Reputation

[6myth]

I've had to restart my game due to poor Reputation making it impossible to play.

I don't steal or murder anyone on land anymore as I can take ships easy, and it's better money; The problem is my reputation, It's constantly going down, I literally owe loan sharks million because the only way out of it is to pay the church hundreds of thousands, just to be a rascal. Before I can earn enough to clear my debts and have spare to donate anyway my rep is down again; I can't sell captured ships to remedy it.

I only take on Pirate ships near island ports. I do as many trade missions as possible.

I do usually fly Portuguese colours though if that has anything to do with it?

 

[morgan terror]

well, that's no surprise. if you don't pay back your loans, the loansharks put quite a dent in your reputation. but anyway, if you're really curious about what's causing it, the game does tell you when your reputation changes and by how much.

you can always trade with the pirates when you're evil. at least, that's how it's supposed to work. i haven't heard test results on that mod yet.

attacking under a false flag is a war crime. it should only matter if you're attacking somone that's friends with the one who's flag you're flying and hostile to you though. there's even special surrender dialogue for it.

 

[havoc1983]

If you have the buildingset mod enabled you can build some forrests and/or farms on a shore somewhere. Each time you visit them for taxcrops you can either take half of it or take it all. Taking half of it will increase your reputation by 1 per farm/forrest whilst taking it all will decrease your rep. by 2. If you don't want the game become unbalanced by the insane amount of money you can earn this way, just give the crops to the sea. (Got 6+ million yesterday in 1 visit to the smugglers to sell my 4 x 4500 cargo holds of ebony)

 

[6myth]

I pay back all my debts, the problem is by the time I've hijacked enough ships to make the cash, I don't have enough time to do it all again to donate, I have to borrow again; it's a vicious circle (this is why I don't have a real credit card).

The game tells me when I drop rep, but it usually happens while I'm cruising world map, not after I do something naughty; it's almost random. Like I said I only attack Pirates as no one is supposed to call me a bloody terror for beating those guys!

 

[morgan terror]

i would think that the reputation penalties you're getting on the worldmap would be from the loansharks then, since those are the only time-related rep penalties i know of.

just don't borrow at all then. in fact, take advantage of your reputation; there's nothing to stop you from smuggling now, is there? and it's by far the most profitable endeavour out there. loaning to pay off loans works as bad as you might expect. just pay off the loans first, but whatever means possible, and work on your reputation afterwards. money can fix everything in this game.