Why are the thresholds for "leveling-up" so strange? You know, to achieve
level 9 you must rack up 149,773 or to get level 10 it's 226660. Why not
150,000 and 225,000?

Also, what about the amounts of "faction standing" increase? The current way
of saying "Itani standing increased 'slightly'" or "somewhat" or "noticeably" is
ambiguous at best. Why not state the actual amount? Does the simple state-
ment "Serco standing increased noticeably" indicate a larger amount than the
statement "Serco standing increased"?

the level increase follows a curve, Not even increases, but rounded to nearest value.


Same goes for faction standing, a trade mission will give you 7 or 8 points, depending on rounding. A killed bot will give 1-2 points when you have a low standing, but if you have a high one, will only give a .1 or less increase. Id guess that it actually always gives an fixed increase, but that its put against a log() scale before being capped at 1000 and -1000

Thanks for attempting an explanation, but it sounds like you are guessing.
Does anyone actually KNOW the answers to these questions?

If you have low faction standings, say 0 (neutral) then killing a bot would give you 2 points increase. The higher your faction standing gets the more bots you have to kill to gain 1 point though. It goes on a curve, the higher your standing the more you have to do to increase it. If you have +900 it may take 10 bots to make a point increase, maybe more.


And for leveling up- it makes sence, trust me:P And whats the difference if it says 225,000 or 226,660 it makes little difference in the game unless you like to see more 0's then 6's

Personally, I think it would be cool to see some sort of graphical experience bar displayed either in character info or on the HUD that shows your progress toward the next level. A visual analog is often easier to gauge than numbers, paricularly when you get to the higher levels and you have to calculate in your head how much you have to go to the next level.

I appreciate all of your efforts to explain, and I think it is finally starting to sink in.
But it raises another question. Anyone recall when there was a problem with money calculations? It was a small thing, easy to see, easy to repeat, but it seemed to take a long time to track down and fix. But with the faction standings,
nothing is easy to see. And if it is so (seemingly) complicated, how can we as
player/testers (or anyone) know if it is working right? This is why I was asking
what the difference - numberwise - was between "slightly" "somewhat" and
"noticeably" (etc.). See what I mean?

maybe the devs made level 10 226,660 because they wanted to scare people away from level 10 with the 666 in the middle.

Another question: Why exactly can't I equip small guns on large slot. I understand a Big gun not fitting into a small gun slot.. but the other way arround?! just duct tape the thing in there.

Because large guns and small guns use differing power circuits. Putting a small cannon in a large slot would most likely fry the weapon, slot, and possibly even your entire weapons systems.

the same reason you cannot take a big V8 motor out of a truck and put in a 4 cylinder out of a firefly.

Actually, thats like saying that you can put a large slot weapon into a small slot. Hes talking backwards.

heres a different one:

Same reason why you can't put a PCI card into an AGP slot :P

with ductape you can!!!!!!

I'm not sure we use duct tape in the 45th century... I think we have other adhesives...

Duct tape is still used, but only to bind off-topic posters before they are set adrift.

For now let us say that it is theoretically possible to put a small weapon in a large port, but that the modifications required would be prohibitively expensive (step-down transformers, custom brackets and seals, custom armored cowling, etc.) so it is not a popular practice. It also voids your warranty.

[off-topic post deleted - moderator]

oops. I forgot what I posted too...

A warranty...

I want my money back everytime I get blown up or crash into an asteroid...

the darn ship always malfunctions so I cant act accordingly to avoid the antagonising agony that it brings along ... So unless you want a warranty claiming lawsuit, I suggest you cough up the dough :D

eheh