buy rumour for free

[shallowthought]

Just started a new game. On a planet with about $50. No spy officer. Can still buy rumours in the spice hall/palace, and it seems to work as normal (getting all the good ones first). Shouldn't the buy button be disabled if player has less than $100?

[sgtcookie]

Are they actual rumors or just the general stuff? The general stuff is free, even if you've pressed the Buy button.

[shallowthought]

No, I got all the actual rumours first, then all the useless stuff. Pretty sure it still costs when you press buy even if you're on to the useless stuff though.

[slayernz]

I've always just mashed the rumor button (not the buy button) until I have exhausted the rumors.
THen I go into my status-->cargo-->rumors section and peruse the nicely filtered stuff.
Benefits:
1) You get the rumors categorized into Urban, Wild, Space, etc
2) You get distances to the rumor
3) You get to see all of the rumors at once rather than leaping on the first good "shortage" rumor only to find there are 3 better ones further into the rumor-stack.

[shallowthought]

slayernz: true, but on the other hand,
1) Takes longer
2) might miss some good rumours
3) most times you have at least a few hundred k, so spending 2k on rumours doesn't matter
4) a lot of the time i'm only looking for, say, a pilot or mechanic. I'll spot that as I go through the rumours in the hall, then go to the rumours page for the waypoint

[slayernz]

#2 AFAIK, you don't miss out on any rumors just because you choose not to buy them. The Buy option was made available so that you don't have to wade through a bunch of flavor-rumors to get to one or two gems.

#1 - mashing the rumor button umpteen kajillion times ... maybe 5 seconds.
Pressing back .. status --> cargo --> rumors = 1 second
Reading rumors in your leisure ... Priceless err Timeless

So I can get all the rumors, listed in a way that I can quickly see distance and plot within 6 seconds.

[shallowthought]

On a crappy planet with only 5 rumours, if I buy I know I've got the good rumours. If I click "next" I could miss some. On good planets with 50 rumours it may well be better to mash the "next" button.

[slayernz]

Hey Shallowthought - no worries - I do get what you are saying and I hope you didn't think I was putting your approach down before. Mine is but one approach to one aspect of the game. Given its complexity, there are probably dozens of other approaches to do this same thing

In terms of charging for Flavor rumors, the game shouldn't do that. If it is doing so, it's a bug.

[shallowthought]

No, I see your point too, it's how I used to play, but ever since cory explained how the whole "buy" thing works I've decided it's easier just to pay. At the start of the game with little cash i'll just mash "next" like you.

[starfixer]

Wait does pressing buy increase the number of useful rumors you get, or does it just make the useful rumors you woud have gotten originally appear first?

[Cory Trese]

Buy Rumor doesn't change the range or accuracy of the starport.

It eliminates the Captain's dice roll required to activate the range/accuracy.

So if the SP can see 15 and gives 40% and the Captain has a 75% roll, the buy button eliminates the 75%. With Buy Rumor you get the best the SP has, without considering the Captain's skill roll.

Again, the Buy Rumor option doesn't change the actual SP.