I don't think 1) is doable in the way of ranks that you would like.

You can adjust the faction empathy so that each hostile of theirs that you kill makes them more friendly more rapidly, but killing them makes them more hostile. They have no fear, curse them!

The way of your value - no that won't be doable either, only your greater rank affects them, you will sometimes hear them say "I'm not taking him on, that would be suicide!" But I'm not aware of what that rank difference is.

Why not reduce the number of ships that are generated in the encounter files (i.e. area_assault.ini, area_defend.ini etc?) to make it 1, 1 sc_fighters for assault_leader_job and 0, 3 sc_fighters for assault_job? That will give you between 1 and 4 ships, or by making it 0, 1 assault_job you will get 1 or 2 ships only. You can also change "times_to_create = 1" (or 2 or 3) instead of infinite, that way you will only have to face 1 2 or 3 waves each time you get into the area instead of lots coming at you continuously.

Alternatively make all new players neutral on starting and let them wreck their own reps with the natives?

There are many tutorials here to help you.

Good luck.

Roleplay: - the art of self-deceipt!

Thanks a ton! I have spent hours reading posts on here and they have helped me enormously, but I'm afraid I still haven't gleaned all there is to know! Must....keep....reading....

Somehow I figured #1 would be too good. Doesn't it kind of make sense though? Ah well, no fear as you said. Thanks again!

You could simply get your reputation neutral with just about everyone.
That would solve your nuseance encounters.

Just a slightly humourous thought - how about editing the empathy.ini file with all positive numbers?

If it works that way whatever you do they'll like you more! lol

Well, there is a mod for that particular situation.
Something named like "nomad friendly" or "everyone loves you"
IOW, the more nomads you shoot, the friendlier everyone becomes...including nomads.
Kind of kills the thrill after a while.

Interesting. I don't think I'd want to change every faction to love me more after killing "x" -- but changing faction "x" to love me more after killing them might actually do the trick!
It wouldn't be per-level like I would like, but it might still be better. Any ideas what kind of value I would put in so that roughly 50 kills would take a faction from hostile to neutral? (I guess I can just experiment...I'll have to just slightly counteract the anger they feel towards me after killing them )

Respect my authorita!

Edit: Even cooler, since this would be per-faction I could have the military factions not be swayed
Edit #2: Looks like somewhere around -1.5 works well to make them "Respect my Authorita." -2.0 and they learn very quickly

Edit #3: Note these numbers were from my test with liberty rogues, which have:
event = object_destruction, -0.018000
Some other factions have:
event = object_destruction, -0.030000
in which case it seems like the empathy_rate would have to be tweaked (lowered) to accommodate that.
Does that make sense to everybody here? I feel like I'm on the right track, but some confirmation would be nice

Edit #4: For those who run across this thread in the future, I don't recommend using this technique to reduce nuisance encounters. Manipulating your reputation in the game while this mod is in place is *extremely* difficult. Take Xenos for example: if you kill a Xeno, that makes just about everybody else happier (including the Xenos.) But since Xenos hate everybody, and you just made them happier, that makes Xenos unhappy (so, for Xenos, I had to basically double the value to -3.0 to overcome that.) Or, take Outcasts: killing them directly works but after a while when you try to engage them they just run away. You can't take their missions, because if you succeed then you make Outcasts happy, but Outcasts hate Outcasts so that makes them mad. You can't kill Corsairs, because that makes Corsairs happy which makes Outcasts unhappy. You get the point. I'm going back to the drawing board...

Edited by - aqualung99 on 9/20/2007 6:23:06 PM

Edited by - aqualung99 on 9/25/2007 10:48:51 AM

That requires several "adjustments" in the factions_empathy.ini.
In the FLMM mod version of this, that file is included in it to replace the one used by the game.
In a nutshell.......
-1.0 is the limit of Hostile
1.0 is the limit of Friendly.
0 is neutral
In empathy.ini...how these values are set makes the factions react positively or negatively toward you.

BUT:
what you are going to see is nothing that holds the extreme settings in any of them. You'll see settings everywhere from -.91 to .91, but mostly in between.

You will also see these type of settings in initial_world.ini
Of these, I'm arranging these levels to establish a "civil war" in Kusari.