Difference between revisions of "Game Mechanics"

From Fleet
(Success and Failure)
(Mechanics)
Line 365: Line 365:
 
* The base cost to unlock or upgrade an item is 1 FUP.
 
* The base cost to unlock or upgrade an item is 1 FUP.
 
* A Level 1 Upgrade (+/-10% to any attribute) costs 1 FUP, and adds a +5 Ranks requirement to the ship or equipment.
 
* A Level 1 Upgrade (+/-10% to any attribute) costs 1 FUP, and adds a +5 Ranks requirement to the ship or equipment.
* A Level 2 Upgrade (+/-20% to any attribute) costs 2 FUP, and adds a +10 Ranks requirement to the ship or equipment.
+
* A Level 2 Upgrade (+/-20% to any attribute) costs 2 FUP, and adds a +7 Ranks requirement to the ship or equipment.
* A Level 3 Upgrade (+/-30% to any attribute) costs 3 FUP, and adds a +15 Ranks requirement to the ship or equipment.
+
* A Level 3 Upgrade (+/-30% to any attribute) costs 3 FUP, and adds a +9 Ranks requirement to the ship or equipment.
* For any upgrade, you can select a maximum of ONE of each type level upgrade for any combination of attributes, for a total cost of 7 FUP, resulting in a cumulative change of +/-10%, +/-20%, +/-30% to these selected attribute(s), and +30 to the rank requirement for the ship or equipment.<br>
+
* For any upgrade, you can select a maximum of ONE of each type level upgrade for any combination of attributes, for a total cost of 7 FUP, resulting in a cumulative change of +/-10%, +/-20%, +/-30% to these selected attribute(s), and +21 to the rank requirement for the ship or equipment.<br>
 
* Any equipment upgrade that is a +% increase in stats will add the same +% to the equipment space, mass and price. -% upgrades do not increase the space or mass, but do cause the price to be increased by a corresponding amount.<br>
 
* Any equipment upgrade that is a +% increase in stats will add the same +% to the equipment space, mass and price. -% upgrades do not increase the space or mass, but do cause the price to be increased by a corresponding amount.<br>
 
* Any ship upgrade % change in stats will add the same % to the price.<br>
 
* Any ship upgrade % change in stats will add the same % to the price.<br>

Revision as of 12:02, 5 April 2012

Action Points

The action point system in Fleet follows the same principal as the system in 'Pardus.' For those unfamiler with that game:
The action point system ensures that all players can progress equally through the game without depending on the amount of time a player spends playing it. Almost every action that you do (moving, attacking, launching, cloaking, hacking, eating a Mars Bar... The list goes on) uses up action points. Once you don't have enough Action Points (APs) to do an action, you can't do that action! The number of APs you have left are shown in the top left of the screen.
You get APs in two ways:

  1. Every n seconds you get a APs (so they regenerate over time)
  2. Via investing 'Fleet Points'

So the idea is to either play a little often, or spend all your APs once a day or so. The default maximum APs you can get is 86'400. Wow, I hear you say.

Planets

Planets are the most significant structure in the game. It's where you start, and respawn after a death, buy, sell and repair ships and equipment, take missions, and perform a number of other functions, such as hacking trade logs.


Planets consume resources in large quantities compared to player-buildings, and in a suitably well designed economy can take the place of many buildings, and provide food and water for an economy to produce more valuable goods, which can then be sold back to planets for further cash.


Planets will produce thrice a day, 8 hours apart, at approximately 6:40, 14:40, & 22:40 UTC. During this time, the current stock of resources will be calculated, and the upkeep factor (UF) will determine the planet growth. UF is displayed prominently at the bottom of the marketplace trade screen. UF equal to or above 1.0 will result in max population increase. UF of less than .5 will result in population decrease. UF between .5 and 1.0 the population increase is smaller but still positive. This population growth is further constrained by upper and lower limits based on the planet type. Various planet types have different pre-set population limits, so while some may be very profitable to operate at lower populations, other planet types may be able to achieve a much higher population (and hence greater total production) and therefore achieve greater total profits when supplied by a larger network of players.


