Happy New Year!

[goat not sheep]

How did u agree with them both? One wanted it to be the same, and the other wanted it to be sharpened. So, by wanting higher resolution, you agree with yugimotomanager, or akiktotai, in this case.I myself don't see the fuzzyness.

[Yugi]

No, he's saying they look good (that's what Dvlenk said), but could be better (that's what I said).

[goat not sheep]

...oh. I don't really see any blurs...yugi.

[Dosgamer3]

Most of the stations are A-OK, but I think the ships need sharper images-- at least on computers that can handle the extra movement calculations, that is.

[goat not sheep]

What blurs...I DON"T SEE ANY!!!:'(

[Yugi]

They're blurry, not blurs. There's a slight difference.

[goat not sheep]

I don't see any blurry pictures, though.

[OddBob]

Could you point out some of the blurry ones, Yugi? I can't see anything wrong with any of them.

[F50]

On that reputation thing. Your reputation should really be independent of good/bad actions. Anything that you blow up adds to your reputation. Small reward for easy ships/stations large reward for difficult ships/stations (depending on the player's equipment of course). That should remain separate from a relations system. If one looses reputation with the commonwealth, remains aloof to the Ares, and shows onself to be a promising fighter (reputation) the Ranx might let you in.

Being on the good side of a faction (including the commonwealth) should not make you immune to attacks by that faction (for example a uniformed or rogue fleet). Commonwealth freelancers would be rather common considering the fact that the Commonwealth isn't doing so well controlling their space.

About Sung/Iocrym/misc balance: the Sung really aren't that bad. They might be moved farther past St K's in relation to the Militia but it isn't really urgent. I found that the Sung were the games first major challange past learning the game.
The Urak might be notched up a bit by the time their fortresses arrived. The regular Urak craft have a absolutely ridiculous fire adjust.
I believe the Dwarg as they are now to be a hard. I would suggest the numerous patrols to be toned down. Also when you first encounter them there should be almost no Dwarg patrols. The Behemoth armor could be made less powerful by reducing the hp significantly or replacing a reflection with resistance and giving them more armor plates.
The 0.97a Iocrym is now not only boring, but frustrating as well. But a *new* topic should be made for that discussion.

[Burzmali]

I've always questioned the logic of rewarding the player for mass murder...

Kill one man and it is a tragedy; kill one million and it is a statistic.

Some games handle this with a fame and infamy ratings. Kind of like destructive and constructive in the current game. However, those games are usually mission based, which limits the oppurtunities for affecting the ratings. In addition, you can couple this with the order and chaos aspects for a total of 4 stats that influence how the galaxy views your character. Events would trigger changes in these ratings like:

Destroying ships: +1 infamy per 10 ships
Destroying stations: +1 infamy and -1 for side destroyed per 2 stations
Successfully completing an escort mission: +1 fame, and +1 order/chaos (depeding on employer)
Failing an escort mission: -1 fame, and -1 for side
Successfully completing an attack mission: +1 infamy and +1 order/chaos (depeding on employer)
Failing an attack mission: -1 fame, and -1 for side
Paying fine: -1 infamy
Donating to charity: -1 infamy and +1 order or +1 fame and +1 chaos per donation increment
Per 10,000 ticks: -1 fame and -1 infamy (offset by 5,000 ticks)
Atoning with Domina: +1 order and -1 chaos
Offering a sacrifice to Oracus: +1 chaos and -1 order
Gaining rank in Commonwealth: +rank fame +rank order
Gaining rank in Blackmarket: +rank infamy
Winning an Arena battle: +1 infamy and +1 order
and so forth...

Added together, fame and infamy is your reputation which can be used to determine whether or not someone recognizes you, while the highest of the two determines how they react.

[F50]

Chaos and order doesn't really mean anything to the various factions except Domina and the Penitents. I think that the fame/infamy system would probably work well though.

[Yugi]

Yeah, that sounds good, but:

Per 10,000 ticks: -1 fame and -1 infamy (offset by 5,000 ticks)

Hunh? I don't really understand this one...care to explain?

[evilbob]

as in, every 5,000 ticks you lose 1 fame, then 1 infamy 5.000 ticks later.

[Yugi]

Yeah, I know...but why?

[Burzmali]

Yeah, I know...but why?

Because 10,000 ticks is roughly 1 game week, and how long after you have had your name in the papers do you think your fame lasts?

Basically, if you spend hours and hours collecting ore or trading goods all over the place you are slowly going to loose the fame you've garnered. Sure you protected that agricultural base a week or two ago, but those things get in trouble all the time, what have you done lately. It is an incentive for the player to proceed through the game a a decent clip and not lounging around emptying out all of the water from one station to squeeze every last ounce of profit out of a situation. Of course, nothing is stopping you from doing so (you could buy your fame back some other way if you needed it), and if you run your infamy up too much, it might be a good idea to lay low for a while.

For reference, 10,000 ticks is roughly 2 hours and 45 minutes realtime. Heck, I can beat the game in that amount of time without too much trouble.