A few questions. And a bug.

[acehawk]

Does where you recruit your crew have any actual affect on gameplay other than the moral drop from enslavement?

What exactly does the explorer stat do?

How do I land to do repairs? I did it once but have never been able to find the option again for some reason.

What are the class bonuses? Meaning the special attributes of the classes such as Military Officer and Captain.

And a bug report. I sometimes get attacked by ships with the faction flag paired with the wrong name. The relationship to me seems to indicate that the flag is correct and that the faction name used is the actual bugged part.
Here is an example.
I am allied with the Cadar syn, a criminal to the Steel clan. A bounty hunter flying the Steel flag attacks me. The text claims it is a Cadar ship, but it says that it's faction sees me as a criminal.

[acehawk]

Also, do the engine upgrades have any special affects? I notice that in the guide one says "Landing engines" and the other says "Combat engines". Does this actually mean something?

And a suggestion. Could you down the road increase the descriptions in game as well as in the guide? They do a very poor job of describing upgrades in game, and even in the guide it is ambiguous at best usually.

[Cory Trese]

Ace,

Thanks a lot for the feedback and bug reports. We'll work to address them both.

1. We're definitely working to improve the descriptions. I will be including them in the interface as soon as possible.

2. There are some more discussions about the upgrades here:
startradersrpg.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=rules&action=display&thread=174

3. Landing vs. Combat Engines >> Both provide a linear (+5 or +6) bonus to any/all tests using Engines -- both Combat and Landing use Engines. However, they also receive an additional (+5 to +10 based on difficulty) bonus for the specialized features of the Engine. So when in combat +5 Engines functions as +10, however, it is only +5 in Deep Space moving on the main map.

4. there are a ton of class bonuses, discounts, rep levels, ect. They're all small and undocumented at this time. I'm working to improve them and the descriptions of the classes/class bonuses.

5. Repair Camp only shows up when the ship is badly damaged. Crystals and Metals can help. A Mechanic will make it show up for less damage -- Crystals and Metals still help.

6. Explorer skill adds dice to any exploration, harvesting, or Wild landing test. it also reduces casualties, makes the captain more match for danger and a number of other things. it does give you a resistance bonus vs. the Alien in hand to hand combat.

7. Recruit values are influenced by a lot of different things. I think there are some threads on the forum about it and it is on the list of sections to document.

I often switch from playing early game "Explorer" to late game "Alien Hunter" because the planets all run out of richness and I get bored of being invincible =)

[wormholewillie]

Thanks for the clarifications, Cory!

[acehawk]

Thanks a bunch for the great reply Cory. Would you mind telling me what the zealot's specific bonuses are? I love the sound of the class, but I'm not entirely sure what I'm getting lol.

[acehawk]

I have another question if you don't mind. Is there a difference between the number of rumors in normal versus elite?

Also, another suggestion. Perhaps you could tone down the number of "tip" and "junk" rumors? I get that they are there to add atmosphere and all, but I get sick of wading through like 20 of the same rumors I've heard thousands of times just to find out that the officer I've been waiting so long for is on the other end of the galaxy, or that the only thing worth hearing is something negative, making the entire wade pointless.

Sorry about the negative spin, I just find them quite frustrating lol

[Cory Trese]

I'll put it on the list, thanks for the feedback

[oldalchemist]

A "get all rumors" button might be good. I end up tapping through and checking them out on the rumors page anyway.

Tip and junk rumors could be interesting if they gave you XP.

[wormholewillie]

Cory has mentioned in the past that an officer (political?) would be able to "get all rumors" at some point...

[Cory Trese]

I'll add "Get All Rumors" to the Smuggler next release...BOOM!

[oldalchemist]

Is "The Smuggler" the Smuggler class or an officer for hire called Smuggler? Or must you manually get rumors until you unlock an achievement for knowing so much about what's going on in the galaxy that you become incredibly smug about everything?

[diablodestroyer]

Oh thats cool addition. I Like the idea of class specific perks like the get all rumors only for smugglers maybe a leveled political officer will allow for that perk also if the "get all rumors" is too good to be limited to a single class.

Also would like to know more of the class specific advantages besides mere stat differences