Inter-planet trade is meant to be a feasible option in Fleet. Planet goods production depends on the UF. All goods produced are pro-rated linearly by the UF, with a maximum production per tick reached at UF>=1. The quantity of goods that would be produced and consumed (or neither) at UF=1 is prominently displayed in the marketplace trade-screen as the "Target Qty" column. Values preceded with a "+" indicate that the planet will produce the indicated quantity of resources if the UF is >= 1. Values preceded with a "-" indicate that the planet will consume the indicated quantity of resources, provided at least that many are available during the planet tick. Values preceded with a "=" indicate that the planet will neither consume nor produce this resource, but it may be stored.


All resources produced on a planet will only increase in quantity until they reach 10x the production/tick value. Surplus production is lost as oversupply. This applies to consumed goods as well; any good sold to the planet beyond 10x the consumed/tick value will be lost as oversupply (This oversupply however will contribute towards upkeep factor until the next tick, when it is lost). The stock of resources produced by the planet does not contribute towards the UF (for example, selling water to a class M planet will not increase UF).


The population of a planet directly effects the number of missions generated, and the target quantities of goods in the marketplace.

Ships

You start the game with a single low-grade Dragon. It will start as an active ship, so you can immediately launch from a planet and begin flying around.

If you purchase additional ships, they will be first put into the hangar of whichever planet you happen to be on when you purchase it. You can access the ship from the Hangar. All players are initially limited to 2 ships. You can purchase additional ship slots as an upgrade.

Hangar

Equipment installed on ships in storage will take normal equipment degradation damage daily, so there is a benefit to uninstalling and reinstalling equipment on ships if you plan to leave ships sitting idle for a significant period of time.

You can only sell ships that are stored in the hangar. You can store your only ship in the hangar and sell it, but this will leave you unable to launch from a planet until you purchase and equip a new ship. If you do not currently have a ship selected while purchasing a new ship, your newly purchased ship will be automatically selected and made active for you.

Faction ships only require membership in the faction in order to purchase, and can be used at any time after purchase.

Selling a ship will cause all installed equipment to be automatically sold for the current pricing available from the outfitter. Any cargo in the ship is lost.

Shipyard

You can view the available ships in the shipyard. Some models may have a minimum XP or competency requirement. Faction ships will always require membership in the faction in order to purchase, and may additional require a minimum faction rank, and/or minimum XP requirement.

Purchasing a ship is a 2-step process requiring 1)selection and 2) confirmation of your purchase.

Equipment

Equipment for ships is available from the "Outfitter" while docked on a planet.

The Outfitter is divided into various sections based on the equipment type. Planets currently offer an unlimited supply of standard equipment. If a planet is controlled by a faction, it also offers all of the unlocked and upgraded equipment and ships belonging to that faction.

When equipment is purchased at the Outfitter, it is automatically installed on your current ship. Equipment can be uninstalled and moved into cargo from the "Uninstall Equipment to Cargo" link on the bottom of the outfitters menu. All equipment that is uninstalled suffers a small condition and durability loss as a result of each uninstall. Equipment that is in cargo can be installed back onto the ship with the "Install Equipment from Cargo" link, also on the outfitters menu.

Some NPC's will drop equipment. Some of this equipment is valuable, and can be sold directly to the outfitter, while others may have no value. You may prefer to store equipment in your building until you choose to use it, or accumulate enough equipment for a certain configuration.

All equipment installed on a ship will take a daily condition loss. Uninstalled equipment will not loose any condition while it is being stored. Each time you repair equipment, it will loose a small amount of durability. Condition loss as a result of damage is inversely proportional to durability - the lower the durability - the higher the condition loss from any given event.

If a piece of equipment looses enough condition, it will break and be forever lost. You will receive a system message notification about these events for each piece of equipment.

Repairing equipment too frequently will cause excessively fast durability loss, which will increase the costs of maintaining equipment until the durability is so low, that it may break from a single event, even if the condition was 100%.

