I am a fleet officer and I can attack pirate bases just fine. Do you have the Pirate Buster skill chosen in the skill tree? You can only attack them if you have that skill. You then have to go to a pirate base and choose "Attack and plunder" from the pirate base menu and then you attack the ships and the starbase.

(I realize this post is old but I just got through capturing my second battleship and killing off a couple of pirate bases :D )

So what does the skill Pirate Buster do in the fleet officer skill tree, then? Just wondering because I was able to select "Attack and Plunder" from the pirate base's menu, fight the starbase AKA hideout and any accompanying ships, and wipe out the hideout.

Unless we are talking about two different things here or I am just not understanding something :)

I know that fleet officers can attack pirate bases as I just played all the way through as one :) I also just fired up Smugglers V and started up a bounty hunter and nowhere in their skill tree was the pirate buster skill.

Keep in mind that the pirate buster skill is one of the bottom rung skills that you have to get other skills before you can use it. See the pictures above where I have the skill tree for the fleet officer shown. I also know that fleet officers are the ones who can attack pirate bases because attacking them is considered a fleet battle.

Tell me, what kind of ship do you have? Do you have a battlecruiser by any chance? Because you can only engage in fleet battles if you have a battlecruiser.

Can you show me a screenshot of the fleet officer skill tree?

I know it's not your first run or anything, I am just flabbergasted that you are not able to attack pirate bases when I was able to in my game. Trust me, I am not trying to argue or anything of the sort, just wondering what's going on :)

OK, I see what the problem is :)

Most of it is on my side, actually, I forgot that I picked the bounty hunter class which has a very similar skill tree to that of the fleet officer.

So here's the class description for the bounty hunter:

Bounty hunters are dedicated fleet officers that track down and arrest criminals. Your skills make it possible for you to track down VIPs over long distances or even bust a pirate hideout. Though primarily involved in combat, you can also engage in some light trading. You are a real jack-of-all-trades. Later, you might want to join the fleet and gain the skill required to conquer whole space systems.

edit: so for the record, wow, was I ever oh so dang wrong. Sorry OP, for mucking everything up :/