In short, its a fun idea I've been using coming up with inside my head. It would be awesome if maybe a modder would be able to do this but if stardock were to pay attention I think this mode would be very interesting and none bland as some of the other ones that came out. Also it would make pirates a more viable, and hopefully bridge the gap between being to hard for newbies and to easy for Pro's.
Note: I don't expect this idea to really go through or anything. But maybe it will offer some interesting ideas to help make pirates a more viable option. This is probably more of a mini expansion than anything that can be done before Rebellion is finished. Hell if someone would make this into a mod I would be like <333333333

Mechanics

First off there will be new game mechanics, you can still have the AI operate. But should Pirates mode be enabled through Game Type Options. The Option to disable Pirates in Game Options will be disabled. Upon hosting a game there will be nine player slots, although this one is separated from the others and clearly stats pirates slot.
Upon entering the game there will be a few changes. You can still put bounty on a player, but in the Diplomacy tree you can see a relationship towards the pirate player(Will go into more detail on this later). This will go up should you the Pirate go through with whatever target he chooses. It will go down should the pirates be attacked by a player that does not have a bounty on his head(even a Pirate has the reason to understand the concept of "defending yourself"). The pirate is effected by research such as TAR, Raider Xenophobia, and Karmic Retribution(More detail into what these abilities do will be discussed later.

• How will the Pirate player work as a pirate and not just attack anyone? Well the pirate can only attack the players with the "Top Three Bounty on their head"(This mechanic will help stop spamming bounty on one player as the pirate will have a choice on who he wants to attack). 
• How do pirates not leave the base to attack. Pirates cannot leave the base until the time limit is finished. Also upon hitting their first world they have a 10 minute timer that they have to raid before being forced back to their pirate base.
• The Pirate can defend himself however should he be attacked by somebody without a bounty during a raid.
• How will the Pirates find his enemies? Pirates can see all planets and who owns them(However he does not have planet vision or ship vision).
• How will pirates not attack two enemies with two separate fleets? Well before a pirate leaves his gravity well his fleet is automatically put into a fleet formation so this way they cannot separate, this cannot be deactivated until he returns to the pirate base or attacks a players planet".
• The moment a pirate opens fire on a planet or orbital structure the pirate is "bound" to that planet. He may break fleet formation and attack what he desires. The pirate may leave the planet whenever he wants however he must reform the fleet.
• Pirates can see who is putting bounty on who.
• Pirates will start out with 5000 credits, 0 ore, and 0 crystal. All pirate ships will cost credits, however all tech will cost ore, and crystal. (More on this will be discussed in the next chapter.)
• Pirates are immune to culture, this includes allegiance drain.
• Should there be multiple stars, the starting amount of credits is doubled. 
• Pirates are unable to attack homeworlds.
• Pirates innately can jump through wormholes and to other stars.

And those are the core mechanics of the pirate faction. Its to help them feel piratey. And give them a more human feel than the mindless current pirates.

Economy/The Pirate Base

The Pirate economy is much different than the other factions. He earns credits through the Plundered Booty passive on his Pirate Base. He also receives credits from the Bounty Put on other players, as well as from killing Trade Ships. He will earn Ore and Crystal through killing Extractors and Refinery Ships. As well as through research. Pirates need to research fleet supply as well but are not effected by Upkeep. Pirate fleet size will depend on the current Fleet Limit setting(such as small fleet/medium fleet). So if the fleet setting is to medium pirates will have small. If its on small it will be small. If it is on large it will be medium. This is to ensure that pirate massing fleets does not become a problem.


Now for the Pirate base. I'll try to keep this simple. All upgrades will be very cheap for pirates, and normal for regular players should Pirates be defeated.

