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[Locklave]

After fairly extensive play in .95a with fleet and colonies the only conclusion I have reached is that the changes have made commission income a borderline requirement early to midgame till you reach the unlimited cash point. More so then in the last version as colonies allowed you to become money independent more quickly. I'd also argue that even early game is balanced around commissions but people don't notice because of the 3 years of free pay.

Playing as neutral or working to be allies with the pirates now is damn near impossible long term. Your fleet needs keep getting stronger and the scaling for missions sucks. The only way these missions are viable is if you are receiving commission welfare, which scales well and requires nothing.

I feel like this is why crew costs are so brutal, why massive supplies need to get used up and why 30% tariffs are in the game.

The economy and costs are built around having a commission making it a requirement and not truly optional. Yes it's still possible to play without it but we are talking sub optimal playstyles. I'm willing to bet that commissions are the largest sources of income we take in likely in the range of 10 times everything else.

Playing without a commission isn't hard mode, it's unrewarding mode. I feel like it's a massive playstyle limiter.

edit:

I'm level 15, let me sit in orbit of a safe world afk in a Shepherd till I have millions.

[WeiTuLo]

I got the stipend from the academy, and that was it. I guess I was born with a heart full of neutrality. Though things would be a lot different without the abandoned Asharu station for storage.

[Dex]

I only had the galaxy stipend, also, and even that is really not needed when you know what you're doing.

Indeed, that asharu station is most crucial. and central

Started with shepherd and wolf(maybe).

[Thaago]

I've only done one playthrough so take this with a grain of salt, but I took a hegemony stipend fairly early on and the money from it was enough that I never had to worry. I wasn't ignoring money, but neither did I do anything particularly carefully and it was a bunch more than my monthly supply/fuel usage from flying about.

[WeiTuLo]

The first time I played this game, I actually expected to have one ship total, and totally did not expect to have the tutorial hand me 4-6 ships that I could possibly salvage.

[Flet]

different playstyles can advance you faster than others.
ive been going around with a small fleet of destroyers just leveling up and gaining officers and focusing on system bounties.
This gives me more than enough money to keep doing this, but of course im not advancing much (apart from level i guess).
Meanwhile ive done smuggler games where im rolling in cash for capitals immediately.

Of course it doesnt feel right to do one style of play to support another, breaks the roleplay. If one wants to be a combat type the commissions are really a boon, and maybe that makes sense given the nature of commissions.
If you are wanting to be a trader then commissions could hurt you by causing relationship fluxuations at bad times.
Its free money if you just want to fly around exploring.

I think fuel and supply costs are too high in general though. It feels somewhat immersion breaking just how much you have to load up on it all and even augment it with salvaged fuel and supplies. The sheer ammount of fuel the entire sector would be going through if the AI actually had to account for it would make the entire economy collapse, it just isnt available and everything would grind to a halt.

[Locklave]

Planets should have vastly more supplies and fuel on hand. That's just a QoL issue, I don't understand why I need to visit multiple planets and empty every market on them to get enough fuel/supplies.

I used to do the pirate ally (no mods) smuggler playstyle before .95a, it doesn't work as well now. Getting a planet up and running is a massive money sink now. A commission pays for the hazard pay allows you to still make positive cash every month. Can't do that as a smuggler, you just need to pre bank enough to eat the losses till the upgrades are done which is painfully slow when you are losing cash constantly.

[Flunky]

Planets should have vastly more supplies and fuel on hand. That's just a QoL issue, I don't understand why I need to visit multiple planets and empty every market on them to get enough fuel/supplies.

Highly agree on this, it's weird that having a mid-sized fleet (no capital ships, even) requires emptying out both the regular & black markets of several worlds of supplies in order to go on a long expedition.

[Igncom1]

Honestly I've never had a big deal with getting supplies. You do have to check where they are being made in large quantities however, getting them as the sources for a better deal and large quantity is essential.

[Flying Birdy]

I feel like this is why crew costs are so brutal, why massive supplies need to get used up and why 30% tariffs are in the game.

The economy and costs are built around having a commission making it a requirement and not truly optional. Yes it's still possible to play without it but we are talking sub optimal playstyles. I'm willing to bet that commissions are the largest sources of income we take in likely in the range of 10 times everything else.

Ironically I've never felt commissions to be worth their cost in relations with other factions. Being hostile to a whole bunch of planets means that there are that many fewer markets with potential shortages to exploit. Honestly, I've still yet to find any style of play more profitable than smuggling drugs to planets with shortages. Sorry to say but I think optimal play is still drugs smuggling. Early game is just looking for those opportunities - late game I'm actively raiding planets' space ports to create shortages. Hostile relations due to being on commission just means less way to make money optimally through black market trading.

And why do you think you need the commission to make the late game bounties worthwhile? All in, the post-battle savage and the credits you get from battle are enough to break even on most battles; any bounty payouts are just usually pure profit. Granted some of the bounties are far too distant for it to be worthwhile given the fuel costs, but that's part of the game. Taking the time to think and plan ahead to do multiple missions in one trip pays dividends.

[prav]

I make more from my faction commission than I do from 3 colonies. And my commission didn't cost a couple of million cr to set up.

[Vind]

Officer payment is too high so comission is useful to offset this. If only officers gained payment related to their performance... No ships killed = no top payment, ship lost - they owe you instead.

[Thana]

Amusingly enough, I just decided that my next playthrough I'll try taking a commission, which may in fact be the first time I've ever done that. Certainly the first since I don't know, version 0.6 or something. So in terms of a commission being necessity... I'm going to have to disagree strenuously.

[Megas]

Commission would have sped up progress, but I did not really need it.  (I do not want the scarlet letter called Commissions branding my Intel forever.)

As for supplies, I bought marines and raided supplies and fuel (and sometimes, drugs) from the popup pirate bases and some core worlds frequently.  Raiding for commodities is very strong (read: profitable) this release, which is good during the times I cannot fight enemy fleets without losing too many ships.  Combat does not pay enough for the risk at times.

On the other hand, marine requirements has effectively blocked raiding for blueprints and rare items early in the game with minimal forces.

P.S.  What commission would be useful for is building up rep with your employer fast, which means you can stealth raid your employer's worlds for supplies, fuel, and drugs and not care about the rep hit because you will build it up back fast just by killing their enemies.

[Daynen]

Taking a commission means a monthly salary and more money for popping any hostile ships, but it also means free rep with the faction in question.  Pop a pirate? +rep.  Get hit by a strike force in war and come out on top? +rep.  To look at it one way, just having a commission with a faction is basically free reign over their black market since the -rep for black market trade is easily cancelled out by any combat you partake in.  If you know what colonies tend to make a surplus of what goods, you can commission with that faction and black market the hell out of them without ever worrying about your rep because you're probably going to get it back the first time a pirate crosses your path.

It's true, a commission at the start makes the early game MUCH more comfortable financially while giving you plenty of enemies to fight and cutting you off from parts of the core for the duration of wars, but it seems like a fair trade to me, especially if you like to actively partake in the hostilities yourself.