Crime & Punishment

I'm not an "experienced" pirate by any means but I have flown with enough to know some good rules of thumb about ransoms. The golden rule is to honor the ransom! You don't have to, but it makes it hard on people trying to make a living in low sec. Anyhow... It really breaks down into two main categories.

1. Ransoming a ship?
2. Ransoming a pod?

If you are ransoming a ship, try to base it about the base value of the hull. Yes that Brutix you just kited might have T2 blasters, a faction MWD, and maybe even officer tank mods, but you aren't garunteed it in the loot drop. Plus if the fit is that expensive, more reason for the sucker, er pilot, to pay up. The exceptions to this is haulers and T3. Bump up the ransom a little, and if you have a cargo scanner and they are filled with goodies, really stick it to them!

If you are ransoming a pod, base it off the age of the player. An older player will likely have more specialized implants they want to save.

Personally I haven't collected any ransoms... But my Brutix is still alive

Never pay a high sec ransom since the theory with high sec gankers is that a target will only ever get caught once so you might as well milk them for what you can.

In low sec it is entirely different and you are more likely to be pod ransomed if anything but it's far far more likely that you can expect any ransom to be honoured as it is simply better for business. The exception is if you are caught by (most likely gate camping) smacktalking idiots in which case its mostly obvious they will dishonour. Any other circumstance it's worth paying the ransom if it is reasonable.

On the flip side:

As for how much you should be charging as a ransom? Age plays a big part, then you can also look up killboard stats for the player to see how he fits typically, other than that it's common sense. Carebears are less reasonably expected to pay a ransom but conversely could have the most valuable implants. Regular PVPers when caught will likely pay a moderate ransom but unless you know they have fancy implants theres a good chance they dont and you should price with their convenience in mind only.

If I get my pod caught (I've spent a year on a really laggy connection but still have to pew pew on occasion and shizzle happens) I would offer up about 20 to 40 m isk for my pod as it's usuallly not worth more and it's a nice amount to receive as ransom. Just don't be paying out to complete a-holes.

No crime for you, just punishment. I'm still trying to figure out what happened in my boxers just now. Please drop by any time!

During my Pirating days many moons ago the ransom process was fairly straight forward and took a few things into account:

Type of Ship victim was flying
Fitted Mods
Age of Victim
Sec Status of Victim
Time of day (i.e. just got up / bad day at the office, ect)

Alot of the time, you only have a very short window in which to ransom your Victim so sometimes a random figure is pulled out of the hat. anywhere from 10-30secs for said Victim to pay up or *BOOM* (depending on location in space)

If they pay, then they are let on their merry way. Sometimes with a few pointers on how to stay safe.

One thing any reputable pirate corp or pirate will never do is ransom a victim, take the money & then kill them anyway!! You end up getting known as untrustworthy which leads to less ransoms ( as ppl get to hear you shoot anyway) so kills off one type of income. This can also lead to further issues down the line if you move out of pirating (reputation has a habit of sticking!)

Plenty of pirates DO honour ransoms - but you can count the ones who do on the fingers of one hand. If you don't know your lowsec corps, it is somewhat risky, but many will state their intentions in their corp bio.

It's called honoUring.

Not that you know anything about either spelling

Not if you're American.

Just saying.

Don't fly what you cannot afford to replace.

Rule 1 of EVE fight club. I wouldn't pay a ransom period, being that EVE is what it is I don't know you or your intentions, nor do I have enough time to look up each and every basement dwelling pirate I might encounter nor do you have to honor ransoms, because even if I "gifted" you isk then got podded why take a double loss? Heck, to bad there isn't 3 second self destructs + instant pod destruction along with it or automatic logoffski in 3 seconds just to stick it to Captain RP Badass of the Galactic Highsea..."If you don't let me go, I will self destruct....No you wo...BANG!...$%^@ damn ******* ruining my game." Only in Bizzaro EVE would that be happening

confirming the guys in rancer honor all ransoms

I think a good rule of thumb is to ask for a ransom that wouldn't hurt the target much even if you decide to blow him up. They get accepted.

Another system I seen used to good practice is the Taurean Eltanin system (:)) in which he asks the target to suggest a fair amount, no bargaining, if it is too low you are dead, you get one offer.

Very quick, and makes the target decide what he considers fair.