Rookie questions on crew, contracts, saves

frontier204 · Post by **frontier204** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 9:22 pm

Hi all,

I'm new to Evochron Mercenary (picked it up on the midweek Steam sale) and I have a few questions on the topics I listed in the subject:

1. Aside from losing their bonuses, is there any disadvantage to having crew members leave you? Additionally, is it some "dice roll" that makes them leave you or is what you do between each station docking important? (e.g. less chance of leaving if you're turning in a contract)

2. Is the navigator's only advantage a slight increase in your chances of not dying from an ill-placed jump marker? (otherwise I'm better off keeping a nice set of map log entries as that's more reliable than a dice roll)

3. I'm finding the amounts of money / time taken made from contracts relatively low compared to trading. So far I've looked at Cerulean, Olympus Should I be searching other systems for contracts?

Example: At Cerulean a contract to kill 8 enemies gets between 60,000-95,000 credits, while in the same amount of time and at less risk of damage I can jump to a bunch of stations to buy fuel converters at 500,000-660,000 and turn them in to Atlas station for over 500,000 profit. Even if there are no fuel converters I can turn in L3 equipment (almost always there) for 60,000 profit on each. My trade route also passes through a star's corona so I can refuel with the fuel converter I actually use.

4. Is it a good idea for me to continue using multiple profile slots for my saves, or are the saves reliable enough that you won't end up with a broken game?
(e.g. you restore a save and find yourself inside an asteroid)

Post by **DaveK** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 9:42 pm

Hi frontier

1: if you lose them you have to start again with the new crew
It's less a dice roll and more the loyalty rating they have - get them loyal and they don't leave - (complete contracts and over pay them until they are loyal)

2:?? not sure - someone with more experience will answer soon

3: It's part of the mix and freedom in EM. Contracts increase your reputation and civilian rank score (though money does that even more so!). For you military rank, only military contracts in warzones count. The higher your rank the more you get paid for contracts whereas trading profit is fixed by their prices

Get hold of the Hint&Tips Guide - it's a compiliation of a great deal of wisdom from experienced pilots (http://evochron.junholt.se/menus/downloads.htm)

Welcome to the game!

Busch · Post by **Busch** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 11:10 pm

Welcome Frontier204, to the game/sim and community. I 'll attempt to answer your questions. Although, taking DaveK's advice is probably your best bet.

1. Loosing crew means that their individual services/skills are no longer available to you/your ship. What generally "makes" them jump ship are two major items. Under paid and under utilized. Remember, they're mercs, just like you/your character profile. Work 'em and pay 'em. Lather, rinse, repeat.

2. Having a navigator on crew does help some with jump-point placement and navigational hazard/collision avoidance. However, if'n yer bound and determined to face-plant that asteroid or planet, the navigator just steps back and prepares a hasty exit.

Navigators are also the crewman that locates astronomical/navigational annomallys, such like blackholes and wormholes and nebulae (oh my!). Navigators also work quite well in combat scenarios, where/when you're jumping around a lot. Also, having a stuffed map log is cool, for your own flying/commanding aspect. (;))

3. On more than one occassion, it's been mentioned that trading from low-economy systems to high-economy systems is the way to turn a good credit or three. As in your own example of the Cerulean-Atlas run. Yes, you can do that. You can look elsewhere, certainly, for that sweet trade run. You can roll commodities at constructors, then sell the goods for 3-5 times what you paid for the basic products. Even syphoning photons and converting them to fuel for sale is an honorable pursuit. Basically, it boils down to what you want to do, and how you go about it. Turning contracts increases your burse with credits and your reputation with the various factions. The more contracts you complete, the more credits you earn, the more points you earn, the more credits you make per contract. And once you attain Legend civ status, you'll not pay docking/trading fees anywhere, ever again.

4. The saves you make while in-game are more than reliable. Suggest that you also save your profile, as in a back-up save, located off the drive/partition where the game folders are installed. There is no game that is perfect in every aspect. If this one "breaks", a wipe and reload of the game software, then installing/overwriting with your saved profile will usually keep you from pulling your hair out......much.

Or, if it is really bad, a request sent to Vice in the form of a timely e-mail w/attachments; he's really quick on the turn-around for a profile fix-up. (You'll only end up inside the asteroid if that was your last save point)

And you can still use the multi-slot saves that you have been. Whatever floats yer boat.

Hope this helps, and hope to see you out there sometime!

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 7:00 am

Hi Frontier204, Welcome to the game and forum!....Hope to see you out there some time!.....