're at war.

 

[AriochIV]

The exploration age is kind of insane... you have to get used to constantly being in an undeclared war, but once you've mastered that you command a monstrous horde of undead ships that shamble around taking over everything they come across. If you like combat, it certainly gives you plenty to do.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Last night, I built a privateer, just to see what they can do. On one level, it was fun. I could sail up and attack any embarked AI unit that I wanted to.
But I also realized that I wanted to have a fleet commander nearby, to soak up the experience. It *IS* my privateer, after all.
Since it was late in Exploration (I was continuing a save from before 1.3.0), I didn't have many hostile IP's to use to give my newbie fleet commander experience.

Having my FC follow the privateer around, a bit like a helicopter parent, helped get me that first promotion without ever declaring war.