|
Post by LordofSyn on Jul 25, 2017 14:01:52 GMT -5
I have to agree that some contacts show that they offer missions, but when you finally get face to face with them, they don't have that as an option. I don't mean that your rep isn't high enough to get a mission. I mean they don't even have the mission button as an option. (I seriously need to remember to take snips of these to back my point. D'oh!)
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Jul 25, 2017 16:06:47 GMT -5
I have to agree that some contacts show that they offer missions, but when you finally get face to face with them, they don't have that as an option. I don't mean that your rep isn't high enough to get a mission. I mean they don't even have the mission button as an option. (I seriously need to remember to take snips of these to back my point. D'oh!) Yep, on that one you'd have to provide exact information. That is not a bug that I am aware of or able to reproduce in any fashion.
|
|
|
Post by En1gma on Jul 25, 2017 18:44:29 GMT -5
I think I've seen this as well, not only with Contracts. I'll be sure to document them going forward.
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Jul 25, 2017 19:14:26 GMT -5
I think I've seen this as well, not only with Contracts. I'll be sure to document them going forward. Please do.
|
|
athios
Templar
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 1,611
|
Post by athios on Jul 26, 2017 0:51:58 GMT -5
Okay, here's my take on the Bounty Hunter template. I tend to prefer going in Skills-heavy, since these are one of the hardest "commodities" to come by in the game. I've loaded up the Evasion, which will continue to increase as the BH Job level goes up. Base Evasion 10 makes the BH quite untouchable, which makes early game Crew Combat more forgiving on a newbie, but still offers them plenty of opportunity to try things out, as well as learn about the fragility of being a spacer as they watch their other combat crew take a beating. I put the rest of points into Command and Doctor, important but (relatively) rarer skills. This also gives the player several strong complementary options on their secondary/tertiary jobs: Soldier, Commander or Doctor. Attributes is next, relatively evenly spread but with a focus on having decent HP level, and the Strength helps with Rifles. I like having good Charisma as it is handy for many Mission checks, and is a bonus to some Commander Talents. Contacts I usually put at D or E, but for newbies I put in C. Good mix of Contacts that offer a pretty diverse set of Missions, and here I am hoping that the newbies will be selective about which Missions they accept. With the variety here, they should be able to cherry-pick suitable missions to help build up their credits for upgrades. Ship is the Juror. Basic, simple ship that should be reasonable for a newbie to handle. Fewer slots (officers & upgrades) hopefully means less "choice overload" and they can focus on what they need for the task at hand. Exp at E is kind of debatable. I can understand why people do this. I'm not convinced it's good for newbies though. Or perhaps, it depends if it's a newbie to the game entirely, or someone somewhat comfortable with the game but is new to Bounty Hunting. If the former, this is fine as is. If the latter, perhaps swap Contacts and Exp (or go even higher), so that the player can (especially after respec is live) more quickly try out different BH Talents and see what works for their style. But I guess that's something a player modify on their own...
|
|
|
Post by grävling on Jul 26, 2017 4:06:31 GMT -5
MintDragon I find the combinatin of EXP E and Dragon Interceptor to be one of the hardest to get going from the start. Plus lots of myt captains _die_ with this one due to disasters caused by not making saving throws. I wouldn't wish that experience on a newbie. athios interesting that you prioritise skills. You say they are the hardest commodities to come by in the game, but I think of them as fairly easy -- you want more X? Go hire more crew that advance in X. As a basic rule of thumb I want my skill saves to be made by my crew, and not be dependent on me. But your captain's attributes are never going to change at all, and buckets of game saves are made against them, as part of the design. I think you need as much of them as you can get. Different professions can prioritise differnet attributes -- explorers with high wisdom make more cash when exploring -- everybody else may want to prioritise the other stats over wisdom, non-fighters have less of a need for dexterity than those captains who mix it up in crew combat -- but every captain, I think, wants as much charisma as allowed. Unless, for personal roleplaying reasons you are playing 'Joanna the Ugly' or something.
|
|
athios
Templar
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 1,611
|
Post by athios on Jul 26, 2017 10:04:53 GMT -5
Skills - yes, you can get them by hiring special recruits, but newbies may not know they need to do that, or how to do that. Having a bit on your Captain helps. Plus, the Captain is unlikely to die, compared to other Officers/crew who will come and go, so those Skill points are more "stable".
|
|
|
Post by grävling on Jul 27, 2017 4:39:50 GMT -5
Skills - yes, you can get them by hiring special recruits, but newbies may not know they need to do that, or how to do that. Having a bit on your Captain helps. Plus, the Captain is unlikely to die, compared to other Officers/crew who will come and go, so those Skill points are more "stable". Ah, my captains seem no less likely to die than other officers, unless I have of course, given them lots of Fortitude, Resilience and Strength -- but that's Attribiutes, again. If you are playing the non-permadeath levels, then your captain won't die, of course ....
|
|
athios
Templar
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 1,611
|
Post by athios on Jul 27, 2017 12:40:16 GMT -5
Yes, that's why I didn't put Fortitude/Strength up to 30. Keeping in mind these are default templates meant for new players, I'm assuming that they will be on one of the lower difficulty levels. As they get more experienced and wanting to move to higher difficulties, they can start tailoring their own templates.
