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Post by johndramey on Feb 6, 2017 0:58:24 GMT -5
So, when the game talks about the influence of our contact, it's really talking about his/her power in the Quadrant/clan/etc.? I'm pretty sure one of my contacts was unable to offer me an upgraded rank until I ran a bunch of missions for him, so does that mean I upped his influence by doing things for him?
As a separate question, what is a decent way for us to make contacts within other factions/quadrants? Is it mostly down to the "talk in the halls" (?) perk that crew dogs get? If so, that's a bit of an issue in my opinion, as my crew is almost always totally happy and I can't spice in most ports due to it. Could we maybe have an option to go buy a drink in the spice bar regardless of morale? Sort of like how the rumor system worked in ST?
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Post by Cory Trese on Feb 6, 2017 1:15:33 GMT -5
Yes, you are correct about what happened. You met a Contact, cooperated with him via Missions (and possibly he won Conflicts) and his Influence increased. Because you increased his Influence (and your Reputation) the Contact was able to promote your Captain (which cost him a few points of Influence.)
Influence points will be what protects this Contact if he is defeated in a Conflict, or another Contact acts against him. There are a few ways that influence is stored for each contact -- we know their maximum historical influence, their current influence and a base influence growth rate that comes from their zone and their type. Maximum historical influence lets us say that a particular contact used to be powerful, or that they are current as powerful as they have ever been -- or that they have fallen to half their previous power.
This is a critical value that we've found is super useful in the AI when you take the trait system into consideration. Nothing brings traits like ambitious, fearful, greedy, betrayed real like connecting them to true power levels.
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Post by johndramey on Feb 6, 2017 2:46:52 GMT -5
That is awesome. I can totally see myself dedicating my play through to a certain contact and just hitching my horse to his/her (family) wagon. Time to curry favor with a prince(ss) and get him/her to become so influential that we can do anything together.
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Post by Cory Trese on Feb 6, 2017 2:54:08 GMT -5
That is awesome. I can totally see myself dedicating my play through to a certain contact and just hitching my horse to his/her (family) wagon. Time to curry favor with a prince(ss) and get him/her to become so influential that we can do anything together. This is absolutely the idea. Perhaps you'll split your loyalty between multiple Contacts? What if your favorite Contact goes crazy, joins a Xeno Cult or you find out they're a Traitor or ... what if you found out they were part of the Shelgeroth? Or a Guxian Mastermind? |
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Post by johndramey on Feb 6, 2017 2:56:21 GMT -5
Well then I'll be right up a creek, won't I? I'm a big fan of the loyal knight errant image, hence why I asked for a Paladin portrait in BF and made Nikolai in HoS. Probably gives you an idea of what I have cooking for ST2, as well!  |
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Post by Cory Trese on Feb 6, 2017 3:06:17 GMT -5
Anyway, if you pick up an Officer with a Talent that sniffs Contact Traits you can figure them out pretty quickly. Keeping up with the entire group after a while gets to be pretty hard.
I'm working on some additional, non-Talent rules for getting Contact introductions. From the look of the data, people aren't finding very many per game.
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Post by xdesperado on Feb 6, 2017 3:20:54 GMT -5
Anyway, if you pick up an Officer with a Talent that sniffs Contact Traits you can figure them out pretty quickly. Keeping up with the entire group after a while gets to be pretty hard. I'm working on some additional, non-Talent rules for getting Contact introductions. From the look of the data, people aren't finding very many per game. Current game started with a Politician as lone contact. Current date is 211.28AE and I have 7 contacts. I'm sure I'll be getting more soon as I'm starting to expand my travels while continuing to replace troublesome crew such as the Gunner with a severe Spice addiction, couldn't make even an orbital hop from one side of a planet to the other without her wanting time in the spice den and 2-3 hits of the good stuff. |
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Post by Kanly on Feb 6, 2017 8:23:36 GMT -5
Yes. The really important part of ST2 is all the little AI inside fighting for control. The player is just an interesting side effect So you basically created skynet. GG. Guess we should all stop playing before it breaks out of the game and takes over the world. |
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Post by Officer Genious on Feb 6, 2017 9:09:23 GMT -5
OMG all that's missing are cities decaying over time or other cities improving along with their contacts. But I'm mad excited anyway. GIMMIE DA GAME!!
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Post by Cory Trese on Feb 6, 2017 11:17:08 GMT -5
OMG all that's missing are cities decaying over time or other cities improving along with their contacts. But I'm mad excited anyway. GIMMIE DA GAME!! The debate between static sharable maps and dynamic unsharable raged for a long time. This is the compromise we picked. |
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Post by johndramey on Feb 8, 2017 19:50:40 GMT -5
I have a quick question about the faction rep system. What is a good way to boost rep aside from contacts? I've been playing in my game for a while and have a couple non-DV contacts, but none of them give missions and my rep with most other factions is 0 or way negative. I'd like to make people like me, but it's been tough going.
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Post by fallen on Feb 8, 2017 19:56:34 GMT -5
Patrolling is a pro-active action. It helps the owner of the planet you are patrolling.
More options are coming -- contact relationships, selling intel, etc.
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Post by johndramey on Feb 8, 2017 22:14:15 GMT -5
Ah, so a successful patrol (meaning one that lands with me hitting a green card) will net me some small gain in rep?
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Post by fallen on Feb 8, 2017 22:52:16 GMT -5
Ah, so a successful patrol (meaning one that lands with me hitting a green card) will net me some small gain in rep? In Patrol, there are Rep Gain cards that can be drawn. |
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