Fractal Softworks Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Pages: [1] 2

Author Topic: Buying Blueprints  (Read 5620 times)

AgentFransis

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 65
    • View Profile
Buying Blueprints
« on: October 03, 2019, 07:27:02 AM »

Right now it's a bit funny that if you're commissioned with someone it's easier to get blueprints for every other faction than your own, since you can go raid for them.

It would be nice if at least the faction blueprint packs (not the special ships or capitals) would be available at military markets for a commissioned player at 75+ rep. You'd still need to play the usual loterry for the capitals but at least you'd have guaranteed access to the basic blueprints, for a price. This would be helpful for players that are trying to run faction themed campaigns.

Obviously you can go explore the sector and it's likely you'll find them eventually but this can be a bit tedious, especially in a heavily modded game.
Logged

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12118
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2019, 07:40:53 AM »

Right now it's a bit funny that if you're commissioned with someone it's easier to get blueprints for every other faction than your own, since you can go raid for them.
Even better, stealth raid the faction you are commissioned with, since you regain rep quickly (and get paid) as you kill their enemies.

In a normal game, there are only two significant faction packs, Pirates and Pathers, who player cannot commission with.  (Church has color swaps of few common ships, and Hegemony has few modified small ships.)  The other packs are tech specific instead of faction specific.  Mods change things, of course.

Exploring is good to find the common packs and significantly reduce the pool of blueprints to steal from.  Once I am down to individual ones, time to steal them from factions.
Logged

AgentFransis

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 65
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #2 on: October 03, 2019, 07:56:26 AM »

Raiding my own faction would be dishonourable.

Ah, forgot about that. I mainly had mod factions in mind. Well, I suppose vanilla factions could offer packs for the tech level they mostly use. Or maybe specific ship and weapon blueprints instead.
Logged

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12118
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #3 on: October 03, 2019, 10:14:30 AM »

Raiding my own faction would be dishonourable.
Represented by -8 or so rep per stealth raid, which is easily fixed when player has commission to get more rep and money beyond the usual when killing the enemy.

That said, buying unknown blueprints from a military market would be nice for those who do not want to be a munchkin and game the system.
Logged

bobucles

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 532
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2019, 10:17:54 AM »

Maybe there should be a random quest for blueprints? For x days, a seller on a world sets up an auction to sell blueprints. Show up with money, or perhaps excessive force to get them.

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12118
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2019, 10:30:39 AM »

Maybe instead of buying blueprints, you can build what they know even if you do not know the blueprint yourself (plus what you know), if your reputation is cooperative.  For example, you do not know Paragon, but you are cooperative with Tri-Tachyon, and you have commission?  You can build Paragon.
Logged

bobucles

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 532
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #6 on: October 03, 2019, 10:35:58 AM »

Quote
but you are cooperative with Tri-Tachyon, and you have commission?  You can build Paragon.
That would be a very nice bonus for signing up with a faction. Buying from their stores is nice, but being able to hire their shipyards is even better.

Plantissue

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1231
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #7 on: October 03, 2019, 04:09:35 PM »

being able to buy unknown blueprints doesn't make any sense to me. Why would they be unknown? It's just a money sink in a game that doesn't really need one.
Logged

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12118
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #8 on: October 03, 2019, 04:41:20 PM »

If the shop could sell any blueprint it knows, it will probably sell individual ones, probably those found in tech packs, like Hammerhead or Harpoon racks.  In other words, if any blueprint the faction knows is fair game, it will probably sell a bunch of junky (and probably known) blueprints.

The OP wants to buy blueprints so he does not need to raid his sponsoring faction for them.  For example, he does not want to say, sign up to be Hegemony dog then turn around and raid a Hegemony planet for XIV blueprints because that is "dishonorable".
Logged

AgentFransis

  • Lieutenant
  • **
  • Posts: 65
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #9 on: October 04, 2019, 02:11:26 AM »

Hey, I don't want to raid Dassault-Mikoyan. Raiding the Hegamony is always honorable.
Logged

Plantissue

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 1231
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #10 on: October 04, 2019, 03:33:19 AM »

Blueprints are supposed to be rare and valuable. It doesn't make any sense for any blueprints to be unknown to the player before buying them. Nobody goes and buy jewels at a fixed price where the seller has them appraised and valued, but the buyer themselves does not know the appraisal value or even what jewel it is.

Logged

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12118
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #11 on: October 04, 2019, 07:27:23 AM »

What I meant by unknown/known is if player knows a given blueprint, they do not get offered for sale, and picks an unknown one to sell.  Similar to how raiding gives only unknown blueprints.  Best case, works like raiding and it only picks unknown blueprints to sell.  Worst case, works like tech-mining where if you know the blueprint, you get nothing.  Yes, selling blueprints does not make sense from a lore perspective.  Selling them would be an alternative way to get them instead of stealing them (from your sponsor).  However, the idea of ordering ships from a faction (with coop and commission) as if you were building them yourself, and possibly have delivery service from the sponsor faction, may be a better idea.

Hey, I don't want to raid Dassault-Mikoyan. Raiding the Hegamony is always honorable.
What if you were commissioned with Hegemony?  Would it be honorable to turn around and raid them for blueprints like a munchkin would, knowing that the -8 rep will be easily fixed by killing yet another pirate fleet or two?  The Hegemony was an example, because 1) you start game with positive rep with them and 2) the only way to get XIV blueprints is to raid for them.
Logged

Locklave

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 631
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #12 on: October 05, 2019, 10:51:08 AM »

This is a general issue with endgame and it's current lack of development. I assume this and the rest of endgame will be fleshed out in time.

I am however confused how you are at the point where raiding major factions is possible yet you lack BP (expection being the Unique Hegemony ones). But I'm not the type of person who insists on getting every recipe for completion sake.
Logged

Megas

  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 12118
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #13 on: October 05, 2019, 10:59:48 AM »

I am however confused how you are at the point where raiding major factions is possible yet you lack BP (expection being the Unique Hegemony ones). But I'm not the type of person who insists on getting every recipe for completion sake.
OP is the one who does not want to raid the faction he commissioned with for blueprints (for role-playing reasons).  He wants another way to get blueprints that does not involve robbing his sponsor (if he cannot get the blueprints from salvage).

I have no problem stealth raiding everyone for blueprints, although I want to salvage the packs first to greatly reduce the raids needed to catch-'em-all.

Getting all blueprints from salvaging or tech-mining is not guaranteed.  I have not found all blueprints after looting half of the sector in some (inmodded) games, and I needed to raid for the rest (which I have no problem with).
Logged

Recklessimpulse

  • Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 116
    • View Profile
Re: Buying Blueprints
« Reply #14 on: October 05, 2019, 12:13:11 PM »

Maybe there should be a random quest for blueprints? For x days, a seller on a world sets up an auction to sell blueprints. Show up with money, or perhaps excessive force to get them.

Oh I like this and a 25/50/75/100% chance to get ambushed by a small/medium/large/multiple fleets depending on whether you bought a frigate/destroyer/cruiser/capital ship. 
Logged
Pages: [1] 2