Can we at least *try* to reward good behavior?

[Grambo]

As far as a I can tell, there are actually NO circumstances in the game where making a moral or "good" choice is rewarded. In fact, there are usually negative consequences and significant costs for making those choices.

I would expect that choosing to honor all contracts, save civilians and innocents, rescue endangered allies, and intervening on the behalf of famous/powerful allies would actually mean something. It doesn't. Ever.

There are literally hundreds of ways you could manifest rewards for good behavior...

- Former allies that you rescued from a tough spot show up unexpectedly to assist on a mission
- Occasional influxes of tech or cash could come from folks you've helped in the past
- Special missions might be reserved for taking specific paths on previous flashpoints
- Special pricing in specific systems for saving civilians or innocents there

... you get the idea. Please... PLEASE... I realize the BT universe is a tough place, but you guys have made it so dark that the Warhammer 40k universe looks like unicorns prance around rainbows all day there.

 

[Jade_Rook]

There is a Kuritan mission where you are told to destroy a town where an enemy agent is hiding. You have the option to instead capture the town at the risk of the agent slipping away before infantry can round them up. If you choose to destroy the town, the final mission in the flashpoint has an extra enemy lance that comes after you because you chose to murder a bunch of civilians (I assume the extra lance isn't there normally. I obeyed orders.)

There is a Capellan flashpoint were you are told to wipe out a group of traitors. Doing so will cause some negative random events to show up later. If you instead decide to help the unarmed civilians, you get more positive events.

In another flashpoint you are supported by an allied lance. Afterwards you have the choice to take another mission to help the allied lance get out. If you do so, I think they will assist you later on or at least there is a tag that can be used in later events and flashpoints.

The rewards may not be as obvious, but they are there. The devs are definitely setting flashpoints up so that your decisions will impact future events.

 

[Grambo]

There is a Kuritan mission where you are told to destroy a town where an enemy agent is hiding. You have the option to instead capture the town at the risk of the agent slipping away before infantry can round them up. If you choose to destroy the town, the final mission in the flashpoint has an extra enemy lance that comes after you because you chose to murder a bunch of civilians (I assume the extra lance isn't there normally. I obeyed orders.)

There is a Capellan flashpoint were you are told to wipe out a group of traitors. Doing so will cause some negative random events to show up later. If you instead decide to help the unarmed civilians, you get more positive events.

In another flashpoint you are supported by an allied lance. Afterwards you have the choice to take another mission to help the allied lance get out. If you do so, I think they will assist you later on or at least there is a tag that can be used in later events and flashpoints.

The rewards may not be as obvious, but they are there. The devs are definitely setting flashpoints up so that your decisions will impact future events.

Not entirely accurate. The examples you give are all highly variable. I have done every one of those, multiple times, and have never *once* seen the "support" you mention. I believe you when you say it is possible it may be used in later events/flashpoints... but it has never once happened for me... in numerous full playthroughs.

While you're right in that there are sometimes negative impacts for bad behavior, I have not seen a single positive for "good" behavior.

 

[Jade_Rook]

You have a point. Removing or avoiding a negative consequence isn't the same as gaining any additional positive benefit. I suppose my perspective included the negative as the default because those were the paths I picked last time I did those missions.

I think the devs plan on including more flashpoint consequences, but I don't know of any specifics.

 

[Simon1812]

I do agree that pissing off a faction in particular should result in one's lance becoming a target of assassins or bounty hunters (or even the person you pissed off) every "now and then", maybe even crashing a mission in progress just to exact revenge on you.

 

[Jolly Joker]

In my opinion, consequences of your action should be completely unpredictable and more or less random. A good deed is reward in itself, they say, and so it should be. Being morally good and expecting rewards is just calculating, so unpredictability is good.

 

[mjbroekman]

If I understand correctly, you're looking for some sort of game effect from 'doing the right thing'. All the factions in the game have a Reputation stat in the Company. In theory, 'doing the right thing' (like aiding other merc units, etc) could influence those hidden reputations and then events could trigger on them. For example, in the Unwelcome Guests flashpoint, you have a choice between going after a Steiner kill team (for no pay, but good salvage) to protect Gwydion Company or taking a Steiner contract and leaving Gwydion Company out to dry. In theory, going after the Steiner kill team should change your reputation with Gwydion Company, but they weren't set up as a faction (unlike, say, the Kell Hounds).

Is it done this way, currently? No.
Could it be done? Yes. And without really changing anything from a mechanics perspective. Some of the Flashpoint rewards might need to be tweaked, but that's about it. Then you would start to be able to craft events around those non-House reputations. If you wanted to get fancy (like having those other units show up as allies in a contract at the cost of some reputation with them), that would take some mechanics work, but a basic event where they get in touch with you and offer a temporary boost to tech/medical or cbills would be doable pretty quickly.

That being said, a lot of the "bad" behavior is written off as "just business". Abandoning Gwydion company? Yeah. That's just business. You took the money and it's unfortunate that they died, but goodwill doesn't pay the repair bills. It's like that in most of those situations. But the framework is all there for it to be implemented if HBS or modders want to.

 

[wolfhoundtoo]

Doing good is it's own reward. If it requires a reward it was the profitable thing. Which mostly describes how it works in real life. Of course this is a game but working in the grey area seems to be our niche market in this game.

 

[Simon1812]

we are mercenaries , we do good....for a price...and for the person who hired our services...that's as "good" as it gets in this business.

 

[Donvale]

It bugs me significantly that the most beneficial thing you can do in the entire game is to do contracts for the pirates against the local government, there are literally no negatives and massive positives for what is the kind of behaviour that would make you pretty much hated anywhere within communication range of the act, certainly in reality the current system and any allied / neighbouring systems would not be employing you any time soon!

 

[Jolly Joker]

It's the most PROFITABLE thing, because there is no reputation loss. That's why you won't work for LGs anyway. Which is somethng I suggested to change already (by increasing the profit when working for LGs).

 

[Confector Tyrannis]

I do agree that pissing off a faction in particular should result in one's lance becoming a target of assassins or bounty hunters (or even the person you pissed off) every "now and then", maybe even crashing a mission in progress just to exact revenge on you.

Ooooh, Imagine if that randomly meant a lance of hunters pod drops in and ambushes you on a completely different mission. A random event that can drastically change a deployment...

This is kinda cool.

In the reverse you could have a random lance drop in to help because *insert ye random good deed here* so the people of *see previous* financed a merc group to come help you out because they got wind this (suddenly harder than expected contract) was a trap etc etc..

Introduction of the 3 way mechanic as a random event based on reputations and actions taken sounds intriguing.