I am compelled to speak...

Quineloe

Quineloe
Sysmon said:
How about some actual suggestions then, rather just say that you want the quality level raised?

:D S
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Why spend 30 minutes writing a detailed post full of suggestions and feedback when it just disappears from page one after 2 days, even though you received +50 reps for it, without a dev response while the quick and dirty rant about AI only boosting around to make the fights longer received 13 dev responses?

First I would like to know that they even consider their mission overhaul to be incomplete. Second I prefer a dialogue over a monologue.
 

CMDR Durev

C
medwyn said:
Exactly.
And all comes back to the lack of persistency in the universe. It's hard to set up meaningful missions when there's no meaning in the whole ED world as it is.
If no player would log in for about 2 weeks, the game world would stay the same.
There's no NEED in this game so there's nothing a mission could do for the universe.
I was really eager to to see the "big mission overhaul" in 1.3. An ice bucket challenge it was...
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This is exactly what is missing. If the world would function somewhat believably where planets could starve, systems could expand and bankrupt, and npc's had a purpose and weren't infinite then missions would mean something no matter how bare bones. Then you'd have missions based on need not on filler. I'd enjoy that far more than expanded missions that have no bearing on anything, just a dev writing something up and assigning a RNG to see if that mission pops up for you so you can go play the RNG USS game.
 

Lobstris

Lobstris
Islata said:
Frontier needs to raise dramatically the quality level of the Missions and their meaning in E.D.
The whole thing needs to be rethought and redone.
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You are compelled to speak. I'm compelled to agree with you. Partially. I'd keep the current missions and add more. And throw in a lot of multi-part spanners. One of the things that I love about the ultimate pinnacle of gaming evolution, The Witcher 3, was you never knew when a 10-minute side thing could turn into a 10-hour epic. We can procedurally generate physical content, when's random, but deep, story generation going to catch up?
 

Firestarter

Firestarter
OK. Mission suggestion. The liner ISS LASTHOPE is in distress somewhere off the rings of Ruchbah. Go rescue it.

You search for a distress beacon near Ruchbah and drop into the signal. Any number of the following things are causing the liner to be stuck.

1) It's under attack by pirates. Kill or chase off the pirates.
2) It's run out of fuel. Use fuel drones.
3) There's been a medical emergency and need specific commodities.
4) There a plague on board and survivors need picking up.
5) Prisoners have escaped and have taken control of the forward turrets. Destroy just those modules.
6) They picked up some artifact which is jamming the controls. Drone hack the cargo bay door to eject it.
7) Their canopy is blown out and they can't navigate. Escort them to within drop range of the nearest station before their oxygen runs out.
8) The ship isn't there, only the distress beacon and a frame shift. Follow the frame shift to track down the liner.
9) The ship is destroyed just leaving black boxes to pick up to discover what happened.
10) Instead of the liner there's a security ship that gives you a different, secret mission.
11) Instead of the liner is a pirate decoy. Avoid the trap and destroy the distress beacon.
12) The ship appears dead with just an automated, repeating transmission. Follow the instructions.

If multiple things are happening you have to deal with them in the order of priority that you decide. Depending on the results of some of the above they would naturally lead to further missions.

Is that enough?
 
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wuschelweich

W
Focus on Interaction

Coyote said:
@Ozimandeus

.
I think they screwed up here. Basically, it started as a conventional game creation in reverse - instead of investing money to build a game, then sell it and cover the investment, they sold it first and then created the game. So there should not be any need for cash flow to at least deliver what was originally promised. A graphically appealing re-make of Elite, with offline mode and possible player interaction.
.
The need for cash flow came up because they used up all the money to please the "I want a community space action shooter" MMO crowd. Baysically, IMO, what we have now is rather a specialized Elite spin-off. So they spent a lot of money creating something else that they thought would sell better, and now need to still generate money just to be able to deliver what they originally promised (or rather most of it) and to keep the current thing running. They created PP, which wasn't originally intended at all. They created CQC, which wasn't intended either and seems quite removed from Elite in the first place. To quote Dogbert: "A paradigm shifting without a clutch."
.
If the game doesn't sell in the future, they'll have to shut down the servers. If they had delivered what they originally promised, we'd now have planetary landings, ship damage models, probably Thargoids and an offline mode so that wouldn't even matter that much. Instead, they went a different way, and if it goes wrong (and I don't see it going right at all from the eyes of a solo player), I'll end up with nothing but a memory of something I didn't even want to have. That's why I'm a bit bitter about it.
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What is this CQC anyway and who is the crowd they are programming it for. I mean the backers and the devs had a pretty clear understanding of what the game should be like - I would go so far calling it an agreement. But then after release the devs left the path laid down in the ddf and shifted the focus. I am not complaining that planetary landing or walking around in stations hasnt been implemented yet; honestly, even I understand that these features need a lot more development time. I am just disappointed that realy basic features are incomplete or missing completely:

