Reputation management: I just have no clue

[Romeo]

- Playstyle:
I don't have a combat build. I just want to do missions for contacts I feel I have role play affinities with and engage into the occcasional trade on the way, whenever I can plan a route that say, make me hop from a mining system to a refinery one.

I am more than OK with having low rep with a few factions. The main storyline picks one of them and I am willing to push this fight further. For role play purposes, I am willing to damage my rep with another 2 factions just to support a few handpicked contacts. Let's push it to 3 but that's it.

I try to use the reputation management guide available here on steam guides, especially for encounters. I just don't have a pirate crew with menacing demeanor but surely, this can't be the one and only effective way.


- Contact missions:
Pick a mission in the category that shows a versus icon = lose rep with that faction (obviously).
Pick a mission in the category that only shows your faction icon = lose rep with the faction(s) involved in the mission, because there will be other factions involved none the less.

- Encounters:
Acknowledge faction ships you have positive rep with = lose rep with another faction because of ongoing events
Fight = lose rep
Flee a fight = lose rep
Be attacked by a pirate = lose rep again under this or that condition (c'mon they're flipping pirates! I should be able to stripped them naked and sell their whole familly as slaves)

- Patrolling:
Try to make up for the rep loss with a faction by graciously patrolling a system they own = oppose random other factions and lose rep again.

- Trade:
Buy the expensive permits for the right goods. Do it fo each faction you want business with.
Find the place where the goods are in demand
Find the place where the trade law allows this particular trade
Ready?
= Lose rep. (depending on wich faction owns the system you're trading with AND which other faction owns the quadrant AND the trade wars going on between YOUR -obviously- or any of the two other factions involved...did I get this right?)

At this point this is just getting crazy and I am outlawed here and there but it gets better: I have now been attacked by a merchant of MY OWN faction (I 'm a legendary hero at this point, +186 rep) because (I guess) I was traveling a quadrant owned by a faction with which I have -25 rep). It was an iINSTANT loss. I didnt even get a single round (which I would have used to flee) because my ship was a wreck (couldnt repair anywhere).

I had to quit, this just makes no sense. I can't even imagine what it'd be like if I wanted a combat play. How do you guys manage it?

[fnberger]

it's not so bad. assuming you're playing on basic or normal (all else is... delicate), you want to keep track of faction wars as they will rage only for a limited time. Right, missions can mess up your rep big time, while deep space encounters will less so. Also there are various talents to minimize rep loss, just check the wiki. rep spoiler: The arbiter will offer missions that will gain lots of rep with the faction involved.

[Romeo]

Thanks for your input

I do know about the talents to minimize rep loss and I do use them. The problem is I feel they're just patches and bandaids you use when it's already going south and I had very little means to steer our of south in the first place :)

[Bariel]

Patrolling is definitely the way to go to repair faction - I'm not saying it is easy though, you do have to work at it.

A couple of tips:

1) Don't choose the quadrant that is owned by the faction that hates you to patrol in. Ideally find a world owned by the hating faction, but in a quadrant controlled by a faction you are friendly with - this will reduce the number of travelling encounters with unfriendly ships.

2) If the faction that hates you is involved in a conflict, you will lose rep with the other faction, as you pointed out - however the net "gain" will still be positive. Say you increase your rep by 30 with the hating faction and lose, say, 10 with the opposing faction (numbers made up for illustration). You can then go to a world of the faction you just lost 10 rep with and patrol there - let's say you get the same result, the net gain for both factions is plus 20 rep.

[Bariel]

A few other things that may help:

1) Intel - if you have a contact with the faction that hates you that buys intel, you can sell it to them to repair faction.

2) Pardons - again, if you have the right contact, you can buy your way to positive rep - note that this isn't cheap. Also note that certain coalition contacts will give universal pardons, which may be the easiest (although not the cheapest) way to repair all of your factions.

3) Missions - doing missions will improve rep, although obviously this will hit your rep with another faction. Conflict missions will generally give more rep.

[Ihateeverybody]

The problems are there are no positives to mitagate the negatives. You can only delay the rate of the eventual negatives

Where are the positives (even with certain talents its a net loss) for allowing a ship to be ransomed or even bribed to look the other way. Where is the positives for allowing yourself to be inspected or looted.

Instead they take it as a sign of weakness or whatever. So eventually you stop trying. Even when I had a maxed out ship and crew I couldn't stop destroying ships because, no matter what, Faction kept going down.

I mean it's basicly treat them as they treat you. Kill or be killed. There is no live and let live here. They can't be reasoned with. You get no benefit from withholding a killing blow or letting them go. You can only lessen the loss and at a certain point it's not worth your time.

Their only option is not to engage you and THEY CAN"T NOT ENGAGE YOU. The rules won't let them. Seriously Stop rushing to your death....dummies!

