Pirate's dream

[Fenikso]

Continued from here

I played a pirate for a long time on Impossible and sometimes I wished that:
1) Traders and smugglers did not carry one of each thing but for example 20 units of just two things
2) Some rumors had bigger impact - especially the ones about fleets of explorers or traders with valuable cargo and extra security

[Fenikso]

Aug 9, 2011 19:33:06 GMT -5 slayernz said:

1) Traders and smugglers did not carry one of each thing but for example 20 units of just two things

Yeah that would be nice too. Actually what would be nice is that you'd have some sort of indicator at the encounter screen "Sir, our sensors indicate they are carrying x". So many times I've attacked a ship only to find they are carrying nothing. Not even W-F or luxuries! I mean to say - that's just not on. They're surely breaking crew union rules by flying with no fuel! I would further argue that they should be fair game to blow up because you're doing that faction a service by eliminating their more miserly captains.

I usually carry fuel, some luxuries and pile of one thing. Maybe two to three different piles. It seems so strange to encounter merchants and smugglers carrying 1-3 of everything. You know, I would even let the ones carrying clothing and plants for Cedar Prime go :-). But if ships had more fuel, it would hit the game difficulty.

Aug 9, 2011 19:33:06 GMT -5 slayernz said:

2) Some rumors had bigger impact - especially the ones about fleets of explorers or traders with valuable cargo and extra security

With fleets and merchants flying, etc it's going to increase the chance of encounters, but it's not a guarantee. Just try and find aliens whenever an alien attack has occurred in space! Cory - make alien hunting easier darn it <grin>.

I'd like to see the rumors of new discoveries in wilderness to yield lots more though. Often I've gone to planets with this rumor and all that I've ended up with is a bunch of pieces of my crew as they vainly died searching for the supposed treasure.

The problem is that when you find out that those rumors have very small effect, you stop looking for them and using them during play. “Oh, just another rumor with no effect.” That’s a pity.

[Cory Trese]

The rumors in #2 cause the solution to #1 to load in the game's engine.

There are several "Cargo Load Generators" and you are saying in #2 than the Rumors that switch out the generators to act like you mention in #1 are not effecting game play.

So I'd say this post pretty much answers it's own questions -- and I suspect most people who have been rocking Pirates for a while have picked up on the value of those Cargo Generator rumors -- I certainly love taking advantage of them.

[Cory Trese]

PS: The really "rich" generators do NOT load on Impossible. Why not? Because it's Impossible

[Fenikso]

Hmmm. I will recheck the rumors on Impossible as I have said in another thread.

#1 is not about the richness. Just weird transports of 1-3 crates of everything. I do not want to get more in average. Suppose I take out 10 ships. Each of them caries 1 artifact and 1 vudka + other stuff. So after 10 ships I have 10 artifacts and 10 vudka which I am collecting. Now suppose that every 10th ship caries 10 artifacts, and every 10th ship caries 10 vudka, the rest caries the other stuff. After 10 ships I got the same, but it does not look so weird. I just found the artifacts transport and vudka transport and let others (after shooting them down and inspecting the cargo, of course) go.

[Cory Trese]

Right, the code that allocates cargo ... several versions of it exist.

The one you are talking about uses a normal distribution based on the source Exchange's current cargo distribution. It is the most common for Merchants in near-orbit and smugglers in deep space.

Different types of Captains load different loads.

"Suppose every 10th ship carries 10 X" ----- Correct, you should investigate the rumors listed in #2


-------------------

So lets say we have 3 functions

#1. Uses normal distribution (common)
#2. Uses non-normal distribution (uncommon)
#3. Uses weighted distribution (rumor triggered)

From your posts you are talking about #1 and ignoring #2 and #3 (as well as #4-#10, but those are advanced topics.)

[Fenikso]

Challenge accepted .

[Cory Trese]

Definitely not a challenge just trying to help you understand the rules of the game.

[Fenikso]

Thanks a ton for your help and explanations. I really appreciate your atitude.

I thought that flying around whole Quadrant and hunting those rumors (investigating #2) on Impossible qualities as a challenge. Silly me :-P.

[Cory Trese]

Hunting them on Impossible is not going to find you much in way of obvious effects.

Impossible hard and the cargo generator assumes that the other Captains are having a tough time too -- so they don't have much / good Cargo.

If you play on "Hard" you should be able to find some ships with large stocks of certain resources, especially under Rumors.

Of course, we wouldn't want this to change because that would be making Impossible easier and we must never, ever do that (it's already too easy.)

[Fenikso]

So now I am confused.

Aug 8, 2011 10:43:56 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Fenikso -- those rumors do more on higher difficulties but the first one changes the distribution of ships in the sector for encounters and the second one loads a totally different cargo generation routine known as "richness cargo." Thanks!

Aug 10, 2011 11:39:22 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Hunting them on Impossible is not going to find you much in way of obvious effects.

I am specifically talking about "merchant fleet in Deep Space that hired extra security due to particularly valuable shipments". So I would assume that I will encounter very dangerous warships and bounty hunters accompanying merchants with more expensive cargo. And if it is on higher difficulty, I suppose that the cargo will not be that good and the security will be more deadly.

But that returns me back to this thought: If some rumor type does not have any visible or obvious effect on some difficulty, even when you try numerous time, it is just flavor text and it is pointless as a tracked rumor. And it frustrates players hunting those rumors.

I am still going to try some rumor hunting on Impossible, as I do not play lower difficulties anymore.

[Cory Trese]

No you are misunderstanding me completely. This does not necessarily have to be about who is right or wrong!

I am the first person to say that the game has flaws (I maintain a huge list of them.) So now that we have that out of the way...

Impossible reduces bonuses for players and increases penalties.

Therefore, if you are going "sight seeing" for Rumors, Impossible difficulty is not the best place to sight see for bonus rumors.

I understand that if you wish to make a choice about how / what you play that is fine, I was simply trying to help.

I agree that no rumors should become flavor text and thank you for posting that reminder. Thanks!

[Fenikso]

Oh, now I understand. Higher difficulty makes it easier to spot bad rumors and harder to spot the good ones.

I am sorry for the confusion. As English is not my first language it is often hard to understand and be understood. Thanks for your patience.