Career Mode Reputation

[JackFrost]

Capping mission difficulty by reputation is extremely limiting.

Without realizing it, in my first few missions I ran against the capellan confed, my reputation is at -25 at the moment. Because my rep is so low, I am capped to 1.5 skull missions only. The tooltip says "rating too low" but I don't think this is accurate, I think the real problem is the reputation since I'm at 2.5 stars in rating and can take 4 skull missions.

With each mission changing around 7 rep, it's extremely easy to lock yourself out of a faction very early on without realizing it. By capping mission difficulty, it makes it so increase rep requires grinding seriously boring missions, which kinda sucks.

 

[mork77]

Well, they did say that you would see more impact regarding your reputation. there you have it. Think twice who you fight for and who you fight against in career mode.

 

[JackFrost]

So having a -20 reputation locks the top mission difficulty to 1.5 skulls. It borders on impossible to find missions at this difficulty for most factions.

I spent about 100 days and millions of cbill flying around trying to find a single mission to fix my reputation. I don't think it's possible in my current map to recover from a -25 rep with this faction (cap confed). That -25 rep came mostly from taking the missions on the first planet I spawned on.

This isn't a positive, this is something that should be fixed. Taking a few half skull missions at the start shouldn't lock you out of a faction for the rest of career mode.

 

[jj284b]

there is a simple fix for these.... all you need to do is to increase number of missions per system from 5 to 10...

just go into SimGameConstants.json (use notepad++) and look for "MaxContractsPerSystem"... change value from 5 to 10..

it applies next time you arrive to a planet... (wont apply on current system)

 

[Jade_Rook]

I enjoy this aspect of it. It has made me reconsider whether I wanted to take every mission on a planet and I have passed up missions which targeted a faction that I didn't want to have mad at me. I consider it a significant improvement to the game.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

I enjoy this aspect of it. It has made me reconsider whether I wanted to take every mission on a planet and I have passed up missions which targeted a faction that I didn't want to have mad at me. I consider it a significant improvement to the game.

Yep, I too love the new reputation system. Makes my choices feel much more meaningful. Just spent ages building my rep with the Taurians, but then ended up going to a border world, & found all the missions locked off because I had so totally ticked off the local Pirate Faction. Oops.

 

[Packrat]

Regardless of whether one thinks the new reputation system as a whole is an improvement, I do think it's a valid point that trying to increase rep once in the hole requires grinding boring missions, especially since it can drop so quickly. This is a game, and if doing something is ever boring, I think it's cause for concern.

 

[stjobe]

Regardless of whether one thinks the new reputation system as a whole is an improvement, I do think it's a valid point that trying to increase rep once in the hole requires grinding boring missions, especially since it can drop so quickly. This is a game, and if doing something is ever boring, I think it's cause for concern.

The solution to that is to pay attention to the new reputation system from the start to not get "into the hole" in the first place. Now admittedly that can be impossible when continuing a pre-1.3 career, but then you just have to roll with the punches and accept that you cannot have high rep with everyone.

Also, if missions are boring, you could always drop lighter to make them more interesting.

 

[Packrat]

The solution to that is to pay attention to the new reputation system from the start to not get "into the hole" in the first place. Now admittedly that can be impossible when continuing a pre-1.3 career, but then you just have to roll with the punches and accept that you cannot have high rep with everyone.

It really doesn't strike me as a good thing for the devs to be implementing new mechanics that mess up people's existing saves like that.

 

[ronhatch]

Honestly, given the way reputation worked before 1.3, I doubt that there are very many pre-existing saves where the rep for a faction is as far down as -25. It seems like you'd really have to work for that with the old system.

 

[ModernModron]

I have to say, I really hate the new reputation system. Like, I despise it so much I have to force myself to play the game against it just to see the new stuff.

I certainly did not expect this going in, and I'm still not sure why this such a problem. It might just be that I hate 'losing' things, so maybe seeing all those bright red numbers just irks me. Or maybe the real concern is a fear that I'm going to effectively burn bridges and forever lock myself out of content with a faction because I take a few missions against them. Learning that mission difficulty is capped by reputation certainly won't help that.

One other thing that I notice annoy me about the new system is that I suddenly feel a lot less mercenary. Rather than evaluating missions based on their risks and rewards, I'm sitting there wondering who I can afford to piss off. That isn't how this is supposed to be. I mean, if I do something to really screw a faction I'd expect them to hold a grudge, but just shooting up some random base on the edge of the Periphery shouldn't matter in the big scheme. You'd think it would just encourage the target to hire me away from their enemy.

