FAQ: How to fix your faction with criminals for trading

Wed Mar 19, 2003 5:51 pm by O-O-O

Ok, I bought the game and like every n00b started doing lots of Bar missions for cash. Before I knew it, I was max negative faction to all the criminal elements and it became a chore to travel anywhere. I wanted to start trading but there was no chance since I would get attacked by some faction or another everytime I would take any jump or trade gate. Here is how I fixed the problem:

All criminal factions hate bounty hunters so I needed to find a high concentration of them and keep killing untill the criminal factions I needed to trade with went way up. The point I was in the game where I started this was after mission 5 and the Britonian systems are open

Sheffield station in the Manchester system is all bounty hunter faction, so I based myself at a Birmingham station for supplies and to sell loot. Sheffield is one tradelane gate away and its perfect. When you leave birmingham station you always have bounty hunters to kill before you even take the trade gate. I decided to run raids on Sheffield until I got my factions up but in the process I found something very interesting..

Outside the station there are cargo holds that hold varios high priced trade commodities. The Silver canister contaiers hold H-fuel and sells back to Birmingham station for 396 per unit. This was a gold mine. Each raid I would fly up and attack thier cargo containers and would tractor in 30 H-fuels for about 12,000 credits, while doing so, killing like 10-15 bounty hunters each way. In like 4-5 raids I was non-attack faction with all the criminals (except Mollys) and had enough money to start my trading

After I got the faction I wanted, I had about 80k and went to Mactan and bought a Dromidary. This Freighter ship holds 275tones. I am doing water from planet Leeds to LD-14 50% profit and then MOX from LD-14 to Mactan for 110% profit using the hidden jump holes in each system. Each run is 10 minutes max and gets me about 75k per loop. Good cash until the Berlin and Tokyo systems open for diamond trading

Wed Mar 19, 2003 10:48 pm by raeryn

Good post, but just for info, I think diamonds to cambridge from london, then construction machinery back, could be more profitable (or is it the other way around?), and tradelanes all the way. Could be wrong, it's been a while.
I was making about 50k per round trip like this only in a 125 cargo clydesdale.

Wed Mar 19, 2003 11:18 pm by Ether Dragon

There's a number of ways to quickly alter your criminal faction. If you have the money, the easiest, and least painful, method is to bribe the faction in question, or one of it's allies.

If you don't mind making some enemies along the way, you can attack the supply depots of your chosen faction's enemy. The Bounty Hunters have a couple that work well for this purpose. Fill up your cargo hold each time you attack for some quick wealth. You'll need it for bats-n-bots when you start getting jumped outside every base by angry Hunters.

In the absence of supply depots, you can attack the enemy ships and weapon platforms. Going after the Xenos bases in Colorado, Kepler, or Texas(?) is a good bet, since they're universally hated.

Wed Mar 19, 2003 11:24 pm by O-O-O

The neat thing about killing bounty hunters is that nobody likes them so you dont take any negative faction hits killing them. Also raising 4 criminal factions to non-agressive at the cost of having bounty hunters hate you is very worth it and manageable. 5-6 agressive factions means you cant go anywhere w/out getting swarmed. The bounty hunters are a joke and easily delt with

Wed Mar 19, 2003 11:27 pm by idlepure

The only people I think you need to be on green terms with ever are the Outcasts and Corsairs. (Depending if you want a Titan or Sabre and the good equipment)

The rest can all stay neutral and carefully selecting different factions supply depots to blow up is much faster, higher reaction adjustment then shooting down ships. They also don't come with as much of a negative as bribes and doesn't cost any money

They said it's impossible for everyone to like you but what about everyone to be neutral?

Wed Mar 19, 2003 11:32 pm by Ether Dragon

The bad thing with pissing off the Bounty Hunters is that they are common throughout the galaxy. You'll find them at every base, and doing patrols in the middle of nowhere. Having gone that route myself, I can tell you I wasted little time in trying to get back in their good graces. It's no fun being attacked by overwhelming odds every single time you leave a base or planet. I died about a dozen times in this fashion before I was able to escape through a trade lane.

