Tips for achieving Independent Captain?

[dallas]

Hi all,
I spent hours last night working on a strategy to unlock this, which was to get hated by all factipns other than De Valtos until I had required negative rep with them all and then work on un-doing my positive rep with De Valtos. It seemed like a sound idea and was working fine until I got killed by a careless mistake, but I did notice that losing my +140ish rep with De Valtos was actually really difficult which I've never paid attention to before.
Any ideas using this strategy or a completely different way of doingnit please?
Ps I was a bounty hunter on Hard and was a boarding shipper
Cheers

[xdesperado]

dallas basic strategy was okay...I'd suggest easiest way to undo that positive rep is to Spy or Blockade them.

[dallas]

xdesperado thanks mate, any ideas for getting rid of rep more quickly though? I was blockading and surveilling De Valtos Prime for ages which was only taking my rep down by 1 per attempt. I then got bored and started killing everyone I encountered rather tha ignoring... Did that one too many times which meant I picked on someone bigger than me when my ship was damaged and then it was all over in a flash. Doh. Shouldn't drink whiskey and pilot a computer game spaceship, tis dangerous

[qbspy]

It's easier to drive drunk than it is to establish a decent file playing ST drunk. Not advocating either BTW. You might have been able to exploit a devaltos alliance with another faction. That way you would be able to throw in some genuine exploration with the "uff" of blockading the one planet...

[dallas]

This is true qbspy, although I'm wondering what the best way to p1ss factions off is, what is the 'perfect climate' for losing rep??

[dallas]

ps playing ST drunk isn't always a bad idea as it's at least made me play in different ways beforw and learnt new things as a result. Generally what not to do

[Officer Genious]

Oct 22, 2014 17:45:49 GMT -5 dallas said:

This is true qbspy, although I'm wondering what the best way to p1ss factions off is, what is the 'perfect climate' for losing rep??

Do so during a Solar/Trade War, bonus points if you get an Indy contract that pays you for Spying/Blockade. Proceed to sell the info to a faction in a Spy War to irritate another. And get MADD MONIEZ.

[slayernz]

Faaaaaaaaaaaastest way to get rid of RP is trade with a Trade Embargo. The drawback of that is that you need to have at least one other faction that you are somewhat not hostile to. IE, you have to be no worse than about -10RP with that faction as much lower than that, and you get barred from the exchange! (how rude).

Say you have a trade embargo betwixt Javat and Devaltos, and by chance you have +140RP with Devaltos and 17RP with Javat. To cause Devaltos to hate you long time, you go to Javat, and trade a standard commodity (eg metal). Good news/bad news. Good news is that when you sell the metal to Javat, the metal remains available for you to buy back again. That means (assuming you have good cash reserves), you can constantly trade a full hold of metal back and forth. The game years may clock past if you do this lots and lots, but for you, each trade will be a more satisfying way of eliminating RP than mashing the blockade/surveillance button. Also good news - if you're not trading restricted goods or records, then you don't get +RP with Javat. Bad news? Well, you run out of money if you don't have much to begin with. You're buying and selling in the same market with a faction that only barely likes you. They aren't gonna give you best prices, and you'll hemorrhage money like a Steel Song ship bleeds lifesupport.

Another way of doing damage to your RP, is by finding a good shipping lane around Devaltos and annihilating any ship that moves. It's fine because you're going for Independent captain, so you don't have to discriminate. It's even better if Devaltos are under Alliance with another faction (eg Steel Song), because if you kill a Steel Song ship, you get bonus RP loss with Devaltos. Rewarded for doing something you love!

If I was going Independent, I'd normally TRY and keep Thulun as my last friendly faction, because the shipping lane between Hydri-Thulon Prime and Ursae-Thulun is awesome - every one or two AU,you get an encounter.
For Devaltos, there are less obvious shipping lanes, but just moving around the larger Devaltos planets would normally score you an encounter or three. Note, this technique normally requires you to keep Stealth down and Pilot high.

[dallas]

Thanks all for the detailed info, haven't had much free time this week due to work but once I get a minute to myself Ill check these ideas out!

[maytag]

There is an absurdly fast way to wipe out thousands of reputation points.

Blockade or perform surveillance on the friendly faction. When a warship approaches you, attack. After you hit them, surrender. They will arrest you but won't execute you, and your entire rep will disappear. I assume there is no limit to how much you can lose this way because I have wiped out several thousand this way.

Drawback: you lose half your money.

[qbspy]

maytag are you an ST addict like me?

[AA]

And me!

[maytag]

Nov 8, 2014 0:44:27 GMT -5 qbspy said:

maytag are you an ST addict like me?

I believe that when morally upright people die, one of their options for eternity is to be continuously reincarnated as a captain within the Star Traders universe.

[slayernz]

Oh bugger though - being reincarnated as a Steel Song captain would just be the worst. First of all, you have absolutely nothing worth being proud of - planets in the butt-ends of the quadrant, with no real importance in the world of factional politics. Second, life expectancy would be very low because sooner or later, a particular cat will come and tear you apart.

Do morally upright people how die and get reincarnated as Steel Song captains get reincarnated as Cadar Torps next time round?

[qbspy]

Well said. You love it! Welcome to the forum, friend. Pull up a seat at the nearest spice den, and have a snort, or a drink, or however they distill this stuff.