Installing Faction equipment onto a ship from another faction is not possible.

Commodity Resources

There exist multiple types of commodities which can be traded in game. All commodity resources can be purchased and sold on planets, carried in cargo on player ships, and traded with player buildings.

Player buildings only allow trade with the types of resources that their either consume or produce.


Harvesting Resources

Many resources can be harvested, including Hydrogen Fuel, Nebula Gas, Coronal Gas, Light Ore, Heavy Ore, and Precious Ore. In order to harvest resources of a given type, you must have a harvester of the appropriate type installed on your ship.

A special resource harvester, the "Sustainable Hydrogen Harvester" allows you to harvest hydrogen gas up to a predetermined limit. This limit can be set on the "Options" screen, under control options. Settings range from a multiplier of your fuel tank size (1x to 5x), or a fixed volume (1 to 20 m3). You may still carry greater amounts of fuel on your ship then a sustainable harvesters limit, however the limit applies to each collection attempt, preventing unwanted excessive harvesting of hydrogen gas tiles.

The value of a players Harvesting skill directly effects the quantity of resources the player is able to harvest per harvesting attempt. The higher the skill, the greater the amount of the harvest, and additionally, it enables the player to harvest tiles with lower resource values successfully. A small random factor will cause variation in harvesting results.

Skill gain from harvesting correlates to the quantity of resources harvested.

The Marketplace

Commodity Base Price Nominal1
Light Ore 500 800
Heavy Ore 3,500 400
Precious Ore 2,750 100
Light Metal 3,000 500
Ferrous Metal 9,000 200
Heavy Metal 26,000 100
Precious Metal 85,000 20
Food Rations 750 750
Fresh Food 1,750 250
Luxury Food 4,500 50
Water 300 2,500
Anti-Matter 2,000 1,000
Coronal Gas 450 1,500
Nebula Gas 1,100 600
Hydrogen Gas 300 2,000
Raw Carbon 1,800 200
Carbon Hex 24,000 40
Nanobots 15,000 30
Shield Cells 6,000 50
Polymer 2,000 60


1. Nominal is the amount of goods that will be consumed/produced by a one million pop Class-M planet. Other planet classes will produce/consume difference quantities.


Prices for Each Item are determined by...

//insert general formula and b_0 prices

  • At 20x the production/tick or consumption/tick, sell price to the planet reaches 0.


For Example to find the new Buy From and Sell To Prices on the planet for ore after buying 1 Light Ore has been bought...

//Example

Combat

Combat Basics

Some opponents have the capability to block your movement. If you run into such an opponent, you will have two options to proceed:

  • 1. Retreat (with a chance that the opponent with attack you)
  • 2. Defeat the opponent

NPC opponents may ambush you when you move into their space. Each individual NPC opponent may or may not ambush, based on its specific settings.

Player opponents may ambush for opponents based on their policy list. Foes will automatically be attacked for the set number of rounds. An Ambush Computer is required in order to set ambushes. An Ambush teleporter is required in order to use a retreat-location with an ambush, that will automatically teleport the attacker to any location within the same sector. A cloaking device is required in order to attempt to cloak at your retreat-location.

Defeating an opponent will cause all of their cargo to be dropped into a container at the location they were killed. Any player can retrieve the goods from these containers. Containers automatically disappear when they are empty.

NPC opponents will respawn with varying degrees of skills, and their XP value will correlate with their skill value. Higher skilled opponents are generally worth more XP.

Advanced Combat

In Fleet, you have the opportunity to use 'group combat'. This mechanism allows you to defend other players ships and buildings provided that you are at the same tile location as the object you wish to defend and protect.

