Pirates don't pirate

[Nooop]

Problems with pirate raids: Pirates don't pirate.

1. Always attack stations which they have no hope of destroying even if they shoot at it for an hour.
2. Stick around even after fleets of military ships catch up with them.
3. Then fight until destroyed and never flee.
4. After destruction no one tries to salvages wreckage.
5. Random guy in a mini miner can swoop in after battle and get free high level drops from wreckage under the nose of the military ship that just destroyed it.

Solutions:

1. Pirates attack cargo ships not close to military ships.
2. Flee before military ships get in range.
3. Flee if in combat and do not have anything but high chance of easy win.
4. AI always salvage after destroy enemy.
5. Illegal to salvage or collect drops from ships destroyed by military ships.

Ideas for making pirates pirate better:

1. Use false flagged freighters or miners that look friendly then surprise attack.
2. Use jettison cargo demand ai and player ships.
3. Grab with force turret and board and flee with it before military ships can intercept it. Captured player ships can reappear later as pirates
4. Pirates ask player for payments to operate in a sector and be free from attacks.

[Speed]

Some great ideas.  I especially like the 4) Option, in some instances the pirate attacks get so annoyoing I'd gladly pay them to just leave me the heck alone.  The same with the Xsotan attacks tbh.

Another thing that would make the game feel more meaningful would be if the pirate attacks weren't entirely random- how about the pirates factions have a certain number of ships which has a slow base replenish time, but gets buffed (with diminishing returns) depending on how successful the pirates are.  So if you destroy pirates in a sector, or if you don't answer distress calls, it actually has some meaningful effect.