Question What’s the difference between the space pirates featured in many 4X games and the Antarans featured in MoO2? Answer Nothing and everything Mechanically there is no difference at all. This menace would pop up from time to time and wreck havoc. A player, while hard pressed to deal with the menace early on, could get some nice benefits from defeating these ships. (Eventually, defeating them entirely acted as nice victory conditions) Immersion wise however, the difference was a chasm of credibility and immersion. In a game like ISG, where ship building is such an expensive undertaking, one could wonder why someone with those types of resources at their disposal would need to pirate anything. The Antarans on the other hand made sense, they weren’t looking for money, they were motivated by something else entirely. ISG has come a long way since version 1.0 and eventually we will see a DLC offered which will expand this already intriguing universe. I don’t know what that expansion will entail, but I believe there is an opportunity there for ISG to further set itself apart from the pack. A menace, that isn’t tied to space piracy, but rather expands some of the lore already hinted in the base game would bring ISG much closer to its inspiration and help it reach another level of notoriety.
Piracy can be a very nice addition to the game, but it can also be extended. Standard pirate actions are, of course, raids on non-defended colonies and a devastating effect on the economy of the planet and the entire empire. Defeating and destroying the pirate base would bring immediate income, and perhaps some new technologies. But pirates can be bribed and offered a Letter of Marque to become corsairs or privateers in the service of your empire. Thanks to this, they would weaken your opponents and improve your finances by transferring some of the loot to the empire treasury. As for Antarans, I love the concept of a lethal threat to the galaxy, but I'm not sure if Antarans should be implemented in the ISG in the form known from MOO2. Maybe in some form of reapers, star-devouring beings, instead of directly attacking the space races. This creatures could appear cyclically on the outskirts of the galaxy, slowly moving towards the most exploited systems. Knowing the origins, understanding and goals of these beings could be one of the conditions for victory.
Pirates can be done well, I’ve seen it happen. In one game in particular, they weren’t just the occasional nuisance, there were multiple quest-like events involving them. In that same game, they also had a few secret colonies and the facilities to build ships, in other words, for all intents and purposes they acted just like another faction. That said, there was one thing I couldn’t understand which tarnished the experience. What was their motivation? They already controlled entire worlds and had expensive ships, what were they after? The Antarans on the other hand weren’t interested in money, they had entirely different motives and were more believable. Mechanically, there was hardly any difference between them and pirates, but lore and immersion wise there was. Now take a game like ISG where a player will never field thousands or even hundreds of ships, just a few dozen at best. Doesn’t this imply that ships are extremely expensive to build and maintain? Early on in games like this it is a huge effort to build ships, and I just can’t see pirates starting to pop up in this type of environment. Why would someone that has those types of resources available need to pirate anything? Why would they risk that investment in the first place, what’s the motivation? Regardless if I’m reading a book, watching a movie or playing a game, I want plausibility, and pirates in games such as ISG aren’t very plausible. Obviously ISG cannot and should not introduce the “Antarans”, it’s a different universe after all. However, there are multiple and obvious ways that ISG could introduce an Antaran type menace and stay away from a tired trope. This wouldn’t only make more sense in the game, it could be the difference between good/adequate and great. After all, the Antarans are remembered and became a vital part of MoO2 and its success, I can’t think of any game where pirates had such an impact, can you?
You're right about The Antarans, this concept is unique to Master of Orion 2 and should not be implemented directly in ISG as a feature and form of a classic game. As you also stated, the idea of a galactic threat to all races can be introduced in many ways. In my opinion, it is important that it is cyclical and occurs until the space races solve it in some way. This threat may be biological (microbes, fungus or leviathan class beings), mechanical (like reapers from Mass Effect or AI beings from Star Trek Picard). Or even the iSG may implement some kind of higher races conflict (something like Vorlon-Shadows war from Babylon 5) where space empires (at later phase of the game) should be forced to choose one side of the conflict between the older ones and maintaining a neutral position would become more and more troublesome over the game (e.g. lack of access to certain technologies). Neutrality could at some point lead to acts of aggression from either side of the conflict. This primal concept of good and evil battle (or order and chaos) can have a big impact on the history of the ISG universe and its storyline. As for piracy, it doesn't have to cost a fortune (Somalia). Often, small, relatively cheap ships posed a huge threat in the operating sector, like piracy in west (america) and east india in 16-18th cent. Personally, I would like to see the implementation of piracy in the ISG. One of the form may be the one I wrote earlier. Another way might be for the empires to deploy private corsair fleets as was done in Sid Meier's Colonization. From my point of view it is important that such a fleet and a pirate base of operations must be destroyed to end pirate activities. This should not be done as in Orion series (without a fight) but on a tactical basis. Such a piracy elimination could take several turns, since it is difficult to detect pirates in their home sector.
My friend, the dynamics are very different. There are hundreds of millions of people on the planet capable of financing a Pirate operation off the cost of Somalia. There are only a handful that can finance their own space program.
I don't like the way most of these game have pirates as it hurts my head cannon..Pirates are not stupid,they would go after back alley colonies to nick shit and not try to attack main forces. I would prefer just more types of space monster that attack systems or rogue A.I ships.ect.
If you like pirates wrecking things, see Distant Worlds. A real headache for much of the game, but can be useful early in the game to work for you.
