Zealot

[acehawk]

Anyone know what the bonuses for the Zealot class are? I basically just want to know if it has any long term advantage over just being a military officer or something.

[Cory Trese]

my ideas are two releases away. now is a good time to suggest some special bonuses for the zealot and spy.

[diablodestroyer]

Extra rep when doing missions for own faction? but that seems too generic... able to loot own faction ships for no rep loss!

[Cory Trese]

I like the extra rep, that's in keeping with starting rank.

I think the zealot would suffer penalties for any action against his own, but bonuses for any action that helped them directly.

[sgtcookie]

Spy: Two records are produced per successful surveillance?

[acehawk]

Spy should definitely have bonuses for surveillance. I personally am someone who thinks that anything unlockable should be stronger than its regular counterparts btw, but that's just me.
I think the zealot sounds like a combat specialist personally, like someone who is so extreme in his support of his faction that he recklessly charges into combat against their enemies without heed for his own survival.
Basically I think it should have combat related bonuses in addition to own-faction bonuses. The zealot should be a hero of his faction, someone who brings down countless enemy ships in a war and is regarded with reverence upon returning from battle.

Along those lines, I think there should be more info in toasts about new wars and alliances and stuff. Instead of the galaxy is shattered by galactic conflict(I think that's what it currently is) it should be the De Valtos syn has declared war against House Thulun, or something along those lines. When I was first playing I had no idea what it meant by that lol.
Also, contracts should be much more based on the factions relations to others and the player's relation to the faction. If the faction is in a solar war and the player is a rank 9 officer for them, they should be handing out contracts to him geared towards high importance targets in that solar war, also he should be given more info about them.
Perhaps contracts could also be biased towards the players skills and class? I would not try to give my factions explorer an assassination job, I would send him to take agents to a fringe world. I wouldn't send my faction's best Military Officer(or Zealot) to ferry passengers, I would send him to capture enemy Officers, or to Blockade enemy shipping lanes. I wouldn't send a Bounty Hunter to ship a package, I would have him hunting down the pirates of other other factions. See where I'm going with this?

The Zealot should also be a good candidate for assassination missions, even ones against enemy princes(hint hint) as he is a total fanatic, whereas a bounty hunter would not be well suited to the assassination of an official, but a pirate might be.

[acehawk]

OH! I would also LOVE it if you changed the way contracts were handed out. instead of being offered random contracts could we instead be given a list of available contracts and get to pick which ones we want from the list? Though as you gain rank you should on occasion be approached by a higher ranked officer and told "Go do this" and refusing would cause a rep hit and possibly a loss of rank. This should especially be trhe case when the faction is at war.

The same sort of thing could happen in spice halls, though instead it being a shady figure offering you a suspicious, though high paying job. Declining it might not cause a rep hit in this case, but you won't get to go back and change your mind to take it, since he will have disappeared.

[acehawk]

So yeah, specific bonuses for the zealot.... own-faction rep bonus, extra own-faction contracts, combat bonuses, maybe large bonuses when working against faction enemies?


Oh by the way, what effect on the game does reputation have?

[diablodestroyer]

Ah thats a fair idea, to give zealot special missions that if he rejects he will take a great hit in rep. That will change his way of being played

[acehawk]

That isn't exactly what I meant, but that is a great idea to apply it to the zealot specifically. He should be very powerful within his faction as long as his rep is high, but he must carry out extremely difficult missions that noone else would do or else his rep as a Zealot plummets. These missions should also trash his rep with other factions, since he should be very own-faction centric.