You're right.  The only wrinkle I would add is that it should be based on trade income, rather than total income.  The pirates should be more enticed by the greater opportunity, so that bounty goes furthest if you have no trade income at all.

While there is a multiplier for trade in the current version, it only affects the size of the pirate fleet and not the bounty.

Another consideration: the old pirates were used to level capitals, so they were turned into the 'can't you beat the pirates?' fanboi pirates of the current version, with boosted stats and no sensible abilities or AI.  But was the objective right?  We had capitals that needed boosting, and a method of boosting them if you were prepared to a take a risk..

The old pirates were better- apart from the mission element, which is useful.  However, even better would be to allow the pirate sensible abilities to go with sensible stats. 

Also, the system might be improved if the pirates took all the bounty every round, then attacked whoever had given them least that round.  That wasn't originally my suggestion but it is the best I'm aware of.   If you slammed too much bounty on you would just lose, it as the pirates spent your loot.  

The pirates should be a black market, not a kind of investment bank!

Hello, BlackDes here.

I have temporarily taken over this account to remove some erroneous, and if you'll forgive me, slightly negative notions that have been posted about piracy.

When many people, relaxing in a comfortable chair, contemplate piracy, what do they imagine?

Shadowy figures with smoke rising from their beards, rum-soaked, swinging cutlasses, boarding ships and forcing sailors to walk the plank- a very inefficient procedure I might add.  These pirates of yore would either squander any money they gained on strumpets and drink, or hide it where it would never be seen again.  One extreme or another.

Hardly behaviour calculated to engender trust in their clients.  Rest assured that here at Ironclad Pirates Corporation we have different preoccupations.  Our preoccupation is accountancy.  You might imagine pirates as the rejected scum of society, with no more idea of sound book-keeping than a parrot.  Tsk tsk.  Our ships carry extra crew, not to board other vessels, but to make sure every credit of your bounty is accounted for.  They have a solid background in tax, or financial services.  And any of your credits that we haven't managed to earn by honest labour, we promise to save for you, until our next voyage.  Drunken carousing and the scattering of coins in some kind of odd celebration of continued life, is very much a thing of the past.  

What's more, should any rival empire claim for bounty placed with us, our specialist service group will instantly confirm the claim and transfer the accumulated funds to the designated authorities.

You might also imagine that pirates would roam space, seeking loot.  Unfortunately that has proved incompatible with our universe wide financial responsibilities.  The desk is the priority these days, not the cannon.  So we have liquidated non-profitable ventures that diversified our activities beyond what was sustainable in the short to medium term.  No more plank-walking!  We only offer the one core service of single grav well planetary attack, with the emphasis on orbital bombardment- so that our crews won't be distracted by the temptation of taking wealth on their own behalf, and can contine to serve you, their masters.

If it makes sense to you, it makes sense to us. 

Thanks, BlackDes.  

Taking the highest offer makes no sense if the highest offer is 100 credits.  Similarly, if the highest offer is 2100 credits and the second-highest offer is 2000 credits, the pirates should make their decision based on secondary factories rather than just credits.

Personally, though, if bounties hit some obscene levels like 10000/10000 I don't see why the pirates shouldn't be attacking multiple targets.  The incentive is there.