Fractal Softworks Forum

Starsector => General Discussion => Topic started by: Blurple Berry on August 13, 2021, 09:35:55 AM

Title: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Blurple Berry on August 13, 2021, 09:35:55 AM
i dont see the point in maintaining good relations to factions above favorable status
there seems to be no meaningful impact in the game

tarifs are the same
fast picket controls for blackmarket trade are the same
access to wares is unchainged
factions still send hostile expeditions
pather cells are the same
pirate raids are the same
hegemony controls are the same

am i wrong about this or missing something?
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: SCC on August 13, 2021, 09:42:52 AM
You get better stuff in the military market, if you have a commission.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Sharp on August 13, 2021, 09:47:09 AM
I don't think pirates raid if you are high faction rep with them, at least not in Nexerelin.

Unsure about Pathers, they definitely do while neutral-ish rep, working my way up to getting them friendly, but again also in Nexerelin.

I don't think the mod changes what pirates or pathers do to player faction with high rep but can't be 100% sure.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Blurple Berry on August 13, 2021, 10:18:03 AM
You get better stuff in the military market, if you have a commission.

yeah you are right ofc, but i am talking about friendly and cooperative level relations and not commissions

which seem to be entirely pointless
it makes no real difference if you have 10 points or 100 points level relations

the only thing is that you can pay 25 relation points to avert an expedition
which is also kinda pointless because i only pay 5 points when i simply destroy them
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Megas on August 13, 2021, 10:32:08 AM
More relations is just a bigger cushion to how long player can ignore expeditions or how many times he can stealth raid them for goodies before he needs to grind more rep back up.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Blurple Berry on August 13, 2021, 10:50:25 AM
More relations is just a bigger cushion to how long player can ignore expeditions or how many times he can stealth raid them for goodies before he needs to grind more rep back up.

yeah that seems to be the only practical difference

given the implication of a "cooperative relationship" or even just the flavortext in the game itself, that is rather disappointing

unless there is more subtle changes i am not aware of
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Thaago on August 13, 2021, 10:58:59 AM
It used to decrease the frequency of random inspections (which are no longer a thing) and made it less likely to get harassed after buying from the black market/running up suspicion there. I don't know if those things are still true.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Blurple Berry on August 13, 2021, 11:59:44 AM
It used to decrease the frequency of random inspections (which are no longer a thing) and made it less likely to get harassed after buying from the black market/running up suspicion there. I don't know if those things are still true.

maybe i got unlucky but ive been controlled for minimal blackmarket activity 3 times even tho i am friendly with the hegemony
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Igncom1 on August 13, 2021, 12:21:31 PM
I use relations as a currency to be spent on piracy.

Raid the hell out of hegemony freight routes and then sell it all back when they have horrific supply problems.

Through the black market if possible.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: JAL28 on August 13, 2021, 07:12:20 PM
You get to buy better things in military markets, most importantly at cooperative you get access to buying capitals from them(a rarity otherwise, because you need to either luck out on RNG to find a derelict one or a blueprint for one to use in Heavy industry)
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Blurple Berry on August 13, 2021, 08:05:27 PM
You get to buy better things in military markets, most importantly at cooperative you get access to buying capitals from them(a rarity otherwise, because you need to either luck out on RNG to find a derelict one or a blueprint for one to use in Heavy industry)

again, commissions are a fair point but i mean relation on its own
lets say you are a "trader" and wanna be "friends" with everybody

i dont mind occasional hostilities, sabotage, betrayal or whatever but imo there should be some benefit to high relations outside of ranking up your "commission level" - since you can do that only with one faction and are basically a slave to whatever politics they have going on
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: SonnaBanana on August 13, 2021, 08:38:53 PM
Relationships system is a placeholder, you can bet that Alex will expand on it.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: SCC on August 14, 2021, 05:55:46 AM
Or so we hope.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Megas on August 14, 2021, 07:04:26 AM
Military market beyond +10 relations are pointless without commission (everything good locked behind commission), and player can only get one at a time...
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: FenMuir on August 14, 2021, 12:20:22 PM
High faction rep grants the following:

That is pretty much it in no particular order. Enjoy. In later patches, when the Orders, Command tab becomes operational, you will likely  be able to do special things with factions with which you have high faction rep.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Blurple Berry on August 14, 2021, 12:36:23 PM
High faction rep grants the following:
  • You are stopped for black market trading less frequently IMO.
  • Assuming you use a story point per raid, you will be able to raid high rep factions more frequently before they become hostile to you.
  • Assuming transponder off and keep it off when stopped by faction fleets, you can attack and kill these fleets more often before owning factions become hostile.
  • You will be offered a commission.
  • If commissioned, you can buy military ships.
  • You can "pay off" inspections or raids with faction rep.