In group combat, an attacker will simultaneously attack all defenders. It is not possible to attack as a group, however the rules for how defenders can protect each other is simple:

  • Your ship, and building will automatically defend any other ship or building that meets all of these conditions:
    • On the same tile
    • A member of the same Alliance or Faction
    • Not under newbie protection

(attacking a ship that is defended by a building will cost 1,000 APs per attack as if the attacker chose to attack the building)

NPCs can also perform group combat, however NPCs will only defend other NPCs within the same family. For example, a Master Pirate will defend a Rogue Pirate (and vice versa) in group combat, provided that they are at the same location.

Action Point Cost

Rounds AP Cost
1 120
2 237
3 351
4 462
5 570
6 675
7 777
8 876
9 972
10 1065
11 1155
12 1242
13 1326
14 1407
15 1485
16 1560
17 1632
18 1701
19 1767
20 1830
  • If combat ends early, APs used will be the number of actual rounds that took place, not the number of rounds selected. This means that it is always beneficial to select 20 rounds of combat, provided that you think you can survive!

[Ex. 20 rounds selected against space eel, but it dies in 3 rounds. Only 351 APs will be consumed, not 1830]

  • Building combat occurs one round at a time, at a cost of 1000 AP per round

Ambushing

If you purchase the equipment "Ambush Computer" you will be able to set ambushes for other players. If you also have a "Retreat Teleporter" equipped, you will be able to automatically teleport to a pre-set location (when you "set retreat" - you have 15 minutes to activate an ambush which will use a set retreat point.) If you also have a "Cloaking Device" equipped on your ship, you can also select the option to attempt to cloak at the retreat location. Both of these options can be changed at any time during an ambush, but both require the equipment to be preset at the time of update, or setting an ambush. Additionally changes may consume additional AP.

Using a Jump Gate will cause saved retreat points to be reset.


While you are both cloaked, and ambushing, only other players who have you added to their individual policy list can see your ship on the nav map.

Additionally, players who are in newbie protection can not see any cloaked player ships.


The ambush screen offers the possibility to use any combination of Faction, Alliance, and Individual policy lists for target matching. When another player passes on the tile of an ambushing player, the selected policy options are checked for matches of a foelisting.

Matching works such that it first checks Faction policy, then Alliance policy, and then Individual policy. Adding a player or group structure at a lower level as a friendlist or override will prevent a higher level foelisting from triggering.


Example: "Player A", is a member of "Alliance B", and "Faction C", and is in ambush using his individual policy with all matching options checked (Individual, Alliance, and Faction).

"Player D" enters the same tile as "Player A". "Player D" is a member of "Alliance E" and "Faction F".


The sequence of events is such:

  • Check "Faction C" Policy for foed factions (causes a target match)
  • Check "Faction C" Policy for friendlisted or override factions (causes a target to not match)
  • Check "Faction C" Policy for foed alliances (causes a target match)
  • Check "Faction C" Policy for friendlisted or override alliances (causes a target to not match)
  • Check "Faction C" Policy for foed individuals (causes a target match)
  • Check "Faction C" Policy for friendlisted or override individuals (causes a target to not match)
  • Check "Alliance B" Policy for foed factions (causes a target match)
  • Check "Alliance B" Policy for friendlisted or override factions (causes a target to not match)
  • Check "Alliance B" Policy for foed alliances (causes a target match)
  • Check "Alliance B" Policy for friendlisted or override alliances (causes a target to not match)
  • Check "Alliance B" Policy for foed individuals (causes a target match)
  • Check "Alliance B" Policy for friendlisted or override individuals (causes a target to not match)


  • Check "Player A" Policy for foed factions (causes a target match)
  • Check "Player A" Policy for friendlisted or override factions (causes a target to not match)
  • Check "Player A" Policy for foed alliances (causes a target match)
  • Check "Player A" Policy for friendlisted or override alliances (causes a target to not match)
  • Check "Player A" Policy for foed individuals (causes a target match)
  • Check "Player A" Policy for friendlisted or override individuals (causes a target to not match)


The entire 18 step sequence is checked, and at the end of the process, if a match exists, the ambush will trigger.


