When Out of Fuel - Are distress beacons worth it?

[Rocketman]

When you are out of fuel and have nothing to do but wait, is it usually a good idea to turn on the distress beacon? How much higher of a chance is there to have an encounter with the beacon than without? Is it worth the risk of hostile discovery?

[5thHorseman]

I don't know about better or worse, but for the record I turn 'em on.

I left 'em off once and sat there for about 5 turns. With them on, I only seem to sit a turn or 2 at most. They can sometimes cause the rebels to come at you faster but it doesn't seem to happen very often. Maybe 10% of the time? Someone else probably has numbers, but in my experience it's very rare.

[2corey2]

its worth it ive never been realy able to tell if the rebels come much faster if you have it on, so use it.

[Thunderr]

In theory, they wouldn't know whose distress beacon it is, so it shouldn't affect speed.

[5thHorseman]

In theory, they wouldn't know whose distress beacon it is, so it shouldn't affect speed.

I think it's a game balance issue more than a realism issue. There has to be SOME detriment to using it else you'd just use it all the time.

...which I do anyway

[rocketpjs]

It took me 5 runthroughs to realize it was there. I use it all the time, no idea if it helps.

[super dude]

If its not on some times the rebels will just stop for a turn

[Twinge]

I think it's a game balance issue more than a realism issue. There has to be SOME detriment to using it else you'd just use it all the time.

You say that, but then:

(Barring blue options) Never fight giant alien spiders. Never help set up a quarantine. Always accept Engi surrender. Never try to sell horses. There are many more examples of this; several things in the game are a non-decision. And I hate these non-decisions; I've been working towards adding more actual choices to the game with my Balance Mod.


As for the distress beacon specifically - turning it on gives a fair bit higher chance of something happening - that might be a fight, but you're getting fuel from winning that fight. So in at least most situations you want it on because you get fuel faster and continue on your way sooner.

This is something I should look at in the Balance Mod, perhaps. I'm not really sure how I'd want to set it up so there's advantages to both offhand, but perhaps something to look into...

[spacecadet13]

NEVER fight giant alien spiders???? 50/50 proposition from my experiences. Sure, failure costs you a crew member (and its almost freakin' always the one you LEAST want to lose, the levelled up gunner, ninja mantis....) but the rewards for success are frequently exellent, enough to be worth the risk if you have enough crew IMHO.

[5thHorseman]

I think it's a game balance issue more than a realism issue. There has to be SOME detriment to using it else you'd just use it all the time.

You say that, but then:

Oh I'm not saying there's no room for balance tweaks in the game. I'd add "Never surrender to slavers" and "Never buy the 65 scrap weapon" to that list. I'm just saying that's why they did what they did.

I haven't played with your mod, but am very interested in it. I'm still doing my Let's Play series and (other than modded ship) I want the game to be vanilla. When I'm done with that, though, I'm going to jump in with both feet.

Have you done any work on the Spiders? I had some interesting ideas but don't know the extent to what you can do in a mod.

Now that I think about this, this thread is probably not the place to discuss this

NEVER fight giant alien spiders???? 50/50 proposition from my experiences. Sure, failure costs you a crew member (and its almost freakin' always the one you LEAST want to lose, the levelled up gunner, ninja mantis....) but the rewards for success are frequently exellent, enough to be worth the risk if you have enough crew IMHO.

In my experience it's more like 80/20. I got scrap the very first time I did it, and because of that I tried it 5 or 6 more times and every. single. time. I lost a crew. So I stopped. Sometimes, now, when I've got a ton of crew and won't mind losing one I'll take it, and sometimes the extra scrap is nice, but it still seems a major losing proposition to me.