a few minor suggestions, and a major one

[taigenraine]

First, a couple of minor annoyances that should be easy:

I would love an option that does not kick me back into space when I successfully complete a mission on a planet. I drop off a message at the palace, and I want to pick up a new contract or a couple rumors while I am there, but no, someone magically teleported my ship and I into orbit as soon as I handed them the package... Now some pirate has it in his head that his escape shuttle is somehow a match for my fully upgraded terror class, and after explaining to him the error of his way with my 32 deck guns, I still have to tip my hat to a departing merchant, before I can get back to the palace, to notice that my other contract expired during the weeks it took to get back on the ground.

Another minor annoyance is more constancy thing. When I have a trade permit and am stopped by that factions pirates, could the surrender option be changed to acknowledge? I just always have to do a double take when I see surrender pop up.

Now, for the more major suggestion. I would love to see a more direct way to influence the game politics, especially at the higher ranks. Say I am 100+ rank with a faction and they get into yet another trade embargo. Maybe I could tap that item and it would set my destination to my faction capitol to receive a mission to help smooth things over. Maybe I have to deliver some diplomats to the opposing faction, or hunt down a merchant who's crimes are causing the tension, or some surveillance to blackmail the other faction into lifting the embargo. Once I was done with the mission, it would have a chance of clearing the conflict.
On the other hand, maybe as a rank 12 military officer for house Thulun, if I go blockade Cadar Prime, it would be enough to provoke the factions into a war. It would go a long way to make the game feel more immersive, as I would feel all my effort gaining this rank means more then just better prices and the ability to ignore warships.

Anyways, let me close with saying I love the game, I really think it's by far the best game you have made so far, and the best I have played on my Android period. I think I play this more regularly then most console and computer games, so am glad you continue to support and improve it. If ever there was a game that deserved a sequel, this is it. I would love to see what you could do with it now that you have a lot more game design experience.
Thanks,
Taigen

[fallen]

@taigen - welcome to the forum! Great suggestions. Cory will probably have to give full answers when he is back, but I can start.

The basis of most of the responses I can give are "Star Traders is the first game Trese Brothers built. It's 2.5 years old and has some binding limitations that have tied our hands in some areas that we simply cannot resolve the problem. Therefore, look forward to Star Traders 2 or your suggestions showing up in other TB games." Thanks for the compliments and encouragement. We too see a sequel down the road.

1. All Contracts take you back to space. This falls into the "architecturally backed into the game and something we can't fix" category.

2. I know there have been many conversations on the forum about the text on that button. I can't even begin to sum it up and have to leave this Cory when he gets back.

3. Cory will have to comment more on the ways to start / influence / end faction Conflicts. I know that the ability to change planet ownership etc is out due to aforementioned architectural limitations.

[starfixer]

Cory said that surrender was left with pirates for challenge or something. The good news though is that with a permit it will say on the bottom "these are pirates but won't loot you because you have a permit". Or, because all pirates are non-hostile with a permit, you can simply ignore all non-hostile pirates you encounter.

Speaking of pirates and surrender though, I don't really like it how if you surrender to pirates you lose rep. The logic was that they report your illegal activities, but if you don't have any contracts on-board and aren't blockading/spying, and you're simply transporting cargo to end a shortage, there's no illegal activities being carried out and therfor no rep penalties should occur. You also lose rep surrendering to warships with contraband even if you aren't in their space and therfor aren't doing anything illegal. So if I'm in cadar space and have a permit with cadar, then enounter a thulun warship carrying contraband and surrender, I shouldn't lose rep with thulun because I wasn't carrying contraband in thier space, but cadar space which I'm allowed to carry contraband in.

[starfixer]

<bump>

[fallen]

Thanks.

[CAB]

I just watch the X vs Y text at the top of the screen and know that if they aren't red it's 99% safe to hit whatever button is on the upper right and move on. I say 99% because if you hated enough by someone sometimes even a friendly will toss you in jail but that actually isn't always such a terrible thing.

I would like to see an auto-acknowledge option in the options page so that if acknowledge would be an option for an encounter instead of having to go through the encounter you'd just get a toast saying "Spaceball One acknowledged a Clan Javat Winnebago Smuggler." as you continue to fly on unabated. You could always toggle it off if you want to go all pirate on everyone.

[Cory Trese]

I read this thread and I don't see anything specifically that we can or should change.

Pirates are working the right way for the average player of the game.

Auto-Acknowledge, while it sounds like a neat idea, isn't really a realistic proposal on Android.

Great thread and I'll be back re-reading it again soon to see if there is anything else I can extract from it that might improve the game in some small way.

[CAB]

I have no problem with how pirates work. One gets used to the idea that their level 100 armed-to-the-teeth ship is meekly surrendering to every pirate in the quadrant just to not make waves ...

[Cory Trese]

Apr 25, 2014 10:59:38 GMT -5 CAB said:

I have no problem with how pirates work. One gets used to the idea that their level 100 armed-to-the-teeth ship is meekly surrendering to every pirate in the quadrant just to not make waves ...

Politics. This is one of the things that many people cherish about the game -- variety in action and reaction.

I know it is one the reasons I still play it daily.