Only thing I can do is hold to certain limitations. I Depart when I can, Bribe when I can (one time, if you won't go after one, well....that's your call). Ransom under -50.....Destroy after (Because I have already lost all accesss to services at that point and chances are you are sending bounty hunters so....yeah. Lets do it.

My only problem is your positive factions don't mean nothing to certain event types (Pirates in the Pirate Fleet Sector Event).

[Funfrock]

The trick to avoiding rep loss from trading is to check with the destination faction before you buy. If your destination is not in a trade conflict, you will not receive a rep penalty for trading. You can always sell your goods to an indie world without penalty, and you can stash your goods in the wilderness if you do have to wait out a conflict.

As for the merchant vessel that attacked you, it's possible this occurred during a trade war conflict, which increases the hostility of merchants. I do not know if it increases their hostility towards vessels of their own faction.

[FAT WANZER]

or do the mission when alliance take place u will gain + rep with 2 faction at once saving time

[Romeo]

First of, thank you guys for your valuable suggestions.

However,

- I read means to get back the rep you lost
- I read means to minimize the rep you lose
- I read means to minimize the chance of losing rep

So it seems y'all too lose rep here and there in an unplanned fashion. Could it be that it's related to game balance? If so, I have to say I dont like that design very much. It's getting in the way of any immersion/in character play. I don't feel I have enough control over what's going on.

Say I am faction A, patrolling a faction B system in quadrant owned by faction A. (see, already using your advice guys)

- "Captain, we've spotted an explorer ship from faction C !"
- "Well let them be, they are barely tolerating us around their facilities and we'll need to fuel on a C system in 2 weeks so just let them pass. Besides, faction B isnt overly grateful for what we're voluntarily doing here so let's just step aside and keep it low."
- "Aye Aye Captain ! Ship intercepted captain !"
- What the ...I don't..."
- "Captain they're preparing to attack! Should we fight so they hate us or flee so they hate us a little less?" Shouldn't we throw money at them too for good measure?
- "Sure let's just flee... we're out of reroll cards anyway... Just don't fire anything and soak it up... And get that jammer jamming so we at least stay in the "hate you but in a friendly way" rep range.

*out in the void*

- "It looks bad captain, what we're gonna do?"
- "It's no biggie really, I know some contact from faction C who is only located 9 jumps away who can fix this easy... provided we're ready to mess with faction Z...
- "What about our rep with faction B captain? We haven't achieved anything yet and that's why we were patrolling in the first place"
- "Forget it, we'll just wait for a contact that grants costly pardons"
- "Captain we've just received a message from a pirate ship from faction D who wants every piece of cargo we have. If we don"t comply, faction D is not gonna like it.."
- "Just fight those thieves off"
- "Pirate's down captain ! Faction D says we're now outlawed in every D quadrant though"
- "Alright alright, everyone calms down just head over this C system so we can heal and repair"
- "Captain, since the last patrolling incident C says they won't allow us anywhere near their medical facilities..."



@Funfrock thank you but I'll have to check those two points:

- I was under the impression that the mere fact of buying goods from my faction (engaged in a trade ban with another faction) would damage my rep with the other faction. So then selling the goods, to whatever other faction, would also damage rep. I'll double check on that.

- Again, I need to check that fact but I think I also lost rep with the other faction when trading inside my own faction while a trade ban event was on.

That might be horsecrap, I'll double check.

[FAT WANZER]

Originally posted by Romeo:

First of, thank you guys for your valuable suggestions.

However,

- I read means to get back the rep you lost
- I read means to minimize the rep you lose
- I read means to minimize the chance of losing rep

So it seems y'all too lose rep here and there in an unplanned fashion. Could it be that it's related to game balance? If so, I have to say I dont like that design very much. It's getting in the way of any immersion/in character play. I don't feel I have enough control over what's going on.

Say I am faction A, patrolling a faction B system in quadrant owned by faction A. (see, already using your advice guys)

- "Captain, we've spotted an explorer ship from faction C !"
- "Well let them be, they are barely tolerating us around their facilities and we'll need to fuel on a C system in 2 weeks so just let them pass. Besides, faction B isnt overly grateful for what we're voluntarily doing here so let's just step aside and keep it low."
- "Aye Aye Captain ! Ship intercepted captain !"
- What the ...I don't..."
- "Captain they're preparing to attack! Should we fight so they hate us or flee so they hate us a little less?" Shouldn't we throw money at them too for good measure?
- "Sure let's just flee... we're out of reroll cards anyway... Just don't fire anything and soak it up... And get that jammer jamming so we at least stay in the "hate you but in a friendly way" rep range.

*out in the void*

- "It looks bad captain, what we're gonna do?"
- "It's no biggie really, I know some contact from faction C who is only located 9 jumps away who can fix this easy... provided we're ready to mess with faction Z...
- "What about our rep with faction B captain? We haven't achieved anything yet and that's why we were patrolling in the first place"
- "Forget it, we'll just wait for a contact that grants costly pardons"
- "Captain we've just received a message from a pirate ship from faction D who wants every piece of cargo we have. If we don"t comply, faction D is not gonna like it.."
- "Just fight those thieves off"
- "Pirate's down captain ! Faction D says we're now outlawed in every D quadrant though"
- "Alright alright, everyone calms down just head over this C system so we can heal and repair"
- "Captain, since the last patrolling incident C says they won't allow us anywhere near their medical facilities..."



