Change how Reputation is displayed

[cpast]

The Science and Funds displays are nice and convenient numeric quantities. In contrast, Reputation shows as a bar going from "bad" to "good." This bar has a couple numbers on it; as far as I can tell, the numbers have nothing whatsoever to do with your actual numeric reputation.

This is fine if all you care about is if you have a little reputation or a lot of reputation. However, there *is* a number associated with reputation, and this number isn't hidden from the player -- all contracts and the Admin Building talk in terms of that number. This means that if cancelling a contract or adopting a strategy, we pay a reputation cost that is presented to us numerically, with absolutely no idea how much or how little reputation we're spending or how much we have to spend. These are both permanent actions, as far as I know; the only way to see the actual effect on reputation is to quicksave, cancel the contract or adopt the strategy, see the new reputation, and reload from save if we don't like it.

This really doesn't make much sense. If you want numeric reputation to be behind the scenes, so players don't have to worry about "is that a lot or a little" and to implement some sort of diminishing returns, then don't treat reputation like a currency when adding or subtracting it -- say how it changes our reputation in a way that makes sense to someone looking at the bar. If you want to treat it like a currency, then either drop the bar, or add a numeric display for the actual value of our rep.

[AbacusWizard]

I agree. I look at Funds and I see a number telling me how much rocket I can buy; I look at Science and I see a number telling me how much technology I can research; I look at Reputation and I see a color gradient that gives me no information whatsoever.

[dryer_lint]

While reputation does feel more... analog then the others, and I think it needs some sort of scale, I agree that the contract numbers and especially the admin building numbers do not fit with this system at all. There must be a better way!

[NASAHireMe]

Yeah, since reputation is so vague, I feel perfectly comfortable with taking out all the "reputation"-based strategies in the administration building.

[basic.syntax]

I'd like to see a tooltip pop up with the rep number, when I point at the rep gauge at the top.

As your Reputation goes up, you are offered higher-paying contracts.

If you pay a rep cost when changing an administration Strategy, that could affect the funds / science rewards in contracts you're offered, until you've built it up again.

[NoMrBond]

I wouldn't mind the gauge if the gauge was actually readable like an altimeter readout or something, but the current one is just a bit vague to be used for its intended purpose, especially when the planning office says, this will cost you some specific number of reputation to activate a strategy, and your feedback regarding your current level is... i'm in the green/light-green stripy region?

Similar to the current funds / vessel cost presentation differences

A unified/global presentation method/font would (I think) be very nice. I mean, maybe funds are going to be green/red for funds in/out, and reputation would be blue/yellow for reputation gained/lost etc but having a different kind of presentation for each data type is, I'm not sure, UI self mutilation? ok, that sounds mean but I'm not a graphic designer so I'm not sure how to put it in politically correct terms, but the same kind of thing where you have consistent type/font so that your brain doesn't need to make perceptual/input leap between each part of your document/webpage.

[Pseudo Gold]

The meter is far too ambiguous to make plans in the admin centre. I get that the current format is to show your reputation relatively, but just a straight-up number is superior.

[LexieAssassin]

What about an approval rating percentage? Perhaps even a per agency breakdown showing how you're faring with each agency. This could allow changing reward amounts based on past performance with each agency and perhaps even losing some approval from rival agencies. (If anybody here has played Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, you'll know what I mean here.)

LexieAssassin