1. Civilian Infrastructure will be at Max from game start(aka at 1)
2. Planetary Health will be at max as well (6000 Health)
3. Logistics supply will be changed to function as a research station(only cheaper), the pirates will start at level 2, it will probably renamed to something like Pirate Logistics as well. The level 3 cost of this is 100 credits, this cost goes up +100 per upgrade. This is disabled for players should they take over the pirate base.
4. Tactical Slots will remain the same except it will have one more level, pirates start at level 1.
5. Explore Planet will be changed to Plunder Stores, this will increase the amount of credits pirates receive a second. Although not visible at the beginning of the game this will make the Pirate Base function as a trade port and refineries.(This will be discussed more in the Capital Ships section.).
6. Change Capital Planet: Will be at max level, and unchanged. However Pirates will now have +100% allegiance.

And that is how the Pirate Base and Economy of the pirate will work. I wanted the Pirates to work as pirates so there will be no buildable trade ports.

Pirate Defense

One of my main concerns was that the pirate base was to easy to assault early on as it will function like a capital planet. It will start with no defenses. So I came up with some ideas for pirate defense as well as a Starbase;). I want the pirates to be HARD to kill off because its a player with one world. Ganging up on them should not kill them easily.

Note: I will discuss some pirate tech in this segment but pirate tech will have its own spotlight further down. So will the individual abilities.

1. The Gauss Turret. Is the main form of defense for the pirates as it does a lot of single target damage. However it has an innate flaw of being very vulnerable to long range attacks and bombers. The Gauss Turret can be upgrade to have a flak burst much like the Kol.
2. Hanger Defense: The Pirates now have a hanger defense platform. They can build +2 squadrons of fighters and can be upgraded to have 3. They can also be upgraded to have flak turrets on them.
3. Repair Platform: Will be weak early, but can be researched to be the strongest single target heal of all the repair platforms.
4. Communication Array: This will spread pirate culture. It also has the innate ability to disrupt ability casts. 
5. Phase Jump Inhibitor: Works like all other phase jump inhibitors, however it has an researchable ability to make it cloak and can only be spotted by a scout.
6. Mines: Remain the same.

I've also thought about what will happen if the pirates get rushed early. They do not start out with a mass of Gauss Turrets, so I decided their will be a neutral fleet of pirate ships in the gravity well. They cannot be controlled by the player, unless an enemy is attacking the Pirate Base. Then the player will gain control of the pirates. When the last enemy leaves control will be lost, these pirates cannot phase jump out even during raid times. And they cannot e put into a fleet formation.

Pirate Ships

This is probably my favorite part as my imagination flew sky high with this one. I'll go one by one with the ship and what they do. Pirate Build ship from the Pirate Base, the amount of "Frigate Factories" will be upgradable through research.
Note: All costs are subject to change.

1. Pirate Rogue: The Pirate's Light Frigate, basically will function as a massable unit and workhorse for the pirate fleet. They have an innate ability that when they get hit by an enemy they gain .5 armor to a max of 3. Through research it serves its role as an Anti-support ship ship. It will receive an ability that disables abilities of targeted ships and structures. Cost 250 credits. Does not have to be researched to build. Autocannon Weaponry.
2. Pirate Pillager: Will function as a building destroyer. It does not make sense that pirates would bomb a planet to be honest thats less money to be plundered. Can be upgraded to send a strike force onto the planet. Cost 450 credits. Does not have to be researched to build. Missile Weaponry.
3. Pirate Reaper: The Anti-Strike craft Vessel. Has an ability to increase its rate of fire by a ridiculous amount for a short period. Cost 350 credits. Does not have to be researched to build. Flak Weaponry.

These are all the upgraded vanilla units that have a role. I have made some new units I feel that would be a good addition to the pirate arsenal. All of these units have to be upgraded to use.

1. Pirate Brigand: The Pirates Defensive Support cruiser, has the innate ability with an AoE "cleanse" which rids ships of all disables. It can be upgraded to have an ability that makes all ships around it immune to phase jump inhibitors. Cost 450 credits. Missile Weaponry.
2. Pirate Cutthroat: Functions as an offensive support vessel: Its default ability allows it to embargo a planet, its researched ability allows it to steal credits from ships it attacks. Cost 650 credits. Laser Weaponry.
3. Pirate Assassin: The Pirates Carrier, has an upgradeable passive called "Dogfight Expertise" which increases squadron damage and dodge. Cost 650 credits.
4. Pirate Corsair: Functions as a heavy cruisers. Has the ability to taunt enemy vessels into attacking it. Cost 500 credits. Autocannon Weaponry.