@Funfrock thank you but I'll have to check those two points:

- I was under the impression that the mere fact of buying goods from my faction (engaged in a trade ban with another faction) would damage my rep with the other faction. So then selling the goods, to whatever other faction, would also damage rep. I'll double check on that.

- Again, I need to check that fact but I think I also lost rep with the other faction when trading inside my own faction while a trade ban event was on.

That might be horsecrap, I'll double check.

the faction is petty you will lose rep when ur faction trade in trade ban and trade war since it's basically u helping the enemy to have better economy which is why i gave up and made 3 my permanent enemy and the rest revere me as hero

[Trese Brothers]

I will try to find a link to the guide players were posting on how to maintain all positive Rep. The political situation is such that it is expected that you have some friends and enemies. You can def achieve all positive, but it takes extra effort.

It is the nasty state of affairs in Star Traders politics and retribution justice. It's neo-feudal, its catty, its petty -- it is their way. They have built a society around avoiding excessive violence or any form of large scale warfare, and so the little things are watched, monitored and judged harshly.

[davea]

Positive rep spiral guide:
http://startradersrpg.proboards.com/thread/17601/get-positive-reputation-spiral
It's hard to recover once you get negative with everybody, but it isn't hard to start out and get positive with almost everybody.

[Baron]

Patrol works for me early game, when the numbers arent high either pro or neg. Taking four 'Supremacy of Firepower' (s) with my Gunners usually helps with this.

So if Im doing missions that harm another faction ill usually get a bit of rep back from that, early game. But in general I usually pick one or two enemies (Screw you, Rychart) and take missions that screw them over.

There are missions available that screw over noone, however - usually they are available from a 'Alliance' or 'Trade Alliance' state. The mission will tell you - it'll say you are helping both parties. You usually get positive rep from both.

But yeah in general your talents are mimimising or maximising your returns - so If Im going bounties, I DEFINATELY take 'Red Badge' (Lvl 5 bounty Hunter), as it will reduce any rep damage done to like one every time. If Im going ship combat - 'Magnanimous Victory' from the Diplomat. If running diplomacy missions Ill always take 'Adept Mediation' AND 'Upstaged Success' from Diplomat if they have high Charisma.

Using this method usually has me with 3 allies (100+ rep), 2 who kinda hate me (-50 Rep or less) and the others just hover around zero. If it dips too far due to random encounters like you mention, a quick mission for one of their faction, or a couple patrols on a good planet usually get me back into safety. If I want the faction to be okay with me I usally take action when I see them start to close their hospitals to me, as unchecked that will very quickly become hard to escape - you dont want entire sectors closed to refuelling, for example. (Unless they Rychart because I wont buy their suck regardless)

[Romeo]

Alright, thank you guys for those few pointers.

I have to say everything has become super smooth since I got that navigator talent that lets me skip any encounter. (picked it on 2 crew navigators, and paired with some jjammers that really helps). I am still hated here and there but at least I can go on my merry way now and tend to important business, like getting some much needed rep.
Contacts have started to pop everywhere in different factions so that heps too.

I am willing to keep on playing on that save so I wont be able to confirm anytime soon but I really feel i've been pulled in this situation much faster then I could realize, especially when I didnt want a combat play.
Next time I'll start anew I'll be paying close attention to how things can escalate and I'll see how much I am at fault here - And I'll try what the positiv rep spiral guide says -

Again, I dont care for ALL positive Rep. I can definitely say I dont want that at all... But I want full (or pretty much full) control over my rep status with every faction and that's an option I felt I had not been given. Maybe I just missed some important hints and only realized what was happening too late,(negative rep spiral), when I had already lost the good part of any power to bend it the way it suited me.

I'll try to do better next time but for now, I just met a princess who is offering 15% off on new ships :)

[Trese Brothers]

@romeo - full control is a lot to ask of a game that has so many layers. Bribe, use Talents, Patrol and pardon to keep negatives small. Good luck!

[CoryTrese]

In Star Traders, we are playing a nomadic space mercenary that belongs to a caste that exists as a tribal conduit to violence, a property right in a their social hierarchy. As the hand of violent justice, our role often demands that you'll have enemies.

Playing Star Traders: Frontiers we'll have enemies and friends. During our career as a Star Trader, some friends will turn to enemies, some enemies will turn to friends. There is an ebb and flow to Reputation, the Faction's Conflicts and the long remembered hatreds between the Contacts that make up their elite memberships.

Every action has a reaction, every Star Traders pays the price in exchange for our immortality and the freedom of the void.

We will keep working to improve the game and provide support for players in every way we can.