Design Proposal: Combat Progression & Reputation Credits
Welcome and thanks for dropping by.
This is a very long post. For a brief summary, please read my post below. Click here to go right to it
I've put a lot of time into it because I'm really hopeful that it'll help curate some sensible discussion on the topic and generate ideas. As it's very long, I'd understand if you don't read it all and only comment on parts. But if you're going to argue against anything without reading everything it'll be a bit of a waste of time
Introduction
There have been many threads discussing the current risk/reward design for ED, focused particularly on comparisons between trading and combat. I've chimed in to quite a number of these with my thoughts and I wanted to put a bit of weight behind how I think the design could be progressed from what we have now to a fully-fleshed model that would allow better progression for players who take part exclusively in combat activities. To do that, I wanted to back my ideas up with numbers.
The scope of this document is combat, missions relating to combat and, to a lesser degree, missions in general. The scope won't cover piracy and I'd like to say now that I believe piracy is in need of a lot of development but that's another topic; including piracy would make what is already going to be a heavily detailed analysis far too bloated. So apologies to my pirate friends in advance and rest assured that I've got your backs in getting your career the love it needs.
Finally, the scope includes an idea I've come up with that I've not seen suggested before. I call it "Reputation Credit". This is a way to get alternative rewards for having a higher reputation by completing missions, to give more purpose behind the reputation system. These credits will let you win favours with that faction and add depth to the mission system. More on this later.
The topics I'll be covering are:
- 1. Combat progression as a whole
- 2. Bounty hunting
- 3. Mercenary work through combat bonds
- 4. How rewards are shared.
- 5. Reputation Credit: a new and alternative way to be rewarded and add depth to the mission system and reputation system
Before I start in earnest, I'd like to explain some of my logic first.
Throughout the document I will need to use a measurement to provide a point of reference for my proposals; it wouldn't do much good for me to spout random numbers without any contextual measurement to back them up.
The measurement I'll use is credits earned per hour.
To qualify why I'm going to use this and to add emphasis to the document's purpose, I'd like to say a few words on this measurement before I continue. Please skip the next paragraph if you are comfortable with credits per hour as measurement of reward.
I don't think the enjoyment of the game is measured by how much money you make in a certain time frame. I want to make that clear right off the bat. I don't feel it's necessary to make more and more money to have fun and I still often jump into a viper from time to time to simply enjoy combat. However, it's a poignant note that I make when I say that I never measure how much money I'm making per hour when I'm fighting. I couldn't honestly tell you exactly how much money bounty hunting makes me per hour because I don't calculate it; this is mainly because I don't take part in combat to make money because I've accepted that it's not a good money-making career but also because there's no progression anyway. That is to say there's very little difference between how much you earn when you start to when you're in the best ship. But when I'm trading I make an effort to calculate my profit per hour. I do this because trading does have progression, where you'll make potentially millions more just by upgrading to a new ship or changing to a new route. Trading also isn't my favoured career; I don't dislike trading but if I never needed to trade again I'd be content; I've traded over 350m profit and that's quite enough. So, when I'm trading I am doing so as a means to an end and that is to make enough money to buy more ships to fight in. I'm sure that players who love to trade as much as I love combat probably don't care how much money they make per hour. But I do because it's important to me that I spend as little time trading as possible. Every time I find a new route I'll test its profit per hour and I'll keep my calculation updated regularly when the trade value changes. If a route falls below a certain value then I'll start looking for a new one. This has worked well for me and I rarely earn less than 6m an hour because of it. I've gotten very used to measuring profit this way and it's a good basis for reference.
So, due to this, I'm going to use profit per hour as a direct comparison.
My objective is not to make combat more profitable than or even equally profitable to trading. My objective is to allow combat pilots to progress naturally through doing what they love, to give them more to do whilst fighting, and give them the ability to attain better ships and upgrades without feeling the need to trade to achieve it. So, I'm comfortable with trading being the career with the highest potential profit margins; indeed, it's fine for players to mix up careers. But I feel the game would be much more fun if combat had its own self- sustaining model with accelerated progression.
So, enough exposition. Here I go.
1. Combat progression as a whole
Currently, the combat exclusive route from the free sidewinder to a low-end combat ship is decent enough. That said, I've never started my career with combat and have used either courier missions or minor exploration to get enough credits for an Eagle. This is because the sidewinder isn't the ship I want to upgrade or fly and credits earning in this ship is very low unless you upgrade it. This is fine but my proposals should actually make combat more viable from day one, including in a sidewinder, anyway.
