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Post by Officer Genious on Sept 25, 2017 18:32:52 GMT -5
1: Why doesn't the Military Officer start with a rank? I know that the game's rules don't give much space for this, but maybe an innate discount on rank one would make some sense? Or bonus (a tiny one) influence with Military Commanders? I dunno, it just feels odd. Or rename the class to Seargent or something? Warrior? Something! Maybe Non-Commissioned Officer (which is below Lieutenant, but higher than a basic soldier)? Aaaaah, I dunno!! And why does it feel so similar to Zealot? It feels like they overlap. 2: Why do Star Traders care about strengthening bonds between contacts? I know it helps in the political gain, but it gives no direct benefits to us (in fact, I'd say its a loss as this makes introductions to the contact more expensive). I think it should be slightly cheaper depending on how strong the bond is between two contacts. 100 isn't free, but it's cheaper than a bond of 3, for example. Or something cooler, getting a little rep with the new contact for strengthening the bond. I'll keep playing and making notes, but I'd REALLY love some ideas being thrown around about the MO, Zealot and Contacts assisting each other. What're you guys thinking?? Now for some sucking up. fallen and Cory Trese , I want to say that as someone who's playing with a touchscreen, everything responds well. I also love how the rumor descriptions prove details to the effects of an event, and I totally love the artwork for portraits and worlds (get to making moar!). Thank you.  |
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Post by Zer0Winds on Sept 25, 2017 18:50:05 GMT -5
1] MO VS Zealot, Zealot is very similar, yes, but they seem to focus on boarding, and blade crew combat, while Military Officers focus more on either Ship-to-ship combat, and when boarding, Pistol Crew Combat (or was it rifle?).
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Post by fallen on Sept 25, 2017 19:04:25 GMT -5
2. Star Traders probably don't care, but Contacts care. And the contacts are the ones paying for the missions  |
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Post by fallen on Sept 25, 2017 19:05:18 GMT -5
1: Why doesn't the Military Officer start with a rank? I know that the game's rules don't give much space for this, but maybe an innate discount on rank one would make some sense? Really interesting. Then Merchants would have to start with a Permit, and Bounty Hunters with an Edict. Then we're giving the whole dang house away for free!  |
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Post by Officer Genious on Sept 25, 2017 21:23:42 GMT -5
2. Star Traders probably don't care, but Contacts care. And the contacts are the ones paying for the missions So then my question is why should we as players care about it? It's not like increased reputation or influence increases pay. I could just as easily boost rep and influence doing virtually any other action, never mind trait/war missions. So why pick "help a friend"/"hurt an enemy"? 1: Why doesn't the Military Officer start with a rank? I know that the game's rules don't give much space for this, but maybe an innate discount on rank one would make some sense? Really interesting. Then Merchants would have to start with a Permit, and Bounty Hunters with an Edict. Then we're giving the whole dang house away for free! Okay, that's a valid point. Still seems off that a military officer wouldn't have a rank. It's almost in the name.  I dunno, it might just be me. |
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Post by fallen on Sept 25, 2017 22:48:02 GMT -5
Officer Genious - helping a friend keeps them alive, increases Rep/Influence. Hurting an enemy reduces their rep and increases their chance for being killed off or replaced by a Conflict or Rumor. There are so many ways to play STF. Honestly, if it doesn't interest you, I would just suggest pursuing something that does!
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Post by Sinocelt on Sept 26, 2017 6:33:43 GMT -5
1: Why doesn't the Military Officer start with a rank? I know that the game's rules don't give much space for this, but maybe an innate discount on rank one would make some sense? Really interesting. Then Merchants would have to start with a Permit, and Bounty Hunters with an Edict. Starting Ranks/Edicts/Permits aren't very expensive, so what you jokingly suggested could work. |
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Post by Officer Genious on Sept 26, 2017 7:53:47 GMT -5
Officer Genious - helping a friend keeps them alive, increases Rep/Influence. Hurting an enemy reduces their rep and increases their chance for being killed off or replaced by a Conflict or Rumor. There are so many ways to play STF. Honestly, if it doesn't interest you, I would just suggest pursuing something that does! oh no, I get that. I just mean that without direct effects to the player, many may see this as pointless. A new player or even a more experienced player would see this. Boost Relationships: 1: An enemy contact may die off, but why does the player care? 2: Rep and influence with contact A increases, but there are other ways of doing that. 3: On the negative side, the cost of contact B goes up, which is a discentive to helping them. So looking at this, why help the relationship at all? |
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Post by contributor on Sept 26, 2017 8:29:28 GMT -5
One reason to boost our contacts contacts influence is that certain things they do need enough influence. So as a smuggler who wants to buy rare goods from people, it is more efficient for me to take a mission that will boost another contact's influence, because eventually I might want to get something useful from them and the more influence they have the more they can help me. Without enough influence they can't sell rare goods and I think some other things work this way too.
