Killing pirates, and an interesting situation

[jayman]

I've had to restart a few times as I learn things from gameplay that I want to do from the start, but my latest game is going well.

I've already killed another (small 2 system) empire that annoyed me and I got some of their remaining ships in the process as they 'surrendered' to me. I assumed it would be the same with pirates, but after killing a pirate base and checking in diplomacy that they had no planets or ships left they still appeared there. It was only by accident I discovered their last remaining ship was a constructor just hanging around in deep-space. After killing that they were killed for good. Annoying.

As I said, I've restarted a few times but I'm continuing with my present custom game (everything ticked except Shakturi) because I've found not one but TWO planet-killers close to my borders and in neighbouring sectors to each other. Naturally my forces are guarding them until I repair them! I don't think I can go on an all-conquering spree with them though because my government is Way Of The Ancients.

I cheated a little too. I manually control my explorers and military forces, and just yesterday an explorer woke-up a Silvermist. Luckily I had a autosave from just a few minutes before so I reloaded and am now avoiding that planet! I prefer missiles and phasers on my ships, so until I can get Ion weapons researched and a ship built to use them I just hope my civilians stay away from there and don't wake the beast...