Once in a well equipped low-end ship bounty hunting is a viable method of progression to attain your first million credits. At this point it becomes apparent that trading is much more viable if you want to get an Asp or better, within a reasonable time-frame. Typically, rares trading can earn 1.2m an hour once you're in a cobra, for example.
Beyond the cobra, combat will require a huge investment of time to make enough money to build a fully geared Asp.
You can try conflict zones but these are slower for earning credits. In terms of ever buying a Vulture, Python or Anaconda capable of combat, you might as well give up now. You can achieve everything in the game, combat-wise, in the Viper or Cobra anyway, so why put hundreds of hours into fighting just to buy a better ship? Obviously, we'll soon be getting more difficult content so the bigger ships are desirable and I kill targets way faster in my Python. But I need to trade to buy one in less than hundreds of hours.
This is how I think combat progression should be:
As a mostly harmless sidewinder pilot, you're in the business of establishing your name as a bounty hunter or mercenary, or both. Your quarry are small, low rated npcs for low pay. You have limited access to low paying missions that specifically target single npc pilots that are flying small ships. As soon as you rank up to mostly harmless, the game changes. You get access to slightly better missions that pay slightly more and you get slightly better bounty/bonds rewards. The volume and difficulty of mission targets increases as well, eventually including multiple targets in a wing, or multiple quota requirements in conflict zones.
This continues as you earn ranks and more credits until you're the owner of a better ship and have a higher combat rating. It's now that the big money bounty and bond contacts start to appear.
This progression should be continuous right up to Elite rating. An Elite combat pilot gets paid the most money and is offered the toughest, highest paying contacts.
To achieve this model that I propose, the way credits are rewarded should scale with your combat rating. As you become known for your prowess, you should command higher pay for your work and accrue bonuses for successful kills. Missions should scale from mostly harmless all the way up to Elite.
For my point of reference, trading progression ramps up roughly from very low cr/hour, to 1-1.5m per hour in a t6, 2-2.5m an hour in a t7, 3-4m an hour in a Python and 4-6+m per hour in a t9 or Conda. I aim to follow this trend without exceeding it, from harmless to elite.
2. Bounty hunting
The base rewards for bounty hunting are highly variable. This suits the role well. Due to the high variance in reward, the bonus payment for your combat rating should be lower than a mercenary, whose rewards come in the form of static bonds, which scale from 2k to 18k - more on these in part 3.
For each rank, harmless through to Elite, you gain a 25% bonus for each bounty. That is to say, you get 25% extra added to the existing base bounty when you are "harmless". And 25% more of that new total when novice. Each rank you gain multiplies the total by 25%. Examples are below.
Bounty hunting missions scale from a single, mostly harmless sidewinder through to a wing of Elite NPCs flying Vipers, Cobras, Asps, Vultures, Pythons or Anacondas.
The mission reward scales from 500cr through to 3.5m.
The reward for missions should follow this scale:
- Mostly harmless: 500-3k
- Harmless: 1.5k-10k
- Novice: 20k-50k
- Competent: 75k-150k
- Expert: 350k-500k
- Master: 750k-1m
- Dangerous: 1m-1.5m
- Deadly: 1.5m-2.5m
- Elite: 2.5m to 3.5m
Examples for bounty hunting progression:
Base rewards for the following npc ships are typical but will vary. So I'm going to start by using estimated values that are near to the highest value in game now; this means the example NPCs are going to be from dangerous though to elite, so bear in mind the new Commander is not likely to be earning the base values early on. This will serve to give an idea of the "slightly less than best earnings", rather than best case scenarios, which happen rarely.
These examples will demonstrate how much extra cash is paid for killing the same target when you have a higher combat rating.
Killing a sidewinder when you are the following combat ratings will earn:
- Mostly harmless: 1.5k
- Harmless: 1.875k
- Novice: 2.34k
- Competent: 2.93k
- Expert: 3.66k
- Master: 4.58k
- Dangerous: 5.72k
- Deadly: 7.15k
- Elite: 8.94k
Killing a Viper:
- Mostly harmless: 25k
- Harmless: 31.25k
- Novice: 39k
- Competent: 48.25k
- Expert: 61k
- Master: 76k
- Dangerous: 95k
- Deadly: 119k
- Elite: 148.75k
Killing a Python:
- Mostly harmless: 80k
- Harmless: 100k
- Novice: 125k
- Competent: 156k
- Expert: 195k
- Master: 244k
- Dangerous: 305k
- Deadly: 381k
- Elite: 477k
Killing an Anaconda:
- Mostly harmless: 120k
- Harmless: 150k
- Novice: 187k
- Competent: 234k
- Expert: 293k
- Master: 366k
- Dangerous: 458k
- Deadly: 572k
- Elite: 715k
The next two examples will assume the lowest commonly seen bounty value, excluding the initial fine for assault, and the highest that I've seen in game. These are around 600cr and 150kcr.
