So last night I watched the update video, loved it so much, but it was so late that I decided I should probably get some sleep, so I didn't watch it twice. But while I was thinking about it and trying to fall asleep, I thought of an interesting way to use the new mission mechanic.

So let's say I'm a corporation with a pretty sizeable fleet moving into an industrial and mining system that has two other corporations working in it. Resources are scarce, but valuable. I want to control these resources. The question becomes: how do I do this? My solution is, of course, the job board. Take Corporation #1, and post a mission saying I will pay them to destroy/damage Corporation #2. So they start doing that. But then it occurs to me that I still will have another competitor, and I want to have no competitors. So I post a mission for Corporation #2 that says I will pay them for damaging the enemy.

So my questions are,
1. Is this a viable tactic?
2. If so, will Corporation #1 and Corporation #2 eventually know what I'm doing and either a) stop taking the missions, or b) turn against me.

ForsakenCrown wrote: So my questions are,
1. Is this a viable tactic?
2. If so, will Corporation #1 and Corporation #2 eventually know what I'm doing and either a) stop taking the missions, or b) turn against me.

1) Yes, it will be a viable tactic

2a) Only if they find out that you're pulling the strings

2b) Only if the two corporations find out you're pulling the strings and team up against you

Hope that helps. And welcome to the forums!

That raises another question.

Can you pretend one of your ships looks like it belongs to corperation #1 and use that ship to attack corperation #2's assets?

Idunno wrote:That raises another question.

Can you pretend one of your ships looks like it belongs to corperation #1 and use that ship to attack corperation #2's assets?

And if that can happen, why can't you have some of your fleet pretend to be the other corporation and have them attack the corporation you're pretending to be with?

I think that would be a risky move to make... because while they are destroying each other, it will start to be ships that your money paid for destroyed by other ships your money paid for... They will fight, but you will lose. Unless of course you are selling ships to them for a net profit.

Hyperion wrote:I think that would be a risky move to make... because while they are destroying each other, it will start to be ships that your money paid for destroyed by other ships your money paid for... They will fight, but you will lose. Unless of course you are selling ships to them for a net profit.

if you pay them more than the destroyed ships are worth, yes, they wont stop.

so just pay them less than the ships they destroy are worth.

they will get a few replacement ships.
but that will stop soon as they cant cover op their losses on the long term.

but they are already at war, so they cant just stop.

and when it seems like they are going to stop, give them some money that they can buy a few new ships and are inclined to destroy more ships than they got

Its a good thought man, but this is what I see happening.

You: 2 contracts to get corp 1 and 2 to fight each other.
Corp 1: 2 contracts to get you and corp 2 to fight each other.
Corp 2: 2 contracts to get you and corp 1 to fight each other.

Basically, you and the 2 other corps all have similar incentive to damage each others assets. It is unlikely that they will damage each other and ignore you as your presence in the system grows. What you will end up with is a situation where the two smaller factions offer larger pools of cash for damage to the largest factions assets. This will by cyclical unless one faction starts out significantly large enough forces to eliminate another faction, followed by the other faction.

Essentially, all AI and players feeling resource pressure in a system will target competing assets. The only way to not have killing of some kind in a system is to have only one faction. Period. If someone is gunning for a faction that isn't you, then they're going to be gunning for you too if you are in a competitive industry, rather then a complimentary one. Even then, you may be attacked due to a factions vertical integration after horizontal integration is complete.

It all depends on how the factions decide what is and isn't worth it. Right now though I'm not sure what type of system is in place to do that.

Maybe the two mining companies would stare blankly and say "What do we look like? Mercenaries? Come on Tony, lets go get some rocks."

Seriously tho I like the idea of being the shadowy (despicable, dastardly?) arms dealer instigating hostilities in the world so you can sell weapons to both sides. Its sorta been my plan for a while!

Can the two non-mercenary mining companies mentioned potentially subcontract my mission to someone else? Missionception, if you will.

This is actually part of a greater question, how does reputation work?

The jobs are posted on a public job board. Anyone can take them. Will the person posting the jobs be known?

I am hoping someone who keeps putting out contracts to damage / kill other factions will start to be untrusted and disliked by these factions.

Zanteogo wrote:This is actually part of a greater question, how does reputation work?

The jobs are posted on a public job board. Anyone can take them. Will the person posting the jobs be known?

I am hoping someone who keeps putting out contracts to damage / kill other factions will start to be mistrusted and disliked by these factions.

Great questions all.

Maybe there will be the public job board but also the ability to have private contracts between parties? Maybe data collection via hacking/spying to find who's been paying for privateers against you? Maybe by following the money trail in some way?

If there are no witnesses to my hypothetical act of piracy against Mining Faction 1, no one has data of the murder/robbery except me, so I should have the same standing with MF#1 as before, right? Assuming there are no known witnesses? (I, as a player, would be upset to find myself constantly losing ships and having absolutely no idea how or why.)

HoratioScumdog wrote:

Zanteogo wrote:This is actually part of a greater question, how does reputation work?

The jobs are posted on a public job board. Anyone can take them. Will the person posting the jobs be known?

I am hoping someone who keeps putting out contracts to damage / kill other factions will start to be mistrusted and disliked by these factions.

Great questions all.

Maybe there will be the public job board but also the ability to have private contracts between parties? Maybe data collection via hacking/spying to find who's been paying for privateers against you? Maybe by following the money trail in some way?

If there are no witnesses to my hypothetical act of piracy against Mining Faction 1, no one has data of the murder/robbery except me, so I should have the same standing with MF#1 as before, right? Assuming there are no known witnesses? (I, as a player, would be upset to find myself constantly losing ships and having absolutely no idea how or why.)

That's another thing I was curious about: will you be able to post anonymously?

The possibilities....