OK, I really don't understand this mission result...

[talshiarr]

The Empire Group faction controls the station and offered a mission that I took. It was to kill three traders in one of the ICZ Sector... named system in the vicinity. I completed it, came back, and this was the result. I was at least five mission into friendly status with them before, now I've dropped in rep a lot all the way back to neutral, and the effect lines are nonsensical. Faction influence up but I lose rep? Economic boom and bust both up? Reputation up, but I am dropped to Neutral? I don't get it.

 

[Tempered]

The system is so borked! No telling what you are going to get. I've had numerous of the same thing in Federation space.

 

[The Sovereign]

I had essentially the same thing happen to me but with the Federation.

 

[Mellom]

The reputation system is completely messed up, dont bother with it right now.

 

[Cat_Astrophe]

SOmetimes there are very subtle hints that you may NOT want to take a given mission. For example: let's say you are trying to work for a faction aligned with the Feds and you are offered a mission that has a little blurb in it about fighting against the Feds. In this case you *MAY* gain rep with the minor faction but lose it with the Feds.
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You must read VERY Carefully and even then it isn't always clear. A little revamp of the mission write-ups would be beneficial for some of them. For now, we are treading thru a mine field.

 

[adoredtv]

Could it be possible that you killed traders from that faction - dropping your influence points back to Neutral before you got back?

 

[TheEponymousBob]

Was the kill system an anarchy? I think getting either fines or bounties against you can harm your local rep, even if gained in pursuit of a mission. So the bounty may have lowered you to neutral (it's easier to lose rep than gain it), then increased by a lesser amount on handing in the mission, hence the up-tick.

I'm not 100% sure which factions get hit by rep loss for bounties, but it may be tied to faction alignment, so your Empire rep was hit, and that cascaded to all local Empire factions.

 

[DYSEQTA]

You've been killing traders. Those results make perfect sense considering trade is the backbone of ED civilization. Even the boom and bust results make sense as you probably killed traders working both for the giver's faction and their rivals.

Not understanding something does not make that thing broken.

 

[talshiarr]

The traders are in a totally non-aligned procedural generated system. They have no faction, I KWS'ed them all. None of that answers the question of why I lose rep for doing the mission they sent me on. That IS broken. There is nothing in the mission description saying only kill these traders, not those traders, nor is there any way to differentiate them in a system with no factions at all.

 

[Calvert]

I do think something is broken here. I did a Durius mission to a war zone. I killed the required numbers of the opposition (yes I checked I was doing the right ones and I got the mission complete status) but on return I got negative rep and went from friendly to neutral. I'm now nervous of taking more missions of that type because I'm scared I go hostile next time. I may ticket this, but I don't have screen shot evidence and can't rule out some legitimate cause yet!!

 

[Cat_Astrophe]

The traders are in a totally non-aligned procedural generated system. They have no faction, I KWS'ed them all. None of that answers the question of why I lose rep for doing the mission they sent me on. That IS broken. There is nothing in the mission description saying only kill these traders, not those traders, nor is there any way to differentiate them in a system with no factions at all.

Do you have a copy of the text offering the mission? It may be one that offers little or nothing by way of clues as to the outcome. Those really "urinate" me off.

 

[talshiarr]

No, but it was one of them with the title of shoot down some hot-headed lovers or some such with the three Cobra shaped icons. It just gives you a couple sectors to go to and kill some traders. At the mission location you get a USS with the usual 'whoa whoa don't shoot us' alternate reward which was to go back to the original system and shoot authority ships instead. I stayed there and completed the original terms.

 

[Hamerstein]

Check your reputation in your right hand screen status menu.

I've noticed this discrepancy before, the faction adjustment shown within the mission result is your underlying reputation with that minor faction. But that is superceded by your overall reputation standing with The Empire - which is shown from the status menu in the right hand screen.

I've had missions that have only shown me as friendly with the minor faction in the mission resolution panel, but because the Empire is my ally, I'm always credited as an ally for the minor faction. That applies even to Imperial minor factions that I've only just met - it's great!

The rest of the statistics make sense, what you did in your mission had some negative consequences but also increased the influence of the faction you did it for - a "you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs" scenario. It also harmed their opposition.

EDIT - Something else just occurred to me, try jumping to a different system. I had a weird bug where my faction was shown to have dropped - the mission in question had no negative connotations, I jumped to a different system and it self corrected. So it may be a display bug.

 

[Cat_Astrophe]

No, but it was one of them with the title of shoot down some hot-headed lovers or some such with the three Cobra shaped icons. It just gives you a couple sectors to go to and kill some traders. At the mission location you get the 'whoa whoa don't shoot us' alternate reward which was to go back to the original system and shoot authority ships instead.

Oh yeah, I avoid those at all costs. The "hint" may be that you are asked to kill non offensive traders. Sometimes it seems like there are sub factions in the minor factions vying for control. One side gives legit missions and the other is trying to cause chaos.
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Edit: YOu will want to be careful with the "get us weapons" missions too. Some of Those have a little blurb about fighting the larger faction they are supposedly aligned with. I've found them to be rather risky to take, from a rep standpoint. There are others where the "hint" is too subtle for my foggy brain to pick up on too. Clearer presentation on some of them would be very helpful. I noticed what appeared to be better verbiage on some missions today, but maybe I was just paying better attention.

 

[DuQuesne]

... At the mission location you get a USS with the usual 'whoa whoa don't shoot us' alternate reward which was to go back to the original system and shoot authority ships instead. I stayed there and completed the original terms.

I think this might be the issue. I had a similar mission previously, got offered the alternative, then completed on original terms. I'm convinced the 'rewards' afterwards were what they should have been if I had taken the alternative route instead.

Didn't look into it too closely though, just decided these missions were more hassle than they're worth.

 

[CMDR Brock Samson]

It's all a fugazi.