Of course its downright stupid and near impossible to attempt a capture in open space, specially at space-relevant speeds. However, space piracy is easy if done in the vincinity of a planet or solar system (or asteroid field) where cargo ships may have to slow down to disembark, engage in diplomacy or just avoid colision.
However i lack capacity to add this remark into the description, so i'd appreciate if someone could help me word this cleverly in there.
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There's no need to write anything like that into the description; the idea is already suggested from what was written in the trope description since at least last August.
Speaking of which, I've removed some natter bait introduced into the article by tracer:
- 28th Jan '11 2:10:41 PM tracerChanged line(s) 13,14 (click to see context) from:[...] to using a variant of the method employed by modern pirates (say, smaller ships striking at commercial shipping in the orbit of a planet).to:[...] to using a variant of the method employed by modern pirates (say, smaller ships striking at commercial shipping in the orbit of a planet). How the pirates manage to evade the authorities is another matter.
That bit slipped in about Stealth in Space was really not necessary, since it assumes a lot about what space pirates can do to avoid getting caught, when there's a lot more possibilities than invisibility or camouflage. Historical and modern pirates didn't have either at their disposal, and "false flag" operations like the kind classical pirates used are generally not considered camouflage.
In fact, tracer's edit seems like an attempt to make the trope appear unrealistic and unjustifiable (sort of like the nonsense the Space Fighter and Old-School Dogfighting articles saw a lot of in past years). It also provoked some people to argue back with add-ons:
- 30th Sep '11 2:53:47 PM SSJ MagusChanged line(s) 14,15 (click to see context) from:[...] How the pirates manage to evade the authorities is another matter.to:[...] How the pirates manage to evade the authorities is another matter. Though provided the pirates have a viable means of escaping the scene of the crime in the first place, the vastness of space means there could be billions of planets, moons and asteroids nearby to hide on.
So I removed the whole thing.
Edited by TrevMUN
So, would Hyperspace Lanes be a boon to space piracy? Ships going from star A to star B would have to travel a length of chokepoints, while the pirates would have the entire star system(s) to be a set of small objects in a big area...