That is pretty much it in no particular order. Enjoy. In later patches, when the Orders, Command tab becomes operational, you will likely  be able to do special things with factions with which you have high faction rep.

you pretty much ignored every single post in this thread and the context of this topic as a whole
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: FenMuir on August 14, 2021, 01:31:46 PM
High faction rep grants the following:
  • You are stopped for black market trading less frequently IMO.
  • Assuming you use a story point per raid, you will be able to raid high rep factions more frequently before they become hostile to you.
  • Assuming transponder off and keep it off when stopped by faction fleets, you can attack and kill these fleets more often before owning factions become hostile.
  • You will be offered a commission.
  • If commissioned, you can buy military ships.
  • You can "pay off" inspections or raids with faction rep.

That is pretty much it in no particular order. Enjoy. In later patches, when the Orders, Command tab becomes operational, you will likely  be able to do special things with factions with which you have high faction rep.

you pretty much ignored every single post in this thread and the context of this topic as a whole
/Cheer
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Locklave on August 17, 2021, 01:40:57 PM
I'd like to see faction rep, in and of only itself, provide something of substance.

Off the top of my head it could increase the amount of material/supplies/products you have access to on the market, not more types but literally more units. The planet doesn't only have 600 supplies and 1000 fuel, that's clearly only what the market is allowing you to access. Just increase those numbers via rep and high rep is a thing worth having.

Wouldn't be broken or unbalanced either. Rep needs to do more.

Also I can confirm (100% vanilla) if pirate rep is high enough they won't raid your system unless you are sharing it with someone they hate. I think friendly is required. I can't remember the exact point it stopped happening. They also start trading with you at that point which is nice. Maybe pirates are the only exception to the rep issue.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: SCC on August 17, 2021, 01:44:01 PM
I hope that reputation does more in the future and that it becomes more exclusionary, so you can't be friends with everyone just by existing.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Megas on August 17, 2021, 01:57:43 PM
The major factions are too dumb to live after a certain point.

Quote
I hope that reputation does more in the future and that it becomes more exclusionary, so you can't be friends with everyone just by existing.
Un-commissioned player is like an Independent.  Indies are friendly to all except the two outlaw factions.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: intrinsic_parity on August 17, 2021, 02:05:48 PM
I hope that reputation does more in the future and that it becomes more exclusionary, so you can't be friends with everyone just by existing.
I think in general, the stakes associated with rep are just too low. You don't really gain a lot by having high rep, you don't really lose much by having low rep. Going from low to high or high to low rep is not hard etc. You can wash away the slaughter of an entire planet by doing cargo runs... It just feels very superficial, all of the politics, betrayal, drama, atrocities etc feel irrelevant when you can trivially undo all the consequences. I think that's a consequence of the entire 'reputation as currency' system.

Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Naeris on August 19, 2021, 05:29:54 PM
although rep is easy to repair with like 1 system bounty having low rep has lots of negative effects as your colonies suffer a accessibility penalty when you have bad relations with other factions. also not being able to trade can be detrimental if you run out of supplies or fuel
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Locklave on August 20, 2021, 02:10:11 AM
Honestly ya, pirate system bounties can get you from 0 to max in no time if they are in a big raid. The rep system is so fast and totally without meaning.

Getting rep to 100 should mean that even if you aren't a commission that they see you as an ally and asset. They shouldn't even have expeditions against you, but at the same time reaching 100 should be extremely hard and require focused efforts that *** off other factions. I don't want commissions doing this. A commission isn't an earned thing and instantly gives this to you with the meager 10 rep required to sign up for it and unless you are totally out of control it's nearly impossible to lose your commission.

I honestly believe Alex needs to work up at very least a half assed diplomacy system so rep has long term meaning and is something the player has to think about. It doesn't need to be a deep system, this isn't that type of game, it just needs to do the basics. We are at barely existent tier diplomacy, we need to be at half assed tier. But as I'm saying that would be good enough.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: JAL28 on August 20, 2021, 05:01:54 AM
By "half-assed" do you mean Nexerelin level or?
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Megas on August 20, 2021, 05:03:04 AM
Honestly ya, pirate system bounties can get you from 0 to max in no time if they are in a big raid. The rep system is so fast and totally without meaning.
At least it makes Indies going hostile from a sat bomb aimed at a non-Indie planet more tolerable, since a good sweep of a system bounty fixes the dumb insta-hostile, even if it is a grind.

Indies should not get mad over a sat bomb unless it is aimed at them.  Currently, it makes them look like monolithic puppets who are too dumb to stay out of a conflict between major powers.  (Once Indies get mad over a sat bomb, I consider them to have sided with my enemy, and they get targeted for destruction too - stay out of my way!)
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Locklave on August 20, 2021, 01:21:07 PM
Honestly ya, pirate system bounties can get you from 0 to max in no time if they are in a big raid. The rep system is so fast and totally without meaning.
At least it makes Indies going hostile from a sat bomb aimed at a non-Indie planet more tolerable, since a good sweep of a system bounty fixes the dumb insta-hostile, even if it is a grind.

