The game seems quite unbalanced

[Fak]

I just started playing the game and started with some trading and cargo missions. Suddenly, everywhere I go I keep having a bunch of 'forsaken' and 'uln' ships comming to kill me. I haven't done anything to these factions and my relationship with themare 3 and 1. But everywhere I go there are just many ships that came to kill me for no reason. I try to 'F1' each of them, but there are some that just attack anyway. Despite the fact that pressing 'r' and 'F1' everytime all the time is a pain. I can't even get into SPEC, can't run because they are faster (even if I did, there would be another one to catch me) and everytime I try to dock in a base, something that is time consuming, it is time for them to come and I have dozens of ships firing at me for no reason!!!

That renders the game completely unplayable, wich is really sad.

So, why is that happening??
What can I do to avoid it?

[Knight Rider]

I am kind of new to the game, and have been trading in peace. The thing I have found that works great for me is not to attack anything but pirates or Ludites because no one likes them. If you attack anything else early in the game they usually have other factions as friends.

If it is becoming unbearable, you might have to do what I did, and that was to start a new game and don't shoot at anyone, but f1 instead.

That has pretty much kept it peaceful for me. I hoped that helped.

[loki1950]

Welcome Fak as Knight Rider mentioned in the early stages don't shoot at anyone especially pirates they are the ones with Forsaken and Uln friends the Uln mainly because they are scavengers and no pirates means no freebies for them so stick with shooting Luddites they are the only faction that every one dislikes.So try a new game with those yhings in mind.

Enjoy the Choice

[Fak]

But how can I not attack the pirates? They come to attack me for no reason and I can't escape, because their ships are faster and I can't get into SPEC.
Are my only options to let them shoot me to death or to kill them to protect myself and put a bunch of others ships on my tail?

[loki1950]

The factional relations don't take self-defence into consideration ATM and that has been discussed quite a bit but so far no solution has been written it can be be done using Python and as such is not part of the core engine functions which are done in C++ with Python built in functions that those external scripts can use.But you can usually get away with a few self-defence kills before it gets out of hand.You can check your relations both in-flight with "shift m" which brings up the map screen then clicking the info button at any base as well but at that point you are safe

Enjoy the Choice

[CLoneWolf]

But how can I not attack the pirates? They come to attack me for no reason and I can't escape, because their ships are faster and I can't get into SPEC.
Are my only options to let them shoot me to death or to kill them to protect myself and put a bunch of others ships on my tail?

When escape is really impossible, the minimum of self defense as Loki says is the way to go. But try harder to escape, at least when the attackers are few: press y to switch to travel settings, your max speed will be a lot higher (you won't be able to fire, but that's not a point when you don't want to kill ) hit the afterburner (buy the best overdrive you can) and fly a barrel roll; I rarely get hit by projectiles when flying like that.
Personally, I have bound the CH hat of my 3D joystick to the side thrusters; so, doing a barrel roll is just a matter of keeping the CH hat down or up and twist the handle for the roll.
Happy trading!

[Fak]

Good news. At least I won't be a sitting duck.
But when is it considered self defense? When they go hostile against you, when they lock on you, when they shoot you?

What is to fly a barrel roll?

[CLoneWolf]

Good news. At least I won't be a sitting duck.
But when is it considered self defense?

Sorry, but as Loki said, nothing right now is considered self defense; every kill will worsen your relationship with that faction and the eventually related ones.

What is to fly a barrel roll?

Sorry, I tried to explain it the way I do it... images would be surely clearer but I can't do one right now...
You know you can roll your ship while flying straight, right? That means that while your nose keep pointing forward, your body rotates clockwise or counterclockwise, without altering your course.

You also have side thrusters: they can move your ship up, down, left and right. If you fly straight and thrust down, you'll do a sort of vertical descent ahead; but if at the same time you roll, your relative "down" position rotates with you; the side thruster pushes you away from the center of your rotation, so that it happens with a radius > 0; your movement would be like skimming on the inner wall of a pipe, and your trajectory would resemble a coil.

I'm quite sure this explanation attempt makes it even less clear, further help from native English speakers is welcome

[MC707]

You also have side thrusters: they can move your ship up, down, left and right. If you fly straight and thrust down, you'll do a sort of vertical descent ahead; but if at the same time you roll, your relative "down" position rotates with you; the side thruster pushes you away from the center of your rotation, so that it happens with a radius > 0; your movement would be like skimming on the inner wall of a pipe, and your trajectory would resemble a coil.

