Reputation Caps during the Initial Plot

[tim-ski]

From what I can see, during the initial plot reputations are capped as follows:

• Boron Queen's Protectorate (3:5) 98%
• Split Family Friend (3:2) 98%
• Paranid Honour Guard of Xaar (3:8) Max
• Teladi Majority Shareholder (3:3) 98%
• Pirates Boarding Leader (3:5) 98%

That's using the Teladi start, so your milage may vary slightly. The game might momentarily exceed these values, but will eventually correct then down to those shown above. It is possible to also gain at least Argon reputation via missions, but this was never reported in the pilot summary. Likewise attaining that much pirate reputation triggered 3/5 progress on the Unfounded achievement, but again no enemies were ever reported in the pilot summary.

This looks like a hardcoded cap to prevent the accumulation of large amounts of positive reputation during a phase of the game when full dynamic reputation adjustments might break the plot. But the limitation is not announced, and could confuse players that linger in the early game too long, hence this post.

Be warned that the final part of the inital plot impacts reputation, but not as might be expected. In three of the possible cases, your reputation with whoever you choose to help appears to always be set to 3 white bars as a result, regardless of its prior state. So if previously higher than 3, this will lead to a nonsensical reduction in reputation with the faction you help. There is only one exception:

Spoiler

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The Paranid, which makes them the only sensible choice for anyone with higher reputations. In contrast anyone with Pirate or Dukes negatives can set one instantly to friendly by picking Brennan's or Dukes options respectively.

[Klord]

Good explanation. I wish for a change in rep system in the next patch.

[Le Boron Chétif]

So that's why my Boron rep dropped when I completed the Hub mission in their favour... Good to know, thanks!