Horizons Help me understand my reputation change..

Highlander71 · Jun 23, 2017

So, I am allied to the Alioth Independents at Rominger Dock in the 78 Ursae Majoris system. I take a Wet Job mission where I have to kill an NPC who turns out to be a member of the Alioth Independents. As per request, I eliminate the NPC (who is not wanted by the way) resulting in my reputation with the Alioth Independents to be degraded from Allied to Friendly. I am having trouble wrapping my head around this mechanic. Even after handing in the mission (to the Alioth Independents, asking me to kill one of their own members), my reputation remains on Friendly.

Is this supposed to happen? Because I expected no negative results from successfully completing a mission.

Thanks!

PS: I forgot to add that I am now wanted in the system where I killed this NPC and also have a bounty on my head! I don't think I'll be taking wet job missions again in the future.

Shadowdancer · Jun 23, 2017

Congratulations, you committed murder

Reputation loss from that act may exceed reputation gains from associated missions, and you will never be allowed to attack a target that is not wanted by local authorities.

Pville_Piper · Jun 23, 2017

You murdering SCUM!!! You'll get what you deserve!!!! [mad]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I don't think the gameplay mechanic is necessarily wrong. I would expect to loose rep for killing a member of a faction, particularly if the NPC wasn't wanted. if you take a skimmer mission with faction "A" and you kill skimmer from faction "B" you will lose rep... But what I don't agree with is if you kill a wanted skimmer that you should lose rep. I can see that with a NPC more than a skimmer.

What I don't like is that if you stay in an area where you have done a lot of trading most of the missions will involve attacking a faction that you have good rep with. It is very rare that you get a mission that sends you out against someone you aren't friendly with. And almost never do they ask you to do these missions 50 ly away where you don't have any rep at all.

I get the whole intrigue thing and every faction is always scheming to get ahead, but really, how about some longer distance missions to systems that you have no rep. I would take more missions if I could do that against other non friendly systems.

Dibiase · Jun 23, 2017

The only thing that seems a little silly to me is that if you kill someone in the middle of space and there aren't any ships around to witness it, you should get away with it. Yet somehow the authorities instantly find out.

Para Handy · Jun 23, 2017

Dibiase said:
The only thing that seems a little silly to me is that if you kill someone in the middle of space and there aren't any ships around to witness it, you should get away with it. Yet somehow the authorities instantly find out.

"Report crimes against me" works for NPCs as well as you.

In an anarchy (lawless) system, you can kill who you like with no comeback as there are no authorities there for the crime to be reported to.

Hope that clears up your confusion.

metatheurgist · Jun 23, 2017

Dibiase said:
The only thing that seems a little silly to me is that if you kill someone in the middle of space and there aren't any ships around to witness it, you should get away with it. Yet somehow the authorities instantly find out.

Gun cameras. Same way they know to bump up your combat ranking. Though they could spell it out by letting you disable them, which should be an instant indicator to authorities that you're up to no good.

Highlander71 · Jun 30, 2017

Shadowdancer said:
Congratulations, you committed murder Reputation loss from that act may exceed reputation gains from associated missions, and you will never be allowed to attack a target that is not wanted by local authorities.

I figured that the reputation loss from the murder was larger than what I gained from doing the mission. The part where I failed, I suppose, is that I didn't abort the mission when I found out who the target was. Which happens only after you've accepted the mission.

Highlander71 · Jun 30, 2017

Pville_Piper said:
You murdering SCUM!!! You'll get what you deserve!!!! [mad]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I don't think the gameplay mechanic is necessarily wrong. I would expect to loose rep for killing a member of a faction, particularly if the NPC wasn't wanted. if you take a skimmer mission with faction "A" and you kill skimmer from faction "B" you will lose rep... But what I don't agree with is if you kill a wanted skimmer that you should lose rep. I can see that with a NPC more than a skimmer.

What I don't like is that if you stay in an area where you have done a lot of trading most of the missions will involve attacking a faction that you have good rep with. It is very rare that you get a mission that sends you out against someone you aren't friendly with. And almost never do they ask you to do these missions 50 ly away where you don't have any rep at all.

I get the whole intrigue thing and every faction is always scheming to get ahead, but really, how about some longer distance missions to systems that you have no rep. I would take more missions if I could do that against other non friendly systems.

There's the thing, really. There's really no way of determining what the net effect will be of your action. It's safer to just abort a mission that sends you after a character that is not wanted and who's a member of a faction you're friendly with. You find those things out while executing the mission. I just should have stopped and aborted the mission, really.

SentineI · Jul 1, 2017

Highlander71 said:
Is this supposed to happen? Because I expected no negative results from successfully completing a mission.

Yes, it is supposed to happen. Confusingly, unlike most OTHER games, Elite Dangerous expects you to actually THINK about what you are doing, instead of just blindly doing as you are told:

If you want to kill an NPC withOUT upsetting any factions (inc the one who gave you the mission!), you must do so ONLY in an Anarchy jurisdiction (where there are no laws or police). If this is not possible (due to how the mission is stated) then don't take the mission... UNLESS you are only after the money/etc.

(And if you can't tell what faction the NPC belongs to before taking the mission, then only take the mission if it occurs in Anarchy systems.)

It's the same kind of thing when a faction mission asks you to smuggle an illegal item into a station owned by that faction. You are still doing something illegal, and if you get caught you will be punished accordingly. Think of it as being asked to do something "off the books" or "behind the politicans' backs". The rewards are higher, but if you get caught then you are on your own...

And even if you are being asked to do something that's only illegal in ANOTHER faction's jurisdiction, if they are part of the Federation or Empire then your reputation with them will go down if you get caught. So again, either don't get caught, or live with the consequences of your actions...

Highlander71 · Jul 2, 2017

ChrisH said:
So again, either don't get caught, or live with the consequences of your actions...

I understand. I've been playing this game for a few years now, but I'm still learning things.

Arry · Jul 3, 2017

To me; this game sets us up to fail. It tries to trip us up at every opportunity. I try to play the good guy, just to escape my psychopathic serial killer real life, existence. Which means that, if I don't know that the target IS a bad guy; I won't be going after them, no matter how many credits they offer me.