- Mostly harmless: 600
- Harmless: 850
- Novice: 938
- Competent: 1,172
- Expert: 1,465
- Master: 1,831
- Dangerous: 2,289
- Deadly: 2,861
- Elite: 3,576
- Mostly harmless: 150k
- Harmless: 187.5k
- Novice: 234k
- Competent: 293k
- Expert: 366k
- Master: 458k
- Dangerous: 572k
- Deadly: 715k
- Elite: 894k
So, as an elite pilot, the bare minimum reward will be 3.5k. The jackpot will be a cool 900k.
So, let's back this up with measurements. I'll use example scenarios and then state the credits earned per hour. These scenarios all involve an hour's bounty hunting, excluding missions.
A harmless Commander, in a moderately armed sidewinder and just learning their skills, kills:
- 3x harmless sidewinders - base 1k x3
- 1x novice cobra - base 5k
- 1x competent adder - base 7.5k
- 1x novice viper - base 8k
The Commander needs to dock for repairs before the hour is up.
The Commander is now harmless. He later kills:
- 3x harmless sidewinders - base 1k x3
- 1x novice cobra - base 5k
- 2x competent adders - base 7.5k
- 1x novice viper - base 8k
- 1x expert sidewinder - base 3.5k
- 2x novice Eagles - base 3k x2
- Base earnings: 33k
- Total earnings: 41.25k
The Commander is novice and has a better ship. He's getting much better and is able to kill more targets quickly.
- 3x harmless sidewinders - base 1k x3
- 1x novice cobra - base 5k
- 2x competent adders - base 7.5k
- 1x novice viper - base 8k
- 3x harmless sidewinders - base 1k x3
- 1x novice cobra - base 5k
- 2x competent adders - base 7.5k
- 1x novice viper - base 8k
- 1x expert sidewinder - base 3.5k
- 2x novice Eagles - base 3k x2
- 1x competent Asp - base 16k
- 1x novice drop ship - base 20k
- Base earnings: 69k
- Total earnings: 86.25k
The Commander is now competent and capable of killing moderately tough targets.
- 3x harmless sidewinders - base 1k x3
- 1x novice cobra - base 5k
- 2x competent adders - base 7.5k
- 1x novice viper - base 8k
- 1x expert sidewinder - base 3.5k
- 2x novice Eagles - base 3k x2
- 1x competent Asp - base 16k
- 1x novice drop ship - base 20k
- 4x competent sidewinders - base 3k x4
- 2x expert vipers - base 15k x2
- 1 x competent Python - base 45k
- Base earnings: 156k
- Total earnings: 195k
The Commander, now expert, is in a decent ship and can take on Anacondas.
- 4x harmless sidewinders - base 1k x4
- 1x master cobra - base 15k
- 2x competent adders - base 7.5k
- 1x elite viper - base 25k
- 1x expert sidewinder - base 3.5k
- 2x expert Eagles - base 4k x2
- 1x competent asp - base 16k
- 1x expert drop ship - base 40k
- 2x master sidewinders - base 3.5k x2
- 2x expert vipers - base 15k x2
- 1 x elite Python - base 55k
- 1x expert anaconda - base 90k
- Base earnings: 308k (this is a typical half-hour, to 45 minutes, for me now, I'm expert)
- Total earnings: 385k
So now I'll use the same scenario above but for the following ratings:
- Master: 481.25k
- Dangerous: 602k
- Deadly: 753k
- Elite: 941k
So, based on those basic scenarios, the earnings per hour would rate from 23.5k up to 941k, instead of 23.5k to 308k.
