Post by jameskuyper on Jun 10, 2011 23:01:16 GMT -5
Well, I'm still figuring out this game.
For my first game, I'm playing a De Valtos Explorer, using the free version of the game, at the Basic difficulty level. After reading in this forum about the reputation penalty for running away from legitimate authorities, I decided to at least Acknowledge, and maybe even Surrender, to some of the ships I meet, if it seems appropriate. Up till then, I'd been either running or fighting, and loosing a fair amount of reputation.
The acknowledgments are working out fine, the surrenders - not so much.
My first surrender was to a ship, for which I was told that they would likely only confiscate any contraband we were carrying. Since I knew we weren't carrying any contraband, I decided to surrender. I was quite surprised to here that they confiscated the Records that filled half my cargo hold.
There were Spy Battles going on involving every single faction, at the same time as a surplus of Records on an independent planet. Therefore, I was carrying the records to Ulzsa-makisk to be cached until it was safe to sell them. One of those spy battles was between De Valtos and the faction that stopped me. I had thought that the only effect of spy battles was on the reputation effects of selling records, and an increased number of surveillance missions. However, after the fact it made perfect sense to me that they would want to confiscate the Records under those circumstances. I'm not complaining about that; I'm just confused by the use of the word "contraband" in those circumstances. If I'd realized that they might take my Records, I would have run - I had good enough Sails and Pilot skills to do a good job of running.
Do records always count as contraband, or only during a Spy Battle? Are they only contraband in the eyes of the combatants in such a battle, or by everyone? Does a Trade Permit cover Records?
I don't remember the circumstances of my second surrender - I was holding 5 delivery contracts, one for a message, two for packages, and two for passengers - I' don't remember why I felt it was appropriate to take the risk of having them discovered. However, I do remember what happened. I was beaten up and then sent to jail for several years. When I got out, it was only one week later, and I still had all 5 contracts that I had been holding before I got caught. I managed to deliver all 5 on time. What was that all about?
I read something on this forum that implied that you can increase your reputation by selling records to a faction, something that is not stated explicitly anywhere in the Player's guide. It does say that the reputation bonus is doubled during a Spy Battle, which implies that there is a non-zero reputation increase even when a Spy Battle is not going on - but it never directly says that.
I decided to test whether this worked. Since my first game was filled with Spy Battles, I started a new one, at Normal difficulty, with a Clan Javat Merchant, so he could generate his own records without having to pay for them. However, I haven't figured out how that works. I've conducted several trades so far, and no records have shown up yet. Is there something specific I need to do to make them appear?
That's when I had yet another bizarre encounter. I delivered Plants from Cadar-UTF Capital to De Valtos Prime, for a decent profit: $102 apiece. When I sold my Plants, I was told that I had violated House Thulun's Trade Embargo. They do have Trade Embargoes against both Cadar Syndicate, and Steel Song Clan, but none against either my own faction, or De Valtos. There are no other Trade Embargoes currently active. What's going on here?
For my first game, I'm playing a De Valtos Explorer, using the free version of the game, at the Basic difficulty level. After reading in this forum about the reputation penalty for running away from legitimate authorities, I decided to at least Acknowledge, and maybe even Surrender, to some of the ships I meet, if it seems appropriate. Up till then, I'd been either running or fighting, and loosing a fair amount of reputation.
The acknowledgments are working out fine, the surrenders - not so much.
My first surrender was to a ship, for which I was told that they would likely only confiscate any contraband we were carrying. Since I knew we weren't carrying any contraband, I decided to surrender. I was quite surprised to here that they confiscated the Records that filled half my cargo hold.
There were Spy Battles going on involving every single faction, at the same time as a surplus of Records on an independent planet. Therefore, I was carrying the records to Ulzsa-makisk to be cached until it was safe to sell them. One of those spy battles was between De Valtos and the faction that stopped me. I had thought that the only effect of spy battles was on the reputation effects of selling records, and an increased number of surveillance missions. However, after the fact it made perfect sense to me that they would want to confiscate the Records under those circumstances. I'm not complaining about that; I'm just confused by the use of the word "contraband" in those circumstances. If I'd realized that they might take my Records, I would have run - I had good enough Sails and Pilot skills to do a good job of running.
Do records always count as contraband, or only during a Spy Battle? Are they only contraband in the eyes of the combatants in such a battle, or by everyone? Does a Trade Permit cover Records?
I don't remember the circumstances of my second surrender - I was holding 5 delivery contracts, one for a message, two for packages, and two for passengers - I' don't remember why I felt it was appropriate to take the risk of having them discovered. However, I do remember what happened. I was beaten up and then sent to jail for several years. When I got out, it was only one week later, and I still had all 5 contracts that I had been holding before I got caught. I managed to deliver all 5 on time. What was that all about?
I read something on this forum that implied that you can increase your reputation by selling records to a faction, something that is not stated explicitly anywhere in the Player's guide. It does say that the reputation bonus is doubled during a Spy Battle, which implies that there is a non-zero reputation increase even when a Spy Battle is not going on - but it never directly says that.
I decided to test whether this worked. Since my first game was filled with Spy Battles, I started a new one, at Normal difficulty, with a Clan Javat Merchant, so he could generate his own records without having to pay for them. However, I haven't figured out how that works. I've conducted several trades so far, and no records have shown up yet. Is there something specific I need to do to make them appear?
That's when I had yet another bizarre encounter. I delivered Plants from Cadar-UTF Capital to De Valtos Prime, for a decent profit: $102 apiece. When I sold my Plants, I was told that I had violated House Thulun's Trade Embargo. They do have Trade Embargoes against both Cadar Syndicate, and Steel Song Clan, but none against either my own faction, or De Valtos. There are no other Trade Embargoes currently active. What's going on here?