Test Case:

  • Faction C has Faction F added as a Foe
  • Alliance B has Faction F added as a Friend
  • Player A has Alliance E added as a Foe
  • Faction C has Faction F foelisted, this will cause a match at the faction policy level.
  • Alliance B has Faction F friendlisted, this will cause a non-match condition.
  • Player A has Alliance E foelisted, which will cause a match for the individual policy.

Therefore, the ambush would trigger on Player D.

Buildings

Buildings produce three times per day, about 40 minutes before planet ticks. The time until next tick can be found under "set prices" in your building, remotely accessed from anywhere by clicking your name at the top left and then clicking a building.

Building Production/Consumption

You can upgrade your buildings production level by using resources. Each upgrade of production level increases the production and consumption of the building, so it makes and uses more goods, but it also does so more efficiently, so it can earn more money over time the higher the level.

Production increases by 10% per level.
Consumption increases by 9% per level.

The formulas are as follows (assuming level is the current production level of the building and n is the amount of commodities required/produced at level 1).

Production = n * (1.1level - 1)
Consumption = n * (1.09level - 1)


Goods are produced in fractional quantities, but you can only trade with buildings in whole unit values.

Building Upgrade Costs

Capacity

Buildings are not constrained by mass requirements, only size.

Assuming cap is current capacity of the building.

floor(cap / 10 - 9) Light Metal
max(0, floor(cap / 20 - 9)) Ferrous Metal (Starting at 200 capacity)
max(0, floor(cap / 50 - 9)) Heavy Metal (Starting at 500 capacity)
max(0, floor(cap / 100 - 9)) Precious Metal (Starting at 1,000 capacity)

Production

Assuming level is the current production of the building.

10 + floor(level1.75) Light Metal
2 + floor(level1.5) Ferrous Metal
1 + floor(level1.25) Heavy Metal
floor(level / 2) Precious Metal (Starting at production 2)
floor(5.5 * level) Anti-Matter

Modules

Buildings come equipped with one module slot when first built.
Additional modules slots can be upgraded with the following metal costs:

Assuming modules is the current number of module slots on the building.
8 + floor(modules1.5) Ferrous Metal
4 + floor(modules1.25) Heavy Metal
1 + floor(n / 2) Precious Metal


Buildings are limited to a maximum of 12 installed combat modules.

Non Combat Modules
  • Tractor Beam has a 20% chance to activate on each building combat round.
  • Advanced Tractor Beam works identically to the TB except that it has a chance to hold the attacker equal to: (1 / (attacker ship size ^ 0.3)) The Advanced Tractor Beam requires 250,000 experience to purchase.
  • Each round there is a single chance to activate the Tractor Beam.
  • Additional rounds consume additional AP at the rate of 1000 AP per round.
  • Only one TB or ATB will work on a building at a time. If a building has both TB and ATB installed, only the Tractor Beam will function. Additional installed tractor beam modules do not provide additional chances to tractor opponents.

Alliances

Alliances are loosely bound structures that will allow any player to be a member, with no limitations or restrictions.

Alliances offer a private alliance-only Chat channel, a central banking system, a centrally managed alliance policy (which can be used in ambush settings), and the ability to defend same-alliance members automatically when engaged in combat at the same location.

Factions

Factions are more tightly bound structures that require members to maintain loyalty (a positive reputation) with respect to itself. Any player who destroys the ship of another player (when not a result of self-defense) will loose reputation in the faction that the destroyed players ship belongs to. Attaining a negative reputation in ones own faction will immediately cause expulsion from, and loss of faction membership.

Factions enjoy the same benefits as alliances: they have their own private faction-only chat channel, a central banking system, and a centrally managed policy list (which also can be used in ambush settings) and the ability to defend same-faction members automatically when engaged in combat at the same location.

In addition, factions benefit from being able to take control of planets (see FAB), offer faction missions (which earn the faction influence and credits), and other specialized benefits as below.

