Post by uglymug on Mar 11, 2018 13:36:39 GMT -5
So ST:F seems to have a very involved political system going on and I'm curious as a Captain how best I can take advantage of it. Influence, specifically.
So Rep is pretty easy to raise with contacts, but Influence can be much trickier. Last game, I had my Retired Explorer starting contact start a few jumps away and by the time I got around visiting him, his influence had cratered to -7. So I run a bunch of missions for him, but no matter how hard I tried, his influence seemed to be in free-fall. I'd get a few points on the mission, but it'd keep hemoraging. I was never able to get it to the +9 required to recruit Exos. Had to eventually give up and court another Retired Explorer I discovered. And this is with me selecting (A) Contacts at chargen. So, two main questions:
1. What effects a contact's influence?
AND
2. What does a contact's influence effect?
So I imagine for question 1, a contacts influence is mainly effected outside of player control by the influence of their friends and enemies - am I right? So if I want a contact to have high influence I should run the third mission option to harm their enemies and support their friends? What about conflicts? If a faction loses a conflict, does that damage the influence of contacts within that faction? Is it by type of contact? So a Military Commander might be more influenced by a Solar War conflict, but a Spice Trader might care more about a Trade War? Does the properties of the planet they're on effect it? Is a contact in a wilderness zone harder to maintain influence with than a contact on a bustling Lux Pop world? Selling Intel can be a quick way to raise influence, but not all contacts buy intel - but can I raise a contacts influence by selling intel to one of his friends? Is influence effected more by intel that relates to an active conflict?
For question 2, I know that influence obviously effects services offered. But what about mission quality? Does a highly influencial contact offer more lucrative missions? If not, then what is the primary factors that determine mission quality?
Basically, one of my templates I've been playing recently has (A) Contact priority, but I think I need to learn how the games political systems work to make the most of it.
So Rep is pretty easy to raise with contacts, but Influence can be much trickier. Last game, I had my Retired Explorer starting contact start a few jumps away and by the time I got around visiting him, his influence had cratered to -7. So I run a bunch of missions for him, but no matter how hard I tried, his influence seemed to be in free-fall. I'd get a few points on the mission, but it'd keep hemoraging. I was never able to get it to the +9 required to recruit Exos. Had to eventually give up and court another Retired Explorer I discovered. And this is with me selecting (A) Contacts at chargen. So, two main questions:
1. What effects a contact's influence?
AND
2. What does a contact's influence effect?
So I imagine for question 1, a contacts influence is mainly effected outside of player control by the influence of their friends and enemies - am I right? So if I want a contact to have high influence I should run the third mission option to harm their enemies and support their friends? What about conflicts? If a faction loses a conflict, does that damage the influence of contacts within that faction? Is it by type of contact? So a Military Commander might be more influenced by a Solar War conflict, but a Spice Trader might care more about a Trade War? Does the properties of the planet they're on effect it? Is a contact in a wilderness zone harder to maintain influence with than a contact on a bustling Lux Pop world? Selling Intel can be a quick way to raise influence, but not all contacts buy intel - but can I raise a contacts influence by selling intel to one of his friends? Is influence effected more by intel that relates to an active conflict?
For question 2, I know that influence obviously effects services offered. But what about mission quality? Does a highly influencial contact offer more lucrative missions? If not, then what is the primary factors that determine mission quality?
Basically, one of my templates I've been playing recently has (A) Contact priority, but I think I need to learn how the games political systems work to make the most of it.