Capital Ships

My favorite part, the Pirates have access to two capital ships. However, only one can be chosen per game. And they function as a titan in that if it is destroyed its level is retained.

• The Crows Nest Battlecruiser: A highjacked Akkan, Functions as a defensive capital ship, make for keeping the fleet informed of where the enemies are positioned, and scouting ahead of an assault. I want capital ships to scale pre-rebellion so they can not go to level 4 with abilities.

1. Planetary Informant: For 30/40/50 seconds a planet is seen by the pirates. All ships in production and planetary upgrades can be seen as well. Cost 40 Antimatter, 20 second cooldown.
2. Full-scale Retreat: For 10 seconds the Crows Nest and all ships around it gain +15%/30%/45% movement speed and turn rate is increased by 10%/20%/30%. Cost 90 antimatter, has a 10 second cooldown.
3. Stolen Vasari Technology: The Crowsnest can see phase jumps from 1/2/3 planets away. Passive.
4. Parting Gift: Upon beginning phase jumping away from the planet the crows nest drops a mine that after 3 seconds detonates causing massive damage to any units around it at the time. Passive.

• The Black Flag Dreadnaught: A stolen Kol now used as a Pirate flagship. It is meant for an offensive assault against enemy planets and steals enemy economy and puts it towards the pirates invasion forces.

1. Reverse Colonization: Upon destruction of a planet the Black Flag colonizes he planet and puts it under pirate control. Civilian infrastructure is automatically at upgrade 2/3/4. Costs 60 antimatter, has a 60 second cooldown.
2. Improved Weaponry: All weapons do +5%/10%/15% damage and are now deal AoE damage. passive.
3. Incursion: Takes over enemy trade port and refineries for 60/120/180 seconds. Costs 50 antimatter. Has a 30 second cooldown. Trade ports are invulnerable while invaded.
4. Abandon Ship: The Black Flag sacrifices itself sending escape pods out. The ship explodes dealing 950 damage to all nearby enemy ships. All phase jump inhibitors are disabled in the gravity well and all nearby gravity well.s

I wanted to take this time to explain why I chose these ships to be what they are and why they do what they do. The pirates are known to do two things, own noobs and be to easy for pros. With the human player he is set back by a limited gold cost, so he must spend his gold wisely on ships. To counteract the easyness these ships were given utility buffs to make their attack mean something.

• The Pirate Rogue was reworked to be a standard LF to help pirates deal with utility cruisers like repulsion. I also wanted to slightly improve their resistance to LRF's hence the armor buff as well.
• Pillagers were given a dual role as a planet bombardment unit and a building destroyer.
• Reapers are almost the same but have a buff that gives them an insane increase to rate of fire, this helps deal with bombers and corvettes.
• Corsairs are basically a support unit that helps keep enemies off your units while they try to flee a system.
• The Brigand was meant to increase the slipperyness of pirates. As pirates are not actually a military force they are more of a hit and run kind of force.
• The Cutthroat is basically the same and provide means to improve the economy of pirates.
• The Assassin just made to make them consistent with the other races. 

Pirates have no dedicated fleet killer this is mainly due to the fact that they are not as said earlier, a military force the main characteristics of being a pirate is stealing economy and being slippery.

Pirate Tech/Abilities

Pirate Tech Works much like normal tech however it is much cheaper.

