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Post by contributor on Apr 8, 2013 22:33:10 GMT -5
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Post by contributor on Apr 8, 2013 22:34:12 GMT -5
I do have a starting topic which is the difficulty level. Ideally everybody would play at the same difficulty level. However, I don't want this to be an exclusive thing that people can't be part of because they're not used to playing at a certain level yet. So the two options I see would be 1) To participate everybody will play on the Hard difficulty level since this is what is required for the unlock. or 2) There will be two classes: Amateur class will play at the Demanding difficulty level and Veteran class will play at the Crazy level.
Please let me know your thoughts and we'll finalize it before the challenge kicks off.
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Post by travail on Apr 9, 2013 11:34:58 GMT -5
sounds like a fun idea- I'd vote for one uniform level of difficulty: the challenge is for how far and how low can you go, so keep one yardstick for it.
whatever the level I'm fine with, but suggest one level. If it ends up too easy, can always repeat the challenge at a higher diff later.
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Post by infernaltexts on Apr 9, 2013 12:43:36 GMT -5
I think it would be interesting if everyone had to start the same way when it comes to ship and class. Maybe star trader and the Vae Victus?
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Post by slayernz on Apr 9, 2013 19:36:31 GMT -5
Okay, I'm nibbling - I haven't done any serious ST play since last year, but I'm okay with having a single difficulty level - say Hard because that's the game minimum requirement. I don't think it should be a single captain type though because even though the job is to piss every faction off, there are sooooo many juicy ways to do that, and limiting captain type restricts creativity.
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Post by contributor on Apr 10, 2013 9:33:22 GMT -5
slayernz, glad to have you aboard! Now for Blast and Rabid... Seeing the comments, I'm leaning towards having everybody play at Hard. I think I would also let people chose any ship, faction and profession. I don't feel like any ships (even unlockables) have such huge advantages, that it wouldn't be fair for people. I'm guessing most folks have most of them unlocked anyways. I think it will also be cool to see what professions people chose and if certain ones at better than others. It lets people really develop their unique strategy. I will probably go with Star Trader for the long term benefit of more upgrades at indy worlds. I'm still open to other's input though.
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he
Curator
Posts: 41
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Post by he on Apr 12, 2013 2:49:05 GMT -5
I would suggest two additional rules if we want to make this an actual challenge. First we need hey way to prevent people from camping out on a single faction and reducing them to negative 50,000 or greater with little or no risk to themselves I think the easiest and most fun way to prevent this would be to require all factions to be within 500 rep(or 1000 or 5000) of each other by the captain's end point.
The other suggestion is to require level 5 or 3 by ae 120; to prevent people from exploiting the benefits of low level for too long. The XP bank rule is insufficient to prevent it (I can show you a level 1 char with 0 xp to spend and more rhn 15000 turns if you like. Actually, can I just enter that captain? He was started on insane though.)
Just my two cents. I do like the idea.
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he
Curator
Posts: 41
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Post by he on Apr 12, 2013 2:58:02 GMT -5
Actually, the rule could be 'within 500 rep at all times, the moment one is out of balance it must be fixed as top priority). Does restrict strategies some but seems more in line with the idea of being one against many.
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Post by contributor on Apr 12, 2013 10:03:30 GMT -5
he thanks for the suggestions. Looks like you've found some interesting exploits! I have lots of questions about them actually. I struggled when making the rules to find the balance between keeping it simple and closing every loophole. In the end, I think I'll keep the rules as they are and see how this goes. It's all experimental and if we get a good turn out and people have fun, maybe we can try some tweaks in the future. If you want to play and try out some of your strategies, please do. I'm curious to know if they will actually work under the conditions I've set out. If your exploits turn out to be a way to win, congrats on being the most clever. Just please share when its all over how you did it. That way we can modify as needed in the future. I think part of the fun is allowing for people to develop their own strategies within the given framework. This is all in good fun and there are no cash prizes, so if somebody comes up with something clever, more power to them. However you will have to start a new character to enter the challenge, that is one of the existing rules.
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he
Curator
Posts: 41
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Post by he on Apr 13, 2013 1:37:18 GMT -5
Oh god no, I don't have the patience to do that. It was mind numbingly boring keeping that level 1 character alive on insane.
I see no reason to spend time winning in such a manner. I might create a hive hunter captain and shift things later to lower rep, we'll see how little sleep I get.
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Post by contributor on Apr 13, 2013 15:34:56 GMT -5
I'm finding one of the biggest challenges of being "independent" is getting good ships. I bought a Spear Class off Thulun before I lost access to Faction star docks. I'm glad I did because I haven't seen anything better. I've found that the Marquette Alpha star dock has lots of ships and decent prices, but haven't found anything stellar yet. What is everyone else finding for ships/good star docks?
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Post by slayernz on Apr 13, 2013 18:19:30 GMT -5
Captain Target started out a little bit agressive, and by level 3, he was a wanted criminal with 4 different factions. He's level 7 now, but limping around not being able to get beyond the $150k that he earned near the beginning. I think he's going to restart his life and get more of a amicable start before he goes and pisses off factions.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2013 22:05:20 GMT -5
I'm finding one of the biggest challenges of being "independent" is getting good ships. I bought a Spear Class off Thulun before I lost access to Faction star docks. I'm glad I did because I haven't seen anything better. I've found that the Marquette Alpha star dock has lots of ships and decent prices, but haven't found anything stellar yet. What is everyone else finding for ships/good star docks? They might cost an arm and a leg - but Roavin is usually stocked up with the best ships for an indy, and it's often just as good as large faction planets. The only problem is that a trip there either takes you through Steel Song heartland or Hyperion Demonic Nebula. Not quite sure which is preferable...
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Post by contributor on Apr 18, 2013 21:16:55 GMT -5
I'm sort of loving the way this flips everything around. I encounter a pirate and I think "oh he's in a solar war it's not worth blowing him up because I'll only gain rep with somebody." I can't blockade anyone right now because they're all in solar wars and I don't want to gain any rep.
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Post by slayernz on Apr 19, 2013 1:19:30 GMT -5
Yeah - that's the biggest challenge - consistently getting RP to drop like a stone. Blockades or Surveillance are not always effective because you get the solar or spy war. Early on I specifically hunted for trade embargoes and got some factions down nice and low before working on the others. It went against every fiber of my being to attack the faction that I had originally built up during my "nursery" phase. I ended up with a DeValtos Flagship as my vessel of choice. I had a Jango Class ship (an oldie but a goodie) but that's now drydocked at an unavailable DeValtos Starport.
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