Forums » Suggestions
Faction scoring
I've been working lately on increasing my Corvus faction because my guild is working in gray space. One thing I've noticed is that the faction missions are woefully skewed in favor of trading, specifically in favor of procurement missions.
They're dangerous, I'll grant you, but why does a procurement mission in the same system, Odia J-9 to Odia C-2, give a faction increase of "significant" when you don't even SEE a bad guy, and a bot hunting advanced combat mission to kill guardians and assaults gives an increase of "slightly?" Even the time is strange. Consider:
It took me about thirty minutes last night to kill six guardians. I received a quite decent experience reward, of course, and some cash, which is nice, but my standing increased "slightly." I was also shot down twice.
By contrast, I made more money, considerably less experience, but was given a time bonus for completing a procurement mission in less than 3:16 and got my standing increased "significantly."
I just find this sort of odd. I'd like to see the riskier missions, i.e. combat, offer more of a standing increase.
My opinion. Your mileage may vary.
~D.
"Nigel"
They're dangerous, I'll grant you, but why does a procurement mission in the same system, Odia J-9 to Odia C-2, give a faction increase of "significant" when you don't even SEE a bad guy, and a bot hunting advanced combat mission to kill guardians and assaults gives an increase of "slightly?" Even the time is strange. Consider:
It took me about thirty minutes last night to kill six guardians. I received a quite decent experience reward, of course, and some cash, which is nice, but my standing increased "slightly." I was also shot down twice.
By contrast, I made more money, considerably less experience, but was given a time bonus for completing a procurement mission in less than 3:16 and got my standing increased "significantly."
I just find this sort of odd. I'd like to see the riskier missions, i.e. combat, offer more of a standing increase.
My opinion. Your mileage may vary.
~D.
"Nigel"
I agree with you conceptually 100%.
Practically speaking, I'm guessing the devs are waiting until they get the dynamic hive and the dynamic economy running before they tweak the rewards system, as the former will undoubtedly affect the latter.
Think about it... with a dynamic hive some areas of space could become more dangerous than others over time. A procurement mission through the heart of Dau probably would not have the same reward as a procurement mission through a Hive-infested system where the last five convoys didn't make it and the station desperately needs medical supplies.
Practically speaking, I'm guessing the devs are waiting until they get the dynamic hive and the dynamic economy running before they tweak the rewards system, as the former will undoubtedly affect the latter.
Think about it... with a dynamic hive some areas of space could become more dangerous than others over time. A procurement mission through the heart of Dau probably would not have the same reward as a procurement mission through a Hive-infested system where the last five convoys didn't make it and the station desperately needs medical supplies.
Oh, absolutely, Phaser. I, myself, was wondering if I could finally reach POS with Itani by simply doing a procurement from Itan to Deneb and back a few times. (I've been at +977 for about a week now.) A milk run like that should not offer the same rewards as an equal number of jumps through Bractus and Sedina.
Another interesting idea would be missions for specific faction levels. For example, this procurement requires you to go into Serco space and bring back a specific cargo (like a datapad?) from a Serco station. As a result, you'd better not be KOS or even hated, because a) you'll get your ass shot down, and b) you won't be allowed to dock to even get the required cargo.
All of this is mere idea conceptualizing, anyway. After all, like you said, there's a lot more work to put into the economy before that sort of thing really goes haywire. I can't wait to see mission rewards affected by dynamic economical factors. ("We REALLY need medical supplies. Go get some and we'll give you STOOPID amounts of faction, exp, and money!") This will be great!
~D.
"Nigel"
Another interesting idea would be missions for specific faction levels. For example, this procurement requires you to go into Serco space and bring back a specific cargo (like a datapad?) from a Serco station. As a result, you'd better not be KOS or even hated, because a) you'll get your ass shot down, and b) you won't be allowed to dock to even get the required cargo.
All of this is mere idea conceptualizing, anyway. After all, like you said, there's a lot more work to put into the economy before that sort of thing really goes haywire. I can't wait to see mission rewards affected by dynamic economical factors. ("We REALLY need medical supplies. Go get some and we'll give you STOOPID amounts of faction, exp, and money!") This will be great!
~D.
"Nigel"
Well I can already see some of the dynamics in game ;). Yesterday I offered 100k to anyone who would help me clear the Latos WH of the piebots so I could finish rising my Tunguska standing. Two people tried and failed, I died a couple of times but did manage to get the cargo to the station. So the load of points I got was well deserved :). Not sure if I want to see more of that lol.
Yeah, the ratbots are seriously pissing me off. Momerath is working on them as fast as he can, but they just don't ACT like pirates. They're more marauders than anything else.
Two main things I've noticed: 1) Pirates in history were scum. They preyed on merchantmen and unarmed passenger vessels. THEY DID NOT charge in against fully armed warships. (Now if a human rat wants to do that, that's their funeral. The fact that you don't really die in this game gives people some bravado they probably shouldn't have.) The ratbots charge anything and everything without regard to superior firepower. 2) In keeping with point one, if a pirate took major damage to his vessel, he'd break off the attack unless he absolutely HAD to continue fighting for some reason. The odds of him continuing the charge until destroyed with 3% hull are astronomically low.
The problem is that, in order to make the ratbots a significant challenge, Momerath has had to give them magic respawning ability and superiorioriorior numbers. Simple superiorior numbers would probably have sufficed.
I hesitate to complain too loudly, though, because he's working on making it more gooder.
~D.
"Nigel"
Two main things I've noticed: 1) Pirates in history were scum. They preyed on merchantmen and unarmed passenger vessels. THEY DID NOT charge in against fully armed warships. (Now if a human rat wants to do that, that's their funeral. The fact that you don't really die in this game gives people some bravado they probably shouldn't have.) The ratbots charge anything and everything without regard to superior firepower. 2) In keeping with point one, if a pirate took major damage to his vessel, he'd break off the attack unless he absolutely HAD to continue fighting for some reason. The odds of him continuing the charge until destroyed with 3% hull are astronomically low.
The problem is that, in order to make the ratbots a significant challenge, Momerath has had to give them magic respawning ability and superiorioriorior numbers. Simple superiorior numbers would probably have sufficed.
I hesitate to complain too loudly, though, because he's working on making it more gooder.
~D.
"Nigel"
Well, a few pirates DID act somewhat recklessly against warships, but it always turned sour after a surprise vistory or two... I actually really like the dash of bravado that not-dying provides, even if it leads to highly unrealistic behavior.
Also running pirates would be really annoying cause if you were out to hunt em then you would continually loose em.
Yeah, the British Royal Navy didn't like that either.