Plunder Tree

Stolen Designers

• Weapons: Increases damage for all pirate ships.
• Looted Weapons: Increases all damage by +5%/10%. Tier 2.
• Stolen Weapon Designs: Increases all damage by +15%/20%. Tier 4.
• Improved Targeting Systems: increases all damage by 25%/30%. Tier 6.
• Stolen Hull Designs: Increases Ship Hull Points and Hull Regeneration.
• Engineering Marvel: Increases Hull Points and Hull Regeneration by 10%/15%. Tier 3.
• Compact Crew Compartments: Increases Hull Points and Hull Regeneration by 20%/25%. Tier 5.
• Pirate Redesign: Increases Hull Points and Hull Regeneration by 30%/35% Tier 7.
• Armor: Increases armor by 1.
• Jiggered Armor: Increases armor by +1/+1 Tier 1. Tier 1
• Highjacked TEC shipment: Increases armor by +1/+1. Tier 3

Retrofitting Department

• Improved Retrofitting: Pirates improve the efficiency of retrofitting through better use of pillaged equipment. Decreases build cost of all Ships by 10%.
• Pirate Industry: More frigate factories are installed into the pirate base allowing the Pirate base to construct 2/3 frigates at a time. Further decreases the cost of pirate ships to 15/20%. [Tier 5 research]
• Pirate Salvaging: Upon losing or destroying an enemy ship the pirate faction receive 25%/15% of the cost back respectively. [Tier 8 research]
• Pirate Assassin Design: Highjacked Carriers are added to the Pirate fleet, unlocks the Pirate Assassin. Tier 3.
• Dogfight Expertise: Increases overall squadron damage by 5% and increases their dodge chance to 15%. [Tier 4 Research]
• Planetary Strike Force: An upgrade for the pillager, channeled ability, sends down a team to the planets surface that robs the planet of its income. Gives the pirate +10 credits per second, last 10 seconds. Cooldown of 20 seconds.
• All Power to Weapons: An upgrade for the Pirate Reaper, increases the attack rate of the Reaper by 50% for 6 seconds. 12 second cooldown.
• Brigand Design: Pirates Highjack a TEC Command Cruisers, unlocks the Pirate Brigand. Tier 4.
• System Restart: Cleanses all ships in a radius of 4500 of all movement impairing effects. [Innate ability] 60 second cooldown.
• Stolen Inhibitor Tech: Makes all ships within 5000 range immune to phase jump inhibitors. [Tier 6 research] 30 second cooldown.
• Cutthroat Design: Retrofitted Trade ships function as a offensive support ship for the pirate fleet, unlocks the Cutthroat. Tier 4.
• Embargo: Embargos a planet stealing 50% of all income from the planet and reducing ship build rates by 25%. [Innate Ability]
• Plunder: Upon using this ability, the pirate steals 50/100 credits from the defending player. [Tier 6 research]
• Corsair Design: Stolen Kodiaks are retrofitted into a tanking unit for the pirate armada. Tier 5
• Taunt: Give the Corsair the taunt ability. Allowing it to taunt up to 7 targets. [Tier 6 Research]
• Sabotage:An ability for the Pirate Rogue, Sends a team onto enemy ships and structures and disables their abilities. [Tier 6]

