athios
Templar
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 1,611 
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Post by athios on Apr 4, 2017 17:58:22 GMT -5
Has anyone tried putting Contacts as Priority A/B/C? Do you find it worth it? What advantages do you feel it gives for your build?
Since I typically do mainly trading in early game (regardless of Profession), I put Contacts on E. Just curious what other people's experience has been.
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Post by Cory Trese on Apr 4, 2017 18:26:07 GMT -5
I usually put it at B or C.
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Post by grävling on Apr 5, 2017 1:42:58 GMT -5
My first builds had contacts as A or B. I found that a waste. What I found I really wanted in contacts was a) a politician (so I can get diplomats early), plus lots of diplomacy related missions b) a Prince (because they can do most things), and c) an ex-Mercenary (I want my combat armour). Now that you cannot order an ex-Mercenary contact in the starting template, I haven't really found value in having more than 2 contacts at the beginning of the game. And by the time it's no longer the beginning of the game, I have found a great many more contacts, and am more interested in 'contacts outside of my house' than ones inside it. Sometimes I start with an ex-bounty hunter instead of a Prince, on the grounds that I find so many Princes anyway. I can see why Explorers want an ex-explorer from the start, too.
As the missions get more complicated, and the contacts begin to have more personality, and we can take a more active role in supporting the contacts of our choice in their struggles, I can see where it would be nice to know more members of your house, because a start set of 2 may contain 2 rotten traitors both of whom live on the same wretched planet with no spice hall, expensive gas, and no repair facilities in the stardock. I have this in a game now. Given that they are both traitors, I think that internal exile was probably too good for them, but it's no place to build a base of operations.
But it only took me 10K to buy the name of a different Prince, who lives on a nice world, and as far as I know isn't planning to feed us all to the Narvidians.
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Post by Cory Trese on Apr 5, 2017 11:03:06 GMT -5
We are considering a rules change here to makes the Contact Priority determine starting Influence and Reputation as well as Contact count. That would tone down the number of contacts in the higher brackets, but would give you much better Contacts for the long term.
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Post by grävling on Apr 5, 2017 11:15:26 GMT -5
Right now it is hard for us to see the difference between 'a contact' and 'a much better contact'. But I suspect we will learn this as the alpha progresses.
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Post by Cory Trese on Apr 5, 2017 11:28:41 GMT -5
The Contact Reputation and Influence.
All of the Contact services the player uses are locked behind those two values.
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Post by grävling on Apr 5, 2017 11:32:43 GMT -5
Your Reputation and Influence. All of the Contact services the player uses are locked behind those two values. Ah, your influence. I thought you were talking about the influence of the contact. sorry. |
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Post by fallen on Apr 5, 2017 11:34:03 GMT -5
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Post by Cory Trese on Apr 5, 2017 11:37:09 GMT -5
Fixed my post. The most important thing about any Contact is their Influence, and the Contact Reputation value.
After those two values, comes Contact Type and Contact Traits.
No matter how good the Contact Type is, if they lack the Influence and Reputation to do things, they're worthless.
That's the basic way that Contacts work, and why so many players are spending so much time building up Influence and Reputation with Contacts -- so they can use services ... like getting Missions, buying Armor, getting Introductions, accessing the Black Market, recruiting Crew, etc
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athios
Templar
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 1,611
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Post by athios on Apr 5, 2017 12:04:31 GMT -5
We are considering a rules change here to makes the Contact Priority determine starting Influence and Reputation as well as Contact count. That would tone down the number of contacts in the higher brackets, but would give you much better Contacts for the long term. Actually, this sounds like a great idea. Would certainly give more incentive to put Contacts as higher priority. Might I also suggest that on A (and maybe B) priority to have one influential Contact from a non-home-Faction? That could be very useful for expanding activities to other quadrants. |
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Post by fallen on Apr 5, 2017 12:21:38 GMT -5
The Influence and Rep bumps have been added. Priority E comes with a penalty as well.
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athios
Templar
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 1,611
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Post by athios on Apr 5, 2017 12:29:13 GMT -5
Oooh, I'll have to test, maybe adjust my starting strategy.
I love this aspect of the starting Template. So many options to weigh.
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Post by grävling on Apr 5, 2017 13:04:30 GMT -5
Sounds like fun. Right now the difference between D and E in contracts is -- 1 contract or 2, which doesn't give you a lot of incentive to choose contacts as D, and something else as E.
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Post by tenbsmith on Apr 5, 2017 13:47:41 GMT -5
Will there ever be an option to created a balanced captain with all C's? I'd like to do that, but the current UI suggests I never will.
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Post by fallen on Apr 5, 2017 13:51:00 GMT -5
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