Rep Decay Is Such A Bad Joke = FDev Says Players Go Away

[Kubicide]

Have to laugh at the posters that are 'white-knighting' or defending FDevs silly change to add in the rep decay. I've been against it since the start. And have chuckled at both the devs and the fanboys that have replied to threads saying that the allied status can be recovered back "in only a few missions...". No. It cannot be back in "only a few missions". As an experiment, for the past few months since this wonderful 'feature' was added by the devs, I've been able to come up with a pattern that shows that it seems to take at least 4+ hours of continuous gameplay with random missions plus >100,000 donations / contributions to get back to allied. If you stop this continuous 4-hr period plus donations then it takes longer. If you don't donate it takes longer. If you go off and do 'other stuff' in between it takes much longer. But your decay continues while offline and happens very quickly.

Have to say that this was the stupidest change the devs have ever done so far to this unfinished game. There's a few other bad things not far behind this one but this is the best 'bad move' so far.

Ask yourself what value does this silly rep decay bring to the game? Does it make you enjoy the game more and want to make you play it more often because it's a fun thing?

 

[Johaunna]

There are smart people at the FD , they know how to entertain their fans.

 

[Loskene]

I think the idea is that you're not meant to be allied with everyone at once, only areas you spend a lot of time working in. That said I haven't seen the kind of difficulties you've had regaining rep. My Empire rep went down to friendly, and then I started doing the 100 stop imperial trade route in the anaconda. I was back to allied with everyone like a quarter of the way through it.

 

[xmediawork]

Rep decay is a good thing in which it helps motivate players to keep active with the power play. The bad thing about it is that the decay is too darn high, I'm not quitting the faction but I won't be doing the merit runs anymore because of this high decay rate.

 

[h347h]

Have to laugh at the posters that are 'white-knighting' or defending FDevs silly change to add in the rep decay. I've been against it since the start. And have chuckled at both the devs and the fanboys that have replied to threads saying that the allied status can be recovered back "in only a few missions...". No. It cannot be back in "only a few missions". As an experiment, for the past few months since this wonderful 'feature' was added by the devs, I've been able to come up with a pattern that shows that it seems to take at least 4+ hours of continuous gameplay with random missions plus >100,000 donations / contributions to get back to allied. If you stop this continuous 4-hr period plus donations then it takes longer. If you don't donate it takes longer. If you go off and do 'other stuff' in between it takes much longer. But your decay continues while offline and happens very quickly.

Have to say that this was the stupidest change the devs have ever done so far to this unfinished game. There's a few other bad things not far behind this one but this is the best 'bad move' so far.

Ask yourself what value does this silly rep decay bring to the game? Does it make you enjoy the game more and want to make you play it more often because it's a fun thing?

Rep decay does not affect minor factions, and it only decays to 90% of friendly. Its not a big deal.

 

[Argus Leadhead]

I don't think it's really a big deal at all. Much adieu about nothing if you ask me. I've had my Imperial rep drop down to friendly a few times since the update. All it took was me playing normally in Empire space like I usually do and I'm back at allied. It's not like it goes back to neutral and it's not like the meager benefits of being "allied" are all that great either. Besides the words on your faction tab and the greeting stations give you, I don't get why people are pitching a fit over this... Must be a huge deal with the size of this mountain... Wait I meant to say mole-hill.

 

[OnePercent]

for me i couldn't really care, since the only reason i got allied was a by product of becoming a serf, So i could get the clipper or courier, thats my take.

 

[h347h]

Well, I actually have one concern: I'm trying to build up Imperial rank. I've been content with Baron until now, but I have no idea when they'll decide to come out with the next (maybe final?) rank of large imperial ship, and I figure I won't want to grind it all at once, so I'm doing it now. I've been missioning for a week and haven't gotten a rank progression, and I'm concerned that my rep decay has set me back on that. If it has, then that's going to be a little bit of a problem. But, hopefully not much of one.

Reputation has nothing to do getting ranks now after 1.3. After unfriendly it doesn't matter one bit.

 

[Eagle Eye]

The decay stops at friendly but "almost" allied state. Most of the time my Alliance rep is in maximum decay state and every time I mass about 100k-200k worth of bounty (since I operate out of the alliance space) I head there to keep my list clean. That bumps me to allied for a few days. A page of random exploration data will do the same thing. I don't even see why you need to keep grinding it. Let it go back to friendly & just cash in a bit of bounty/map when you need the allied state (no idea why since it's useless). It's a non-issue.

 

[Darth Ender]

if rep decay really upsets you then maybe you should leave. Not sure those kind of players who want to do a little initial work and have it evergreen'd for free forever are good for the playerbase. Also that kind of mechanic puts players at uneven playing fields depending on when they started playing as patches change and modify the difficulty of attaining ranks/reputation. Having to continually maintain it is much more fair in the long term (think years down the road).

 

[CrustyGoth]

Only ever takes me 1 or 2 missions to get back to allied and most of the time it just happens without me noticing.

Can't understand why some people get upset about it - what exactly is it you're losing by being friendly and not allied?

