This is one of the only threads I'm glad got salvaged out safely. Anyway, I have no idea how to build a fleet in Star Sector competent enough to kill off an opposing fleet of pirates.
Any suggestions?

>>11859
Vanilla pirates are trash. If you have issues with them, you either use trash ships yourself or your fits are shit. Post your fleet and I should be able to tell you what you are doing wrong.

>>11898
Get rid of Buffalo mk 2, it's just bad. Hammerhead and Falcon should have their missiles upgraded to non-single versions (or changed to sabots or reapers or whatever you feel like). Falcon's rear energy turrets (and maybe front turrets too) can be switched to PD, you won't be fighting with your back turned anyway. And you should replace mining blasters with any other medium energy weapon.
In general it's fine and I'm surprised you have troubles dealing with pirates. Are you doing bounties, or are just getting jumped on by some random pirates?

>>11902
Thank you for the tips.
I've been focusing on pirate activity in the Samarra system in Hegemony space. I've had no trouble mopping up pirates raiding the station, but it seems like I'm really shit at fighting a healthy fleet of them. It resorts to both of our fleets getting reduced to the last few ships until they eventually win. I'm gonna spend some more time running simulations to practice my command and hopefully I'll get it by then.

>>11903
At the start of the game, remember not to work for free. System bounties or Heg's on its own. You can also try personal bounties (those leading outside the core systems), but you will have to manage your resources more. In this case, use free look (right mouse button) to navigate better around the storms. If you don't see a clear immediate route, though, just plow right through them, it's not worth the time. Remember to emergency burn if storms take you way off track.
About your ships in particular
>Tarsus, Phaeton
non combat, don't deploy
>wayfarer, cerberuses, hound
Combat freighters. Try to avoid deploying them, but don't feel too attached.
>Enforcer
A brick. Use it as a meatshield.
>Hammerhead, Lasher
The best offensive ships you have, you should use them to press the advantage or pick off smaller ships quickly.
>Falcon
In your current fleet it's going to be another brick, but a way more survivable one. It has a lot of PPT in comparison to most of your ships, I think, so there's an option of putting safety overrides on it to make it into a blazing fast murder machine. Savescum a bit and see if it's your cup of tea.

>>11909
I've now switched focus from system-wide pirate bounties to doing procurement contracts, salvaging derelicts that I find along the way, and trade missions that seem profitable enough at the bars. I've just received $95,000 from delivering transplutonics to pirates and $51,000 from delivering metals to a Hegemony world getting a profit of around $90,000 - $100,000 I think. I'm also thinking of doing surveying contracts later as well.
>Tarsus, Phaeton
The Tarsus and Phaeton class ships already don't get selected when you click "All" to select all the ships in your fleet to deploy.
Thank you again for the information. I'll make sure to prioritize getting some more Hammerheads or Lashers into my fleet as well as thinking more about how I'll command my fleet.

>>11918
Bar missions scale to your fleet's cargo capacity, though it doesn't take into account what your fleet already has there, so you might need to get rid of things to deliver those contracts.
I only wish more anons survived the bombing.

There's some funny stuff going on with pirate raids. You see, if you defeat a raid, there's a cooldown before the next one goes. However, if the raid succeeds, there's no cooldown and the next pirate raid can start any time it feels like. You better not let this death spiral start, anons.