|
|
Post by Havok on Mar 21, 2011 16:26:04 GMT -5
Maybe it's because I'm only playing on Demanding, but I started out as a Star Trader with De Valtos and the Neutiquam Erro, and I'm currently level 3 with $1,180,451 credits and a Rychart Infiltrator ship (the best I could find) and the game is boringly easy. I can afford three of any ship anyone can sell me and my ship is better than anything I've seen in space. Where do I even go from here?
In case anyone is looking to replicate this, I just went from planet to planet making sure not to piss anyone off (i.e. taking decently priced missions and buying pardons early and often) and making sure to do the obligatory 2 missions per faction for a trade permit while reading every free rumor I could. Pretty soon, I found a shortage/surplus combo (weapons) and made 2 quick 10-15 AU shuttle runs for about $300,000. This also gave me a ton of rep with Rychart, hence the new ship with a bigger hull. From there it was a cake walk.
I'll try again on a harder difficulty and see how it goes.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kelvin Zero on Mar 21, 2011 23:48:28 GMT -5
It sounds like you are getting the hang of the game, so increase the difficulty and try other Captain types. Soon you will find the level of danger that makes every move potentially your last while loving every minute.
By the way, come join the forum! This is the first game I have ever played where the players really feel a part of the creative process. The developers are really active in the forums and I think almost everyone on the forum can point to something in the game and go, "Hey, that was my suggestion!"
|
|
spike
Exemplar
Posts: 360
|
Post by spike on Mar 22, 2011 5:41:01 GMT -5
Yeah, I am also wondering if the increased supply of Shortage and Surplus rumours has made the game a lot easier. It's not so much the easy money, as the easy Rep. I realise I'm the one who asked for more Shortage/Surplus, but it may need to be tuned down a little.
Actually the specific solution might be to implement elastic demand. Currently all planets will buy infinite amounts of goods at the stated price. This makes it possible to generate huge cash during a Shortage. What might be more balanced, and more realistic, is that as you sell into the shortage, the price they are willing to buy at drops, towards normal. This could be implemented with a hidden "how much of this do they need" value. The initial value of this counter could be related to the economy size and maybe how long the shortage had been going on (let it drop over time, assuming NPC Captains supply the shortage goods). Decrement this counter as shortage goods are bought; as it drops towards zero, the price drops towards normal.
Also, is the Rep gain when supplying a Shortage directly proportional to the cash gain? That might be unbalanced. If the cash paid for a Shortage item is typically 5x normal, then the Rep gain should be no more than 2x normal. Or more likely a small Rep gain per unit sold - additive not multiplicative - and applying regardless of whether the item is a Record or Contraband item.
Lastly, a recommendation that was made elsewhere, is that 5x normal price might be too high for Shortage rumour. Or this could be based on Difficulty level eg
Easy - Shortage 5x, Surplus 1/5
Normal - Shortage 3x, Surplus 1/3
Demanding - Shortage 2x, Surplus 1/2
Crazy - Shortage 1.5x, Surplus 2/3
|
|
|
|
Post by Havok on Mar 22, 2011 10:45:37 GMT -5
Just replicated this with ease on Hard difficulty - got a shortage and surplus of water fuel, of all things, that were only like 5AU apart and was able to make a bunch of supply runs back and forth. Got my credits up to about 300k by level 4.
I like Spike's idea of implementing demand elasticity - you could still sell your first load of goods at the surplus price, but further trips would experience diminishing returns.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cory Trese on Mar 22, 2011 11:30:13 GMT -5
I agree that the recent update has caused problems.
I am working on solutions. Root cause of this issue is moving too quickly on features that need more consideration.
I'm going to scale back these adjustments and return to the core roadmap. New features and major balances will be put into the roadmap as we go, but will be moved into a lower-tier so that I can have considerably more time to work on testing, balancing and simulating the effects.
v3.6.3 should return the game to previous difficulty levels and I will go forward from there.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cory Trese on Mar 23, 2011 2:05:16 GMT -5
I still really like the ideas and the new rumor adjustments, I just went too far and didn't test enough. Fixable -- and a few people get free millions =)
|
|
spike
Exemplar
Posts: 360
|
Post by spike on Mar 23, 2011 4:37:33 GMT -5
The new ideas are definitely great. It's just a question of some fine tuning is all.
|
|
|
|
Post by oldalchemist on Mar 23, 2011 12:12:36 GMT -5
Clothing shortage over here....Clothing surplus about 15 AU away. It was icing on the spice cake. (that being a two big spice shortages in the upper left quadrant early in the game. It's hard to call yourself a smuggler when legal goods have such a fat margin!
|
|
|
|
Post by void10111 on Apr 4, 2011 14:19:51 GMT -5
too easy? well, then you must be the luckiest person alive.
Because this game is far from easy.
I love this game by the way. Only been playing it about...two weeks.
But I can't keep a captain alive for more than a few days yet and Im only on Challenging mode....I can't imagine "Crazy" Mode...
Jeeze....
~In space no one can hear you fart
|
|
|
|
Post by sgtcookie on Apr 4, 2011 15:26:51 GMT -5
~In space no one can here you swear. The pub is a different story.
|
|
|
|
Post by oldalchemist on Apr 5, 2011 13:09:36 GMT -5
You've got to work your way up the difficulty levels. Once you start playing on Crazy, just playing on Hard is too easy.
|
|
|
|
Post by Cory Trese on Apr 7, 2011 3:01:25 GMT -5
LOL it is like a tolerance you build up. Slowly work your way up to the really hot water of Crazy/Insane and you'll think "oh, it is not that bad" but if you try it right off the bat it seems ridiculous. =)
|
|
|
|
Post by oldalchemist on Apr 7, 2011 9:58:30 GMT -5
I'm having a heck of a time getting the Ships of Power. Getting all 3 houses to like me isn't too bad, but the syndicates can't seem to stay out of embargoes and general piratical jackassery on Crazy.
I put so many Crazy Smuggler and Merchant captains into the great hat factory in the sky that I ended up going back to my Javat Explorer Dark Nemesis captain in his tricked out Atmo Jammer to try to butter up all three syndicates from sub -200 reputations. So far, the Big Hats are tight with me, the DeValtos think I'm ONLY a terrorist, and the Cadar dropped to -294. Also, the Songers are chapped because of the blockading I did to get the Dark Nemesis award. But, hey, I never really liked them in the first place. Embargos are on all three Syndicates right now. I guess I just have to kill time until Cadar and DeValtos make a Trade Alliance with somebody. Right now, running Spice Hall contracts doesn't make up for the amount of running away from military and pirate vessels that harass me.
I'm digging the challenge.
|
|
