Permanent/long term consequences and max rep loss

[wheelofthelaw]

Sorry if these have been posted before - I did a bit of searching and didn't see them in the results.

Two ideas:

#1 - I'd like to see more long-term consequences for captain decisions (aside from death). It would be cool to have missions that result in the permanant closure/destruction of an outpost, for example, or to have assasination missions that a gain massive reputation bonus with one particular planet/faction, but forever earns the enmity of another. Something like the assassination of a Prince's son or something.

#2 - I'd like if there was a maximum reputation loss cap for certain actions. No matter how much vudka I sell to Cadar, I don't think it should make Javat deem me a legendary terrorist, slated for instant execution upon detection...

Thanks for the wonderful game!

[slayernz]

For #1
The game isn't designed for you to actually have an influence on the galaxy's tide of factional discord. you may be Cadar and blockade a particular Steel Song planet for 11 decades (yes, I did this once because I hated Steel Song with a passion) ... but it won't stop Steel Song from forming positive relationships with Cadar, and if you ever get yourself out of the negative RP hole that you dug yourself, you'll be able to resume trading with the Song again.

Changing the game to allow you to be able to cause permanent changes to factions is well beyond the scope of the game and is something jotted down by the LTB (Legendary Trese Bros) for a successor to STRPG.

For #2
Perhaps there should be a sliding scale of RP penalties for trading, but it shouldn't be capped.
In your example with Cadar and Javat in Trade Embargo, if I sold 10 crates of Vudka to Cadar, it would definitely annoy Javat. It might be a minor annoyance so perhaps only 1 or 2 RP is lost.

IF I sold 100 crates of Vudka to Cadar, it would annoy Javat more than if it were only 10 crates. I'd expect to have a couple more RP shaved off.

IF I sold 10 crates to Cadar, then another 10 crates shortly thereafter, sure the first will be low penalty (you might have done it in accident), but the second one was a blatant snub of Javat's will. You're undermining their authoritah! You should lose more than 1 - 2 RP for the second lot of 10.

IF you sold 10 crates to Cadar in a Shortage situation, then Javat will be doubly peeved because not only did you ignore their wishes, BUT you helped their enemy out of a particularly sticky shortage situation.

I think the only time you'd get positive RP would be if you drank the 10 crates of Vudka and threw up on the steps of the palace during some royal wedding. Javat might love you then

[wheelofthelaw]

I entirely agree with you on #2, and I fully support the idea of increased rep loss with increased defiance of an embargo/etc. I guess I was just thinking about it in terms of something like getting a misdemeanor drug charge everyday on the same street corner - the more you get, the more the consequences, and the less happy the cops will be to see you, but no matter how often it happens, the death penalty will never be an option.

Granted, cops could probably think up other things for you to be guilty of if you pissed them off enough, but you get the point.

Your explanation on #1 mostly makes sense, but I still think it could be possible to work in permanent ramifications of some kind for various events. For example, once a character earns an award, it's associated with that character permanently; the same type of flag could be set for other consequences as well. If the character completes action/mission x, planet y is flagged as off limits, and z message is displayed. I didn't necessarily mean that it should affect the game's system of interactions between factions.

Thanks!