The real kicker is that System Explore quest, where you find that ancient cruiser? First time I did it I won against the defending drones, then a MASSIVE pirate fleet does the *teleports behind you* "nothing personel kid!" schtick and there's no winning there.
It seems that events and bounties are 99% of the time out-of-balance with my capabilities.
120000-200000 bounties of nothing but mass carriers, or battleships that I simply cannot deal with without losses. (and expensive D-mod removals)
But as for the bounties I agree, the ones with payout above 200k are simply ridiculous, no way that's proper reward scaling for taking on fleets that have 2-6 capital-class vessels (I've seen 2 Onslaughts, 4 Legions and 5-6 Conquests in such fleets so far).
The real kicker is that System Explore quest, where you find that ancient cruiser? First time I did it I won against the defending drones, then a MASSIVE pirate fleet does the *teleports behind you* "nothing personel kid!" schtick and there's no winning there.
So after a few updates I started a new game. This time I came a bit better prepared. A huge missile-bus ship, a HEAVY carrier cruiser(5 wings), 4 destroyers and several heavy frigates. This time the defenders have a DRONE BATTLESHIP. WTF? Does this scale with my fleet or something? A battleship defending a cruiser??? And that thing is NASTY, spews endless missiles and does not come alone ... hordes of heavy drones in tow. Simply winning with a single ship left is a challenge, and then come the pirates....
This is just getting frustrating.
I’m pretty sure you’re talking about theSpoilerChampion Cruiser from the mod Legacy of Arkgneisis. The pirate fleet is commanded by the person who sold you the information to get you to do the dirty work of retrieving the cruiser.[close]
What is used a gauge? Your level? Time elapsed? Does your own fleet even factor in?
For a while, I had a bunch of 200k bounties (around cycle 209) until I slaughtered several (with close wins), then the bounties spiked to 300k+ multi-capital slugfests. I am not sure time scaling is to blame, but the old-fashioned fleet kill scaling may be too fast now that ships are more expensive and harder to obtain, meaning slower fleet build-up than before.
But yes, there is a noticeable spike from 200k to 300k. Also, 300k+ can vary from a few capitals that are not too difficult to destroy with a similar fleet of your own, to another with ten or so capitals and the rest filled mostly with cruisers, and because there is no way to deploy that much metal at once even with map size 500, it will be a real slog. At map size 300, such multi-capital fights devolve into 3v3, or even 2v2 if one of the ships involved is Paragon.
... but I think where that combat shines most brightly is when the player reaches the point where they must contend and consider the capabilities and merits of EACH ship class. Once bounty fleets scale outside of that realm I think the magic of the combat system falls apart, and it either turns into a drawn out slog, or requires the use of exploitative or degenerate strategies to succeed.
This late in the game the main reward are the relationship point.Maybe, good for Diktat with only one system crawling with big detachments to block raids (and a pain for me to sneak by for blueprint raids). For others, it is easier to get more rep by waiting until a faction offers a system bounty then wipe out fleets there (and there are plenty if offered after a pirate raid) for fast rep gain with most major factions and sometimes Independents, and Independents have easy rep gain with their distress calls and missions from the bars of your own colonies. So far, most of the bounties come from factions were that are already easier to grind rep with. Diktat might be the exception.
The big bounties are nice for buying buildings. Go clean up a few bounties in a row, pay for a new colony's stuff.Also nice for producing a bunch of pristine ships big and small, to replace the clunkers I use for the whole game before that point, along with a bunch of rare weapons I have drooled over for much of the game.
But I can just do a bunch of pirate bases and 200k bounties and make 80% of the money with 10% of the risk...
For others, it is easier to get more rep by waiting until a faction offers a system bounty then wipe out fleets there (and there are plenty if offered after a pirate raid) for fast rep gain with most major factions and sometimes Independents, and Independents have easy rep gain with their distress calls and missions from the bars of your own colonies. So far, most of the bounties come from factions were that are already easier to grind rep with. Diktat might be the exception.
As for 350k bounties, if I am strong enough to flatten them, might as well do it for the mostly free income. If not, I would do slightly less rewarding ones with much less risk as intrinsic_parity wrote.
I think that the player in .91a can concentrate on their "big seven" ship composition, and win against formidable odds. Those seven should be really well founded ship loadouts.
I'm finding that in my heavily modded Nexerelin game (including Starship Legends mod that's still in development), that my legendary officers, on their legendary ships, are quite capable when I go for a 300K+ bounty. My fleet is led by me in a Victory battleship, and my "big seven" are:
1 BB, 3 CA, 3 CV // I don't imply that the battleship is required...but does improve safety over riding in a tough cruiser.
...and the rest are assorted CA/CV/DD.
System and personal bounties are not mutually exclusive. Where is no point in waiting for system one if you can do personal right now.Time constraints can make some of them mutually exclusive. They are not mutually exclusive by default, but other circumstances can force them to be. Fighting several deathballs (or anything if rep was low) in a row in a system bounty will crank rep, and possibly money, up very fast. Named bounties give 3 or 5 - a drop in the bucket. Named bounties are worth it mostly for the money if the player can crush them in flawless victory, although they are handy for new clunkers earlier in the game too.
Distress calls and other small stuff cease to gain rep after some reputaion limit.
Risk is the only fun thing this late in the game.
@ Baqar79: I hear you. Named bounties are only worth it if you can crush them. As for bar missions, I would like to see one as rewarding as yours. Most of them are under 100k, and I usually reject them. (Most of those that I accept are whose destination are at my colony where I need to go anyway to dump loot.) I get a few that exceed that, and only got one that was close to 200k. Maybe it has to do with fleet capacity?Quantities offered are usually based on the cargo space you had when you first check the mission details out, but as for these big payout missions, I'm not sure. In any case I think the other time I got a big paying mission like that was also from my own colony. I do want to have a look into this myself however, see if I can figure out how to get them more frequently.
How do you get 400k? So far, I just got four size 6 colonies and enough stability to make free port worthwhile. They are making an average of 200k each (some more, some less). I am trying to race to size 7 for that fourth industry, although two of them need military bases for extra stability and big fleets to repel expeditions.I make a lot of use of AI cores at my colonies and the colony in question is size 7 (more taxes to collect from Population & Infrastructure). Biggest credit booster is Free Port if you can cope with the stability drop. My colony went from 330k to 488k with Free Port turned on: