Reputation is now just silly.

[Er1kTheRed]

I held off on mentioning this because I was hoping it would be swatted immediately post-1.3, but since this is apparently not the case I'll bring it up. The reputation system has turned into one of those gameplay elements where in attempts to balance it / make it more relevant has made it completely absurd instead. Having factions get stupidly annoyed by a mercenary company having ridiculous amounts of success against them makes sense. Having them refuse to deal with that company is mind-blowing lunacy (especially on lunar missions). The obvious solution for them - if they have an IQ higher than their shoe size - is to go out of their way to hire that company more often. The result should be bidding up your services, not a toddler's temper tantrum boycott. Because otherwise your only other alternative as a responsible mercenary company owner is to keep smearing their mechs all over various planets for their enemies, since, gee, only their enemies want to hire you.

Look at it this way - if you're running an empire or a pirate organization, your life is filled with crazy and annoying problems. When you can easily solve a major one with a quick and simple application of cold, hard, cash - while simultaneously smiting your enemies instead of them smiting you - that's just an easy call. C'mon devs... I know this is sci-fi fantasy universe, but one would think that the most basic logic still applies.

 

[Draconislupus]

The only zones that I can't access the BM are the three that loath me.

 

[Draconislupus]

If anything as rep goes down the houses should lie to us about how difficult the job will be. So basically they say it is a 2 1/2 skull mission but if the don't like us it is a 3 and if the loath us it should be a 3 1/2 with 2 skull pay.

 

[bobucles]

If anything as rep goes down the houses should lie to us about how difficult the job will be. So basically they say it is a 2 1/2 skull mission but if the don't like us it is a 3 and if the loath us it should be a 3 1/2 with 2 skull pay.

Yeah but you already lose out on extra bonuses by being low rep.

If anything your contract negotiation should based on reputation. Currently you get 4 "reward pips" to allocate to money or salvage. Change that number based on reputation. So if you're at low rep you might only have 1-2 pips (thus most of the reward goes to reputation eg. doing the job pro bono to restore favor). Similarly at high rep you might have 6 or 7 pips available, letting you "call in favors" to get more money or parts (less rep rewards, more physical rewards).

No more dumb locking out of contracts. If you don't have the reputation, then you can't ask for rewards. Do you WANT to do hostile faction missions for no money? You can. It's a waste of your time and you'll get ruined on OPfor rep, but you can. Do you already have 100 favor with a faction and want to leverage it for the extra rewards you're rightfully due? Well you can do that too. Finally the "max pay/max salvage" contract rewards actually make sense because if you have a good faction you can actually benefit from both.

Ta da. Reputation system fixed.

 

[Confector Tyrannis]

What about changing the way the contracting agent works?

Make it more... hmm.. in addition to seeing the list of available contracts, each house has a representative that you can also initiate a dialog with.

For example, I hate Capellans. Filthy backstabbin rotten currs to the core *spits* Never will I ever work for the Liao Dogs. (i love this rp element)
However, I'm in a bad spot, that last contract really did a number on my mechs and I need a way off this rock.

This dirty Capellan owned rock.

So, the normal contracts being denied me or above my (now) ability to field proper forces for..... I tucks my cap in hand and go crawling to knock on that dirty dog's door and see if he has any kind of bone he can throw me.

This mechanic is intended only to help those in the reputation lows have another avenue/guaranteed way of doing 'something' for the faction they're trying to work up some rep with.

Could also be used like flashpoints i suppose, in that the separate agent would allow introduction of new missions/experiences (not all have to be reputation related)

 

[Rabain]

Just make the existing pirate faction into separate Cartels. Let them have the same relationship status with other Cartels that factions have with each other.

On the Reputation screen keep the Pirate Faction rep as an average of your rep with all the Cartels and show the separate Cartels in a drop down within the Pirate faction.

If you get friendly with a Cartel and they offer you Black Market access fine. But the further you travel away from that Cartels area of space then the chances of that event where the Pirates squeeze you for more money for BM access has a higher chance of occurring. Therefore you pay for continued access to the BM in another Cartels space.

If you get hated by a Cartel and missions don't appear anymore, then you just travel out of their space and the further you move away from them into another Cartels space and missions start reappearing. If you raise rep with a Cartel that is friendly with another then their rep raises by a percentage also. This way you can rebuild your rep.

Eventually they can create Flashpoints that address a Cartel getting too powerful and you can take it out or maybe a Cartel can make a play for planet control.

 

[Nichino]

I agree. Lore-wise, the more successful the merc unit is, the more factions want to hire them. Especially if they have seen first hand how well they perform. (Exceptions being things we can't do in the game, like targeting civilian populations.) We've even seen factions attempt to hire mercs in the middle of their contract against them. If a faction could afford it and has nothing against hiring mercs, then they'd want every merc on their payroll rather than being on the payroll of their enemies.

Reputation should not affect what contracts can be taken, only MRB rating. Reputation could affect the pay/salvage/rep rewards offered for successful completion of the mission with a % +/ - similar to store prices. If they like you, they would be willing to reward you more, whereas if they disliked you, they would be more stingy in rewarding you. However, if you accept an Alliance, then it should be basically a retainer contract and make the contracts from their enemies unavailable while in the Alliance.

That being said, I consider the rep system a fun thing to be included in the game and I look forward to future iterations.