There's also the bonkers zealot who just wants to boost all faction X influence for the glory of their glory!
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Post by Cory Trese on Sept 26, 2017 10:19:23 GMT -5
Oh I think new players will figure it out, I have a lot of faith in them. The results are intuitive.
"Help a Friend" missions are amazing -- they get you in with BOTH contacts, at the same time, before OR after the Introduction.
Sure maybe if you boost the new Contact up 50 Influence points the Introduction will require more expensive refreshments, but at that point you have a powerful friend so who cares?
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Link Strength increases cost. This is about how fancy the diplomatic introduction needs to be, how expensive the uniforms and catering is for the Contact's agents. There are a lot of other factors that will (should) make it variable but aren't in.
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Hurt my enemy ... OK this are a little more risky. In this case the Contact should probably pay a bonus because you're losing Rep, losing Contact Rep (although with someone you don't care about) and potentially making an enemy that could WANTED flag you.
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Boosting influence of downstream contacts makes their services more available. Sometimes you can find Contacts (often via Introduction, this is intentional!) that can downstream influence points but not collect themselves (no missions, for example.) Help my Friend here is critical and if you play your cards right you can extract a lot of additional high difficulty value from that.
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Post by Cory Trese on Sept 26, 2017 10:20:12 GMT -5
Really interesting. Then Merchants would have to start with a Permit, and Bounty Hunters with an Edict. Starting Ranks/Edicts/Permits aren't very expensive, so what you jokingly suggested could work. I agree with Sinocelt -- this seems like it could work. The reason we didn't do this in ST RPG is that their are only 1 level. A level 1 Trade Permit is sorta OP on startup tho, but I can get behind it if the testing goes well. |
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Post by Officer Genious on Sept 26, 2017 10:26:24 GMT -5
Oh I think new players will figure it out, I have a lot of faith in them. The results are intuitive. "Help a Friend" missions are amazing -- they get you in with BOTH contacts, at the same time, before OR after the Introduction. Sure maybe if you boost the new Contact up 50 Influence points the Introduction will require more expensive refreshments, but at that point you have a powerful friend so who cares? -- Link Strength increases cost. This is about how fancy the diplomatic introduction needs to be, how expensive the uniforms and catering is for the Contact's agents. There are a lot of other factors that will (should) make it variable but aren't in. -- Hurt my enemy ... OK this are a little more risky. In this case the Contact should probably pay a bonus because you're losing Rep, losing Contact Rep (although with someone you don't care about) and potentially making an enemy that could WANTED flag you. -- Boosting influence of downstream contacts makes their services more available. Sometimes you can find Contacts (often via Introduction, this is intentional!) that can downstream influence points but not collect themselves (no missions, for example.) Help my Friend here is critical and if you play your cards right you can extract a lot of additional high difficulty value from that. Wait, does "Help a friend" give you personal influence with them? |
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Post by Cory Trese on Sept 26, 2017 10:26:56 GMT -5
Yes. They know you're helping them, even if they haven't been formally introduced.
This way you can start your relationship with 54 Rep and 25 Influence.
Most people are using it that way, from what I can see in the data.
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Post by Officer Genious on Sept 26, 2017 10:27:37 GMT -5
[facepalm] I'm an idiot. I blame videogames.
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Post by Sinocelt on Sept 26, 2017 10:31:26 GMT -5
Starting Ranks/Edicts/Permits aren't very expensive, so what you jokingly suggested could work. I agree with Sinocelt -- this seems like it could work. The reason we didn't do this in ST RPG is that their are only 1 level. A level 1 Trade Permit is sorta OP on startup tho, but I can get behind it if the testing goes well. Is it? I think I could get one for 1,000 of my starting creds with my Prince contact on the planet above which I started, without the need of doing even one mission to gain more rep. |
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I dunno, it might just be me.
