I want more XP!!!

[k0rd]

i'm embarrassed to admit that i didn't realize blockade gave you so much XP - i don't blockade often because i didn't think it was worth the credits that patrolling can earn i'm a military ofc -cum-pirate

[Cory Trese]

get it while it lasts =)

[Tenebrous Pirate]

Nooooooooo.....!!!!

[Cory Trese]

Smite me if you must but the great XP balance is coming =)

[k0rd]

hehe i was afraid to download the update after the *aliens are too easy* thread (i forget the real name of the thread) cory commented on.

[Tenebrous Pirate]

Aug 16, 2011 10:41:54 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Smite me if you must but the great XP balance is coming =)

Lol, ever since you told me how you play, doing almost nothing but missions, I have tried to avoid exp farming and do much the same myself.

[Cory Trese]

I think I probably failed to notice the XP issues with mass blockading because I do Missions when I cannot find a Rumor or a Conflict to Exploit.

The moment I see an opportunity to get an advantage via Rumor of Conflict, I start trying to work that advantage. Contracts also let you move around a lot (I shop exchanges constantly) and get a good feel for who is winning the economic balance at the time.

Star Traders RPG is designed to encourage a blend of play styles and I think that is the key to success -- play ALL the different mini-games that make up ST RPG.

[slayernz]

I'm happy for there to be good independent blockade XP, so long as there is high risk in doing so - like some faction gets peeved at you for stopping some of their legitimate (or not-so-legitimate) trade - and your RP goes down.

I mean to say - even though you don't always get hostile encounters, you've got to be making some blockade money from something. Usually it's because you've stopped a ship from getting through and they've thrown some credits your way. These ships could certainly be faction-aligned ships. So your RP should go down over time dependent on some back-end dice rolls to determine if the money generated from the blockade action was generated from an independent - or a factional ship.

[phantum]

Blockade is quite interesting as far as I understand it you are not actually blockading the planet stopping any ships getting through, but you are collecting money from ships to let them get through. That seems to defeat the whole purpose of a blockade, if it was organised by another faction to isolate the planet they would not be happy with you betraying them and letting ships through for bribes. A blockade would also need to be a shared part in a much bigger operation, to cover all orbits of the planet (assuming if it was just your ship hovering over the starport then the prince would shoot you down. It is hard to see how a blockade could be player initiated, rather than supporting a greater mission.

Could blockade produce a chance of confiscated cargo instead, particularly illegal cargo? This would also limit the number of times it could be repeated for benefit before the player had to leave and offload, also the faction hit would mean they most likely could not maintain a permit to sell contraband at the blockaded planet. Maybe blockading could temporarily close the markets to the player even on independents as the prince knows what you have been doing...

Could blockade take you to an encounter like combat, but where weak merchants would surrender and you can loot. Then the faction hit would be against the faction of the ship not just the planet?

Otherwise you could get free cargo, but take a random faction hit with whatever the ship was you blockaded, unless that faction was in a trade war with the panet?

Blockade could become similar to patrol, except you are at the destination so much higher chance of an encounter, but since you are out in the open you also have a much higher chance of a military encounter with superior forces.

Well I was just trying to think of some changes so you could not spam the blockade button unlimited times without consequences.

I had a quick search on blockades and they actually fall under some governing maritime laws to keep them legal, and one of those is that ships are only supposed to be detained not sunk, and specific contraband must be defined, as opposed to things like food... Blockades seem to be accepted in good reason, and ill faction limited mostly to the country blockaded and their allies.

[slawyer]

I agree that the extra XP for blockade outcomes when you get extra money is too much. It should be reduced to only award 1, no matter how much money you got.

I think the XP balance should change how XP is awarded for encounters. It seems all encounters earn the same XP, regardless of who it is against, what level they are, and what the outcome was -- if you survive, you get 1, whether it was from just acknowledge/ignore of a friendly ship, or from a knock-down, drag-out fight against a hostile pirate at twice your level, where you lose 9 life and your hull end up at 2. I think there should be bonus XP for fights when the enemy is much higher than you, and when you end up getting really beat up. After all, you're going to learn a lot more from the bad encounters, and in other RPGs I've played, the XP awarded scales with the difficulty of the enemy. I think a +1XP reward for each life lost in a fight is fair, and some scaled reward for fighting harder opponents too -- maybe +.1XP/level higher than you are -- and similar XP penalties for fights below your level when you are the aggressor.

I think the encounters when blockading should be increased faster on harder levels as the game progresses too (make it more risky as the game date advances). It would balance out the less XP awarded from successful blockades late game if there are more encounters, and those encounters award more XP. Any caption that makes it past level 100 on Impossible is going to have absolutely monolithic levels of Stealth (I had 110 at that level, and keep it at 110% of level), and late game blockading should counter that with increased changes of hostile encounters. Now it seems there is NO XP at all for encounters when blockading, which seems unfair to me (but I'm sure was as intended for game balance).

[Fenikso]

Aug 17, 2011 15:13:08 GMT -5 slawyer said:

Any caption that makes it past level 100 on Impossible is going to have absolutely monolithic levels of Stealth.

I would oppose. I have one character on Level 82 and Stealth 1. And as you could see in another thread, she is again doing fine. Thanks for asking .

[celu]

One thing I noticed when I tried a XP farming with via prolonged blockade on singular planet (civilized) was that the surrounding planets have an increase of available goods. I can hypothesize that trade traffic is affected, decreased trade traffic can be interpreted as fear or discouraged traders (almost like a tax, and I am the tax man) due to chance of encountering the blockader (me) and thus affecting their profit margin.

Which gives me an idea...
When you encounter a captain (hostile), can you add an option (or a scenario) where I have to pay them blockading fee, bribe, protection bill or whatever you want to call it, after selecting surrender if I opt to get by peacefully?

The only scenarios we have when surrendering are:
Pirate = loot
Military = search

If we can add a dice roll (a small percentage) for encountering a blockading captain, I think it will add a new dimension to the game.

Flow:
Encounter hostile (non-pirate) > surrender = pay
> battle stations = rep loss
> ignore = flee but enemy engaged > rep loss(?) maybe not? depending on conflict or jurisdiction?

The consequences are:
Pay = loss of credit, no rep loss
Engage = rep loss
Flee = rep loss depending on jurisdiction or conflict, can get shot at.

Probability:
May increase or decrease depending on conflict.

[Cory Trese]

There is a rumor right now called "Naval Crackdown" that is essentially military ships on blockade. I'll have to look into how it could be changed to match some of these concepts.