Plus, it's not a bad lesson for newbies to learn that even the Captain can die from stray fire.
|
|
|
Post by resistor on Jul 27, 2017 13:11:05 GMT -5
Yes, that's why I didn't put Fortitude/Strength up to 30. Keeping in mind these are default templates meant for new players, I'm assuming that they will be on one of the lower difficulty levels... I disagree. I think the default templates should be viable on high difficulties because not all new players start on low difficulties. When I first started playing STRPG I chose Insane difficulty and stayed there until I was able to move up to Impossible.
|
|
athios
Templar
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 1,611
|
Post by athios on Jul 27, 2017 17:36:11 GMT -5
I think the allotment of Attributes that I put should be reasonably viable up to Hard difficulty, higher if you know what you're doing and plan strategically.
Yes, I've heard of quite a few people who start right off the bat at higher difficulties. It's a personal choice, but I'm guessing it's only a minority of players. The devs may have stats on this?
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Jul 27, 2017 22:14:22 GMT -5
In raw numbers, players play our games on lower difficulties. For example, more than 50% the players on Battleforce play on Normal.
We're looking to make templates that are good starting points for a new player, so that has to take this into account.
|
|
|
Post by Sinocelt on Sept 17, 2017 14:33:54 GMT -5
If I suggest templates, I fear they'll be like my own builds, which means they'll all prioritize like this:
1. Attributes 2. Skills 3. Ship or Contacts 4. Contacts or Ship 5. Experience
Unlike the other three items on this list, your Attributes and Skills won't improve directly. Having high Attributes and Skills is better on the long run ... but also on the short run: better start with low Experience and high Attributes and Skills, and take easy missions, than start with higher Experience and lower Attributes and Skills, and take harder missions. Also, since most Skills are pooled and Attributes aren't, and since Attributes are used more often, and since Job Ranks indirectly increase Skills, I favor Attributes over Skills, even though the former are weak dice and the latter strong dice.
Contacts are useful, but anyway, when you start, they're mostly useful for missions. Your main Contact should be a Prince, as accomplishing missions for a Prince will give you access to about everything: Trade Permits, Military Ranks, Edicts, even other Contacts. Your second Contact (if you ranked Contacts fourth) depends on your profession. A Merchant, for instance, should have Politician, because Politicians are likely to propose diplomatic missions, which make good use of Negotiation, the Merchant's primary Skill. A Bounty Hunter should select an ex-Bounty Hunter, for the missions and the weaponry. Etc. You do need to choose your contacts well, but you don't need many, as you can't really "use" many optimally. Better to focus on your strengths, when you start a game, and new players are likely to look for stuff to do that fit their chosen professions; they can diversify later, when they'll have more experience with the game and more Contacts within the game.
|
|
|
Post by Sinocelt on Sept 17, 2017 15:57:16 GMT -5
Personally, if I'm going to play a Merchant, I'll pick Smuggler as my first profession, Diplomat as the second, and Merchant as the third. Yet here I'll be trying my hand at a Merchant-based template. I called this template "Space Trader" (ST, below), but we can rename it. "Negotiator" and "Negotiant" are two possibilities: the latter word is a rare synonym of the former and comes from negotiant-, negotians (trader). Both "negotiator" and "negotiant" ultimately come from the Latin negotiari, present active infinitive of negotior (to trade, to do business). Considering the type of missions most likely to be undertaken (see below), "Envoy" and "Emissary" are other naming options worth considering. Also, "Mediator." Other explanations are de rigueur. In the post above this one, I've already explained why I like to prioritize (A to E) as I did here. So let's get into the nitty-gritty: The Negotiation skill, the Merchant's primary skill, is essential to the diplomatic missions the Politician contact will provide* (the Prince can provide about everything else the ST will need in the early game). Sometimes those missions have you roll Charisma+Negotiation, but sometimes they have you choose between Charisma+Command and Wisdom+Negotiation, which means you should max out both Command and Negotiation (which is impossible on the long run) or both Charisma and Wisdom (which I did here). Charisma will actually be 32, thanks to the Merchant's Charmer trait. The ST is a charmer, not a fighter, and so both Strength and Quickness were left at 14. High Fortitude and Resilience will improve the ST's durability, and 5 Piloting will improve that of the ship -- since if you fall below 5 Piloting pooled skill points in combat, your ship gets disabled. [Edit: Nope. That's not how it works. So I'd invest those points in Doctor*, personally. If, for templates, we should invest those points only in the profession's skills, then either ● 10 Negotiation and 5 Command; ● 10 Negotiation, 3 Command, and 2 Tactics; or ● 9 Negotiation, 3 Command, and 3 Tactics.] Finally, the Galtak Freighter has a large cargo bay (75), as well as the passenger quarters (luxury suites!) you'll need for many missions, notably diplomatic ones. ----- ** That skill needs renaming. Medical Care, Medical Support, even Doctoring or Healing would be better options.
|
|
|
Post by Cory Trese on Sept 17, 2017 17:01:20 GMT -5
I dunno, I like "Doctor" quiet a bit, compared to "Heal"
|
|