Buying Rumors

[MTKnife]

Mar 4, 2011 22:42:07 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Correct.

Captain buys a round and the spacers tell him some junk ... he stops buying rounds.

I often use Buy Rumor to see if they have anything good to say and then I use Next Rumor to just listen in and see what else is up.

I don't understand. If all you can get is flavor text, what else could be up? As the author, you presumably know all the flavor text already....

[jerry]

MTKnife
I think what Cory was saying is when you buy rumor and get a genuine one, it's very probable that there is another genuine rumor waiting for you - by either using "buy" or "next rumor".
However - if you "buy" rumor and all you get is a flavor text - you won't receive a genuine one for sure, either by "buy" or "next rumor".

[spike]

It still worries me that new players will not realise that they should stop paying once they see a flavour text rumour, and, even if they did know that, they won't necessarily recognise a flavour text rumour until they've been playing the game for a while. It worries me that new players will perhaps never understand what is happening (unless they come here to the forum and read this thread - and a game should not require using a forum to be able to play it properly).

It would be clearer to new players if the Buy Rumour button automatically greyed out, once all the real concrete non-flavour rumours have been exhausted.

[jerry]

I agree that new players have no clue (probably, as I am no longer newbie ) for the difference between "next" and "buy" rumor.
However, graying out "buy" could lead to misinformation.
Rumors do gray out the same way as contracts do - it only means they are no longer available on this planet, but doesn't mean they are not available elswhere.
Perhaps a simple "There are no more new rumors in the entire galaxy for now, Captain", either as a toast or as last line of text on last rumor? But that should not limit you from taking "next" flavour rumor.
I've no idea how to explain to users the difference between flavour and real rumors. Simply in a game guide?

[absimiliard]

If I recall correctly (always in doubt at my age) did not Cory say that hitting the "Buy Rumor" button and getting a color-text rumor didn't cost you any credits?

If that's right I don't think this should be an issue. It won't cost new players anything to keep hitting the button and by the time they become an advanced player (which we all hope they do) they'll understand the difference.

-abs

[oldalchemist]

Make the rumors show up in a different color? Real rumors in white, flavor rumors in light grey.

[slayernz]

Does it take a week to beat up a person? Perhaps a day or two, but a week seems just a tad excessive, unless their hat was way too small, in which case, it's probably somewhat justifiable.

Re the rumors themselves, I was thinking perhaps the rumors you could buy could actually be a precursor to a contract. For example, you get told of a rumor that the Palace is trying to track down a crim, so you know you can bet a bounty-hunter mission there.

Another example is if you get told that a palace official on planet X is seeking some brave souls to go and spy on someone, that could be helpful too. (a), if you were wanting to help with a spy war, then you'd be able to sign up, and (b), if you were wanting to stop spying, you could go patrol at that location and try and catch the bas@#rds that were trying to spy on your faction.

[oldalchemist]

It takes a week to make sure that they story stays the same.

[Cory Trese]

Part of this is like that all time costs ... they are all randomized with a skill test.

So some people will say "Rumors take forever" others will say "Upgrades take no time."

And because of the way ST RPG works ... everyone is correct =)

[oldalchemist]

Never beat up the dude that's upgrading your reactor!

I'm serious about the text color thing.

[slayernz]

Got another idea for the rumors thing (couldn't be bothered starting up a new thread).

How about having a "Plot Course" button for rumors so that if something does catch your fancy, you don't have to drop out of the palace/spice hall, go into status, galaxy, then rumors to find that nice tidbit of information that is going to make you r-i-c-h.

It'd also be nice to know (in the rumor) the range and faction, but that's being over-ambitious

For the record, I like Oldalchy's color thing too.

[havocme]

So, am I the only one who just hits the rumor button as fast as possible until they run out, and then check the rumor log on the status page?

[Cory Trese]

slayernz -- I will add your requests regarding plot course, distance. What do you mean Faction? like the owner of the sector?

havocme -- Andrew and I have been working on a clever system to tell stories about the Captain in the Spice Hall by combining Forum Text, ST RPG jokes, the Captain's Log, current stats and information from the conflicts table.

"Did you hear Captain Shaft is in the zone? I saw some of his Fanatical crew members visiting the Entertainers and not one of them even seemed tempted to stay in here Corrcusudentalim Zone."

"Rumor is that Captain Vega is here somewhere, back from the a tour in the Solar War against Cadar. He's a very dangerous man and is said to be legendary in hand-to-hand combat, having defeated over 100 Faction Captains in duels."

[slayernz]

Yep Cory, Faction owner of the sector. For example, if I saw there was a shortage of something on a Steel Song exchange, I wouldn't waste my time hauling stuff there because of my -827 rep.

[slayernz]

You should open up a "best ST RPG joke" competition thread. I'm sure that all the hat/torp/nudist planet jokes would come out. Some of those jokes won't even be wriiten by OldAlchy