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[Mordodrukow]

Comission is too much profit for too little effort. You may fight vs other peaceful factions, because your faction declared war? Who cares? You dont get any direct orders, you may go explore the border of the map and still get extra money. Lol, faction war, in fact, is positive side, not drawback, because you get legit reason to raid their colonies.

Also, it is too easy to get a capital ship, having comission, but pretty hard to get one without it.

What i suggest:
- system of direct orders. Sometimes they give you special order, and you must obey, because they count on your forces, and if you will not, it will be a huge hit for their strategic position. So, you will have to pay compensation for the losses. And will be kicked off if you dont. Also big rep penalty with that faction and low penalty with others (because they see that you are not reliable man).
- if you complete several special tasks, they will give you an opportunity to buy capital ship (maybe at big discount).

I mean: the description of some capitals says that it is a masterpiece, and it is pretty expensive. Why would they give em like candies for everybody?

[robepriority]

Given the popularity of mods such as commissioned crews and the insistence on using AI cores for colonies despite bringing down inspections, I think there should be an increased incentive for commission taking, not decreased.

[intrinsic_parity]

I think there should be an increased incentive for commission taking, not decreased.

I think people want more significance to commissions, not commissions to be stronger than they already are. They basically trivialize the early game and can be resigned at any time with very little penalty.

I also don't really see how AI cores have anything to do with commissions. If anything, peoples willingness to go to war with the hegemony for money from AI core buffs is evidence that relationship penalties are not significant enough, but I think it's really just people wanting to use the shiny AI cores they find and dealing with the consequences.

[AcaMetis]

I think there should be an increased incentive for commission taking, not decreased.

I think people want more significance to commissions, not commissions to be stronger than they already are. They basically trivialize the early game and can be resigned at any time with very little penalty.

I also don't really see how AI cores have anything to do with commissions. If anything, peoples willingness to go to war with the hegemony for money from AI core buffs is evidence that relationship penalties are not significant enough, but I think it's really just people wanting to use the shiny AI cores they find and dealing with the consequences.

It'd be mighty boring if the best use for AI cores was just throwing them at Tri-Tachyon for a quick buck...

[Mordodrukow]

I dont care about gamma cores. I can get enough reputation by 1-2 system bounty periods. All i want to say: comission gives just too much for literally nothing. I want a job like that, really. Here in Russia only politicians can afford it.

And i want the gap between "you can go in a nearest store and buy a capital ship as easy as a bottle of milk" and "you have no comission, so go check every black market and every bar for capital ship you dont even want to have" to be a little bit smaller.

[FooF]

If I were to add anything to commissions, and I don't think I'd risk much more anyway, is simply "accountability." A commission is basically a Letter of the Marque: you aren't "us" but if you fight for us, we'll reward you. But if you're not fighting for us, why do we continue to reward you?

What I would add, then, is basically quotas. "Kill X number of enemies of [Commissioning Faction] within Y days or lose your commission." I guess you could also expand this to surveying planets for the explorers out there but generally speaking, Commissions are for hurting the enemies of the commissioning faction.

Where it would get interesting, I suppose, is if the "enemies" became specific. If you're commissioned by the Hegemony and they declare war against the Persean League, they would probably want you to go hunt down Persean League ships. So, in the event of hostilities, you have "mandatory" kill count of so many Persean League ships, perhaps dependent on your fleet size and then modified by faction rep (after all, if you're Cooperative with the Hegemony, your loyalty really isn't in question but if you're just starting out, you have to prove yourself). Likewise, commission rewards could be higher when fighting opponents of "open hostilities" so that the player is incentivized to fight other faction fleets.

I think this would funnel people into fighting and that's kind of the point of the game.

[AcaMetis]

If I were to add anything to commissions, and I don't think I'd risk much more anyway, is simply "accountability." A commission is basically a Letter of the Marque: you aren't "us" but if you fight for us, we'll reward you. But if you're not fighting for us, why do we continue to reward you?

What I would add, then, is basically quotas. "Kill X number of enemies of [Commissioning Faction] within Y days or lose your commission." I guess you could also expand this to surveying planets for the explorers out there but generally speaking, Commissions are for hurting the enemies of the commissioning faction.