 

[Kubicide]

Looks like my math was off: it's more like 6hrs of continuous play to recover back to get over the allied threshold. So it's 20 days from max rep(?) according to FDev to fully decay into friendly, and it's at least 4-6hrs to gain the basic amount back. But its possibly much higher to recover what was taken away. No one knows for certain as to how much effort is required to (re)earn max. rep as FDev haven't declared what the max values. It could take 20hrs to recover what 20hrs took away. Nice.

Love the responses so far: perhaps I should leave the game for good (and not give FDev any more money) and so should many other players; it's not a big deal but, frankly, nothing else is a big deal in this game either other than pointing out its an achievement/reward for progress; nothing to be upset about except there's very few achievements/rewards in this shallow game today and if earning and losing rep means nothing then why take it away - if it means nothing then why did FDev implement this feature? Think about that last point. If rep = nothing then why develop any feature to take it away...

- - - Updated - - -

Only ever takes me 1 or 2 missions to get back to allied and most of the time it just happens without me noticing.

Can't understand why some people get upset about it - what exactly is it you're losing by being friendly and not allied?

I really doubt this claim unless you play real close to within the decay started. It does not take "only 1 or 2" missions to become allied again. No, it doesn't.

 

[CrustyGoth]

I really doubt this claim unless you play real close to within the decay started. It does not take "only 1 or 2" missions to become allied again. No, it doesn't.

I can only tell you about my game but yes it really does.

 

[Arkantes]

Looks like my math was off: it's more like 6hrs of continuous play to recover.

I don't like the new "feature" at all, I feel like it brings nothing to the game and was just wasted dev time, but could we have a look at your maths?

 

[Chann3l]

This post is almost insulting. They are "fanboys" because from their experience it has only taken a couple missions? And devs have even said it doesn't decay below the top end of friendly. Maybe you are doing stuff that's actually dropping your rep have you thought about that as a possibility? I went from neutral to allied with less than 4 hours of doing federation missions. Sometimes I don't play for several days at a time and I'm still allied. It really shouldn't take more than a couple missions unless you are doing activities that actually cause your rep to drop.

 

[Kubicide]

I don't like the new "feature" at all, I feel like it brings nothing to the game and was just wasted dev time, but could we have a look at your maths?

It would probably scare you

Interesting how everyone avoids the question of if this means nothing then why did FDev develop such a feature? You'd think the dev's wouldn't waste time introducing a game mechanic that had absolutely no value or influence.

 

[Iskariot]

Have to laugh at the posters that are 'white-knighting' or defending FDevs silly change to add in the rep decay. I've been against it since the start. And have chuckled at both the devs and the fanboys that have replied to threads saying that the allied status can be recovered back "in only a few missions...". No. It cannot be back in "only a few missions". As an experiment, for the past few months since this wonderful 'feature' was added by the devs, I've been able to come up with a pattern that shows that it seems to take at least 4+ hours of continuous gameplay with random missions plus >100,000 donations / contributions to get back to allied. If you stop this continuous 4-hr period plus donations then it takes longer. If you don't donate it takes longer. If you go off and do 'other stuff' in between it takes much longer. But your decay continues while offline and happens very quickly.

Have to say that this was the stupidest change the devs have ever done so far to this unfinished game. There's a few other bad things not far behind this one but this is the best 'bad move' so far.

Ask yourself what value does this silly rep decay bring to the game? Does it make you enjoy the game more and want to make you play it more often because it's a fun thing?

As you already labeled anyone with an opinion that differs from yours, or with an opinion that is more nuanced than yours as being a fanboy, I can't imagine that you would be interested in anything I'd have to say.
But here it goes:

I do not mind the rep decay at all. It is quite minor. I think it adds a touch of realism.
For example I have not been in Federal space for 6 weeks or so and have not had contact with my federal allies or done jobs for them.
It feels realistic and acceptable to me that my rep would decay a bit.

The only thing I think should be changed a bit is the speed of it.
I feel the decay should be a tad slower.
That is all.

Merit decay is much more harrowing than rep decay.
I wish that had the speed of rep decay.

 

[Arkantes]

It would probably scare you

Doubtful, I'm a physicist.

 

[CrustyGoth]

Interesting how everyone avoids the question of if this means nothing then why did FDev develop such a feature? You'd think the dev's wouldn't waste time introducing a game mechanic that had absolutely no value or influence.

Because it means something at the other end of the scale when the difference between hostile and unfriendly means quite a lot. This is just the by product of that.

 

[Kubicide]

This post is almost insulting. They are "fanboys" because from their experience it has only taken a couple missions? And devs have even said it doesn't decay below the top end of friendly. Maybe you are doing stuff that's actually dropping your rep have you thought about that as a possibility? I went from neutral to allied with less than 4 hours of doing federation missions. Sometimes I don't play for several days at a time and I'm still allied. It really shouldn't take more than a couple missions unless you are doing activities that actually cause your rep to drop.[/QUOTE

Who is this insulting? Back to the point here which is as a casual player I go away for XX days at a time and come back having to spend a great deal of time to recover a certaine aspect of the game that was taken away. This is bizarre, and I cannot think of any other game that does this or has done this - a game that takes away earned progress because you are not playing. Glad you haven't been affected and have the time to play daily; many people don't. And if FDev keep forcing this style of needing to pay daily then this game certainly won't be around long.

EDIT: I blew it. The right response was to say "it's only insulting to fanboys or white-knights - which one are you?"