will continue to try

[khhawkes]

Ok I have been working on the crazy difficulty for weeks now and I kid you not maybe an hour into the game I slam into the same wall. I suddenly get jumped by everyone and their mother trying to put a bullet in my captain. I was making a run back to the homeworld and bam got hit by a bounty hunter. I raised the white flag. I had nothing but water fuel. one sector over. BAM pirates for the steel song. Raising the white flag would probably get me shot. Fought them and won. The next sector another Steel song ambush. At this point all I could think is "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. What did I do to piss these guys off this bad." Again white flag would probably be a bullet. Fought and won.

At this point my ship is limping on two engine no sails one gun and no ordinance. Not happy making. One sector over and I am orbiting my homeworld. Guess who is waiting for me. Thullan with a destroyer and execute if I give up. Yeah this and other scenarios have happened for two weeks. Look I love the game but I am ready to drop kick it across the state. Real advice would help. Yes I have tried what I have read on the forums. I keep running into this damn wall every hour to hour and a half in.

[Fenikso]

What are your reputation standings with all the Factions? Do you have Trade Permits with anyone? Military ranks?
What is your game turn and what is your Captain's level?
Do you have enough money? What is your ship? What are your skills? What is your profession?

Give us some details .

I suspect that you are making mortal enemies faster than you can handle - by shooting their merchants, ignoring trade embargoes, working against them etc. At the time they are ready to execute you, you should be so dangerous that you are able to shoot to hell our outrun literally tens of average enemy ships in a row.

[absimiliard]

Off-hand, without any other corroborating evidence, I would agree with Fenikso's hunch. I suspect you're making enemies you can't afford yet.

Personally I play a "I want every faction to like me" play-style. But more typical is one where you calculatedly tick off one to three factions and suck up to the others. In that case it's important to never get too far into enemy territory, lest (as you've discovered) getting back out is tough.

Other than that I'm not sure what to tell you. I play on Impossible so I'm used to the vast majority of my characters dying early, if they get lucky and get a good ship early on they'll typically survive to levels in the 20-30 range before being turned into toast. But the harder levels are just that, hard. On Impossible you never really survive any more, the more recent updates made Impossible exactly that, impossible.

If it's not rep-related I'd like to second Fenikso's desire to hear more about your chosen playstyle so we can make another guess at what's going on. (oh, and I suppose we should also ask if you're comfortable playing a level below Crazy, if not maybe you just need to futz around in an easier difficulty for a bit learning to apply new techniques there before moving up to Crazy)

-abs

[slayernz]

The game has a short period of "safe play" at the beginning where it doesn't overtly try and kill you. You have to use that time really wisely to:
1) build up your Pilot (control of range in combat), and Stealth (evasion of enemy weapons fire)
2) develop relationships - Trade Permits are an essential document that stops pirates (of that faction) from wanting your blood
3) get at least one military rank - so you can have access to gun/armor/torp refits.

For #3, Javat has a sweet military cutter that runs rings around the other factions basic military ships. Only when you unlock the Honor and Pride ships do you get better military ships.

4) Surrender is fine so long as you have -34 or better RP with that faction (and they are not pirates).

Sure if you have, say -25RP, the faction will arrest and imprison you, and fine you for the pleasure of incarceration, but you'll live, your RP will be improved, and you'll be able to get on with your life.

5) If you are minor-ly negative (-10RP or less) and you have the cash, pay for pardons at the palace.

For me, being diplomatic at the beginning (building up +ve relationships) is how I survive. That means I befriend at least 4 factions. Once I have money, a good ship, and moderately good stats, I then turn on one ore two of the friends, but it's my choice. I don't start shooting first when I am still green. Doing so is a sure way to have a short game experience.

[khhawkes]

Ok. Do not have any information. Do not give a crap to really have fourty to fifty captains sitting around who are dead. They are deleted and gone. I generally do missions and explore as a star trader. I keep friends with the synducates and the clans are to far away.

I tend to fire if fire upon only. Frankly there is no real naval officer I can take to go cap the clan ships. So I am trying to go with a startrader. He has the best spread of stats.

[khhawkes]

I am generally minding my own biz. I just had another two wall hits today so pardon me if I am blunt. I do not understand the game turns. I am usually level 5 with a military rank of one in two or three syndicates. I have a trade permit with each of those three. I tend to ignore the clans in general. And it is generally hard to sell when everyone has a trade ban with everyone and not piss some people off.

[blackgauntlet]

Hmm... playing on Crazy requires a solid set of start-up plans... having no idea what you had done and not absorbing the lesson learnt from this experience is... unwise...

[Cory Trese]

Stockpile in Caches and wait for opportunities to sell into different rumors and conflicts.

It helps if you play Smuggler or Merchant if you are trying to make a living at trading.

Many Captains should simply avoid the Factions and trade with Indy worlds as much as possible.

[Fenikso]

Great comment blackgauntlet!

khhawkes:
Crazy is just that: Crazy. You have to be very good at perceiving game feedback, understanding the game in general and its rules to play on this difficulty. You have to be very careful about what you do. You cannot just ignore half the universe anymore. Do you think that you can ignore trade bans without consequences? No, not really. You are breaking the law!

The difficulty scaling is exponential. You should be able to play without any significant problems on one level smaller difficulty before you go up. Is this your case? Does Hard seem too easy?

[khhawkes]

Latest run was as a captain. Reached 60.43. Dead by multipul attacks from steel clan javet and a syndicate. Did two contracts against independant star systems. Relieved a chemical shortage for thullan that did not piss anyone off. My worst rp was minus 1 qith steel song.

[khhawkes]

Hard was a cake walk. I rolled six of ten captains through it like it was nothing.

[khhawkes]

All I am really wanting is the three achevements for the crazy difficulty.

[shallowthought]

If you're going for ships of honor/power, try going as an explorer. If you pay attention to the trade embargo/alliances you can easily get +ve rep with all the factions. This is how I got these achievements originally.

Have a read of the explorer thread -
startradersrpg.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tips&action=display&thread=178

I'd also suggest trying to avoid combat at low levels, just surrender if you can't run away. If you're going as explorer you should get cash pretty quickly to cover repairs+pardons+doctor etc.

[alienfodder]

I'm on my 3rd game on crazy difficulty.
1st game was a fail for Quick Contracts II so I made a De Valtos spy with the Tempus Fugit ship - completed with ease.
This current captain is lvl23 with >151 rep in all factions & I've had maybe 3 hostile encounters all game. He's a Thulun merchant who has never done a contract; trading around Black Flag mostly but heads off to shortages & surpluses (where conflicts permit) to make money for trading rep goods with.factions.
He's always looking for better ships, and always fast/quick.
I've just got the Clan Hero & Syndicate Hero awards & will go for the Dark Nemesis when I find an uber ship (in a Royal Dragoon atm).

[celu]

probably a rumor with pirate infestation or a military conflict on that sector.