Benefits

  • Factions offer 8 different specialties (Guns | Turrets | Ammo | Missiles | Engines | Specials | Shields | Ships).
  • Factions may choose only 2 specialties.
  • Factions can upgrade or unlock items only within their chosen specialties.
  • Unlocked or upgraded items are available to all faction members with sufficient rank.
  • Factions earn a bonus of 10% of all Influence that it's members complete in Faction Missions.
  • Factions earn a 10% credit bonus for the reward of all faction missions that its members complete. This bonus is deposited instantly and silently into the Faction Funds upon completion of faction missions.
    • The total amount of influence and credits that each member has individually contributed can viewed on the faction member details page (provided that the faction leader has given permissions to this page).
  • There are reputation consequences for killing a Faction member. Killing another player in self defense (with your ship on the right side of the combat) will never have a reputation consequence, but willfully killing another player who is also a faction member will cause your reputation for the victims faction to be decreased based on the victims rank.
  • The current 8 Faction Specialties provide for 28 possible permutations of faction specialization.

Mechanics

  • The leader of a faction must select 2 specialties for their faction before they can convert earned Influence into Faction Upgrade Points.
  • All members of a faction will have their faction influence bonus automatically contributed to the faction influence pool.
  • Faction Upgrade points will cost different amounts of faction influence (available only from the faction influence pool), based on the factors (multipliers) of the selected specialties for that faction.
    • Example: Combining Guns (1.5x) and Ships (1.5x) specialties will result in a 2.25x increase in the influence cost to purchase 1 Faction Upgrade Point.
  • Each Faction Upgrade Point costs more Influence points then the previous point (increasing cost per point).
  • Faction upgrade points can be used to unlock equipment, and to upgrade equipment.
  • Unlocking faction specialty equipment (available only to faction members with the chosen specialty) without upgrading it costs 1 FUP, and leaves the rank requirements unchanged from that of the base device.
  • The base cost to unlock or upgrade an item is 1 FUP.
  • A Level 1 Upgrade (+/-10% to any attribute) costs 1 FUP, and adds a +5 Ranks requirement to the ship or equipment.
  • A Level 2 Upgrade (+/-20% to any attribute) costs 2 FUP, and adds a +7 Ranks requirement to the ship or equipment.
  • A Level 3 Upgrade (+/-30% to any attribute) costs 3 FUP, and adds a +9 Ranks requirement to the ship or equipment.
  • For any upgrade, you can select a maximum of ONE of each type level upgrade for any combination of attributes, for a total cost of 7 FUP, resulting in a cumulative change of +/-10%, +/-20%, +/-30% to these selected attribute(s), and +21 to the rank requirement for the ship or equipment.
  • Any equipment upgrade that is a +% increase in stats will add the same +% to the equipment space, mass and price. -% upgrades do not increase the space or mass, but do cause the price to be increased by a corresponding amount.
  • Any ship upgrade % change in stats will add the same % to the price.
  • Multiple upgrades on a single stat are allowed (ex: applying each of +10%, +20% and +30% to base Phase Drive speed 90, results in speed 144.
  • Upgrades can only be applied to original non-upgraded equipment. Upgrading previously upgraded equipment is not possible.
  • All players can view any factions available upgraded equipment or ships at ONLY that specific factions controlled planets.
  • Upgraded equipment is permanent and can not be undone.

Control and the FAB

  • Factions can take control of a planet by building a Faction Administration Building (FAB) from the 'Planet Buildings' menu. Once per week (Early morning Monday GMT time) all planets will change their faction alignment to the same as that of the FAB above the planet, or they will revert to neutral if no FAB is present.
  • In order to supplant the control of a different faction over a planet, you must destroy the current FAB, and your faction leader (or a member with FAB control permissions) must build a replacement.
  • Factions may currently own a maximum of 6 FABs (this will be dependent on the number of planets in the universe in the future).
  • Constructing a FAB currently costs no resources or AP, but they come with no defenses, and consume no resources (at this time).

