End-of-Month Wrap-up: The Winner, Honorable Mentions, and Next Month’s Challenge...
(Original challenge description below, skip to it?)
And our winners are... Tomcat, bogboy3, davea!
After a final January 31st push to send his score soaring into the ionosphere, Tomcat racked up an incredible 20,198.75 points with the help of his friends Calagan Faen (Javat Prince), Ignatio de Cadar (Cadar High Prince), and Heitta Lumotte (Moklumnue High Pricess). A truly impressive accomplishment on Impossible difficulty; well done Tomcat.
In second place, bogboy3 snuck in with his own January 31st bomb drop, out-doing his previous submitted run (Captain Vkari, 999 points) by a mere 10,007 points. Using his second-oldest captain, Captain El Putzo Fantissimo (a veteran from when the Frontiers were still in Early Access), bogboy3 earned more than 3,000 additional personal reputation with his contacts waited through years of pesky peacetime for opportunities to increase the influence of Silvaine von Sha (Thulun Spymaster).
And in third with 2,086 points, davea’s submission from all the way back at the beginning of the month kept him on the leaderboard throughout. Michael Guun (Zenrin Prince) was pleased to see Captain LeBraun had a fellow Zenrin, Xanth Vandee, among his officers… none the wiser that she’d been promoted from a mere electronics technician shortly before.
Honorable Mentions
A shout-out to Dr. Spendlove, whose Captain Hame coulda been a contenda if we’d allowed story-unique contacts like the Coalition Arbiter and Fleet Commander to count. Sorry Doc!
And a bonus mention to Tomcat, for also submitting a “send all the bounty hunter stories to me” run from Cadar Princess Aetaan Char having a personal rep of negative 2052. Earning him a final score of… negative 6335.31 points. 👏❓
Thanks again everyone for the discussion and submissions both. Everyone is still welcome to post a run report for this challenge or any of our previous challenges in the Steam forums or in our Discord. We’ll love sharing notable playthroughs (impressive gameplay, fun screenshots / edits, fan art or stories) on our Twitter or Facebook.
We’ll get February’s challenge up soon, stay tuned!
Friend in High Places Challenge
Across the stars, a Captain must travel through territory controlled by many different factions. Even the most zealous loyalist to a single faction knows how helpful it is to have contacts among at least a few of the other syndicates and great houses. The more powerful, the better. And even those Captains who operate in the shadows, under-the-table, or on the fringe know how useful it is to have a Prince in your pocket who can bail you out if things get too hot.
So in this challenge, we want to see how well you can cultivate your friendships in high places. At any point in your playthrough, if you have ...
- three “high places” (defined below) contacts
- from at least three different factions
- with at least 80 influence
... you can add up your personal reputation with those three contacts and submit your score. You may update your score at any point from within the same game, or submit multiple scores from new runs with new Captains.
“High places” contacts include:
- The Throne Room: High Prince, Prince, Duke, Court Scientist, Court Seer
- Faction Ministers: Diplomatic Consul, Faction Judge, Legal Consul, Politician
- Top Brass: Commander, FDF Commander, Naval Commander, Starport Commander
- Big Money: Mining Samrak, Ranking Executive, Smuggler Prince, Trade Czar, Magnate
- Big Brains: Retired Theoretician, Spymaster
Scoring Rules
Points will be awarded for:
- Sum of your Personal Reputation from your top 3 qualifying Contacts. Each contact must be from a different faction, and each must have 80+ Influence.
Bonus points for:
- +0.10x points if all three of your contacts having 90+ influence.
- +0.25x points if you have at least one officer from each of the factions of your 3 Contacts.
- +0.25x points for every difficulty level above Basic.
Note the bonuses are multiplicative. Therefore, you would get the calculation:
(Sum of Contact Personal Rep) x 1.1 (for all 3 Contacts have 90+ Influence) x 1.25 (for faction-matched officers) x 1.25 (for Normal diff)
Screenshots required:
- Each of your 3 contacts, showing your personal rep with them and their influence. (Tip: from the Known Contacts menu, sort by Rep or Influence to find them easily, and/or use faction filters.)
- Your crew (if going for multi-faction officers bonus points).
Further Discussion, Post Scores and Ask Questions
All scores, questions and chatter about the January community challenge should be routed to the Discussions forum thread.