914k/hour is still very modest but that's based on an hour where only 2 big ships are killed. Let's do one final scenario, giving a "theoretical best case":
- 5x sidewinders - base 3k x5
- 4x eagles - base 4.5k x4
- 3x vipers - base 20k x3
- 3x cobras - base 20k x3
- 4x adder/hauler - base 6k x4
- 2x drop ship/clipper - base 35k x2
- 3x Asp - base 25k x3
- 2x Python - base 65k x2
- 1x Anaconda - base 150k
- Total base earnings: 602k
Total earnings for:
- Harmless: 753k
- Novice: 941k
- Competent: 1.18m
- Expert: 1.47m
- Master: 1.84m
- Dangerous: 2.3m
- Deadly: 2.87m
- Elite: 3.59m
Still not close to trade but much more viable for progression. Add in missions that pay up to 3.5m for elite pilots and you have a progression model that will allow bounty hunters to earn more and more credits as they progress.
A competent Commander could earn the same as a rares trader and earn more with missions. This would put them in an asp in about 8-12 hours. An expert Commander could earn over 2m an hour with missions.
By the time you are deadly, you could save enough for a combat capable Python in 34 hours.
That last scenario, as things currently stand, would take 389 hours...
3. Mercenary Work through combat bonds
The mercenary is a hired gun, paid to fight in conflict zones. The current base rewards for combat bonds, unlike bounties, are static and scale up based on the target ship. Conflict zones are also much higher risk than bounty hunting. Due to this, the range of earnings is less variable with a lower maximum ceiling; this is somewhat compensated for by a steady source of infinitely spawning targets, however conflict zones are not commonly found and do not last forever. Due to the narrow band of earnings, the bonus reward for each combat rank gained is 50%, not 25%.
Mercenary missions scale just like bounty missions. Due to the rarity and higher difficulty of conflict zones, the scale of reward should be broader than bounty missions. However, the same rules apply in terms of targets required increasing in number and difficulty.
- Mostly harmless: 5k-10k
- Harmless: 10k-35k
- Novice: 35k-75k
- Competent: 75k-150k
- Expert: 150k-500k
- Master: 500k-1m
- Dangerous: 1m-2m
- Deadly: 2m-3m
- Elite: 3-5m
The missions come with a quota. Mostly harmless missions demand 1-3 eagles, or better, for example. Expert missions require 4-8 vipers, cobras or better. Deadly missions require 1-2 anacondas, on top of 5-10 of any other ship. The 5m Elite missions require a capital ship, 4 anacondas or pythons, 4 Asps or better, and 5 of any other ship - and a capital ship will turn up if you have that mission. These missions are likely to take longer than an hour but the pay is immense. You'd also get bonds as you complete the missions.
You get the picture.
A quick mention for Conflict community goals; These are completed after a full week's effort and the current rewards (maximum 250k for the best commander) are far, far too trivial. So they should follow the following reward, approximately:
- Top Commander: 10m
- Top 5%: 6m
- Top 10%: 4m
- Top 50%: 2m
- Top 75%: 1m
- Lowest: 500k
So, now onto Combat Bonds. These will scale as your combat rank increases, as mentioned above, by 50% per rank.
The current base combat bonds are as follows:
- Fighter: 1k
- Eagle: 2k
- Cobra: 4k
- Viper: 5k
- Asp: 7k
- Federal Dropship: 11k
- Python: 13k
- Anaconda: 18k
- Capital ship: 50k
These are fine for our base rewards and this is what a harmless Commander will get.
