Reputation in the game

Gelda · Post by **Gelda** » Tue May 01, 2012 12:37 am

When I started this game I did make note of the rep for Rebels and Guild as other factions in the game and noted my rep for rebels was 50% and Guild was 75%.

Why is my rep much lower now for Rebels and Guild its 17% for rebels and 18% for guild. I have not attack or had missions attacking those 2 factions. My rep in sapphire sector is over all good and is much higher now with Miners, and Energy factions.
Have only mined or and did a few missions like cleaning solar panes and cargo runs.

Could not responding to a trade request lower a person rep in a given faction?

Post by **DaveK** » Tue May 01, 2012 2:03 pm

This topic appears to cause more confusion than most others in the game with clan control in MP running it a close second!. Partly it is because it is complicated with one system and five separate faction reputations in every system and partially because the rules are different in MP and SP. The link between SP and MP reputation seems to have changed from what it was in Legends which probably adds to the mix because some experienced pilots are still applying Legends rules to Mecenary!

Get hold of the Hints&Tips Guide: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtop ... #pid134274

available from SeeJay's site - http://evochron.junholt.se/menus/downloads.htm it has a full explanation of reputation

Basics:

In addition to the overall system reputation level, you also have individual reputation levels with specific factions in each system. There are five factions: Energy Companies, Navy, Rebels, Guilds and Miners.

The overall system and individual reputation levels are good, fair, moderate, and hostile

A good system reputation level generally means you won't encounter hostile ships, unless you attack friendly ships. A fair reputation level generally means you will likely encounter hostile ships on some occasions. A moderate reputation level generally means you'll encounter many hostile ships and have to pay docking fees to be given permission to conduct business at stations and planets. A hostile reputation generally means you'll encounter mostly hostile ships and have to pay docking fees. Fair and moderate systems typically offer the widest variety of contracts.

When you first start the system reputations are:

Good: Sapphire - Sol - Atlas
Hostile: Sierra - Aries - Thuban - Pearl - Vonari - Merak - Capella - Iota
Fair/Moderate: all the others

Doing contracts for some groups decreases your repuattaion with other groups: For example The five factions are independent but are grouped into friendly "clumps", these being energy companies & militaries who are enemies of rebels (aka pirates) and guilds (aka clans). Miners are neutral to everyone although you will upset energy if you attack miners. So this will mean completing contracts for energy companies and militaries can lower your reputation with rebels (aka pirates) and guilds (aka clans) while completing contracts for rebels and guilds can lower your reputation with energy companies and militaries.

â€¢ You can change your individual reputation by selecting and completing contracts for particular groups and/or attacking ships that are hostile to them.
â€¢ Contracts are faction specific, meaning objectives will be offered based on your reputation and will involve objectives related to the interests of the faction offering it.

In the H&TG there is a comprehensive table of what happens to your reputation with each faction as you do the different contracts available for each faction!

Ducimus · Post by **Ducimus** » Tue May 01, 2012 4:44 pm

You can change your individual reputation by selecting and completing contracts for particular groups and/or attacking ships that are hostile to them.

What about the Navy? Does increasing faction with them require shooting down rebels/guild? I've tried running missions for them in sapphire, but the reputation percentage (in sapphire) refuses to budge.

Also, how come if your reputation with the navy is listed as fair, you'll occasionally see hostile Navy ships? On that note, its a little odd seeing a faction your at 90% rep with, and still see yellow targets along with the green ones.

[Edited on 5-1-2012 by Ducimus]

Post by **Marvin** » Tue May 01, 2012 5:47 pm

Pleny of threads explaining all of this in detail ... but, the quick and dirty version: two factions ... Alliance and Feds. You join EM as a mercenary for the Alliance. Sometimes, depending on the star system, you run into Federation pilots. They can be Navy or anything else ... but they will show as Red 'cause you're from the Alliance and they don't like or trust you. Unless you can prove differently.

Ducimus · Post by **Ducimus** » Tue May 01, 2012 6:16 pm

: two factions ... Alliance and Feds. You join EM as a mercenary for the Alliance.

There is two factions? You are in the Alliance? Well that's news to me. Is there a definitive document somewhere that explains all of this in some sort of technical detail? I think i just got a little more confused. Yes I have looked around, and about the only info i could find is a PDF file that basically says to work an area long term before moving onto the next.

EDIT:

The factions as I understand them:

Navy
Some military presence. What there here for im not entirely sure. Based on intro movie I guess some race that starts with the letter V, blew up a planet or two a long time ago, and they've been out "here" since.

Miners
Blue collar guys pounding rocks to earn a living i guess.

Energy
Some big mult-gajllion corporation conglomerate that owns the galaxy or wants to. Im guessing their "The Man". I seem to be cleaning their solar arrays a lot.

Rebels
Insert James Dean references here. Im clueless as to what their rebelling against. They don't seem to like it when i work for The man.

Guild
I'm guessing the word "mafia" here. They strike me as some kind of organized crime syndcate. Also doesnt like it when i work for The Man.

Thats about all i can figure out thus far.

[Edited on 5-1-2012 by Ducimus]

[Edited on 5-1-2012 by Ducimus]

Post by **Marvin** » Tue May 01, 2012 8:29 pm

Close. Keep in mind that some of each of those are loyal to either the Federation or the Alliance. Kind of. Rebels respond to your current reputation in a way which makes sense only to rebels. For reference material, here's a good place to start:

http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmerce ... iverse.htm

Gelda · Post by **Gelda** » Wed May 02, 2012 12:23 am

This kind of reminds me of Joss Whedon's Serenity, The rebels are the browncoats and the Alliance is the good guys. And we all should know who won the war by now......