I'm quite sure this explanation attempt makes it even less clear, further help from native English speakers is welcome

Nicely explained. To further clear this explanation, though, CLone says that you should rotate your ship with the rotate left/right key (default: 'left/right' key), as well as pressing the strafe down key (default: 'period' key), which incidentally I happened to put a description on some days ago, which you can find in the keyboard layout in the wiki.

[energyman76b]

Welcome Fak as Knight Rider mentioned in the early stages don't shoot at anyone especially pirates they are the ones with Forsaken and Uln friends the Uln mainly because they are scavengers and no pirates means no freebies for them so stick with shooting Luddites they are the only faction that every one dislikes.So try a new game with those yhings in mind.

Enjoy the Choice

are you sure?
AFAIR if you kill too many luddites the purists will be pissed at some point (or was it LIHW?).

[athomic1]

AFAIR if you kill too many luddites the purists will be pissed at some point (or was it LIHW?).

According to the table I've got (which may be slightly out of date), the Purist faction is -5% toward the Luddites, while Purist Citizen is +5%. An interesting situation. Outside of them, the Uln, and the Dgn, everyone else seems to dislike them, most to the point of outright loathing.

SO, as long as you talk nice to any Purist citizens, instead of shooting them when they get uppity, you should be able to avoid trouble from them. The PCs HATE Pirates, so taking down one of them should make up for at least a couple of Luddites.

What I'd like to know, personally, is whether relationships between factions, other than those with the player/Privateer, ever change? Given how quickly the Uln and Forsaken come after you for shooting Pirates, it would be nice if they'd get mad at other factions, for a change.

[MC707]

What I'd like to know, personally, is whether relationships between factions, other than those with the player/Privateer, ever change? Given how quickly the Uln and Forsaken come after you for shooting Pirates, it would be nice if they'd get mad at other factions, for a change.

Yes. Being the only member of the 'privateer' faction makes me (and you) feel quite lonely

[athomic1]

Yes. Being the only member of the 'privateer' faction makes me (and you) feel quite lonely

Which is a strange thing, because according to at least one of the bartenders' stories, there are Uln privateers.

Not that that puts us in good company.

[MC707]

Which is a strange thing, because according to at least one of the bartenders' stories, there are Uln privateers.

Not that that puts us in good company.

Yeah, too bad they want more than to make us mere company

[Munno]

I'm - 75 for Uln and positive at least 7 for everyone else. Except Luddites. -100 for them.

[Laraso]

I have always found it helpful (although you may consider it cheating) to edit your profile in a text editor and change your relations with the ULN and Forsaken factions to a number such as 100, this will appear as an insanely high number in-game and you will never have to worry about this issue again.

Of course, if you destroy one of their ships, your relations with them will go down to -10.

Hope I helped.

[Turbo]

Yeah, too bad they want more than to make us mere company

So...that's why they often attack with tractor beams, they want to get closer to us.

Seriously though, the Uln have an inferiority complex, so the more successful you are (kills of any kind), the more they dislike you. Fortunately the Uln ships tend to be junk, so usually you can avoid them and sometimes you can get them to crash into each other.

[Laraso]

the more successful you are (kills of any kind), the more they dislike you.

That isn't necessarily true... Stay away from pirates and you shouldn't have any trouble with the Uln.

[Munno]

ULN Gleaners are blockading my trade route. -_- I can't earn money now... They are at all 3 of my stops along the route, and there are several Yeoman pirates around every jump gate...

[Turbo]

That isn't necessarily true... Stay away from pirates and you shouldn't have any trouble with the Uln.

I was speaking from my own play experience, in which I played campaigns where I targeted only Luddites, or Aera.

But a look at the faction coding confirms that the Uln like almost everyone slightly, even Luddites and Aera. They are negative about no one and neutral on Hunters, Homeland Security, and ISO. Thus, any damage to most factions (including Luddites and Aera) makes them dislike you a bit more.

[Laraso]

I was speaking from my own play experience, in which I played campaigns where I targeted only Luddites, or Aera.

But a look at the faction coding confirms that the Uln like almost everyone slightly, even Luddites and Aera. They are negative about no one and neutral on Hunters, Homeland Security, and ISO. Thus, any damage to most factions (including Luddites and Aera) makes them dislike you a bit more.

Hmm... Well I wouldn't know about that then, because my relationship with them is 10000.