Engineering Bay

• Flak Burst: All Pirate Gauss Cannons are equipped with the Flak Burst ability, it deals 45 damage to all nearby corvettes and strike craft. Tier 1.
• Repair Platform Designs: Unlocks the repair Platform, repairs a single target for 15 HP a second. Tier 1.
• Stolen Repair Drones: Increases the amount healed by the repair platform to 25/35 per second. [Tier 3 Research]
• Hangar Design: Grants Access to the Fighter Bays for the Pirate Base. Tier 2.
• Additional Fighter Bays: Adds another fighter bay to the Hanger Defense, gives all Hanger Bays +1 squadrons. [Tier 3 Research]
• Flak Turrets: Adds Flak Turrets to the Hangar Bays, helping them deal with Strike Craft and Corvettes. [Tier 4 Research]
• Phase Jump Inhibitor: Grants access to the Phase Jump Inhibitor. Tier 4
• Cloaking Technology: Pirate Engineers have refined the art of cloaking allowing the Phase Jump Inhibitor to cloak itself. Tier 5
• Meteor Fortification: I will be going in depth on this one this unlocks the Stratum Star Base. The Pirates Star base, it should be noted that you cannot leave the Gravity well and can only use it for defense. The Starbase starts out like every other starbase, its default weapons is 5 banks of Autocannons. [Description] Grants access to the Marza Meteor Extractor, which carries a large Meteor in front of it allowing once to be fortified and turned into a Stratum Star Base. Tier 4.
• Pirate Loyalties: Makes the planet immune to death through bombardment. One Upgrade. [Innate]
• Weapons Systems: Gives the Stratum Star base 5/5 banks of Flak/Missiles. Two Upgrades.[Innate]
• Asteroid Fortification: Increases the Hull/Armor/Regeneration rates of the Star Base by a large amount. Also gives more Health/Armor/Regeneration than other starbases due to the lack of shields. Three Upgrades [Innate]
• Hanger Bays: Grants access to hanger bays can be upgraded 2 times [Innate]
• Fake Trading Docks: Upgradable twice, drones mimicking other races are sent out to their planets. Stealing income from those planets and bringing it back to the Pirate Base. [Meaning you do not have to have a trade alliance to "trade" with the other players.]. Tier 5.
• Complex Tracking System: All planets trading with your "trade vessels" are under vision while the Trade Vessels are there. One Upgrade. Tier 6. Pre Req. Fake Trading Docks.
• Terror Campaign: Your Pirate Base cannot be Phase Jumped to by your enemies for 30 seconds. One Upgrade. Tier 6.
• Weapons Overcharge: All weapons on the Starbase have an increased rate of fire of 50%/100%, and all Strike Craft Produce 25%/50% faster. Tier 7.
• Scavenged Parts: Increases Starbase Damage by 25% and provides 1 extra weapons bank. Also improves hull regeneration by 15% and +2 armor for the starbase. 

The Next tree is the Pirates Utility tree, its not as big as the Weapons tree but gives pirates more options with what they can do. It is more designed towards improving your economy as well as improving raids.

Logistics Tree

Raiders Den

• Raid Preparations: While not on a raid all income is increased by 25%. And ship build time is reduced by 10%. Tier 2.
• Foreign Suppliers: Occasionally trade ships(10% of all trade ships) will phase jump to your planets distributing wealth to you. Tier 4.
• Long Term Commitment: Adds a population to your Pirate Base. +150/300 population. Tier 2 research.
• Communications Network: Grants access to the Communications Array, spreading your culture to nearby systems. Tier 3. [Pirate Signals do not drain allegiance/Planets under your culture do gain a small amount of income from said planets, however do not actually steal the income.]
• Pirate Signal: Increases Spread Rate by 5%/10%, when enemies fight in your culture they lose 2.5%/5% of their damage. Tier 4.
• Unstoppable Signal: your signal cannot be pushed back by any of the planets connected to the Sun(Meaning planets next to the sun will always have your culture in it.) Tier 5
• Pirate Threats: Increases Spread Rate by 15%/20%, when enemies fight in your culture they lose 7.5%/10% of their damage. Tier 6.
• Terror from the Star:Phase jumping toward a planet with pirate culture lowers the will of the incoming fleet. Reducing their movement speed, turn rate, and rate of fire by 10%/15%/20% respectively.
• Extractor Boarding:Whenever an extractor is destroyed by your units. You gain +50 of whatever type of extractor was destroyed. Tier 3.
• Vasari Pirates: Vasari join your crew giving you tactical data on how to use phase missiles. All missiles now have a 4%/8%/12% chance to go through enemy shields.
• Pirate-phobia: Upon entering a system all static defenses have a decreased rate of fire by 10%. Tier 5.
• Frequent Raids:Decreases the raid timer by 25%/50%. Tier 7.
• Fleet Attrition: Allows for two fleets to be made, this allows pirates to attack two systems at once. Tier 8.
• Unbound: Allows the pirate to attack whoever he wants. Upon being researched all players are informed by a voice cue.