Applying the 50% bonus per rank gained would result in the following:
| Rating | Mostly Harmless | Novice | Competent | Expert | Master | Dangerous | Deadly | Elite |
| Fighter | 1.5k | 2.25k | 3.75k | 5k | 7.6k | 11.4k | 17k | 26k |
| Eagle | 3k | 4.5k | 6.8k | 10.1k | 15.2k | 23k | 34k | 51k |
| Cobra | 6k | 9k | 13.6k | 20.2k | 30.4k | 46k | 68k | 102k |
| Viper | 7.5k | 11.25k | 16.9k | 25.3k | 38k | 60k | 85k | 128k |
| Asp | 10.5k | 15.75k | 23.6k | 34.4k | 53k | 80k | 120k | 180k |
| Federal Dropship | 16.5k | 24.75k | 37k | 56k | 84k | 125k | 188k | 282k |
| Python | 19.5k | 29k | 44k | 66k | 99k | 148k | 222k | 333k |
| Anaconda | 27k | 41k | 61k | 91k | 137k | 205k | 308k | 461k |
| Capital Ship | 75k | 113k | 169k | 253k | 380k | 570k | 854k | 1.28m |
Some scenarios:
1. Low skill pilot
- 2x fighters - base value 2k
- 2x eagles - base value 4k
- 1x cobra - base value 4k
- 2x viper - base value 10k
- 1x drop ship - base value 11k
Total value where the pilot has the following combat ratings:
- Harmless: 46.5k
- Novice: 69.75k
- Competent: 105k
- Expert: 158k
- Master: 236k
- Dangerous: 354k
- Deadly: 531k
- Elite: 797k
2. Moderate skill pilot:
- 2x fighters - base value 2k
- 2x eagles - base value 4k
- 2x cobra - base value 4k
- 2x viper - base value 10k
- 1x drop ship - base value 11k
- 2x asp - base value 14k
Total value where the pilot has the following combat ratings:
- Harmless: 68k
- Novice: 101k
- Competent: 152k
- Expert: 228k
- Master: 342k
- Dangerous: 513k
- Deadly: 769k
- Elite: 1.15m
3. High skill pilot
- 3x fighters - base value 3k
- 3x eagles - base value 6k
- 3x cobra - base value 12k
- 3x viper - base value 15k
- 2x drop ship - base value 22k
- 2x asp - base value 14k
- 2x Python - base value 26k
- 1x anaconda - base value 18k
Total value where the pilot has the following combat ratings:
- Harmless: 174k
- Novice: 271k
- Competent: 392k
- Expert: 587k
- Master: 881k
- Dangerous: 1.32m
- Deadly: 1.98m
- Elite: 2.97m
The above scenarios aren't necessarily based on one hour and I imagine the last scenario would take longer. However, couple these values with missions and you could see earnings per hour, including returning to hand in, go up to around 4-6m for elite.
Now, it's important that I acknowledge some of the highest values above may seem excessively high. This is where sharing rewards comes into play. In a conflict zone, you will be assisted by NPCs and maybe other players. You won't be getting kills all to yourself unless you peel off targets; which will take more time anyway.
So, onto how rewards are shared...
4. How rewards are shared
I wanted to mention this as it's important to my suggestions, specifically the mercenary role. Currently, nothing is shared. 1.2 will introduce the sharing of combat rewards within a wing. My proposal includes bonus rewards so it's important sharing is robust. We can't share rewards that vary from one Commander to the next, for the same target.
Bounty hunting will still remain shared only between members of a wing, as planned in 1.2. This will be calculated by dividing the base reward before applying each commander's own rating bonus.
For example, a wing of four commanders kill a target with a bounty of 20k base.
- They each get 5k base.
- Commander A is mostly harmless; he gets 5k.
- Commander B is novice; she gets 7.8k.
- Commander C is master; he gets 15.3k.
- Commander D is elite; she gets 30k.
Had they individually killed the same target without being in a wing they would have gotten, respectively, 20k, 31k, 61k and 120k. It should be noted that a four pilot wing is not optimal for killing a 20k bounty
But then this will be the case now anyway.
Combat bonds are currently not shared. They need to be, particularly with my proposed model.
The rules for gaining a share in the reward should loosely follow this:
- You must have caused a minimum % damage to the hull. 5% is probably sufficient.
- Shield damage is not counted towards this quota because shields can regenerate; hull cannot.
- You must cause any damage in the final 15 seconds prior to the destruction of the target.
- Wings don't count as a single entity. Only individuals.
- Once you have qualified for your share, the base value of the target is shared equally between all pilots, player and NPC, that qualified.
- Then, the commanders' own ratings bonus is applied.
For example, an anaconda is destroyed. 6 pilots helped to destroy it.
- Each get 3k base bonds, 18k/3.
- You have expert status and get 15,188. Had you killed the anaconda alone, you would have gotten 91k.
The reason this is essential is to prevent new players abusing the very lenient kill-stealing protection the game currently uses, to simply "tag" anacondas for massive credit rewards. Whilst, at the same time, ensures they can get good rewards for assisting the NPCs and other players - currently, they cannot reliably do so even with the relaxed kill-steal rules. And conflict zones are based on team work, so it doesn't make sense how it is adversarial now.
Whilst some may think it would be faster to solo, and they may be right in some cases, sharing bonds and bounties will mean killing targets much faster. Not only should this mean the net gain is equal,
it means the individual missions get completed much, much faster.
5. Reputation Credits
So, it's time for me to explain this mysterious idea I have!