Indies should not get mad over a sat bomb unless it is aimed at them.  Currently, it makes them look like monolithic puppets who are too dumb to stay out of a conflict between major powers.  (Once Indies get mad over a sat bomb, I consider them to have sided with my enemy, and they get targeted for destruction too - stay out of my way!)

Well I completely agree with that. If they did care and get involved they'd have been wiped out long ago.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: KDR_11k on August 21, 2021, 03:45:22 PM
Honestly ya, pirate system bounties can get you from 0 to max in no time if they are in a big raid. The rep system is so fast and totally without meaning.
At least it makes Indies going hostile from a sat bomb aimed at a non-Indie planet more tolerable, since a good sweep of a system bounty fixes the dumb insta-hostile, even if it is a grind.

Indies should not get mad over a sat bomb unless it is aimed at them.  Currently, it makes them look like monolithic puppets who are too dumb to stay out of a conflict between major powers.  (Once Indies get mad over a sat bomb, I consider them to have sided with my enemy, and they get targeted for destruction too - stay out of my way!)

The idea is that sat bombing makes you worse than Hitler and everybody wants you dead. Feels a bit silly to me since a few raids will flatten a colony with a little delay and no universal hate but then again sat bombing is pretty cheap.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Locklave on August 23, 2021, 02:28:29 AM
Honestly ya, pirate system bounties can get you from 0 to max in no time if they are in a big raid. The rep system is so fast and totally without meaning.
At least it makes Indies going hostile from a sat bomb aimed at a non-Indie planet more tolerable, since a good sweep of a system bounty fixes the dumb insta-hostile, even if it is a grind.

Indies should not get mad over a sat bomb unless it is aimed at them.  Currently, it makes them look like monolithic puppets who are too dumb to stay out of a conflict between major powers.  (Once Indies get mad over a sat bomb, I consider them to have sided with my enemy, and they get targeted for destruction too - stay out of my way!)
The idea is that sat bombing makes you worse than Hitler and everybody wants you dead. Feels a bit silly to me since a few raids will flatten a colony with a little delay and no universal hate but then again sat bombing is pretty cheap.
The major powers do Sat bombings. Set up in a system without permission and sat bombing incoming. Seems clear they've all engaged in it in the past. As that is the standard then the Neutral factions would stay out of such things for survival reasons or they'd have been at war with the major factions long ago making their survival up till now impossible.

It just makes only the player worse then Hilter, but they are chill with the major factions doing it.

If it's just in place to punish the player for using it then it's a bad design choice. Like executions in Bannerlord, an option that you have if you want to destroy your save file and be at war with everyone. In such case why even allow Sat bombings? If it needs a greater penalty then it needs a more realistic one for the game world.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Megas on August 23, 2021, 05:36:45 AM
As Locklave said, and not just the major factions, but also the Indies and pirates.  In other words, only the player is penalized for sat bombing a planet, and stinks of the "Gang Up on the Human" trope.

Also, if major factions that are supposed to be friendly or cooperative send gigantic war fleets over and over and over again in so-called expeditions, eventually, the player who gets sick of it may just scream "ENOUGH!" and crush the attackers at the source.  Unfortunately, the only way to do so is to destroy their planets, which means either sat bombs or decivilization from prolonged zero stability.

There comes a point when the factions should stop treating the player like an insignificant upstart and more like a superpower stronger than all of the core worlds combined, especially after the player wipes a couple major factions off the map for their insolence.

That said, I have no problem with other major factions getting mad over a sat bomb.  They are big enough to take sides or act on their own.  It is the Indies I have a problem with because they look like a small neutral faction who are not big or strong enough to be major players.  If Indies get mad just because I sat bomb a major faction that would not stop their unprovoked attacks, the message I get is the Indies are a puppet state that joined with their masters from the major faction, and they become a valid target to eliminate too because they got in the way and/or providing aid to the enemy.

P.S.  They all get mad if I sat bomb a pirate planet or space station in the core worlds, but they are A-okay with player destroying a pop-up space station in the fringe.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Dread Lord Murubarda on August 24, 2021, 04:09:48 AM
here's two ideas:

1. reach 100 rep with hegemony, lc, tt and league and you can request to become a main faction, thus being allowed to sat bomb planets w/o any penalty.

