Changing Difficulty After Creating a Captain

[desolation101]

I know this will be a somewhat controversial topic I think. I feel it would be nice if we could at least upgrade the difficulty setting of a captain after and while we have already started playing as that captain on a different difficulty level.

This idea first came to me because I started with the free version and made a captain on basic, than I upgraded to Elite and moved my captain over, however now that I understand the game better I would love to increase the difficulty setting of my original captain rather than continuously create new captains when I would like to see certain content such as alien ships and what not.

I know difficulty level plays a part in winning awards, however since many awards are time based, I feel to my knowledge that if such a change were to come about, these awards would be unaffected by this change.

[Cory Trese]

There have been several in depth threads about this and I think at the end of each one the points and counter points become too risky for me.

I really feel like that most exciting part of the higher difficulty games is not 9,000 turns in, but it's the first 200 turns =)

[slayernz]

Heyya Desolation,

I too asked this question back when I was just starting out -
startradersrpg.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=wish&action=display&thread=286

You're right in that the key issue is that being able to change difficulty (especially going up in difficulty) allows you to more easily achieve rewards set for harder difficulties. For example, surviving 22 years where 2 factions loathe you is much easier on Basic than it is on Crazy. Same goes for gaining ranks, completing missions, heck, even just surviving the first 100 years

As you can tell I've been converted to the darkside in believing that you shouldn't be able to increase difficulty during a game. I kinda like the idea that if you upgraded your captain's difficulty, you'll be ineligibility for any future awards with that character, but then I guess for me, the real thrill is at the beginning when you just start out, trying to find that balance between success, survival, and mere existence.

When you have flown for 10,000+ turns, have goodness knows how many million credits in your bank, and are flying around in a souped up harbinger of destruction, it really doesn't matter what level you are playing - you're always going to be the likely victor in any battle (not guaranteed, but likely).

I know you're really after seeing what there is to see in Elite with a bit more difficulty, but I do sincerely believe you'll get just as much satisfaction - and probably more sense of accomplishment if you manage to get a captain to survive in Crazy to a decent level.

You'll get to experiment with different starting strategies, and even different captain types. My first few captains were Star Traders, but then after dabbling with other career paths, I found the love of Explorer, then Smuggler, and ... well I haven't moved beyond Smuggler for ages

Oh ... and as an aside, I still have my very first captain, who is level basic and yes, I do fly him from time to time because sometimes I want to know that I can kill with impunity