Attacking the bounty hunters also has a minor faction shift for the police forces. While I stopped actively attacking the bounty hunters before the police got into the act, the Bounty Hunter's continued attacks nearly got me in trouble. It was funny to see my powerful heavy fighter running from a dinky Pirhana so as to not make my faction woes any worse. Kind of like watching a small bird chase a hawk out if it's area.

Wed Mar 19, 2003 11:37 pm by Brother_9mm

If you want to get in with the "Pirate" groups take out bounty hunters yes, but dont be concerned about not taking out cops etc... I have 4 factions that love me (Junkers, Outcasts, Liberty Rogues and Xenos) everyone else, Police and Navy included hate me.

BUT with jump holes in every sector and the black market for selling everything, its ok. Might mean you join trade lanes 1 up from the start loccation and jump out 1 gate early then fly round bases, but its great fun knowing your universally hated and feared by everyone except the criminals

I just love the way Bounty hunters now say "Were not engaging he's just to tough"

Even the police aviod you after a while. Although the Navy tend to have a go.

Wed Mar 19, 2003 11:38 pm by Ether Dragon

I'm currently on neutral or good grounds with everyone but the Mollies and the Unioners. I get the feeling that if I played with the faction a little more, I could even neutralize those two. I'm concerned to see that the Rheinlands are on the verge of hating me, but I don't intend to do anything that would anger them any time soon.

What surprises me is how the various pirate factions leave me alone when they're only neutral to me. When the game started they were neutral as well, but they quickly attacked me and things spiraled into hatred from there. What's changed? Why don't they attack me now? Did bribing them alter their desire to attack a neutral vessel? Whatever the answer, I'm happy to have them leave me alone.

Thu Mar 20, 2003 12:30 am by O-O-O

Idlepure, could you explain more about the faction adjustments in reguards to blowing up supply depots? Do you mean the bases themselves? or the containers of commodities. I blew up several commodities containers on several raids on a bounty hunter station but didnt notice any faction hits from it

Thu Mar 20, 2003 12:44 am by idlepure

@O-O-O

Switch your scanner to loot. Some are around manhattan, fort bush,etc. They are not part of the base but objects near it.

At level 1 they are hard to destroy so the best thing to do is fly your ship between the gab (so one container faces each side of your ship) then blast away.

They also drop loot (depending on base/faction). This seems to really effect relations fast as after destroying only 3 in Liberty the Rogues, Lane Hackers and Xenos became neutral. More red neutral but neutral.

Not all bases have them from what I've seen. So in some cases you may have to just destroy their fighters.

Thu Mar 20, 2003 1:48 am by grapedog

If you have fully good faction with the Bounty Hunters, and fully bad faction with the Molly's, Rogues and those criminal types. If you destory Bounty Hunters until they are neutral, would that also neutralize the criminal groups? Is it easier to lose faction than gain it?

Sat Mar 22, 2003 12:44 am by Brother_9mm

The best way I found to get friendly with the "Bad Guys" is wasting Bounty hunters cause theres so many of em in Liberty, this also keeps the navy and the police on your side to if you still want to use trade lanes.

But getting jumped by 6-8 bounty hunters every time you go near a planet can get a little tiresome, so just kill Xeno's till your Nuetral with the Hunters again, makes hardly any change to your "Criminal" rep and you can get "Kill Xeno" missions at Junkers bases.

Sat Mar 22, 2003 2:22 am by zuiko

Awesome strategy. Where do the Xenos hang out? I know I've seen them a couple times but where is their base? Also, when someone hates you the max does it still help you with their enemies if you keep attacking them?

Edited by - zuiko on 22-03-2003 05:05:41

Sat Mar 22, 2003 1:20 pm by Brother_9mm

If you want to stay in New York then the best place to look for Xenos is between Detroit Munitions and Rochester Base and/or Manhatten. Try and cruise away from Bounty Hunters even if they are hostile to you, they dont use cruise disruptors so you should be ok.

Hang around Rochester and a couple of Xeno's will show up. Just tried this with a fresh Pilot and it works, now Neutral with BH guild (After getting em hostile), hostile with Xenos and friendly with Junkers cause they hate Xenos. My Rogues and Outcasts rating is also Neutral now.

Get Molecular shields to, Xeno weapons are pretty damn effective against Graviton (Which are best against Bounty Hunter Weapons) so grab Molecular ones. I think they sell em at Rochester Base or Buffalo Base.

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