2. use rep to get some ships, 100 rep for a capital, 70 for a cruiser, 45 destroyer and 20 for frigates. the rep that you spend is gone. ships are full equipped, but low tier weapons always. ships are also random according to the corresponding faction's doctrine.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: JAL28 on August 27, 2021, 10:46:50 PM
Having to spend 100 rep for a capital seems ridiculously overpriced especially considering you can buy a non-XIV onslaught non-high tech capital for 500k, which is the profit one would make from a few runs of drug/heavy armaments smuggling(a LOT less grindy than rep grinding for non-commissions)
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Ribencortez on August 28, 2021, 03:00:50 AM
Major Faction status could be annexed to the number of high size colony you own like 4 size 5 or 3 size 6 or whatever combination is suitable compare to the existing ones
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Locklave on August 28, 2021, 04:41:28 AM
Being completely honest, trying to turn rep into a bitcoin currency like people are suggesting isn't a reasonable direction the dev will take.

Damaging your rep by calling in favors, things like letting an inspection slide is one thing, but it shouldn't be a points buy system. It's reputation and should do things related to that. No amount of "I like you" is gonna get you a free capital ship or allow a bombing.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Megas on August 28, 2021, 06:53:46 AM
Reputation is sort of used as currency when player spends 25 reputation to avert an expedition.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: JAL28 on August 28, 2021, 06:58:06 AM
Being completely honest, trying to turn rep into a bitcoin currency like people are suggesting isn't a reasonable direction the dev will take.

Damaging your rep by calling in favors, things like letting an inspection slide is one thing, but it shouldn't be a points buy system. It's reputation and should do things related to that. No amount of "I like you" is gonna get you a free capital ship or allow a bombing.

I mean, then again, contacts who “like you” can give you capitals for almost free, a bargain price really, just because they like you
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Jo Jo on August 28, 2021, 08:36:33 AM
High faction rep grants the following:
  • You are stopped for black market trading less frequently IMO.
  • Assuming you use a story point per raid, you will be able to raid high rep factions more frequently before they become hostile to you.
  • Assuming transponder off and keep it off when stopped by faction fleets, you can attack and kill these fleets more often before owning factions become hostile.
  • You will be offered a commission.
  • If commissioned, you can buy military ships.
  • You can "pay off" inspections or raids with faction rep.

That is pretty much it in no particular order. Enjoy. In later patches, when the Orders, Command tab becomes operational, you will likely  be able to do special things with factions with which you have high faction rep.

you pretty much ignored every single post in this thread and the context of this topic as a whole

I found all that info helpful.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Locklave on August 29, 2021, 04:18:13 AM
High faction rep grants the following:
  • You are stopped for black market trading less frequently IMO.
  • Assuming you use a story point per raid, you will be able to raid high rep factions more frequently before they become hostile to you.
  • Assuming transponder off and keep it off when stopped by faction fleets, you can attack and kill these fleets more often before owning factions become hostile.
  • You will be offered a commission.
  • If commissioned, you can buy military ships.
  • You can "pay off" inspections or raids with faction rep.

That is pretty much it in no particular order. Enjoy. In later patches, when the Orders, Command tab becomes operational, you will likely  be able to do special things with factions with which you have high faction rep.

you pretty much ignored every single post in this thread and the context of this topic as a whole

I found all that info helpful.

It was off topic because it completely ignored the context of the thread replying to only the title. Someone could post a helpful instructions to watering their plants, doesn't mean it should be in this thread.

Those advantages were already outlined before that post and those advantages are lacking, that's the point.
Title: Re: Highly positive relationships seem to be meaningless
Post by: Jo Jo on September 02, 2021, 07:49:32 PM
High faction rep grants the following:
  • You are stopped for black market trading less frequently IMO.
  • Assuming you use a story point per raid, you will be able to raid high rep factions more frequently before they become hostile to you.
  • Assuming transponder off and keep it off when stopped by faction fleets, you can attack and kill these fleets more often before owning factions become hostile.
  • You will be offered a commission.
  • If commissioned, you can buy military ships.
  • You can "pay off" inspections or raids with faction rep.

That is pretty much it in no particular order. Enjoy. In later patches, when the Orders, Command tab becomes operational, you will likely  be able to do special things with factions with which you have high faction rep.

you pretty much ignored every single post in this thread and the context of this topic as a whole

I found all that info helpful.

It was off topic because it completely ignored the context of the thread replying to only the title. Someone could post a helpful instructions to watering their plants, doesn't mean it should be in this thread.

Those advantages were already outlined before that post and those advantages are lacking, that's the point.

I hear you and I understand more after playing a little bit. I agree that it sure would be nice to see more benefits to a higher faction rep and maybe some drawbacks to a negative rep. So far from what I've experienced there doesn't appear to be much of a downside to having a -100 rep with the pirates. I would think they wouldn't trade with someone like me and that they'd issue a "kill on sight" order until my status came up. Could be a nice addition to the game (positive and negate).