Options for quest rewards, and a look at risk vs. reward. Contribute examples!

[Whifflepits]

So I thought I'd field the idea of 2 or more options for rewards for some quests. Some of them just seem to be completely not worth it and others are overpaid so it's obvious Tynan is figuring that out as he goes, but some of the payment methods of the quests will just never be practical compared to the costs they incur. I'll provide a couple examples below. One was a complete loss that put my colonists in the poor-house (figuratively), and another dead-simple quest that was so ridiculously overpaid it beggars belief.

I had an unmodded game going before 1.1 so my save transferred over without a hitch. The result being I started getting thrown a bunch of pretty evil-looking quests right after the update.

I avoided them, but then decided I wouldn't know just how evil they were until I took one so I geared up 12 colonists in cataphract armor and called this quest in when it arrived.



Oh boy Oh Boy Oh BOY!

They landed a decent distance away which gave me plenty of opportunity to use mortars. 10 of them, and for an entire day (well, 7 for half of the day thanks to a great shot from their own mortars), 4 of them using EMP shells and it was obvious I was going to have to charge in to deal with the remaining 65% of the base.

2 melee units, 2 charge rifles and the rest charge lances and I still got hammered. I even called in 2 units of support troops and a unit of support jannisaries to assist and it was a slim victory.

Which is great! The game is challenging again! Except... The bill....

So... Note the reward: +67 good will with a hostile faction. That's a big chunk I'll agree, but they haven't exactly been beating down my gates so it's not like I'm itching to get them out of my hair. None of the hostile factions have been mounting assaults actually, but that's another topic.

And the cost?

30-40% damage, suits and helmets, to the cataphract armor of all 12 fighters. Taken as a percentage of their worth that's roughly $46,000 all by itself.

A dozen medkits: $250

3 steel mortars: $1200

17 adult ducks, 9 juvelines and 11 ducklings (two mortars right into the middle of my coop with such pinpoint accuracy I started to doubt who the real targets were): $925

Miscellaneous repairs to walls, floors and power conduits that got shelled: ~$500

1 Right big toe: Irreplaceable. It was immaculately manicured daily and the pride of the colony.

3 days of lost production: $570 by my figures.

-10 goodwill with the overlords because 2 of their goons died.

Approximately 120 mortar shells: $3,000

Total monetary value: ~$52,445.

That's roughly $780 per point of goodwill. By comparison let's say I rescue someone from that faction and set them free instead of taking them prisoner and selling for a slave. +12 good will costs me a potential $600 in silver. That's a mere $50 per point of goodwill. An absolute bargain!

Yes there was salvage. Some components, some steel and some plasteel. Nothing near enough to replace what was damaged however. Deduct that at market value from my costs and I'm still well north of paying $600 per point of goodwill.

But if I kidnap a member of that faction? -75! (Look, I needed another farmer really bad and she was just hanging out on the porch.... Don't tell me you wouldn't have!)

So.... Excruciatingly high risk (Won't lie, I failed the first 4 attempts and save scummed) for what is technically a steeply negative reward.

And the second scenario.... I can't provide a description, it was bugged.



Simple: Hold 5 prisoners for 6 days, and send them back. Some bandages when they arrived, the food they ate, and that's all I invested. A pittance.

The reward: $24,000, a linked plasma sword, a legendary Uranium warhammer, and a skill trainer, can't remember which.

I just..... *sighs*

So that's why I propose options for rewards. I think it'll make balancing how the rewards scale much easier and get players accepting more quests, instead of trash-canning them immediately on seeing what type of quest they are or always accepting only the couple milk-runs they've built their base to handle.

Take the + in goodwill, or receive 30% of the goodwill and an approximate 50% reward in payment. You get more goodwill for being charitable, but if you just want a monetary reward you can still get that.

Not having strictly monetary rewards means when the non-violent quests come up they don't just scale to the moon. You've got to keep them in check with their potential second reward choice so that both of them seem like valid options.

Moreover, the way that many of the quests coming from the royalty faction are either royalty points + reward or just straight royalty points kind of makes it feel like the player is being pushed toward joining that faction, when many players would likely wish to stay neutral at least but don't want to miss out on the resources and opportunities presented by the quests. Having options that do not include royalty points would help with this a lot. I've already turned down several quests just because part or all of the reward was royalty points and I absolutely do not want any more of my colonists gaining ranks.

What do you guys think? And more importantly, I'd like to see some of your quests with ridiculous rewards. 

Edit: Imgur uploads don't work? Well the screenshots of the quest entries are below in any case.

[gCvdA]

I am unsure as to why is quest difficulty a thing, as real life decisions relies on... Actual decision making skills and knowledge of the shbject, instead of deciding on the basis of a arbitrarily defined bar of stars and some specific circumstances. However, if such a information is to be presented to the player, at least make it consistent and actually meaningful. The difficulty system as it currently stands is not meaningful and does more harm. Apparently building a decently sized monument in a week is hard in the same way as getting mech clusters dropped onto your map every 18 hours for a resurrection serum and a orbital power beam targeted. On a separate note, artifacts acquisition in this game feels passive and not interactive. Would be better if you receive rumors of potential artefact, perform some archeological dig, defeat a mech cluster and gain access to an ancient danger or something. Instead you wait around for someone to ask you to make them 20 Molotov in exchange for a tornado generator.

The reward scaling for these missions also seem strange, as the reward seem to scale with wealth and worse into the late game, as threat to colony and effort is about the same, but large portion of the reward wealth is given in form of resources that you don't need that much and can easily get otherwise if you really do need some.  (Gold, uranium)