Missions

Benefits

  • Missions provide players with:
    • Credits
    • Influence
      • General Influence is required in order to (manually) advance in your distinction (neutral rank).
      • Faction Influence is required in order to (manually) advance your Faction Rank.
      • To calculate the needed influence to obtain the next rank and assuming n is your current rank/distinction: n4 + 10
    • Reputation
  • Missions provide Factions with:
  • Faction missions don't go away until after they expire naturally. Takes about 24 hours for it to happen

Types

  • Kill NPC @ Sector - Coordinates
    • The mission prize is awarded upon completion of killing the NPC at the target coordinates.
    • You must kill the NPC in order to reiceve the payout and influence.
    • If the NPC dies before you can kill it, the deposit is not refunded, but there is no other penalty
  • Kill [X] NPCs of a certain type
    • Any NPC's of the appropriate type qualify towards this goal. Reaching the designated quantity before time runs out will result in the awarding of the prize.
  • Deliver a package to a destination
    • Package size (in m3) is the controlling factor the for influence reward for these missions. The greater the volume of packages, the greater the influence reward.
    • Package mass (in t) varies randomly. The density of package missions varies between 1 t/m3 and 4 t/m3.
    • Package mission destinations are chosen randomly from all possible planets in the same cluster as the origin of the mission. Package missions will never have the same planet as the destination.
    • Packages can be transferred to another player, who can then complete the mission for the original mission acceptor, however the player who completes the mission will receive the influence, reputation, deposit, and reward.

Success and Failure

  • Successful completion of a mission will:
    • pay out the deposit and the reward to the player that completes the mission
    • pay out an additional 1/10th of the reward to the faction credits pool
      • There is no log of individual transactions, but the individual totals are listed under Policy->My Faction->View Member Details.
    • Grant the specified influence
    • Grant an additional 1/10th the specified influence to the faction influence pool when completing faction missions
      • Again, there is no log of individual transactions, but the individual totals are listed under Policy->My Faction->View Member Details.
    • Grant reputation (at 1:1 by the maximum available rank of the mission)
  • Failure of a mission will:
    • Reward is lost, the deposit is also lost
    • Cause a loss of influence ((Mission level or NPC Rank) * -4)
    • Cause no change in reputation

Influence

Rank gain in each of neutral distinction, and faction rank are granted through influence upgrades. Completing Neutral missions grants neutral influence, while completing faction missions grants faction influence for the respective faction only.

In order to progress to the next rank, you must manually apply for a rank increase (in policy). If you have sufficient influence available to meet the next rank requirements, the influence required will be deducted, and the new rank will be granted.

Loosing distinction or rank is not possible at this time, except for loosing faction rank, as a consequence of loosing faction membership.

Loss of faction membership is possible through attaining a negative reputation in that specific faction (through PvP killing, for example), or from being kicked from the faction.

Reputation

Presently reputation values provide few effects, but will (at a future time to be determined) also control access to services at faction controlled planets

Messaging

"SHOCK HORROR! THERE'S NO REPLY BUTTON!!
What to do!! I'd recommend first raising your fist to the sky and shouting phrases such as 'I WANT TO EAT SOMETHING BAD FOR MY HEALTH!' in a deep voice - just for laughs. Otherwise, you can just click on the link which is the person's name (the person being the person who sent the message. So if the message was from 'Bill,' just click on his name next to the bit in the message where it says 'from.')
"LACKADAY! I CAN'T SEE THE SEND BUTTON!!
Either something's not quite right with your browser or you SERIOUSLY need to check your eyesight... Either way, you can also use the hotkey(s) ctrl+alt+S to send it instead ;P
"QU'EST CE LA HECK? WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU ON ABOUT?"
Messages are a form of private communication between players. Unhappy over not receiving any? Get some friends :D You can also communicate to players in 'chat.' It's all found under 'comms' - you can't miss it!

Homeworlds

The planet's population must be at least 250k for you to set it as your home.
Setting a new homeworld costs 50,000 APs.
If a planet is controlled by a faction, you must also be a member of that faction in order to set your homeworld there...
Neutral (non-faction) planets may be selected as a homeworld by anyone provided that the planet meets the 250k minimum population requirement.

That's life.