Patrolling and loosing combat experience - a balance issue?

[Targoid-1]

I have several small fleets patrolling sectors where my traders use to work. They have a lot of success in killing Xenons and Pirates. Yet its inevitable that now and than I loose one of the patrolling ships in combat. When this happens my combat rating drops.

With all the kills made by my patrolling ships I don't get a single rating point and I think that is the way it should be: I don't fight myself, so no combat rating gained. But than why do I loose combat rating when a ship I don't control is destroyed? Shouldn't it work on both sides? Not gaining rating by actions of patrolling ships AND not loosing rating by their actions? Opinions?

[BDStyle]

Your combat rank only increases when you do something in your ship.. not your fleet.

At least that's how I've always thought it

[X-Tie]

I see what you mean, and here are my thoughts;

Yes, you're right, if it doesn't work one way it shouldn't work the other, it's a little unfair on the player.

Then again, no, because you're like the "supreme commander", and you're responsible for their actions, i.e.: send reinforcements, tell them to jump, etc... Get my drift? Anyways, how big is the combat rating loss when a ship gets destroyed?

[pjknibbs]

Well, it DOESN'T work the other way in anyone else's game, so I'm not sure what issue you have, Targoid-1. Losing a ship does not affect your combat rank in the slightest.

[Targoid-1]

Well, it DOESN'T work the other way in anyone else's game, so I'm not sure what issue you have, Targoid-1. Losing a ship does not affect your combat rank in the slightest.

Weird. I noticed this a lot of times but after reading your reply I just 'sacrificed' a Phoenix in a Xenon sector to try it out and now I did not loose a point

[MoribundusVII]

Might just be the gradual reduction over time or something. I think your combat rank goes down if you stop being involved in so much combat.

[teladianium]

your combat rank goes down if you use SETA but not sure where the cutoff is as I only use it flying between stations.

Edit : didn't explain that well - if you use SETA for a while to build credits, say longer than 30 minutes or so then your combat rank will start dropping you just have to decide whether you need the rank or the credits.

[Nyax]

SETA is actually irrelevant. You combat rank will sart to drop if the game is left for any significant length of time without any user input. (Something like an hour of game time). However if you leave the game running in SETA mode then that idle time get's reduced to only a few minutes of real time since everything ingame is speeded up. That's why most people think SETA is to blame, when in fact it isn't, it just makes the reduction more noticable and seemingly kick in sooner.

[Targoid-1]

I never leave the game for an hour on auto

I'm going to monitor this more closely. Maybe it has to do something with not fighting for a long time, but than its still a weird coincidence that rating often drops when I loose patrol ships. Thanks for the responses!

[Constipated_Vigilante]

Basically, your combat rating goes down over time if you aren't engaged in combat. SETA use between stations will be negligible, as the pirate/xenon/khaak fighting will negate it.

[mayan]

@ CV
Your combat rank will NOT drop if you are not engaged in combat. It will only drop if there is no interaction with the game for over 1 hour of game time (as low as 6 minutes real time if you are on 10x SETA). As long as you do not (effectively) press any keys or fly around for the specifed time, you will lose combat and trade rank.

@ Targoid-1
Perhaps you have run SETA on 10x for over 6 minutes when you wanted to do something and then the SETA deactivated when your ship was lost and you received a message. That would be a scenario where you noticed a drop in ranks. You may not notice a drop in trade rank if you have enough factories/traders running around more than compensating for the loss in rank.

[Constipated_Vigilante]

Does that SETA rule mean simply sitting in space without touching anything? It doesn't include having your ship on autopilot?

[pjknibbs]

Does that SETA rule mean simply sitting in space without touching anything? It doesn't include having your ship on autopilot?

It does include having your ship on autopilot, but since SETA always disengages when you go through a gate, you would have to reactivate it on the other side, which counts as an interaction and resets the timer.