- looking up other players and important NPCs in some database with more or less detailed information, current location and destination (like a profile)
- communication with other players (e.g. ingame mailbox) who are not in your wing or friends list
- communication with other players and NPCs via selection (give me cargo, want to trade, need assistance..)
- trade with players and npcs in space and in stations
- hire npc wingmen or transport vessel
- looking up commodity and equipment prices via uplink without landing
- having a home station where you can rent storage capacities for commodities, equipment and ships
- buying and selling commodities and equipment at the home station in-flight
- different kinds of leaderboards
- auto pilot for long distance travel
- setting up ingame music channel with own music for long time travels
- picture of players or NPC being shown during trading or communicating
- changing commodity or equipment prices depending on political situation in a station or system (if that is already implemented I may not have noticed it yet)

And the mission system that is realy not making me happy and often makes me stop playing. So, for example its sunday morning and I get myself a coffee, sit down and start playing. I am flying around and notice an uss. I am thinking: "okay, lets see whats going on there" and I lock it in. Leaving fsd I see an trading vessel being attacked by a pirate; the shields are already down and there may be children on board!! Still, he doenst ask me for assistance - no problem, perhaps his comms are jammed. I start attacking the pirate and manage to destroy him. Now I tend to the trading vessel - I am sure he appreciated my help and wants to ask me if I can escort him to his destination - but somehow there is absolutely no reaction. I try to contact him, but thats not possible in elite. He continues flying around for a few minutes and eventually jumps away like nothing ever happened. And I am thinking "what a waste of time" log out and start reading the forums :)

I think you get the point
 

tough boy

T
Coyote said:
@Ozimandeus

.
I think they screwed up here. Basically, it started as a conventional game creation in reverse - instead of investing money to build a game, then sell it and cover the investment, they sold it first and then created the game. So there should not be any need for cash flow to at least deliver what was originally promised. A graphically appealing re-make of Elite, with offline mode and possible player interaction.
.
The need for cash flow came up because they used up all the money to please the "I want a community space action shooter" MMO crowd. Baysically, IMO, what we have now is rather a specialized Elite spin-off. So they spent a lot of money creating something else that they thought would sell better, and now need to still generate money just to be able to deliver what they originally promised (or rather most of it) and to keep the current thing running. They created PP, which wasn't originally intended at all. They created CQC, which wasn't intended either and seems quite removed from Elite in the first place. To quote Dogbert: "A paradigm shifting without a clutch."
.
If the game doesn't sell in the future, they'll have to shut down the servers. If they had delivered what they originally promised, we'd now have planetary landings, ship damage models, probably Thargoids and an offline mode so that wouldn't even matter that much. Instead, they went a different way, and if it goes wrong (and I don't see it going right at all from the eyes of a solo player), I'll end up with nothing but a memory of something I didn't even want to have. That's why I'm a bit bitter about it.
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While I agree on your opinion on the current state of this game, I don't think it is like it is because of an "MMO crowd". If anything, they're always been a small minority in this community (even now, you see resistance to ideas like guilds and community tools). No, Frontier made the game they wanted to make, as they said many times. Regardless of community feedback, even essentially ditching the DDF for which backers paid quite some money. I don't know if they made it because they really like it better how it is now, or because they thought it could be more profitable this way - and by the way, I wouldn't blame them for that, I understand working for Frontier are people, with families, and have necessities. But ultimately, like it or not, the status of the game is entirely Frontier's responsability.
 

Daffan

Daffan
Cmdr Ultra said:
I delivered Fish now I'm a Lord.
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I carried corn and other junk back and forth jusjt for the clipper very early on - now i never touch the rank stuff, it's pointless anyway - no reward anyway. Permits are meh with the Overpowered power play discounts making the permits trivial.
 

medwyn

M
From the Lavecon thread this belongs here too:

Vingtetun said:
There is a plan to use the upgraded missions system to give us more depth. The upgrade was 'under the hood' to extend capability to do missions conditional upon statuses of all sorts.... Longer range and more complex missions were a 'yes' and got a 'very soon'.
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