4
« on: February 09, 2024, 02:55:25 AM »
To start off with I've only seen the Persean League blockade so far, everything else I stopped by either meeting the requirements for ending hostilities, or genocide. I've only done one playthrough so far, and I will add to this thread later on after I've seen everything.
I'll go over each of the factions Hostile activity separately as they are very different, with some being better than others.
Tri-Tachyon. Easily my favorite HA faction.
Good points:
*They capitulate when you beat the hell out of them, which is what I expect from the factions. The completely suicidal nature of the League, Diktat, and Church is just strange and out of place.
*You can capitulate them without becoming hostile, and it is very easy to do. I went from +100 to +75 faction points over the course of the entire HA issue.
*Their random raiding fleets are interesting and challenging as they are all elite.
*They assassination fleet while difficult is again at least interesting.
*They give a good reward on beating them, assuming you have a high importance contact with them.
Bad points:
*They capitulate too easily. It took me four raids total of Port Tse Franchise Station and Skathi, along with a tiny amount of cargo raiding and mercenary killing to capitulate them. Upping the points required to get them to stop would be enough to fix this issue.
*Their random merc fleets and assassination fleet are too strong for normal difficulty. It would be fine as is for a hard difficulty.
*Their random merc fleets are not listed as hostile so system defense fleets will not engage them.
*You can't reasonably capitulate to them as the player only has control of their market share in roundabout ways and can't manually set export limits. This is also an issue with the Diktat.
*You can't ask them to stop, I assume maybe you can through a contact but I didn't have one with TT until half the sector was dead.
*Getting the accessibility bonus from them is extremely difficult as it requires a high importance contact. Which is very difficult to get unless you complete the main story. I didn't, and I had "beaten" the PL, SD, and LC by the time I finally managed to get one.
Persean League, my second favorite.
Good points:
*Big old event swarm with tough fleets. I got 16 very strong fleets for my blockade, that was an enjoyable challenging. I killed six on the way, one I think (it may have been an enforcer) outside my system, one in system, and two on my plasma cannon high tech star fortress. The last two was the admiral leading the blockade and one detachment. They left after I killed those two fleets. I'm still unsure if the damage me, and a random pirate swarm did was enough to drive them back, or if defeating the admiral drives them back.
*They capitulate if Kazeron is saturation bombed once.
Bad Points:
*Terrible rewards. Great the Heg and indi's like me more now, so what. I'm not joining the PL and I don't need their protection so "we will let you have AI cores and keep you safe for free" is worthless to me. The second reward requires the player to want to be part of the PL, but also fight the PL. So, it has no useful niche.
*Random enforcer fleets are annoying and definitely are trying to steal that one Alpha core I left in more inventory. They're also too big for normal difficulty. The PL also cries every time you kill one. Either have them take their losses like a man, or have them instantly declare hostile actions, this half and half is just annoying.
*It is extremely likely to be hostile by the end of the HA. Between killing enforcers that won't leave you alone, and defeating the blockade, you will be hostile unless you go out of your way to repair relations or avoid the enforcers. Repairing relations should never be the player's job, as it is the factions taking the aggressor role.
*The event is too big, and its fleets are too large for normal difficulty. 8 fleets with medium sized fleets having at max one capital would be fine for normal difficulty. Again, the current state is fine for a hard difficulty, if you leave it as is you will start seeing a large volume of complaints about the difficulty spike.
*They will not capitulate from harm done. TT's model of backing off from taking too much colony damage from the player should be standard for all factions.
*PL blockade and enforcer fleets do not retreat after being defeated. After I defeated the blockade there were still 2 detachments and 2 enforcers running around in my system causing trouble.
Luddic Church, meh
Good Points:
*The fleets they send are pathetic but fitting for normal difficulty. Typically, they are no more than one to two fleets every couple of months and contain no more than once capital (Retribution).
*You get the bonus at all times.
*Capitulating simple means returning to the status quo before this patch and can be done at any time.
Bad Points:
*Capitulating means fixing their mistake (I will never do this; they are my potato farmers now).
*They will not Capitulate. Genocide it is.
*Their HA increase is so low that it will take forever to have their event if the PL has been defeated.
*The only way to keep the bonus and resolve the conflict in a timely fashion if the PL has been defeated is to genocide Hesperus. Thankfully this only requires walking the path to get its story protections lifted.
Overall, a boring faction, with too few options to dealing with it.
Sindrian Diktat, why do want me to kill them?
Bad points:
*There are no good points.
*The player can't control their colony's market exports which means you can't stay low enough to not bother them and have enough fuel for your high command.
*First contact with hostile SD fleets involves them saying how they're going to sat bomb the player's colonies. The end result is predictable.
*The capitulation terms of "pay us 50% of your fuel income or else" is absurd especially when you have +100 faction rating with them.
Overall, they are the worst of the bunch, and will always get decivilized in everyone's playthrough purely out of spite.
Hegemony:
Good points:
*They leave you alone if you aren't doing anything grossly illegal or immoral.
Bad Points:
*The so-called successor to the domain of man does nothing when the PL tries to force the player to join the PL. They do nothing when the LC turn to piracy because their people are leaving them. They do nothing when TT also turns to piracy. They do nothing when the SD turns to genocide.
Some of this I can understand as it's not their problem. However, refusing to intervene when the PL is trying to shift the sectors balance of power, is entirely abnormal.
Pirates:
Good points:
*I gave Kanta a present for her birthday, it was a combat drone replicator, she was so happy she scared all the other pirates into leaving me alone.
Bad Points:
*The pirates are irrelevant now I guess, well besides the random station that pops up near my colonies.
Given how everyone is just clearly evil now, except the Hegemony and Pathers oddly enough. I think I'll just become a Pirate so the Pirate's leaving me alone is less weird. So basically, what I did when I played with Nex installed.
Overall recap for things I would like to see added.
*All factions can be capitulated like TT can.
*All factions can be capitulated without making them hostile. If I have to waste time rebuilding faction trust, I'm just going to raid them into de-civilization, it takes about the same amount of time and is more fun.
*Hard mode with current difficulty, I will exclusively play on hard mode.
*Normal mode is made easier.
Pardon poor spelling, it's late for me.