Where it would get interesting, I suppose, is if the "enemies" became specific. If you're commissioned by the Hegemony and they declare war against the Persean League, they would probably want you to go hunt down Persean League ships. So, in the event of hostilities, you have "mandatory" kill count of so many Persean League ships, perhaps dependent on your fleet size and then modified by faction rep (after all, if you're Cooperative with the Hegemony, your loyalty really isn't in question but if you're just starting out, you have to prove yourself). Likewise, commission rewards could be higher when fighting opponents of "open hostilities" so that the player is incentivized to fight other faction fleets.

I think this would funnel people into fighting and that's kind of the point of the game.

Rather than bother players with literal kill quotas I think a better, easier change in that direction would be to nerf the base/per level payout and increase the permanent bounty payout. Kill enemy ships? Get more money. Don't kill enemy ships? Don't get extra money. If necessary add some modifiers to that permanent bounty payout, so you won't get as much from hunting down weak pirate fleets as you would actual enemy patrol fleets or the like.

[bobucles]

The simplest and most effective solution is to reduce the monthly pay and increase the bounty pay. Monthly pay doesn't really need to go beyond the standard costs of upkeep, and it probably should be less.

It may also be useful to provide additional ways to help your faction. For example if you find a ruins that's filled with 50000 ore, why not drop a marker and send the info to your faction representative? They're happy, they pay for a good job, and you're happy. It makes the extra loot talent a bit more lucrative instead of filling the void with trash.

[v4l0rus]

I like the commission system the way it is right now, it allows for a more relaxed gameplay. Of course I don't mean that there shouldn't be some spice added to it in the future, but having a steady monthly income to pay monthly salaries is stress-free. Personally I don't like being time pressed in singleplayer games, which is one of many reasons why I avoid most multiplayer games

[Mordodrukow]

I agree. But the game economics seems to be balanced around you having comission. I d like to see the game balanced around you not having a comission. And new comission system.

[Amoebka]

The simplest and most effective solution is to reduce the monthly pay and increase the bounty pay.

Definitely this. You don't work - you get paid pennies. You do something - you get money. This is how it should be.

It's also much superior to all the approaches that force players to fill some qoutas, because it feels a lot less punishing. Players should be able to decide what they want to do and when.

[Nori]

The simplest and most effective solution is to reduce the monthly pay and increase the bounty pay. Monthly pay doesn't really need to go beyond the standard costs of upkeep, and it probably should be less.

It may also be useful to provide additional ways to help your faction. For example if you find a ruins that's filled with 50000 ore, why not drop a marker and send the info to your faction representative? They're happy, they pay for a good job, and you're happy. It makes the extra loot talent a bit more lucrative instead of filling the void with trash.

Agreed, that would be a good option. The base bounty is pretty minor and isn't worth fighting if you don't want to.

[Hiruma Kai]

I was always under the impression the commission system was there to one, aid players having a difficult time, and two, add some roleplay.  It is an in game, with lore justification, difficulty switch for the campaign layer that can easily be turned on or off.  As far as I'm aware, it is intended to be too much profit for too little effort.

Currently, there's only two difficulty settings at the beginning of the game, but I suggest player skill covers a much wider range than that.  On some iron man runs, I've ended up in a fleet loss, and if I'm not at the rolling in credits colony stage, I'll go grab a commission to get back on my feet faster.  Switching the primary source of income from monthly deposits to primarily number of ships killed would not necessarily act as the same safety net.  If it was changed to go that route, I'd probably want to combine it with some more, finer grained difficulty settings.

[KDR_11k]

I'm not sure mandatory combat orders would work well, if it ends up sending you into a battle your current fleet has no chance at or orders you a long distance away that you may not be able to travel you'll end up screwed with no way to prevent that. Commissions will make your reputation with other factions decay since you only get 80% of the rep lost to the declaration of hostilities back at the end and will thus screw with colony profits.

Plus doesn't fighting increase the monthly pay? You'll need to do some fighting just to make more money from the commission than you spend on salaries, never mind supplies.

[AHandyDandyHotDog]

I really like the idea of commissions requiring the player to actively participate in the sector-wide stage, with you getting work from a contact in that faction that becomes increasingly harder if you choose to do outstanding work, where just doing the bare minimum causes decreases or stagnation of the mission difficulty. And if you choose not to do any missions or bounty hunting for them, they kick you out of the commission with maybe -15 reputation.