The unbalanced guilds

[kschang77]

Rising in rank (and money) seems to be MUCH easier in Mercenaries Guild than in Merchant's Guild, that the game is unbalanced (somewhat)

Merchant's Guild missions generally are low-stakes, +5, +10, has ANYONE ever seen like a +15 or +20 Merchant mission?

And the missions... the ones where you have to source the stuff they specify (which means travel to several stations) and deliver? Takes more than a few hops to find enough of it. All to make a million. Nobody do those missions, ever.

You can make a million in Mercenaries guild in 3 minutes. Take the mission, warp there, kill the target. Heck, you can make TWO million if it's tough enough.

Merchant Guild needs to have a lot more bounty missions and escort missions.

[Hohn Jelldiver]

Originally posted by kschang77:

Merchant's Guild missions generally are low-stakes, +5, +10, has ANYONE ever seen like a +15 or +20 Merchant mission?

"Free Trade" missions give a +32 to merchant's if I recall correctly

[Geek]

Well that is odd, I always found it to be the opposite.
I can easily find +25 and +50 missions for the Merchants, even in the first system.
All Mercs missions are below 25 (not counting Cofax series), some less than 10.

[kschang77]

Really? That's interesting. May have to go back and check.

[cdarklock]

Originally posted by kschang77:

the game is unbalanced

It sounds to me like you just DON'T LIKE what it takes to rise in Merchant's Guild ranks. You're taking missions where what you have to do is fiddly and time-consuming and you don't think it's fun.

Well, stop that. Take missions you like.

The mercenaries guild, for example, keeps offering me escort missions. Escort missions suck, because it infuriates me how slow and stupid the ship I'm escorting is during warp pairing, so I don't take them.

EDIT: On "source" missions, what you're really looking for is something like this. Same station.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=855397496

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=855397604

[kschang77]

Chances of being able to source the same commodity as the mission is minimal, esp. not for the high paying stuff.

I have no problem running cargo missions if it is as simple and offers the same payoff/time ratio as the mercenary missions. Even assuming you just run the missions, the high paying ones are one or two jumps away, which means taking a ship with proper cargo extender, lots of EMP and a good afterburner to run past any opposition.

FWIW, I don't like the escort missions either.

[ronin_salsolo]

My main issue with the missions where you need to source your own items are the scarce ones, such as Data Cubes or Intellectual Property in large allotments, where the primary in-system export stations are hostile to you.
I've found, however, if you get to a friendly station that sells at least one of the items you're looking for, you can save scum the game into offering more of them at the same location by purchasing what is available, exiting the station, and then exiting to title. Upon continuing the game, another one will usually pop up in the commodities market.
Doing this does seem to cause the price of the items to fluctuate, but I consider that a small price to pay for the time I save not having to warp through out the system trying to hunt down 15 Data Cubes.

[cdarklock]

This so does not make sense to me.

If you don't think sourcing items is fun, why even take the mission?

I mean, there is a certain type of player who likes to write down the prices for every item at every station and keep track of where the best place to get everything is. And that guy is going to think source missions are AWESOME, because the way he likes to play the game makes him really good at them.

But if you're not that player, you might not like them. So, you know, just don't do them.

[Zidders 'Rockin' Bard' Roofurry]

Originally posted by kschang77:

Merchant Guild needs to have a lot more bounty missions and escort missions.

I agree with the bounty thing but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ escort missions.

[kschang77]

At least you can shoot people on escort missions.

Running around different stations looking for the commodity at random is more meh.

[cdarklock]

Originally posted by kschang77:

Running around different stations looking for the commodity at random

Well, there's your problem.

What you want to look for is the type of economy. That dictates what kind of goods are sold on a given station. Like if you want munitions, you want to look at Manufacturing, Militaristic, Impoverished, Scientific, Mining, and Trade Hub economies.

Similarly, the type of government at a station dictates what is and isn't illegal, so if you have space slaves to sell (or you'd like to buy some) you want Divided, Capitalist, or Theocracy stations.

There's a system underneath this, and if you're not going to learn it, the missions are going to be a lot harder. Kind of like if you never buy your own weapons and just install whatever you happen to find lying around in junk fields.

[killerproblem]

Hmm I've found that my merchant faction goes up faster than the mercenary (excluding the cofax missions) as merchant faction is on many of the common missions available at all the stations... Unless you play pirate. Then it's much slower.
I've seen lots of merchant missions giving 16+ and rarely get more than 10 from each merc mission.... The cargo hauls tend to be quick and easy and the dead drops are also quick... Don't even have to fire a shot if your looking to just make a quick buck... But then i don't like flying any ship bigger than a destroyer, the DN's all feel clumsy and awkward to me...

And yes the escort missions suck... I'd do some if they paid at LEAST twice as much.

[cdarklock]

Originally posted by killerproblem:

(excluding the cofax missions)

I'm pretty sure Cofax is militia.

I'd do some if they paid at LEAST twice as much.

You honestly can't pay me enough to do an escort mission. If it's not part of the storyline, I ain't doing it, and if you give me an alternative I'll take it. Like "Moving Fragment" when that idiot tells me to escort him. Nope, I'll just blow you the ♥♥♥♥ up and take it.

[Geek]

Originally posted by cdarklock:

I'm pretty sure Cofax is militia.

Not sure which faction he is from (although he speaks about the Merc Guild the first time), but Cofax missions give significant Mercs points.

[kschang77]

With the mod it's easy to get Merchant Guild rating up by rescuing freighters with distress calls.

[kschang77]

Each "career path" should be equally rewarding.

Shooting ships makes a lot more money than carrying cargo around. That's the complaint.

Mercernaries vs. Merchant's guild reputation is a symptom of that.