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General Discussion / Re: latest versions made game worse
« on: October 02, 2015, 10:56:50 AM »
Having more time to read and contemplate the OP, here goes:
Factions
So far, whether Alex likes it or not, factions are defined by the ships they use. I agree that factions are too similar to each other, and it is glaringly obvious if I play Nexerelin and add a mod faction or two such as Blackrock. Before 0.65, Hegemony and Pirates were low-tech, Tri-Tachyon was high-tech, and the rest were midline. Now, all standard factions share most ships. Tri-Tachyon use almost as much midline as high-tech, and they even use the low-tech Lasher. Independents use everything. Pirates use (D) ships and a few others. The remaining factions share the same ships, which is a mix of low-tech and midline, plus the high-tech Wolf.
Reputation
So far, the problem is optimal play requires that you have unlimited access to all markets and merchandise. For that, you need cooperative relations with all factions except Independents and Pirates. Independents, due to lack of military market, only require minimum relations of Suspicious. Pirates will trade as long as relations are not Vengeful. The only way to get high relations with everyone who matters is to fight Pirates only. Furthermore, you cannot pursue survivors when relations are below -70 because the -5 from pursuit will send relations to Vengeful, and that means permaban from that faction's market, and you have ruined, I repeat, RUINED your character. Also, Valhalla is a trap. Big system with puny markets, and doing anything useful there (except killing named Pirate bounties) will hurt your reputation with one of the factions.
Quest for supplies
The problem with this so far, combined with AI fleeing from large fleets, is it pushes the player into using small and elite fleets (and soloing battles with chain-flagships) for much of the game, if he wants to play optimally. Combat will yield enough drops if you can solo fleets with a few frigates. This is most easily achieved with an aggressive Combat and Technology focus.
Boarding is awful because it is too random and your best chance of success for boarding is under 50%. Chance is low enough that even with save scumming, it is possible to have more than ten failures in a row before you succeed. Such a worst-case scenario of fight-board-fail-reload will take more than hour. So far, boarding is only useful for acquiring rare ships at the endgame.
Toll trolls are obnoxious. For now, the most painless way to deal with them late in the game is to let them start a scan, then run away and take the -3 rep.
Factions
So far, whether Alex likes it or not, factions are defined by the ships they use. I agree that factions are too similar to each other, and it is glaringly obvious if I play Nexerelin and add a mod faction or two such as Blackrock. Before 0.65, Hegemony and Pirates were low-tech, Tri-Tachyon was high-tech, and the rest were midline. Now, all standard factions share most ships. Tri-Tachyon use almost as much midline as high-tech, and they even use the low-tech Lasher. Independents use everything. Pirates use (D) ships and a few others. The remaining factions share the same ships, which is a mix of low-tech and midline, plus the high-tech Wolf.
Reputation
So far, the problem is optimal play requires that you have unlimited access to all markets and merchandise. For that, you need cooperative relations with all factions except Independents and Pirates. Independents, due to lack of military market, only require minimum relations of Suspicious. Pirates will trade as long as relations are not Vengeful. The only way to get high relations with everyone who matters is to fight Pirates only. Furthermore, you cannot pursue survivors when relations are below -70 because the -5 from pursuit will send relations to Vengeful, and that means permaban from that faction's market, and you have ruined, I repeat, RUINED your character. Also, Valhalla is a trap. Big system with puny markets, and doing anything useful there (except killing named Pirate bounties) will hurt your reputation with one of the factions.
Quest for supplies
The problem with this so far, combined with AI fleeing from large fleets, is it pushes the player into using small and elite fleets (and soloing battles with chain-flagships) for much of the game, if he wants to play optimally. Combat will yield enough drops if you can solo fleets with a few frigates. This is most easily achieved with an aggressive Combat and Technology focus.
Boarding is awful because it is too random and your best chance of success for boarding is under 50%. Chance is low enough that even with save scumming, it is possible to have more than ten failures in a row before you succeed. Such a worst-case scenario of fight-board-fail-reload will take more than hour. So far, boarding is only useful for acquiring rare ships at the endgame.
Toll trolls are obnoxious. For now, the most painless way to deal with them late in the game is to let them start a scan, then run away and take the -3 rep.