I was considering all of the above and got to thinking about how reputation could impact how much money you gain for missions. After some considerable thought, I decided it would overly complicate the system and wouldn't really bring anything new to it. I knew reputation would and has been raised in threads relating to missions and combat. So, I thought of ways the reputation system could be used to give a tangible and fun element to the game, giving more purpose to the reputation system and adding variety to how we get rewarded for missions.
That's when I thought of Reputation Credits - referred to as Rep credits from now on.
Rep credits represent the impact your reputation affords you in the galaxy. The more missions you complete successfully, the more credit you earn. Rep credits are represented by a numerical value, visible to the Commander. Successfully completing a mission earns rep credits and you can review how many you've earned in the mission summary.
Think of rep credits as a way of measuring how far people will go to help you out, or give complementary services.
Have a really strong reputation? Need a big repair job done? Here you go, honored Commander, have this one on the house, compliments from our star port!
You've taken on an assassination mission worth 2m credits - oh, hi there, new missions - but you're short on time. Flash your rep about a bit! Spend some rep credits on the mission to get in touch with a local contact who will, just for you, you understand, tell you where to find the target without needing the contract update USS.
So, hopefully you get the gist. This isn't money. You're not buying these services. You're using your reputation to get ahead.
So here are the rules:
- You can only gain rep credits when you complete a mission from a faction that regards you as friendly or allied.
- You can only spend rep credits in a station that regards you as friendly or allied.
- You gain more rep credits from allied factions than from friendly factions.
- Services that you spend rep credits on cost more in friendly stations than allied.
- Rep credits aren't lawful credits. If you have gained reputation with a criminal faction, you still get rep credits completing illegal missions. Instead of getting free stuff for fame, you get it because no one wants you to be upset with them.
- You have one rep credit balance that can be used throughout the galaxy. I've considered having a separate balance for the three main factions, and one independent balance. But it's a bit too convoluted then.
- Rep credits are greatly increased for charitable missions.
- You lose Rep credits whenever you fail a mission.
- Some services that normally cost money have a cap to how many rep credits can be spent. Eg you have 5m rep credits and repairs cost 1.6m. You can spend 1m rep credits as a maximum. Reducing the actual cost to 600k. If you're only friendly, the rep credit cost is doubled, so it costs 2m. Leaving you with 3m rep credits.
This is a list of examples of services and bonuses you could spend your rep credits on:
- Refuelling, re-arming or repairing your ship.
- Purchasing cartography.
- Reducing the cost of your ship rebuy, up to 75% if docked in an allied station, 50% in a friendly station or 25% anywhere else.
- Persuading the security forces to look the other way for any non-murder orientated crimes up to a maximum of 500k - this must be done immediately after being scanned and in the same system. Rep credits can be used to reduce the cost as a settlement, if the cost exceeds the maximum. Rep credits used in this way still require you to dock so pad loitering will still result in getting killed. The purpose of this usage is to reduce petty fine costs.
- Mission usage of rep credits:
- You can spend rep credits on the bulletin board.
- Putting out feelers to local contacts will result in availability of more missions, a particular type of mission you're looking for or to change the current missions available - ie reroll the bulletin board.
- This includes the ability to reveal unique missions unavailable normally
- You can spend rep points when accepting a mission to:
- 1. Advance the mission to later stages where applicable, eg assassination missions can be progressed to the final stage, or increase chance of the USS roll being favourable
- 2. Double the reputation gain for the mission upon successful completion
- 3. Hide your identity and lose no reputation for opposing factions
- 4. Reduce the quota for smuggling, kill, cargo or trade missions
- 5. Increase the time limit for a mission
- 6. Abandon a mission without reputation loss, at a double cost to rep credits
- 7. Get a tip from a contact to tell you a nearby system that sells the commodity you're looking for
- 8. Get a tip about an NPC that is hauling goods you need to steal - updating your contract and allowing you to go pirate an NPC for the goods
- 9. Do the mission for no fee, costing rep credits but tripling your reputation gain.
- Rep credits cannot be used to purchase ships or outfitting, or commodities. These can be sold, so it'd make things messy if you couldn't sell later, had to sell them at a reduced value, etc.
- Rep credit costs are much higher than gains. You will spend them faster than you can gain them. The base reward is 10k per mission. 20k when allied. Rep credits offered will differ depending on the mission.
- There's a maximum limit to your rep credit balance, to encourage using them and discourage hoarding. There's only so much the galaxy will be willing to do for your rep.
There you go. If anyone actually read all the way through to this then I commend you
Please give your own ideas and comments, even if you think my ideas are bad. Thanks for taking the time to read.