And the rewards, well, they just make it worse. Sure, cool toys are cool, but when it's offered this way I feel like I'm just more of a house unit. What, really, is the benefit of claiming to be a merc if I have to give up the freedom to choose my work? In effect, I'm voluntarily signing myself up for a company store scam. Yay?

I love this game and I was happy to buy the expansion, but this is really bothering me. Anyone know if the reputation system can be modded easily?

-MM

 

[stjobe]

One other thing that I notice annoy me about the new system is that I suddenly feel a lot less mercenary. Rather than evaluating missions based on their risks and rewards, I'm sitting there wondering who I can afford to piss off. That isn't how this is supposed to be.

I think that's exactly how it is supposed to be. In Career Mode, you're a small fish in a big pond, and you can't go around pissing the big boys off willy-nilly.

And the rewards, well, they just make it worse. Sure, cool toys are cool, but when it's offered this way I feel like I'm just more of a house unit. What, really, is the benefit of claiming to be a merc if I have to give up the freedom to choose my work? In effect, I'm voluntarily signing myself up for a company store scam.

Allying with a faction basically is becoming a house unit. Sure, you're still an independent command, but you have pledged your service to one ally and one ally only.

 

[ModernModron]

But NOT allying with a faction still ticks off their enemies! It's not the allying that causes the problem, it's taking a job at all. That's what feels so wrong.

-MM

 

[JackFrost]

I think that's exactly how it is supposed to be. In Career Mode, you're a small fish in a big pond, and you can't go around pissing the big boys off willy-nilly.

The problem with this line of thinking is that you should be such a small fish they shouldn't notice you much less hold a grudge.

Roleplaying aside, it's just bad gameplay.

 

[Ben G]

Is it really that hard to bring back up? Sacrifice some c-bills or salvage during negotiations to get extra rep. Then you just need to go to a low skull system with the faction your interested in active.

Isn’t -20 to +20 the “neutral range”? Getting 5 rep back doesn’t seem insurmountable.

 

[Havamal]

It might help to see a comprehensive numerical breakdown of the mechanic if only for reference.

 

[JackFrost]

Is it really that hard to bring back up? Sacrifice some c-bills or salvage during negotiations to get extra rep. Then you just need to go to a low skull system with the faction your interested in active.

Isn’t -20 to +20 the “neutral range”? Getting 5 rep back doesn’t seem insurmountable.

I think people haven't played enough to actually understand how the mechanic works.

In many game situations (like the one I ran) it simply isn't possible to find a contract that is under 1.5 skulls for some factions (cap confed for example). There simply weren't any, or they were extremely difficult to find. I literally went to 10+ systems trying to find a single contract and ... just couldn't. I spent a year of game time on this.

It's not even about grinding, it's that it's simply not doable because of how contract difficulty is distributed in the code.

I'm uncertain if this varies from game to game and is RNG driven or hardcoded, but either way it's a potential issue for gameplay.

 

[Havamal]

I think people haven't played enough to actually understand how the mechanic works.

In many game situations (like the one I ran) it simply isn't possible to find a contract that is under 1.5 skulls for some factions (cap confed for example). There simply weren't any, or they were extremely difficult to find.

It's not even about grinding, it's that it's simply not doable because of how contract difficulty is distributed.

I'm uncertain if this varies from game to game and is RNG driven or hardcoded, but either way it's a potential issue for gameplay.

Well if so that might make a good suggestion for the suggestions thread for such factions. Include more low level contract opportunity.

 

[Fallenkezef]

I think it adds to re-playability. You end up nailing your colours to a certain faction or you go round flipping from faction to faction to balance rep.

It's almost as if the devs are making us act like the merc outfits in canon......

 

[ModernModron]

Is it really that hard to bring back up? Sacrifice some c-bills or salvage during negotiations to get extra rep. Then you just need to go to a low skull system with the faction your interested in active.

Isn’t -20 to +20 the “neutral range”? Getting 5 rep back doesn’t seem insurmountable.

From what I've seen, that doesn't work because when you increase the positive reputation, you also increase the negative reputation. It's more or less a net 0.

In theory you can control this by taking missions against a faction you don't mind tanking, but that's why I said it feels like I'm spending my time trying to balance out politics rather than be a merc. It's just not a good system.

-MM