LIVESTREAM - On the Horizon – Countdown to The Engineers Beta Livestream: Part 2 today at 7PM BST

[Edward Lewis]

EDIT - please try to keep the questions focused on missions... Adam will have a better chance of answering them that way


For the second of our countdown to beta livestreams, I'll be joined by Designer Adam Bourke-Waite, to talk through some of the content seen in Friday's newsletter, and show you some video footage of these features in action.

We’ll have time for a quick Q&A with Adam about the new mission structure, too.

So questions! Fire away and we'll get Adam to answer them tomorrow at 7PM BST.

The first one was a lot of fun, and I think tomorrow's will be just as good, if not even better

https://www.youtube.com/user/FrontierDevelopments/live

see you then.

 

[Iori]

Will there be any changes regarding faction ranking in the Empire and the Federation? Constantly having to log in and log off to reset the mission board makes the process incredibly tedious.

 

[Mephane]

• Laser colour customization was hinted at already. Will this be a thing? And if yes, will it be a cosmetic modification or only with strings attached (i.e. different stats for different colours)?
• For stat modifications on weapons, modules etc. it was mentioned that there will be trade-offs. Can you give us a ballpark what we can expect for both bonuses and trade-offs? Maybe a few examples like "+10% speed, -20% agility".
• Can you upgrade a piece of equipment multiple times, or is it 1 upgrade only? (I hope only 1.)
• Probably out of scope right now, but have to ask anyway: how does material collecting work, especially in space? Will we have to stop and cargo-scoop around after every fight? Will it go to cargo space or synthesis materials?

 

[Rubbernuke]

1: What limitations does the mission system have? For example, how many branches or decision points can you set? What events can be triggered?

2: Can we have a competition to design a mission to be included in a future update?

3: Where do you want missions to eventually be like? How far way are we from your ideal 'vision'?

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4: Can armour types be modified too?

5: Can / will missions reward you with other things besides money? For example loot, rare items, trade items?

6: Could Elite 2 and 3 missions be done with the current mission framework in ED?

7: Will engineers give you missions?

8: Will Powerplay ever have missions?

9: Will missions ever affect CGs? For example, building a station CG, a mission for a rival faction might sabotage the CG amount in some way other than blocking deliveries

10: What feature are you most excited about?

11: Will we see more 'ripples' from missions we do? When I deliver food to a starving system, will I see NPC ships thank me for example? I want my largess to be recognized and my ego tickled a bit more.

12: Will we see hybrid SRV / space missions where we switch from space to the surface as the mission progresses, James Bond style?

13: Will we have missions to evacuate a set number of civilians before the timer reaches zero, sort of delivery in reverse?

 

[Robert Maynard]

What will happen to modified equipment at the rebuy screen - will we simply be able to rebuy or will we need to go and get the replacement donor equipment modified again?

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I've noticed that commodities are now in units instead of tons. Are we going for a volume and weight scenario for cargo or is it just a change in name?

 

[freedom4556]

We've seen the new missions screens, but will there be new mission scenarios? The mission types in the newsletter were all ones we currently have.

 

[Voz]

Will there be any changes regarding faction ranking in the Empire and the Federation? Constantly having to log in and log off to reset the mission board makes the process incredibly tedious.

I do hope this was a joke. You are trying to work round the system in order to increase the frequency of the mission types you want to progress and then complaining it's tedious?
In my view there should be a change to stop the workaround, not make it easier!

 

[sensai25]

Count me in preparing questions

 

[Surround]

Will every module have only one craftable variation or can we make multiple versions of it?

 

[excalibus]

will there be any engineer modifications for our SRV's? larger carrying capacity? stronger hulls? better shields? better weaponry? more powerful engines / jump jets? on top of the already exisiting synthesis modifiers of course...

 

[M4rt1n]

Hi Ed and Adam!
I have two questions for now:

1/Missions
Previously we learned that the system states / BGS will play a major part in mission availability. Michael explained in the last stream that there is a priority, and system state is high on that priority.
However, on the pics shown in the previous newsletter we see a faction, whose state is war, and all they want (all 4 missions shown) are transport missions. Lets say I wander the Bubble looking for wars (you guys even change the map for that, so I can search for wars, lockdowns etc.) in my fully armed battleship, and when I arrive at the place of conflict they want me to transport coffee and clothing.
Please tell me those pics are not how it will actually work, and finding a system with a war will mean a good chance to find some combat missions!

2/Engineer modifications:
Will the powerplay specific weapons be upgradeable? Say, Enforcer cannon with incendiary rounds mod sounds reasonable, but how about Retribution laser with thermal shock mod?

 

[Marc_Hicks]

I have 3 questions that I would love answered-& I don't mind which one gets answered!

1. Will the 2.1 Update feature fully realized Chained Mission & Branching Mission mechanics?
(Just to clarify, by "Branching missions", I mean having random events causing a standard mission to potentially branch off in a new direction-eg. A salvage mission branching off into a "hostage rescue" type of mission because a rival pilot got to the goods before you. At the moment, though, this mechanic only applies to "counter offers")


2. Will we see more opportunities for getting missions *away* from the mission board (via distressed pilots, NPC's flying through space and/or salvaging of goods)?