[Edited on 5-2-2012 by Gelda]

Post by **Marvin** » Wed May 02, 2012 12:29 am

Who won? All I remember from the end-game movie was that the pilot got killed.

Gelda · Post by **Gelda** » Wed May 02, 2012 12:32 am

The alliance won the war the brown Coats lost. Guess you didn't see the TV Series just the movie......

Post by **DaveK** » Wed May 02, 2012 11:49 am

I want River as part of my crew (and Kaylee 'cos she would be better than any Repair System)

Mal is great and Wash excellent, but I'm the Captain and pilot. Jayne is "the man" when you need muscle but we don't in Evochron

I've already got the long brown leather coat!

:D

Inara? . . . in my dreams

:P:P

Ducimus · Post by **Ducimus** » Fri May 04, 2012 2:38 pm

This is probably going to come off as a rant (probably because im really upset), but let me get this straight.

My last two days of faction grinding in Olympus was for nothing because i wanted to go two quadrants over to buy a ship frame in Cerulean? Really? I was at 72% navy and energy! Now im back to 55% because i wanted to buy a frame that wasn't available in olympus? So i looked all over to find a ship frame, and there it was in Cerulean. I feel like i was penalized for exploration. Now I have to grind faction again? REALLY?

[Edited on 5-4-2012 by Ducimus]

Capt_Caveman · Post by **Capt_Caveman** » Fri May 04, 2012 2:59 pm

you cant leave until the change happens or you have to start all over.
your not the only one to find out the hard way.

Post by **DaveK** » Fri May 04, 2012 3:10 pm

It's hard but I think the background game argument is that loyalty is rewarded and the authorities didn't know why you were going.

Get hold of the Hints&Tips guide and there is a comprehensive discussion/tutorial about reputation - it may seem unfair but that's the way it is; finish your "task" of changing reputation and then go on a celebratory shopping spree

or

actually analyse why you want to change the reputation in the first place - if you do, then prioritise it . . .

I'm not saying that this is how it must be - just how it is and why. Personally I don't worry about reputation since most of my play time is in MP which has different rules to SP anyway (see H&TG). In hostile systems you just have to be a bit nippier about docking, buying/selling and launching - it does add a frisson of excitement and you soon get the hang of ignoring cap ships and keeping an eye on the distance of the other small ships

Ducimus · Post by **Ducimus** » Fri May 04, 2012 4:17 pm

From post: 136686, Topic: tid=9290, author=DaveK wrote:
actually analyse why you want to change the reputation in the first place

Oh THAT is easy. I'm tired of being shot at while docked from Navy ships. More then a couple times:

- ive gone away from the keyboard for a couple of mins only to discover a loading screen.
- wanted to grab missions but hostile navy ships won't let me.
- i cannot fathom the design reason as to why a faction is both red, yellow, and green all at once. Would the game just PICK ONE already? I've been gaming on PC's since 86, and im hard pressed to think of any game I've played where a factional standing is so haywire.

So i thought.... ok, whatever, ill just work up my faction so i don't have to worry about these shennanigans anymore. So i spent the last two days GRINDING faction like i was playing Everquest only to discover all my work was for nothing.

That, for me, was the proverbial straw i think. This is a fantastic game, but the way factions work, the idea of doing it all over again takes the wind completely out of my sails.

Post by **DaveK** » Fri May 04, 2012 4:42 pm

Sorry - I wasn't trying to stress you

In terms of being shot at whilst docked - just being docked doesn't protect you (we all learn that I think the hard way) - just "enter the station" and you will be totally safe until you exit the station again. With practice it is possible in very hostile systems to get in buy or sell and get out before you get bounced - the rewards are balanced by the risks; Pearl trade runs can net an average of 3 million per minute, so you might expect to have to sweat it a bit and gain some experience before you reap the rewards. You can also deploy a shield and sit in it in total safety whilst you go for a coffee

Navy can be Red and Green because there are two navies : alliance and federation - not sure about the others - other than they tend to be loose groupings of mercs sharing a (fairly) common outlook so they have different "attitudes". It's the same with real players - just try messing with King Arthur's clan and you'll find he is greatly in favour of "smiting the enemy" and doesn't forgive easily - other clan's are more laid back.

Again, not trying to stress you, but there are lots of places to "play" in that don't have the hostility you are tackling; The game has a steep (though short) learning curve and Sapphire is full of stuff in a safe environment just so you can practice and learn; The IMG Quest, similarly is designed to develop and hone skills and knowledge AND to give big rewards periodically. In fact there are very very few things that can't be played with in Sapphire including asteroid caves and black holes (to develop the knack of being able to jump through them).

It is actually made clear in the game guide and in the H&TG that reputation change is a challenge even for experienced piolts/gamers and that you must make the change before you blob out of the system. I find part of the fun (and a lot of the frustration) of not "reading the instructions" is learning the hard way

Ducimus · Post by **Ducimus** » Fri May 04, 2012 6:12 pm

Navy can be Red and Green because there are two navies : alliance and federation

There are TWO? Even in Olympus? Which is where the IMG quest brings me. And if there are two different navy's, how the heck are you supposed to tell one from another? I see no listing for federation or alliance navy.. Just.. "Local system name Navy". Thats it. A bit more verbosity on the part of the interface would do wonders here.

The way it is right now, i see a red navy ship, i turn tail and run because i'm afraid that if i defend myself the end result will be a counterproductive drop in overall faction standing.

Post by **Marvin** » Fri May 04, 2012 8:57 pm

You do right to leave hostile navies alone. As a mercenary, you can improve your reputation by hanging around and helping out either the navy or one/both of the other two law-abiding factions. But star systems have short memories ... and, in any case, they expect you to hang around long enough to do some real good.