I understand that alot of this information seems to be overpowered or something that could be but there is no way to actually test this so level with me:p but this makes up the research three. I wanted pirate defense to be absurdly difficult to break. While their offense was decent and safe. As the main pirate economy is raiding planets.

Pirate Diplomacy

Pirate Diplomacy I wanted to keep delicate, but as a Human player you are inclined to do as you please. But still be restricted, one of these restrictions I set earlier was you can only attack players with the top three bounty. Pirates may also see who placed bounty on whoever so instead of just attacking the person with the most bounty, perhaps he will attack the player he feels is most deserving of being smited. As a small pirate fleet is very expendable.

But it is also through these choices that a pirates "respect" level is earned. Much like the diplomatic bar it will shift, it starts out at neutral(aka 0). It can be raised and lowered through various means. However no benefits are supplied until your relationship actually goes up(This will be discussed after the next section.

• Improving relations with the Pirate!
• Place bounty: should you place bounty on a player you gain a small relationship boost with the pirate. It will decrease over time should you stop placing bounty.
• Research: More info below.
• Offering Pirate Missions: Give missions to the pirate.
• Donations: Give resources to the pirate.
• Pirate relations with the player
• Attack player under bounty improves relations with the player who assigned the bounty.
• Avoidance: Whoever has a bounty on there head if you avoid attacking them their relationship with you will go up.
• Complete Pirate Missions: Yup
• Reducing relations with the Pirate.
• Entering the pirate base without Treaty: Decreases relations with pirate, eventually goes away.
• Attacking the pirates when you have no bounty

Pirates cannot reduce relations with anyone. Now im sure you're all wondering about how to improve relations through research. Well to add more depth to the already ingame tech I wanted to rework some already ingame tech and here they are.

• TEC:
• Favored Client Discount: Gives a price discount to all purchases in the black market, also improves relations with pirates.
• Backroom Deals: Allows you to offer missions to the pirates, also improves your relations with them and theirs with you.
• Truce Amongst Rogues: Automatically sets pirates relationship to Cease Fire. The pirates can remove this cease fire after 10 minutes if they desired.
• Advent:
• Persuasive Offer: An added effect that improves relations with pirates.
• Inspired Wrath: Allows you to offer missions to the pirates, also improves your relations with them and theirs with you.
• Karmic Retribution: Destroying Trade Drones puts bounty on whoever destroyed thems head, an added effect that improves relations with pirates.
• Vasari: 
• Expert Bounty Hunting: An added effect that improves relations with pirates.
• Raider Relations: Allows you to offer missions to the pirates, also improves your relations with them and theirs with you.
• Raider Xenophobia: Reduces severity of Raider attacks(against AI), Improves relationship with pirates, as well as causes pirate raids against you to deal 15% less damage from all pirate units(Against a real player).

What do you get for improved relations with Pirates. Well around 5 relations you may make a cease fire with the pirates. This has a 10 minute timer till the pirate can decide if he wants to break it or not. At 10 you become allies with the pirate faction. Your trade ports deliver supplies to the pirates as well.

Epilogue

Theres a lot that I plan that this will help with, im hoping it will lower the severity of pirate raids against newer players(merely because a pirate should go after the more experienced player who knows how to deal with him). As well as remove the strict behavior that pirates have as well. Give some motivation besides who has the most bounty on their head.

Their ships are designed so that they cannot be massed early(Unless they are Rogues which are easily dealt with). Making it less harsh on newer players. The utility however from all their ships will make it much harder for experienced players to deal with. The Pirate Defense is supposed to be hard to deal with but not impossible, this way rushing a pirate will not get rid of him instantly.

I just hope people like the idea and making it into a mod would be even cooler. Peace;)

p.s: Think of all the cool new portraits we could get. Im going to draw some up hopefully.

Misc. Ideas:

• I think it would be cool to make this the first race to have both male and female voice acting on their ships.
• More portraits!
• Added story<3