3. Will we be seeing *competitive* Community Goals in this update.....or anytime this year?

Thanks in advance for all your fantastic videos!

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We've seen the new missions screens, but will there be new mission scenarios? The mission types in the newsletter were all ones we currently have.

Don't forget that they're just placeholders.

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5: Can / will missions reward you with other things besides money? For example loot, rare items, trade items?

This one has already been confirmed as a big *yes*!

in addition to credits you’ll be offered hidden data caches, commodities, and materials.

13: Will we have missions to evacuate a set number of civilians before the timer reaches zero, sort of delivery in reverse?

I suspect we won't see missions like that until we get passenger missions in the game!

 

[Retrograde]

If you're talking about missions: Are all non-military missions linked to minor factions? I think it would be nice to see missions from unaffiliated individuals and corporations as well. This could allow for more personal stories, e.g. "find my missing son", etc. It would also be nice to see missions rewards link up with other parts of the game. For example, helping a mining company could result in temporary discounts on purchasing metals or cheaper mining lasers.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Hi Ed and Adam!
On the pics shown in the previous newsletter we see a faction, whose state is war, and all they want (all 4 missions shown) are transport missions.

Remember that these were merely placeholder screens.....not necessarily meant to represent how it will be in the actual game

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If you're talking about missions: Are all non-military missions linked to minor factions? I think it would be nice to see missions from unaffiliated individuals and corporations as well. This could allow for more personal stories, e.g. "find my missing son", etc. It would also be nice to see missions rewards link up with other parts of the game. For example, helping a mining company could result in temporary discounts on purchasing metals or cheaper mining lasers.

I do recall, in a previous Dev Update thread, that Michael strongly indicated that the Bulletin Board would be making a comeback in a later update......& that it will be for non-faction affiliated missions. Obviously not "set in stone", but sounds like it is on their agenda!

 

[Draco25240]

Perhaps not as 2.1-related as the other questions, but any chance that Jaque's "Wandering" Station will start moving again in 2.1? It's been sitting in Gliese 1269 for nearly a year now...

Oh, and a question that's probably on everyone's minds... Seeing as you've said all modules get an engineering upgrade, what does the Standard Docking Computer get?

 

[Arubeto]

Looking forward to the stream!

Questions:

• Will GalNet articles featuring named characters have mugshots of those charaters, too, similar to the portraits of the mission givers and engineers?
• Are the voices in the Air Traffic Control be created/altered procedurally to achieve a high variability?
• The following two images show the same NPC - Mel Franco - with two different portraits. Will every NPC have multiple portraits to for example convey his attitude towards the player or react to successful and failed missions differently, or is this just concept art and won't be in the game eventually?
• How many different portraits will a single NPC have?

 

[Iori]

I do hope this was a joke. You are trying to work round the system in order to increase the frequency of the mission types you want to progress and then complaining it's tedious?
In my view there should be a change to stop the workaround, not make it easier!

I find it tedious so I don't do it, people do that for an hour and get the rank up, I have completely stopped playing the game for months instead, out of frustration for trying to do it in a legit way, Is that better? Is not like the crappy Cutter is any good incentive for putting up with that.

Think, if I had my rank already, why would I care for an improvement in the system? Its either the tedious work around or the tedious 200 hours doing crappy missions for one rank. I'm doing neither.

 

[ever]

1. How will you find the first engineer? Will he/she give you leads towards others?

2. Are there defensive upgrades? The upgrades you have shown till now seem to be mainly for PvP purposes, since the NPCs are not a challenge. Are the upgrades required to kill some NPCs or for defensive purposes against NPCs?

3. There are rumors you are working on your networking, what we call instancing. Is it going to be improved in 2.1?

4. Are we going to be able to see on the map in how many systems one faction is present?

 

[Raven38911]

1. In the newsletter you talked a lot about the factions and characters that give missions. Will there also be changes to the actual missions?

• Will bugs be fixed?
• Are there new mission types?

There are so many possibilities to think of, for example more complex X-Wing-style missions like "disable and capture a ship", "escort a ship", "sneak close to an enemy fleet to gather intelligence",...

2. Can you talk about your long-term vision for the mission system? Are there any plans to go towards "procedural storytelling"?

What I mean are situations like:

• A faction character is basically loyal to his faction, but he also has an own agenda and pursues his own goals.
• A faction character decides to betray his faction at some point (which gives several options for effects on the player).
• A faction character does not like his superior (which again gives serveral options for effects on the player).
• A faction character operates in enemy territory. He is discovered and needs to be evacuated.
• A faction's leader consults CMDRs with a very high reputation for political advice (to which system should we expand?).

I would really like to see more natural interaction with those charaters instead of generated bullet-point lists.

3. Don't you fear that it could be bad for immersion if you show too many internals of the background simulation?

What I specifically mean are are "recovering states" and "pending states" in the faction description. My feeling is that those are very technical.

It is a reasonable goal to communicate better, what is going on and how players can influence the galaxy. But I think players want to live in this galaxy without caring about finite state machines of the background simulation.